149 A prototype.

Gu Yijin has once told them about a sect that was so deeply engrossed in dark arts that they tried to make an army of vengeful spirits to do their bidding but they couldn't do it, in the end, they tried to create a prototype that was just as strong as an army of vengeful spirits and after many trials and errors, they finally succeeded. She still remembered how serious Gu Yijin looked when she told them about just how difficult it was for her family to rein in those prototypes and destroy the sect, apparently, at least fifty disciples and twenty masters died while they tried to stop the sect.

" Why did they even bother making those prototypes? Couldn't they have just tamed a vengeful spirit instead? "asked Fang Yanli looking thoroughly confused, she might not know much about these condemned souls but she was quite sure from what she saw was that this soul was nowhere as strong as the soul they met when they were coming to the fair, the Yin energy that was vibrating off that dark figure was enough to make her eyes jump all the way to the sky, what was Song Yan even talking about?

" Don't be confused, that thing was not a perfect prototype just a failed experiment that was why it wasn't as strong as that vengeful spirit," said Song Yan as she picked up the cloak that was dropped on the ground once the thing became a fizzy drink suitable for vampires and started looking around in its pockets. " Yuck, that gooey thing got inside the pockets."

And pulled out the two red diamonds that the figure bought before them and without so much as wiping them, she threw them in the ring.

Fang Yanli was shocked by her series of actions and she gaped at Song Yan. " Did you just throw those dirty things inside my home?"

" That's not your home."

" I live in there so it's mine," snapped Fang Yanli as she puffed her cheeks up causing her lips to stretch so wide that it nearly spilt her face in half. " Clean those things up before you throw them inside the ring, now get them out of the ring. Or I swear I will make all the spirits living in their rebel against your tyranny. Are you listening to me?"

" Yes, Yes... I heard it," said Song Yan as she took out the two red jewels and cleaned them with the fabric of the robe but that much wasn't enough for Fang Yanli, so she had to walk around the surroundings and look for a park where she could clean the diamonds, she was still clutching the robe in her hand.

Fang Yanli's attention was finally diverted when she saw that Song Yan has washed the red diamonds after the two of them found a park and only then did she continue on the previous topic. " You said that the thing was a condemned soul, a prototype of a vengeful spirit but why would someone go through all the song and dance to make a prototype isn't it easier to just tame a vengeful spirit? Instead of creating one from the scratch."

Song Yan sat down on the long wooden seat in the park as she rummaged around all the pockets of the cloak. " You seem to be forgetting that not every spirit master is as strong as our master Gu, they cannot just go ahead and tame a spirit that they want like they are taming an animal. Even animals cannot be tamed unless you are stronger than them, Gu Yijin was able to tame all the vengeful souls because she was more powerful than everyone else… but spirit masters of her calibre are only born once in a while. Her Yang energy was the purest and she was able to suppress souls with them, the power to keep or destroy them was in her hands… do you think that any spirit master will have such strength?"

After thinking it about carefully, Fang Yanli shook her head. The only spirit master that she knew of who was on par with Gu Yijin was Song  Yan and that too because she was taught by Gu Yijin and had the time to cultivate her Yin energy for five hundred years, a normal human won't live that long much less find a master like Gu Yijin who was like a rare genius in her field.

" Vengeful spirits are hard to control, they can never be tamed unless the one who is taming them knows what he is doing… a small mistake and the person might even lose his life. I bet the sect that tried to make this thing lost a good number of its people before they started creating a prototype…Aha!" She exclaimed as she pulled out a small black book from the inner pocket of the robe and threw the fabric away now that she found what she was looking for.

" Anyway," she continued while skimming through the book. " If I were to explain it scientifically to you, a part is easier to understand and control than the whole thing, isn't that right? So this is what the sect is applying to practice. Instead of taming a whole vengeful spirit, they are snipping parts from much weaker vengeful spirits that are yet to turn malevolent… they snip small bits from spirits that they can handle and then weave them into something like that you just saw earlier on. Because the prototype soul is taken under control bit by bit, they are not at risk of losing their life because whoever is behind this, he or she is still weaving the entire body… a prototype of this kind of soul is always confused because it's not made of one soul but several, it doesn't understand what it is or what is happening to it, it only understands that it needs to do the bidding of its master and that is to take over a dead body and living in its place."

" You mean to say——-"

" That thing on little Mei's bed is a condemned soul as well ….weaved from the various souls of the children that were sacrificed, most probably the master has been playing Yu Yize like a fool. It's not that he cannot take care of the curse, he can but he doesn't want to because he is looking for a new prototype and that's only possible when he will get a human shell. Maybe this was why that master didn't deal with the curse using a gem or another non-living shell, he wants the curse not only to manifest but also to kill little Mei so that the thing that he has unleashed after her could take over her body once the curse takes her life."

p.s:I just noticed the sudden decline in powerstones…. Are you guys teasing me? I asked for more powerstones yesterday and received the least? QAQ