Chapter 9: Balki's zombie refining...

After absorbing all the blood with his cultivation method, He put the bodies in his spatial ring and went down the basement, he suddenly felt like taking a cigarette.

On the bright side, he now knew he could get exp from killing people as well. He has four methods of earning exp, which is cultivation, absorbing blood, killing and pills.

Gu Lin Fang looked at the spirit gathering formation "first let's cultivate before 12 midnight, can't waste today".

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On the other hand, Gu Lin ju Sat Cross legged by her bedside thinking about everything that happened today and came to two different conclusions, "I don't know my father well and I'm weak...far too weak!".

Then she thought of the moves her Father had used, 'He has never used those before... there's so much strange things going on, But, why did mother always refuse us being together?'

'If He's so powerful, why?! Why would he...'Tears flowed down her eyes, a minute later she shook her head and wiped her tears.

"No need for tears, it won't solve anything... father said I shouldn't practice yet...I wonder why? There are so many questions..."She climbed onto her bed folding up in the fetus position as she suddenly muttered, "I miss you, Mother".

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Two hours later,

Gu Lin ju had long since drifted to sleep while Gu Lin Fang had finished up with his daily cultivation.

He pulled out one of the bodies and extended his left claws.

According to the Balki refinement technique, He had to first remove and dry up the corpse, then carve his self chosen symbol onto a hidden spot on the corpse while injecting Qi into it. Then use a core of power, something that can hold Qi for the corpse along with some Yin related materials.

Gu Lin Fang believes that symbol would be like what pulls Qi from the core and circulate it through the Yin related items for the zombie but then that would also be it's weakness.

'Beast cores? I'm guessing the amount of Qi the core can hold determines its strength...' Gu Lin Fang deduced the technique's meaning and began thinking of variations due to his calculating trait.

In fact, He was beginning to suspect that This was completely different from what most demon cultivators practiced, the art of corpse refining wasn't something strange in this world, but it was looked down upon and has been deemed hazardous to the society or at least within the influence of the {Sun Desert faction}, any news of a corpse manipulator would be hunted down with full force.

So any zombie user that the previous body owner knew of, who were still alive, never mention such.

After much contemplation, he decided that it's best to carve his symbol inside the bodies and make a fake one on the surface to throw people off.

In fact, He was hoping it's different from the corpse manipulators, after all they were a hated bunch and it's easy to spot them too because of how stiff their puppets were.

'this..., I'll be needing a... ,Refinement technique, instead of using a pot, I could just use the cauldron instead... probably'

He quickly got to work, found a knife to cut open the body, a wave of familiar disgust came to him and he couldn't help cussing at himself, 'Damn traits and personality, it's not like you don't do this atd the chop shop!'.

When he was done cutting it open, He exhaled and subconsciously stretched out for a 'cigar' before remembering where he was and returned focus to what he was doing, "really wished I had a cigarette at this point... my old addiction seems to be kicking in again".

He continued processing the body, he cut it open, emptied out all it's innards before making his personal engraving within it's body, somewhere mid-spine.

He silently drew the Chinese word for his former name 'PENG SHUI', a name given to him by his mother once upon a time. It meant, someone or something that increases the attractiveness of their surrounding. He carved it with his claw while putting Qi into the carved out symbol according to the technique.

Before drawing a fake on its neck, it was the drawing of a snake's head. Due to his Qi, it turned purple...

He spent the whole night on these procedures, carving tiny arrays onto the bones from his symbol, those would act like circuits or something.

what he needed next was a lot of yin soaked earth, Blood bone and some medicinal plants with yin attributes, the higher the rating, the better. Luckily, he had nothing to worry about with the plants as he had a few in his inventory, Beast cores can be bought from the Chang clan and but he had no idea where to get the remaining two.

But for now he would start refining the Body in the cauldron along with the medicinal plants to start the process.

"Ah...this should have been the Boss no?...Hahaha if only you were still alive, I'm sure you would be happy with your new upgrades... wait a minute!, Is there a way to store their soul and trap them in the body?. Maybe I'll see it when I increase the level of the technique".

Presently, Most of his Qi was swallowed by the first carving alone, before circulating onto the following ones.  if he wasn't an alchemist with a little knowledge on arrays, The whole process would have failed...not to mention he might have to do this repeatedly on the other bodies if he succeeded.

'Maybe I'll try finding a mass  cemetery of some sort or go hunting a bit...'

Should he succeed, it would be hard to tell it apart from a normal person except, they might have a darker skin and a few other things.

As he was making his arrangements, he soon sat on the ground while resting his head on the wall, "I need to get another set of materials for the stitching as well...ah money, money!, No this won't do... I feel this might be the key to having extra lives!"

"Father..." Gu Lin ju's voice came from the stairs.

 Hearing this, Gu Lin Fang goes silent for a second...right now, He didn't have any strength at moment to do anything, he simply sat there with eyes almost closed as he says, "What is it?"

"Father!" as soon as she heard his voice in the somewhat dark basement, she was relieved and excitedly ran down the stairs "there are some people from the Chang clan, they are moving huh?!...blueeergh!!uwaaeegh!!" At the end of her sentence she vomited, barely having enough time to cover her mouth, her face got paler as she stares at the man in the cauldron in shock.

This annoyed Gu Lin Fang greatly for some reason, thoughts like, 'I can't believe MY own daughter is such a weakling...useless!, what has that woman been teaching her?!!...or some chuckles would ring within his head etc"

Shocked, he looked at his user interface, wondering what was wrong. that was when he noticed a status effect in play, <Broken>.

[<Broken>: A negative trait developed due to several traumatic feeling, giving birth to a twisted mindset. Suppressed by <Calculating Mind> and <Resilient mind>...

Presently active due to insufficient Qi .]

"..." Silent, he wished he had the strength to cuss right now...

'I always knew all these contradictory Traits and personalities would be a problem in someway or the other.' grumpy and tired, so he said, "GU LIN JU...look here,... look at me!!!".

Wide eyed, she finally looked at her father, he looked pale and extremely tired, so she paused for a few seconds and recollected herself.

On the other hand, He honestly didn't know what to say next to the girl, so he frowned, dreading another cringe worthy scene but eventually decided to just wing it as he thought of what a Master or something would say, "That's right, don't look away... this is a part of who we are now...Remember...

Now, it's just us!, We want revenge, they want our life and so we would do anything for survival!...That's what jianghu is about, What ever you do, always think of surviving!...make do with whatever is available to you and if you don't have any, snatch if you can...If you find it impossible, run and then try again when you think you can...Survival!"

Right now...Gu Lin Fang wanted to slap himself, he was pretty much talking nonsense with a straight face, He Legit had no idea what he was on about... in fact, he had no idea what to say next but...

[Ding!]

[You have earned + 4 affinity with your daughter, Gu Lin ju.]

[Your relationship has developed into respected.]

"..." He looked at the girl once again and took a Qi Nourishing pill, before standing up with a long stretch, "wait here and think about my words, I'll be right back..."

As he spoke with some difficulty as he adjusted the heat on his cauldron before He left the basement.

'so troublesome...My brain cells' He mutters.

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When he stepped out of the secret passage, He noticed that his clothes were messy, with blood, bits and pieces of flesh.

Looking at his hands that was covered in blood, he was dazed for a second before trying to wipe it off on his clothes. 

He then went into one of the rooms, he pulled off his black robes and swapped it with a dark blue in his possession. He got water from the small pond on the other side of the house and washed his face, his hands as thoroughly as possible.

When he was done, He made his way outside and saw about two carriages outside of the mansion as they unloaded it into the house and courtyard.

"Master Gu, little Ye pays his respects" Young master Chang ye approached immediately with two of his Guards after spotting Gu Lin Fang.

"Aha, young Master ye, I trust that you have been in good health since last night" Gu Lin Fang nodded with a smile as he looked at the young man's expressions.

Chang ye tries to play it off humbly, "yes I have, where should they place your new guards?".

"The courtyard" He responded calmly as he watched the busy workers.

Surprised by the broken door with blood here and there in the area, Chang ye couldn't help saying...

"It looks like, your night wasn't too peaceful".

Gu Lin Fang looked at the young Master with a subconscious sneer and said , "just a few pests that's all..."

As they engaged in their conversation, the workers got busier, offloading furniture and unconscious slaves, the new servants joined as well and were brought forward.

"Young Master Chang, I'm in need of Beast cores and I'll like to purchase them" Gu LinFang observed from the side and decided to use the opportunity to ask this question.

Chang ye immediately smiled with his chubby cheeks on hearing this question, "It seems I was right, you are not from around here, after all everyone knows that we sell beast cores at the best rates."

Gu Lin Fang played it cool and responded with a "Indeed, I've been in seclusion for a very long time, many things are unclear at the moment".

Nodding his head in understanding, "So that's how it is..., what kind of beast cores do you need and what spirit root should it belong to? Are you a spirit weapon forger as well"

"Of course not, it's a gift for an old friend of mine...six or eight beast cores, the higher the better...how much for a level four Beast core?" Gu Fang decided to try his luck, a level four Beast is the same as a Nascent soul expert, even slightly more powerful as not all could kill them.

As expected Chang ye quickly answered with a, "Master Gu must be joking, Level four Beasts are so rare around and are hard to come by, some need several Nascent soul powerhouses to join hands and kill. Even if it was killed, they would be auctioned with great fan fare."

"Though I can help you out with four level 3 beast cores and six Level 2 Beast cores, if you can do something for me"Chang ye slowly became solemn as he spoke.

This made Gu Lin Fang change his perception about this smiling panda, "let me hear it"

Chang ye nodded before saying, "what ever happens, don't accept Master Fu's invitation to join the Chang clan."

Obviously Gu Fang would never agree to that but he still wanted to know why Chang ye would say such openly, "Why do you say that?".

"I'm sorry I can't tell you!" Chang ye responded with a cheeky smile, as though the person from earlier didn't exist.

This made Gu Fang smile as well, "Fine, I'll agree to this on one condition"

Chang ye's expression stiffened for a bit before pausing to hear his condition.

"Help me find every information on the Lu and Wu clans in the desert."

Chang ye was surprised, "This... are you from that Gu clan?!!".

"..."

"I agree, the cores and information will be delivered before midday!" Chang ye quickly agreed as he saw Gu Fang won't be answering him at all.

He boarded one of the carriages and his guards mounted their horses as well before nodding at him, they all sped off with the workers following behind on foot.

Gu Fang watched them leave with a smirk before turning back to the house.