Chapter 3: Chapter 3

The spring cleaning was finally starting.

Excited!

The Puppets cheerfully let themselves be lead down endless corridors and passageways, finally entering a large, blood-smeared pit.

The pit was massive in size, wide and deep, like a huge mouth or drained lake. Evidently, it had just been used — there were still dripping red stains and bone fragments that people hadn't bothered to clean up properly. There were also occasional clumps of matted hairs and fabrics, glued to the sides of the round pit. The layers of filth and grime had accumulated over the years of use, crusty black lumps protruding from the sides.

With excited giggled, the Puppets slid down the pit, lumps and clouds of back ashes flying, smoothly skidding to the bottom.

As they waited, a group of five elderly men appeared at the edge of the pit, not far from where they originally stood. They were all dressed in exquisite finery, blacks and golds and red and as dazzling as the blood moon. Silver hairs glittered in the dim light, as ethereal as moonbeams and divine winds. They all wore masks, ferocious and glorious demons and spirits, the epitome of mercy and love.

Grandpas!

The four Puppets, trembling with the honour of being in their presence, flocked forward, dropping into a kowtow and humming with pious devotion.

The man in the frontmost, donning a boar-shaped mask, greeted them warmly, 'Welcome, children.' Under the cold, apathetic voice was an endless ocean of love and care. 'Today, we start the last spring cleaning, to find the best best best...' He smiled, 'Puppet.'

Watching the four children from above, he continued, 'Just like how the Gu kingA legendary venomous bug made by locking various insects (typically venomous/poisonous ones, such as scorpions, spiders, centipedes etc) together and having them kill each other. The survivor theoretically has all of the poisons of the other dead bugs. is made, the four of you, who have killed all of your competitors, will now find who is most worthy of our care.'

His chilling eyes landing on the children, he said softly, 'Don't worry. Us Grandpas still love you all. We love all of you, and we can't bear to see you all get hurt like this, but we have to. You children are all so terrible, and you all can't live; only the strongest is allowed to, because you all were born mistakes. If too many of you live, you'll end the world. You were only able to live until now because us Grandpas have fought the heavens to let you live. It's because we love you all so much that you have to fight each other. It's all your fault — we're only trying to save you.'

The Puppets murmured, 'Sorry, Grandpas... sorry we are mistakes. Thank you for letting us live, we won't disappoint you!'

Grandpa nodded, smiling. 'What are you waiting for?' Waving his hands wide, arms outstretched, he declared, 'Start the spring cleaning!' A loud bang accompanied his shout, signalling the beginning of the competition.

Puppet No.2 was the first to make a move. 

Lunging towards No.1, he flashed his hands and two short daggers appeared in each hand. With a dagger pointing to two different vital points, No.1 deftly dodged out of the way, summoning a large sabre into his hands. Rapidly exchanging moves, No.2 on the attack and No.1 on the defence, the pair flashed and fought all over the pit, appearing and disappearing with ease.

As for No.3 and No.4, the more savage of the two, No.4, attacked first. With a large, demented grin on his face, he twisted his body to swing an oversized sword at Puppet No.3's abdomen. Perhaps he was unprepared, but he allowed No.4 to cut a huge slash at his waist, drawing the first blood.

At his injury, No.4 immediately felt a wave of vitality flow into his body, echoing from his waist. With the burst of health, No.3 seemed to wilt, shrivelling up and flinching away.

A small sound of disapproved tutting echoed from the Grandpas.

Ah! Grandpa was upset!

Not good!

No.3 paling from fear, he pulled out a shining set of needles from his sleeves, firing them at No.4, who smoothly dodged or parried and swiftly counterattacked with his sword, slashing at No.3's neck. As the situation began looking rather bad for No.3, he suddenly slammed a small bag of powder onto the floor, which burst with a loud explosion and a hazy, thick brown smoke began filling the pit, reminiscent of a desert's sandy winds.

The powder wasn't poisoned — otherwise it would be rather unfair for the others who had cruder weapons — but it was enough to interfere with everyone's visibility. No.4, who had been surprised, very briefly froze, but this fraction of a second was enough for a needle laced with a powerful paralytic to pierce his back.

The vitality that he'd just stolen from No.3 flooded back out of his veins, sapping more of his energy and strength, making his knees buckle with weakness as though he'd fought for days on end rather than minutes.

Luckily, he had resistance to most poisons, or any other person would've dropped dead from not being able to breath.

But...

This was fun!

He wasn't able to see through the haze, but the Grandpas definitely could. They we the most powerful! They must be having fun watching him, right?

If they were happy, then he was happy.

He must make them happy.

Swinging the sword against the needles that he couldn't dodge, Puppet No.4 chased after the fleeting shadows of No.3 with the stickiness of blood gluing itself to a wound. He crept closer and closer, occasionally exchanging blows with the passing No.1 or No.2 when he suddenly caught glimpse of a flaw.

A little mistake, or a moment of carelessness.

He swung his sword.

A finger went flying. It was Puppet No.2's finger.

No.2 didn't really feel the pain, but the loss of a finger made it harder to throw his daggers, resulting in the miss of his next throw. Snarling, he threw a vicious kick at No.4, his shocking strength jarring No.4's arms as the kick slammed into the flat side of his blade. He'd have liked to do more — preferably deliver No.4 to No.1 so he could see a fancy kill — but No.1 had begun throwing strange white balls at him, so he had neither the time nor the ability to act on his wishes, and could only turn back to fight, slicing a white sac open with his dagger.

When he saw the contents, his eyes widened in horror, which No.4 took advantage of to escape.

Taking hold of the momentum, No.4 used his spinning sword to drag him out of No.2's vicinity, and straight into No.3, of whom he lopped a limb off once he caught the other's next flaw.

No.3's injury was much worse that No.4's. As such, the poisons in No.4's body rapidly began to be expelled from his body, the scrapes and cuts over his body healing at a visible rate. Then, to ensure that the boy didn't escape again, he slammed his foot over the other's legs, crippling him and nailed him to the ground, a rush of vitality coursing through his veins and meridiansImagine veins/arteries but for spiritual power. Picture the "core" as the "heart" of this system.. Then he left to go hunt down No.2.

Above the battle, the elderly man with the boar mask turned to another with a devil mask. He said, 'No.4 is rather intelligent, using No.3 like that.'

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The devil-masked man nodded, agreeing, 'Yes. He's watching No.1's and No.2's battle, and when one of them gets the higher hand, he appears to cut them down to an equal standing. And when he's injured, he comes back to break one of No.3's bones to recover again.' He hummed, adding, 'Smart. But do you think...'

The other man snorted. 'We've already used preventive measures against the Puppets. Their bodies can't develop, and they've been isolated and treated like fools so they can't learn anything. They have literally no external stimuli or experience to develop the thinking or knowledge of adults. They are children, both physically and mentally, even if they have seen more years pass by.'

The devil-masked man asked, 'Can I send them out to the North? The righteous cultivators there may have found some of our outposts. I'd like to eliminate them as early as possible.'

The other man replied, 'Soon,' and continued to watch the children fight.

Watching the four kids fight each other was very entertaining. Despite the young age of their physical bodies, their strength could rival that of the most powerful adults — the only reason of why their fights were less impressive was that they had all restrictive spells on their bodies to prevent them showing their full abilities. Additionally, they had all made sure to avoid using attacks with a wide area of effect in case they harmed one of their "Grandpas".

How sweet.

With an echoing boom, the cloud of powder dispersed — No.3 was dead, and so he could no longer support the concealment.

This revealed to all of the remaining Puppets that No.2 was in a dire situation. 

His intestines were bulging out of his body, blood and bodily liquids dripping as bugs and worms squirmed under his skin — courtesy of No.1's attacks. These bugs crawled through his body, eating him alive, as he curled over in agony and let out a soundless shriek. His eyes, tongue and lips had already been eaten away, his ears rapidly vanishing as his fingers and toes were devoured into stumps. Pools of acid and bags of pus began forming on his skin, his hair dropping as his scalp began to slide off — all of the skin and flesh on the top of his head that was outside of his skull had disappeared into the tiny yet endless stomachs of the bugs.

It was a foul, disgusting thing to watch, but so invigorating and interesting that No.1 and No.4 couldn't help but come closer for a better look.

Fun. Fun. Fun!

With a cackling laughter spilling out of his lips, No.1 nimbly slashed tiny cuts all over No.2 with his bloody sword, as though performing lingchi"Death by a thousand cuts". Basically, it's a punishment where small bits of flesh is cut off from the person in question until they die or are deduced to a skeleton while alive.. With each slit in his skin, bugs and worms burst forth, covering the ground in a foul living carpet as they devoured No.2 from the inside out.

No.1 laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed, going mad with blood and cutting off rotting, green flesh from his once-friend. He laughed — and suddenly choked up blood, his last giggle abruptly cut off.

Puppet No.4 had run him through from behind, his sword driving straight through his chest and out to his front. Blood splashed, covering everything, stimulating the bugs crawling on the ground.

As he pulled the sword out, No.1 fell forward, his body slowly shredded by the desperate bugs that began dying once their master expired.

Puppet No.4 had survived, and won this year's spring cleaning.

But there was no time to celebrate.

For the huge, massive dome above the pit had shattered.

The huge slabs of concrete trembled, cracked, and caved. Beams of bright light penetrated in, lighting up the hellish scene within the pit. Screams echoed around as demonic cultivators rose to fight off the white-robed intruders, flashing lights of sword intent battling out a rainbow. The Grandpas' jaws dropped in shock and horror, quickly seizing their nearest attendants and fighting their way out, abandoning the child left in the pit — they were sure that he would come find them later. With an accompaniment of roars, screeches of metal on metal and explosions of colour and sound, a pair of fluttering white robes flew down to No.4, who was paralysed in shock, awe and surprise, their faces the picture of horrified grief and sadness.

Puppet No.4's huge, silver eyes hungrily stared upwards, not caring of the rubble that slammed into his back or his head or his arms or his legs or his body. He wasn't able to blink, even as the blinding lights seared into his shocked, nearly bulging pupils, as though wanting to devour what he saw into the depths of his stomach so he could keep it forever.

He'd seen it.

He'd finally seen it.

A blue sky.

A dazzling,

beautiful,

glorious,

yellow-white

ball.

Is this... what the sun looks like...?

It's so... bright.

So... warm.

And... clean.

It's so clean, so pure.

As he was swept up in a white, colourless and clean embrace, soothing, warm words whispered into his scarred, torn ears, he blinked, not able to think, hear, touch, feel or smell.

He could only look.

And stare.

And desperately reach out for the sun.

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