Night of the Broken Gliph

Chor Shing Chit lay on the bed unconscious as Chui Yim stared at him from the side with a complicated look. 

It was not Chui Yim who would be treating Chor Shing Chit this time around, but Ping Chi. Chui Yim was a talented doctor, but Ping Chi was way more skilful. After a short pause, Ping Chi brow’s loosened slightly.

“He’s seriously injured. Luckily we treated him early, thus he did not have any serious hidden repercussions. He’ll be fine after two to three months.” 

“Thank you.” Chui Yim nodded his head. He was aware of how hard Ping Chi tried to save him when Yellow Spring’s Lady went after him, and Ping Chi was not feeling the best now despite him doing a good job in concealing it. Chui Yim felt that his aura was slightly weaker than before. 

“You owe me another favour!” Ping Chi glared at Chui Yim and left, leaving only Chui Yim, Chor Shing Chit, and Bak Wun in the room. Chui Yim did not waste any more time; the urge of getting stronger grew in him once again. 

Strength is everything. If I’m capable enough, brother Chor would not have suffered these injuries.

The helpless feeling he experienced in his past life washed over him once again. At the same time, Yellow Spring’s Lady came to his mind. She might only be in the four-chambered state and was taken down by the Southern Ping’s elites, but she was capable of going against many four-chambered state and hundred-gliphic state cultivators on her own! Without Ping Chi’s suppression, she stood a chance of escaping! 

“What’s necrogliphism?” 

Chor Shing Chit was unconscious, so this question was no doubt directed to Bak Wun. Bak Wun was only in the one-chambered state, but Chui Yim knew that he was extraordinary. Chor Shing Chit’s attack only caused Yellow Spring’s Lady’s attack to reach him at a later time, but Bak Wun, the one-chambered glipher, distinctly weakened the attack! Chui Yim was confident that Bak Wun could answer him. 

Bak Wun sighed and started slowly. “There are two factions in the world, South’s plantae and North’s beastial factions. However, there used to be another faction that existed a thousand years ago, necrogliphism.” 

“Just like its name, necrogliphism cultivators use a glipher or gliphist’s corpse to tattoo gliphs on them.” 

The three silhouettes surrounding Yellow Spring’s Lady came to Chui Yim’s mind. “Are they… gliphers or gliphist who have passed on?” 

“One of them was Lee Yan Siu, a powerful swordsman of the Four Season Heaven. With the sect’s Mid-autumn Sombre, he created the powerful gliphility, The River Crosser that emits sword energy, as if it is a product of murderous intention and energliph congealed. It is a gliphility that is tough to guard against. 

“The other silhouette belonged to Hung Sing, the late elite of South Five’s Hung Clan. His gliphility, Sky Squash Punch, works just like its name—having a punch that was meant to squash the skies, but not literally. He pounded his chest to get ready for the attack. As for the last ghost-like silhouette, he’s unknown. There are countless cultivators in the world, and it is impossible to have all of them recorded. But from the psychological attack, we can tell that he was once a powerful cultivator too. Be it him, Lee Yan Si, or Hung Sing, they have passed on hundreds of years ago. 

“Necrogliphism is all about using corpses of cultivators as ingredients for their gliphs, and make their personal gliphs and gliphilities their own. It’s an extremely disrespectful method towards the deceased that turns right and wrong upside down.” Bak Wun continued, sounding increasingly serious. 

“A thousand years ago, plantae and beastial factions cultivators were angered by their actions and worked together to eliminate them. However, necrogliphism cultivators were the strongest amongst all. They almost went into extinction from the war that took place a thousand years ago, but they also left the other two factions seriously ravaged.

“Many believe that it was the war against necrogliphism cultivators a thousand years ago that resulted in the non-existence of six-chambered gliphers and few five-chambered gliphers in the world today as many elites passed on during the war, leading to incomplete inheritance. Now that necrogliphsm has resurfaced, it might symbolise that the world will be flipped upside down soon…” 

“It’s terrifying how they get the idea… of tattooing a gliph into someone with a deceased body.” Chui Yim frowned upon hearing this. It was not the necrogliphsm faction that was disgusting, but the person who came up with this idea.

“Oh yeah, why did the Yellow Spring’s Lady use a treasure? Isn’t she a glipher?” Chui Yim asked after some thoughts. 

Treasures and gliph weapons might be similar, but they were fundamentally different. A glipher could own numerous gliph weapon in his life while most gliphists only had a treasure in his entire life. The reason was due to treasures being weak when they were first made, and it required the cultivator’s care and refinement over ages before its ability took form, unlike gliph weapons which had already taken form as soon as it was made. Unless it was customised for a glipher by a metalsmith, it was not likely for a glipher to control the gliph weapon’s gliphility. 

It was never heard of that a glipher would want a treasure. In order to make a treasure, the gliphist needed to infuse innate energy from his inner heart or wind chamber into the treasure before refining it. The innate energy was an extremely precious source, and it must only be extracted from the wind or heart chamber. It didn’t work if it was extracted from other chambers. Thus, it was unheard of that gliphers using treasures, as well as how Chui Yim was able to make use of late Chi Ping’s treasure that in normal circumstances could only be activated by the original owner. 

“Since the Yellow Spring's Lady could make a treasure, it shows that she’s an innate heart or wind chamber. But why is she a glipher…”

If it was Chor Shing Chit, he’d definitely not answer Chui Yim, but Bak Wun didn’t care. “A thousand years ago, there weren’t gliphers or gliphists, but only gliphism cultivators. Necrogliphism was the only faction that cultivated in the manner their ancestors did a thousand years ago. Legends have it that only innate heart chamber cultivators was able to cultivator necrogliphism, so even in the past, every members of theirs were extremely talented and powerful. They were so strong that they were too powerful for us.” 

Bak Wun then turned to Chui Yim in all seriousness. “If you come across necrogliphism cultivators in the future, take their lives immediately if you can. But if he is of the same state as you are, leave immediately! Don’t even think of taking any chances.”