Vanity could only take them so far, but the other core disciple had ended up helping them out. With access to a private workspace, they could form a much better item, and the access to tools made it even better. Sage was wary of using up any consumable items like Fire Stones, since the workshop wasn’t equipped with any Earth Flames. Stealing things would be more noticeable than adding random objects like he was now.

When no one was using the workshop it was sealed up with an isolating array that was placed over the whole area, which kept any in progress projects in a preserved state as well as maintaining the quality of ingredients in the nearby storeroom. It also blocked sounds and energy fluctuations to prevent anyone outside from disturbing those within. It also hid what he was doing inside and made for a perfect place to experiment. Once this place presented itself, Sage started training using a Blacksilver Pawn to forge. It wasn’t a task outside the realm of possibility, but it wasn’t something he’d tried before. With the Inner World it meant that he could quickly become an expert. Since the Soul Fragment allowed him to transfer his Qi and the Pawn’s body gave him hands to work with, then he could conceivably create most items.

The first thing to learn was whether or not he could use other Heavenly Materials with the Blacksilver Pawn and he found that the answer was no. Only, it wasn’t quite that simple. While he was blocked from sending a wisp of Samsara Flames through, it felt like he was pushing at a wall. Testing followed up next and while a great amount of Qi didn’t help, a greater amount of soul energy did. By enlarging the Soul Fragment, the wall blocking him got thinner. With more he felt that it started to become permeable and instead of sending the flame through he used the fragment to shape the Samsara Flames on its own. With the Pawn using the flames on its own he was pleased, but there were still two problems. First of all, he had to enlarge the Soul Fragment from afar, rather than up close and personal like on the Inner World. Worse yet, using the Heavenly Materials on the Inner World was too easy.

More tests followed. Soul Fragments couldn’t be sent ‘through’ another Soul Fragment. He also couldn’t just send soul ‘energy’ through either. It wasn’t something he knew how to manipulate. Yet, they’d just proven another option and so it was the Eye of the World that was the solution to the problem. The Qi he sent through could be converted into the dark water from the Eye of the World, the dark water that nourished the soul. The only problem was that it would take some time and so the Soul Fragment formed a sliver of Blue Icesilver and slid into the crack between two pieces of wood on a nearby storage cabinet. The Hammer was left to be used as a material while the Soul Fragment slowly strengthened itself with a constant flow of Qi from Sage’s body. It wasn’t a quick process, but there was another benefit to the many years long process as it gave Sage the chance to improve his control over a Heavenly Material wielded through the Soul Fragment.

A couple decades in, his control finally improved enough that he could start the next part of the plan. It also gave quite the buffer from disciples randomly finding, and being gifted, Blue Icesilver items. He never knew if someone else claimed credit for the fan gifted to that core disciple, but he cared little. The goal now was to create something that could catch the attention of the Sect Elders. With the access to the workshop, he forged a set of nested accessories. He didn’t know if he’d be able to access this sort of area again anytime soon so he made an earring that could be hidden within a ring that could be hidden within a bracelet, that could be incorporated into a necklace, and finally a vaguely crown-like hat. It was somewhat ridiculous, but meant it could change hands five times while staying hidden. It also meant he needed to make five different Magic Tools, each with a slot to cleverly disguise the smaller accessory in a way the owner wouldn’t notice when it was gone and filled with Blue Icesilver instead.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

The research teams had paid careful attention to the members of Chain Ocean Palace and there would be whole rooms full of reports and profiles on them if they didn’t have the Adjutors and other Bio-computer to store and catalog everything. There had even been arguments over whether they should split off a few very tiny Soul Fragments to spread around the Spire to use for gathering information, but it was already difficult enough for Sage to use the Blacksilver Pawn to sense things in the first place.

The Research Teams had worked many centuries to develop eyes and ears for the Blacksilver Pawns. Since they were only connected to Sage through Qi transferred by a Soul Fragment they designed special organs made only with Heavenly Materials that could replicate vision and hearing and then convert it into a signal that could be sent back to him through Qi. The Adjutor was responsible for receiving those signals and relaying them to the Inner World. With this advancement, it became possible for the Pawns to be used like a clone rather than just a puppet that had no senses or autonomy. While they were tedious to keep track of and control, the time dilation of the Inner World gave him plenty of time to process everything and took only a sliver of his main body’s attention.

With such a crude method of control and only a sliver of his attention, these clones wouldn’t be very capable, but they could gather information quite well, as the researchers could do the hard work of monitoring what it saw. Since the Qi was transferred through his Soul Fragment there was no need to worry about the limits of his body and how much Qi his meridians could handle. With the Magic Tools finished they snuck out of the workshop, sprouting some liquid metal limbs to move the crown around and heading out towards the Elder’s part of the Spire. Unfortunately, they didn’t make it all the way there. The little crown leapt up onto the ceiling, anchoring itself with tiny spikes at the ends of its limbs, but eventually his luck ran out and someone too powerful approached without leaving him enough time to hide. The crown slumped down to sit upon the ground and the tiny limbs combined together, forming into a small plaque shoved into the crown’s decorative sculpture work. The jewelry designs from artists on the Inner World were once again extremely beautiful and elaborate, but they had only one material to work with so it made them look much more subdued than the intricate sculpture work would suggest.

They were trying the same trick as before, putting a name on a little metal card to get the crown gifted to the Elder they felt would get them closest to their goal, but this Elder that found the crown simply put it into his Storage Ring and left it there for a few years before taking it out. They heard murmurs from a very jealous man, who had kept it a secret to ensure nobody would be looking for it or recognize it when he started to use it. Just like that, the first magic tool was ‘lost’ and the many layered chain necklace unraveled from the inner band of the crown and replaced itself with Blue Icesilver. The chains slithered out of the room like a snake while the Elder slept, something that only happened once a month.

On the plus side, despite the years lost, the Elder had brought them into the living areas of the higher level members of the Spire. It stopped in front of a door bearing a name it recognized as a prime target and formed a small box of Blue Icesilver on the floor beside the door frame. Then it lifted the lid and slithered inside. There was another small hiccup as the Elder they were targeting didn’t seem to care. Instead, they gave the necklace to their Direct Disciple, but this ended up working out in their favor as the disciple in question lived with their master like a servant and allowed them to collect much more useful information than they had before.

By the time Sage rose up to the next rank and gained his ‘Immortal Body’, it became even easier to manipulate the Blacksilver Pawn and to interpret its senses. He now felt he could keep a few of them going at the same time before even noticing any strain. They’d also gathered the information they were looking for.

When the Shifting Jade Mountain arrived at the Spire once again, Sage knew exactly what he had to do.