Di Yiqiu began leading Zhuque Si in overseeing the refinement of the Longevity Pill.

This elixir required many spiritual herbs and was incredibly expensive to produce. Yet Si Tianjian only received twenty percent of the allocated funds from the Ministry of Revenue.

Minister Zhou from the Ministry of Revenue personally escorted the delivery. Bai Qingyun handled the handover himself, hesitating several times as if wanting to say something.

In truth, those officials at court had always harbored considerable criticism regarding His Majesty’s cultivation practices.

After all, throughout history, whenever emperors sought immortality, apart from causing hardship to the people and draining the treasury, what good ever came of it? Furthermore, while the matter of the serpent blood remained confidential, such enormous expenditures could not be concealed in the account books.

Elder Sun and the others watched as imperial princes and princesses were harmed, while vast amounts of silver flowed away like water. How could they not feel worried and indignant?

Consequently, they held Si Tianjian in very low regard. When Si Tianjian was first established, Di Yiqiu was still young, and there were no cultivation practitioners among the court officials.

Shi Wenyu spent heavily to hire Li Lu and Baowu, but could not gather anyone else.

Therefore, those selected to serve there were all ordinary mortals, no different from runners in any common government office.

What combat capability did these people have?

If there truly were demons or evil spirits among the common folk, sending them out would simply be sending them to their deaths.

Thus, both inside and outside the court, no one thought highly of this so-called Si Tianjian.

Elder Sun in particular held tight to every coin—getting Si Tianjian’s budget approved was harder than ascending to heaven.

After Di Yiqiu took office, the first thing he did was forge combat puppets.

When the officials saw the astronomical forging costs, the entire court erupted in protest—not a single person approved.

Yet Di Yiqiu insisted against all opposition, determined to have his way. The result was that Elder Sun refused to contribute even a single coin.

In the end, Si Tianjian had no choice but to use five years’ worth of future spiritual herb harvests to borrow in advance from various sources, forcibly forging a batch of puppets. For this, officials throughout the court jumped in fury and impeached him repeatedly.

However, over these past few years, Si Tianjian’s combat capabilities had indeed improved rapidly.

These runners still could not compare with Yuhu Xuanzong, and couldn’t even hope to match the strength of some minor sects.

But when minor demons and evil spirits caused trouble among the common people, they could gradually handle such matters with their magical treasures.

In the past, when commoners encountered such problems, they could only report to the immortal sects and have the immortal masters help them.

In recent years, the common people gradually discovered the benefits of Si Tianjian.

After all, immortal sect disciples were busy—they had to cultivate, pursue the Dao, and couldn’t always spare time to slay demons and eliminate evil. The court was different. The court was already accustomed to governing the realm and its people. They had a set of quick and thorough methods for dealing with such matters.

—Reporting to officials was much easier than seeking help from immortal masters.

When Si Tianjian handled these matters, at least they were fast, and free of charge.

In previous years, commoners relied on immortal sects, even making offerings and paying taxes to them in exchange for protection. Some aristocratic families of demon ancestry didn’t take the court seriously at all.

For instance, the Xi family at that time had always been high and mighty. If the court wanted to deal with them, they had to bow and scrape, seeking favor with generous gifts.

But now, with Si Tianjian’s combat power increasing, popular sentiment was slowly shifting back.

Si Tianjian was gradually making an impact, but the time had been limited and the costs excessive.

Naturally, the veteran officials at court were anxious and distressed.

For this reason, Si Tianjian had actually always been short of funds. Meanwhile, the court officials complained bitterly about this enormous government office that consumed vast resources yet showed minimal results, viewing it as a disaster for the nation.

As Bai Qingyun, the Shaojian of Qinglong Si, counted this batch of silver, Minister Zhou from the Ministry of Revenue looked at the gleaming silver ingots and sneered coldly: “Your Si Tianjian is truly a gold-devouring beast—first serpent blood, then combat puppets. You seem terrified that the national treasury might be prosperous and the people wealthy.”

Bai Qingyun continued ordering people to count carefully. Over these years, he had endured no shortage of mockery from court officials and paid it no mind.

Thus he replied casually: “Minister Zhou truly worries for the nation and people. The last time this humble official heard Minister Zhou speak this way was the last time.”

Minister Zhou’s anger flared, and he mocked: “You at Si Tianjian are all cultivation practitioners. Aren’t cultivation practitioners supposed to remain untainted by worldly concerns? Yet here you are, asking for money today, requesting allocations tomorrow, never giving it a rest. It seems that even when Si Tianjian cultivates immortality, it’s all about daily necessities. Other immortal sects pursue righteous fruition—could it be you’re cultivating to become vulgar immortals?”

Bai Qingyun was famously good-natured, but at this moment he glanced at Minister Zhou and said: “Someone, record Minister Zhou’s words verbatim in the register. Tomorrow, submit them to His Majesty along with the progress report on the Longevity Pill.”

Minister Zhou’s heart leaped in alarm. Only then did he suddenly remember that this silver was being used to refine pills for His Majesty.

He quickly shut his mouth, while Bai Qingyun merely smiled: “It would also be good to let His Majesty know that Minister Zhou wholeheartedly prays for His Majesty to cultivate into… cultivate into what was it again?”

Minister Zhou coughed once, then changed the subject: “This official still has important matters. Lord Bai should hurry up with the counting.”

Only after the silver was completely counted did Bai Qingyun transport it all the way to the treasury.

In the treasury, Di Yiqiu was also examining the account books.

Only then did Bai Qingyun fully reveal his worried expression: “Jianzheng.”

Di Yiqiu acknowledged with a sound and said nothing more. Bai Qingyun restrained himself again and again, finally saying: “This Longevity Pill costs such an enormous amount. Jianzheng really should negotiate more with Elder Sun. Si Tianjian has been in debt for years, and the Ministry of Revenue just stands by with folded arms—this isn’t a solution.”

Di Yiqiu turned another page of the account book and said: “This seat knows. But the matter of the serpent blood has already deeply injured the court’s foundations. Now we must also refine the Longevity Pill—no wonder they’re anxious.”

Bai Qingyun said angrily: “Is that serpent blood some kind of good thing? With such expenditures, Si Tianjian merely processed the accounts—have we seen even a single coin?”

Di Yiqiu said: “That may be so, but would you have them complain before His Majesty?”

Bai Qingyun sighed deeply and said: “Then, this subordinate will allocate both the spirit stones previously paid by Yuhu Xuanzong and the gift money from Jianzheng’s godson’s tenth birthday celebration into the refinement of the Longevity Pill?”

Di Yiqiu frowned: “Need to leave this official one hundred million…” He hesitated slightly, then corrected himself: “Cut it in half.”

Just this one sentence was enough to surprise Bai Qingyun.

Di Yiqiu had been obsessed with handicrafts since childhood.

Apart from that, he loved neither wealth nor women.

For many years he hadn’t even owned a private residence, always living in the official dormitory for unmarried officials. He didn’t even add extra garments. His salary had remained in the accounts for years, never touched.

Now he suddenly wanted to keep such a large sum—wasn’t that strange?

Bai Qingyun said: “Yes. Should it go through the public accounts?”

Who would have expected Di Yiqiu to say: “Private accounts.”

Bai Qingyun was greatly shocked.

Time passed swiftly. On this day, it happened to be time for maintenance on Yuhu Xuanzong’s combat puppet.

Xie Shaozhong had sent word to Si Tianjian in advance—after all, a forty million spirit stone piece of equipment still needed proper care.

Early that morning, all the disciples voluntarily cleaned the puppet until it gleamed.

After half a year, everyone had grown accustomed to treasuring it like a precious magical artifact.

This big fellow was like a senior martial brother—anytime you turned the key, it would tirelessly spar and train with these immortal sect disciples. Over time, everyone had developed feelings for it.

Whenever they saw it, they would even greet it.

After polishing it until it was bright and shiny, the disciples waited together for people from Si Tianjian to come perform maintenance.

But no one knew who they would be waiting for!

When the Jianzheng himself appeared outside Yuhu Xuanzong’s mountain gate in purple official robes with a black cloak, everyone’s gazes turned strange.

Xie Shaozhong had originally planned to send a disciple to receive them, but upon hearing this news, had no choice but to hurry to the mountain gate and greet him personally.

For a prestigious major sect, proper etiquette was still necessary.

As he led Di Yiqiu toward Diancui Peak, the disciples’ gazes were all quite peculiar.

Just to maintain a puppet, Di Yiqiu had actually come in person.

This Jianzheng really could be deployed wherever needed! Xie Shaozhong wanted to ask but held back.

But the Jianzheng looked completely at ease. He made his way familiarly to the training grounds, pulled out various strange tools from his storage artifact, and opened the puppet’s outer shell.

This combat puppet was powered by spirit stones and formation arrays—internally, it was incredibly complex.

The immortal sect disciples had spent over half a year with this “puppet senior brother”—how could they not be curious about its true nature?

So a large group of disciples gathered around to watch the excitement.

But even though they were mentally prepared, when they saw the various mechanisms, formation arrays, gears, and such inside, they couldn’t help but rub their temples.

This thing—could it really have been forged by human hands?

Everyone surrounded the Jianzheng, while he was as familiar with the puppet as with the lines on his palm.

He performed dust removal on the puppet, lubricated all the gears, and repaired and replaced some worn joints. The massive puppet lowered its head, standing quietly, appearing very respectful and docile.

To the side, Xie Shaozhong felt it was improper for all the disciples to crowd around like this—they really looked like they’d never seen the world.

But he didn’t drive them away—he wanted to watch too.

The disciples had practiced cultivation for many years and had even studied forging magical implements.

But something like this clearly exceeded their realm of understanding.

“It’s a sword technique formation array!” One disciple pointed at a formation array inside covered with runes.

The other disciples practically wanted to glue their eyeballs to it. For a moment, everyone clicked their tongues in amazement.

This was really… a bit embarrassing. And also a bit… shocking. Xie Shaozhong sighed.

How could the other disciples not think the same?

In the past, when everyone mentioned Si Tianjian, who would regard it as an immortal sect? They just thought it was a bunch of government runners.

Later, after receiving this puppet, everyone praised its ingenious craftsmanship, but still just considered it a magical artifact. Only now, seeing the internal structure, did they feel their intelligence being ground into the dirt.

So those talismans and inscriptions could be used this way?

A group of immortal sect disciples had the doors to a new world opened for them.

The Jianzheng didn’t stop them from observing. As he disassembled the puppet, he said: “Supervising disciples’ daily practice must be very taxing, no?”

“What?” Xie Shaozhong took quite a while to realize he was actually speaking to him.

By this moment, even Xie Shaozhong’s heart held several complex feelings. He suddenly thought of Xie Hongchen’s word—awe.

But immediately after, the Jianzheng’s next words made him even more awestruck.

He said: “These eyes—this seat can replace them with Nine-Bend Spirit Eyes for you. Ah, of course, Yuhu Xuanzong’s World-Piercing Eyes would also work.” His lips curved slightly as he added: “For just a small amount of spirit stones.”

At that moment, Xie Shaozhong didn’t realize this would be a huge trap.

He asked: “Directly install the World-Piercing Eyes into this puppet’s eyes?”

The Jianzheng said: “Naturally. Otherwise, with countless runners at this seat’s Si Tianjian, if everyone needed personal guidance to practice, wouldn’t this Jianzheng have to split himself into several pieces?”

These words were truly full of appeal.

Xie Shaozhong asked: “How many spirit stones?”

The Jianzheng held up one finger. Xie Shaozhong exclaimed in shock: “One hundred million?”

“Not quite, not quite.” The Jianzheng quickly reassured him, “Ten million will do.”

Compared to the puppet’s total price, ten million didn’t seem completely unacceptable.

Xie Shaozhong said: “I must report this to the Sect Master and Ancestor for them to decide.”

“As it should be.” The Jianzheng wasn’t pushy. “This seat can wait.”

Xie Shaozhong knew Di Yiqiu didn’t come easily, and this proposal was truly tempting. He had no choice but to hurry to Yeyun Hall to seek Xie Hongchen’s instruction.

Just at this time, Huang Rang descended Diancui Peak all the way, preparing to go to Qilu Terrace.

Her daily routine was just these three points: her residence, Yeyun Hall, and Qilu Terrace.

As she passed the training grounds, she saw from afar that the puppet was surrounded by a large crowd.

It wasn’t usually this lively. Huang Rang grew interested and squeezed over as well.

Then, at a glance, she saw that familiar purple robe.

Huang Rang stood behind the disciples, watching him use dust-removal artifacts to clean the puppet’s internal components one by one.

A warm joy arose spontaneously.

This combat puppet—he must have disassembled and reassembled it countless times. No matter how complex those parts were, he didn’t even need to look at them closely.

“Jianzheng, can this sword formation be rewritten?” A disciple beside him pointed at the formation diagram on the puppet’s chest and asked.

The Jianzheng didn’t avoid the question: “Naturally. Any sword formation or technique—as long as it’s inscribed on this chest plate, the puppet can practice and counter it.” He pointed at that chest plate.

The disciples’ interest immediately increased. Someone asked: “Does this mean this puppet senior brother can learn new sword techniques?”

The Jianzheng nodded: “You could say that. But only twelve plates can be inserted in the chest simultaneously. Which means…” He turned his head and suddenly saw a familiar figure standing behind the crowd.

Huang Rang wore a light gold practice outfit with her hair tied high. Di Yiqiu immediately spotted her hair tie—a string of bright red coral bead cord.

The Jianzheng felt as if illuminated by sunlight, his heart comfortable. He beckoned: “If Miss Arang wants to see, why not come forward?”

Huang Rang then squeezed past the surrounding disciples and stood beside him. She didn’t want to see the puppet, but rather wanted to see the person disassembling it.

There were actually very few words between her and Di Yiqiu, so she rarely saw him speaking at length like this.

At this moment, he patiently and meticulously explained the puppet’s joint connections, spirit stone power system, and so on.

Gentle and careful, like a teacher, like a friend.

A disciple beside them asked: “Jianzheng, may I… touch it?”

The Jianzheng said: “Of course.”

He stood up, making room, his hands still visibly stained with oil. Huang Rang pulled out a silk handkerchief and handed it to him. But he didn’t take it. He gazed at Huang Rang and said softly: “Miss Arang’s silk handkerchief must not be soiled. This seat will just…”

He casually grabbed a passing immortal sect disciple and wiped his hands on the person’s robe.

Everyone: “…”

A group of disciples began curiously touching the puppet’s internal components, surrounded by sounds of amazement.

The Jianzheng gazed at Huang Rang before him, his eyes like stars. Huang Rang smiled back at him, as if there were too many words to say, but when they reached her lips, they returned to silence.

Under everyone’s watchful eyes, the two could only maintain polite distance. Even if they wanted to draw closer, they could not.

But the Jianzheng was ultimately quite clever.

He said: “Speaking of which, I have some puppets that can be used for farming. I heard Miss Arang has taken over the Huang family—I wonder if you might need them? I just happened to bring one for you on this trip.”

As he finished speaking, his fingertip flicked slightly. The storage artifact at his waist was clearly quite rare.

Following the spell cast by his fingertip, another puppet appeared before everyone. Compared to that Super-Grade A combat puppet, this one was somewhat smaller—about the size of an adult person.

The Jianzheng said: “If this thing is used for farming, it should make things much easier.”

Huang Rang understood he wanted to speak privately, so she said casually: “There’s really such a thing? I have a farm plot at Yuhu Xuanzong. If Jianzheng doesn’t mind, why not take it there to test its capabilities?”

This was exactly what he wanted. The Jianzheng smiled: “If Miss Arang requests it, I naturally have no reason to refuse.”

As he spoke, he pulled out a silver key, inserted it into the puppet’s right ear, and turned it gently in the ear cavity.

The puppet raised its head, as if possessing spiritual awareness, and followed his movements.

Uh… so this thing could walk on its own. Huang Rang instantly recalled how that big fellow had been moved into her house back then.

The two walked one after the other, all the way up to Qilu Terrace.

The puppet followed behind, its movements surprisingly smooth.

The other disciples were still at the training grounds studying that combat puppet, and no one followed.

The improved seeds at Qilu Terrace were growing extremely well—the entire farm was lushly green.

Huang Rang said: “Can it really plow fields? But don’t expect me to produce tens of millions of spirit stones. I’ve never seen so much in my life…”

As she spoke, she turned around and saw Di Yiqiu extending his palm.

In his palm, a green-winged moth with golden fringe edges fluttered its wings. It circled around Huang Rang several times before finally landing by her temple.

“What is this?” Huang Rang didn’t understand. She reached out her hand, and the green moth landed in her palm and even turned a circle.

The Jianzheng said: “Just a few months ago, I held a tenth birthday banquet for it.”

“Your godson!” He’d made such a big commotion—of course Huang Rang had heard about it. After a long moment, she suddenly realized, holding the moth in her palm up to her eyes: “This—could this be that caterpillar?!”

Di Yiqiu didn’t answer. Huang Rang grew happy: “I thought you’d thrown it away long ago.”

The green moth, hearing this, immediately became dejected. It flew back to Di Yiqiu’s palm, stretched out both wings to cover its head, and didn’t move again.

Huang Rang was astonished: “It… can understand words now?” The rest of her words were spoken extremely softly, almost only lip movements.

Di Yiqiu nodded.

Huang Rang immediately raised her eyebrows and said: “If you dare throw it away, I’ll definitely settle accounts with you. This caterpillar and I are fated. When I first saw it, I felt its color was bright and it had quite some spiritual energy. Back then, so many caterpillars were on the tree, and I spotted it at first glance. Truly one in ten thousand.”

She walked to Di Yiqiu’s side, leaned close to his ear, and spoke softly to the moth in his palm: “I really liked it so much. It was so well-behaved and obedient, keeping me company every day as I studied and practiced…”

The green moth slowly spread its wings, happily fluttered them, then flew to Huang Rang’s temple and gently nuzzled her.

As expected, sweet words—even a bug or moth couldn’t resist them.

Huang Rang extended her fingertip, letting it fly down and perch there.

“You’re really beautiful… There’s no way I could have been wrong about a bug!” She continued pouring on the honeyed words, her voice so gentle it could squeeze out sweetness.

The green moth rubbed vigorously against her chest—at this moment, she was the most lovable person in the world.

As expected, low-intelligence bugs were easy to fool.

Huang Rang used her fingertip to support it as she walked to the edge of Bailu Pond, found a rock to sit on, and continued speaking to it in warm, soft tones.

Di Yiqiu didn’t interrupt her. He simply pulled out a paper package from his storage artifact and casually handed it over.

“What is it?” Huang Rang took it and opened it to find it full of candied fruits.

The Jianzheng said casually: “There’s a particularly famous candied fruit shop in the capital. I happened to pass by when leaving the capital today, so I brought some.”

Ah… ah. The smile on Huang Rang’s face gradually faded. She took out a piece of fruit and gently placed it in her mouth.

The sweetness and fruit fragrance spread across her tongue, but a layer of mist rose in her eyes.

“Don’t you like it?” Di Yiqiu asked.

Huang Rang shook her head. Because her throat felt tight and sour, she dared not answer.

The Jianzheng paid no mind and began introducing his puppet.

“This puppet is a Grade C combat puppet.” As if afraid Huang Rang would dislike it, he quickly explained: “But I made some improvements. The chest plates inside record techniques mostly from Xie Lingbi. If you want to defeat him, understanding his techniques is very necessary.”

He beckoned, and the puppet came to his side. He said: “I’ll periodically send over new chest plates. That puppet down the mountain is at the training grounds with many eyes and ears—you won’t use it much anyway. This one can be placed at Qilu Terrace. When you have free time, you can feed it techniques and spar with it. Usually it can also do simple farm work, though it might not be very flexible…”

Reaching this point, his brow furrowed with some guilt.

Because of the Longevity Pill matter, he currently had no extra funds to further perfect this puppet.

This was the limit of what he could improve for now.

He said: “But don’t worry. The chest plates inside should be enough for you to use for about half a year. After half a year, I’ll definitely find another way…”

He spoke with utter seriousness, but Huang Rang wasn’t actually listening at all.

She took another candied fruit in her mouth. That caterpillar-turned-green-moth trembled at her temple like a jewel, like a pearl ornament. But her heart and eyes held only the person before her.

—This damned man, how could he be so good?

What to do—she really wanted to make him hers!