Lei Dong stopped in his tracks, turned around, and smiled at Li Chuchu, "Alright, alright, if you haven't finished scolding, then continue. Scold until you feel happy, until you are satisfied."

"Liar, liar, liar..." Li Chuchu shouted incessantly. After shouting for the duration of one stick of incense, she finally squatted on the ground and began to cry, still murmuring, "Liar, liar."

But Lei Dong did as he promised, merely standing there smilingly, allowing her to curse him. After what seemed like a long while longer, Li Chuchu slowly got up, wiped her tears, and gazed blankly at Lei Dong, "Liar, are you really going to the Bright Holy Domain?"

"Yes, I have to go." Lei Dong nodded solemnly.

"But I heard those winged bird-people are ferocious, incredibly powerful, and they even eat people." Perhaps because she had suppressed it for too long—having always presented herself as mature and steady, extremely seasoned in dealing with the world in front of her clan—in front of the old monster Lei Dong, her true nature slipped out, timid and like a little girl.

"Nonsense." Lei Dong shook his head with a smile. "The Winged God Clan, while a bit domineering, unreasonable, narcissistic, and overly self-centered, are overall an intelligent race with high achievements in civilization. They are remarkable in both art and power. The part about eating people is pure fabrication."

"But the Winged God Clan is very strong, right? How confident are you that you can return alive?" Li Chuchu, who had just finished cursing Lei Dong as a liar, was now unable to stop worrying about him.

"Uh, I'm a liar anyway, aren't I?" Lei Dong rubbed his nose, slightly amused. "Why worry so much about the life and death of a liar? If the Winged God Clan members really kill me, you should be clapping your hands in delight, shouldn't you?"

"Who would worry about you, you dead liar!" Li Chuchu cast aside her previous heir-like, formulaic approach to handling things, completely devoid of loneliness, and glared fiercely at Lei Dong. "I’m just worried that if you, this dead liar, die too soon, before I manage to cultivate to the level of an unparalleled master, I'll miss the chance to exact my revenge personally. What a pity that would be."

"Then you can rest assured. Isn't there a saying: good people don't live long, but scourges survive for a thousand years? How could I, a scourge and a liar, die so early?" Lei Dong maintained his relaxed and natural demeanor. "But you must hurry. Otherwise, when I break through the Soul Transformation stage and shatter the void to depart, you won't even find me to take revenge."

"Old monster liar, stop being so conceited," Li Chuchu scoffed repeatedly. "This young lady is a peerless genius rarely seen in the clan for thousands of years. Catching up to your cultivation will be an effortless matter for me."

"Old monster?" Lei Dong touched his face, unsure whether to laugh or cry. "I look like I’m at most a hundred years old. I really mind that title."

A hundred years old? Li Chuchu was greatly shocked in her heart. How could someone cultivate to this level at only around a hundred years old? While clicking her tongue in amazement, she still hummed stubbornly, "Being a hundred years old is still an old monster! This young lady is only twenty-something; I'll catch up to your cultivation sooner or later. What's so great about it? Hmph, Nascent Soul old (old freak/monster)."

"Heh, old monster it is then. Given your aptitude and background, as long as no major accident occurs, you will eventually become a Nascent Soul old monster too," Lei Dong genuinely laughed. "Looking at you, it seems you've returned to normal. I owe you for this matter. I have urgent business to attend to, so I really must leave now."

"Wait a moment longer." Li Chuchu quickly stopped him, saying hurriedly, "You, you really can’t avoid going to the Bright Holy Domain? I've heard about that place; they are extremely xenophobic and very unfriendly to us human cultivators."

"Impossible, I must go." Lei Dong slowly shook his head.

"Then can you tell me why you absolutely must go to the Bright Holy Domain to retrieve the Water of Life?" Li Chuchu asked, a mix of anxiety and worry in her voice.

Lei Dong hadn't intended to answer, but after a brief thought, he sighed, "My beloved was gravely wounded saving me, and her Nascent Soul is nearly shattered and dispersed. Therefore, I must go retrieve the Water of Life."

Ah? The astute Li Chuchu, though she had long speculated about this possibility, was left stunned with an indescribably complex look in her eyes upon hearing the actual answer, unable to speak for a moment.

"Alright, little girl, stop overthinking everything all day. Cultivate well, or you won't catch up to me for revenge. Also, forget all of this and return to your past life. Because I, Lei Dong, am just a liar, a scoundrel, and I even have a woman I love. I am not worth your worry, much less your affection. With your looks, talent, and demeanor, you will certainly find someone a hundred or a thousand times better than me. Goodbye, little girl Chuchu." Lei Dong said with a smile, then hesitated no longer, soaring into the air, transforming into a streak of black mist, and whistling away.

Li Chuchu activated her movement technique to pursue, but after only a few breaths of chasing, the black mist had vanished without a trace. This provoked her into cursing again, but no matter how she railed, she couldn't conjure anything new. It was always just 'liar,' 'scoundrel,' 'hooligan,' and similar epithets. After cursing for a long time, she burst into wailing tears again.

She was neither a fool nor an idiot. Having been held captive these past few days, she was certainly furious at first. However, the entire sequence of events, upon careful consideration, became perfectly clear to her. If this Lei Dong fellow had chosen not to resort to kidnapping but instead pretended to be affectionate with her, he would have had a high chance of tricking or stealing the Soul Transformation Puppet Art without risk, and then simply dusted off his hands and vanished without a trace—that is what would truly make her weep inconsolably.

Now, however, he had chosen a path of no return, willing to resort to threats and coercion, enduring enormous risks and paying a heavy price, rather than truly deceiving her emotions.

Li Chuchu was certainly not a girl who couldn't appreciate sincerity. It was just that his profound, pure affection had ultimately met with such a terrible fate. Naturally, her heart couldn't take it well.

...

Lei Dong sped away, leaving dust in his wake, sighing inwardly. After all, the damage inflicted upon that child was hard to erase completely. However, Lei Dong felt he had done his best, and thus had no regrets. After flying continuously for over a hundred thousand li, Lei Dong finally landed in a remote valley devoid of spiritual energy. He casually found an abandoned cave, set up some minor warning arrays, and then sank his consciousness inward, beginning to study the Soul Transformation level Puppet Art that had taken him years and immense effort to obtain.

The Mechanical Puppet Art was an extremely complex and profound technique. It required not only an understanding of extensive theoretical knowledge but also frequent hands-on experimentation. Lei Dong had been studying Puppet Arts for years, so his theoretical knowledge was quite rich, and he also had considerable practical experience—after all, he hadn't spared the Big Yellow Bee from his tinkering.

Even so, when learning and grasping the Soul Transformation level Puppet Art, he found it extraordinarily difficult. Many parts were incomprehensible to him in a short time, even with his intellect and learning. In fact, even with his near-photographic memory, fully internalizing the Soul Transformation Puppet Art would take more than a day or two.

Fortunately, Lei Dong was not starting from scratch to forge a Soul Transformation level puppet; he merely needed to repair one. Thus, after spending a period of time recording all the vast and complex knowledge into his mind, Lei Dong began to selectively filter the parts he studied, then continuously referenced the remnants of his own Soul Transformation puppet to adjust and fully digest the knowledge points.

Even with selective study, Lei Dong remained in that small cave for a full several years before he finally finalized the repair plan for his Soul Transformation puppet. After repeated deductions, he was certain there was about a seventy to eighty percent chance of successfully repairing the damaged bronze Soul Transformation puppet.

This was the limit of what Lei Dong could achieve in a short time. After all, although both were Soul Transformation level puppets, the ancient era of the (Pluto King) and the present still held many differences, making them not entirely identical.

A bronze puppet, assembled from the components of several dismantled, damaged Soul Transformation puppets, was beginning to take shape. Each component was relatively intact, perhaps only showing slight corrosion spots due to its immense age. These mottled markings etched by the passage of time lent it an air of ancient gravity and weight.

Once activated, this bronze puppet possessed the strength of the early Soul Transformation stage. It stood about thirty zhang tall, which in Lei Dong's previous life would be as magnificent as a hundred-meter-tall skyscraper. Ancient artisans favored making puppets large because at that time, various demonic beasts and powerful figures were often wild in size, easily reaching tens, hundreds, or even thousands of zhang.

If the form was too small and light, in a confrontation between opponents of the same rank, it often resulted in a disadvantage. This was vastly different from the Soul Transformation puppets of the Myriad Puppet Sect. The puppet Elder Li possessed was only three zhang tall. Since the enemies were different, the designs were naturally different. The main enemies of the Myriad Puppet Sect were actually humans, or at most, targeting the races in the Six Domains. Therefore, a form that was too large became a hindrance, causing a disadvantage.

Lei Dong's puppet was bronze all over, with a majestic and uniquely strange shape. The long halberd it held was also no ordinary spiritual treasure. This was specifically refined by the for Soul Transformation level experts of the Ghost Clan. If a Ghost Emperor level expert found their path to breakthrough blocked and faced imminent decline due to extreme old age, they would strip away their consciousness and integrate it into the puppet's control core.

While this practice superficially resembled Elder Li of the Myriad Puppet Sect integrating his Nascent Soul into a puppet, in reality, there was a world of difference. A Nascent Soul or a Primordial Spirit, in essence, was still life, merely temporarily without a physical body. Integrating the Nascent Soul into a puppet was akin to using the puppet's body to replace a frail and aging flesh body, somewhat analogous to seizing control of another body.