(Author's note: I just started my new Reverend insanity fan fic: The Dao Guardian, please do check it out and let me here your opinion.)
Ning Zu was flying high in the sky, looking down at the Bai clan. The whole area was in ruins, smoke rising everywhere.
It looked like the aftermath of a war, but the destruction wasn't caused by an army. It was the work of just two Gu Masters.
Even though the Bai clan had many people, they were powerless against those two monsters.
Tentacles with yellow eyes on them swung wildly, hitting every member of the clan. The strikes didn't kill anyone, but they made people faint.
The strange yellow eyes stared at any Gu Master who tried to fight back, sealing their apertures and turning them into ordinary mortals.
Ning Zu floated above it all, unharmed. The only reason he had survived and defeated this creature was because he was Ning Zu. If anyone else had been in his position, they would have either run away or died.
On the ground, the battle was still going. The Parasite's tentacles kept knocking people unconscious while the zombie used strings to pull their bodies into a floating cage.
The cage was a giant ball of strings, trapping everyone inside it.
Ning Zu was pleased with what he saw. He needed the Bai clan members alive for his plans.
In his mind, Meng Yan's will was talking non-stop. Her voice echoed in his thoughts, telling him to use a Gu to replenish her energy.
Wills typically needed to absorb another will of the same type to replenish themselves, but Meng Yan's will was a special case.
She was made using the Flesh Will Gu, when you die, after exactly 24 hours, a flesh will is made from your dead body, it will be capable to heal with normal methods but won't using another will.
The zombie nearby flinched every time Meng Yan said Ning Zu's name, but Ning Zu didn't seem to care. If anything, it reminded him of the old days.
"You've grown," Meng Yan's voice continued, "but why are you still a rank 3 after all this time? Was I wrong? Aren't you Ming You's Dao guardian? I mean, Spectral Soul must be Ming You—he acts just like I imagined! But wait… another Venerable came after him. Wait you're alive, does that mean Ming You is still alive?"
Ning Zu smiled and shook his head. "Ming You is dead, yes," he said, "but don't worry. I'm sure he's terrorizing the poor souls inside the Door of Life and Death as we speak."
He had no idea that his words were both true and false at the same time.
Ning Zu flew down, his feet touching the ground. He walked toward the cage, looking at the Bai clan members lying unconscious inside.
"Hey, big guy," Ning Zu called to the zombie. "Are all the clan's men in there?"
The zombie walked closer, speaking with a tone that held some respect. "Almost all of them, sir. Only the clan leader and his uncle, an elder, are left."
Ning Zu turned his head slightly and saw the two figures in the distance.
"Zombie," he said with a small smile, "make a shield with your strings. I'm going to refine a Gu."
The zombie seemed surprised at first, but after hearing his master laugh, he nodded and obeyed.
Ning Zu stood silently, his mind wandering for a moment. He wondered why the zombie could hear Meng Yan's will, but he didn't ask.
There were more important things to focus on for now.
After all, he was about to do something that required his full attention.
Raising his hand, he signaled the parasite to move.
The creature that was controlled through the careful puppetry kill move, obeyed without hesitation.
Its movements were not its own; it was being manipulated by the wills of the elder's mind, still attached to it.
The parasite slithered into the cage, following Ning Zu's silent command. As it entered, Ning Zu stepped forward and placed his hand on the cage. His voice rang out firmly:
"Zombie, I will refine these strings. Do not resist."
The zombie nodded in agreement, standing still as Ning Zu began his work.
The refinement started slowly. From the moment Ning Zu touched the cage, the strings began to change. Their original purple light was swallowed, leaving them pitch black.
It was as if the strings were absorbing all light, turning darker with every passing second.
Ning Zu didn't have a puppetry Gu of his own to create such strings, but that didn't matter. He could refine strings made by others.
Normally, this was nearly impossible, refining these strings is actually harder than turning someone else's will into your own.
But since the zombie had agreed, Ning Zu could do it.
Even so, there was a cost. As Ning Zu refined the strings, he felt his soul burning.
His soul had already been damaged from everything he had gone through in recent days. The Soul Lotus Gu, which he had used many times, only made it worse, as it consumed part of the user's soul each time it was activated.
Now, Ning Zu's soul cultivation was barely at a ten million man soul, far weaker than it had been before.
As he worked, his thoughts drifted toward how he would recover his soul cultivation.
But Meng Yan's voice cut through his mind, pulling him out of his thoughts.
"Your strings used to be just a little gray," she said, her tone having a hint of sadness, "but now they're pitch black. Just what happened while I was away…?"
Ning Zu chuckled softly. "Hahaha, you're the only one who hasn't changed, little Yan."
"HEY! DON'T CALL ME THAT!" she shouted, her voice ringing loudly in his mind.
Ning Zu smiled at her reaction, amused.
Then, without another word, he turned back to his task, fully focused on finishing the refinement.
Ning Zu stood motionless, his hand still pressed against the cage of strings.
The once-purple threads, now pitch black, shimmered faintly under the dim sky. With a slow motion, he clenched his hand, and the cage obeyed, its strings closing in tightly.
The ball of strings began to compress, the force growing stronger with every passing moment.
Inside, the screams of the Bai clan's men who just realized what transpiring became fainter and fainter.
Now, only silence and the faint, desperate movements of the parasite could be sensed.
One by one, the lives of the Bai clan's people were extinguished, crushed under the immense pressure. Blood tried to seep through the cracks, but Ning Zu's control over the strings was superb.
He sealed every opening, forcing everything from flesh, blood, and bone, to remain within.
The parasite, still clinging to life, squirmed helplessly under the increasing force.
Its once-mighty form had been reduced to a frail shadow of itself, barely alive as the ball continued to shrink.
Ning Zu closed his eyes for a moment, feeling the rush of energy from the crushed people surging through his soul.
Negative energy poured into him, saturating his being. At the same time, the faint remnants of positive energy from the Bai clan men, who had died fighting bravely for their home, were also absorbed.
The sensation was indescribable. His Bloodlusty Soul greedily consumed both energies, and Ning Zu felt a deep sense of fulfillment.
Then, in the depths of his soul, two new Gu began to form.
One was a Rank 3 Scared Gu, embodying the terror the Bai clan men had felt in their final moments.
The other was a Rank 3 Bravery Gu, born from their courage as they fought to protect their clan despite knowing they had no chance of victory.
Ning Zu opened his eyes and smiled faintly. "Humans truly are one of a kind," he murmured to himself.
The parasite let out a faint, pitiful sound, trying to move as the strings pressed harder against it.
Ning Zu paid it no mind, he continued to compress the ball, reducing it further and further until it was the size of a mortal's house.
The parasite's resistance grew weaker until it was nothing more than a lifeless mass, trapped under the crushing force.
Satisfied, Ning Zu reached into his aperture and retrieved a storage Gu.
Inside was a collection of materials he had taken from the Xiong clan treasury.
He had acquired these resources after opening the apertures of Bai Ning Bing and Chu Er.
With a flick of his wrist, he opened a small hole in the cage and tossed the storage Gu inside.
The strings were immediately attached again, crushing the Gu and letting everything inside of it out inside the ball of strings.
Then, summoning his Burning Wings, Ning Zu prepared for the next step. The wings erupted from his back in a blaze of fire, their heat radiating outward. He flapped them forcefully, directing flames at the ball of strings.
To amplify the flames, Ning Zu activated his Hatred Gu, amplifying the fire with.
The flames kept intensifying, burning the cage and its contents, causing it to shrink even further.
Every time the fire died down, Ning Zu re-summoned his wings, pouring more energy into the flames.
As the sky darkened, the clouds above began to swirl ominously.
Heaven's will had noticed.
Heaven's will had no intention of letting what was happening keep going, as a tribulation began to form.
Lightning crackled in the sky, and a heavy, oppressive energy filled the air.
But Ning Zu didn't even glance upward. He had no time for Heaven's objections. His focus remained entirely on the ball of strings, which now had shrunk to the size of a human head.
When the ball was as small as it could be, Ning Zu lowered his wings and turned his attention to the zombie.
"Come here," he commanded.
The zombie approached without hesitation, its guard completely down. Ning Zu placed his hand on the zombie's aperture, and with a single motion, he shattered it.
The zombie froze, staring at Ning Zu in disbelief. If it had been capable of hatred, it would have been overwhelmed by the emotion.
But Meng Yan's will intervened before the zombie could react. One signal from her, and the zombie remained silent.
"You didn't have a real aperture, did you?" Ning Zu said, his tone calm. "This was a fake one. Even if you returned to being human, it wouldn't have produced essence."
Reaching into the broken aperture, Ning Zu pulled out all of the Gu it had contained. A faint blue lotus mark appeared on his forehead as he refined all the Gu inside it instantly.
Among them was a Rank 4 Puppetry Gu, which shifted in color under his refinement, darkening to match his aura.
"You died a long time ago," Ning Zu said, his voice cold. "Only a part of you remains. I will never forgive you for killing Meng Yan. But I will use your body however I please."
As those words left his mouth, something shifted in the zombie. Memories began to flood back into its mind.
He—no, she—realized the truth. She was not just any zombie. She had once been the clan leader of the Meng clan, the twin sister of Meng Yan, an immortal and the creator of the incomplete Yin-Yang Path.
The memories came rushing back: the brutal fight with Ning Zu and the young Spectral Soul, the moment of desperation that had forced her to split her body into multiple parts to escape. She remembered the final scream of Ming You, the sound that had shattered her soul completely.
And now, she understood how her sister's will had used her all this time. Her body had been reshaped, turned into a male form, and manipulated into believing she was her sister's servant.
"You! You fucking ba—"
Her words were cut off as Ning Zu activated a killer move.
Mortal Killer Move – Vigilant Puppetry.
Strings shot out of Ning Zu's hands, piercing the zombie's brain and enveloping it completely. The zombie's struggles ceased immediately, its body going limp.
It was no longer capable of thought. It was now nothing more than a puppet since the beginning, and now she was bound to Ning Zu's will.
Meng Yan's voice sighed in Ning Zu's mind. She was silent for a moment before speaking again.
"I still loved her, you know," she said softly. "Even after everything that happened between us… she was still my sister."
Ning Zu didn't respond. He didn't stop to comfort her or acknowledge her grief. Instead, he focused on the task ahead.
Meng Yan let out another sigh. "I suppose it doesn't matter. We're demonic Gu Masters, after all. Sentiment only gets in the way of survival."
Ning Zu smirked faintly. "That's the spirit, little Yan," he said, his tone light.
"YOU FUCKER! I AM STILL OLDER THAN YOU" Meng Yan snapped, her voice ringing sharply in his mind.
But Ning Zu just smiled, already thinking about his next move. With the zombie fully under his control and the ball of strings refined, he had taken a significant step forward.
The skies above continued to rumble, Heaven's will still furious at what had transpired. But Ning Zu didn't care. For now, the heavens could wait.