Chapter 247: Ralph the puppet.

"It's against master's rules to allow someone who didn't pass the trial to so much as enter the mansion. If you want him to enter then he will need to take the trial as the master demanded." Ralph said in a flat tone like he was getting sick and tired of explaining the rules. But Li Jun pressed on.

"But what about me? I didn't need to pass the trial to come here again?" Li Jun asked, sounding as if he had something up his sleeve.

"But you have already been recognised as the master's disciple. You can come and go as you please. Even if you are just the remnants of a broken soul" Ralph said once again in a cold and harsh sounding voice almost as if he was actually a robot.

"Exactly. And Haru is my disciple. So that would make him master's grand disciple. Do you really think that he would refuse entry to his grand disciple?" Li Jun replied. But the conversation seemed to be getting nowhere.

"But the rules say that whoever wants to gain entry needs to take the trials. I can't just let people enter. Unless the master instructs me to do so himself. I will continue to follow the rules whether you like it or not." Ralph was determined to keep Haru out and not allow him into the mansion but Li Jun already had another plan.

"He has a phoenix bloodline…" He said bluntly. And that was all it took for Ralph's attitude to pull a one-eighty. He thought for a few moments before replying.

"A phoenix bloodline? Why didn't you say so earlier?" Ralph shouted out in excitement. Suddenly the light began to glow a faint blue colour and a circle appeared on the floor around Haru and slowly broke down into dust before flying up into the sky.

"He may enter," Ralph said suddenly as if he didn't deny him entry in the first place.

The double set of doors that were at the entrance of the mansion suddenly flew wide open and a beast that resembled a lion but with a black coat of fur stepped out from the doorway.

The lion-like beast looked at Haru for a moment before lowering its head, giving him it's permission to enter and calling him over. He looked at it for a few moments before he saw two distinguishing features that were something that lions definitely didn't have. And that was the bird-like talons that were attached to its feet and the bat-like wings on it's back.

'What is that thing?' Haru thought as he walked around the pond and followed the path all the way up to the front door. It was only when he got to the bottom of the staircase that he realised the size of the place.

He thought it was strange that the pond looked a little too big and would be classed as a small lake if it was any bigger but as he got to the steps, it put into perspective the size of the place. Each step came up to his knee and was longer than his height on the surface. He struggled to climb the unnecessarily large staircase before looking up once again to see that the doors were at least triple the size of normal doors.

He then looked down at the lion that was almost twice as tall as he was and almost had a heart attack if not for the fact that his heart was already destroyed.

'That thing could eat me whole!… Is the owner of this place a giant or something? What is with the size of everything here.' Haru thought as the Lion-like creature once again lowered its head to show that it meant no harm and then guided Haru inside.

As he entered he felt like an ant that had managed to crawl under the door frame of someone's house. Everything in the house was super-sized and made him look like an insect in comparison.

Everything from the plant pots to paintings on the walls was taller than he was but finally, after a ten-minute walk, they had arrived at a sliding set of doors that were also the same size as the previous ones. The lion sat down at the door as it couldn't open it but then suddenly the door shot wide open to reveal Li Jun and someone else sitting on opposite sides of the room.

It would be a normal sight if not for the size of them both. Li Jun and the man who Haru assumed to be Ralph were both sitting on the gigantic chairs as if they were normal ones.

They both looked down at Haru who was standing in the doorway and Haru got his first look at the man known as Ralph. But in fact, he wasn't a man. Or a woman for that fact. He was more of an object than anything.

He looked like a traditional wooden puppet and was wearing a long robe as most cultivators would. His face looked like it was painted with makeup to make it look more like a hum but the lines that allowed the mouth joint to move could still clearly be seen as well as the seam between the neck and the head. Even though the clothes Haru could make out the rigid form of its body but despite that, he still had a full head of long hair and eyes that looked very human. It looked like the kind of things that children had nightmares about.

And even Haru found it slightly disturbing to look at and he had met demons before. As in beings that looked like humans but had dark purple skin and long beast-like horns attached to their heads. But just the sight of this thing was enough to bring him to the verge of throwing up if he had a body.

"H-how are you so tall…" Haru asked Li Jun without taking his eyes away from the disturbing looking puppet. He felt as if he took his eyes off the thing that it would eat him alive or something equally as terrible. He stuttered slightly as he spoke while trying to make it less obvious that he was staring.

"This is your soul ocean. You don't have to follow the laws of the universe here. Just think about expanding your body and it will happen. Didn't Lao teach you that when I was away?" Li Jun asked as he looked down on Haru and then quickly noticed that Haru and the puppet were having a staring contest.

Haru couldn't take his eyes off the thing. And the puppet was staring back with what looked like interest.

"Stop staring and do what I just told you." Li Jun almost shouted to get Haru's attention away from the puppet.

"Huh? What did you say?" Haru asked. He had been so worried about the puppet causing him to harm that he didn't hear a word that Li Jun had to say. His mind had blocked out all sounds and focused on the threat in the room.

"Just imagine yourself growing and you will naturally become taller. It's your soul ocean and it doesn't follow the laws of the universe. You can do pretty much whatever you want to in here." Li Jun said once again. This time though Haru wasn't looking at the puppet and had heard every word of it.

He looked down at the floor and ten imagined as intensely as he could that his body was growing. It didn't work at first but after a few seconds, the floor seemed to be getting further and further away from him. Until suddenly he was the one looking down on Haru and the puppet who were both seated on chairs.

"So what do you think? Will he take the trial to open the door to get the life injector? Or will he sit back and watch the world move on after his death?" Ralph asked Li Jun. With each word his mouth eerily chattered open and closed as the puppet spoke.

"That's up to him to decide. If you want to know then ask him. You're the one that wants him to take the test in the first place. You could have healed him when I first asked but you decided to let him die…" Li Jun said, sounding angry that he had let Haru die when he could have fixed the problem immediately.

"I could have healed him… But it's not my job to do so. He isn't my student. He is yours." The puppet responded and then turned it's head once more to look at Haru. The sound of wood scraping together sounded out as its head turned to look at Haru.

"So do you want to live? Or are you just going to surrender to fate and die?" The puppet now asked Haru directly instead of asking Li Jun for his opinion.

"I would like to live again If I had the chance to," Haru responded while trying his best to sound normal. But the truth was that the whole puppet aesthetic was creeping him out and everything on the inside was telling him that he needed to run away. But the more he heard Li Jun talk to it, the more it seemed like there really was a way of resurrecting him.

'Of course, I want to live again. Who in their right mind would accept death after experiencing it twice.' Haru thought to himself after the puppet looked back to Li Jun.

"Hm… Another Reincarnated human huh? The master seems to be making an army of them…" The puppet said to himself in a whispered voice. Haru then looked back to Li Jun who didn't seem to have heard anything as he just carried on with the conversation as if nothing happened.

"Well, you heard the boy. Now take us to the trail." Li Jun said with a smile, But Haru felt nothing but distrust for the weird human-like puppet.

"Certainly." The puppet said as a black cloak surrounded them all and the light in the room seemed to get absorbed. It was the same thing that had brought him here. And then suddenly he felt the floor beneath him vanish.