Chapter 242: Headache

To Jiang Li, the Desolate Heaven Halberd had never really had much presence. He had a powerful weapon but no worthy opponent, so it ended up in an awkward position—fine to use, but just as fine not to.
The last time he used it was when the Yin-Yang Heaven Seal was enlightening other immortal weapons.
That time was just a precaution; in the end, he realized that even without the Desolate Heaven Halberd, he could’ve handled the rebelling immortal weapons just fine.
Thinking about it, maybe the best use for it was as the core of the Nine Provinces’ Guardian Array.
“Sorry. I’ll definitely come visit when I get the time,” Jiang Li muttered guiltily, then turned and shoved the matter to the back of his mind.
I already apologized. What more do you want from me?

Without using divine sense, it looked like Luban Sect had way more women than men—and they were all young and beautiful.
But with divine sense, it was clear: all of them were puppets.
Luban Sect’s puppets were just that realistic.
Jiang Li had always thought of Luban Sect as a group of introverted, mechanical-obsessed cultivators.
Now, that impression had completely flipped.
Those once-taciturn cultivators had become eloquent and talkative, able to juggle several puppet women at once, all of whom willingly waited on them hand and foot.
When talking to good-looking puppets, even your silver tongue gets sharper.
On average, each Luban Sect disciple had three puppet women. Nothing short of a harem dream.

“I think they’re pretty happy. Feels like we’re the bad guys here,” Yu Yin said, half-joking.
Jiang Li shook his head. “You can’t think about it like that. From a personal perspective, I don’t care who they marry. Be it beastkins or puppets—as long as they have souls, they’re living beings. Marriage freedom, after all.”
“But from a broader Nine Provinces perspective, we can’t let them get married in Great Zhou.”
“It’s like brothels. Everyone knows they exist. As long as they don’t sell good women into prostitution, and as long as the law doesn’t explicitly say brothels are legal, it’s all tacitly accepted. One willingly sells, one willingly pays. Mutual consent, what’s the problem?”
“But brothels go against public morals. They can’t be openly endorsed.”
“That’s the problem with Luban Sect. Private marriages? Fine. Mutual consent? Marry a few puppets? No one cares. But going public and saying humans can marry puppets? That’s a no-go—at least not yet.”
“This isn’t just about marriage. It’s about the relationship between humans and spiritual treasures.”
“When spiritual treasures first gained sentience, Nine Provinces went into turmoil. Cultivators’ strength plummeted. Only after the introduction of the Spirit Treasure Law and contracts did we regain stability—and even improve overall strength.”
“If we approve Luban Sect’s marriages, tons of humans and spiritual treasures will get the wrong idea. That stability will collapse. The relationship between humans and spiritual treasures needs to develop slowly, through mutual adjustment. We can’t rush it.”

“Then why not just tell them exactly what you just told me?”
Jiang Li looked at Yu Yin in surprise, wondering how someone with her intelligence could ask something like that—then looked down and saw it was the Wishful Gourd talking.
Makes sense. That straightforward line of thought was very on-brand.
“I’m the Human Sovereign. I have to think from a Nine Provinces-wide perspective. To them, I’m just a regular cultivator trying to boss them around. Why would they care about the big picture?”
“Still worth a shot. It’s not like there’s any harm. Worst case, we fail and try something else.”
Yu Yin replied, “We can’t try. If they find out what we really think, then no matter what reason we use to stop them later, they’ll think it’s just an excuse. That’ll create backlash and only make things worse.”
“Don’t get it. You humans are too complicated. It’s harder than mastering tribulation power.”
Jiang Li didn’t expect the gourd to understand anyway.

He and Yu Yin changed their appearance and approached a Luban Sect disciple.
“Fellow Daoist, my name is Gong Li, and this is my younger sister, Gong Yin. We siblings have long admired Luban Sect and came to visit. We were wondering if there’s a chance we could join your sect?”
Yu Yin was a year younger than Jiang Li.
The disciple they approached was Lu Yu—the same one who made a splash at the Great Zhou tournament but was disqualified for bringing too many puppets. He was the sect’s senior brother and the best at puppet techniques among his peers.
His harem made that clear—eighteen unique puppet beauties, ranging from the appearance of a 14-year-old to a 35-year-old.
Before the Yin-Yang Heaven Seal enlightened the spiritual treasures, everyone thought he was a weirdo. Who makes that many pretty puppets and calls them “wife”?
After the seal unleashed its power and awakened spiritual treasures across Nine Provinces, people regretted it deeply—wishing they had followed his example and made more puppets. Senior Brother was ahead of the curve—eighteen wives, all prepped in advance.

“I’m Lu Yu. Fellow Daoist Gong Li, you’ve come at a bad time. Our sect is about to move to Great Zhou, so we’re not accepting new disciples.”
“Why’s that? Luban Sect is a famous major sect here in Tianyuan. Why leave when everything’s going well?” Jiang Li smoothly referred to “our Tianyuan Dynasty.”
Lu Yu hugged his cold-faced puppet wife and sighed. “It’s because so many mock us. They say we’re just a bunch of shut-ins pretending puppets are wives.”
“To prove we’re not delusional, we’re going to Great Zhou to get legally married. But their laws say only citizens can marry under Great Zhou’s marriage laws, so we figured we might as well become citizens too.”
“Why not just get married under Tianyuan’s laws?”
“Because Great Zhou’s laws carry more weight.”

Jiang Li shot Yu Yin a glance—see? This is what happens when your people break the law all the time without consequences. Your laws lost credibility.
Yu Yin glared back—like Tianyuan’s the only one. All the other dynasties are like that. Baize Dynasty’s worse.
Jiang Li replied with another look—yeah, but only your dynasty is having problems.
The two glared at each other, trading silent barbs. The Wishful Gourd yelled, “I don’t get any of this!”

Jiang Li knew what Lu Yu meant.
After the Great Zhou tournament, when people found out Luban Sect disciples were marrying their puppets, opinions were split. Some were envious; others called it disgraceful.
Most people just couldn’t wrap their heads around it.
“People’s thinking is too rigid. They can’t accept new things.” Jiang Li had found the root issue. Most folks preferred to stick to tradition, believing the old way was right and anything new was wrong.
If he went in-depth, he could write a whole book about this. But it still wouldn’t solve the current problem.
Just because most people think something doesn’t mean it’s right.
But you also can’t just ignore the opinions of the majority.
And that’s… a real headache.