The Ling brothers arranged everything according to Bai Xiaofei’s plan but tried not to make it obvious.

  However, as long as Shadow Death wasn’t stupid, they could see right away what Ethereal was doing, and admittedly, the feeling of being toyed with was very irritating.

  The first thing Ling Yue did was gather the five godsmiths, saying it was to put on a show for the envoys.

  If that was really the case, the godsmiths would never agree to it as they were puppetsmiths and not actors. However, none of them refused because they could guess Ling Yue’s real purpose, and rejecting would mean indirectly admitting that he or she was the one behind the human puppets.

  Most of the envoys naturally couldn’t see this as they were outsiders and only came to create trouble for Ethereal. They found it an interesting experience to be able to appreciate a godsmith’s work, let alone all five of them together. Who would dare to even think about this before?

  As a result, with the absence of objections from all parties, a special ‘performance’ was officially held at the public forging room of the Puppetsmith Holy Mountain.

  Besides the envoys from all over the world, there were also many puppetsmiths from the very mountain itself as this was also a rare opportunity to learn. Due to this, the five godsmiths needed to really come up with something that could convince everyone.

  In addition to the spectators, the group with the most number present was the Ethereal troops: Three Imperial Guard elite brigades, five garrison teams, the private armies of the four great clans, and the four princes, plus the entirety of the personal guards of the emperor!

  The so-called performance had gathered the imperial city’s top powers, and Ling Yue’s reason was that he wanted to ensure the safety of all the envoys.

  Excuses, excuses…


  “My utmost gratitude to our godsmiths for gracing us with their presence. The theme of today is proposition forging. The godsmiths will draw from ten propositions, each of which is more than enough to showcase their ability. Let this be an eye-opening experience for us all!”


  Ling Yue personally acted as the host. Despite their ages and status, the five godsmiths still needed to give the emperor face. Under the gaze of all and sundry, they stepped forward and drew their topics, and after reading their slip, they all frowned.

  Because of nothing else, but that the topics were a little too abstract!

  Pinocchio: Wash silk.

  Nanmo Sheng: Moon chant.

  Thousand Flames: Star ocean.

  Heartless Snow: Reedpipe drop.

  Blossom: Boundless.

  Let alone beginning to create a puppet, just figuring out the topic was already a headache. However, the headache brought fever to the five godsmiths’ faces.

  Challenges were every puppetsmith’s favorite!

  “Everyone, this is just the topic. Flip your paper and you’ll see a number, which represents the position of that puppet for a puppet master. In other words, you’ll all create puppets for the same person and they must correspond to his ability and rank. As for what grade your puppet will be, it’s up to you,” Ling Yue elaborated.

  The godsmiths’ feverish expressions became even more visible and they exchanged glances. The purpose of this requirement was obvious - to make them discuss and exchange opinions. And it wouldn’t be a friendly exchange. A little carelessness and they would fall into others’ traps!

  A top-tier smith stood out among the masses and would be able to enlighten others with just one or two sentences. However, one day, when they met the other top-tier smiths and communicated with them, they would realize that they still had much to learn!

  Back to the situation at hand, this meant that the impostor wouldn’t be able to communicate smoothly with the other four godsmiths, and the real godsmiths had also realized this. Therefore, they had quickly prepared what to say to fish out the impostor.

  Since the discussion was conducted in secret, no one knew what the godsmiths talked about, but everyone could see that the show had begun. How would they respond to such abstract topics?

  Everyone started looking forward to it, but the wait was destined to be long. It was possible that forging a puppet would take days or months!

  This was why everyone also thought that Ling Yue was being very generous with this event, as he looked like he intended to spend a long time on the Holy Puppetsmith Mountain as if he didn’t even consider if Ethereal would be paralyzed without him.

  Therefore, many refused to believe that he didn’t have any other purpose!

  In the meantime, Bai Xiaofei had not been idle. He took the money provided by Ling Yue to release a task with high rewards and no requirements at the Mercenary Alliance, and it was: Search!

  Search all places where the energy circulation felt strange. Any information provided would be deemed as the mission completed. There was no limit on the number of people accepting the task, the time to complete, the number of times one could accept the task, and there was no penalty for failure. Moreover, the reward for each completion was 10,000 Amethyst Coins!

  In the words of the mercenaries, Bai Xiaofei wanted to turn Ethereal upside down!

  Huge rewards attracted brave souls, not to mention that the risk of this task was terrifyingly low for its reward. Nearly all the mercenaries available in the city chose to accept it!

  This showed that problems that could be solved with money were really not that problematic.

  After that, Bai Xiaofei once again returned to his vacation, spending every day hanging around the city with Tan Xin.

  The vacation lasted for half a month, until the day the godsmiths finished their puppets one after another.

  It was time to uncover the mystery!