Road Pass
Sss~
Lightning snaked all over the corpses as the materials and the wings shone.
They liquefied and entered the body, fusing together.
It went just like what Zhuo Fan had been through the first time, but way easier. Unlike the live refining he underwent, this time it was done on cold dead corpses; unfeeling and uncaring about some trifling stuff like a destroyed soul.
So, Zhuo Fan went big this time, a thousand of them at the same time.
With the job done, the bodies had a metallic sheen to them. Zhuo Fan made a sign, "Change places and let the souls return!"
Bang~
The human pillars exploded into a shower of blood and viscera. As the gruesome display splashed the ground with a sickening sound, it left behind faint flames of a spectral green glow.
Zhuo Fan made another sign and the flames entered the corpses. The corpses rattled and their eyelids shivered.
Zhuo Fan went through another sign and the corpses opened their mouths, while he sent a pill in.
"Fuse and let spirits assume their rightful place!"
Another sign and the rumbling continued constantly as the sky had a hole in it spewing out a lightning shower.
The mountains shook and Blackwind Mountain's arrays were close to crumbling.
Windgaze City's people paled, taking this unnatural phenomenon as the end of days coming to take everything they knew.
Zhuo Fan shook with the earth, knowing this was heaven's way in showing its wrath, tribulation.
Any items this world did not condone incited the heavenly tribulation to have them all purged, disintegrated; to guard all living things from destruction, decreed by the world's Dao. Zhuo Fan while refining war puppets was doing just that, going against heaven and bringing down the fury of the world on his head.
But he had put too much work in this for a puny heavenly tribulation to come ruin it all.
Since he was fully intent on refining the war puppets, he had a way to keep the war puppets alive, so to speak.
The snap of his fingers echoed out. The four arrays started up and spewed out pitch-black mist all around Windgaze City. The black mist wiggled and spun, swallowing all lightning strikes.
"Shroud the heaven's eye, the Sun and the Moon, 10th grade array, Hidden Shadow Dragon!"
With a whistle, the black mist swept over the war puppets, covering them completely.
When the black sea passed, Zhuo Fan saw a flat ground, with all the war puppets gone from the bunker and his sight.
The rumbling in the heavens was on hold, having lost its target. The black clouds scattered, having nothing better to do.
The land no longer shook and Windgaze City returned to normalcy. But what had just transpired had every one of its citizens filled with a bad feeling.
Sighing, Zhuo Fan wiped his brow, overjoyed.
At least he had the foresight to use the new authority of the Luo house and mine his domain, gathering the spirit stones needed to set the 10th grade array up.
Everything would've been wasted otherwise, with even his home base laid to ruins under heaven's tantrum.
Heaven was quite generous though. It would strike down with unbridled fury and unmatched force when anything foreign was taking shape, but will leave you be, once it was done shaping up.
Through the Hidden Shadow Dragon, Zhuo Fan hid the war puppets until the fusing finished. Then he'd have nothing to worry about.
[The world shall soon follow, with a hundred thousand puppets sweeping the lands in every direction.]
[Ah-ha-ha-ha…]
Zhuo Fan looked around the bunker one last time before leaving. Only the world's odd phenomenon had left a mark on its people, yet they had no way of unraveling the mystery.
This event was the start of a quirky habit, happening every other month. With Zhuo Fan keeping mum about it, none was the wiser and everyone became more puzzled than ever. It was like the world's aunt flo was doing its thing.
With no losses to worry about, no one bothered with it.
This was how the next few months passed.
Regent Estate used this time to lead its allies like an unstoppable flood towards Veiled Dragon Pavilion and Sword Marquise Abode.
Learning from Drifting Flowers Edifices' miserable ending, the two didn't resist and stuck to fleeing.
Regent Estate's attack on the houses met hardly any resistance since the houses were long gone, taking less than a week to trample both of them.
But unlike Drifting Flowers Edifices, these two houses hadn't suffered many losses.
While the wretched Zhuo Fan was the real big baller getting rich over this war. He robbed Pill King Hall and Merry Woods blind, tombs included. But didn't forget to include his precious allies as viable targets for some relaxed desecration.
It went like this. Once Regent Estate knocked itself out after attacking a house, his team would swing by for some quality digging.
The true winner in all of this was Zhuo Fan by far, getting close to a hundred thousand powerful corpses with Bone Tempering Stage as the minimum. He had already refined tens of thousands of puppets.
Just that none of his allies were clued in on this little tidbit, following him like good little doggies and blaming it all on Regent Estate.
It was safe to assume that a heavy war would break out if they found out who was behind all this.
Up till now, the foundation of the seven houses laid in rubble as two sides formed. All that remained was a cruel and hard war for supremacy.
Blackwind Mountain's main hall was packed with leaders of every house. Zhuo Fan and Luo Yunhai represented Luo clan, taking the main seat, while the rest were their three allies.
Zhuo Fan glanced over them, "The imperial family is beset with inner and outer conflict while the Regent Estate is running rampant across Tianyu. Both camps are at a breaking point. War is knocking and we can't avoid it!"
"Then we don't. We've suffered the past thousand years at their hands and now they've even ruined our homes!"
Long Jiu snorted, "We didn't fall out all this time for the nation's sake. But now we have you as a brother, Luo clan, and together we can fight them. We have you to lead us, to destroy them. It is the only choice left to us."
"Yeah, we'll destroy them!"
The others echoed. The disciples of the houses present were all homeless, runaways in the truest sense and form. When they had nothing left to lose, why would they shirk from this?
And with victory promising to restore their lands, they were all for it.
War was the answer and their thirst for it only grew.
Zhuo Fan put his trademark evil grin on, [Perfect.]
He held his hand up for silence, "Be assured, friends, we understand your plight. Our Luo clan's ancestral teaching is all about being righteous and moral to our neighbor! You've all helped us when we were at our lowest. We never forgot your great generosity. Now that you all are in difficulty, Luo clan will step forth and bring you justice. This is my declaration of war. We will fight them to the end!"
"Oh~!" Fists were thrown into the air.
Some sighed, praising Steward Zhuo's loyalty and Luo clan's benevolence.
Only Luo Yunhai turned somewhat pink, sweating buckets like every other Luo clan elder present.
Granted Luo clan's ancestral teaching was about righteousness, having heard Luo Yunhai and Luo Yunchang talk about it. But ever since Zhuo Fan took helm, that word was crossed out and written off from Luo clan's vocabulary, replaced with a better and truer aim, like self-interest to start with.
Zhuo Fan used it just now only as a tool, but selling it with his pretty speech and heartfelt act, everyone was inspired, driven and filled with thirst for battle; to the point of giving their life for it.
Funny enough, if it were plain righteousness, they might not be so keen on going along with Zhuo Fan.
But with him being so despicable and vile to throw in some incentives for everyone, they were all in.
Like Zhuo Fan once said, in this world where the strong ate the weak, going by righteousness alone would get one into a sorry dump, like the Luo clan when he found it.
Understanding this, Luo Yunhai's eyes flashed and he rose, "Everyone, as the Clan Head of the Luo clan, I will draft the declaration of war, to quell Regent Estate and give you all justice!"
With a dignified act and powerful voice, he drove an even stronger sense of camaraderie into their hearts. Zhuo Fan nodded inside, [The kid grew up at last.]
Without darkness to back it up, light would be like dust in the wind…
On the other side, Regent Estate already had its declaration of war ready, sending it to their final goal, Luo clan. The people cleared the room once the negotiations finished.
Only You Ming stayed behind and Leng Wuchang smiled, "Sir You Ming, I heard you were close to the second prince."
"He trusts me completely." You Ming nodded.
"Then please return to his side. We and Zhuge Changfeng have an understanding in place, but when it comes to that old fox, we still need assurances and need to prepare a plan B. As we are about to go to war with Luo clan, there's nothing I would hate more than to have the imperial family stick its nose in it!"
You Ming squinted, and grinned, "Ha-ha-ha, you are just like Zhuo Fan!"
Pausing, Leng Wuchang looked at him, "Ha-ha-ha, I see. So he gave you a road pass as well…"