106: Chapter 106 The Down-on-His-Luck Puppeteer

Deep within Nili Lane, in front of the black stone tower.

Under the green ghost lamp, Old Ghost Mo, the blind old man, stared fixedly with his only remaining eye at the Yao Beast bone on the table, which radiated a chilling Evil Qi.

"Such pure Yin Evil Qi."

Old Ghost Mo's withered fingers gently caressed the surface of the bone spur, feeling the sharpness that was enough to pierce through protective spiritual light. His shriveled lips parted, "A natal bone from a Tier 2 Yao Beast, and it hasn't undergone any crude refining. Young Master, this stepping stone of yours carries enough weight."

Gu Shen toyed with the jade pendant at his waist, his chin slightly raised, adopting an arrogant demeanor: "I didn't come all this way to this dump just to listen to you butter me up. For the auction seats, I want the upper private rooms."

"That won't do."

Old Ghost Mo shook his head, tucked the Yao Beast bone into his sleeve, and fished out a palm-sized black wooden token engraved with the character "Yin" from the wooden box behind him, pushing it toward Gu Shen.

"The rules of the auction are that the upper private rooms have long been reserved by patrons from major factions. This bone can only be exchanged for a general seating token in the main hall. At the Hour of the Rat tomorrow night, bring the token to enter the lane, and someone will guide you."

Gu Shen snorted coldly, pretending to be extremely dissatisfied as he grabbed the black wooden token.

His original intention for coming here today was to infiltrate the auction and find an Opportunity to remove the "Blood Fiend Seal" from the white bone yang key. The general seating in the main hall was crowded and chaotic, which perfectly suited his plan to fish in troubled waters.

"I heard that there will be diagrams of Ancient mechanical arts at the auction tomorrow night?" Gu Shen changed the subject, his tone revealing the curiosity of a playboy.

Old Ghost Mo's cloudy eyes flashed with a hint of cunning, and he gave a dry chuckle: "Young Master is certainly well-informed. However, those few Incomplete Manuals flowed out from a fallen Puppeteer Family. They are severely incomplete; one can't even craft a Qi Refining Stage wooden ox and flowing horse with them. At most, they count as a throw-in."

"A fallen Puppeteer?"

"The Lu Family in the Outer City's South Market." Old Ghost Mo seemed to be in a good mood after receiving the Yao Beast bone and added a few more words, "They were quite wealthy a few hundred years ago. Now, they are even selling their ancestral Thousand Mechanisms Incomplete Manual. If Young Master is interested in mechanical Puppets, you might as well go to the Ghost Market in the South Market now. The descendants of the Lu Family have been setting up stalls there for the past few nights, selling some scrap metal to scrape together Spirit Stones."

Gu Shen's eyes flickered.

Puppeteer, a Cultivator in the Cultivation World who specializes in refining Puppets and mechanical devices.

In his Storage Ring, there were still fifteen broken Iron Corpse Puppets waiting to be repaired. If he could merge the mechanical arts of both worlds...

"Scrap metal, this Young Master has no interest in."

Gu Shen sneered coldly, turned around, flicked his sleeves, and left.

Only after walking out of Nili Lane did Gu Shen's superficial and arrogant expression instantly fade, his face returning to a calm, deep composure.

"Crab, locate the Outer City South Market."

"Understood, Master. The route has been planned in my mind." The iron clasp at his collar emitted Crab's dry, mechanical voice.

The night deepened.

The Outer City South Market of Black Sand Market was an abandoned square. Every midnight, many Loose Cultivators who did not want to reveal their identities would come here to set up stalls, all wearing black robes and covering their faces, hence it was called the "Ghost Market."

Gu Shen stepped into the Ghost Market.

There was no hawking here. Stall owners and buyers mostly communicated using Divine Sense or gestures, and the atmosphere was extremely oppressive.

He walked past stall after stall, seemingly nonchalantly, but in his heart, he was constantly issuing commands.

"Crab, initiate macro-structure scanning. Focus on identifying metal objects and spiritual power circuits."

Treasure hunting in the Ghost Market of the Cultivation World relied on keen eyes and Opportunity. But Gu Shen was different; he had the assistance of an "Artifact Spirit" from an Ancient Sect of mechanism.

"Scanning... Three zhang ahead, stall on the left. High-density unknown alloy residue detected, with extremely complex energy conduction circuits inside. Identified as a high-grade mechanical fragment."

Gu Shen's footsteps paused slightly.

Following Crab's guidance, he walked to an extremely inconspicuous stall.

The stall owner was huddled in a large, tattered black robe, making it impossible to see their face. On the stall cloth, a few rusty lumps of iron were scattered, along with a Jade Slip that was missing a small piece.

Gu Shen crouched down, his gaze falling on the lump of iron that had triggered Crab's alert.

It was a segment of a metal joint resembling a human wrist. The surface was covered in the dark green copper rust peculiar to the Cultivation World, but the cut surface revealed extremely orderly interlocking gears. The material was not quite iron, and it exuded a cold, hard aura of slaughter.

This was definitely not the wooden or jade Puppets common in the Cultivation World!

This refining technique was shockingly similar to the joints of those armored puppets in the Spiritless Ruins!

"Could it be... that the Ancient Sect in the Spiritless Ruins and the Puppeteers of this Great Yu Cultivation World once shared the same origin?" A storm raged in Gu Shen's heart, but his face remained calm.

He extended his folding fan and disdainfully poked the metal wrist bone.

"You're selling this kind of scrap metal? If I took this to feed my spirit dog at home, even the dog would find it too hard to chew."

The black-robed stall owner's body trembled slightly, and a hoarse voice came from under the hood, revealing a deep sense of exhaustion and humiliation: "Young Master, this is a fragment of a Profound Iron spiritual hub dug up by my Lu Family's ancestor in an Ancient Secret Realm. Although damaged, if a high-grade Artifact Refiner were to examine it, they would certainly be able to comprehend a thing or two about the mechanical arts."

"You're blowing smoke." Gu Shen sneered, tapping the folding fan against the incomplete Jade Slip, "And what about this broken Jade Slip?"

"That is the accompanying 'Thousand Mechanisms Incomplete Manual', which records the refining methods for some spiritual power hubs..." The stall owner's voice grew weaker.

"Name a price." Gu Shen interrupted impatiently.

"One hundred... no, eighty Low-Grade Spirit Stones. Take both." The stall owner seemed to have made a great decision.

Gu Shen scoffed and immediately got up to leave.

"Eighty Spirit Stones for a pile of useless rust? Do you take this Young Master for a fool who gives away money?"

He walked away very decisively, without any hesitation. The Ghost Market was crowded and chaotic; if he showed even the slightest eagerness, it would immediately attract the covetousness of others.

"Young Master, wait!"

The stall owner was indeed anxious, a hint of pleading in their voice, "Fifty! It can't be any less. I urgently need Spirit Stones to buy a Pulse-Protecting Pill to save my life!"

Gu Shen's footsteps stopped.

He turned around, pulled fifty Low-Grade Spirit Stones directly from his Storage Ring, along with a bottle of Low Grade Medicinal Pill, and tossed them casually onto the stall cloth.

"I won money tonight, so I'm in a good mood. I'll take this pile of junk, just for fun. This bottle of Pulse-Protecting Pill is a reward for you; hurry home and get treated."

The stall owner hugged the Spirit Stones and Medicinal Pill tightly as if they were a precious treasure, kowtowing repeatedly.

Gu Shen waved his large sleeve, tucking the metal wrist bone and the incomplete Jade Slip into his sleeve.

As he turned and left, a deep light flashed in the depths of Gu Shen's eyes.

He had a premonition that these mechanical diagrams from the Lu Family would be the key to bridging the power systems of the Cultivation World and the Spiritless Ruins.