Am I the old man who's always by my apprentices' side?

Chapter 321 The Puppet Techniques of the Hundred Blessings Sect

Inside the dining hall, everyone was still in shock and remained silent for a long while.

The two nearly three-meter-tall brass warriors knelt on one knee, their armor gleaming coldly under the light, their red robes fluttering even without wind, as if ready to carry out their master's orders at any moment.

Tang Yinxiang, the leader of the Tianji Sect, was the first to recover from her shock, clapping her hands in admiration: "Wonderful! This kind of puppetry is simply unheard of! Sect Leader Zhao, you have truly mastered the art!"

Qu Zhiweng and Tang Chi echoed the sentiment, praising it repeatedly. Some of the bolder cultivators couldn't resist touching the armor worn by the two strongmen; it was cold and hard, just like real metal!
Qiao'er Zhao was a little embarrassed by the praise and quickly explained, "You flatter me, everyone. This paper warrior looks impressive, but it is actually quite limited. It can only do physical labor. It can fight against ordinary mountain tigers and wolves or mortals, but it cannot be used for magical battles..."

Chang Ping'an said, "That may be true, but it would be quite good for guarding the gate!"

Since this kind of strongman is derived from puppetry, he is similar to the "messenger" commonly used by everyone in the sect.

In places like the White Stone Immortal Sect, the gatekeepers are not disciples, but several "messengers." There are Northern Long-tailed Tits placed by Sect Leader Zhang Chengdao, pigeons released by Headmaster Xu, and Red-billed Blue Magpies released by the Second Junior Sister. These paper puppet birds perch on trees near the mountain gate year-round, specifically for "keeping watch." In this way, there is no need to waste manpower guarding the mountain gate.

However, while the paper puppet bird is useful for guarding the gate, it is not as imposing as the two strongmen in front of us.

These two bronze warriors are not only burly and stern-faced, but their armor also gleams coldly in the sunlight, giving them a truly celestial air. They would be perfect for guarding the mountain gate!

Upon hearing this, Qiao'er Zhao nodded and said, "That's right. To be honest, the reason I came out this time is to have a few strongmen at home keeping an eye on things. After all, there is a 'Fairy Bamboo' bestowed by the Immortal Master in Baifu Sect, and I dare not leave it unattended under normal circumstances."

Tang Yinxiang, who was also short-handed and had difficulty distinguishing the disciples guarding the mountain gate, became more and more interested as she looked at the guards and couldn't help but ask, "Sect Leader Zhao, do you sell this strongman?"

Qiao'er Zhao was somewhat surprised: "This... The Tianji Sect is so skilled in formations, they must be able to set up some formations that prevent outsiders from entering, so why do they still need strongmen to guard the gate?"

It wasn't that he didn't want to sell; he simply hadn't considered that this thing could even be sold!
The formations of the Tianji Sect, the mechanisms of the Tang Sect, and even the puppets of the Baifu Sect—shouldn't these be the most prized possessions of their respective sects? How can they be sold off so easily?
As a small-time merchant, Qiao'er Zhao still retained the cautious mindset of always being on guard, which made her feel somewhat presumptuous about Tang Yinxiang's question.

Putting aside the question of whether it's polite to so openly ask other sects for their most valuable possessions, can a sect or faction really trust the use of puppets made by other sects to guard its gates?
Aren't you worried at all about your side causing trouble?
Qiao'er Zhao felt that she couldn't quite understand the thought processes of these sect leaders!
However, neither Tang Yinxiang, nor Tang Chi, nor Qu Zhiweng noticed anything amiss with Tang Yinxiang's question—at least not outwardly. Qu Zhiweng even enthusiastically followed up, saying, "Yes, Sect Leader Zhao, this thing is indeed useful. If you're willing to sell it, that would be wonderful!"

Qiao'er Zhao hesitated and said, "Although the brass warrior is not difficult to forge, it is, after all, made by my Hundred Blessings Sect. It's... I'm afraid it's a bit inappropriate for you fellow Daoists to use it to guard the mountain gate..."

Tang Yinxiang waved her hand and said, "It's alright. With Immortal Zhang here, why would we worry about this? Besides, now that we have the Immortal Alliance, if anything happens, Alliance Leader Chang will surely be able to uphold justice for everyone!"

That makes sense.

Putting everything else aside, which of these newly established sects and forces practicing immortality didn't benefit from the White Stone Immortal Sect? And which one can compare to the White Stone Immortal Sect?
If someone harbors any ill intentions, even Immortal White Stone wouldn't need to lift a finger; his disciples alone could easily eliminate them!
Therefore, whether it was Tang Yinxiang, Tang Chi, or Qu Zhiweng, they all trusted Baishi Immortal Sect very much.

The main reason is to trust their combat capabilities.

Don't forget, it was Zhang Xianren who personally resolved the split of the Great Changhe Kingdom a while ago!
The fake White God, who almost destroyed the entire Great Changhe Kingdom with just some witchcraft, was killed by Zhang Xianren and the King of Qin in no time. With such power, how could anyone dare to act recklessly!

"What Sect Leader Tang said makes sense, but this brass warrior is rather ordinary. If any fellow cultivators are interested, they might want to take a look at this item—"

Qiao'er Zhao quickly realized that with the White Stone Immortal around, there was really nothing to be afraid of.

As he spoke, he pulled out an even larger paper effigy from his pocket and threw it on the ground.

The paper effigy is different from the previous paper figures, which were made by cutting paper figures into shapes and gluing them together. The former is round and plump, a small figure made of bamboo strips, wrapped in silk, yellow mud and painted with colorful paper.

This little man was a bit bigger than a palm, but not very big overall. After being thrown to the ground, he continued to grow in the wind. In the blink of an eye, he became a head taller than the previous bronze warrior, his head almost touching the roof of the dining hall. Just one of them looked like he was about to fill the entire depths of the dining hall.

"Where is the strongman?!"

Qiao'er Zhao let out another loud shout, and immediately the strongman knelt on one knee, respectfully cupping his hands and replying, "The strongman is here!"

Qiao'er Zhao looked at her "creation" with pride and explained to the even more astonished crowd: "The brass warrior from before, although it had a skeleton made of copper wire, was only strong and not very useful. But this warrior is different. It has a skeleton made of immortal bamboo and can lift mountains. I call it the 'Mountain-Lifting Warrior.' It can also be used to move things. It's the one that my Hundred Blessings Sect uses the most!"

Tang Yinxiang's eyes gleamed with even more amazement, and she eagerly asked, "Then how much does this 'Mountain-Carrying Warrior' cost?"

"I have never sold this before, so I can't give a price. But if it's this Mountain-Carrying Warrior, it would probably take at least half a month to make. If I were to sell it, the price wouldn't be low."

Qiao'er Zhao was telling the truth.

He had only been practicing Qi cultivation for a short time, and he had spent several attempts to create the Mountain-Carrying Warrior before finally producing two finished products. He kept one at home, while the other was brought out specifically for self-defense, but unexpectedly, it had become a way to show off.

Before Tang Yinxiang could say anything, Tang Chi, who was not short of money at all, chimed in, "Money is not a big deal, but we are all cultivators. I'm afraid it's not appropriate to use the gold and silver of mortals for transactions, is it? I see that the White Stone Immortal Sect has its own 'spirit stones,' but I wonder what kind of things cultivator sects like yours and mine should use to conduct business..."

Qiao'er Zhao shook her head and said, "Leaving aside copper coins, gold and silver are certainly not common items. For one thing, they are used quite a lot in making puppets. I have been researching a kind of puppet with bones made of purple gold recently, and I have made some progress. If I can make it, it will probably be more useful than this mountain-carrying strongman. However, if it is made of purple gold bones, the price of a puppet will probably be sky-high!"

Qu Zhiweng glanced at Tang Chi and smiled, "Sect Leader Zhao is right. I have also heard that the art of weapon crafting requires a lot of gold and silver. If fellow Daoists have no objections, trading with gold and silver is not out of the question." Tang Chi felt a little uneasy for a moment under his gaze.

Although the Tang Clan was specially invited by the Tianji Sect to observe the founding ceremony as a sect practicing immortality because of Tang Yinxiang, in reality, only two disciples in the entire sect had achieved Qi Induction. Tang Chi brought them along to save face this time—he himself hadn't even achieved Qi Induction yet!
Therefore, compared to the other sects, even the "Hundred Blessings Sect" that suddenly appeared out of nowhere, the Tang Sect was somewhat lacking in confidence. After all, every other sect had more cultivators than the Tang Sect, especially since the number of Tang Sect disciples far exceeded that of these other sects.

Therefore, when Qu Zhiweng deliberately glanced over, the meaning in his eyes was self-evident.

Your Tang Clan doesn't even understand this, yet you dare to call yourselves a Taoist sect?
The subtext of this is clearly to suppress the Tang Sect in order to establish the Taiyue Sword Sect's position within the Immortal Alliance.

The Taiyue Sword Sect has a famous Li Zhi with the "natural sword body," so Tang Chi really couldn't have any ideas. Besides, he really didn't know that cultivators also used gold and silver. For a moment, he could only vaguely say, "Since Sect Leader Qu said so, the Tang Sect has no objection."

Tang Yinxiang hadn't forgotten the newly appointed leader of the Immortal Alliance. She tilted her head and asked, "What does Alliance Leader Chang think?"

“In the world today, spiritual energy is still scarce, and ‘spirit stone mines’ are only produced in the mines under the jurisdiction of the White Stone Immortal Sect. If spirit stones are traded, I’m afraid the White Stone Immortal Sect will gain the most.”

Although he had not read any books on monetary theory, Chang Ping'an understood this simple principle.

My master once taught me that no matter what I do, I must never deceive anyone. It is easy to deceive others, but difficult to deceive myself.

When discussing why we encouraged people to learn to read and build new schools in various major cities, the master also said that the people should not be fooled or deceived; only in this way can we follow the right path.

Therefore, considering that spirit stones are only found in the White Stone Immortal Sect, Chang Ping'an's first reaction was that he could not use them for trading.

Maybe it will be possible in the future, but it's not possible now.

If everyone is forced to use spirit stones as the initial currency, wouldn't the value of a spirit stone be entirely determined by the White Stone Immortal Sect?
Master originally only designated spirit stones for internal use within the sect, probably because of such concerns.
Thinking of this, Chang Ping'an was truly at a loss.

Using gold or silver would be fine, but...

While they were pondering, Murong Ruyan, who was standing next to Chang Ping'an, suddenly spoke up: "Using gold and silver is certainly appropriate, but if we are to use gold and silver, perhaps the Immortal Alliance can uniformly set up Immortal Alliance coins for transactions. When fellow Daoists need them, they can exchange Immortal Alliance coins for gold and silver from the Immortal Alliance. This way, it will be the fairest option and can also avoid the problem of differences in the purity of gold and silver."

Tang Chi nodded and said, "What Fellow Daoist Murong said is indeed a good strategy."

This method certainly brings many benefits to the Immortal Alliance, but as Murong Ruyan said, it also means that in commodity transactions, there is no need to haggle over the purity of gold and silver anymore.

Gold and silver were not commonly used for trading goods among ordinary people because their purity varied.

Some people use gold and silver of excellent quality, which, even if not as pure as the modern so-called 999 purity, can still reach more than 90%.

Some unscrupulous merchants specialize in mixing brass, iron ore, and other minerals into gold and silver. A purity of 70% or 80% is considered quite good. Some can even produce gold with only 30% or 40% purity but use it as if it were 80% or 90% pure.

Of course, the Southern Chu Kingdom had once banned the private trade of gold and silver due to its lack of gold and silver. However, as cheap gold mines from the Jinsha Kingdom flooded into the Central Plains, this decree was abolished.

However, in any case, most people used either grain and cloth as the unchanging general equivalents when trading goods, or copper coins and notes prescribed by the government. Gold and silver were rarely used.

Seeing that no one objected, Murong Ruyan pressed on, suggesting, "There's no time like the present. Since all the fellow Daoists and sect leaders are here today, why don't we discuss and decide on the first batch of people to take turns on duty in the Immortal Alliance? This will also help to distribute the tasks. We should also have someone in charge of managing the Immortal Alliance's money. We can't let my fool... cough, let my senior brother do everything, can we? Not to mention whether he has the energy, even if he does, it's somewhat inappropriate for one person to decide all the affairs."

Qu Zhiweng stroked his beard and said, "That makes sense. It just so happens that Sect Leader Zhao is here as well. Including the White Stone Immortal Sect, our Immortal Alliance now has five forces. If each force contributes two people, that's only ten people. It will probably take quite some time to manage the entire Immortal Alliance."

Among those present, apart from Chang Ping'an and a few others who were already disciples of the White Stone Immortal Sect, Qu Zhiweng was the most senior in the immortal path and had the closest relationship with Zhang Chengdao, the White Stone Immortal. Therefore, when he took the lead in saying so, everyone gave him some face and nodded in agreement, beginning to consider the candidates.

For sects with fewer members, it's relatively easy to find two capable individuals with good aptitude and relatively profound cultivation. However, for sects with many members, such as the Tang Sect, choosing these two individuals is much more difficult.

Because the entire Tang Clan only has two disciples who have achieved Qi Induction, they have no choice but to select one!

We can't possibly send two disciples who haven't even mastered Qi cultivation to take turns on duty in the Immortal Alliance, can we?

What kind of immortal sect is that?!
In short, within the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the leaders and elders of all the sects finished their discussions and put forward their candidates.

Leaving aside the White Stone Immortal Sect for now, the Taiyue Sword Sect was somewhat surprised that they didn't choose Li Zhi, who had a "natural sword physique," but instead picked Fang Tang and another disciple they had never heard of.

Tang Clan was indeed one of only two disciples who had achieved Qi Induction, but since no one else knew about Tang Clan's situation, they didn't pay much attention to them.

On the Tianji Sect's side, Tang Yinxiang actually included herself, bringing together two people.

As for the newly emerged Baifu Sect, it consists of Sect Leader Zhao's junior disciple nicknamed "Little Six" and his youngest daughter.

(End of this chapter)