Fang Yuan continued to instruct the puppets for a while, but gained no new insight regarding how they worked. He left the dollhouse, passing by the House Spirit on the way. “Any update on the actual true inheritance?” Fang Yuan asked.

The House Spirit shook its head. “Senior brother, I don’t know about the details of the true inheritance, only that when the requirements are met, the location will reveal itself to the inheritor.”

The House Spirit could very well be lying, but there was very little Fang Yuan could do to try to extract the information from it. If it had been instructed not to reveal something until certain requirements had been met, then it would not do so. House Spirits were rather straightforward like that. As it was, he was not even the current inheritor of the house; it was Bai Ning Bing, though she also had not found anything.

Given the fact that it was an Immortal inheritance, Fang Yuan highly suspected that being an immortal was likely part of the process, or that there was a requirement so cumbersome that only an immortal could fulfill it.

The rest of the inheritance, including the Immortal Puppet Master’s Blessed Land (or Grotto-Heaven, depending on its cultivation rank), as well as the gu worms required to turn this into a proper Rank 7 Gu House, were extraordinarily valuable to him.

Compared to the Dao Marks he was getting right now, this was the second most valuable thing that he had. There was no way that he was going to let it slip from his hands! It was more valuable than the Three King’s Inheritance that would be opening up in a few years, or that of the Hu Immortal Blessed Land in the Central Continent.

Even now, it served as an excellent deterrent against any mortal threats.

***

Two Xiong Clan Elders approached the gates of Gu Yue Village. Accompanying them were some of the more promising Xiong Clan Rank 2 Gu Masters. There weren’t many of them left after the events on the mountain, but with their most promising talents having been some of the first to be killed by Lord Sky Crane they had to make do with what they had.

The elders were here in order to negotiate the terms of the Xiong Clan fusing into the Gu Yue Clan. Assimilating smaller clans was not unheard of, but it was usually done via violent means when one clan had nearly annihilated the other. Many cultivators would prefer to ‘pull out the grass by the roots,’ eliminating all of their enemies.

However, there were times when this was not possible or preferable. The Xiong Clan in this case had willingly submitted, and as such, they also had to be treated better as per the decorum of the righteous path.

A young man greeted them at the gates. He had a plain face and deep, dark eyes. His Rank 5 cultivation was immediately apparent when they approached. This was Gu Yue Fang Yuan. He had come here to negotiate this deal on his own for the simple matter that the mere presence of a Rank 5 Gu Master would greatly hasten the process. Also, it was good for them to feel his Rank 5 aura on their own, lest they think that they had been deceived in some way by the news that was no doubt spreading about his cultivation.

“I greet the Xiong Clan Elders,” Fang Yuan said with a gentle smile. The Xiong Clan Elders quickly recovered from the oppressive Rank 5 aura, cupping their fists, and then Fang Yuan did likewise. Fang Yuan had come with two other elders with him.

Neither of them were technically from his faction, but that didn’t matter. Those from his faction were busy with other things and it was these kinds of people that really needed to be told that they

“Come, let us take a tour of the village before we settle down.” As the Xiong Clan ambassadors traveled through the village, one thing stood out to them above all others.

Not only was the village far stronger than their own, not only was it in a better state than their own, and not only were the people more content and hopeful than their own, it was the presence of the numerous puppets around the place which was the most striking.

‘They look creepy’ was a common sentiment among the Xiong members when they saw them. The puppets were designed to be like oversized dolls, meaning that their heads were far larger than the rest of their bodies, and they had massive eyes, nearly as big as one’s fist. Perhaps mortals might find this sort of thing to be cute, but the thing was that, given the fact that they were moving around, some of them even talking, it gave them all a very uncanny feel.

“These are all of your clan’s puppets?” one of the Xiong Clan Elders asked casually, when seeing a puppet who was repairing one of their roads.

“Yes, these are treasures left behind by our ancestor,” Fang Yuan said. “They’ve been quite helpful in the repair of the village.”

While there were several things that puppets could not do, there were many menial tasks that they could be assigned to. It was almost like increasing the workforce of Gu Yue Village several-fold without having to invite other people, though this did come with its own downsides.

Many of the Gu Yue clansmen saw the Xiong clansmen while they were walking. In earlier times, if any of the foreign clans had come to Gu Yue Village, there might have been something akin to a show of strength between the two.

Given the fact that the Xiong Clan prided themselves in their Bear Strength Gu, this would usually be contests of strength.

Gu Yue Chi Shan had been rather good at those before he had passed away along with the rest of the Chi Clan. This, however, was a far more somber affair. When the Gu Yue clansmen saw them they were initially startled, but when they saw Fang Yuan among them they immediately realized what was going on and did not panic.

Fang Yuan led them to the Clan Head’s Pavilion where they would be staying for the next few days. This was considered something honorary to the Xion Clan ambassadors, but could also be considered to be a case of ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer.’

The Xiong clansmen could not speak freely while in Gu Yue Village. When it came to Gu Masters, there were numerous ways of spying on people, and in a place like the Clan Head’s Pavilion, which had been prepared by the Gu Yue Clan, there was no way that they could speak without wondering if they were being eavesdropped on.

Fang Yuan did not think that the elders would be dumb enough to reveal anything. However, there were some more inexperienced members among them. They would normally not have been trusted with this kind of mission, but due to the clan’s deficiency of manpower, they had no one else to choose from.

These Xiong clansmen were not wrong in their paranoia to think that the Gu Yue Clan was spying upon them. Fang Yuan had spies and investigative gu worms scattered all throughout the Clan Head’s pavilion, hoping that one of the more inexperienced members might end up leaking something to him.

For now, though, he continued to play the part of gracious host as they sat down for dinner. Back in the day, this may have been a more elaborate affair, but the Gu Yue Clan’s resources were not as bursting as they used to be. From reports that he had gotten about the Xiong and the Bai clansmen, many of them seemed to have been showing signs of malnutrition, meaning those two were in even worse of a state.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep