Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Alex took off the artifact that he always had his puppet wear before bringing it out.

The old man gave a surprised look when he saw the puppet as he hadn't heard from anyone that Alex even used a puppet.

"Aren't you going to use swords?" the man asked him carefully.

"Yes, but I've been using swords day and night," Alex said. "It's fun to use something else from time to time. A bit of spice to my days."

He also wanted to check how his control of the puppet was and how it fared against someone who seemed to use the puppet daily. It would certainly not be an easy fight, but he couldn't see himself losing. 

Alex had to use his Qi to manipulate the puppet. It was a normal puppet with no skill or technique carved into it. It didn't even have a sliver of his spirit inside of it, like how most puppets seemed to have.

In his case, he had only refined it. The puppet was his, but he couldn't control it as easily.

He looked at the 3 puppets that belonged to the old man and wanted to learn more about how it was made. He had been to the Royal School of Puppets for some time too and knew how puppets were made.

He couldn't help but wonder how good the materials used for this puppet were. He wondered if he should do it much damage. He was also curious about the artifacts the puppets carried, but none more than the puppets themselves.

He moved back, letting his simple puppet stand before him. 'I should get whisker to fight with it someday,' he thought. 'He needs a chance to battle too.'

But the thought didn't last for long as the old man charged without warning. 

The thin puppet moved at once, its speed rather frightening, and arrived in front of Alex's puppet. The thin puppet swung its sword, but Alex managed to see through the attack and pulled back his puppet in time. 

He made it to punch the small puppet on the side, but the muscular puppet came from the side, slamming into Alex's puppet. Alex made his puppet punch that puppet instead, but a rather golden shield blocked it from touching it.

'Should I put more force into the attacks?' he thought. He could beat it at once if he did so, but he wasn't sure if that was the right choice. That was certainly not a very good choice if he wanted to test out his puppet more thoroughly in this fight.

And hopefully, learn a few things about controlling puppets.

He punched the muscular puppet a few more times, and on one of the strikes, it took the force of the punch and moved backward. At the same time, the lean puppet from before charged in with its sword ready to strike through Alex's puppet's chest.

Alex barely managed to move the puppet to the right at the last moment and the sword passed where the puppet should've been. He noticed the muscular puppet incoming and was about to strike, but instead, he had to dodge the attack as a spear went through where the puppet should've been.

The bigger puppet's shield had disappeared and in its stead, a spear had appeared in its hand. Alex hadn't noticed that amid the battle at all, and only noticed it when it moved to attack.

'I should pay more attention,' he thought. 

The lean and thin puppet seemed to be the fastest of the three as it darted after the spear and caught it before throwing it back at Alex's puppet.

Alex smiled.

His puppet suddenly twisted and grabbed the muscular puppet before tossing it to the side. Then, with another unnatural twist of its body, it caught the incoming spear right before it landed on it.

The spear passed under the puppet's armpit before stopping.

Alex made it turn around and held the spear properly. He didn't know how to use a spear at all. Spear was one of the weapons he never cared to try, but he had seen enough people fighting with it to know what he could and could not do with it.

'Defend with the shaft, and stick the pointy end into the opponent,' Alex thought. That was all he needed to know anyway.

The old man frowned. He couldn't believe that Alex's puppet could use his artifact. After all, the spear was refined by him and would only work for him. But never had he imagined that Alex intended to use the spear not as an artifact, but as a simple weapon.

He was going to use the spear for a spear, and nothing else.

His puppet charged without warning as well, dashing toward the muscular puppet. The fat puppet arrived before it, a shield ready in its hand. Alex had seen it appear this time around. There was a spatial pocket inside the puppets, like an attached storage bag.

'That's something,' Alex thought.

His puppet moved fast, arriving in front of the muscular one and stabbing forward, but the muscular puppet's armor came into work, creating a barrier that protected itself. Alex's attack made no more impact with a spear than it did with a fist.

But that didn't matter. It was only a distraction in the first place.

The puppet took off one of its hands and moved to the left, suddenly grabbing onto the sword that was swung toward it.

'Got you!' Alex thought and pulled back the spear to stab the lean puppet. The puppet tried to move away, but it didn't let go of the sword. The old man had only told the puppet to move backward and didn't command it to let go of its sword.

By the time he realized his fault, it was too late.

The spear struck the lean puppet in the chest, sending it flying backward while Alex's puppet held onto the sword. He flipped the sword and caught it by the handle this time around. There was no mark where the puppet had caught the blade at all, not even a scratch.

With a spear in one hand and a sword in another, Alex sent his puppet charging into the other two puppets.

They tried to fight back, but the old man's offensive puppet had already been dealt with, so he could only send the other two into becoming defensive. The fight lasted long just because of that and it took 10 more minutes before the fat puppet with the shield lost, and 10 minutes after that, so did the muscular puppet.

Once all 3 puppets were defeated, Alex threw both the spear and sword toward the old man and waited to accept his concede.

The man didn't wait a minute longer before giving up.

Alex smiled and nodded. "Now go along," he said as he took back his puppet. "I will see you again soon, hopefully."

The old man prayed not. 

Alex turned around and looked in a certain direction. Despite the battle here, he had kept a vague attention in all directions, and this one was the one he kept his main focus on.

One of the men that came with the old man had run off in that direction and disappeared. 

'So that's where you have all been hiding,' Alex thought. 'Good to know.'