“A blood pond… do people still build such things these days? Are they not afraid of being discovered by the monks from the Radiant Samsara Temple?” Soft Feather, who was clean from head to toe, climbed out from the blood pond.

　　Climbing out next to her was Song Shuhang who was dyed red by the blood. The two of them were in stark contrast.

　　After climbing out of the blood pond, Soft Feather saw Liu Jianyi standing still in front of her. She asked, “Senior Brother Liu, what are you doing?”

　　“Hmm?” Liu Jianyi slowly turned his head around and replied, “I’m looking at Senior White disassembling a person.”

　　Song Shuhang replied, “What?”

　　He hurriedly took a step forward and looked in front.

　　Very soon, he saw the arrogant ‘mister’ he met in the Chu Family’s secret room being pressed against the ground by Venerable White. Both of his hands and legs were dismantled by Venerable White.

　　At this moment, Venerable White was disassembling the mister’s skull.

　　In the blink of Song Shuhang’s eye, the mister’s skull got opened.

　　However, what appeared before his eyes was not a human brain… but a refined electric circuit, and a thin transparent tube. Within the thin transparent tube, there was a blue energy liquid that was flowing slowly… was it true qi?

　　This ‘mister’ wasn’t a human being?

　　When he was in the secret room of the Chu Family, Venerable Spirit Butterfly tore off both his arms, and one could see that there were mechanical components inside. At the time, Venerable Spirit Butterfly thought that some parts of the mister’s body were like that of a puppet.

　　But little did he expect that the mister’s entire body was a mechanical puppet!

　　“How is this possible! Just how…!!” A shocked voice resounded.

　　It was the mister himself shouting—he saw his current physical state from the reflection in Venerable White’s eyes. “How did my brain become like that!? Why is it like that? You devil, what did you do to me?!”

　　“Calm down, I merely disassembled the outer part of your head. I did not do anything else,” Venerable White explained calmly. “You have always been a mechanical puppet.”

　　“Impossible! How can I be a mechanical puppet? I am a disciple of the Thousand Hands Sect, She Lan! I have flesh and blood running through my veins; I have a father and a mother, how can I be a mechanical puppet?!” the mister shouted—he was extremely agitated. “I was heavily injured before; hence my hands and feet underwent a modification and turned into those of a puppet. But how can the rest of my body be mechanical… what kind of spell did you cast on me? It’s an illusory technique, isn’t it? You used an illusory technique on me, right?!”

　　His ‘eyes’ really became ‘bloodshot’—it looked extremely realistic and lifelike.

　　Upon hearing this, Venerable White temporarily stopped disassembling the mister. He pinched his chin, seemingly thinking. This fellow is actually not aware that his entire body is a mechanical puppet?

　　Song Shuhang took a few steps and squatted down beside the mister, examining the structure of his body. “Artificial intelligence? A robot that possesses human feelings and always thought he was a human?”

　　Liu Jianyi chimed in, “There once was a pair of disciples from the Jet-Black Sect who could not have children. Hence, they meticulously created a ‘mechanical puppet’, nurturing it as their own child and constantly changing his body to become slightly bigger. With that, the puppet was allowed to have its own life experiences and mistook itself for a human being. Is this that kind of story?”

　　“No.” Venerable White shook his head.

　　Soft Feather similarly came over and guessed, “Then, could it be a magical treasure that developed intelligence after cultivating? I heard that a lot of magical treasures can turn into intelligent weapons. Some high-level sentient treasures can be as intelligent as cultivators.”

　　“It isn’t a sentient treasure either. The structure of a sentient treasure is completely different from that of a human soul.” As he was speaking, Venerable White lightly moved his finger, and the Meteor Sword at his waist started floating. The sword was acting like a pet and was attracted by Venerable White’s finger, seeming very affectionate.

　　“My Meteor Sword has already developed some intelligence. If you try sensing for a little bit, you’d know that the difference between sentient weapons and the human soul is akin to the difference between ice and flames. Their properties are completely different.”

　　Lastly, Venerable White guessed, “Perhaps this guy used some very extreme techniques on himself…”

　　“…like transforming his human body into a mechanical puppet. The lifespan of human beings is limited, and the body will decay… but after transforming it into a mechanical puppet, the body would be able to achieve immortality. A long time ago, a genius disciple of the Jet-Black Sect that had what it takes to carry the Will of the Heavens developed his own way to immortality using this concept as a foundation. Also, from a certain point of view, all the talented disciples of the Jet-Black Sect can use similar methods to obtain an immortal body,” Venerable Spirit Butterfly added while descending from the sky.

　　Venerable White nodded his head and continued, “As long you pay close attention to maintenance and replace the broken parts, the transformed body would be able to become immortal. However… the soul of a cultivator will still be slowly consumed over time. Based on what I know, apart from that genius of the Jet-Black Sect, no one else was able to reach the Immortal Realm with a similar method.”

　　Song Shuhang nodded and said, “Oh, I know! Mechanically transformed human beings appeared in science-fiction movies as well. After human beings in the future mechanically transformed their bodies, they have to maintain their important parts, apply lubricating oil, etc. It’s very interesting.”

　　Venerable White replied, “Yes, you can understand it in that way.”

　　The two Venerables had explained the problem with mister’s body with this short exchange.

　　The mister on the ground, otherwise known as the Thousand Hands Sect’s disciple She Lan, was in a daze and did not move.

　　His body got transformed into a mechanical puppet?

　　After staying silent for a while, She Lan could not accept the truth. He frantically shouted, “How can this be, according to my entire lifetime worth of memories, there was absolutely nobody who could have done any transformation to my body… impossible, this is impossible!”

　　“From the looks of it, even the memory of him undergoing the transformation was erased?” Venerable White said. “I think I need to disassemble him a little further and take a look at where his memories are stored. For all we know, we might find some unexpected surprise.”

　　“No, don’t disassemble me further…” Mr. She Lan said in anguish. If this was a nightmare, he wanted to wake up from it as soon as possible.

　　“If Fellow Daoist White wants to continue disassembling, then could I trouble you to retrieve that glowing thing from within his body? Compared to his mechanical body, I’m more interested in that thing,” said Venerable Spirit Butterfly—the item that was hidden in She Lan’s body was the treasure that he used to activate the Star Shifting Formation.

　　“Alright!” Venerable White started to disassemble She Lan’s chest, lifting open the outer shell.

　　In that place, they were able to see the few tissues left behind from She Lan’s original body. The tissues complemented his mechanized body, preserving the part where the ‘dantian’ was located at. This allowed She Lan to maintain his cultivation of the Fourth Stage Innate Realm even after becoming a mechanical puppet.

　　Inside his chest was an eight-sided crystal, and the design of a miniature world was carved on every side.

　　Venerable Spirit Butterfly laughed. “It is this thing without a mistake, I can sense the power of space from it.”

　　Venerable White reached out with his hand and took the eight-sided crystal…

　　When the crystal got taken out, She Lan’s struggles came to an abrupt stop.

　　“Senior, this guy isn’t moving anymore!” said Song Shuhang.

　　“Eh? Could it be that the crystal is one of the energy sources of the mechanical body? Or is it a more important part, similar to a switch?” Venerable White passed the eight-sided crystal to Venerable Spirit Butterfly.

　　Venerable Spirit Butterfly took the crystal. “Sorry to trouble you, Fellow Daoist White… as for the results of the research of the crystal, I will share a complete set of information with you.”

　　“Alright.” Venerable White nodded his head and continued disassembling She Lan’s body.

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　At this time, Song Shuhang carefully looked at She Lan’s body on the floor. “Something’s amiss. Did he really stop just like that? In movies, when the villain robot boss gets defeated, wouldn’t it self-detonate?”

　　“Bang… bang… bang… bang…”

　　Frightful sounds of explosions echoed…

　　However, it wasn’t She Lan’s body self-detonating, but the domineering black dragon puppet next to it, exploding for no apparent reason.

　　After it exploded, in succession, She Lan’s body exploded as well.

　　Luckily, there were two Venerables on the site. Even if the explosion was very sudden, the two Venerables were able to set up a barrier of spiritual energy in time.

　　The power of the explosion was isolated on the outside.

　　“It really exploded?” Soft Feather was dumbstruck. Senior Song has the gift of clairvoyance!

　　Liu Jianyi said, “But what really exploded was the black dragon puppet on a side!” He had been observing the black dragon puppet since the beginning and found it really cool. But more importantly, that thing could substitute a flying sword and fly in the sky.

　　If he could take it away, he wouldn’t even need to ride a flying sword—he would simply lay on the black dragon puppet, flying to all corners of the world. He could slack off wonderfully for a long time, just thinking about it felt great.

　　But just as he started daydreaming, his dream exploded!

　　“Eh? Could it be that Senior White disassembled the black dragon puppet before?” Song Shuhang subconsciously blurted out.

　　“Hehe.” Venerable White made a hollow laugh. The corners of his mouth twitched.

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　The residual force of the explosion dissipated.

　　Venerable Spirit Butterfly and Venerable White removed the defense barrier.

　　At the front, the black dragon puppet had already been blown to pieces—all sorts of components scattered on the ground.

　　That Mr. She Lan was also blown into several pieces that got scattered on the ground as well. He looked more than dead. After it was destroyed to such an extent, even that genius from the Jet-Black Sect that came up with technique to mechanically transform one’s body to reach immortality would not be able to piece the components together and make him look like before.

　　In midair, Mr. She Lan’s unwilling and angry scream was still echoing.

　　It was a shout coming from deep within his soul. If it did not get purified, it might become a resentful ghost or something.

　　“It turns out that transforming oneself into a mechanical person is not devoid of dangers! You don’t know when you will suddenly detonate,” lamented Song Shuhang.

　　“Yes, the explosion was rather sudden.” Soft Feather nodded her head… but when she turned around and looked at Song Shuhang, she cried out in fear, “Senior Song, this is bad! Your soul is coming out of your chest! Senior Song, don’t die…!!”