All Heavenly destiny reduced to ashes
Chapter 217 - 77 Earthwood Marionette (1/3)

Chapter 217: Chapter 77 Earthwood Marionette (1/3)

An Jing called over You Ruhui, helped her put on a straw raincoat and an Evil-warding Mask, and the group was ready to depart.

Meanwhile, Granny Huai stayed in the recycling hut, saying she would make some delicious food for everyone when they returned.

Heading to Chonggang Town, naturally, they couldn’t go on foot.

Iron Hand had a small pickup truck that was probably used for transporting goods. It was well-maintained, even armored with bulletproof plates, making it look like a mini armored vehicle—simple yet safe.

Not only Huo Qing knew how to drive, but when he took the passenger’s seat, An Jing once again discovered that he seemed to know how to drive too—however, he wasn’t familiar with the roads, so he left the driving to Huo Qing.

"The cars in the city can drive themselves, but the roads in this safety zone often change for various reasons, so manual driving is necessary," Huo Qing explained.

This little pickup was naturally a Magic Artifact, which Huo Qing needed to unlock using Spirit Qi Patterns, and then connect with the artifact’s control center to drive.

When starting the vehicle, Huo Qing reminisced, "A few years ago in the Day Tiger Gang, I also drove for Big Spear and them. I was quite adept at driving!"

"You were a part-time driver then?"

An Jing had a hard time evaluating someone working multiple roles for a single salary—perhaps it’s the innate exploited being. He shook his head, "That’s not a good habit, drivers hear a lot, no wonder they wanted to silence you."

"Speaking of which, how is Big Spear now?"

The base of the Blood Fiend Sword Spear that An Jing had fused had partly been Big Spear’s Artifact Spear.

Although this base only provided a foundation, its quality could be enhanced continuously through An Jing’s future refining, and it wasn’t much related to the original item. Nonetheless, he still held some impression of that formidable gang member.

"He’s dead."

Reversing out of the garage and steering the wheel smoothly to drive the pickup out of the junkyard, Huo Qing said calmly as if talking about a stranger, "By the time he was delivered, he was already unconscious, barely alive, and nailed to the wall of punishments by the boss. It took him about seven or eight days to die thoroughly."

"It’s said he embezzled two or three hundred thousand Good Deeds, and many Spiritual Objects."

"Anyway, it all sounded very fake, but in the end, as a dead man, everyone eagerly used Big Spear to balance their own accounts."

"Having such an oppressive example, the boss was very pleased, and the other uncles too. Moreover, with the face of Iron Hand Uncle, the boss even gave me a new identity."

"The name is still Huo Qing, but from all pieces of identification, I am no longer the original version of me...I have become a clean citizen of Xuanye City."

Speaking of this, Huo Qing could hardly contain his laughter, "The city residence I yearned for since childhood... I got it so easily."

"The boss handed it over casually, he probably didn’t even make a specific point of it. The things that slip through the fingers in the gang, are enough for me to strive for a lifetime."

"An Jing, isn’t that funny?"

An Jing didn’t laugh. Nor did Huo Qing actually find any of it funny.

"It’s also fortunate that Big Spear had no children, otherwise, I don’t know how I would face that kid."

Gripping the steering wheel tightly, looking ahead at the seemingly endless wilderness trail, Huo Qing spoke in a relaxed tone, but An Jing could discern the heaviness in his emotions.

Treachery and death were normal in the gang, but past care and kindness were not fake.

Right and wrong were never clear, which is why people remained troubled by them.

"Now, you too have a new beginning."

After a moment of silence, An Jing said, "Strive to get into a top academy, or even a Daoist Academy... Since you’ve changed your fate and embarked on a path different from the past, try to reach as high as you can."

"Yes." Huo Qing smiled, his tone firm, "I will."

An Jing rarely saw the Floating Dust Plains clear of rain during the day.

In the past, when he visited the Tianyuan Realm, it was either storming or nighttime; even if it wasn’t, his visits were hurried, with no time to look around.

But today, he had time to sit in a vehicle drove by Huo Qing, speeding across the wilderness.

Even without rain, the Tianyuan Realm was always overcast, with only white light flickering behind the clouds, illuminating the land and making the end of this wilderness road visible, where a pine wave thrummed in the distance.

The stacked sea of trees merged with the rolling mountains, forming a wall as grand as any city’s. At the horizon’s end, a dark cloud wall slowly rotated, covering all the wilderness beyond the mountains and forests.

"Demonic Qi clouds..." Subdue Evil murmured, "The wilderness of the Tianyuan Realm, who knows how many monstrous evils it has bred."

Safe zone.

Seeing this scene, An Jing finally understood what the so-called safe zone truly meant... A world that had experienced a demonic disaster, even if victorious, would end up like this.

The dwellings of humans could only be confined to this narrow safe zone, while beyond it lay the world still unrecovered from past invasions.

Nonetheless, civilization in the Tianyuan Realm was recovering.

Along the way, monks controlled some marionettes on the outskirts of the towns next to the road, constructing fortifications or buildings, seemingly in the process of expanding new living areas.

The main bodies of these marionettes were made of black-gray Mysterious Iron, evidently extremely sturdy, but the green wooden structures behind neatly geometric joints slightly revealed themselves.

A few Daoist Patterns sketched on the surface of the marionettes shimmered with a mysterious halo.

These marionettes transported various building materials, excavated foundations, and could even mix and pour concrete, performing most tasks that human workers could do, clearly very efficiently.

An Jing specifically asked Huo Qing to stop the car, and he watched for over ten minutes. Under the monks’ direction, the marionettes had already begun to form the outline of a small defensive structure.

The efficiency was almost unbelievable.

"What kind of marionette is this?"

It wasn’t just An Jing; even You Ruhui peered curiously out the window, while Huo Qing, prepared to introduce them, smiled and said: "This is Earthwood Marionette, one of the most prized creations from the Tian Gong Bureau of Shouyang Mountain."

Marionettes, as understood, need to be controlled by humans to move,

while a Puppetry is a creation that can move and think partly on its own without human control.

Whether it is through ’Spirit Assigning’ that allows a marionette to move by itself, or truly crafting a core that carries its intellect, it’s considered a Puppetry.

"Are you interested in this?"

As a local, Huo Qing was naturally well-acquainted with these things and through his introduction, An Jing gained a clear understanding of the existence of Earthwood Marionettes.

Although it was praised as the Tian Gong Bureau’s proudest creation, in reality, Earthwood Marionettes first appeared during the Dao Sect era. They served as tools for Dao Sect monks to transform the world and control all things, allowing countless cities and massive structures to rise abruptly.

And just as An Jing saw, the core of Earthwood Marionettes was made of Evergreen Wood.

Evergreen Wood, the spiritual material An Jing encountered most frequently in the Tianyuan Realm. Not only was it a raw material for talismans, but even the Marionette Bones in Nian Qin’s body were made from Evergreen Wood.

And this highly versatile spiritual material, at its inception, wasn’t used as a raw material for talismans and various pills or for crafting prosthetics and Marionette Bodies, but was used to create a kind of Puppetry capable of autonomous action and prolonged operation.

"Evergreen Wood is actually... so versatile?"

Listening to this, An Jing felt it was almost unbelievable, but Huo Qing was unfazed: "That was a creation from the ancient Dao Sect era!"

"The origin of the Evergreen Wood, according to legend, might very well be the Sky-supporting Building Wood!"