"Blood mastery." Han Yu muttered.
Here, the difference was night and day.
The Puppet Peak's library was overflowing with texts related to blood. Manuals, treatises, experintal notes, refinent records, and theoretical discussions. Entire shelves were devoted to blood manipulation as it related to puppets and jiangshi.
Han Yu imrsed himself completely.
This was knowledge he desperately needed.
Ju Fan had been born into a blood cultivating clan. Even if his practical abilities were diocre, his theoretical foundation should have been solid.
Han Yu did not have that luxury.
If anyone probed him deeply, the gaps would show.
"Can't have them finding out, I'm all bark and now show..."
So he studied.
He learned about the classification of bloods. Human blood, beast blood, hybrid bloods, mutated bloods, ancient bloodlines, artificially refined bloods, and cursed bloods.
He learned how blood was used differently depending on context.
In pill refinent, blood acted as a carrier and catalyst.
In formations, it acted as an anchor in the form of ink.
In puppets, it was sothing else entirely.
Blood was not just fluid.
It was information.
This was the first concept that truly shook Han Yu.
Blood carried more than Qi.
It carried imprints.
Most cultivators referred to these as bloodline mories. Traits inherited from ancestors, instincts passed down through generations, latent affinities that could awaken under the right conditions.
But the books made sothing very clear.
That was only the surface and wasn't the aspect needed for puppets.
Blood could be altered and it could be rewritten.
Refined blood was not rely purified. It was encoded.
Han Yu read case after case detailing how refined blood was used to control jiangshi. Unlike chanical puppets, jiangshi were undead. They possessed bodies that once lived. Bodies that rembered.
Formations alone were not enough.
Over ti, jiangshi could develop will. Not full intelligence, but a rudintary sense of self. When that happened, external control weakened.
That was where blood mastery ca in.
By refining instructions directly into the blood used during creation, one could impose control on a fundantal level. Not as a command, but as an instinct.
Obey the master.
Protect the master.
Do not harm the master.
These were not orders issued from outside.
They were truths written into the jiangshi's existence.
Han Yu's breath grew shallow as he read.
Using the creator's blood during refinent strengthened this effect exponentially. The jiangshi would recognize the master not just as a controller, but as an origin.
This was why blood cultivators dominated jiangshi refinent.
This was why the Doll Seal existed.
And this was why altering such seals required mastery of blood, soul, curses, and formations all at once.
Han Yu closed one book slowly and stared at the wall.
"So that's how it works…"
The more he read, the clearer his path beca.
Blood mastery was not optional.
It was the foundation.
Days turned into weeks.
Han Yu's rit points climbed steadily.
His reputation at the Puppet Peak shifted subtly. People no longer called him a newcor. So began referring to him as that fast apprentice. Others simply nodded respectfully when he passed.
Compared to the other peaks, the Puppet Peak was certainly a lot more 'calm'. At least the people did not break out into fights over minor scuffles, and even if they did, they'd fight by showing their skills rather than drawing blood.
Han Yu did not seek attention nor did not avoid it either.
At night, after studying blood texts, Han Yu would often sit in silence and let his mind organize what he had learned. The pieces were coming together.
Puppets.
Blood.
Jiangshi.
Soul.
One day, he would refine them all into sothing greater.
For now, he kept working.
Quietly.
Relentlessly.
Building a foundation that no one could see yet.
Three months passed in what felt like a strangely compressed blur for Han Yu.
Days folded neatly into one another, asured not by sunrise and sunset, but by rit points earned, books finished, puppets repaired, and formations refined. By the ti he finally stopped to take stock of everything, even he was startled by just how far he had co.
In those three months alone, working almost exclusively within the Puppet Peak, Han Yu had accumulated over one hundred and twenty thousand rit points.
And that was just from routine work.
Maintenance missions. Calibration tasks. Assembly jobs that other apprentices groaned about and postponed until the last mont.
Han Yu took them all, one after another, with relentless consistency. His speed never dropped, and his success rate never faltered. Supervisors had long since stopped hovering over his shoulder. They simply glanced at the mission token, saw his na, and waved him through.
If anything, they were relieved.
It was rare to see an apprentice who did not cut corners, did not complain, and did not try to bargain for easier assignnts.
Han Yu did none of that.
He worked.
But the puppet work, impressive as it was, was not the true windfall.
That had co two months ago, when the Mission Hall finally sent him a ssage.
At the ti, Han Yu had been in the middle of recalibrating the internal nodes of a mineral sorting puppet. He rembered the faint vibration of his jade slip against his robes, subtle but insistent. When he checked it, he froze for a mont.
Mission Complete. Rewards Issued.
At first, he had thought it was a mistake.
It was only when he went to the Mission Hall personally and spoke with the clerk that the full picture erged.
The Fatui Clan mission had not been a minor errand.
It had been classified as a high tier mission.
Originally, it was ant for an experienced inner disciple alchemist, soone with decades of refinent experience and a stable backing within the sect. But due to Zhao Liun's influence, the mission had been reassigned to Ju Fan.
To outsiders, this looked like favoritism.
Assigning a valuable mission to a junior disciple was unusual, but not unheard of, especially when faction politics were involved. To most observers, it seed Zhao Liun was pulling Ju Fan closer, not pushing him away.
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