Chapter 868: Art Critique

BOOM,BOOM,BOOM,BOOM,BOOM!

"Holy-!"

"We’ve seen him do this before, so why does it feel different?"

"Hold up...are his puppets stronger?!"

One after the other, Zhen Liu’s "puppets" appeared in bursts of smoke and aether, standing together in a row.

For reasons beyond everyone’s understanding, including Zhen Liu’s, the smoke accompanying the puppets were color coded.

That said, Zhen Liu made sure not to show this expression of shock on his face, as this was the first time he had ever seen them do something like that. Most of the time, their accessories glowed for a couple of moments and then transformed into kaijin, simple as that.

Therefore, he made sure to ask the kaijin themselves why this happened.

...

’W-when did you learn how to do that? Why did you learn how to do that?’

[Shits and giggles, maestro. Shits and giggles.]

[I was told by Logos and Pathos that us appearing in color coded smoke was a sign of intimidation. Something about throwing off your enemy’s mental state was already half of the battle. Figured impressing your relatives counted as that.]

’Ay caramba...’

[Wait...Executor,] Blazejudicator interrupted. [Should I make an appearance as well?]

[Not yet, Blazejudicator. Call it a feeling, but it’s probably wiser for you to stay hidden for now.]

[Boo...but I get it.]

[Seems...unnecessary...though...]

[I concur. They barely look phased!]

...

From an outsider’s perspective, Zhen Liu’s puppets were more or less the stuff of nightmares.

They were modeled after some twisted version of the human form, wielded powers that went well beyond the standards of aether puppets and had this weird aura to them that made most people think that they were living weapons and were proud of it.

At this point in time though, the Zhen Clan had more or less gotten used to the existence of Zhen Liu’s puppets, since he made it a habit to always practice with them.

In fact, after the scions and patriarch learned a bit more about Zhen Liu’s circumstances and his weird master, they became a bit more understanding as to why Zhen Liu acted the way he did and fought the way he did.

If any of them had a master and fellow disciples as...eccententric...as the ones they had met in prior events, they would have been a bit screwy too. Honestly, it was a testament to Zhen Liu’s mental resilience that he hadn’t gone full psycho hermit mode.

That said, there was one question about Zhen Liu’s roster of puppets that they really wanted to know the answer to, especially due to the man having three fiancées, a girlfriend and a situationship they never really asked about, but they knew better than to bring it up in front of him. (Un)fortunately, there was an outsider who finally asked what had been on all of their minds for weeks now.

<<Interesting! So these are the infamous puppets of the Princess’s bridegroom...they’re more intimidating than I anticipated. And more feminine looking than anticipated as well, why is that?>>

At the exact moment Hermit Zhong Wei asked this question, the room’s atmosphere suddenly froze over like an Ice affinity disaster beast marched in and blasted the place in a layer of frost and fury.

...

’Oh good gods....’

[Holy shit, someone actually brought it up for once! Haha!,] Hurricroak couldn’t help but laugh.

[Does...it...matter...?]

[Not to us, but it does seem to matter to other people,] Nepherage mentally shrugged, not really seeing the big deal behind having predominantly feminine looking cohorts.

[Okay, but why?,] Screamira asked, somehow unaware about how among the group that she was the most...noticeable in certain regards.

[Oldest cultural question in the universe: Can you treat the art separate from it’s artist? If not, what does an artist’s art say about them as a person?,] Razorstella explained. [Four out of five of us were technically handcrafted by the director’s abilities, and three of the four happen to look like comely women. I don’t count because I was technically store bought then modified.]

[Wait, that’s it? Really?]

[I don’t mind the staring, tbh.]

[Please stop using internet slang.]

[Never.]

’Please stop having a debate about this while I try to come up with a good answer to mollify the crazy dual cultivating hermit and my family, please.’

[Can’t you just say you have an appreciation for the finer parts of the female form?]

’I am nowhere near eccentric to say that without coming off as a massive pervert.’

[Wimp.]

...

"Oh dear gods, he actually brought it up," somebody whispered amongst the Zhen Clan scions and elders.

Ever since Zhen Liu came back from the dead with his strange new puppet ability, and his ability to craft puppets, they couldn’t help but to notice that his most powerful ones tended to lean towards a more...feminine build, with his latest one looking like an undead demon woman with curves that could put most courtesans to shame.

Artist’s choice as it were, but they couldn’t help but to notice anyways.

Once or twice could be considered a fluke, but the fact that most of his puppets looked like sexy warrior women was enough to get them to wonder...was this on purpose?

Or at the very least, in the same manner that Zhen Feng was a glutton, Zhen Feng was vain and Zhen Hai was violent, did Zhen Liu have some underlying vice that seemed to permeate everything he did?

As this question went through the minds of everyone present, their train of thought was interrupted by a rather loud sigh emanating from Zhen Liu. Apparently, he had anticipated this question being asked at some point.

"Alright, to answer this presumably burning question, around the time I first made my first puppet," Zhen Liu began to explain while gesturing towards Nepherage, "I was told that the best way to bring out the power of any aether puppet I make, was to figure out what the materials wanted to be, and use that feeling to help guide the shape and function of my puppets. Hence why they look, feel and do the way that they do. It’s sound weird, I know, but that is the best way I can dumb down what was an hours long lesson being drilled into my brain while having my brain still technically being reformed. I’m kind of running on instinct here, I don’t know what to tell you otherwise."

"That...makes sense."

Given the Zhen Clan’s track record of being a bunch of crazy aether beast handlers that had a tendency to go with the flow, Zhen Liu’s statement about making his puppets based on instinct made a surprising amount of sense.

Then again, they could’ve just been giving them the benefit of the doubt due to the circumstances of this question being posed, but Zhen Liu couldn’t know for certain due to not being an anima wielder or connected to any of them in the same manner as the kaijin.

Either way, Zhen Liu’s bullshit answer appeared to have been enough to satisfy both them and Hermit Zhong Wei’s curiosity. Granted, the latter proceeded to make a mild comment that sounded as if he heard this sort of answer before.

<<Instinctual artistry, huh? Damn, you are more like the Inked War Demoness than I thought,>> Hermit Zhong Wei as he began to subconsciously scratch the back of his neck, allowing his sleeve to get exposed and giving Zhen Liu the barest peek of a tattoo on his arm.

’Was...was that a compliment?’

<<But with that introductory bit out of the way...Mister Bridegroom, would you mind providing us more specific details about how each of your puppets function and what they can do in a fight?>>

"Huh? I guess...but why?," Zhen Liu asked with false suspicion.

Zhen Liu had a decent idea why he was being asked this question, but he wanted to make sure that was the case. Also, he found that one of the best ways to get on someone’s good side was to make it sound as if they were in the lead over something.

<<Well, if it wasn’t completely obvious, each of the treasures that were targeting have their own set of defenses and trials that require different solutions. Solutions that your puppets can provide due to how varied they are. I have my own idea on how they should be distributed, but I was told by the patriarch that you tend to have better instincts in this regard?>>

"Ah...okay."

While it wasn’t necessarily wrong to attribute how Zhen Liu coordinate his puppets(kaijin) as being instinct, it would’ve been more accurate to state that his distribution methods were based more on... voluntarily service tactics.

...

’Alright, you guys heard the hermit. Who thinks they can handle whatever? Keep in mind, you’ll be working alongside my uncles and cousins, so if you want to make a case of being by the side of a certain set because you’ve been in their heads. Make it now or forever hold your tongues.’

As soon as Zhen Liu finished his statement, he swore he felt hand raises occuring in his soul through the kaijin connection.