Huh? Isn't this an adventure kingdom building game?!

The gate of inheritance from Kuanglang Sect is placed on the central island of Lotus Lake, naturally emitting a soft glow and full of mysterious charm. In terms of spatial arrangement and decorative effect, it’s already perfect; adding another gate would actually reduce its aesthetic appeal.

Moreover, fellow cultivators who love farming games know that in renovation mode, even moving a single plant requires almost all structures to be rearranged.

To avoid major changes, Jiang Yuan thought it over and decided to temporarily place the gate connecting to the Immortal Peak space in the corner next to the Floating Market. After selecting the location, the dialogue box popped up in his view and he kept pressing "confirm." Familiar gray mist came over, and construction began with a ding.

The progress bar completed in just over ten seconds, the gray mist dissipated, and a light gate appeared.

Opening the settings, he added Yun Ying, Leng Yutang, and all core members of the courtyard to the list of those who could freely enter and exit, and confirmed to save. From now on, Immortal Peak would become a puppet factory, with so many materials available, they could create to their heart’s content!

𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Meanwhile, the banquet continued, and Jiang Yuan slipped into the small space of the Divine Wood Forest.

"Mr. Jiang is here!" Yan Zheng was in a dream realm, unable to sense the outside world strongly.

However, she could vaguely perceive that external threats had disappeared; and all city residents were able to remain in the dream realm more stably, indicating that the other party had already according to the requirements, found all the puppets with sealed souls and stacked them together.

She personally came to the lake to greet him, smiling, "I’ve been thinking of ways to gather information indirectly, and I have finally lived up to your expectations, sir. I have found clues about the Puppet’s Heart. Please come with me!"

This time they didn’t enter the city; Yan Zheng waved to Niu to bring the boat to pick them up.

"How strange, when did the distinguished guest leave?" Niu looked at the "hawker" he had picked up in the city just yesterday evening, utterly confused. He initially wanted to ask a few more questions, but seeing the Lord City Lord personally welcome them, he dared not say more.

Jiang Yuan smiled and didn’t respond; Yan Zheng shifted the topic directly to ask how his recent life had been, and they chatted casually back and forth.

The small boat glided over the water and, after passing through two natural bridge arches, a wide-open, lush green rice field appeared before them.

"Cheng Xiaoyi!" Yan Zheng shouted, and a nimble figure emerged from the rice field, waving and gesturing with her left hand, "Shh! The fish have been scared away!"

Upon a closer look, oh! It was a fisherman!

His skin was tanned dark, and his homemade fishing rod was glossy and smooth, clearly a product of long-term work.

Yet the fish basket was empty; he patted his thigh and sighed, complaining that the city lord made too much movement and scared the fish away; he also complained that Niu wasn’t steady when rowing the boat; and kept muttering about how the fishermen lacked honor, always netting out all the big fish.

Only after Niu rowed the boat away and disappeared from sight did Yan Zheng speak seriously, "I brought Mr. Jiang to see you, to discuss serious matters, so put your fishing aside for now."

"Are you referring to the Puppet’s Heart?" Cheng Xiaoyi instinctively glanced around to confirm there were no mortals nearby before slightly raising his voice, "Before my memory was restored, my soul was sealed in a puppet beast.

Darn, those disciples of Ten Thousand Puppet Sect are truly scum; to win some closed-door puppet beast competition, they sealed the soul of a living person into a beast-shaped puppet and trained them like dogs!"

Recalling the infuriating past, he gritted his teeth in anger, "I don’t even know which initiator started this precedent, using puppets beasts with intelligence to easily beat other unintelligent puppets. From then on, even in private competitions, they would find ways to seal souls into them, using them as artifact spirits.

I wonder if you both can understand, when I woke up from confusion and was told I was a dog, to hunt and bite other puppet beasts... that feeling of being deceived and insulted, I still can’t swallow this bitter emotion to this day!"

Jiang Yuan frowned uncontrollably upon hearing this; those puppet masters who treat people like playthings truly deserve to die!

"But at that time, I knew nothing; whatever they told me, I listened to and believed," Cheng Xiaoyi sighed, "That period was really embarrassing. However, I did very well at controlling the puppet body to fight and never lost, even being jokingly referred to as ’the ever-victorious general.’

That’s when I first heard them mention the ’Puppet’s Heart.’

Back then, I won a match and defeated the puppet beast refined by their senior apprentice brother. He provocatively mentioned that if I could win the puppet competition, the sect would reward the puppet heart refining blueprint."

Yan Zheng hurriedly asked, "So what happened later? Did he win?"

After asking, she realized that if he had really won the competition, Cheng Xiaoyi wouldn’t have been dumped into the trash heap, in this wretched place.

"I lost to the Great Elder Zhang Bingyi’s disciple, Wan Chong’s refined puppet beast," Cheng Xiaoyi said gloomily, "That fellow was indeed a worthy recipient of the Great Elder’s teachings; the puppet he refined was formidable.

Besides being willing to spend a fortune on materials, the puppet beast was refined with special materials that I simply couldn’t penetrate the defenses, and the soul within the puppet beast was exceptionally powerful!

After losing, the wretched guy vented his anger on me.

I heard from others who advised him that Wan Chong’s puppet not only had expensive materials, but the Great Elder also lent him a puppet’s heart capable of containing a large amount of Spiritual Power, allowing for long-term outbursts; additionally, the soul sealed inside was that of a cultivator personally tortured to death by Wan Chong..."

Jiang Yuan’s expression grew increasingly grim upon hearing this, and upon reaching a critical point, he suddenly looked at Yan Zheng in shock.

Sure enough, she understood too—the puppet beast that fought against Cheng Xiaoyi was refined from the magical treasure snatched during Wan Chong’s ambush on her beloved disciple Dingmao, and the soul sealed inside is very likely Dingmao!