Nie Lie's body turned stiff and he wasn't able to utter a sound. Something strange had happened to him. He died, but he wasn't dead. He could still sense his humanity, but he saw the world with strange outlines and particles. His body had turned pale like a corpse, and his nails became sharp and had a black tinge to it. He had a body similar to a remnant, but his eyes were alive, and his skin wasn't rotten.
When the girl realized that she couldn't absorb his yang energy anymore, and thought that he had died, she removed her hand, and walked away from the boy. All of a sudden, the boy stood up without having to move, before he let out a deafening roar.
The Mother Spirit who felt the birth of a strange anomaly, quickly tried to sense a subordinate of her that was near the location of the strange anomaly, and when she found one, she took over the subordinate's body. When the Mother Spirit appeared in front of Nie Lie, she was confused about the particles his heart emitted. That was because it still had yang energy but it was partly corrupted. It meant that he was an anomaly and not one at the same time, because he had corrupted yang energy instead of yin, which was never heard of by her or deemed to be possible.
'Even anomalies that were born from dead males, exist out of yin energy' She thought full of interest.
"Dad said if someone wants to kill you, they should be ready to die!"
Out of instinct, Nie Lie's nailed grew way longer. It was a strange instinct that he felt he could trust, and that very instinct was telling him to attack her. The Mother Spirit's face got torn as a result, thanks to the fact that she was busy processing the possibility of corrupted yang energy. With little to no fighting experience, Nie Lie kept on swinging his hand at her, which she evaded by phasing through them.
"You're weak! You were meant to be nothing but a subordinate of mine!"
"Shut up! Your mouth smells!"
In anger from getting ridiculed, she delivered her own attacks. Her nails were way longer than his, but with her transforming to a seven feet tall lady with sharp teeth, he looked like a little rat trying to intimidate a tiger. The reason for her to transform wasn't only due to her anger, but because the morning fog had disappeared and the rising sun. Her strength was declining, and when going against an anomaly who doesn't have a weakness due to the human trait cancelling it, she had to transform to go on par with him.
Transforming into something bigger was a bad choice that she had no choice to choose. The reason why it was a bad idea, was because it turned out to be difficult for her to hit Nie Lie, who was a small and agile target that had discovered how to phase as well. Not only that, but Nie Lie knew the strategy to deal with bigger targets. Because he often stayed home alone with no one to watch over him, he would sneak out of the village to watch hunters hunt different creatures and fight giant creatures.
The Mother Spirit had the ability to deal with phasing opponents, but the problem was that she had to keep her attack within the body of the enemy to turn him solid and kill him. Using such an ability on Nie Lie was a problem for her, because she couldn't keep her hand where he was. He would always move away in time and run away from her sight to make cuts at the joint of her legs.
A long game of tag happened between them, but Nie Lie was the sole tagger. It was almost noon, and the Mother Spirit had lost most of her strength already. She fell down, unable to stand up anymore due to the wounds afflicted from Nie Lie's nails, which had cut the nerves of her joints.
"Die!" Nie Lie shouted as he followed his instincts to pierce her chest by bringing his nails close to each other to form a spike. With his nails piercing through her rotten heart, he somehow absorbed all of her yin energy. The Mother Spirit wailed in pain and regret, before she burst into a load of dust.
When Nie Lie had caught his breath and recovered his stamina, he looked around the village to see if there were any survivors. Other than the corpses of his neighbors, only dust which didn't blend in the environment remained. The longer Nie Lie stayed there, the more he wanted to leave. The sight of dried corpses felt uncomfortable to him, and if he stayed any longer, the memory of him being under rotten corpses for more than six hours might traumatize him.
Without a single attachment to the village, he left without looking back. He barely received anything from his mother, his neighbors were always busy, and his father was long gone. The only bit of emotions he had towards someone, was his father who had taught him many things about life.
Unfortunately, he passed away when Nie Lie was eight, leaving Nie Lie by himself, since his mother would often run around with other men to sustain a living. While Nie Lie traveled to the west, he met other wandering dead people. He knew that he was similar to them now after he was stabbed, so he tried to hang around with them. It took him only a short moment near them, before he rid that idea off of his mind due to his sensitive nose.
He continued his travels to find a community to fit in. On his way, it was fairly easy for him to survive. He had the strength and survivability beyond a normal human, which made it easy for him to satisfy his hunger. Animals were easy for him to catch, poisonous plants were no threat to him, and if he couldn't find any of those, he could absorb the corrupted yin energy from weak anomalies.
On his road to finding a place that he could call home, he found a few other villages. The first village he came to, was very vigilant when he had arrived. It was a village that was close to becoming a town, which meant that their defenses were quite high. They shot their arrows the moment they saw him, so he had no choice but to leave.
The second village he arrived at was a smaller one, which reacted a bit different to his appearances. The moment someone saw him, they yelled to panic everyone into running. Many of the villages he found had similar reactions to the two. There was no human who accepted him as one of them. It was a sorrowful life for him, and the thoughts of him not being able to have a lonelier life than before vanished. He was the only kind of his being, separated from humanity and Anomaly. No one accepted him, and he couldn't accept the anomalies.
For months, he lived in isolation, far from having conversations with humans. He roamed around the lands, in search for home; in search for comfort. It was only after many months had passed, when he found something similar to him. The feeling of resemblance, and the feeling of comfort breezed through his body. It was an aura that guided him. An aura that felt challenging, but a challenge to prove his worth of receiving comfort.
Nie Lie opened his eyes to see what was giving him the feeling of sympathy, and found a short sword. He was a bit confused, but he still grabbed on to it as if reaching for a friend's hand that told him that he wasn't alone. By pulling the sword, he felt the support that he needed. It made him feel brave and strong, as if someone was watching his back. And indeed, someone was indeed watching his back.
"Looks like you're a bit later than I am, young boy…"