A World Worth Protecting

1

<em>I’m not only going to kill Wang Baole, but I’m also going to kill Li Wan’er that slut too! </em>Madness colored Chen Mu’s eyes. It gave him a gruesome look. He hated Wang Baole, but he hated Li Wan’er even more.

He had to personally kill this adulterous couple so that he could feel the joy of ending them. Once both Li Wan’er and Wang Baole died, he would have a great chance of becoming the new City Lord of Divine Armament New City.

In fact, becoming the City Lord had become secondary. With a perfected Core Formation realm puppet under his control, he would become the next head of the family clan. He would become a member of the council of elders. Why would he care about a mere City Lord’s position then?

Chen Mu might be crazy, but he still retained a basic shred of sanity… it would be a challenge to conceal the truth behind Wang Baole’s and Li Wan’er’s deaths. There were many eyes in the new city, and aid would come swiftly should the City Lord be in danger. After some thought, Chen Mu held back his murderous feelings and voiced his concerns.

“You have no need to worry. You don’t need to be near to wield the puppet. You can do it from a distance, remotely!”

“In addition, on the day we execute the plan, I will also cast a spell to hold back the Governor and her people. This will delay their rescue efforts for some time!” The black-robed man in the ice said in his raspy voice. This made Chen Mu ponder. He asked suddenly, “Senior, you have such abilities, why do you not do this yourself?”

“If you can destroy the Martian array formation as well as the new city’s array formation, I’ll give you a puppet. You won’t have to do anything. I’ll take care of things myself!” the black-robed man said casually. His calm voice rang out in the room. Chen Mu’s eyes flashed. He didn’t continue with the topic and began to ask about the details of crafting the puppet.

With the black-robed man’s lesson, Chen Mu soon figured out how to craft the puppet. A myriad of emotions flashed across his face without pause, and his breathing grew uneven. The method of crafting the puppet seemed too strange and bloody. It was no longer a simple refining but had become a sort of sacrifice. It was a sacrifice of one’s blood and flesh!

<em>This must be a dark art! </em>Chen Mu sucked in a deep breath. He stared at the ice on the walls around him. After the black-robed man ended the conversation and left, the ice slowly melted. An hour later, everything resumed to normal—the air was no longer chilly.

<em>Before he left, he didn’t urge me to quickly refine the puppet… </em>Chen Mu remained slightly hesitant. The number of people who had to be sacrificed was too many. According to what the black-robed man said, he had to use his own fresh blood to nourish the small drum for a period of time. The small drum would then blossom like a flower and bloom large numbers of dandelion-like creatures.

The dandelions were invisible to others’ eyes. They would scatter and find a cultivator as a host, hiding inside the cultivator’s body and absorbing their life energies. Finally, they would return to the small drum and fuse with it. That was how the perfected Core Formation realm puppet would be formed.

There were other areas requiring preparation as well, but they were supplementary. The dandelion was the key.

<em>The black-robed man hides ill intentions. I cannot trust him fully and obey his words completely… what he wants is for me to send the dandelions scattering across the entire city, but that would be too great a scale at such an early stage. It would be uncontrollable. The Governor might realize that something is amiss…</em>

<em>I have to carry this out in a controlled and secretive manner. That’s the right approach! </em>After musing over this for a while, Chen Mu gritted his teeth and made up his mind. The Five Generation Sky Clan might lack in other areas, but one area they had no lack in was in the number of cultivators. Most were servants bound to the family clan, their loyalty to the family clan unquestionable. They were the safest hosts for the parasites.

Besides, Chen Mu sensed that the choice of hosts for such parasites was important. This was to ensure that he had ultimate control over the puppet. That was why he still felt that having the parasites reside in his own people was the safest bet.

Chen Mu felt that there was nothing wrong with using his own people for the blood sacrifice. If they were loyal enough to die for the family clan, they should then feel equally honored to sacrifice themselves to become part of the puppet.

With such thoughts in mind, Chen Mu began his seclusion. He followed the black-robed man’s instructions and used his own blood to nourish the small drum… Time passed gradually during this period. A month soon went by.

Within that month, Chen Mu continued to remain in seclusion, and the construction of the new city continued. Everything was slowly coming into shape. As things began to run more smoothly, Li Wan’er and Wang Baole continued their bizarre relationship—hostile during the day and passionate in the night…

Li Wan’er’s prudence also ensured that no one realized what was going on between the two of them. Wang Baole found their sneaking around behind others’ backs intensely exciting.

Things remained the same with their political and administrative differences. If there were any differences in opinion, Wang Baole would display his prowess during the night and force Li Wan’er to submit and agree with him…

Wang Baole didn’t stop his training either. He was close to reaching the perfected Foundation Establishment realm. Lin Tianhao had also accumulated most of the rare materials and the Artifact Spirits required for refining Dharmic Armaments. He reported to Wang Baole and told the latter that he would be able to collect everything that was required soon.

Everything seemed to be going well. At this time, Chen Mu’s seclusion came to an end. During this month of blood-feeding, the small drum had turned blood red in color, and the evil aura within it intensified. Finally, one day, it was as if a seed inside it had burst into life and flowered. It released a vast number of dandelions!

The dandelions numbered in the hundreds of thousands. They were about to scatter and spread out, but Chen Mu was prepared for that. He immediately took control over the dandelions and restricted their movements to within his own autonomous zone. He had also arranged for a great number of Ancient Martial realm and True Breath realm cultivators under his charge outside, ready to intercept and receive the dandelions.

Even though there were still cases of parasites infiltrating the wrong hosts, with such an arrangement in place, most of the parasites entered his own people. The dandelions spread outwards, invisible and adrift in the air. They slowly entered the bodies of the cultivators.

As soon as the dandelion touched a cultivator’s skin, it would immediately worm its way into his body. There was no pain or discomfort throughout the entire process. The host was unable to sense the invasion and didn’t know that something had happened.

It was then that Chen Mu grew more confident in his chances of controlling the puppet. He realized that while he couldn’t accurately control the whereabouts of the dandelions and order them to enter specific hosts, he was able to sense as soon as they settled on a host. It was as if a new light had come into being in his consciousness. He could sense the other’s existence and presence.

He was excited by this. He was inside his secret chamber with his eyes shut. He felt more and more people becoming hosts to the parasites. It didn’t take long. Suddenly, Chen Mu opened his eyes, turning and staring into the distance. He seemed to be able to utilize the extended senses and see through the walls. Somehow, some time ago, towards his autonomous zone had come running… a donkey!

The donkey had indeed entered Chen Mu’s autonomous zone and had been there for quite some time. It had been searching for the scent of its food, but every time it had found it, it would narrowly miss it. This had driven the donkey mad, but it had continued to remain patient and continued its pursuit.

The donkey had followed the trail all the way to Chen Mu’s autonomous zone. Despite not finding the food, a dandelion had landed before it when the dandelions had scattered. Before the dandelion had been able to find a host, the donkey had sensed its presence and swallowed it whole…

After eating it, the donkey’s eyes shone. It thought the dandelion tasted quite good. It started racing about in the autonomous zone, swallowing up dandelions whenever it sensed them. It happily munched along, and the dandelions settled inside the donkey’s body.

<em>That donkey of Wang Baole’s… </em>Chen Mu’s eyes narrowed. A flash of savagery flickered in his eyes.

<em>Fine, since the donkey sent itself to my doorstep, I’ll readily accept it as an offering! </em>At that thought, Chen Mu tried his hardest to control the dandelions. Despite not being able to fully control them, he was able to steer them in a different direction and send tens of thousands of dandelions towards the donkey.

The donkey was beyond excitement. It ate crazily. Inside the secret chamber, Chen Mu sensed the growing light inside the donkey, and an ugly grin split his face wide open.

He knew that the parasitic dandelion would suck all life dry. The donkey had eaten so many of them that the parasites inside it were innumerable. He could almost imagine the moment when the plan was kicked into action, the moment the devouring took place. It would meet a gruesome end.

<em>I’ll kill it first, then I’ll kill its master! </em>Chen Mu’s lips tilted upward into a cold, cruel sneer. His eyes shone with a terrible light.