Tribulation Nine Clouds

Ailsa didn't rush Ryu. This sort of decision was too important. In addition, she herself knew how tall the mountain Ryu had to climb would be regardless of his choice. Clans and Alliances didn't just pop up out of thin air. It required countless epochs of effort for a Clan to rise up, and even then, the vast majority would never be as powerful as Ryu's Tatsuya Clan. Because of this, Ailsa almost felt that Ryu was in the right wanting to go at it alone.

"How do you feel about puppeteering?" Ryu suddenly asked.

Ailsa blinked. 'Puppeteering? Ah, I understand. You want to compensate for your lack of talent along the Mental Realm path with your Qi Realm talent.'

Puppet Masters. They were an incredibly ancient cult of individuals who used their deft control of qi to bolster their strength. Instead of controlling corpses with their Mental Realm like necromancers did, they used their qi like the strings of a puppeteer.