Volume Two: Weapon Directory Chapter 152: Deft Hands Controlling a Hundred Objects

Qi Yan knew nothing of what had happened in the warehouse. Her mind was entirely fixed on when she could lure Liu Xiaoyi into her trap, using him to provide energy for the intricate puppet swordsman that the Qi family had spent painstaking generations constructing.

This puppet was unlike any other creation; gathering the materials alone had taken decades, and it required a complete human soul to supply the soul force necessary to truly unleash its power. Through years of research, the Qi family discovered that among all family members, only Qi Yan possessed the soul attributes required by the puppet.

As the next family head, Qi Yan certainly could not be offered up as a sacrificial vessel. Instead, she devised a plan to use her own future offspring as a substitute. After numerous divinations, Qi Yan traveled to Sanshan City, found Liu Chun—who matched the required attributes—and bore Liu Xiaoyi.

This layout had been in preparation for over a decade. The Qi family had originally intended to charge directly into the Southern Wilderness to hunt Liu Xiaoyi down, but to their surprise, he had wandered into the Southern Wilderness of his own accord, saving them a great deal of effort. Now, by choosing the right moment to strip away Liu Xiaoyi's soul and activate the puppet, they could effortlessly sweep across the Southern Wilderness.

While ordinary martial artists were still bitterly searching for ways to break through into the Heavenly Sun Realm, the Qi family was already striving for realms beyond it. Whenever Qi Yan thought of this, a surge of heroic ambition would well up in her heart. Though she was a woman, her methods were decisive and ruthless, second to none among men.

At the victory banquet laid out around the campfire, everyone except Liu Xiaoyi knew what was about to happen. Zhuge Zeng, who had come along with them, was absent from his seat, which made Liu Xiaoyi all the more vigilant.

His mother was by no means a kind person, and it was entirely possible she meant to use him as her stepping stone. He kept the Green Radiance Sword resting across his knees at all times, not daring to part with it for even a fraction of an inch.

Seeing this, Qi Yan spoke, "My son, you have suffered greatly wandering the Southern Wilderness all these years. As your mother, I wanted to enter the Hangu Pass to find you, but my special status resulted in me being driven back time and time again." As she spoke, she put on an expression of boundless grief, taking Liu Xiaoyi's hand and speaking in a soft, gentle voice.

She had not expected Liu Xiaoyi to cultivate all the way to the seventh stage of the Earthly Soul Realm. When she married Liu Chun back then, one of the main reasons was the Sovereign Token. Naturally, the stronger the soul power of the sacrificial vessel, the better. Aided by the Golden Dragon Soul of the Sovereign Token, this child's soul force was bound to surpass ordinary people.

Looking at the young man before her, Qi Yan's mind was filled entirely with the image of the puppet swordsman displaying its grandmaster might, with not a shred of maternal affection mixed in. When Liu Xiaoyi met her gaze, he could naturally sense the shift in her emotions.

What a cold-hearted mother! Though Liu Xiaoyi had perceived it, his heart still refused to believe that his own mother could be so cold and ruthless.

"Mother, Father instructed me every day to diligently practice my martial arts and seek out Mother's whereabouts in the Great Wilderness when I grew up. Now my martial arts have achieved success, and Mother has finally seen it. I want to show Mother this ability of mine!" Liu Xiaoyi patted his chest, saying proudly to Qi Yan.

Upon seeing this, Qi Yan was even more delighted. What rejoiced her was that Liu Xiaoyi was still unaware of her true intentions. She signaled a young man seated nearby to stand up. "You are of a similar age to my son and share comparable cultivation. Please act as his sparring partner to liven up the banquet with a martial demonstration!"

The crowd cheered, making the victory banquet all the more lively. Liu Xiaoyi openly drew the Green Radiance Sword, made a polite gesture, and stepped to a slightly more open area outside.

"Young Master Liu, please make the first move, and I shall receive it."

"Then I won't be polite!" Liu Xiaoyi drew out his fire seal, instantly unleashing a fiery qilin while simultaneously deploying his footwork to dart toward the edge of the camp. In the blink of an eye, he flew dozens of feet away before touching his toes to the ground and launching himself upward once more.

Only then did the crowd react. Qi Honghai overturned his table and roared, "He's trying to escape! Catch him at once!"

"It must have been that Zhuge Zeng who leaked the information; otherwise, how could this brat have known our intentions!" Qi Yan dropped her previous gentle expression, revealing a ferocious look as her fingers twitched rapidly, manipulating strands of magical energy to guide three winged fierce tigers in immediate pursuit.

Liu Xiaoyi's heart hammered wildly in his chest. With the pursuers closing in behind him, it confirmed that all his previous baseless suspicions were true—this mother was utterly untrustworthy!

Accepting this reality would take time. With tears in his eyes, Liu Xiaoyi swung his sword to beat back the puppets trailing behind him. These wooden beasts and birds possessed joints of astonishing flexibility and moved with extreme rapidity; only by continuously slashing with his sword could Liu Xiaoyi barely avoid being caught by them.

Fighting and fleeing simultaneously, he escaped the camp's perimeter, yet the pursuers behind him still could not be shaken off. Qi Yan shouted, "My son! What are you running for?"

"If I don't run, I'll be treated like fertilizer! Only a fool sits here and waits to die!" Liu Xiaoyi didn't even look back as he tossed a few unknown magical artifacts from his pocket—trinkets he had bought along the way just for fun.

Qi Yan waved both hands, wielding a half-to-foot-long wooden fan to whip up a violent hurricane that blew Liu Xiaoyi down from mid-air, allowing the puppet beasts to catch up and pounce upon him.

A gigantic mountain materialized out of thin air, smashing all the puppet beasts to pieces and crashing down upon Liu Xiaoyi.

Realizing he could not escape, he once again used the Mountain of镇元 to seal himself inside. This strategy of a turtle shrinking into its shell had been used by him with consummate skill, and it had never failed him yet.

"Lu Haoran, hurry up and save me! There are too many Qi family experts here, and I can't beat them." Liu Xiaoyi sat inside the spatial expanse within the Mountain of镇元, panting heavily. The suffocating pressure of life and death had caused the circulation of his true qi to stall slightly.

At this moment, the supposed savior was still wandering around the warehouse, staring wide-eyed at everything. There were far too many novel things he had never seen before, leaving Lu Haoran dazzled and causing him to completely forget about Liu Xiaoyi.

"These things are truly novel. Everyone hasn't been idling away their time over the past thousand years; progress has indeed been made!"

"Naturally. The Divine Machine Hall loves tinkering with these gadgets. They don't have much actual skill themselves, but they've invented quite a few treasures," a voice chimed in to continue his thought, giving Lu Haoran a fright.

Beside the stacks of cargo, an old soldier reclining in a wooden chair slowly hoisted himself up. "Stop rummaging around blindly. The kid up front is being besieged by the Qi family—why aren't you going to help?"

Only then did Lu Haoran suddenly remember his mission. No matter what, he always felt there was something he needed to do, but he just couldn't recall it. Prompted by the old soldier, he dropped the items in his hand and dashed out of the warehouse.

The old soldier puffed on his tobacco pipe, smiling broadly as he watched the departing figure, and muttered to himself in puzzlement, "How are there still disciples of the Derived Sword Dao left? And they even have bonds of affection with today's little kids. The wheel of reincarnation turns; none can escape it!"

The seal of the Mountain of镇元 proved entirely useless before the assembled Qi family members. The barrier was easily undone as a mechanical arm reached into the rock wall and dragged Liu Xiaoyi out by force.

Qi Yan flicked her arm, using the magical energy threads hidden within her sleeves to pull the disassembled parts of the puppet swordsman from the warehouse over to her side. "Who dismantled the Proppping Heaven?!"

The puppet swordsman, named "Proppping Heaven," represented the painstaking efforts of generations of the Qi family, yet someone had hacked it to pieces. How could Qi Yan not be furious?

Possessing profound mastery in the art of puppetry, Qi Yan waved both hands, releasing over a hundred threads of magical energy to manipulate all the scattered parts and press them directly onto Liu Xiaoyi's body.

Seized by the puppet arm with his dantian sealed, Liu Xiaoyi was utterly incapable of resisting and could only watch helplessly as these wooden blocks enveloped him.

"To uphold the will of the Divine Machine Hall and dedicate your life to creating a new glory for the Qi family—that is your ultimate destination!" Qi Yan's face revealed a look of delight. Controlling such a vast number of threads was an immense burden for her as well, but fortunately, the parts of Proppping Heaven seemed custom-made for Liu Xiaoyi, fitting onto his body without a single flaw, perfectly pieced together.

As his vision became blocked, wooden rods extended from within the puppet, thrusting directly into each of Liu Xiaoyi's acupuncture points. The suction force that struck him the next instant almost caused his soul to fly out of his body.

Seeing that Proppping Heaven had begun operating, Qi Yan withdrew her magical energy threads and instructed the crowd, "Secure this area. No outsiders are permitted to break in within the next half hour."

Before her voice had even faded, a brilliant sword light flashed across the void, plunging straight down toward the location of the Proppping Heaven swordsman.

Qi Chongshan and Qi Honghai swung their sabers to intercept it head-on, but before they even touched the sword beam, they were blasted away by the surging sword qi. "Young Family Head! Something's gone wrong!"

Since the two brothers combined could not block the attack, a heavy thud echoed in Qi Yan's heart. Even a Heavenly Sun Realm expert probably couldn't achieve such a feat. Proppping Heaven still needed another half hour before it could begin the initial soul extraction; absolutely nothing must go wrong right now.

Qi Yan made a hollow gripping motion with her palm, condensing her magical energy into a hooked spear that she hurled straight into the path of the oncoming sword light.

A human figure moved even faster than the sword beam. By the time Qi Yan reacted, the figure had already appeared directly behind the Proppping Heaven swordsman, wielding a gleaming longsword to hack downward at its back in an attempt to rescue Liu Xiaoyi.

A wooden sword suddenly materialized from behind, blocking the blade. The head of the Proppping Heaven swordsman twisted a full one hundred and eighty degrees in a bizarre fashion, staring directly at Lu Haoran, who had launched the sneak attack from behind.

"It already possesses the preliminary might of a grandmaster! Are the puppets of the Divine Machine Hall really this powerful?" Lu Haoran was utterly astonished, hurriedly throwing out a palm strike to leverage his retreat and widen the distance.

Hearing what the intruder had said, Qi Yan demanded, "Who are you, and how do you know about the Divine Machine Hall?!"

The Divine Machine Hall had vanished a thousand years ago. Although its legacy survived in various places, it had long since declined to the point where not a single shred of historical record could be found in the martial world, leaving behind only vague shadows passed down orally by the older generation.

Lu Haoran pointed straight at her nose and cursed fiercely, "You call yourself a mother, yet you're perfectly willing to butcher your own flesh and blood! With me here today, I will never let you harm the life of my good brother!"

Flipping his wrist, the Longevity Sword bloomed with brilliant radiance and slashed once more at Proppping Heaven. Since this puppet swordsman could only move a single arm, how could it possibly be a match for Lu Haoran?

Mindful that Liu Xiaoyi was trapped inside, Lu Haoran did not dare strike with full force. Instead, he repeatedly slashed at the exact same spot on its back, desperately trying to break through its defense.

Qi Yan knew the material of Proppping Heaven inside out; even a strike from Ninth-Heaven divine lightning might not necessarily leave a mark upon it, yet it was being hacked into a state of battered ruin by this single sword.

"Are you also an inheritor of an ancient sect?"

The Derived Sword Dao possessed a unique method of wielding the sword, looking entirely out of place compared to modern swordsmen. This was how Qi Yan had glimpsed clues to his identity, though she had no idea which ancient sword-wielding sects still existed, and thus failed to guess Lu Haoran's true background.

The Qi family members were blocked outside by the Longevity Sword qi and unable to get close. Enraged, Lu Haoran finally unleashed the Longevity Sword Technique, raining blows upon the puppet that caused Liu Xiaoyi to suffer immensely.

Every time Proppping Heaven sustained damage, a portion of soul force was stripped from his body as compensation. Unable to speak, Liu Xiaoyi could only circulate the Character Art of Preservation desperately to heal himself; otherwise, the puppet wouldn't even need to be smashed open before he lost his own life first.