With a guide taking the lead back to their home, Zhang Wu Ji remained quiet in case his words may cause the hot-tempered Liu Xin Xin to explode. At this moment, playing safe is just as important as not making a wrong move.

The trip was a simple four turning when he reaches the intersection.

"How come it's so easy for her to guide but so difficult for me to find?" Zhang Wu Ji cannot imagine how bad is his sense of direction. With a simple four intersection to turn, he can return to his Private Residence in a short span of fifteen minutes!

"I won't bother to look for you next time. You either try to remember your way home or spend your time to walk around." Liu Xin Xin stated that this will be the only time she came out to find him.

"I did not ask you to come right?" Zhang Wu Ji wanted to reply to her words, but he decided to not. After she left, he headed to his Blacksmithing Workshop on another side from where the Immersion Pool is located.

While he's on his way to the workshop, Zhang Wu Ji smiled. When he's on his way home, Zhang Wu Ji purposely nailed a few of his Silver Flying Stakes on the trees nearby so he can get his way in the future.

Inside, Zhang Wu Ji prepared the fire, assembles the tools and machinery, and get himself ready to accomplish something else once again. With his photogenic memory and amazing processing ability, it is impossible for him to forget the blueprint he'd seen before.

"The Puppet Design is similar to the one assembled by Master Jiang Lei, but because his request on the puppet is more to Blacksmithing Assistance, this caused the design to change slightly to suit his needs."

"As for me, I need the servant to be completely self-efficient. The best way to do this is to assemble them not by Silver, but Iron. Only through using Iron Metal I can assure the quality of the Servant Puppet I'd create."

"But, my Servant Puppet will not be an Iron-base Puppet but alloyed. This might compromise them in term of purity, but nevertheless, I am aiming for self-sustaining ability, so the purity level isn't bothering for now." Zhang Wu Ji withdraws the number of 99% Purity High-Tier Spirit-Grade Iron Ingots in their different categories and shapes them into the required parts.

As it was no longer his first attempt in preparing for this, his movement is smooth and organized, which is similar to a master of Puppet Manufacturing. But most importantly, the design and approach took by Zhang Wu Ji took him a step further.

His design took things further with the Silver Inlaying, where it may compromise in the thickness to compensate for the lightness, he covers this by inlaying the silver.

In total, the number of parts is two times more than the total Master Jiang Lei's Metal Puppet required, but his Servant Puppet is better than the Metal Puppet in everything.

When the preparation of the parts is complete, the Spirits started to flow into the Workshop for the sake of the thousand rooms available here. Unfortunately, it wasn't the time for a Spirit Sharpening yet. Zhang Wu Ji transferred all the parts capable of housing a spirit into the System Realm, where Sheng can completely block off any spirits from invading the realm.

"HUUUU!!!" the spirits lingering inside of his workshop loitered while looking at Zhang Wu Ji relaxed expression in assembling the Silver Parts. The moment it was complete, Zhang Wu Ji entered his System Realm with the entire Inlaying Frame.

[Master. Why did you stop the spirit from selecting the housing?]

"Sheng, what I'm aiming is not for the parts to be housed by a spirit, but to selfishly reserve the whole Servant Puppet for one single Spirit." Zhang Wu Ji looked at Sheng as he replied to her.

[Master, Spirit Sharpening has its limit. Plus with such a big Servant Puppet, how can a single spirit control the entire housing?]

"Then? We'll see where is that limit. If the Spirit cannot control the whole housing, I'll refine the spirit so it can do what I wish then." Zhang Wu Ji confidently replied, and pay all of his attention in assembling the Outer Frame.

Once it was complete, there's no longer a choice. An unhoused High-Tier Spirit-Grade will only grow bigger as they were assembled into one. The moment the Formation Engraving is completed on the Body, limbs, and head, Zhang Wu Ji landed his final touch.

[Servant]

The engraving allows Zhang Wu Ji to complete the assembling and activation ritual to create a bond between him and the first servant puppet. He took the complete Servant Puppet back into his workshop again, and this time, the spirits no longer maintained their calmness.

Immediately, the fight for the right to reside in this gigantic housing begins. The Servant Puppet was lifted up from the ground due to the Spirit Sharpening. Because this housing is different from what they used to fight with, the fight last longer.

Through Spirit Sharpening, Zhang Wu Ji can see clearly on the part he missed. Although it will not bother the Servant Puppet in any way, a better craft is always highly sought after.

Every minute past is an opportunity for the spirits. Their number grows, and this caused the fight to turn from exciting to dangerous. The moment one hour reaches, only three spirits remained. The others are either scared, taunted, or threatened.

On the second hour, everything finally over. The one and only spirit went inside the Servant Puppet and started the assimilation procedure. But when the Servant Puppet begins to give out a reaction, Zhang Wu Ji made an unexpected approach!

The engraving tool came into his palm with a shake of his hand. Accurate and decisive, Zhang Wu Ji added an extra word just beside the [Servant] engraving.

[Loyal Servant]

With an additional word into the Status Engraving, the freedom of the Spirit housing this treasure will be restricted!

A Servant Engraving allows the spirit to act without restriction, and if the user's depth in Cultivation, the servant may betray him. But with the Loyal Servant Engraving, this entirely restricts the Spirit from having any mindset outside of what it was ordered!

Why would Zhang Wu Ji do something like this to the Spirit?

.

.

.

[Master. I will teach you a way to restrict the Servant Puppet's freedom from acting outside of your order]

Sheng convinced her master to learn this method before he started with the Servant Engraving.

"Oh? Why is that required?" her words puzzled Zhang Wu Ji, but he did not comment any further before hearing her explanation.

[Master, I'll have to inform you that Spirit's with a complete housing similar to a housing body is extremely dangerous!]

"Continue." her word captured Zhang Wu Ji's attention.

[Do master still remember about the benefits brought by having a spirit reside inside of your weapon?]

"Yes."

[If a spirit inside a treasure like a weapon, it increased their strength, sharpness, and even grant it an ability. But if a Spirit resides inside a complete housing like human anatomy, what will happen?]

"The spirit is free to walk, run, fight, and cultivates?"

[And to the worst scenario, the owner will be enslaved instead and used to recreate a new Empty Spiritual Body. As most of those that capable to turn into spirits is cultivators in their Grandmaster Tier and above, such ability is not impossible!]

Sheng explained.

"Then I can just put a seal to restrict them to do this, correct?"

[Correct but wrong at the same time. You can put the seal, but there will be no spirits that will come to fight for this housing]

"And that's the reason..." Zhang Wu Ji finally understands why Sheng replied him in this way.

.

.

.

"Master! Why did you treat me like this!" the spirit residing within the Servant Puppet cries sadly from the treatment he received before he started to serve this master.

"If you obediently serve me until I entered the Sheng Tian Process, I will return your freedom to you!" Zhang Wu Ji claimed.

"Promise?" the spirit confirmed what he heard.

"Yes." Zhang Wu Ji replied.

"I will serve master with all my life, and follow my master to heaven or hell!" the spirit replied.

"Master..." before Zhang Wu Ji replied, he added another request.

"Yes?" Zhang Wu Ji waits for his final wish.

"May I be called as how I am when I'm still alive?" the spirit already three-quarter completed in his assimilation with the Servant Puppet. A quarter more to go and he will lose all his freedom and speech.

"Go ahead." Zhang Wu Ji approved his request.

"I am Xiang Zhan Yu. Please give me back my name when I serve you..." the assimilation is completed.

Next, only an obedient Servant Puppet is standing before Zhang Wu Ji, awaiting for further order.

|

= = = = = = = = = =

Zhan Yu - Servant Puppet

-Puppet Life Force: 19,000 | Puppet Qi Force: 200,000 Strands (Fighter)

-Puppet Offensive Force: 600 | Puppet Defensive Force: 3,300

-Usage (1): Zhan Yu is capable of conducting all required action through teaching and guidance. The limitation does not exist due to Xiang Zhan Yu's soul were at 68th Stage Inner Qi Lord before he succumbs to death.

-Usage (2): Through precise order, Zhan Yu is capable of operating independently. If in case the user is separated from Zhan Yu, immediately activate the Servant Eye Function to monitor the Servant Puppet's action.

-Durability: 1,300/1,300

-Special (Puppet): Because the spirit and body are not harmonized, Zhan Yu is not upgradable.

-Special (Puppet): Because Zhan Yu is not upgradable, allow the Servant Puppet to obtain a rechargeable function.

= = = = = = = = = =

|

"This is... my Servant Puppet?" Zhang Wu Ji cannot believe what was created out from all of these efforts.

"Sheng, transfer Zhan Yu into the System Realm." Zhang Wu Ji ordered.

[Understood]

"Xiu!" the Servant Puppet successfully entered the System Realm. As there are so many things to be taught, the two of them spent about six to seven days to complete this induction process.

One week later, Zhan Yu is behaving like a younger kid, full of enthusiasm to do everything he knows. Added with its cheerful mindsets like a young kid, the positive energy it brought completely brings up the atmosphere between Sheng, the plants, Zhan Yu and the Wild Beast.

While he left the managing matters to those living inside his System Realm, Zhang Wu Ji put much more effort into refining his body through the Devouring Body Tempering Liquid. The ordeal did not go as smoothly as expected, but most of the unsmooth situation is caused by extreme pain.

After all, the system can help in many different matters, except his physical condition and sense of direction.

But the seclusion quickly took one week of his time.

In this one week, Zhang Wu Ji solidifies his cultivation further until it temporary stopped at 340 Strands of Warrior Qi. With this amount of Warrior Qi, Zhang Wu Ji is now a 14th Stage Inner Qi Warrior.

"Another Mutated Sun-Swallowing Fruit matured. The hundred Advance-Quality Blood Lotus also harvested from their Lotus Root." Zhang Wu Ji calculates the amount of harvested ingredient done by Zhan Yu. With the addition of a Servant Puppet, Zhang Wu Ji's responsibility in the System Realm reduced to a minimal amount of task.

His responsibility from today onwards is left with only collecting a sufficient amount of formation plates, and tries to collect more seeds to increase the number of Natural Energy created and gathered inside the System Realm.

Confidently, Zhang Wu Ji left his residence to the Pill Hall first to sell the stack of 600 Advance Blood Nourishing Pills. In total, they paid him with a total of 9,600 Qi Accumulating Pills which was used in the Material Hall to purchase a few items.

"I'll meditate for a while before entering the System Realm." Zhang Wu Ji shuts his eyes and starts to meditate. What he did not expect is today, something different happened outside of his control.

Like an antlion's death trap, a kilometer of distance surrounding his position as the center started to suffer from Natural Energy Deficiency. With him as the core of this scene, all Natural Energy were devoured by him like a hungry devouring beast!

-

-

-

-

-

[Author's Note]

It seems like the Taotie's Devouring Ability started to show. Do you think he will become the Gluttony from Full Metal Alchemist?