Alex took off the artifact that he always had his puppet wear before bringing it out.
The old man gave a surprised look when he saw the puppet as he hadn't heard from anyone that Alex even used a puppet.
"Aren't you going to use swords?" the man asked him carefully.
"Yes, but I've been using swords day and night," Alex said. "It's fun to use something else from time to time. A bit of spice to my days."
He also wanted to check how his control of the puppet was and how it fared against someone who seemed to use the puppet daily. It would certainly not be an easy fight, but he couldn't see himself losing.
Alex had to use his Qi to manipulate the puppet. It was a normal puppet with no skill or technique carved into it. It didn't even have a sliver of his spirit inside of it, like how most puppets seemed to have.
In his case, he had only refined it. The puppet was his, but he couldn't control it as easily.
