Chapter 29 The Shack

"Whew, finally its complete." Long Lei said to himself as he looked at a wooden doll in front of him. After the incident, Long Lei had continued his training, and once he felt it was satisfactory, he began to practice the "Basics in Puppet Manufacturing", and had pretty much mastered it at this point.

'Its disappointing that I can only make Puppets up to the Peak of Qi Refinement, but its still quite good.' He contemplated before flicking the puppet lightly, leaving not even a scratch on it.

The puppets that Long Lei had been manufacturing were all made out of 10 year old metal wood, a rarish material that was quite tough. Apart from the now completed product, there was also a bunch of scrap lying around taking up space.

'For now, I better get rid of these failures, and I have to hide my puppet, if the Royal Family were to find out I'd be toast.' Long Lei thought before summoning a few shadow clones.

Due to recent events, everyone in the sect, nay, everyone in the entire Flowing River Kingdom was running around frantically, so right now Long Lei's house was pretty much empty. Apart from that, Long Lei had already set up a drop off point so he was sure he wouldn't be disturbed.

As the clones began to dispose of failures Long Lei looked at his new puppet. "You took a lot of work, not only did I have to learn how to structure your body, I then had to implant a lot of qi into you, and form that god awful matrix, as such, you deserve a name. Hmmm, I shall call you, Yi! Meaning One." Long Lei declared while gazing at the puppet, but it had no reaction.

'Ha, what was I expecting from the peak of basic puppets.' He thought to himself before tapping the puppet sending it into his spatial ring.

After that, Long Lei stood at the front of his hill, and gazed out at the returning search party. 'No luck today either.' He sighed, as he shook his head. The news of Long Tian's disappearance hadn't spread yet, but no trace of him was found in the forest, leaving the disciples of Heaven Breaking Sect feeling a bit helpless.

Not only that, but today, was the day of his funeral. 'For now the search party will continue regardless, but mother wants to visit the ancestral grave, to put him to rest.' Long Lei sighed.

He could tell his mother that Long Tian was alive, but he didn't want to for a particular reason. His thought process was, if he told Qin Mei that Long Tian was alive, and suddenly his Qi disappears, then wouldn't that be giving her hope just to destroy it almost immediately.

'Either way, I believe, no, I know that he'll make it through.' He thought, as suddenly a bird began to descend from the sky. This was his mother, along with her Tier 2 White Swan. "Its time Lei'er." She said before Long Lei jumped onto the swan.

After they flew out of the sect and towards a small city on the outskirts of the Flowing River Kingdom. This was Floating Cloud City, it was between the counties of both the Heaven Breaking and Endless Hell Sect, and was Long Tian's hometown.

As the swan descended from the skies, the people within the city grew panicked and soon multiple experts appeared. "What business does Senior have in Floating Cloud City?" A man asked while his Spirit Gathering Stage 2 Cultivation base was on full display.

"Nothing that should concern you, we'll be out of your hair within the day." Qin Mei declared, before the swan continued flying over the city. The man didn't bother to disturb them again, seeing as Qin Mei was too strong for him to fight, and she was clearly not hostile.

"What's with the look on your face mother?" Long Lei asked, seeing a frown on Qin Mei's face. "Nothing, some people are just rude." Qin Mei answered, as they made it to the outskirts of this already rural city.

Here there was a small house with a farm to its side. It was truly the outskirts of the outskirts, and this, was Long Tian's family home. "This is where your father grew up, both his parents and his grandparents were mortals, and they didn't have much money for themselves." Qin Mei explained as the swan landed nearby the house.

Although abandoned the house was quite clean and looked like it was still taken care of all this time. This was because Long Tian regularly sent out disciples to tidy up the place, and the reward for this mission was quite handsome due to the sentimental value it held for Long Tian.

"I see, so where are the graves?" Long Lei asked. "They're further out, but I have something to grab here." She replied before hopping off the swan and walking towards the house. "Come with me Lei'er." Qin Mei said before Long Lei followed along.

Soon after they entered the shabby wooden shack. It had two small bedrooms and a small kitchen, it was extremely, shabby, to say the least. Qin Mei then led them into the smaller bedroom, this was Long Tian's room.

"The Emerald Ring, give it to me." Qin Mei said, reaching her hand out to her son. "Do you mean the ring father gave me?" Long Lei replied as he grabbed the necklace with the Emerald Ring.

"Yes that, Long Tian said, if he was ever.... gone, I had to take you to his childhood home." Qin Mei answered, before Long Lei tossed the ring towards her. "This is, Lei'er why is your father's Qi Signature still inside the ring?" She asked as tears began to roll down her face.

".....Because, I think he's still alive." He answered, immediately Qin Mei cried with a smile on her face, these were tears of joy. "Why, why didn't you tell me Lei'er?" She asked as her eyes locked with her son.

"I am not sure that's why, and I didn't want to lead you on a wild goose chase." Long Lei answered honestly. Once she heard that she more or less calmed down, she then crouched down and flicked Long Lei.

"Next time tell me, I would rather hope and try, yet still lose him, then not being able to do anything." Qin Mei said reprimanding her son. "So, the ring?" Long Lei told her, trying to push things along.

"Ah yes, your father said there should be a gap, rriiiiight here." She said before quickly inserting the ring in the gap. At once a small compartment opened and out came a scroll.

"This, this is trippy." Long Lei remarked as he gazed at the scroll.