Chapter 143

Back when Mo Jiu had tried to corrupt the immortal sword with ancient demon blood, he’d captured three people.
Besides Mo Jiu himself, there were two others: a fat man named Pang Hu and a thin one called Shou Hou.

Now, Han Luo arrived at the sealed realm where Pang Hu and Shou Hou were being held.

The moment he entered, Pang Hu burst into tears.
"Big brother, I was wrong! I shouldn’t have caused trouble in Luoxian Sect—I was tricked by that bastard Mo Jiu! He threatened to kill my whole family if I didn’t help. You know me—I’m a filial son. How could I let my parents suffer such humiliation? Please, big brother, let me go! My 380-year-old great-grandmother is still alive, and my wife is pregnant with twins after ten years of trying—please, I beg you!"

Meanwhile, Shou Hou didn’t say a word. He simply dropped to his knees with a loud thud, kowtowing so hard his forehead split open and bled.

Han Luo hadn’t expected such a scene.
He’d thought they might show at least a shred of backbone, put up some resistance—but instead, they surrendered without a fight.

"Enough. Stop that."
At his command, Pang Hu immediately stopped crying and wiped his face as if nothing had happened—clearly well-rehearsed.
Shou Hou calmly took out a healing pill and applied it to his bleeding forehead with equal expertise.

Watching this, Han Luo’s brow twitched.
If these two weren’t cultivators, they could’ve made a fortune as actors.

"Boss, ask us anything! If we know it, we’ll tell you everything, no secrets!" Pang Hu swore, slapping his chest.

"Boss," Shou Hou added, "you captured Mo Jiu’s clone. His main body is all talk—he acts fierce, but he’s a coward. To avoid being killed by Sect Master Yun Yangzi, he made two clones. We don’t know where his main body is, though."

Han Luo nodded, motioning for them to continue.

Seeing this, Pang Hu rushed to speak, while Shou Hou calmly interjected key details.
Under the bronze mirror’s detection, Han Luo confirmed they weren’t lying.
Satisfied, he gathered quite a bit of useful information. If he ever encountered Mo Jiu again, he was now eighty percent confident he could kill him before Mo Jiu even realized what was happening.

"Boss, did we do okay? Give us a chance," Pang Hu pleaded with a pitiful look—though it was all an act.

"You two are Luoxian Sect disciples, yet you colluded with demons and betrayed your sect. According to our rules, that’s punishable by death," Han Luo said coldly.

Both men were long-standing disciples of Luoxian Sect. Their crime warranted execution to serve as a warning to others.
But since the demon incident couldn’t be made public, Han Luo had obtained permission from Yun Yangzi to handle them as he saw fit.

"You’re right, Boss!" Pang Hu cried. "We were bewitched by that bastard Mo Jiu—we won’t do it again! Please, have mercy!"
He broke into tears again, as though his wife had run off with another man.

Shou Hou simply resumed kowtowing, reopening his barely healed forehead wound like a fountain.

"Enough with the theatrics," Han Luo snapped.
He had no sentimental attachment to them. If not for a key plan that required their help, he’d have executed them already to avoid future trouble.

"Sect Master Yun Yangzi left you two in my care. I see you’ve shown genuine remorse, so I’ll spare your lives—but that doesn’t mean you’ll go unpunished."

Hearing this, Pang Hu was ready to cry again.
Shou Hou prepared to kowtow again, but one look from Han Luo made them both restrain themselves.

"Thank you, Boss! Thank you!" Pang Hu exclaimed, feeling reborn.
Shou Hou shed a few "manly" tears. Clearly, kowtowing had worked.

"Boss, whatever you need us to do, we’ll do it! If you want me to warm your bed, I won’t hesitate!" Pang Hu offered shamelessly.

Shou Hou looked more serious—he knew surviving this would come at a heavy price.

"My request is simple," Han Luo said. "You two will willingly serve as my test subjects."

"Test subjects?" they echoed, exchanging uneasy glances.

"For puppets," Han Luo said casually.

"What?!"
Their jaws practically hit the floor.

"I’ll be back tomorrow for your answer," Han Luo said. "Agree, and you’ll live. Refuse, and you’ll be meeting the King of Hell."

He left, while the two looked at each other in dismay.
They both understood exactly what this meant—and what they were about to face.

Back at Luoxian Mountain, Han Luo reflected on puppet refinement.

Puppets fell into two categories:
Spirit puppets—like the Twelve Generals—were crafted using the creator’s blood and functioned as alternate bodies.
Soul puppets, however, were forged using a living person’s soul.

Spirit puppets were powerful but required frequent energy replenishment to operate.
Soul puppets, by contrast, could absorb spiritual energy on their own and even cultivate techniques.

But most importantly, Han Luo needed soul puppets for a critical part of his plan.

The next day, Han Luo returned to the sealed realm.
"Have you decided?"

"We’ve thought it through—we’ll cooperate," they replied.
Really, they had no choice.
Better to live as puppets than die.

"Boss, uh... we’re still bound by a master-servant contract with Mo Jiu," Pang Hu pointed out.

"Are you?" Han Luo asked.

They quickly closed their eyes to check—and sure enough, the bond restraining their souls was gone.

Meanwhile, in another sealed chamber...
Mo Jiu was watching cartoons, ecstatic.
Finally! He was on episode two of Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf—an incredible milestone after endless replays of the first episode.

Pang Hu and Shou Hou barely had time to savor their freedom when Han Luo cheerfully produced two new master-servant contracts.
Both were for ten thousand years—the sight of them nearly made the pair faint.
Out of the frying pan, straight into the fire... worse than the fire, really.

Once they’d signed, Han Luo knocked them out with a quick dose of poison and took them to the puppet workshop.

Refining soul puppets wasn’t particularly complicated:
First, he would craft a standard puppet body.
Then, using a soul-guiding array, he would transfer the target’s soul into the puppet.

Since they had already signed contracts, the process went smoothly—neither resisted.
And thus, the crafting of soul puppets was complete.