Sophia fell asleep while I was playing hide and seek with her. Well, I don’t mind. The plan was to ignore her until it was time for her to eat dinner. It was obvious she was hiding in the box of potatoes, but I wasn’t going to out her after achieving some peace and quiet. It doesn’t cost much to converse with her, but it’s still a tenth of my brain power. I could use that processing power for other things, such as, relaxing. It’s a strange feeling to relax while working at the same time. My nine working thoughts are beginning to resent my slacking thought. I imagine splitting one’s mind into ten thoughts might be the limit before one’s soul grows stronger because they’ll go insane if there are any more.

I’ve finally finished separating Kuang Feng’s body into its component parts. With this, I can finally craft Lucia’s hammer for her. Maybe I’ll be done before she finishes Soul Scouring Durandal. I have no clue what’s taking her so long. A Soul Scour is a very quick process even if one searches through every memory. Perhaps Durandal is fighting back, making the process slower for Lucia. I don’t know why he’d struggle though; all it does is increase the chance of his mind being damaged. I’m tempted to look into the jade slip I extracted from his head, but Lucia is very particular about keeping Durandal’s secrets a secret. I’m not going to risk my life to satisfy my curiosity.

The hammer-making process is very simple. I’ll gather the bones, use them as the framework for the weapon. Of course, I already designed the weapon with one of my other thoughts. There’s a formation in front of me that’ll suspend the bones in the air where they need to be. First, I have to place Kuang Feng’s dantian into it. There’s a strange connection between a person’s dantian and the rest of their body; it’s like the force between magnets but weaker. There are quite a few things I can do with this connection. I wonder if Lucia would like it if the hammer’s head was detachable. She actually didn’t give me any weapon specifications. I probably shouldn’t tack on too many special abilities for it. They’d be wasted on Lucia. She can’t even remember to use the few techniques she has; I can’t expect her to memorize multiple hammer functions.

With Kuang Feng’s dantian and bones suspended in place, it’s time for the tricky part. I have to attach the tendons to the dantian and weave them through the bones in a certain way. Essentially, I’m constructing a formation, using the tendons as the guiding lines for energy to flow through. The bones are also aligned in a certain way, and I have to file a few of them to create a better fit. If a blacksmith saw me, they’d think my construction method is completely abnormal, and they wouldn’t exactly be wrong. However, if a formation master saw me, they’d think my work is a masterpiece.

“What kind of unholy ritual are you performing?”

Baldie? “What are you doing here?” This is my personal property. How did she get past all of my formations? No, she’s probably capable of maneuvering through them. “If you wanted to find me, you could’ve sent a message.”

“I caught someone,” Baldie said and opened a life pouch. A person tumbled out. He was bound with four jade loops, each with a formation inscribed on them. At first glance, they seemed to be energy-draining formations combined with an immobilizing one. The three energy-draining loops were sucking the spiritual energy or qi out of the man, sending it to power the immobilizing loop. It’s not a bad concept. “He came through the immortal door. I was lucky I happened to be pondering the meaning of my life—ahem, I mean, I noticed him come through due to certain circumstances.”

An invader? I guess that warrants Baldie breaking into my house. She still could’ve just sent me a message though. “Good job.” I’ll Soul Scour the man with one of my corpse puppets and read his memories. “Hand your identity plate to one of the puppets. I’ll add ten thousand contribution points.” I know I was considering cutting Baldie’s pay, but there’s no need to be stingy whilst rewarding a good subordinate.

“Thank you,” Baldie said and handed my puppet her slip. “So, I couldn’t help but notice you’re doing … something to Immortal Kuang’s corpse. That doesn’t look like the process of creating a corpse puppet.”

“That’s because it isn’t.” Baldie’s a formation master, right? She’s not as creative as me when it comes to formations, but she has some solid fundamentals. “Can you tell what I’m doing with Kuang Feng’s tendons?”

Baldie took a tentative step forward and squinted at the floating mass in front of me. She ignored the muffled screams of the invader behind her. “It looks like you’re creating a binding formation with them while using that dantian as a power source. Tendons are a common material in formation construction, but to use a human’s….”

Well, it seems like Baldie isn’t completely incompetent; though, she does have some biases. Maybe she’d like to be my assistant. Odd. Is there something wrong with me? Recently, I’ve been getting the urge to hire an assistant. I tried hiring Bloodmoon, but he blew himself up, and now I’m asking Baldie? I might be coming down with an illness. Or stupidity really is contagious. “Humans use animal tendons, beast cores, and demon organs all the time in their formations. As a non-human, I don’t think it’s immoral for me to use humans in my formations just like you don’t think it’s immoral to use the aforementioned parts.”

Baldie stared at the back of my head. I could tell because my corpse puppet was looking at her. “Shall we have a debate? I once discussed righteousness and evil with the vice-sect leader.”

A debate? Does it look like I’m free enough to have a debate? I suppose it does because I am. “I already know all your arguments since I’ve read your memory, but since you seem confident, sure, I’m up for a debate.”