Ever since the Eastern Ocean Ruler had succeeded in forming his core, he had spent most of his time in closed-door meditation.
He’d even entrusted the management of the Huaiyuan Navy to his sons.
The mightiest order, the Sea Dragon Guards, was led by Commandery Prince Hong Yi. The administration of the fief was run by him as well.
Compared to Loyal General Hou Zhong, the Eastern Ocean Ruler had more breakthrough points to be exploited.
One of the better examples would be the conflict between Commandery Prince Hong Yi and his brothers.
Or the enmity between multiple forces within the fief.
Regardless of the hidden dragons or the Kraken, only by bringing the Eastern Ocean to its knees could one dominate the Eastern Ocean and its Five States.
This was something unavoidable. After all, no one would want to be oppressed and tyrannized by the Eastern Ocean Ruler.
“Master-Uncle, did you support the Eastern Ocean Ruler?” Zhang Kui asked after contemplating.
“No.” Chen Jingzhai shook his head. “There are plenty of resources here. This is an ideal place to settle down.”
“You are right,” Zhang Kui remarked with a smile. “Speaking of which, Chu Jingsong is in the Eastern Ocean now.”
“Hmm?” Chen Jingzhai questioned in a surprised tone. “Where is he? Why hadn’t I come across him before?”
“He had gone to the sea,” Zhang Kui stated. “After leaving the mountain, he headed straight toward the Eastern Ocean so that he could devote himself to the Path of Sky Whale. He did not pick a side. And there’s been no news about him until now.”
Chu Jingsong left the mountain half a year before Zhang Kui and the others.
“I seem to recall hearing something like that.” Chen Jingzhai nodded.
Chen Jingzhai did not see Chu Jingsong after the dispute at the battle forum.
But before that, Chu Jingsong had brought up the matter once during the gathering at Tianyahai Pavilion.
It was inevitable that those of the Sky Whale lineage had to face the ocean if they wished to improve their cultivation.
Chu Jingsong was not the only exception. All the other Sky Whale disciples would head toward the ocean when they left the mountain for training.
If that were the case, Chu Jingsong should by no means have been loitering at the beach when he went to the Eastern Ocean.
Or else Chen Jingzhai should have encountered Chu Jingsong there. After all, the former would go out to the sea with his Bamboo Boat whenever he was free.
Apart from Chu Jingsong, Zhang Kui told him about the whereabouts of Zhao Qinghe and the others as well.
To his surprise, Zhao Qinghe was a collateral disciple of a branch family of the northern nobles.
The man returned to his family after he came down the mountain. At that moment, he had already sided with the Seventh Prince’s faction.
Jiang Lin, who was influenced by his family, also belonged to the same faction as him.
This was nothing out of the ordinary.
Factions revolving around the four maidservants of Chen Jingzhai would form in every state and city.
Those minor families did not have the luxury of choosing. In fact, most of their fates had already been sealed long ago.
Even though there were sympathizers of the Seventh Prince in Donglai County, no family sided with him.
Did anyone think that the Royal House would turn a blind eye just because the Eastern Ocean Ruler had a closed-door meditation?
If anyone dared to collude with outside forces, the other families would gang up on them without needing the Royal House’s interference.
The rest of them would crush the traitors and devour them slowly.
If even the commander of the Dao Cheng Division, Wang Tong, were coerced into following the unspoken rule, the rest of them would do the same.
Other than the few names that Zhang Kui had mentioned earlier, he did not know the whereabouts of the remaining disciples.
“I did not find the locations of Zhou Yuanhao, Li Yifei, and the others for the past two years that I had spent in the imperial city,” Zhang Kui said. “In fact, most of the sects’ disciples are hiding in the dark and keeping a low profile.”
The fiercest battle and the most significant change had not occurred at that time.
For that reason, the disciples of the immortal sects would not show up anytime soon. Instead, they would prefer to work in the background.
Firstly, it could help them keep their works and deeds hidden better while providing necessary assistance in times of need. Secondly, it could allow them to turn things around easier.
Zhang Kui would make a good example in this matter. If he were to stay hidden, he could also turn things around for others.
Thus, he would not be put in an embarrassing situation.
Zhang Kui’s reason for coming to the Eastern Ocean was somewhat ambiguous. It could be interpreted as meaning he was not all that thick-skinned or that he had gotten disheartened.
“Is it because of the oppression?” Chen Jingzhai asked as he contemplated.
“Well, this is one of the factors.” Zhang Kui nodded. “Pulao Kingdom has a strong power base, after all.”
Pulao Kingdom had inherited some of the heritage from its preceding dynasty, for instance, the imperial city.
All the cultivators could not activate their spells in the imperial city after it was modified by the formation that could nerf them naturally.
Due to the extra difficulty in manipulating the essence power of heavens and earth, one would be incredibly conspicuous if they were to get some action.
Needless to say, all of that was to guarantee the safety of the imperial family and nobles so that they would not need to worry about being assassinated.
That way, the Dao Cheng Division could perform its duties better. Otherwise, everything would be in chaos.
Hence, that was the reason most cultivators would not step beyond the boundary of the imperial city.
Instead, they would reside around its perimeter or shut themselves in their lodgings since they hated the environment of the imperial city.
The essence power in the mortal realm was full of impurities, and it was filled with all kinds of temptations. So, they would be better off staying more cautious.
That was the wisdom of their forerunners. On account of that cognition, no cultivator would have behaved loftily and insolently for the past 1,000 years.
This was also part of the reason all the immortal sect disciples kept lurking in the shadows, erasing traces of their presence.
After understanding the whole situation, Chen Jingzhai arranged a quarter for Zhang Kui.
The premises were relatively huge. Each floor had several rooms with Restrictions and formations set up for better isolation.
Safety was impeccable with Chen Jingzhai’s arrangement. So, there would practically be no inconvenience.
Zhang Kui did not act in a reserved manner and stayed in the room next to Chen Jingzhai’s without hesitation.
After that day, Chen Jingzhai began to spend very little time on closed-door meditation as his daily activities increased.
At times, Chen Jingzhai would bring Zhang Kui to his Bamboo Boat to have a drink while enjoying the beautiful scenery.
Sometimes, he would take Zhang Kui with him to hunt for some sea beasts in the ocean.
From time to time, he would even guide and give Zhang Kui ideas for his puppetry.
Chen Jingzhai was particularly verbose when it came to the probing bug.
No one knew how astonished he was when he returned from the battle forum and had seen that thing previously.
That thing was exactly like the transponder snail from the anime!
In fact, it was even better than the transponder snail since it had multiple functions, including but not limited to radar, vocal communication, and self-destruction.
However, it could not hold a candle to the transponder snail in terms of its communication functionality.
If it weren’t for the scarcity of time and that he wasn’t cut out for refining puppets, he would’ve tried modifying and upgrading the device according to his ideal.
Chen Jingzhai finally had a utility man now that Zhang Kui was beside him.
Hence, Zhang Kui’s life was not peaceful at all.
For he had to fulfill his Master-Uncle’s seemingly whimsical ideas.
The stuff he made would range from as simple as a Rubik’s cube to puppets that appeared to be like Transformers.
Even the upgraded version of the probing bug was among the things that Zhang Kui refined.
Some of the items seemed worthless to him, but he benefitted and learned a lot from refining some other treasures.
Chen Jingzhai purposely cleared out the first floor of Wangdan Pagoda to put all of Zhang Kui’s puppets on display shelves.
Nevertheless, Hong Fu was still in charge of sales on that floor.
At first, the customers ignored all the products. But it merely took three days for them to start selling like hotcakes.
It all started when Wang Tong came with the intention of collecting his magical apparel.
Nonetheless, after Chen Jingzhai’s recommendations, he bought a few of the products that Zhang Kui had made for practice.
After that, Commandery Prince Hong Yi started to play with the 7×7 Rubik’s cube and became addicted to it.
As it was only natural that the subjects would follow the royal members, the products went viral in no time since some of the celestial families began to emulate the prince.
Apart from the Rubik’s cube, there were puppets of average people’s size that could transform.
Although it was only Grade 1, its defense was quite remarkable and equipped with some offensive abilities.
Besides, it could turn into something that looked like a horse with four wheels. Hence, there would be no need for a horse-drawn carriage.
Furthermore, it could even transform into a flying boat. Even though it had a somewhat low altitude limit, its traveling speed quickly made up for its shortcoming.
It had three types of transformation in total. Putting its interesting features and appearance aside, it was actually a very practical device in itself.
The greatest plus point would be its user-friendliness toward the Meditation Plane cultivators.
In addition to its function as a flying magic item, it could also be used as an everyday puppet.
One of the new products was specially named the phone bug by Chen Jingzhai, though Zhang Kui would prefer to call it the long-distance sound transmitter.
Its primary focus was to transmit sound. It would correspond to different frequencies with different sets of numbers.
Moreover, it could connect up to three parallel receivers of the sound transmission at once from one sender.
But its signal range was limited to the domain of Donglai County only.
Its price was the highest among all the puppets of the first grade.
Even though it was more expensive than the Transformer-like puppet, its sales were the highest of the new lineup.
After understanding the workings of the latest products, Wang Tong immediately signed a contract to purchase them.
A while later, the royal house ordered the phone bug in bulk and requested to be put on the priority list for the new supplies of the products.
In the beginning, Zhang Kui was not interested in those products.
But he was totally motivated after receiving a large number of spiritual stones from the booming sales of the puppets.
The situation of the Puppet Hall might have improved slightly, but its disciples were still impoverished.
To think that the puppets that his Little Master-Uncle suggested selling could earn him so many spiritual stones.
Even the ones that he deemed useless had gone viral and were in demand.
Zhang Kui may not understand the reason behind this phenomenon, but it did not prevent him from producing more of them.
After deducting the commercial space lease and creative charges that his Little Master-Uncle mentioned, Zhang Kui realized that his net profit was surprisingly hefty.
Therefore, he decided not to leave in order to earn more spiritual stones.
Still, despite his wishes, he would not be able to leave once the phone bug began to sell like crazy.
Zhang Kui had never had the experience of receiving such a large number of orders and earning so much in his life.
Thus, the man found himself hooked on producing more products before he knew it.
He would spend every day indulging in the passion of refining the puppets.
To expedite his work, he’d even taught the four maidservants the refining methods and requested their assistance.
After making deals with Chen Jingzhai, he asked for the former’s help as well.
In a snap, everyone in Wangdan Pagoda was mobilized by Zhang Kui.
His overflowing enthusiasm toward his work had Chen Jingzhai see him in a new light.
