In the depths of the puppet hall, the old Shangshu of the Ministry of Works, who was originally resting in Youzai, only felt that the bright candle flame in the hall was burning his old face at close range, and there was a hot pain.

Although he couldn't see his face, Wu Xiangui knew that when he was embarrassed by the young emperor, his face must have been extremely red.

However, after living for so many years, the old Shangshu of the Ministry of Works, who is known as the old naughty boy of the court together with Li Chunfeng, is naturally not a vegetarian, and then after returning to normal in a very short time, he raised his hand and bowed deeply to Zhao Yu on the side, and said respectfully:

"Your Majesty personally descended to the puppet hall, and the old minister is shining here!"

"Wu Xiangui, why did I see that you old guy was lazy in the corner as soon as I came?"

After the steady imperial voice came out of Zhao Yu's mouth, Lao Shangshu's furrowed face suddenly wrinkled, and then he responded bitterly:

"Your Majesty, the old minister is just eating dry food and drinking tea, after all, the minister is already old, and his energy is not as good as back then, and this kind of physical work of splicing organ parts can not be done. ”

As soon as these words came out, Zhao Yu nodded, smiled and said:

"Lao Shangshu has worked hard, and I know better than anyone else the contribution of the Ministry of Industry during this time, you are so busy that sometimes you don't even come to the morning court, so I can only come to your territory to see in person. ”

Although the young emperor's response was as steady as a peaceful lake as always, it made the eyes of the old man beside him flash, almost like old tears, and then his trembling voice continued to sound:

"Your Majesty, the old minister wishes that he could be twenty years younger, even if he is ten years old, and the minister has never been so eager for more time, a little more. ”

After finishing speaking, Lao Shangshu raised his hand and pointed to the sky above the puppet that had assembled most of the puppets in front of him, the incomparably complex structural diagram, in the old eyes, showed a look of pride, and the voice came out again:

"Although the old minister's energy does not have to be back then, but he still lives up to His Majesty's trust, Your Majesty, you see, such a complex structural diagram of the top of this palace is made by the old man day and night. ”

Lao Shangshu's voice fell, and Zhao Yu, who was standing with his hands in his hands, raised his head and quietly stared at the mechanism structure diagram above, and then the young emperor gradually moved along the complex lines on the diagram with an infinite majestic gaze, and after a long time, the Huanghuang Emperor's voice came out:

"Is this the catapult puppet I proposed earlier?"

"Your Majesty, exactly. ”

Lao Shangshu smiled proudly, and his whole face smiled directly into a chrysanthemum, and then the confident voice continued to reach Zhao Yu's ears:

"At the beginning, in the Arctic Land of Shenzhou, His Majesty asked the Ministry of Industry to build a puppet that can find the enemy on its own and defend itself, so as to garrison the extremely long national border of our Great Xia.

"But Your Majesty, this is an unprecedented initiative in the history of the entire Shenzhou Haotu Human Race, so it is by no means easy, and at the same time, many concepts, including Lao Chen, are the first time I have heard of them. ”

"I know that my request is contrary to the deep-rooted thinking of your craftsmen, so you can imagine the degree of difficulty involved. ”

After the young emperor's words fell, Lao Shangshu nodded thoughtfully, raised his hand to caress his white beard, and continued to speak slowly:

"What Your Majesty said is that since ancient times, the concept pursued by our craftsmen has remained at the stage of instruments, that is, the natural objects between heaven and earth are made into tools, whether it is all kinds of utensils commonly used in the homes of the people, or the armor and sword blades of the soldiers, they are all soulless and mindless.

"Therefore, we craftsmen never considered that we could create a puppet with a mind and a soul, because this only existed in mythology, until we saw the silver mountain statue. ”

Speaking of this, the light in Lao Shangshu's eyes became extremely fanatical for a moment, and the voice of incomparable exclamation then sounded:

"The Great Venerable of the Silver Mountain is so incredible, it can even be called a god among the puppets! The old man faced it, like a frog in a deep well, and also like a blacksmith apprentice, who suddenly obtained the most mysterious divine weapon in the world, but it was difficult to understand even the most fur runes.

"And when a person knows more than he knows, it is not a good thing, so we all fall into confusion and go in the wrong direction. ”

Old Shangshu's words made Zhao Yu's expression condense slightly, and then the young emperor withdrew his gaze from looking ahead, and turned his head to look at the old man beside him, his expression was calm, revealing a look of listening.

Zhao Yu didn't speak, but Lao Shangshu continued to bow to the former, and the old man's voice sounded again:

"One of the most important requirements mentioned by His Majesty is to automatically identify the enemy and launch attacks with precision on its own, so at the beginning, including the old man, everyone thought that in order to do this, it was necessary to let this puppet have its own mind, in other words, to create a new creature!"

The word "living soul" came out of the mouth of the old Shangshu very solemnly, and then his old face became extremely lonely, and he muttered:

"But giving life, that is the category of the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth, is a taboo, and how can we and our human beings touch it, in other words, compared to the whole heaven and earth, these craftsmen are as small as dust, and it is already a great gift to be able to reproduce, how can we give life to an instrument, which is contrary to the laws of nature. ”

"I understand what Lao Shangshu said, between heaven and earth, it is taboo to interfere with the cycle of birth, old age, sickness and death!"

Zhao Yu's ebony eyes flashed with contemplation, and then he raised his hand and motioned for Lao Shangshu to continue, and the latter bowed again, and the voice came out:

"Later, when we were at a loss, we thought of the Dao Soul given by His Majesty, and thought about whether we could use this divine Dao Soul to make this puppet really come to life, but we still failed, because the essence of the Dao Soul is the medium of communication between living beings and heaven and earth, and it is the embodiment of thinking, so the basis of the Dao Soul is living beings, and the puppet without thinking cannot fuse the Dao Soul at all, so this path is also a dead end.

The old man doesn't know if there is another puppet like the Silver Mountain in the whole world, but one thing is certain, even if we really give life to a puppet, then this process is absolutely irreproducible and unique.

"Therefore, this is also inconsistent with His Majesty's original intention, His Majesty wants to use a strong means to protect the entire border, which means that the demand for such puppets will be extremely huge, and it also seals the practice of giving souls from the side. ”

The steady stream of words coming out of Lao Shangshu's mouth indicates how many failures and detours the entire Ministry of Industry and Daxia craftsmen have experienced in the development stage.

Zhao Yu could clearly understand the complicated mood in Lao Shangshu's heart at this time, and then the young emperor raised his right hand and pointed to the structural map at the top of the hall, and the steady imperial voice then came out:

"So the method you came up with was that people control part of it, in other words, I can also call it semi-automatic?"