Poison God's Heritage

"An undead… we've been calling them walkers for a while, they don't look like Jiangshi. Since they look…natural, in their extraordinariness."

"Indeed, Jiangshis are usually made by hand, but these look untampered with, and Jiangshis don't infect others, as you mentioned before. Zombies do…" the last part I kept to myself.

"Why the walls?" I asked.

"They can't climb them, the walls are too smooth and too tough for their claws to pierce through. They'll just slide down if they were to try and climb them. And they can't use Qi to fly no matter their cultivation level. They're all grounded. So we decided to erect these walls to stop them form entering the city," the general added.

"Interesting," I replied. "And they just do this? Roam about until the 'morning?'"

"Yes, once it's closer to morning hours, they burrow back deep into the sand and then just disappear," he said.

"Disappear? How can they just disappear?"

"We don't actually know, I even personally went to chase after some of them, but after they burrow deep enough you just can't locate them anymore, it's as if they were never there," he said.

'Frankly speaking, this is getting interesting by the second. So many secrets and so many mysteries.'

"I fail to see the danger to our lives, these may be numerous, but they're all at the ascendant stage, none of them should pose a threat to me as you had made it seem before, general," I said.

"These, yes, they may not be of any note worth mentioning to you, but these are at the border of the Sea of Demons, the stronger walkers are deep, right where my daughter was attacked… that's when the nightmare starts," he said.

"I see," I turned my head to old Fu and said, "I need to capture a couple of these guys," I said.

"We tried, but the moment day comes up, they just turn to ash, even under the shade and hidden in dungeons, they won't last." Said the General.

"I have my way," I replied.

"Then knock yourself out," the general said, "But make sure to not pull any aggressiveness toward the city. I hope you could take a few of my soldiers with you," he said.

"No need to risk injuring or harming other soldiers. I believe me and old Fu are enough for this," I said.

The general looked at old Fu with a worried look and the latter replied, "We won't move far, we'll be hunting within sight," he said.

"Good then, I'll allow you leave, but like I said, try and keep the aggression away from the city. We don't want to cause unnecessary commotion with the people living here," he said.

The two of us then jumped down from the walls and dashed above the closest walkers who all turned their heads toward us and began moving in swarms following us.

"That group," I pointed, and old Fu nodded.

We came down upon a group of three walkers. One of them was a female almost my size, and the other two were pretty much giants compared to me, but all three were sluggish and didn't seem to have a high cultivation base.

Yet that didn't mean that they were weak. The female walker sniffed the air at us, even without eyes it seems that their sense of smell is what's driving them. That was something to note.

The female walker then screeched as loud as a banshee. The sonic boom was enough to alert almost every other walker in the vicinity all the way to the gate of the city.

With that, even the walkers that didn't notice us now were swarming their way toward us.

Old Fu had a relaxed expression on his face, after all, these were barely ascendant level while his power is at least two major cultivation realms above mine and I'm in the emperor level.

The female zombie then lunged itself at me.

"Hmm, they have no ability to discern danger, or realize how strong their foe is," I said as I dodged the claws of the female walker.

In then grabbed her wrists, and took a closer look at her fingernails. They were coated with a dark liquid that oozed out of her body and wounds.

"Poison? Or disease…'

I lightly twisted her arm, and it snapped instantly, she didn't even register the pain as she flailed around trying to get away from me, not out of fear, but just to have a better position to attack.

"They don't feel pain, interesting," I muttered.

"Automaton, can you take her inside," I said.

"Yes, master," he said and instantly a teleportation gate opened up.

Old Fu pulled the two hulking walkers which were already broken of bones and joints when old Fu decided to roughen them up a bit and make them meeker. It didn't work, they still tried to desperately struggle forward and eat him. Not that it was going to happen, but their drive is admirable.

He then unceremoniously chucked the two of them like a sac of potato into the gate.

Soon, the rest of the walkers arrived toward us. Killing them all will take a long time, so we just rose high up, flying above the undead.

They couldn't fly.

But even if they couldn't fly, what happened next was a sight to behold.

Many of the walkers crouched down, the muscles on their thighs flexed and flushed. Then they inflated in size. It all happened in a fraction of a second, as they then jumped up. Hundreds of meters up at once with claws barred at us.

"Fist of Roaring Ki," I muttered, "Golden Titan's Palm!" I pressed my palm forward, and with it, an invigorating and powerful wave of pressure and Qi pushed down against the jumping walkers, slamming them all back and creating a gigantic fissure on the sand shaped like a palm.

Soon, the sand began falling to fill the gape my palm had made, and covered the crushed bodies of the walkers in its wake.

"Let's go," I said as the two of us went back into the city and stood at the wall's edge."

"So, did you capture anything?" he asked.

"Yeah, I placed them into my holding bag, but they were instantly destroyed the moment they got in," I said.

The general shrugged, "I've already mentioned that, anyway, do you still wish to hunt," he said.

I looked back at the sand and said, "There is no point, they already lost track of us when we flew up, so they won't come to the city. Anyway, I'll retreat for the night, I have some things to take care of," I said.

"If you need anything, just call for Dwei, also I have asked the General of the East for the Soul Flame, they're preparing it. It should be ready for you once you come back from tomorrow's expedition," he said.

I nodded to the old man and gestured for old Fu to leave.

Old Fu then sent me a Divine Sense message, "Why did you lie to them?" he asked.

"He already knows I lied to them, but they're not going to expose or try and butt in. To them, whatever we try, they already tried before. So he is probably not caring much of what we do, he thinks that even if I had captured the Walker it will die the moment the 'morning' comes up."

"Your words mean that it won't die." Old Fu said.

"Of course they won't, who do you think I am. Anyway, can I ask you to keep guard while I dissect and investigate these things?" I asked.

"Sure, I also need to meditate some, I'll take the chance to guard you while you're doing your investigation," he said "But how can I call you out if they come looking for us?"

"Just mention my name, I'll come out," I said.

Soon we were back to our guest room and I entered the Lord of Lords pagoda.

All three walkers were strapped on top of a white table that the automaton had prepared. They were chained and muzzled so they don't move and try to bite.

The female seemed the least 'damaged' not because of old Fu, but she was the least deteriorated. They were corpse after all. The other two were severely malformed. Their bones had already become brittle and their flesh had rotted away. 

So I'll leave her for last.

I headed toward the one of the two male corpses, and began taking note of his body's size, his frame and even the number of his bones.

They were perfect match to a male human. Nothing different, so it's not a different race, the only difference is the sheer size of this guy, he was easily twice my height.

I opened its lids, and noticed that his eyes were… extracted rather brutally. It was the same for every other one of these walkers. They were basically pulled out as there is damage around the eyes. 

So they didn't just lose them or had their eyes lose function and deteriorate. They were forcibly removed.

I kept note of that too and continued my investigation to understand more about these corpses.

And it was then that I noticed the drip on the table from the corpse's fingers.

I took a sample from the liquid and dropped a drop of my blood onto the substance. To note, the color of my blood had long changed form crimson red to that of a golden red thanks to the Primordial Serpent's blood that I had consumed.

My blood visibly bubbled and instantly overcome the black substance within this foreign liquid instantly turned red like that of blood then soon turned a dark purple.

"Hmm, it is alive, and it was just purified before it was poisoned… I need more samples to experiment with," I muttered to the corpse and smirked, "Sorry, this will hurt. Not that you'll feel pain.