Dark Truths

Bro, getting high is really a crazy thing, right...a cousin of mine went to my dad's house on Sunday and he just went out to talk to a newt in the backyard for a couple of hours

When he came back he said that Newt was a great guy and would be a great father to the children he was expecting.

Btw there wasn't even a newt there either

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"Elder clan, all temporary fortifications have been completed, and the scouts have confirmed that the enemy will attempt an immediate counterattack" a Gu master responsible for distributing information respectfully serves while speaking calmly.

"Counterattack? Are they really trying to run to their own death..." Chen Wei, sitting at his desk, furrowed his brow at the irrational attitude of the enemy elder as he listened to the report.

"Elder, according to our information, Mo Lia, the son of Mo Kai, the elder responsible for the enemy army, suffered a serious injury in this battle, which subsequently led to his death." Seeing the expression of doubt on Chen Wei's face, the Gu master quickly explains the situation further to him.

"...the actions of a father who saw his son die...are truly illogical, and it is even likely that he is disobeying the orders of his clan." Chen Wei rises from his chair as he walks slowly around the makeshift meeting room.

"You know, the chaos on the front line of the Feng Zhi Clan is because of one of these fathers." Chen Wei begins to pour himself a cup of tea before looking out the window of this improvised meeting room. "And I'll give it to him because he proved my estimate of seven days wrong...using a rank 4 single-use Gu is truly the sacrifice that only a father would be willing to make."

At this point, thirteen days have passed since his battle with the Piercer of the Heavens, but unlike Chen Wei's estimate, his enemy only died today, which was not due to his miscalculation of the lethality of the Heart Parasite Gu but rather he could not predict that the leader of the Feng Zhi clan would use a rare rank 4 single-use healing Gu as a last resort to save his son's life.

Of course, in the end, this was just an unnecessary expense since not only did using this Gu only prolong the life of the Piercer of the Heavens for just under a week, but it also caused great discord and internal conflicts in the Feng Zhi clan because of the leader's action of using this Gu, which is owned by the clan, without the slightest concern for the opinion of the elders.

"The morale of the Feng Zhi clan is at its lowest in recent times...how many desertions have we had in these last few days?" Chen Wei doesn't need to wait long as he soon receives a Gu containing information about desertions for both sides.

"The numbers have indeed increased several times...and it also seems that 80% are female Gu masters..." This is a fact that doesn't surprise him; in fact, there are several reasons for this, such as a large portion of female Gu masters being healers or focused on support, so when it comes to a life or death situation, they usually end up without much choice but to desert to the enemy.

This is also only made possible by a change in the clan's policy regarding prisoners, which, when the war was being treated as a war of attrition, all prisoners were treated as slaves because they were needed as labor, and female Gu masters would have an even worse fate, which would lead many to prefer suicide over capture.

But at this moment, the He An clan is already seeing victory on the horizon, as well as the future that will come after that, so it is already taking a different approach and trying to treat those who desert in a better way, as well as trying to assimilate them into the He An clan, especially for female Gu masters.

The reason for this is threefold, the first of which is that female Gu masters usually cultivate support paths, so they are less likely to rebel, which the clan expects to happen quite often from the Gu masters of the other two clans being assimilated and having sufficient combat strength.

Secondly, the clan wants to create a baby boom after the end of this war so that the clan has enough Gu masters to maintain the conquered lands and resource points, with the clan going as far as decreeing that at the end of the war it will be the duty of all married Gu masters to have their wives pregnant, which Chen Wei has already fulfilled, of course, in addition to that, the clan ordered everyone to have at least three children in the next ten years.

Thirdly, the fact that the number of Gu masters is disproportionate by gender, with 60% being men and 40% women, which always led to those Gu masters of low talent and cultivation having to marry mortal women, which diluted the quality of the clan's blood in general in the eyes of the clan.

"Well, inform my grandfather the Strategy Hall elder that by the end of the day he will have one more head of a Feng Zhi Clan elder..." This is not arrogance from Chen Wei, nor is he trying to seek the glory of killing his second Feng Zhi Clan elder; he just wants to contribute to ending this war as quickly as possible.

Honestly, he is already a vastly different person than he was a few years ago when he had not yet become a Gu master or even when he graduated from the academy and officially became a Gu master of the He An clan.

Of course, he still values the opportunities for development and experiences that he can obtain in this war, but for now, he realizes that what he needs most is peace to be able to develop further; besides, anyone would prefer to spend their time with their family and pregnant wife while cultivating up to rank 4 than having to live in this constant military campaign.

"Yes, Elder Chen Wei...the Strategy Hall Elder also ordered me to deliver this Gu to you, Elder Chen Wei." Chen Wei quickly scans the information on the Gu that only he could access and contains various confidential information, one of the most important of which is the developments of the investigation by the Internal Affairs Hall Elder, which has now been confirmed as having deliberately let spies infiltrate both clans, being a traitor.

Chen Wei quickly waves his hand for the Gu master responsible for the information to withdraw as he checks the confidential information sent by his grandfather as well as reviews his plans.

"Traitors are truly a species that multiplies... right, Feng Hua." He thinks calmly as he looks at an information path Gu inside his aperture, which is only known to him, with him not having revealed this fact even to Chen Wang.

Not long ago, he received this Gu called Secret Butterfly that came to him, and after he read the information on the Gu, he discovered that Feng Hua, Piercer of the Heavens' sister and the clan leader's daughter, wanted to negotiate with him to provide information in exchange for protection after defecting to the He An clan in a privileged position without having to become a concubine of some elder of the He An clan.

This concern of hers comes from the fact that the female Gu masters who are deserting to the He An clan end up having to marry one of the Gu masters of the clan to not be suppressed as foreigners since this is one of the assimilation tactics that the clan created, going so far as to the majority of the elders being in favor of allowing the taking of concubines by Gu masters of the clan so that they can further increase the birth rate.

But Feng Hua does not want this for herself, and as she sees that the victory of the He An clan in this war is only a matter of time, she is already making every effort to have an agreement that protects her already established before deserting to the He An clan, so for now, she is acting as an excellent informant for Chen Wei who discovered about the internal conflicts of the Feng Zhi clan as well as the clan leader having used a rank 4 to try to save Piercer of the Heavens' life because of her.

"Well, let's leave that for now; my focus has to be on killing my enemy with all my might." Chen Wei thinks this as he begins to review once again the information from the He An clan about Elder Mo Kai.

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*POV Mo Kai*

"Ah, I'll burn that damn guy to death!" Mo Kai advances like a furious bull while standing in front of the troops attempting a suicidal counterattack against the He An clan, but to him, that matters little as he now only seeks vengeance, even going as far as to beat his subordinates who openly spoke against this attack.

"Blood Prince!!! I'll kill you!" He spots Chen Wei, causing his hair to burn relentlessly like a torch in the petroleum as he quickly starts punching towards Chen Wei despite the distance of several meters between them, which wouldn't allow for a close-range attack to have any effect.

Mortal Killer Move - Infernal Fists

Large fists made of green flames fly towards Chen Wei, who is quick to activate his defenses while advancing fearlessly towards Mo Kai's attack before closing the distance enough for both to engage in a fierce and destructive battle.

The Gu masters who battle and witness this scene nearby are extremely shocked by the relentless infernal flames that arise while destroying everything in their path, causing all vegetation within a radius of several meters to be completely obliterated.

But in contrast and no less impressive than these infernal flames is a dark red blood that carries an aura of massacre spreading over an even larger diameter, killing several Gu masters who were on the battlefield and fiercely destroying the flames as if they were nothing impressive.

And this intense and fierce battle continued for tens of minutes until "hahahah... you're dead!" Mo Kai screams in rage after delivering a deadly blow to Chen Wei who, after so much battle time, made a mistake due to what Mo Kai considers inexperience, leading to a perfect opening.

"My son, I have avenged your dea—argh!!" But before he could lay his hand on Chen Wei's head, which would cause it to burn until he was dead, he feels a piercing pain in his heart that paralyzes him.

"Argh...h-how...!" He looks at his chest and sees a tail of an animal that also appears to have the shape of a dagger protruding from the front of his chest, indicating that he was attacked from behind.

"Run, retreat, the elder has been killed!!!" It's one of the cries Mo Kai hears as he falls face forward on the ground and sees an albino rat running towards Chen Wei, whom he now realizes was only pretending to have made a mistake so that he would make this mistake that led him to be now lying on the ground bleeding from the chest before dying quickly.

And so, in this miserable way, died an honored elder of the clan who was respected as an experienced war veteran. This is a death that would not bring compassion from many since he advanced against a stronger enemy in a suicidal counterattack simply because he lost control of his emotions to avenge the death of his son.

But the real truth is far from just that since despite always being a father who loved his son, he was also a war veteran and would never lead himself and his men to death because of losing control of his emotions.

But to his misfortune, this is how he will be remembered because no one, not even he, knows that his loss of control was because of an old man who lurks in the shadows and manipulates even the emotions and thoughts of the clan leader so that things happen according to his will, let alone a mere rank 3 middle-stage Gu master. For even at the pinnacle of the mortal world, a proud rank 5 Gu master would be defenseless against this old man in the shadows.

"Shit, that rank 3 creature is preventing retreat!!" A Gu master shouts in despair before kneeling on the ground and raising his hands in surrender.

This would soon be done by several other Gu masters who found themselves surrounded by a rank 3 elder and a blood creature with the strength of rank 3, leaving them no choice but to surrender if they wanted to keep their lives after this battle. Of course, there were some who still fought to their deaths, but these courageous Gu masters who fear not death are the absolute minority.