The old man raised the little girl's right hand and placed it in front of Zhao Di. The girl blinked her lively big eyes, revealing a curious expression.

  Zhao Di stretched out a finger, gently touching the little girl's wrist, and subtly inputting a thread of spiritual energy, feeling the response wave after this thread of spiritual energy entered the little girl's body.

  "It's an Ice Attribute Heterogeneous Spirit Root! The talent is truly exceptional!" Zhao Di said with a hint of surprise. He had only seen that the little girl's talent was not bad, but he didn't expect her to be a rare Heterogeneous Spirit Root cultivator!

  "Ah, really? You're not joking, senior?" The old man's mouth was agape, both shocked and delighted, his extremely tense expression seeking confirmation from Zhao.

  Zhao nodded and said, "Yes, that's right. It's just that with her innate spiritual root talent, practicing this water attribute technique now isn't the most suitable, how about letting her practice an ice attribute technique instead?"

  The old man was overjoyed, nodding repeatedly and said: "Thank you for your guidance!" The old man thought to himself that this ice-attribute cultivation method also existed in the market, but at least it would cost two or three hundred spirit stones, which he couldn't afford. However, with Xian'er's exceptional innate talent as an otherworldly spiritual root, finding a large sect and sending her there to become a core disciple who would receive special training wouldn't be a problem! This way, Xian'er's future path of cultivation would naturally be boundless, and he wouldn't have to worry about it anymore.

  The old man, in a great mood, talked endlessly about some secrets and interesting things on the Penglai fairy island. Although the old man's cultivation was very low, he had lived here for decades as a cultivator, and many of the things he said were unheard of by Zhao Di, who listened with relish. Especially when the old man occasionally inserted a few sentences of comments and thoughts, it made him feel the bitterness and helplessness of a low-ranking immortal's busy life.

  Half an hour later, the old man pointed to a building under his feet and said to Zhao Di: "Senior, this is the clever device pavilion. This store specializes in puppets, mechanisms and other items, and it is the largest among similar stores in the market. In fact, the things are not much better than elsewhere, but they have more and are more complete. There is also a small shop, although the business is not as good as this one, but the price is actually cheaper."

  "Alright," Zhao said in a hoarse voice, "Take me to all the puppet shops. I want to compare prices." Then he turned Wind Chaser around and slowly descended.

  "Yes, senior." The old man replied.

  Zhao arrived at the Qiao Qi Ge, but with a big wave of his sleeve, he said to the two ancestors: "You two don't need to come in, just wait for me here!" After finishing speaking, he didn't even wait for the two to respond and walked straight into the store.

  The old man could only nod in agreement and waited with his granddaughter on the street.

  "Xian Xian, how about Grandfather sends you to the Zheng Dao Alliance? With your spiritual root talent, you will definitely be nurtured with emphasis!" The old man said affectionately while stroking the little girl's black hair with his thick palm.

  "What about Grandpa? Is he going too?" The little girl looked up, blinking her bright and lively big eyes, asking in a sweet and lovely childlike voice.

  "At his age and with such low cultivation base and poor talent, how could the Orthodox Alliance possibly accept someone like him?!" The old man shook his head and let out a soft sigh.

  "I won't go to any Zhēng Dào Méng either, I want to be with Grandpa." The little girl said with a pout.

  "Ah, Ah, you've entered the Zheng Dao Alliance, and you'll become a great divine cultivator like that senior just now! Not only will your lifespan be extremely long, but your magical powers will also be incredibly strong! Let alone flying in the sky, even the powerful sea monsters that are unmatched in the ocean can be dealt with!" The old man instructed her patiently, using Zhao Di as an example and some beautiful prospects to persuade the girl.

  "No, no, no! Xianxian wants to be with Grandpa! Grandpa doesn't love Xianxian anymore? Doesn't want Xianxian?" The little girl's mouth pouted even higher, pulling the old man's hand and shaking her body nonstop. This spoiled and mischievous appearance made the old man feel both pity and love.

  ……

  After a while, Zhao Di came out of the Qiao Qi Ge pavilion and didn't say whether he had bought something to his liking. He just gestured for the old man to lead the way. So the three of them rushed to another store again.

  Like this, Zhao Di went to three stores selling puppet products and their making materials, one dan medicine store, two fa array stores, two classic bookstores, and three material stores, spending almost half a day.

  Satisfied Zhao Di ended his recruitment of the old man. Before leaving, he also gave an extra gift to the little girl - a flying device in the shape of a leaf, which delighted both her and her grandfather.

  This leaf-shaped flying artifact was something he had made when he was practicing with some inexpensive materials before refining the Treading Wind Chariot. It's a low-grade flying artifact that he no longer uses. Seeing the little girl's cute and lovely appearance reminded him of his younger sister Jian Xiang'er, so he casually gave it to her as a gift.

  Afterwards, Zhao Di flew directly to a transmission array in Fang City and returned to Xingxing Island.

  He also made some small purchases in the market of Xingxing Island. Since having an inexhaustible amount of spiritual stones, he had developed this habit, buying things that could be used every time he passed by the market, not spending too much money at once and not drawing any attention, but the total amount accumulated over time was astonishing.

  The only regret is that the Xuan Yi Pavilion in the Western Star Island Market was temporarily closed for some reason a month ago and has not opened yet, so his plan to add one or two more formations fell through. However, this is of little consequence, as formations are not what he needs urgently at present, and he has already bought two or three sets on Penglai Fairy Island, and next time he passes by Western Star Island, he can buy two more sets.

  Then Zhao Di did not stay on Xingxing Island for too long and rode the Treading Wind Jiao to fly towards Luojia Island.

  In mid-air, Zhao Di flew with his flying device, stroking the seven or eight puppets in his storage bag, a mysterious smile spreading across his face.

  To say that the puppet of this level is not expensive, a human-shaped puppet that can use magic tools and is equivalent to a cultivator of the fifth or sixth layer of the Qi Refining stage only costs less than 150 spirit stones. The simpler beast-shaped puppets like the one Di Er used only cost around 100 spirit stones. With this in mind, he bought four or five human-shaped puppets and a large number of refining materials from three puppet shops at once, and also acquired a jade slip called "Introduction to Puppetry". This jade slip detailed the materials and methods for making Qi Refining stage puppets, and after Zhao Di roughly read through it, he felt that with his current equipment-refining skills, making such Qi Refining stage puppets would be absolutely no problem.

  The main material for refining this puppet is some metal minerals with good firmness, toughness and plasticity, as well as iron wood with extremely high hardness and more than ten years of age. In addition, a large number of low-grade spirit stones are needed, and another very special thing is the demon soul. The classics mention that in a certain sense, puppets are also a kind of living beings with souls, but they have no consciousness or spiritual wisdom, and completely obey the master's command. However, when refining, it is necessary to add suitable souls together to refine, so that the puppet can have a soul, rather than being an inanimate mechanical doll.

  Therefore, manipulating a puppet is not like using a magic tool that can be controlled by divine consciousness at any time. Manipulating a puppet also requires a special technique called "divided spirit technique".

  The Jade Simplified also appended the detailed method of this "divine technique" secret art, which is how to separate a small part of the cultivator's divine sense and make it an independent divine sense, then place this divine sense on the puppet, and rely on this divided divine sense to operate the puppet. In this way, when using the puppet, it is not necessary to consume too much divine sense like a magic tool. This soul-splitting technique has extremely high requirements for divine sense, and only foundation-building cultivators can master it. The higher the divine sense, the faster it can recover after splitting out divine sense, continue to cast the divided divine sense technique, and also manipulate more puppets at the same time. Generally, foundation-building initial cultivators can simultaneously control about twenty or thirty puppets. Those who specialize in puppetry during the foundation-building period are far higher than ordinary cultivators in terms of the number of puppets they can control. Moreover, most of these people have also practiced some special techniques to enhance their divine sense intensity, and it is said that they can even simultaneously control hundreds of puppets.

  Such a perverted cultivator, in the foundation-building period, it's hard to find an opponent! Even if it's just a puppet with only the cultivation level of the middle stage of the Qi Refining Period, if hundreds of them come together, even ordinary late-stage foundation-building cultivators would find it difficult to defend against.

  Zhao Di planned to refine a batch of primary puppets in the cave, raising his strength to a terrifying height! He believed that if everything went smoothly and there were no major mistakes during the refining process, then after a few years, this batch of puppets could easily wipe out late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators, and even when facing Core Formation stage experts, he would have some self-preservation abilities.

  (Third update, another one around 10 pm tonight! Thanks for your support, still seeking collection and recommendation!)