Dao of Money 249. Workshop

The puppet walked forward with the harsh sound of grinding gears. Chen Ren’s eyes widened as it stepped fully into the hallway.

Compared to the puppet he had seen in the mountains of the fourth floor, this one was completely different.

For one thing, it didn’t even have a head.

Its body was a large, rounded tal core mounted on two thick chanical legs, with two long arms extending from its sides. At the ends of those arms were curved blades that looked sharp enough to slice through stone.

But the strangest feature was the surface of its body. Small circular holes covered the tal shell.

For a brief mont, Chen Ren wondered if those holes were its eyes. The next second answered that question.

A blazing fireball suddenly shot out from one of them. Chen Ren reacted instantly. He rolled to the side just as the fireball slamd into the wall behind him.

Flas exploded outward, sending fragnts of stone scattering across the hallway.

Chen Ren swallowed hard as Wang Jun shouted from under his arm. “Be careful! That puppet is fast!”

Almost as if responding to the warning, the puppet moved.

Its gears shrieked loudly as the machine lunged forward with terrifying speed. Chen Ren didn’t dodge this ti.

Instead, he raised his arms.

[Starlight Armor] flared to life around them just as the puppet’s twin blades slashed downward.

tal shrieked against the shimring armor. The force behind the strike was enormous.

Chen Ren’s boots scraped across the ground as he was pushed back a full step, the blades pressing dangerously close to his limbs.

Then he saw it. The holes in the puppet’s body began glowing again.

Another attack was incoming. Chen Ren jumped imdiately.

He vaulted over the puppet’s round body just as another fireball blasted from its shell. The attack exploded where he had stood a mont earlier.

Landing behind it, Chen Ren spun around. The puppet tried to turn to face him, its gears grinding as its heavy body rotated.

But Chen Ren was faster. Lightning burst around his fist.

“[Thundering Punch!]”

His strike slamd into the puppet’s back and the force sent the machine crashing straight into the wall.

Its blades tore deep gouges through the stone as it struggled to stabilize itself.

Chen Ren stepped back, a small smile forming on his face.

He had already noticed it's weakness. The puppet could only attack targets in front of it.

If he stayed behind it… There was nothing it could do.

Not wanting to waste the opportunity, Chen Ren imdiately rushed forward and began hamring punches into the puppet’s back.

His fists struck again and again, lightning flickering faintly around them as he tried to break through the tal shell and reach whatever chanism powered the thing.

Each strike sent dull echoes through the hallway. But no matter how hard he hit, the result was the sa.

The puppet’s body only dented slightly.

Chen Ren frowned. “Why is it so durable?”

Wang Jun answered imdiately.

“Because Xuan Mo always loved working with tals that are nearly impossible to break.”

Chen Ren cursed under his breath. If brute force wouldn’t work, then he needed another approach.

He stepped backward.

Just as the puppet finally finished turning around to face him, Chen Ren unleashed his next attack.

[Lightning Frenzy!]

Bolts of lightning shot forward from his hands, crackling violently as they rushed toward the puppet. But Chen Ren didn’t allow the lightning to scatter randomly.

Instead, he directed every bolt toward the holes in the puppet’s body. At that exact mont, the puppet began charging another fireball.

Flas gathered within its hollow chambers. The lightning struck first. The bolts shot straight into the glowing openings.

Wang Jun suddenly shouted.

“Kid, get the fuck back!”

But it was already too late. For a split second, everything went silent. Thenthe puppet exploded.

The blast tore through the hallway with violent force. tal fragnts shot outward like shrapnel as Chen Ren was thrown backward through the air.

He felt pieces of the puppet strike his body and face. One sharp fragnt sliced across his cheek.

A mont later, Chen Ren crashed into the wall. Pain shot through his entire body.

Still, he forced himself to stay conscious. Groaning, he pushed himself upright and looked toward where the puppet had stood.

Most of it was gone.

The explosion had blown the puppet apart, leaving only its legs still attached to the ground while the rest of its body lay scattered across the corridor.

Chen Ren raised a hand and touched his cheek. When he pulled it back, his fingers were stained with blood.

He winced.

Slowly standing, he took out a simple healing pill and swallowed it. As the pill began to work, he frowned and muttered, “If I had been a few steps closer… I’d be dead.”

The mont he finished speaking, Wang Jun suddenly burst out laughing. “That’s it!” His voice rang with a strange excitent. “You should be dead, yes!”

Chen Ren imdiately pulled Wang Jun out from under his arm and held the head in front of him.

“What do you an?” he asked, staring at the old face.

Wang Jun grinned. “I rember now.” He chuckled darkly. “That’s a baitburst puppet, kid.”

Chen Ren frowned. “And what exactly does that an?”

Wang Jun tilted slightly as if pointing with his chin toward the destroyed machine.

“Think about it,” he said. “Those holes on its body are obviously the way to kill it.” He paused. “They’re right there in front of anyone who fights it.”

Chen Ren opened his mouth to respond.

Then he stopped.

Slowly, realization settled over his face.

The holes weren’t a weakness. They were bait.

Anyone fighting the puppet would naturally try to attack those openings, assuming they were vulnerable points. But the mont a powerful attack entered it… The puppet would detonate, taking the opponent with it.

Chen Ren glanced back at the shattered remains scattered across the hallway.

If it hadn’t been for his body cultivation, which made his body far tougher than most cultivators of his realm, that explosion would have ripped him apart.

He had escaped with nothing more than a cut on his cheek. Others would have died instantly.

Chen Ren frowned and looked back at Wang Jun.

“Why don’t you rember these things earlier?”

Wang Jun scoffed at his question. “You should be glad I’m rembering things at all.”

Chen Ren didn’t bother replying.

Instead, he gave the destroyed puppet one final glance before starting forward again.

But this ti he was far more cautious. And for the next three hours, Chen Ren felt like he was constantly one step away from death.

The mont he encountered that first puppet, the traps began appearing.

Even with [Void Sense] spread around him, he couldn’t avoid them perfectly.

Every ti his senses picked up sothing suspicious, the trap would suddenly activate as if reacting to his presence.

More than once he had to scramble backward just to survive.

Bladed chanisms swung out from hidden compartnts in the walls. Invisible poisonous darts shot across narrow corridors, too small to see with the naked eye.

One hallway collapsed beneath his feet, revealing a pit filled with bubbling acid that spat toxic fus into the air.

And at one point, the entire ceiling above him dropped without warning.

Only a desperate burst of lightning from his movent technique allowed Chen Ren to escape being crushed flat.

Even Chen Ren’s calm expression began to wear thin. It was only later that Wang Jun explained the reason behind the traps. “They’re designed to react to sensing techniques,” the old head said after he narrowly escaped another chanism trying to skewer him.

Chen Ren frowned. “What do you an?”

“If they detect a technique trying to scry them, they activate imdiately.”

Chen Ren blinked. “So there’s no way to avoid them?”

“No,” Wang Jun replied bluntly. “There really isn’t.” He paused before adding, “Xuan Mo hated people spying on his creations. These traps are ant to punish anyone who tries.”

Chen Ren clicked his tongue.

That ant the mont his [Void Sense] touched them, they would trigger.

But turning the technique off wasn’t an option either. Without it, he would be walking blindly into far more lethal traps.

So Chen Ren kept moving.

And the deeper he went, the worse things beca.

More puppets began appearing.

So smashed through the walls without warning just as Chen Ren was in the middle of dodging another trap. Others dropped from hidden compartnts in the ceiling.

Each new puppet was stronger than the last. So carried spinning blades. Others launched bursts of elental attacks.

One even split its arms into dozens of tallic tendrils that tried to wrap around his limbs.

By this point, Chen Ren had long stopped counting how many tis he had almost died.

But he had no choice—turning back wasn’t possible. The hallway behind him was already filled with triggered traps, and the only direction that was left was forward.

So he kept fighting.

By now, Chen Ren had grown frighteningly efficient in battle. He had always been talented, but more than that, he had an uncanny ability to survive situations that should have killed him.

Still, he wasn’t doing it alone.

Wang Jun had beco unexpectedly helpful.

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The deeper they went into the workshop tunnels and the more puppets they encountered, the more of the old cultivator’s mories began returning.

Apparently, Wang Jun had visited Xuan Mo’s workshop many tis in the past. And each ti a puppet appeared, he would shout out its weaknesses.

“Hit the joints!”

“Break the core behind the left panel!”

“Don’t touch that one—it explodes!”

Thanks to that knowledge, Chen Ren managed to keep moving forward.

Eventually the hallway began narrowing. The passage shrank so much that Chen Ren had to turn his body sideways just to squeeze through it.

He moved carefully, his heart beating faster with each step.

Part of him desperately hoped this wasn’t so elaborate trap ant to crush him between the walls.

But Wang Jun seed confident.

“It shouldn’t be a trap,” the old head said.

Chen Ren frowned. “You’re sure?”

Wang Jun nodded. “Other workshops of Xuan Mo had similar passages.”

Chen Ren raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

Wang Jun paused. “…I have absolutely no idea.”

Chen Ren sighed and kept moving forward into the narrow passage. Step by step, he squeezed his way through it until finally he saw sothing ahead.

Light.

It spilled faintly from the end of the corridor.

Chen Ren quickened his pace slightly and stepped out of the cramped passageway. As he straightened his body and exhaled in relief, his eyes widened.

The tunnel had opened into a massive underground chamber.

The room was enormous—large enough to swallow the entire hallway he had just crawled through. Rows of workbenches filled the space, their surfaces cluttered with scattered tools and half-finished projects.

Qi lamps hung from the ceiling at regular intervals, and they glowed softly. But what truly caught Chen Ren’s attention were the puppets.

Bodies of them were everywhere.

So lay piled in corners like discarded armor. Others sat upright against the walls as if waiting to be repaired. tal limbs and torsos were scattered across tables, while incomplete fras hung from tal racks suspended from the ceiling.

It looked like a craftsman’s studio frozen in ti.

Thick stone pillars stood evenly spaced across the chamber, supporting the ceiling above. There were intricate engravings carved into those pillars.

Chen Ren walked closer to one of them.

The carving showed a man working at a forge, hamring a weapon while puppet figures stood around him. On another pillar, the sa man appeared again—this ti assembling the inner chanisms of a puppet.

The engravings were detailed enough that Chen Ren could clearly see the man’s face.

He had a short beard, sharp eyes and his entire face shaped to intense focus.

Chen Ren studied it for a mont.

Beside him, Wang Jun suddenly snorted. “They made him more handso than he actually was.”

Chen Ren chuckled faintly. “I don’t think it matters.” He glanced at the carved face again. “He’s dead anyway.”

For once, Wang Jun didn’t respond imdiately. After a mont, the old head spoke quietly. “…Probably.”

Chen Ren glanced at him briefly.

For the first ti, it occurred to him that Wang Jun might never have truly considered the possibility that everyone he once knew was long gone.

Centuries had passed. Perhaps even longer.

But Chen Ren didn’t say anything about it.

Instead, he began walking deeper into the workshop.

At first, he half expected the puppet bodies scattered around the chamber to suddenly rise and attack him.

But most of them were clearly incomplete. So were missing arms or legs. Others had open tal fras exposing empty core chambers.

Chen Ren crouched beside one of them and examined it carefully.

He noticed sothing important almost imdiately.

Most of them had no runes engraved inside their bodies. Others were missing their qi cores entirely.

Without those two components, the puppets couldn’t function even if their bodies were intact.

Chen Ren frowned slightly. Why would Xuan Mo leave so many unfinished puppets here?

He considered the idea for a mont.

Then a possibility ford in his mind.

Maybe this workshop had been designed for a climber. Soone who understood puppet crafting, soone capable of completing the work that had been left unfinished.

Chen Ren looked around at the dozens of dormant machines scattered throughout the chamber. If even a fraction of them could be restored… that would be priceless.

Chen Ren was already planning what to do with the puppets.

Every single one of them would go into his spatial ring before he left this place. Later, he would hand them over to Hong Yi and see if the man could bring them back to life.

He already possessed several puppet blueprints he had recovered from the fourth floor.

But the puppets here were clearly far more advanced. If Hong Yi could actually repair even a portion of them, the implications were enormous.

Chen Ren could practically see it in his mind.

An army of puppets marching under the banner of the Divine Coin Sect.

Hundreds of puppets at the foundation establishnt realm alone would drastically change the sect’s standing.

Even the Guardian sects would have to think twice before provoking him.

It wouldn’t make the Divine Coin Sect stronger than those ancient powers. But it would make it extrely difficult to destroy.

And powerful sects hated dealing with things that were… troubleso.

Chen Ren felt a flicker of excitent just imagining it. Still, he forced himself to stay focused.

He continued walking through the vast workshop, carefully stepping around piles of puppet bodies while scanning the area for anything useful.

The chamber was massive. Far larger than he had initially expected.

Even after walking through it for nearly five minutes, Chen Ren still couldn’t see the end of the room. But eventually sothing caught his eye.

A table.

Several tables, actually, placed near the far side of the workshop.

They were covered with books, parchnts, and scattered writing tools. Chen Ren imdiately walked toward them.

He picked up the first parchnt and examined it carefully. Then he flipped it over.

His brow furrowed.

It was blank.

He grabbed another.

It was also blank.

Chen Ren quickly opened one of the books lying on the table. One empty page after another greeted him. He frowned. “Is this so kind of joke?”

Chen Ren glanced down at Wang Jun. “Hey… why are they empty?”

The head stared at the parchnts for a mont before replying lazily. “…Why would I know that?”

Chen Ren frowned and looked down at Wang Jun again.

“I don’t know,” he said. “You knew the man who built this workshop. Why would he leave behind empty parchnts and books? That sounds like a waste.”

Wang Jun shrugged slightly. “Not every great cultivator is sane,” he replied. “Maybe he pulled a prank.” He paused before adding lazily, “Or maybe this just isn’t the place where his inheritance is hidden.”

Chen Ren felt a dull headache beginning to form.

The worst part was that Wang Jun’s suggestion could very well be true. This floor held several cities after all, and this might just be one of many workshops scattered across them. But still…

Chen Ren’s eyes drifted across the piles of half-finished puppets around the room.

If this place was just so aningless prank, then why would all these incomplete creations be left here? That didn’t make sense.

There had to be sothing hidden.

As Chen Ren stared at the blank books and parchnts, he slowly began thinking through the possibilities. Why would soone deliberately leave empty docunts behind?

His eyes narrowed. Then suddenly, an idea clicked in his mind.

Without saying anything, Chen Ren imdiately began searching the surrounding tables.

He checked drawers, overturned boxes, sifted through tools and scraps of tal.

He was looking for sothing specific. But even after half an hour of searching, he couldn’t find it.

Finally, Wang Jun spoke again. “What exactly are you trying to do?”

Chen Ren sighed. “I’m looking for a vial. Or maybe so kind of ink.”

“Why?”

Chen Ren held up one of the empty parchnts.

“These probably aren’t empty as a joke,” he explained. “They were likely written using so kind of special ink.” He turned the parchnt slightly under the light of the qi lamps. “Ink that’s invisible to normal sight.” He lowered the parchnt. “So there should be so kind of solution sowhere in this workshop that can reveal the words.”

Chen Ren glanced around again. “But I don’t see anything.”

“Of course you don’t.”

Chen Ren raised an eyebrow. “What do you an?”

Wang Jun gave him a knowing look. “If there really is sothing like that here, Xuan Mo wouldn’t just leave it lying on a table for anyone to find.”

Chen Ren crossed his arms. “Then where would he hide it?”

“In one of his puppets,” Wang Jun replied instantly. “That man was never the type to give anything away for free.”

***

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