Novel

• 🔹 Aliases: Holy Land of Artisans, Masters of Mechanisms, Kingdom of Weapons, the Modern Mohists
• 🔹 Creed: Technology is power, mechanisms are martial arts, ingenuity beats brute force
• 🔹 Headquarters: "Heavenly Craft Fortress," deep beneath the Forge Abyss, Commercial Republic (a hidden mechanism city; its entrance is concealed in the "House of Heavenly Craft" on Golden Tripod Island)
• 🔹 Nature: An exiled Mohist artisans' order — it lives by mechanism puppets, firearms and hidden weapons, and mechanism crafting, with all of its power vested in things outside the body

📖 Background

The Heavenly Craft Pavilion is the most mysterious and technologically powerful organization in the Commercial Republic. It relies neither on wealth nor on force, but on technology and mechanism arts to hold sway over the world.

Its technical lineage is said to trace back to the Mohist remnants of the Shuntian Dynasty — Mohist masters once famed throughout the land for "universal love, non-aggression, and mechanical warfare," who were suppressed by the authorities after the Shuntian Dynasty was founded. Some fled overseas and finally settled in the Commercial Republic. Finding that this country had no single royal authority but was instead a contest between merchants and rival powers, they decided to hide their techniques within the marketplace, adapting to this new world through mechanism martial arts and weapons technology.

Through the efforts of these Mohist heirs, the Heavenly Craft Pavilion was born. Fusing Mohist mechanism arts with the Commercial Republic's spirit of technical innovation, it became no mere "maker of war machines," but the pinnacle of the union between technology and martial arts. Though the Pavilion no longer holds to the ideal of "non-aggression," it still inherits the Mohists' engineering, mechanism design, and ingenious way of thinking.

Today the Heavenly Craft Pavilion's technological influence reaches across the world. It is at once the Commercial Republic's arms supplier and a key power to pirates, consortiums, and governments alike — so long as you are willing to pay the price, the Pavilion can provide the most advanced weapons and mechanism technology.

What sets it apart from every other sect under heaven is this: disciples of the Heavenly Craft Pavilion do not cultivate protective true qi, but pour all of their inner force into mechanisms and firearms outside their bodies. Their flesh may be weak, but their power is vested entirely in things outside themselves — mechanism puppets are their claws and fangs, firearms and hidden weapons their cutting edge. Once those external weapons are destroyed, a disciple is nothing but soft flesh that couldn't truss a chicken; yet so long as the workshop stands and parts are not lacking, they can build an army of steel again and again without end.

🚪 The Road to the Fortress

The Heavenly Craft Fortress is not in the bustling markets of Golden Tripod Island, the largest city of the Commercial Republic, but hidden far away in the Forge Abyss — a hidden mechanism city in an underground valley. Outsiders ordinarily have no way to see it; the only way in is hidden in an inconspicuous shop on Money Road on Golden Tripod Island — the "House of Heavenly Craft."

Its steward, Qi Jixuan, scouts promising talent here on the Pavilion's behalf. For anyone who wishes to join, he first brings out a "Linked-Ring Puzzle Box" — a mechanical lock in the style of the nine linked rings — to test the visitor's temperament and craftsmanship. Only those who can undo the rings and pass the test receive a "Heavenly Craft Guiding Token." Token in hand, they then follow the underground tunnels and ride the "Mechanism Train" that runs between rivers of molten fire, crossing the Forge Abyss before they finally arrive at the gates of the Heavenly Craft Fortress.

🤖 Signature Mechanic: Mechanism Puppets (Weapons Outside the Body)

The Heavenly Craft Pavilion's signature skill lies not in the disciple's own martial arts but in weapons outside the body. Disciples assemble a mechanism shell by hand from parts and materials, then install a living "spirit beast" as its core — the spirit beast runs on a treadwheel in the puppet's "heart," winding its mechanisms tight and driving the entire steel body with the strength of flesh and blood. This is a faithful inheritance of the ancient Mohist technique of "using a living creature on a treadwheel to turn kinetic power," which is why the power beast must always be a four-legged animal that loves to run: mechanism rats, jade rabbits, iron-backed hounds, bronze-sinew spirit monkeys, thunder qilin, and the like.

Mechanism puppets come in three types, each with its own role:

• 🔹 Mechanism Man — Stands at the front line to absorb damage, guarding in close combat and raising its shield against the enemy.
• 🔹 Mechanism Beast — Ranges along the flanks to rend and bite, darting forward with mobility and inflicting burns.
• 🔹 Mechanism Turret — Crouches at the rear to bombard, delivering ranged firepower and area damage.

Once deployed, a puppet follows its master like a loyal hound, defends against enemies on its own, and obeys its master's commands — whether to focus fire on a single enemy or to turn back and protect its master. Its "stamina" is the strength of its core spirit beast: running and taking damage both drain it, and when it is spent the puppet stops turning and goes dormant to recharge. So long as the spirit beast does not die, returning it to its cage and feeding it spirit stones restores it.

This is entirely different from the Demon Suppression Bureau's "summoning demons with talismans, creating something from nothing": the Heavenly Craft Pavilion must stockpile parts, assemble a physical core, and raise living spirit beasts — it is management from start to finish, not a spell that answers when called.

⚔️ The Four Martial Arts of the Heavenly Craft Pavilion

The Heavenly Craft Pavilion has only these four martial arts — no footwork or lightness skill, and it never touches spells or magical power. Its inner force is used to "drive" mechanisms, and its stamina and spirit to "control" mechanisms in battle; the disciples' own bodies are weak and have no means of empowering themselves, and all their power rests on things outside the body.

📿 Heavenly Craft Heart Seal (Core Inner Art)

The Heavenly Craft Pavilion's foundational inner art is the exact opposite of every other sect's: ordinary inner arts temper one's own body, guarding it and adding strength, but the Heavenly Craft Heart Seal pours every bit of true qi into mechanisms outside the body. For those who train it, the inner breath neither protects nor strengthens the self; it exists only to drive mechanisms. Its three exertions (exert) all act only on your mechanisms, never on yourself —

• 🔹 Pivot Drive: Spurs the puppets present on the field, making their attacks more ferocious.
• 🔹 Iron Breath Guard: Guards a puppet's channels to slow its damage, and restores its core spirit beast.
• 🔹 Focused Finesse: Condenses true qi into a firearm or hidden weapon, so that the next shot is sure to hit and explode.

So once a Heavenly Craft disciple's mechanisms are spent, they are nothing but soft flesh that couldn't truss a chicken — this is at once the sect's greatest strength and its most fatal weakness.

🛠️ Heavenly Craft Creation (Signature Art)

The Heavenly Craft Pavilion's untransmitted secret. Generations of Thousand-Mechanism Artisans compiled mechanism schematics, methods of refining materials, and the arts of mechanism control into scrolls, and disciples must study them before they may set hand to creation — "one who cannot read the schematics has no right to speak of Heavenly Craft." This study governs two paths, "crafting" and "control": first, using "assembly (assemble)" in the Mechanism Workshop to build every kind of mechanism object, where the deeper one's learning and the finer the materials, the better the finished work; and second, commanding puppets into battle — deploying and recalling them, ordering focus fire, controlling them to protect their master — all of which stems from here. Heavenly Craft Creation is the root of every martial art of this sect.

🔫 Heavenly Craft Gunnery (Ranged)

A martial art made specifically for the sect's own mechanism firelocks: firelocks firing in succession, bullets falling like a sudden downpour, making up for the weakness of flesh and blood with the ingenuity of mechanisms. Only while holding one of the sect's own firelocks can its techniques be performed (perform) —

• 🔹 Rapid Chain Fire: Fires several rounds in a single volley; the more refined the art, the denser the stream of shots.
• 🔹 Crossbow Array Sweep: Sprays a fan-shaped rain of bullets, cutting down enemies across a wide area.

🗡️ Universe in a Sleeve (Hidden Weapons)

A whole universe hidden in the sleeve; using a mechanical hidden-weapon armguard as its weapon, a pull of the finger fires a sleeve dart, backed by bewildering smoke and poisonous mist, tangling up enemies at close range and taking them without a trace. Only while wearing the sect's own "Hidden-Weapon Armguard" can its techniques be performed (perform) —

• 🔹 Chain Sleeve Darts: Hidden weapons burst from the sleeve in an unbroken chain, impossible for the enemy to guard against.
• 🔹 Smoke-Poison Dart: A poison dart that bursts into bewildering smoke on hitting, sharply weakening the enemy's attacks for a time.

🔨 Crafting and Mechanism Devices

The Heavenly Craft Pavilion's "assembly (assemble)" must be carried out inside the sect's "Mechanism Workshop" — outside the workshop there is no furnace and no anvil, and even the greatest skill is useless. Disciples gather their materials and spend inner force and spirit through a timed assembly; assembly can be interrupted, and once work begins, the materials are consumed. Disassembling a finished piece recovers some of its parts. How fine the result is depends entirely on the depth of one's Heavenly Craft Creation and the quality of the materials used — from wood to bronze, to iron, to fine steel, to dark iron, unlocked in order, tier upon tier.

Besides mechanism puppets, disciples also build their own personal "mechanism devices" by hand — mechanism firelocks, hidden-weapon armguards, mechanism landmines, and the like. These devices have no autonomy and consume no spirit beasts; they are purely personal armament. And the Heavenly Craft Pavilion's techniques can be performed only while holding or wearing a device of one's own making.

🏔️ Geography and Key Locations

Heavenly Craft Fortress: The headquarters of the Heavenly Craft Pavilion, not on Golden Tripod Island, the largest city of the Commercial Republic, but hidden far beneath the Forge Abyss — a hidden mechanism city. The entire fortress is itself one enormous mechanism: hundreds of movable gun emplacements are concealed in its walls, its gates open only when a specific mechanism code is entered, and the streets within can change direction as needed. Without a guide and a Guiding Token, outsiders cannot get in even if they find the entrance (see "The Road to the Fortress" above).

Forge Abyss: The giant furnace district where the Heavenly Craft Fortress stands, and the base of the Forgemasters' Guild. Here the flames blaze to the sky all day long, dozens of furnaces working at once to forge the finest weapons and armor in the world. At the deepest level of the abyss lies the "Ten-Thousand-Year Fire Vein," an eternal flame said to have been drawn from the earth's core by the Pavilion's founder with mechanism arts.

Mechanism Maze: The trial ground on the outskirts of the Heavenly Craft Fortress, a vast labyrinth riddled with mechanical traps. Newly built mechanism devices are tested here, and newly admitted disciples face their trials here too. The maze's mechanisms change endlessly — spikes that spring from the ground, flying needles shot from the walls, walls that move, floors that give way. Tang Yun is master of this place.

Mechanism Workshop: Where disciples build mechanism puppets and mechanism devices, fully equipped with furnaces and anvils and stocked with materials. All "crafting" in the Heavenly Craft Pavilion must be done here; no work may begin outside the workshop.

Heavenly Craft Library: The Pavilion's technical library, holding tens of thousands of mechanism schematics, weapon designs, and methods of refining materials. The top floor's "Forbidden Archive" stores schematics deemed "too dangerous," and only Heavenly Craft Grand Artisans personally recognized by Pavilion Master Mo Li may enter to read them.

📜 Key Figures

Sect Leader | Thousand-Mechanism Artisan Mo Li

The current leader of the Heavenly Craft Pavilion, about fifty, lean, his hands covered in calluses and scars — the marks of a lifetime devoted to mechanism arts. He is acknowledged as the foremost mechanist under heaven; his "Heavenly Craft Heart Seal" has reached perfection and his "Heavenly Craft Creation" is unmatched in this age. Newly admitted disciples are usually taught the two core studies, the Heavenly Craft Heart Seal and Heavenly Craft Creation, by him in person — anyone who hasn't mastered both can hardly call themselves a member of the Pavilion.

It is said that in his youth he studied mechanism arts at the Mohist branch of the Holy Academy, then, dissatisfied with the Academy being "too conservative," left for the Commercial Republic and founded the Heavenly Craft Pavilion. The jianghu widely rumors that he once envisioned a "fully autonomous Heavenly Craft Legion" able to sweep aside a thousand armies — but in the end that remained a legend on the schematics, and was never truly built.

He is calm and reserved and speaks unhurriedly, becoming unusually passionate only when the talk turns to mechanisms. His favorite saying: "Give me enough gears, and I can move the whole world."

Forgemaster of the Forge Abyss | Blazing Iron Hand Li Chongyang

Master of the forges of the Forge Abyss, about sixty, powerfully built, his arms knotted with muscle and his palms turned dark red from years of working with fire — hence the name "Blazing Iron Hand." A master smith from the Shuntian Dynasty, he was once an heir to the Mohist forging lineage, but turned his back on the empire in anger at the court's suppression of the Mohists and threw in his lot with the Commercial Republic. He takes students at the Forge Abyss and teaches Heavenly Craft Gunnery (mechanism firelocks) and Heavenly Craft Creation — anyone who wants to master firearms usually ends up under him.

The "Blazing Firelock" and "Giant Mechanism Crossbow" he forged are feared far and wide: the firelock can send a ball flying several li, and the mechanism crossbow can drive one bolt through three layers of iron armor. He is hot-tempered and blunt, a striking contrast to Mo Li's composure, and often says: "Mechanisms are the work of the head; forging is the work of the hands. The head can lie to you. The hands can't."

Master of the Mechanism Maze | Phantom Illusionist Tang Yun

The one in charge of the Mechanism Maze, about forty, of average build and ordinary looks — the kind who vanishes the moment she steps into a crowd; but her hands are extraordinarily deft, able to assemble the most intricate mechanisms in the smallest of spaces. She specializes in the ways of hidden weapons and traps and teaches Universe in a Sleeve (hidden weapons) and Heavenly Craft Creation; her students are mostly experts at close-range entanglement and taking people without a trace.

She once wiped out an entire pirate fleet that tried to raid the Heavenly Craft Fortress with her trap craft alone — laying chains of traps along the only path the pirates could land by, so that before they even caught sight of the Fortress gates, more than half of them were lost. She is calm and meticulous, a keen observer and analyst, and her favorite saying is: "The best trap is one the enemy never knows exists."

Invisible General | Huo Yuansong

The Heavenly Craft Pavilion's chief strategist, about fifty, lean and wiry, with a stern face and eyes as sharp as a hawk's. He never takes action himself, but excels at ingenuity and strategy, and teaches the Heavenly Craft Heart Seal and Heavenly Craft Gunnery. He is a master at directing puppets and firearms and at laying out a plan with subtle force — he seems not to move at all, yet often defeats an enemy in a single stroke.

The jianghu says he can foresee his opponent's next several dozen moves in a single game of chess, which is how he earned the name "Invisible General" — he may have no great army to command, but give him a few puppets and a few firelocks, and he can set up a killing field that makes the blood run cold. Calm and collected, never letting his emotions show, his famous saying is: "A true general doesn't fight with strength, but with his head."

🏅 Standing in the Pavilion (Crafting Mastery × Sect Contribution, Ten Ranks)

The Heavenly Craft Pavilion ranks its people not by their personal martial skill, but by only two things: first, how deep your mastery of the supreme art "Heavenly Craft Creation" runs — that is real skill, true ingenuity; second, how substantial your contribution and reputation within the sect are — that is people's regard, true weight. Neither can be missing: however fine your craft, without contribution and reputation no one in the Pavilion will defer to you; however high your reputation, if you cannot make good things you are only an empty shell. Strength in one alone is not enough — you need both reputation and craft, and only when both are met can you rise to a higher rank.

Hence ten ranks, from lowest to highest:

• 🔹 1 · Registered Apprentice: Newly through the gate, with a name on the rolls. No merit yet, only a heart set on the path.
• 🔹 2 · Structure Apprentice: Can already recognize structures and grasp their principles, read the skeleton of basic mechanisms, and repair simple devices.
• 🔹 3 · Parts Journeyman: Can make parts such as gears and springs by hand and assemble them into simple mechanisms.
• 🔹 4 · Mechanism Craftsman: Has passed the trial of the Mechanism Maze and can create independently — a full artisan of the Heavenly Craft Pavilion and the start of its backbone.
• 🔹 5 · Deft Master Craftsman: Outstanding craft and fine creations; can already take custom orders from clients, and a reputation is beginning to grow.
• 🔹 6 · Renowned Maker: Their creations can already be called "famous pieces," well regarded both within the Pavilion and on the market, with substantial contributions.
• 🔹 7 · Master Artisan of Principles: Not only skilled in hand but versed in principle — able to extrapolate from one case to many and to break new ground, fit to be a teacher in their own right.
• 🔹 8 · Mechanism Grandmaster: Has entered the inner hall of ingenuity, with weighty renown, fit to found a school of thought and take disciples.
• 🔹 9 · Thousand-Mechanism Grandmaster: Knows a thousand kinds of mechanisms by heart, with distinguished contributions — one of the very greatest grandmasters in the Pavilion.
• 🔹 10 · Heavenly Craft Grand Artisan: Reputation and mastery both at their peak, personally recognized by Pavilion Master Mo Li, and only then allowed into the Forbidden Archive to read the ultimate schematics. In this age only a handful have reached this realm — Mo Li, Li Chongyang, Tang Yun, and a few others.

(The old three-stage scheme of the Heavenly Craft Heart Seal — Recognizing Structure → Grasping Principle → Creating from the Heart — has now been folded into these ten ranks: the deeper the ingenuity and the greater the contribution, the higher the rank naturally rises.)

📜 Relations with Other Factions

Wealth Sect 💰: Partners. The Heavenly Craft Pavilion sells weapons to the consortium merchants, but also guards against their monopolizing its technology. The Wealth Sect needs the Pavilion's weapons to arm its caravans and fleets, and the Pavilion needs the Wealth Sect's money to fund its research. Their relationship is one of "mutual need, mutual wariness."

Pirate Alliance ☠️: Hostile. Pirates often raid the Pavilion's transport convoys, seizing weapons and mechanism blueprints. The Pavilion, in turn, designs anti-pirate warships and mechanized defensive fortresses to fight back. Tang Yun's mechanism trap formation once wiped out an entire pirate fleet in a single raid, and since then the Pirate Alliance has kept a respectful distance from the Pavilion.

Shuntian Dynasty ⚔️: A complicated trading relationship. The Shuntian Dynasty's army buys weapons from the Heavenly Craft Pavilion, but the Pavilion will never let the Shuntian Dynasty monopolize its technology — it sells weapons to the Dynasty's rivals at the same time. Li Chongyang's attitude: "We sell weapons, not loyalty. Whoever bids highest is our customer."

Moonrise Empire ⚔️: Much like the Shuntian Dynasty. The Moonrise Empire's many daimyo are all customers of the Heavenly Craft Pavilion, buying weapons and mechanical equipment for their civil wars. The Pavilion's stance toward the Moonrise Empire is "neutral" — it takes no side and only does business.

Changfeng Republic Gangs 🔥: Some gangs work with the Heavenly Craft Pavilion, using mechanism arts to assassinate rivals or strengthen their defenses. The Pavilion approaches such cooperation with caution — selling weapons is fine, but the Pavilion's name must not be tarnished by gangsters.

Holy Academy (Mohist Branch) 📜: Both rival and friend. Some Holy Academy scholars still keep in touch with the Heavenly Craft Pavilion, exchanging mechanism arts and technical research. But the Holy Academy believes the Pavilion has "betrayed the Mohist ideal of non-aggression," while the Pavilion believes the Academy is "stuck in its ways and unwilling to progress." The two sides have occasional scholarly disputes, but each respects the other's technical strength.

Commercial Republic Chamber of Commerce Parliament 💰: The Heavenly Craft Pavilion is an important part of the Commercial Republic, and the Chamber of Commerce Parliament's attitude toward it is "support, but regulate" — supporting the Pavilion's technical research while strictly regulating weapons exports to keep the technology out of hostile hands. Mo Li's attitude: "They mind their business, we'll mind ours. Technological progress has never been driven by rules."