Chasing You (Arc 8+)

Beneath the Heavens (XXXII)

The coldness crawled towards him and started to climb onto his figure, starting with the outermost body parts. An Zhangyi did not try and fight back, instead, he was testing out a couple of things. Once he determined that some of his abilities were still accessible to him, a faint smile emerged on his lips. But it held no warmth or joy in it, only a feeling of schadenfreude could be sensed in it. As soon as the cool sensation reached his abdomen, he whispered, "Gluttony."

An Zhangyi's eyes snapped open and he stared up at the familiar ceiling. Ah? He was inside of his room in the Longhu An Sect. Seeing the light luminescence cascading onto the walls and ceiling of his room told him that it was already daylight. Simultaneously, he contacted the two of them.

<Ah Song?>

<Bao Bao, how long have I been out?>

An elegiac voice answered him.

<MY BABY!! ˚‧º·(˚ ˃̣̣̥⌓˂̣̣̥ )‧º·˚ Wuuuu~ You've been out for an entire week~!>

His figure glided through the ceiling of the wall, tears pouring from his doey eyes. Continuing his motherly tirade, Bao Bao forgot to leave room for An Zhangyi to speak.

<Are you okay? Are you in pain anywhere? Did son-in-law penetrate you too hard? Wuuu~ He wouldn't say anything to me...>

Inwardly praying that somehow that demon doesn't find out, he lit a field of candles for himself. It wasn't necessarily a lie nor the truth... It was just that after he came out of that room with a quiet An Zhangyi, the air around Fu Baisong was too horrifying that Bao Bao felt like he would be crushed by it. So he chose not to go and bother the half-awakened asura demon. Only praying that nothing happens to his host or else everyone was doomed, as he couldn't contact him.

<My other half came falling from the sky.>

Bao Bao was so shocked that he forgot how to cry. His already large round eyes became even bigger, threatening to pop out.

<Really, host? Was it heavy?!> (」゜ロ゜)」>

An Zhangyi, "...(• - •)"

Realizing what his baby meant, he face blushed at a rate faster than you can say the letter 'I'. Turning away and covering his face, Bao Bao scolded himself for not comprehending the meaning sooner. Ah, how could Bao Bao take it as a literal meaning? Wuu~ Wasn't Bao bao there when it happened? How could someone fall but Bao Bao fail to see? Wuuuu~ ( ⁍᷄⌢̻⁍᷅ ) AHH... Bao Bao must work harder...

Peeking over his shoulder, he assessed his host's expression, but couldn't make out any mockery or disappointment on An Zhangyi's face. He let out a breath of relief and coughed.

<*Ahem* Of course, Bao Bao knew what host meant.>

The corners of An Zhangyi's lips lifted but it was almost indiscernible to the naked eye.

<There were some residual energy and consciousness left from Qiongqi in the token. The moment I touched it, it stirred awake the beast. He tried to devour my soul and possess the body.>

<But why did it react to you?>

<It is all thanks to Fu You. Looking over the documents and dealing with Qiongqi, it unveiled the truth. Because of that madman's experiment, this vessel had integrated half of the beast's core into his dantian. As to why he was doing his experiment, it was because he wanted to prepare this body for someone and for the beast, it only wanted to enter this world again. The amount of resentment it held was immense and it wanted to seek revenge on the cultivators that slayed it. The token that was used as a medium to command the corpses is carved out of the other half of the beast's core. So instinctively, the beast wanted to merge his core together as one. Not only would that make the stabilize its strength; he would still be able to regain his full potential.>

<Ah, is that why the hidden quest was complete all of a sudden?>

Realizing his question deviated from the main point, he curved it back.

<Did it hurt you?!>

An Zhangyi closed his eyes.

<En. That's why the quest was complete and gluttony ate him.>

Thinking back to when he was forcefully dragged into that place. He played the pig to eat the tiger and discovered something interesting that helped clicked in everything. When he touched the token, not only did the feeling in which the token had called out to him not falter, it harmonized. This must have been caused by the two halves being in contact with each other, but this was only for a millisecond before it vanished. Fu Baisong must have removed it, breaking the physical contact between the two.

Sensing that the token was no longer around him, his lover must have stowed it away from him and after taking him back here, he took it with him. It also must be why Fu Yemu wanted him. No, it would be more accurate to say that he wanted his dantian to complete the token.

It was not because he was some crazy lunatic that suddenly had an epiphany out of the blue. It was because he found out what was wrong with the token during his tests. The token was unable to summon or bind one's soul due to its incompletion, and looking at his father's shambolic notes, he was able to determine what Fu You had done to the other half of the core.

At first, he read through his father's notes and determined that he would be able to bind Xiong Yanzi's soul and keep her mind in a conscious state with the usage of the token. He went on a hunt for Xiong Yanzi's body parts and that was why he took so long before he launched an attack; it was because he was still gathering her dismembered body.

He didn't want to make a fatal mistake and accidentally injure Xiong Yanzi's soul, and he wanted to know how the full effects of the token as well as the repercussions that came along with it. He wanted to see the results with his own eyes and not just taking knowledge from the notes he read about. Like Fu You, Fu Yemu tested on vagrants and slowly built his way up, but the bodies of able cultivators were hard to cover up so he pushed his plans forward. He captured the other three major sects as a means for revenge and to further his own experiment.

Once he was able to achieve his goal, he wanted them to feel the loss of their child just as he felt the loss of a mother.