~~~

“This is ridiculous!” cries Lei Cheng as he frantically stabs his caged foe with a spear.

“Commander! He’s right!” shouts a newly-promoted Quan. “This thing’s too fierce!”

“Don’t let it frighten you!” Liu Jin shouts while watching from the sidelines. “Cloak your bodies in Qi! It will not be able to infect you if you do! Don’t let it get out of that cage!””

Liu Jin’s words make the men fight harder, but it does not make them more successful. The twenty men gathered around the cage viciously stab the creature trapped there, but it does not seem to do anything other than make it grow more vicious. It howls and screeches while slamming itself against the cage. The metal bars rattle worryingly with each impact, and the barrier talismans glow from the strain.

As expected of one of the creatures of the Death Fashioning Scripture.

The monsters emerged near the end of the assault on Fort Anvil. Murong Bang’s men got quite the surprise when some of the corpses turned out to not be wholly incapacitated, and odd monsters began rising from the ground. Within moments, it was Murong Bang’s men whose screams could be heard from outside the fort.

While they eventually prevailed, Murong Bang lost over a hundred men during the battle. Then, about two hundred more due to the soldiers infected during the fight. It could have been less had Murong Bang allowed Liu Jin to inspect each soldier personally, but the general preferred a more… absolute method to deal with potential infections.

“Kill them all,” Murong Bang had said after rounding up everyone wounded during the battle.

It said a lot about the quality of Murong Bang’s men that neither Liu Jin nor Big Sister Bai objected to this.

The incident confirmed the presence of the Death Fashioning Scripture within General He Bin’s army beyond a shadow of a doubt. To worrying degrees even. If random soldiers in such an essential fortress are infected, then who else in General He Bin’s army is infected?

The creature Liu Jin’s men are trying to keep caged is one of the few left wandering Fort Anvil after the battle. Liu Jin managed to convince Murong Bang to let him study it.

Keeping it contained, however, is proving to be a difficult matter.

“Commander! It’s going to get out!”

“Hold on a little longer!” Liu Jin shouts as he hurriedly tries to create a barrier talisman before the ones on the cage burn out. Unfortunately, while Liu Jin has plenty of practice making talismans to safeguard his privacy, talismans that make physical barriers are a little outside his area of expertise. “Do not let it get out! That thing is priceless!”

“I am really not sure how to feel about this,” Lady Bai says, watching the sidelines. “Arts like these are not meant to be studied.”

Beside her, Lu Mei sighs and shakes her head.

“Just ignore it. Please. All great men have flaws. His fascination with the grotesque is his.”

Liu Jin pretends not to hear them.

The potential within the arts of the Death Fashioning Scripture is simply too great to ignore. Foul and corrupted, they might be, but their ability to manipulate organic matter is something Liu Jin envies. If he could manipulate a living body with such ease, healing even the worst physical ailments would be as simple as snapping his fingers.

In the Dead Plains, Liu Jin took control of the Fleshcrafter’s creatures, but he still does not know how to start the process from scratch.

He intends to change that.

“Commander! It’s not gonna hold!” Quan cries as the talismans burn out and the cage breaks. His hardened soldiers let out high-pitched screams as the fleshy abomination leaps out and opens all five of its mouths.

It never touches them.

Liu Jin appears in front of the creature in the time it takes for a hummingbird to beat its wings. One of his Qi snakes slams it into the ground, wrapping tightly around it to prevent it from burrowing away. Another snake joins, and then a third one. Each one wraps its body around the monster until they have trapped it in a cocoon of snakes.

It rattles once, twice, and thrice before going still as the beast is fully immobilized.

“You could have done that the entire time?!” Lei Cheng yells at him. The young man of the Lei Clan somehow manages to be both pale and red-faced at the same time. “Why did we have to do all that then?!”

Liu Jin looks at him, and Lei Cheng immediately silences himself.

“One, you volunteered, quite vehemently at that, to come here. You do not get to complain about having a job assigned to you.” Liu Jin says as he lifts a finger. A second one joins it. “Two, none of you were in danger. I was always going to do this if it proved too strong for you to capture. Three, I did not wish to do this because it is not ideal.”

Liu Jin glares at the monster trapped by his snakes.

“My Qi is now in contact with it.”

He looks at Zei, who he also recently promoted.

“Make your men find me another cage. We might need it. We might not. It never hurts to be cautious. The rest of you are to make preparations. We will not be in Fort Anvil for long.”

Though still in relatively good condition, Murong Bang has no intention of using the fort as a base of operations from which to launch his invasion. He wants to march into the capital as quickly as possible. The only reason they are still here is that he wants to give the soldiers a moment to catch their breath and eat while he waits for news of the attacks on the other fortresses.

Liu Jin intends to use this time wisely. He senses the creature still struggling within the cocoon, not that it has the strength to escape or even move. By now, the corruptive feel of its Qi has become almost familiar. Some would say that is worrying.

Liu Jin calls it progress.

He closes his eyes and sends tendrils of his Qi into the creature. He can feel its bones, its nervous system, its organs, its shifting flesh. It is messy and overly complicated, but there is a touch of brilliance to the monster. That seems to be the running theme with the creatures of the Death Fashioning Scripture he has encountered.

Probably because they are all made by the same person.

Interesting as the body is, the Qi tells a much deeper truth. It is the same Qi he felt in the Dead Plains. Not just the same taint. Not just the same technique. The exact same Qi. This creature was made by the same disciple they faced in the Dead Plains.

That is not good at all.

The Fleshcrafter knows there is someone out there who can subvert his creatures. It is safe to assume he has already developed countermeasures. Common sense and pride would demand nothing less. That is why Liu Jin did not want to make contact with it quite this soon.

And yet, Liu Jin does not stop. He harmonizes his Qi with that of the creature, attuning it until one is indistinguishable from the other, until the creature's limited intelligence can no longer differentiate Liu Jin from itself.

Like in the Dead Plains, Liu Jin locates the thread tying this creature to its maker. His Qi slowly wraps around it, increasing the pressure until it snaps and quickly tying the creature to himself instead.

Liu Jin waits for a few seconds for something to go wrong.

It doesn’t.

It could be that the Fleshcrafter has developed no countermeasures yet, but that doesn’t ring true. The more likely option is that these creatures were planted before the incident in the Dead Plains, and that says many things about the presence of the Death Fashioning Scripture within General He Bin's army.

Willing his snakes away, Liu Jin releases the creature. He allows his will to work on it, changing it to a more practical shape and destroying all the unnecessary material using his poison. When he is done, the creature stands on four normal, properly proportioned limbs and waits for his commands.

“Is that a dog?” Quan asks.

“A very ugly dog,” Lu Mei says from further behind. Liu Jin can almost hear several people nod in agreement.

The creature does, in fact, look like a dog. However, what separates it from a normal dog is the complete lack of any fur on it. Its pinkish-brown skin is completely exposed to the environment, which, Liu Jin will admit, makes it slightly unsettling to look at.

All the same…

“It’s not ugly,” Liu Jin mutters as he wills the dog to come to him.

The dog does, marching up to Liu Jin and rubbing its head against Liu Jin’s outstretched hand. Liu Jin smiles and pats it.

“Madness,” Lei Cheng whispers. Liu Jin ignores him.

“Eh…” Quan clears his throat behind him. “Is that really safe, commander? You told us those things could infect you.”

“There is no longer any risk of infection,” Liu Jin says. “This one is already under my control. The next ones should hopefully follow this pattern.”

A strangled sound comes from Quan’s throat.

“The next ones?”

“Of course.” Liu Jin turns around and sees the pale faces of his soldiers. “I will need to do a few experiments to verify the safety of it, but once I’m fully certain, it would be foolish not to take advantage of such a great resource.”

The dog barks. The soldiers nearby jump in fright.

“What in the world is that thing?!”

Liu Jin sighs as a man comes stomping into the yard. Tall and powerfully built, his armor denotes him as one of Murong Bang’s raiders. His Qi makes it clear he is at least a captain. Liu Jin believes he has overheard his name once or twice, Ko.

“Right now, an experiment,” Liu Jin replies.

The raider glares at him and walks until he’s less than a foot away from Liu Jin, trying to intimidate him with his size.

“Do you think I can’t tell what it is?!” Ko asks him. “That Qi cannot be hidden! The general wants all those things destroyed!”

The raider swings his arm in the creature’s direction and releases a wave of force that would surely crush the dog.

Liu Jin slaps it aside.

The attack noisily craters into the ground. The soldiers around the two wisely back away a few more steps.

“Are you trying to defy the general’s orders?” Ko asks him.

“The general gave me permission to deal with this one as I please,” Liu Jin says, not looking away from the man’s gaze. The air becomes charged with static.

“Those things are monsters and should be put down.”

Liu Jin raises an eyebrow. “As I understand it, so is everyone else here. Very proudly at that. Are you saying you should be put down as well?”

Some of his men chuckle. Ko’s face grows darker.

“Do you think you can speak to me like that just because you’re the General’s latest pet?” Ko asks him, raising his Qi menacingly.

Liu Jin matches him with ease.

Many of the men around them suddenly go light-headed.

“You are trying to save face after starting a fight you cannot win,” Liu Jin tells him bluntly. “I understand. I sympathize. Walk away, or you will only lose more of it.”

The man’s face goes red. His Qi spikes.

A single drop of venom enters Liu Jin’s Qi.

The raider’s Qi quiets down at once.

“Bah! I don’t have time for this!” Ko says as he stomps away. “The general wants everyone ready! We’re leaving this place!”

“You heard him, men,” Liu Jin says once Ko is further away. “Get your things ready.”

As the soldiers leave to follow his orders, Big Sister Bai approaches him.

“As much as it pains me to agree with violent oafs, are you really sure of what you are doing?” she asks him. “The arts of those who play with death are not things that should be studied. The feel of them alone should be enough of a deterrent. Willingly delving into their mysteries is… unwise.”

“I understand Big Sister Bai’s perspective,” Liu Jin says respectfully. “However, how can we combat their arts if we do not understand them? I ask that Big Sister Bai give me a chance.”

Big Sister Bai frowns at him behind her veil for several moments.

“Very well.”

The “for now” goes unsaid.

~~~