Chapter 63: Incomprehensible; You'll Understand Later

Although Lin Zhao’s method of summoning a heavyweight to steamroll everything was straightforward and reckless, it had to be admitted that it was truly effective.

After this thorough upheaval and reconstruction, though the Puppet Heaven was left in utter disarray, the greatest crisis had vanished. There was no longer any need to worry about it devouring the entire Qigong Kingdom. At the same time, the hostile factions within the Puppet Heaven had been swept completely clean under these circumstances.

Even the Lord of Di was rather envious. Together with the Lord of Qigong, he lodged a minor protest over the fact that the sun had shone for far too short a time.

The sensation of beholding the sun was too miraculous, too moving, warm, magnificent, and bestowed vitality upon all things. The Lord of Di exerted a tremendous amount of force just to restrain himself from rushing forward to pet the little sun, managing instead to maintain a respectful distance.

As for the Lord of Qigong, his combat capability was simply too weak, and he could not defeat Ji Yaoguang. Otherwise, he would have long since rushed forward to snatch it away by force.

"Little Sun," the Lord of Qigong did not blink an eye even when the Lord of Di doubled the demanded reward, immediately instructing a puppet to pay him before returning to Lin Zhao's side. He said sincerely, "Though I do not know what has transpired over the past thousand years, the Divine Lord by your side still retains a modicum of combat strength for now, but his origin essence has been depleted to the point that he cannot sustain himself for many more years. If you are willing to let me stay by your side, I am willing to present the entire Qigong Kingdom to you. You will have no need to worry about resources; you only need to fly up into the heavens for a few hours each day, and you will have no further cause for labor. Moreover, if you mind being seen in your hairless state, I can issue a decree forbidding all citizens from looking directly at the sun—"

Lin Zhao gritted his teeth in exasperation. Did this fool have any inkling of how great a provocation it was to repeatedly mention the absence of feathers in front of a feathered creature? And as for the ancient tree, what did he mean by constantly mentioning to his face that the old tree was nearing its end?

Did he think Lin Zhao could not protect his own ancient tree?

Besides, while that tree looked honest, it always had a mind of its own. Would it dare abandon him and die? If it did, it must have grown tired of living!

Fortunately, he did not even need to work himself up into a rage, because the Lord of Di in his humanoid form had already stepped in on his behalf, dragging that phantom aside and subjecting it to a thorough beating.

After all, leaving aside the fact that the Qigong Heavenly Feather was currently nothing more than a wisp of a soul, even at the absolute peak of his power, he could not have withstood a single tail-strike from the Lord of Di.

Watching him take a beating brought Lin Zhao not a shred of joy. He could only sigh and remark, "Clearly, mechanical disciplines ought to be the most formidable lineage. How on earth did this Qigong Kingdom manage to degenerate into such a state?"

The heavily battered Lord of Qigong looked somewhat surprised. "Little Sun, do you also understand the Dao of mechanical secret arts?"

Lin Zhao thought back to his twelve years of educational career and replied calmly, "I understand a thing or two."

The Lord of Qigong immediately turned serious. "Do you also believe that the Dao of mechanics is a path superior to the Dao of shamanism?"

Lin Zhao shook his head. "Any path that can bring people safety, happiness, and stability is the right path. The capable should shoulder more responsibilities. With your lives reduced to this state, how can you still afford to argue over whether shamanic arts or mechanical arts are superior or inferior?"

The Lord of Qigong shook his head. "What we contend over is not superiority, but resources."

He paused for a moment and continued, "To give you an example, the snake slough of the Lord of Di is a rare material that only he can produce. This material, which fuses perfectly with spirituality and is a hundred times tougher than refined iron and secret copper, has extremely broad applications wherever secret rituals can be employed. Yet many heavenly and earthly shamans will purchase it at high prices simply to forge defensive armor. Consequently, even if we research how this material can be applied in secret rituals, we have no opportunity to use it. Under such circumstances, how can various technologies ever advance?"

"Why do you only fix your eyes on the secret rituals of the shamans above? Why can't you use ordinary materials and commonplace craftsmanship to safeguard the safety of ordinary people?" Lin Zhao found this incomprehensible. "Forging a new path might just be another way forward."

The Lord of Qigong said helplessly, "Where the source of combat power lies, that is where power resides. I need the shamans under my command to ward off great evils and purify the sunlight, so my research materials must be dedicated to enhancing their strength and protecting their safety. If they feel that Qigong is not worth staying for and depart, relying solely on a heavenly shaman with mediocre combat strength like myself, by what right could I protect the entire realm?"

He went on to explain in detail to little Zhao how, during times of scarce resources, everything else had to make way for warfare. Survival was the foundation of all things; under such conditions, cost, difficulty, and sacrifice were considerations that had to come after mere survival. Therefore, research in the Qigong Kingdom had always followed the master-apprentice system, with each household guarding its own secret arts and knowledge.

"They even raised the barriers around secret arts," the Lord of Qigong frowned deeply at the mention of this. "Every household has its own specialized scripts and symbols, different standards of measurement, and even secret arts are passed down exclusively within the family. If anyone tries to move against them, they will pack up their families and knowledge and leave. Moreover, even some of my own knowledge is stipulated to require meritorious service in exchange; I cannot simply allow everyone to consult it directly..."

Lin Zhao finally understood the crux of the matter. "What kind of kingdom ruler are you? Wouldn't you be much better off as a school principal or a teacher?"

He was being manipulated at every turn from start to finish.

"No, it's not like that..." A puppet tentatively poked its head out and chimed in, "The ruler didn't divide us into seven parts until later; those Di people didn't come out ahead either. When they refused our demands, we let the Puppet Heaven devour the Qigong Kingdom. They were so terrified that they had to offer sacrifices every year—spirituality and flesh and blood. Ours only held back the great evils, leaving them to fend off the ordinary dark tides, and their losses were immense. Every single one of them is hoping the ruler will come back out to take charge of the overall situation now."

The Lord of Di helplessly covered his eyes with one hand nearby.

Lin Zhao rolled his eyes. "Then did they suffer those losses in vain? Wouldn't they just shift the burden onto those who were easier to bully?"

Another puppet thought for a moment and said, "That is true. The vast majority of ordinary people's income had to be handed over, leaving just enough for rations and shelter. Before they died, they could even sell their own bodies, having their skin, bones, and other parts processed and sold as materials to become raw materials for shamanic rituals or puppet creations, leaving some income for their families."

Lin Zhao sneered, "Right, and then their souls go into the Puppet Heaven... What unpardonable sins must someone have committed to be reincarnated into your Qigong Kingdom? Ugh, I don't want to stay in this place anymore. Hurry up and give me what was promised; I'm leaving."

The Lord of Qigong seemed similarly startled. Looking at the seven innocent puppets, he softly distanced himself, saying, "I... no, I was dead; I knew nothing of these matters... You can't expect a dead ruler to be responsible for living citizens... Though, failing to grant them humanity was indeed my fault."

Lin Zhao could not help whispering to Ji Yaoguang, "Didn't you say that all kingdom rulers are clever people, and any foolishness is just an act?"

"Well, you can't really say the Lord of Qigong isn't clever. He was the founder who single-handedly spawned a truly top-tier lineage," Ji Yaoguang whispered back. "This is one of the three major lineages of the Shamanic Kingdoms, not a useless lineage like the one belonging to Sijin."

Far away in another realm, a flock of colorful little birds soaking in hot springs suddenly sneezed one after another, wondering if their older brother was badmouthing them again.

Embarrassed, the Lord of Qigong no longer dared to recruit the Little Sun. For a kingdom like this, letting the Little Sun shine upon it seemed like a sheer waste...

Therefore, he walked over to the Lord of Di, who was watching from the sidelines, and extracted a grain-of-sand-sized transparent crystal from one of the puppets. "Lord of Di, there is a matter with which I require your assistance."

The Lord of Di gazed at that tiny grain of sand, a flawless smile blooming on his face. "I am duty-bound!"

...

After all, Lin Zhao's shamanic power and knowledge were still shallow. Once the corruption of the Puppet Heaven was eradicated, all the remaining matters were left to the Lord of Di, the Lord of Qigong, and those seven little dwarves.

As the true master of the Puppet Heaven, even with only a scrap of soul left flickering like a candle in the wind, that refined and gentle man managed in a very short span of time to command the seven little dwarves to restore normal order to the Puppet Heaven.

Yet there remained one troublesome issue: countless souls without physical bodies were wandering in a daze through the places they had once frequented.

"How do you plan to deal with these souls?" Lin Zhao asked out of curiosity.

"It is impossible to resurrect souls," the Qigong Heavenly Feather stood beside Lin Zhao. "Even if I were to fit them with puppet bodies, their souls would still lose the 'protection' called a physical form within this world. They would be exposed to the world, and this world tends to dissolve souls, reducing them to the most primitive spirituality to serve as the material for other living beings to give birth to souls..."

"Therefore, the Puppet Heaven merely delayed the rate at which they vanish," the Qigong Heavenly Feather stated candidly. "The Puppet Heaven was never a benevolent place to begin with; it is the military service that citizens must fulfill after death."

"...You've rendered me utterly speechless," Lin Zhao was shocked by his candor. "Hearing how you sacrificed yourself to save the Puppet Heaven, I originally thought you were a good person."

"This is not a matter of good or evil, but of choice," the Qigong Heavenly Feather extended a hand, and a butterfly gently landed on his palm. "When human beings must make sacrifices, being able to choose whether they sacrifice themselves during their lifetime or after death is already not a bad thing. More people have no choice at all."

"Then can't you think of a way out?" Lin Zhao frowned. "You are a secret-art master; your mind ought to be quite nimble. Why not provide them with more opportunities to choose?"

The Qigong Heavenly Feather replied earnestly, "How do you know I didn't provide them with an opportunity? Back then, I asked every single one of them whether they preferred to serve their military duty in life or after death. Almost all of them chose after death. That is why I created the Puppet Heaven."

"That's not what I mean." Lin Zhao took a deep breath, organized his thoughts, and explained some modern methods for improving efficiency, such as assembly lines and standardization.

If Lin Zhao had transmigrated as an ordinary person, he would have applied these methods himself as a stepping stone to advancement. But given the current apocalyptic doom of heavenly condemnation, and without any shortage of wealth, rapidly implementing these methods to make human society stronger overall was the right thing to do.

Since the Qigong Heavenly Feather was himself a top-tier secret ritualist, he grasped the terrifying potential of these methods almost instantly, looking at him with momentary astonishment.

Then, that refined man smiled gently. "Implementing this within the Qigong Kingdom would be exceedingly difficult; these methods would not be accepted by them. However... I can cooperate with the Lord of Di."

"Cooperate?"

"Indeed," the Lord of Di instantly figured out the logic behind it. "The secret ritualist factions within the Qigong Kingdom are far too powerful, and such changes would infringe upon their spheres of influence. But in the Di Kingdom, it would be quite different. At least, I am not so soft-hearted and reasonable."

More importantly, the Di Kingdom was mostly sustained by warfare, and he had wanted to increase the Di Kingdom's revenues for a long time—he couldn't possibly be the only one bearing all the workload. In fact, over the past two days, he had assigned his younger brother a dozen or so tasks, but given his brother's temper, completing three or four of them was already showing him the utmost familial courtesy.

"The kind of device you mentioned that allows ordinary people to communicate is not particularly difficult," the Qigong Heavenly Feather produced a machine resembling a conch from goodness knows where. It was the size of a suitcase and looked to weigh at least a hundred catties. "I just cobbled this together using the materials at hand. Because it was thrown together temporarily without further adjustments, it can only receive a fixed frequency of spirituality—meaning it can only tune into a single channel, just as you requested. The range of use will depend on the strength of the spiritual owner. That heavenly shaman named Sijin should be able to cover an entire state. If you wish to reach further distances, you will need matching secret rituals like this to serve as relays..."