Chapter 293

Chapter 294: The Cultivation Path Begins… Then Gets Cut Off

In the living room on the first floor of No. 66 Wutong Road, four Irenes sat in a neat row on the coffee table. Irene Pro Max, 66.6 cm tall, sat closest to the edge, staring big-eyed at Yu Sheng and Xuan Che on the sofa across from her.

Beside them, Foxy lazily groomed her tail, looking like a bystander ready to watch the show.

After a long silence, Xuan Che finally spoke, pointing at the small Doll on the table: “Let me confirm one thing. You said these young ladies are Dolls from Alice’s Little House?”

Yu Sheng nodded: “Yeah. There’s a complicated reason she became like this. What you see now are temporary bodies I made for her. Her original body got lost somewhere.”

Xuan Che looked suddenly enlightened and nodded again and again: “Oh, I thought the body shattered all at once, and something went wrong during Remold The Body, so you had to split it into four pieces.”

Yu Sheng and Irene froze on the spot. Even the Fox beside them pricked up her ears. Six eyes shot toward the handsome youth on the sofa. The next second, the Pro Irene shot into the air and let loose some colorful language: “You’re the one who shattered into four pieces…”

Yu Sheng pressed the little Doll back down and turned to explain to Xuan Che: “Don’t mind her. She’s a bit hot tempered… let go, let go, stop biting.”

Realizing his slip, Xuan Che cupped his hands in apology: “My offense. I’ve been puzzled for a long time why these young ladies are so small. I saw an Alice’s Doll years ago, and it didn’t look like this. I kept thinking and came up with that reason. It was rude of me.”

Yu Sheng sighed and, still holding down the clawing Pro Irene, spoke to this overly polite young man: “No need to be so formal with her. She’ll push her luck. Let’s talk business. For a certain reason, one of Irene’s bodies needs spiritual power to move. But her normal charging speed is a real problem. I was wondering if your Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain has a way.”

Listening carefully, Xuan Che couldn’t help frowning: “But Living Dolls are a clan blessed by the Ancient Holy Spirit. Their arts are very different from the cultivation path of the Grand Void Spiritual Axis. Mixing them might cause trouble. In the first place, how did this Irene’s body end up needing spiritual power?”

Yu Sheng looked awkward and pointed at the Nine Tailed Fox who was grooming her second tail: “That has to do with this fox. And, well, I added a bit of my own research spirit.”

He briefly told Xuan Che about the Pro body and mentioned the Spirit Fox Dark Iron.

Through it all, Xuan Che wore a face that clearly said, You’re saying what? Now what are you saying? What did you just say? He was the first disciple of Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain, a top youth even in the Grand Void Spiritual Axis, and he had never heard of anyone being this reckless. Unknown metal from another world, ancient alchemy with unclear origin, rocks and clay found in the Otherworld, plus the blood of the “expert” who might not even count as a lifeform, kneaded into a human shape to forge a golden body, then transfer a soul into it?

And somehow these great geniuses actually pulled it off. Judging by the Dolls lined up on the coffee table, they succeeded at least four times. For a moment he felt dazed. If this is all it takes to make a body, then what were the scoldings for the recipes he misremembered, the kneeling for the timing he got wrong, and the beatings for missing the pill fire over the past hundred years supposed to mean?

He caught himself and sobered. After Yu Sheng finished, he thought carefully, then spoke with caution: “May I see that Spirit Fox Dark Iron first? I can judge if it clashes with the Grand Void Spiritual Axis’s lineage.”

“No problem,” Yu Sheng said, patting a fox tail by his leg: “Take out a small piece for him.”

“Okay!” Foxy perked up, reached into her own tail, and pulled out a small leftover iron lump from casting Irene’s skeleton. She set it on the coffee table: “This is it.”

Xuan Che blinked when he saw her pull something out of her tail, but only for a moment. His eyes were soon drawn to the plain lump on the table.

“This thing…” He stared, then picked up the “dark iron,” studying it for a long time before lightly tapping the surface with one finger.

A faint, pleasant hum rose from the iron. Translucent waves rippled through the air in layers and kept going for quite a while.

Yu Sheng didn’t understand it, but he thought it looked pretty cool.

“How curious. No refining, no consecration, just a rough blank, yet it’s so clear,” Xuan Che murmured, eyes bright. “I’ve never seen anything like this. It looks like a common object, so what is its structure in the tiny details?”

He looked to Foxy and Yu Sheng.

“The main stuff is iron. As for why it has those odd traits, the Special Affairs Bureau couldn’t figure it out,” Yu Sheng said, shaking his head. “Foxy doesn’t know either.”

Seeing Xuan Che’s expression, Yu Sheng added: “If you want it, you can have this scrap, as long as Foxy agrees. But if you want a big piece, you’ll have to wait in line. The Special Affairs Bureau put in an order.”

Looking a bit embarrassed, Xuan Che set the iron lump back on the table: “You’re too kind. I shouldn’t overstep. Let me check on Miss Irene first.”

He took a small jade token from his sleeve and handed it to the tiny Doll at the table’s edge, explaining as he did: “From my test just now, this dark iron doesn’t clash with the Grand Void Spiritual Axis’s lineage. It actually fits it. But whether this young lady can use our arts depends on her. This jade token is a basic spirit treasure. It draws in spiritual energy and nourishes the mind. Hold it in your hand.”

The little Doll, puzzled, took the jade token that would have sat in a normal person’s palm and had to grab it with both hands: “Okay, then what?”

“Then you should feel a faint warmth spreading from your palm toward your heart…”

“I don’t have a heart,” Irene said.

“Then it will spread toward your torso. The warmth moves with your focus. Try to guide it.”

“I don’t feel any warmth,” Irene said, blinking.

Xuan Che froze. He was even more stunned than when he heard how Yu Sheng used weird materials and random “techniques” to forge a shell.

“The feeling may be very weak,” he said after several seconds, his voice a little strained. “If you feel carefully, it will be there.”

“It isn’t,” Irene said with full confidence. “My six senses are very sharp. I just don’t feel it.”

“Not even a tiny bit?”

“No. Why are you so slow?”

Yu Sheng noticed Xuan Che’s face. “Does this mean Irene’s talent is weak?” he asked as gently as he could. “That she can’t use your cultivation?”

Xuan Che hesitated, even a little unnerved: “No, not weak.”

“So, no talent at all?”

“No. It’s beyond talent now,” he said, taking the jade token back from Irene and gathering his thoughts. “Even people without talent can feel something. Talent only changes how strong it feels and how easy it is to guide. In the worst case, it still wouldn’t be like this.”

“Could it be because she’s a Doll with a special body?” Yu Sheng asked.

“In theory, no,” Xuan Che said, shaking his head. “A Doll is also a living being. If there is life, there is spirit. This token does not only work on flesh and blood.”

Yu Sheng frowned. “Let me try.”

He took the jade token and followed the steps. After a moment he tossed it to Foxy: “You try too.”

A few minutes later, Xuan Che found six bewildered faces staring at him.

Irene broke the silence: “Your token is broken, right?”

“It shouldn’t be,” Xuan Che muttered, now doubting himself. He held the jade token for a long while, raised it to the light, and tapped it a few times. “It’s not broken.”

“It is broken. None of us felt anything,” Foxy said firmly. “I also know immortal arts. I can tell with one touch.”

Yu Sheng glanced at Foxy. He had no idea where this Nine Tailed Fox from another world, whose body refining didn’t even match the locals, got such confidence. Still, he also leaned toward thinking the token might be broken.

Seeing no way forward, Xuan Che put the jade token away and pulled out a strip of talisman paper: “Then use this. Light it. The smoke won’t disperse. Inhale it to stir your qi and blood. Use blood to guide qi, then connect to the Earth Spirit…”

“I don’t have blood,” Irene cut in.

“Then use this Spirit Infusing Pill. It will directly…”

“I don’t have a stomach.”

“There’s also a golden hairpin. It’s a shortcut, but it can stimulate the brain and open…”

“I don’t have a brain.”

“You don’t have any organs?”

“None. Alice’s Doll doesn’t have those. You didn’t know?”

“I… am ashamed,” he said.