From the frothing red energy, a narrow stalk sprouted. The beaten teen looked like a small mound, and the red energy like a soft meadow of grass. The single stalk extended upwards and then suddenly blossomed like a flower, expanding outwards into a wide disc shape. Wisps of darker red smoke billowed around this strange flower, which made its true form hard to see. Only when it was finished blooming did everyone present finally realize what it was. The center of the ‘flower’ was the skull of a fish with giant sharp fangs as long as human fingers. Around this central skull, the ‘petals’ of this flower were long sharp ribs, each of them gleaming with sharpness. A green light appeared in the eyes of this strange bone flower and its bones clacked together as it swept its gaze over the three teens who were still trying to desperately escape.

It fixed its gaze upon the closest one and a haze started to form around the teenager. Feeling the pressure, the teen’s body was suddenly surrounded by a soft white light. A thick black worm crawled out of his sleeve and it convulsed as it spit out a huge blob of black liquid towards the bone flower. The black liquid splashed against the red smoke that billowed around the flower and started to sizzle, trying to burn the red smoke. One of the other boys had a large blue worm crawl out and wrap around his neck like a scarf, enhancing his strength to let him pull his legs free of the foamy red light on the ground. The third boy let out a green caterpillar from his belt pouch and it started spitting out silk, building a wall in front of him. The poison attack from the black worm was ineffective against the red smoke, and the haze got heavier around the boy.

That’s when Sage dashed around the corner and walked upon the air, not touching the red light as he approached the bone flower and released an arc of silver lightning that formed into a sphere around the strange existence.

“Let these weaklings go, we need to talk.”

Sage stomped one foot down and he resonated with the natural energy of the world, using his Corruption Law to dispel the strange red light. There was something very off about this strange being, but the gap between their strength was too great. These teenagers were still all in the first rank, just like the kid who they were beating up. Even with this strange thing inside his body, it stood no chance against someone in the sixth rank. He threw out a little green seed and it sprouted into a trio of large tree branches. Each of them shot towards the teenagers while releasing a blood red liquid. The Ruby Blood poison paralyzed them while a few Subduing Spores put them to sleep. Then the branches wrapped around them and carried them back down the alley Sage came from.

The bone flower’s red smoke was thickening and gathering around it, preparing for a big attack while Sage ignored it for a moment. Then with the teenagers safely moved away he waved his hand and put up a double layered Windscreen to form a Soundshield around them, which was then surrounded by a deep green miasma, blocking anyone outside from seeing or hearing what happened within.

“Now that we’re alone, time to talk. What are you? What is your goal?”

The bone flower just shook, clacking its bones together while tilting its head forward and shaking it from side to side, a look that showed its contempt for his foolish attempt to communicate.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Idiot. You think you can talk to bones?”

Contrary to what the odd being thought, Sage could in fact do just that.

“I do, and I can. Now hurry up and explain. What is your relationship with the child?”

Sage and the research teams were already trying to figure out what this thing was. Parasite. Undead Parasite. Spirit. Demon. There were any number of possibilities as it didn’t match up with anything they knew of so far.

“You mean my body? Are you going to kill me because I tried to rob you earlier? How unlucky. I’m going to die just because you don’t like to show off your strength. What a joke.”

“That’s your body? Can you return to it? Prove it. If what you say is true, then I promise not to harm you.”

“Not even going to pretend to make an oath?”

The strange bone flower had no flesh upon its fish skull with which to create expressions, but the light in its eyes flickered and reshaped, showing its state of contemplation. Then it came to a decision and nodded, “That’s way too much effort to go to just to avoid my final attack. Fine, wait patiently, this will take a few minutes.”

The blade-like rib petals slowly drew back in, lowering down to lay against the stalk that was made of large femur-like bones. Then the stalk along with the folded ‘flower’ receded, shrinking back down into the crumpled child’s body on the ground. The foamy red light had already been blasted away by Sage so all that remained was the dark red smoke, which was now crowded around the boy’s body. Just as the creature said, there were no signs of activity for a few minutes, just a child’s body laying motionless while surrounded by a dark red fog.

Then, Sage suddenly felt strength return to the body in front of him. The signs of a living creature in his Spirit Sense appeared. It was extremely weak, but continued to grow until it reached the level of a normal person instead of something on the verge of death. Then it grew stronger, reaching the level of a martial artist and then a real cultivator. That’s when the child finally moved. There was a little groan and then the kid slowly rolled over and sat up, wincing as he did, “Ow! Those bastards!”

Sage carefully studied every action and the kid’s strength and aura up to this point, trying to confirm if the story he was told was real. Without any delay, Sage’s pupils suddenly split apart, the black dot splitting into three parts with a red outline around each of them. The triple pupils were arranged in a vertical line and the central dot started to undulate, vibrating from side to side. Sage’s golden iris started to glow and the Hypnotic Eyes took effect, enchanting the boy before he could prepare any defenses.

“Tell me, what are you?”

“I don’t know. I was born here, trapped inside this weak human body. I only know that I am a fraction of my true strength, but I am limited by this frail form.”

Hearing the hypnotized monster’s answer, Sage nodded and his triple pupils recombined. He used this power only as much as necessary, before switching to a different one. Using his Spirit Power, his mind invaded the boys, a giant glowing construct of a mantis appeared within the boy’s Spiritual Sea. While he’d convinced the kid’s mind to tell the truth, there could still be something else influencing the boy’s mind and hiding from him, or something unusual going on with his soul. By getting a look up close with the Spirit Power Technique he called Mind Invasion he confirmed first hand that the strange bone flower was how the boy’s soul looked and that there wasn’t any other energies or presences in his Spiritual Sea.

Retracting the Mind Invasion, Sage finally confirmed, to the best of his ability, that this monster and the young boy were one and the same. After such a careful examination he also knew the condition of the boy and tossed over a small pill bottle, “Eat these pills to recover from your injuries and the weakness caused by using your other form. It seems you’re lacking something, like you’re malnourished. What is it that you need to eat?”

“Corpses.”

Well, that explains it. Where would this kid find many of those?