Vessel of Worlds

Inside that jade box, too, was one of these little monkey figures, rather like the two wooden tigers, and it held a small knife-shaped low-grade artifact in its hand. Could that monkey be a puppet beast as well? What exactly was a puppet beast for—what use could it serve? Questions crowded Andy's mind all at once; even the name "puppet beast" was something he'd only just heard for the first time.

"You've never seen a puppet before, Fifth Brother?" Xi Feng asked.

"No. What are they good for?" Andy admitted. His experience of the cultivation world was slight, drawn almost entirely from a handful of ordinary texts.

Xi Feng smiled. "Di Er is the real expert on these, but since he's not one for talk, I'll explain. Puppets come in beast form, like these wooden tigers, and also in humanoid form, mimicking the shape of a person. A puppet is a bit like an artifact and a bit like a spirit beast a cultivator tames. It needs a spirit stone to supply its spiritual power; once the stone runs dry, you have to fit a new one, or it won't work. Give the operating cultivator a single command, and it carries it out without hesitation. This time we'll use them to draw off most of the Blood Shark's attention."

"These wooden tigers are only at mid-stage Qi Condensation level—not too expensive, and of little use most of the time. They're just right to serve as cannon fodder here!" At this point Xi Feng turned to the cold-faced young man. "Di Er, try making these wooden tiger puppets move at top speed."

Di Er nodded. Without any visible gesture, the two wooden tigers beside him suddenly began bounding wildly about, each leap covering two or three zhang—brisk enough, at that.

"These puppet beasts look rather interesting. Where can one buy them?" Andy asked, something stirring in his mind.

Xi Feng answered: "Low-level puppets aren't dear, but they're not much use—mostly cannon fodder. Puppets that can wield the strength of a Foundation Establishment cultivator cost even more than peak-grade artifacts, so few people use them. That makes puppets fairly uncommon in the Star Sea; only a place as large and complete as the Penglai market carries them. I've heard there's a sect in the waters under Fangzhang's jurisdiction that specializes in the puppet arts, but I don't know the details."

"The Thousand Mechanisms Gate!" Di Er, who had held his tongue all along, suddenly spoke those five words.

Xun San said too: "Right, the Thousand Mechanisms Gate—a sect that relies on puppets as its main means. Their sub-Foundation Establishment disciples are extremely strong, but the sect has very few high-ranked cultivators at Core Formation or above, so it's only a middling sect."

Andy quietly committed the sect's name to memory. To others, puppets might be mere helpers or cannon fodder, of very limited use—but he had thought of an ingenious application, one that could lift his own strength at a stroke to a terrifying height!

After a while, Hongchen finished deploying the Three Yang Blazing Fire Formation. Xi Feng sprinkled some fishmint extract over the two wooden tigers, and the group hid themselves within the array.

The two wooden tigers, as if at play, kept leaping and darting about near the formation.

In barely half an hour, an enormous dorsal fin over ten zhang long broke the sea's surface not far from the coral island, closing on it with tremendous speed—cleaving the waves faster, even, than Andy and the others flew through the air!

With a thunderous crack, a hideous shark-monster over thirty zhang long, its great maw studded with countless fist-sized nostrils, leapt from the sea. This colossus, though wingless, simply hung in the air without falling, and—its belly fin and tail lashing ceaselessly—flew through the sky at fair speed, pouncing toward the two wooden tigers on the coral island!

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The two tiger puppets bounded into the formation's range, one left, one right, then kept leaping and fleeing.

Though the Blood Shark was a rank-five beast rivaling a Core Formation cultivator, its intelligence was too low. It could clearly sense other living auras on the island, yet paid them no mind, madly snapping its jaws at the wooden tigers—and soon crossed into the formation's range.

"Now!" Xi Feng barked, striking a seal into the disc in his hand.

A red barrier covering several hundred zhang appeared at the coral island's center, enclosing the Blood Shark, the wooden tigers, and all five human cultivators together. At the same time, the red barrier put forth fist-sized red flames that flickered without pause.

The Blood Shark started, and instinctively smashed its great tail against the red barrier. With a heavy boom, the barrier shuddered violently, then steadied. Clearly, attacks like that couldn't threaten the formation for a good while yet.

Having failed to break the barrier with one blow, the Blood Shark did not keep ramming it. Instead its huge mouth gaped wide, and a whirlpool of tremendous wind sucked inward. One wooden tiger, about to flee, was drawn back by the beast's sudden inhalation, unable to advance at all; after a few struggles it was swept into the monster's maw.

The seven or eight red points of light Andy had loosed were carried into the shark's mouth along the same great wind. Andy had meant to seize the chance to drive his flying needles at the beast's eyes and other vital spots, but in that howling wind the needles were all but out of control, near impossible to steer.

Just then the Three Yang Blazing Fire Formation launched its first wave: a sea of fire a zhang wide swept toward the beast.

From the shark's countless ugly nostrils burst jet after jet of wind-columns, scattering that sea of fire with ease.

More than that—even the flying needles already swept into its mouth were blown back out. Andy hurriedly steered them clear of the wind-columns and only then regained control.

Xun San, Hongchen, and Xi Feng each deployed their artifacts against the beast. The shark gaped to suck them all into its mouth; the three, alarmed, hastily steered their artifacts clear of the whirlpool wind. Should the beast draw an artifact into its mouth and bite down with those terrible chi-long fangs, even a peak-grade artifact would take serious damage.

Fortunately the beast did not turn its head to face those artifacts as its main target. Instead the wind shifted direction and swept the other wooden tiger into its mouth. Gulping down the tiger's body in deep satisfaction, the shark suddenly loosed a wail like an infant's cry.

Two beams of red light shot from its eyes—both now bearing holes a cun across, blood gushing out—and it was instantly blinded.

For Andy, unseen by the beast, had hidden two flying needles inside the wooden tiger puppet. When the shark chewed the tiger, he drove those two needles outward from within, straight into its eyes. The shark's whole body was armored in scales so hard that even peak-grade artifacts could scarcely breach them—but its insides were just as soft and fragile before the needles' assault, and so Andy's ambush landed in a single stroke.

Blinded and in agony, the shark went berserk, lunging and snapping wildly toward Andy and the others by sense of aura alone.

The group deployed jet-black shields, golden bronze plates, red gauze scarves, and other defensive artifacts to hamper the beast, dodging nimbly in all directions; unable to see, the shark could not strike any of them.

Thup, thup. Andy loosed two more flying needles, piercing the beast's upper palate.

Hongchen's two yellow flying blades and Xun San's blue halberd likewise found their openings, slipping past the shark's razor teeth to hack furiously at its face, soon reducing it to bloody pulp.

Wracked with pain, the shark took fright and began ramming the red barrier with its great dorsal fin, trying to break out and flee.

But just then Xi Feng, who had lacked a suitable opening all along, finally brought his meteor hammer down hard on the beast's neck—actually shattering some of the scales there and exposing a fist-sized bloody pit, and the beast's motion faltered.

Hongchen's flying blades and Xun San's halberd came down on that bloody pit in seamless coordination, splitting the greater part of the shark's skull open in a single stroke. The beast gave one last infant-like wail and crashed heavily to the ground. With a thunderous boom, its huge, ponderous body actually smashed a depression several cun deep into the coral island's surface.

This was the first rank-five beast the five had slain, and thanks to their thorough preparation it hadn't seemed especially difficult. Watching the colossus fall, everyone wore a look of excitement.

"Dead at last—these rank-five beasts really can take a beating. If Old Fifth hadn't landed that ambush, we might truly have been unable to deal with it. How are its scales this hard? My Mandarin Duck Blades are famed for their sharpness, and I couldn't cut it at all!" Hongchen said, letting out a long breath, and stepped forward to take a closer look at just how strange that layer of scales was.

"Careful!" Andy and Xi Feng shouted at the same instant.