The Dawn of the New World

"None of the others had such a drastic transformation. Is it something in your blood that makes you more susceptible to changes this big? Or is it..."

Dai Zhi trailed off while playing with the creature's tongue like it was a toy and only came to when he heard footsteps coming towards him. He looked towards the creature with a rueful expression.

"I wish I had more time with you but there are more important tasks at hand," he took a step back and ordered, "Change back."

The creature's body suddenly starting shaking like a leaf in the wind. Its bones popped, its flesh regurgitated and in less than 20 seconds it looked like its previous human form, Ade.

"Speak," Dai Zhi ordered again.

It got down on one knee, "What...are your orders...master?"

At first there was a slight hiss to its voice but by the end of the sentence it had already acclimated to this new body and was speaking normally. The only visible difference was the patch of cracked skin on its neck right under the jawbone.

Dai Zhi gave a content nod, "Very good. After you leave here you will be transported to another place. Break out of your confinement on the way there but try not to kill too many people. Go back to the resistance, rejoin their ranks and wait for my orders. I will continue to keep track of your position and occasionally see through your eyes."

"Do not reveal yourself to anyone unless it is completely necessary. Your main job is to gather information but if the opportunity presents itself, turn some of the others as well. At your level you shouldn't have a problem controlling a few hundred mortals or a few dozen more willful individuals."

"Do you understand?"

"Yess...master."

"Good. Get in position," Dai Zhi waved his hand but the creature didn't move immediately. It kept stealing glances of him, too timid to speak up again without being spoken to first.

"What's wrong?"

"My name...master..."

Dai Zhi was surprised it wanted a name, especially this early in the process.

The skill he had used to create this creature was one of his Blood Arts, the Sanguine Marionette. It was basically a human that was turned into a vampire puppet that did his bidding and followed his every command. Like all other blood puppets, Dai Zhi could naturally communicate with it over long distances, feel its existence as a part of his own being and even control it directly if need be.

But what set the Sanguine Marionette apart from normal puppets was that they were much more evolved and mutated physically.

Unfortunately, it was not one of Dai Zhi's primary blood arts so he wasn't particularly proficient in it or high level. Every time he had tried it before the subject would go under immense physical changes but at the cost of mental acumen, leaving them extremely lacking when it came to decision making and even normal day-to-day tasks.

But this time that was obviously not the case. Not only could it understand complex commands but it also responded intelligently and had high enough EQ to ask for a name, an identity if you will. This was a huge step up.

"Your name, huh? What about the one you had before? Abe?"

The creature nodded back enthusiastically, "Thank you...master!"

It seemed to be just happy receiving a name and did not care where it came from. Without waiting for Dai Zhi to speak up again, Abe swiftly went back to his original position. Picked up the chains from the floor and put them on almost like he had done it hundreds of times before.

Dai Zhi was impressed yet again but a part of him did not understand why this secondary art that he had barely paid attention to and purposefully neglected had become so powerful all of a sudden. It was obviously not on the same earth-shattering level as it would have been if it was his primary art but still, this much improvement for no reason was unexpected.

Although he had never seen it before, there were rumors that his father had two primary blood arts one of which was the Sanguine Marionette. And apparently, it was with the help of Sanguine Marionette that he was able to get the Dai Clan to where it was today.

He had an entire army of Sanguine Marionettes whose raw power did not lag too far behind his own. There was no way to tell whether or not this was true because so far, there simply hadn't been any reason for him to call for such an army.

Just the fact there COULD be something like that hiding within the royal castle was enough to keep most prying eyes away. On earth, it would be akin to having a nuclear deterrent only this one was controlled solely by the will of one being.