Chapter 69: Blood Beast Manipulation
The shadow of Kian’s tall frame stretched over the dusty stones of the courtyard, freezing the massive fatty mid-swing.
Before the thick-necked youth or the butler could even process the intrusion, Kian flickered like a phantom, the speed of his Wind Step reducing the space between them to nothing.
Three precise, feather-light strikes of his index finger caught the pressure points on their necks—thud, thud, thud—and all three collapsed into the dirt like sacks of wet flour, instantly unconscious.
’With my senses, noticing weak points is too easy now.’
A few days ago, he would not have believed he could do this so easily.
Kian crouched beside the heavy, snoring form of the young master, his eyes flaring into a crimson glow as he focused his mind.
Kian pinched his own index finger, squeezing out a single, dense droplet of dark blood that hung suspended by his Qi before he pressed it directly onto the fatty’s forehead.
’Blood Beast, take over the body!’
At the same time, he began to use his other technique.
Closing his eyes, Kian unleashed the Thread of the Puppet Master, weaving a glowing blue strand of spiritual intent from his own temple, through the air, and deep into the fatty’s skull to bond with the blood beast now burrowing into the youth’s brain.
The fat youth’s body jerked on the dirt, his eyes snapping open to reveal nothing but solid, glossy crimson.
The blood beast uncoiled inside his skull, eating away the boy’s remaining consciousness and replacing it with Kian’s absolute authority, while the blue spiritual thread tightened to lock the puppet-link in place.
As Kian watched, he saw the breif flash of a blood fatty inside the pupils of the young man. But soon, the blood fatty hid itself.
Slowly, the crimson receded from the boy’s eyes, leaving behind the dull, submissive gaze of a perfectly normal person.
Kian stood up and severed the physical thread with a flick of his wrist, yet the mental link remained crystal clear.
The Puppet Thread was a channel connecting him to his puppet, the blood beast was the thing listening to his orders. The body, the new fatty, would be the person moving according to the other.
It was a perfect loop of input and output.
Kian looked down at his new creation, testing the mental link with a simple command to stand.
The heavy youth scrambled to his feet with none of his previous sluggishness, bowing his head in absolute, silent submission.
Through the puppet-thread, Kian could feel the faint, echoing memory of the boy’s name—Zhang Wu, son of the deceased Fatty Zhang, whose petty grievances had now made him a prime target for Su Chen.
"Continue on as usual and pretend nothing happened," Kian commanded.
The puppet nodded once and immediately dragged the unconscious butler and the battered servant boy toward the side, his movements returning to his normal self.
With his goal a success, Kian had no reason to linger in this nest of vipers.
He activated Wind Step and leaped over the courtyard wall, his body blurring into the shadows of the pine trees as he made his way toward the outer perimeter.
Soon, he stopped using any techniques and just melded into the crowd.
He slipped past the distracted gate guards as easily as a breath of wind, leaving the Jinguan Sect behind to walk on the path to his beautiful women.
To know that he had such splendid people waiting for him back at home was an enormous motivator for hardwork!
Meanwhile...
Inside the courtyard, the groggy butler was the first to stir, groaning as he rubbed a sore spot on the back of his neck.
Zhang Wu, now entirely under Kian’s silent command, stood over the battered servant boy who was just beginning to regain consciousness.
The boy flinched automatically, curling into a tight ball in the dirt and bracing himself for the inevitable rain of heavy kicks. "Please, young master, stop!"
Instead of a boot to the ribs, a thick, calloused hand gently patted the boy’s shoulder.
"Get up," Zhang Wu said. "Go inside the kitchen and rest. You don’t have to carry any more wood today."
The servant boy blinked up at him through a swollen eye, utterly paralyzed by the sudden change in his master’s temperament.
He scrambled backward in the dirt, waiting for the trap, but the fatty simply turned around and walked toward the main house without looking back.
The butler, who was surprised to have fallen asleep, also woke up. Then, without waiting, quickly followed the fatty.
"Young master. Should we go to your uncle’s home? He is also very mad that Su Chen killed your father. We can move from that direction?"
The puppet did not answer for a moment, looking distracted.
Then, its eyes focused.
"Yes. Let’s go to my uncle."
For some reason, his young master felt rigid and quite different to the butler. But the butler did not mind.
Who wouldn’t be a bit stiff after their father died?
Now, Zhang Wu wouldn’t be able to live his life like a spoiled brat.
He also had an enemy like Su Chen.
Truly, it was heavens doing the world a favor!
That was what the butler thought.
Meanwhile...
Kian walked back through the bustling streets of Mulberry Gate, a quiet smirk playing on his lips as he put his hands into his sleeves and looked around.
As he walked, he tested the range of his new connection.
In his mind, the link to Zhang Wu felt like a thin, vibrating wire stretched across the distance of the city.
He realized that with the Thread of the Puppet Master, he didn’t need to constantly direct the boy’s every breath.
The blood beast nested in the host’s brain functioned like a semi-autonomous drone, letting the puppet speak, eat, and act exactly as the original Zhang Wu would, driven by the body’s residual memories and habits.
It was only when Kian actively focused his spiritual intent that he seized total control. Doing so was like switching on a remote camera feed.
His consciousness would plunge down the thread, allowing him to see through the fatty’s eyes, hear through his ears, and dictate his speech with absolute precision.
The only drawback to this direct override was that the puppet’s natural, fluid mannerisms would stiffen, rendering the body slightly robotic and dumb to outside observers if Kian didn’t micro-manage the physical acting.
’But still, this is quite useful. It is a pity that I can only have one Blood Beast right now.’
Yet, it was indeed a good passive worker to show Kian all the weaknesses of his actual target.
Su Chen.
’Oh wait, I forgot to pick the Spirit Locket back. Let me quickly go grab that.’
He flickered.