Xiao Fei, after successfully refining his first Nascent Soul stage puppet, continued to forge a large number of Nascent Soul stage puppets.
Most of these puppets bore an exact resemblance to himself. After all, instead of making puppets look like cats or dogs, it was better to model them after himself.
Sometimes, releasing a large group of Xiao Feis at once could be quite shocking to enemies.
Of course, besides these, he also crafted puppets of other appearances.
For instance, he made several puppets identical to Zhu Yu, intending to place one in each Treasure Pavilion to handle sweeping and table wiping.
Additionally, he designed and refined a batch of peerless beauty puppets, each with a distinct and lifelike appearance, rendering them extremely realistic.
Beyond these, he also created some puppets with rough designs, too lazy to even craft faces. These were purely consumables.
Each Nascent Soul puppet required a substantial amount of wealth and effort to manufacture.
It could be said that his puppets were equivalent to piles of walking spirit stones.
Even a single finger chopped off from a puppet could fetch a considerable number of spirit stones.
To forge this puppet army, Xiao Fei spent several hundred years within his spatial dimension, and over a decade in reality.
To create this batch of puppets, he had chopped down all the ten-thousand-year-old spirit wood in his dimension, save for a few particularly precious varieties.
The branches on the Soul Nurturing Wood within his dimension were all stripped bare.
Merely to procure auxiliary materials for him, Huang Feifei mobilized all the forces on Meteor Island, including the disciples of the Lu Sect and the merchant caravans of the Treasure Pavilion.
Furthermore, the numerous malevolent ghosts under his second sister's command also contributed significantly.
And the Nascent Soul Ancestors of the Lu Sect sponsored a considerable amount of refining materials.
Xiao Fei's own divine consciousness was repeatedly fragmented and sliced, resulting in immense loss. By now, he was truly unable to continue.
When Xiao Fei concluded his puppet refinement and emerged from his cave dwelling, he appeared pale and walked unsteadily, leaning against the walls for support.
The continuous effort spanning over a decade had been too exhausting!
Fortunately, he possessed a Spiritual Nurturing Tea, which greatly aided in restoring divine consciousness and alleviating fatigue.
After brewing and drinking a cup of Spiritual Nurturing Tea, he finally regained a sliver of vitality.
He had originally planned to go for a stroll, feel the sea breeze, and perhaps dive into the sea to catch some seafood.
However, his legs still felt a bit weak as he walked.
After some thought, he cut down two bamboo stalks and casually fashioned a sedan chair, binding a chair in the middle. He then sat upon it.
He released two puppets resembling Zhu Yu, who lifted the sedan chair, one in front and one behind. They ambled along the mountain path, swaying back and forth, which he found quite enjoyable.
No wonder so many wealthy landlords in the mortal world favored sitting in such contraptions.
On this day, numerous disciples on Meteor Island witnessed a peculiar sight: two identical Ancestor Zhu Yus laboriously carrying Ancestor Xiao around.
This was not Xiao Fei deliberately trying to provoke Zhu Yu. Rather, he couldn't possibly have his own image puppets perform such strenuous labor.
As for the peerless beauty puppets, with their delicate skin, any abrasion could incur high repair costs.
However, when designing these puppets, Xiao Fei had installed restrictions. During normal labor, they appeared to possess only Foundation Establishment stage strength. Only when combat was initiated and the restrictions were lifted would their Nascent Soul might be revealed.
This approach conserved energy and also served to deceive enemies, a win-win situation.
The two Zhu Yu puppets carried Xiao Fei to the seaside, where they then set down the sedan chair. At Xiao Fei's signal, the two Zhu Yu puppets leaped into the East Sea to catch seafood.
While the Zhu Yu puppets were carrying Xiao Fei, the real Zhu Yu, having heard the news, was already rushing towards the seaside in a fury.
Upon his arrival, he witnessed two individuals identical to himself emerging from the East Sea, each holding a large crab and a large lobster, grinning foolishly at Xiao Fei!
"Xiao! You're pushing your luck too far!"
Xiao Fei turned his head, seeing the real Zhu Yu had arrived!
"Hey! Look around you, with so many people in the world, why would I choose anyone else but you to model after?
Shouldn't you reflect on that yourself?"
Hearing this, Zhu Yu's nose twitched with anger. According to Xiao Fei's twisted logic, it was somehow his fault.
"Besides, whatever I refine my puppets into is none of your business!"
After all, there was no concept of portrait rights in this world, so Xiao Fei retorted with righteous indignation.
Although Zhu Yu was angered, he couldn't find a suitable retort for the moment.
"How about this, considering you sponsored quite a bit of material, I can give you one of the puppets. Pick whichever one you like."
As Xiao Fei spoke, he waved his hand, and another peerless beauty puppet appeared before him, along with a consumable puppet without a face.
"That's it? After spending so much precious material, you only refined these?"
Zhu Yu looked at the puppets, which were only at the Foundation Establishment stage, with some confusion. No matter how beautiful these puppets were, they were useless at this level; he could defeat ten of them with a single finger.
"Do you want it or not!"
"Yes! Of course, I do!"
Zhu Yu didn't hesitate. He reached out with one hand towards a puppet identical to himself, casually pulled it aside, grabbed the hand of a beauty puppet, and pulled it before him.
Since all of them were Foundation Establishment stage puppets with no practical use, he might as well choose a beauty puppet to adorn his home.
"I'll choose this one!"
"Excellent! Brother Zhu indeed has good taste. You'll surely have unexpected gains when you take it back."
Just as Zhu Yu was putting away the beauty puppet and preparing to leave, he suddenly felt a turbulent spiritual energy fluctuation approaching from afar.
Both of them were alerted. They looked towards the direction of the anomaly and saw a disheveled figure rapidly flying towards them from the distant sea.
The approaching person was fast, reaching the vicinity of Meteor Island in an instant.
"Fellow Daoist Xiao, save me!"
Xiao Fei could now clearly see the approaching figure; it was the father and son rat demons, the ones with the small, beady eyes.
However, at this moment, the beady-eyed one was severely injured, being carried on the back of the golden-haired rat, and had fallen into a coma.
"What happened to you two?"
Xiao Fei frowned. From what he knew, the beady-eyed one should currently be at the mid-Nascent Soul stage. Who dared to unleash such a menace at his doorstep without being driven away?
Simultaneously, over a dozen figures from afar had already pursued them to the vicinity of Meteor Island.
"You fellow cultivators ahead, I advise you not to meddle, lest you draw trouble upon yourselves."
A demon from the East Sea, standing ten feet tall, threatened Xiao Fei with disdain upon seeing him.
"What arrogance! What is your origin?"
As Xiao Fei spoke, his gaze fell upon the golden-haired rat, hoping for a reasonable explanation.
"It's like this..."
It turned out that ever since the father and son duo returned from Turtle Island, they had been relentlessly pursued, never getting a moment's peace.
Today, after hiding on a small island, they hadn't expected several powerful individuals to arrive soon. During their escape, the beady-eyed one sustained severe injuries!