~~~

One touch.

That is all it takes for the monster’s flesh to begin corrupting his own. Its foul presence seeps into his aura in such a violent way that Liu Jin has to wonder how any of the disciples infected with flesh buds could have missed it. This is not a matter of him having considerably better control and awareness than the rest. The Qi in these monsters is so fundamentally unnatural that anything more than the smallest of doses should threaten to overwhelm them.

Something has changed, and perhaps, it is his fault that it did.

Previously, brief physical contact caused the creatures to leave flesh buds, while prolonged exposure resulted in more overt corruption attempts. Now, the beasts are foregoing subtlety and doing their best to overwhelm anyone who makes contact with them regardless of the odds of success.

Whoever controls these monsters must have realized that infecting people with flesh buds will no longer work. He must have felt them being removed by Liu Jin before he could activate them. That is why he switched tactics.

Just like Liu Jin is doing.

The creature’s cells and Qi flow into his body at such an astonishing rate that his body mass will likely double within the next second. Even so, Liu Jin doesn’t fight the infection. He allows it to spread because the more it spreads, the easier his plan will be.

Blood flows from Liu Jin’s mouth as his arm begins to bloat. Nerves and blood vessels are suddenly visible as the influx of cells tries to force them out through his skin.

This is fine.

Liu Jin knew this would happen before making contact. Some would argue that doesn’t make his actions any more reasonable, but those people are not the ones responsible for all the lives behind him.

Control.

He must maintain control. It is okay to let the infection spread as long as the components necessary for him to function are kept safe. That is easily accomplished by applying Poison Qi to key areas of his body. Though he entered the True Realm much faster than he would have liked, there is no denying his newly-acquired power allows him to bring his Master’s lessons to a new level.

As more of the creature’s Qi enters him, the by-now-familiar sensation of his soul clashing against that of someone else assaults Liu Jin. However, it is distant at best. The creatures are nothing but empty vessels devoid of souls. The soul Liu Jin is feeling is just an echo of whoever is controlling it.

Good.

Whoever controls this army is far mightier than Liu Jin. There is no way he can win in a direct clash. It is because the controller is not directing his full attention toward him that Liu Jin has a chance. As Liu Jin’s body is invaded, his soul slithers deep into the monster’s depths until he finds what he is looking for.

Its link to the controller.

When Liu Jin healed Huang Shing, he simply severed the link. This time, his soul gently wraps around it. Again and again, he twists his essence around it like a snake wrapping around its prey, slowly increasing the strength of his hold.

Carefully.

Methodically.

Relentlessly.

When it snaps, Liu Jin does not allow the connection and the creature it sustains to wither away. His soul is ready to fill the gap and take control of it, and….

This creature… this thing…

Amazing.

Three different nervous systems. Four hearts of varying sizes. Seven circulatory systems. One central lung. Sixteen brains. For a corpse, it shouldn’t matter at all, yet whoever crafted this creature took the time and effort to create something incredibly complex within it. Unlikely as it might sound, everything within the creature is perfectly connected and fully capable of working. Though chaotic at first glance, there is a sense of order to it all, a macabre aesthetic.

And yet…

Unnecessary. Unnecessary. Unnecessary.

Liu Jin thinks it, and the flesh reacts to its thoughts. He is in control of this creature now. Its flesh is bound to his will and no one else’s. Before Liu Jin even realizes what he is doing, the design has already taken shape in his head. His goals are clear: strengthen structural integrity, eliminate redundancies, discard leftover materials…

An idea flashes through his mind.

Can he do it?

The creature’s body and Qi provide all the answers he needs. He can.

So he does.

The beast explodes in a shower of blood and guts before everyone’s eyes. The flesh that had been trying to take over Liu Jin melts away, leaving him wounded but whole. Qi burns around him, already doing its best to repair the damage.

There are three hounds around him.

Unlike the monster they were born from, these hounds only reach up to Liu Jin’s waist. They have no eyes and no eye sockets, not an inch of exposed muscle or bone anywhere to be seen. The hounds are perfectly proportioned without any uneven or weak limbs. They are sleek, red creatures, though how much of that red is their own coloring and how much is due to all the blood on them is not something even Liu Jin knows.

Liu Jin breathes, and they do as well.

For a single imperceptible moment, the entire dead army falters. Liu Jin raises his hand, and the hounds jerk their heads up as if pulled by invisible strings.

“Go.”

A single word from Liu Jin is all they need. The hounds spring into action, ready to tear into the horde.

~~~

Not possible.

Deep within the entrails of his creation, the two words echo throughout his mind. He holds his head between his hands, and his eyes are bulging so much they threaten to spill out of their sockets. No injury mars his body, yet the impact of what just happened pierces him deeper than any blade ever could.

Soft laughter comes from above.

“Oh my, that’s quite a lot of rage. Did something interesting happen, friend?”

“Silence!” He and his beast roar in unison. Their Qi oozes rage and hate. The menacing intent coming from him is so thick lesser beings would have already lost the ability to breathe.

Xun Huwen only smiles.

“That bad?” Xun Huwen leaps off his creation’s back and lands on his snout, leaning forward to peer into its empty eye sockets. “Were the foolish savages from the other side more capable than you expected? Are you perhaps regretting not allowing the others to help you?”

Xun Huwen is trying to anger him further, yet how can his childish taunts register in his mind? How can he pay any attention to this Xun Huwen in the face of what just happened?!

Every time one of his creations is destroyed, the link that connects him to them breaks. That is natural. He has so many dead under his command that it would be foolish to try to keep track of each individual link. Why worry about defending them?

Even so!

He bites the inside of his mouth with such strength blood soon flows from his lips. The wound is sealed shut almost instantly, but the anger remains. He keeps thinking back to how that lone link was snapped less than a day ago, yet that event pales compared to what happened this time.

How could trash that is at best in the True Realm be skillful enough to subvert his control?

Putting aside the skill required to cut the link and grab hold of it before it could dissipate, the Dead Qi which permeates his creations is not something mere mortals can touch. He is one with Death. It is his art and his joy. Many are the trials he has gone through to unleash his creations upon the world, yet he is supposed to believe someone from the other side has linked to one of his creations and is controlling it in his stead?

Preposterous!

That is what he wants to say, yet there is no denying what he sees and feels through his creations. What was his is no longer. One of his children was taken, its pieces scrambled and made it into three in less than a single breath.

The red hounds leap at their former brethren alongside the usurper, moving with speed and agility that seems to surpass his own creations, but that cannot be possible. It takes years of careful study to fashion a body, months of training to learn how to make them perform the simplest of movements, and years more to make them capable of fighting.

So why do the thief’s hounds move so swiftly?

Why do they outdo his creations with such ease?

Not possible! Not possible! Not possible!

He roars, and his creatures roar with him. Outrage and denial give way to seething hatred. The image of the blood-stained, red-haired, red-eyed child is burned into his mind, and soon enough, it is imprinted on every one of his creations.

The temple and those hiding inside it are forgotten. The trash whose feeble efforts amused him is of no consequence.

All that matters is killing that thief!

It should be simple. Easy. No different from crushing an ant. The thief is nothing more than a cultivator in the True Realm. Barely, at that.

So why do his creations keep missing?

The thief moves so quickly and seamlessly in between his creations that it is as if he is not even there sometimes. The hounds, which should have been quickly reduced to nothing, bite into his children and… and…

They take them over as well.

Horrified realization spreads through every fiber of his being as he feels more and more of his creations being taken from him. They explode in a shower of blood and guts, and in their place, more of the red hounds are born.

He is not being overpowered.

That cannot be possible. His will cannot possibly be overcome by someone barely in the True Realm. This is something else. It is… a disease. The hounds spread it. They carry the taint of the thief from one body to another. It infects his creations and overrides them too quickly for him to do anything.

How could anyone remodel a creation not his own so quickly? It is not just a matter of Qi control. Knowledge is required as well. Even if this thief already had a model in mind, he’d need to be able to mingle his Qi with the Dead Qi. He’d need to understand the many chemical reactions caused inside the body when modifying it. Each hurdle should be impossible for anyone from the other side to clear, yet every single one has been cleared as though they did not matter.

Even those from the Heavenly Sword or the Thousand Shadows should not be capable of this!

This feels…

It feels like he is fighting a fellow disciple from the Death Fashioning Scripture.

~~~

Liu Jin would laugh if he had any voice left to do so. He picked the shape of a hound because it was the one anatomically closest to the monster’s original body. The shift was easy enough to handle.

The results have far surpassed his imagination.

He vaguely feels the disciples still firing at the horde. Some of their techniques hit his hounds, but that doesn’t matter. If anything, it is good some are being killed. There may have been only three at the start, but their number rapidly approaches a hundred as flesh mixes with flesh and Qi with Qi. A few of them dying to friendly fire keeps the number of links Liu Jin has to keep track of manageable.

The sky over him suddenly darkens. A glance up reveals it is not the sky that has darkened. The leg of one of the giant creatures comes down to stomp on him. A burst of Qi has Liu Jin snaking his way up the creature’s leg. He does not care about the corruptive influence of its flesh. He is long past such concerns.

Liu Jin keeps going until he is right in front of its maw and dives in. Flesh assaults him from all sides, but he already knows what he must do. The concept has been proven. His hounds are already biting at the giant’s legs, drawing blood and merging with it. Liu Jin’s Qi lashes out and wraps around the link. He feels it, feels him on the other side just right before he severs the connection and takes over the creature.

Flesh slumps down like snow. Everything unneeded is discarded, and the foul Qi rapidly becomes his and no one else.

Where a misshapen beast once stood, there is now a massive snake.

Liu Jin smiles.

He understands now. Fighting from within the corpse. This is how you are supposed to use this technique.

His snake turns towards the other giants and advances.

~~~

“I will kill him! I will kill him! I will kill him!”

Xun Huwen laughs.

“Oh, where has the mysterious figure from the other side gone? All I see before me is a child crying because he has lost his toys!”

His creature grows three times in size. Black fur covers its body, and its fangs lengthen till they are the size of horses. A growl leaves his mouth, and his creation mimics it. Its breath falls over Xun Huwen like the morning mist.

“Mind. Your. Words.”

In the face of such naked intimidation, Xun Huwen does not even flinch. He even has the gall to look bored!

“Now, now, there is no need for that.”

Xun Huwen turns around as though he and his creature did not matter.

“Still, you have aroused my interest. Since we are such good friends now, I am willing to help you out.”

~~~