Tales of Demons and Gods : The Legend of Xiao Ning'Er

"You told me that you had a way of letting him walk again." His voice boomed in a threatening tone at Deacon Yun Hua who stood next to him. From his body, a dangerous aura began to radiate as his temper threatened to completely boil over.

"Calm down , Shen Hong. It's the truth. Not only will he be able to walk again, but he will be stronger, faster and more powerful than you could ever imagine." Yun Hua replied. "In every pursuit of greater strength, there will be a cost to be paid! You and I understand the journey of a cultivator."

Shen Hong didn't look convinced. "Hmmmphh! All I can hear my son's suffering. If the results are less than satisfactory, we may need to reconsider our partnership!"

Yun Hua's eyes narrowed in irritation. "Are you sure you want to use that as a threat? Do you really want to stay in Ye Zong's shadow until the day that you die? And your precious Sacred Family, do you want it to always be subservient to the Snow Wind Family? The moment we reveal our past partnership, the one that will suffer is you and not us!!"

Shen Hong glared at Yun Hua as the tension grew in the air. Then he sighed and responded, "I...apologise. Hearing the sound of my own child in pain made me lose my mind for a moment. I understand that we'll need to see this partnership through to the end." He then abruptly changed the topic, "Did any of your spies find out anything about the movements of the families we've been suppressing? Did anyone manage to find out where the new resource is?"

Yun Hua shook his head. "We haven't found out much yet, only that the Snow Wind and the Huyan Families may now be working with them!" He gave a dramatic sigh of disappointment. "This is all because your Sacred Family decided to support private grudges held by Shen Xiu and...Shen Fei. You have put more families on guard against us before we've finished our preparations to take over Glory City!"

Shen Hong's face turned red as he heard these words, "No one could have anticipated this response! They were just some weak, pathetic families. Either commoners with no background or aristocratic families on their last legs. Both the Winged Dragon and Heavenly Marks Family are among the weakest of the aristocratic families, you know that!"

"Whatever the situation might be, the fact remains that they have been pushed into a corner and have partnered up to become a potentially dangerous element in our plans. And if they have found a valuable resource and are able to claim it, it will definitely increase the influence and power of this group of families in the near future." Yun Hua said with a serious voice.

Yun Hua looked at Shen Hong's face as he pondered on this information before breaking into a soft chuckle. "You may be right. This could be an interesting disruption to their well-laid plans. Very well, you can do this under the name of the Dark Guild. I'll provide four gold-ranked warriors in addition to myself. If he is alive, I want to see how impressive this Silver Flash of legend is!"

A masked man in black suddenly appeared and whispered something to Yun Hua. Yun Hua turned to Shen Hong with a beaming smile, "We have completed the procedure on your son. Would you like to see the results?"

They quickly followed the masked man into the room next door to find Shen Fei lying strapped down on a rectangular stone table. Shen Hong noted with alarm that instead of the regular leather straps, thick chains were used instead. His agitation increased as he saw that his son had fallen unconscious from the exertions of the procedure and was drenched in perspiration. There were bloodstains where the chains had chafed against skin, and even more under the legs.

His eyes opened in shock as he observed his son's legs with his eyes and then with his soul perception. There was a black and evil aura that was rising up from the body like wisps of smoke.

"YOU...YOU CHOPPED OFF HIS OTHER LEG AS WELL??!!" He burst out with disbelief at what he was seeing.

Another masked man who was pulling off gloves and was clearly the one in charge of the operation scoffed at Shen Hong, "Of course we had to do the procedure on both legs. If not, how would he be able to fight with proper balance? Take a closer look at your son and learn to be grateful for the opportunity we've granted him!"

Shen Hong rushed to the side of the stone table and carefully scrutinised his son's condition. In place of his legs, from the knees downwards, he could see that they had transplanted the powerful legs of a demon beast he could not identify. He had never heard of such a procedure before and was confused how the vigorous aura of a beast could integrate with the body of a human.

"Over decades, we have conducted experiments to enhance a warrior's power through demon beast transplants. Of course there are risks and special requirements but for your son's case, just the legs would not result in a fatal backlash." The masked man explained matter-of-factly.

Shen Hong was still feeling bewildered. "Which demon beast did you use? And...what are the effects?"

"Because we value our relationship with the Sacred Guild, we have sacrificed one of our most precious caged beasts, the Midnight Wolfhound! Your son will progressively gain the speed, instincts and power of this Black Gold ranked demon beast and even his cultivation will grow rapidly to match." The masked man tossed over a small rock. "Here is the demon spirit that he will need to integrate with once he regains his strength. It will synergise with his...transplant."

Shen Hong caught it and looked at the rock with a complicated expression. He remained suspicious of the side effects or whether his son could even adapt to the body parts that he could sense still contained such a malicious and dark aura that threatened to erupt at any moment. On the other hand, if the masked man's words were true, he would be grateful that his clan had gained another formidable warrior. His eyes glinted with contained rage as he resolved in his heart.

'If he recovers, I'll let him deliver the killing blow to the Silver Flash...if he's still alive.'

.....

Oblivious to these insidious plans against her family, Ning'Er continued her preparations before leaving to the Ning You City Ruins. She spent a few days in the Guild of Inscriptionists to guide Wang Shu once the Blacksmith Guild had completed the equipment requisitioned. At 2-Star Gold Rank, she was able to create the Black Gold ranked inscriptions required for what she wanted to make and was glad to leave the guild with a Wind Cutter and Heaven's Shift in her interspatial ring.

She thought through the best combination to utilise the equipment and decided to lend Du Ze the Unity Sword along with Heaven's Shift. As he had yet to break through to Gold Rank, it was best that he had the strongest protection. At the same time, this sword would work well for his direct approach and personality.

Ziyun would continue to use Ocean's Ripple as her armour and would support with Black Death. At the same time, Ziyun had borrowed a formidable bow from the Snow Wind armoury and trained in it, realising that to maximise their teamwork and formations, some of them would need to specialise in ranged support.

Linjian would stick to his beloved Unity Sword, and his Divine Family had also provided the best equipment from their treasury for their beloved young master. Finally, Ning'Er herself would use the familiar Wind Cutter from her previous life to adapt accordingly to any situation, no matter whether ranged attacks or close combat were required.

In the meantime, she also used the branches of the Silver Horsetail Fern to raise the other five team members' cultivation's by one star each. This meant that Lu Piao and Zhang Ming were now at 2-Star Silver Rank and Nie Li, Wei Nan and Xiangjun had reached 3-Star Silver Rank! The effects of her using spirit herbs were just too dramatic and she would definitely keep an eye out for more in her next expedition.

A few days before she was to leave for the Ning You City Ruins, her family were having dinner when a servant rushed in with a note from a messenger bird. Her father read the note and suddenly stood up, slamming his palm on the table with a crash.

"What's wrong?" Ning'Er asked in panic.

Her father responded with a tremor in his voice, "Our branch headquarters in your grandpa's village is under attack by unknown attackers! We need to send forces to help them immediately!"

He turned to the servant and passed his Patriarch's medallion over. "Upon the authority of the Patriarch, summon every Winged Dragon Family member who has integrated with a flying demon beast to rush to provide support immediately! We won't make it in time if we take horses and travel by ground."

Giving that instruction, he immediately transformed into a Heavenly Lightning Sparrow and shot to the skies. Ning'Er was shocked for a moment to see the demon spirit she had first integrated with in her previous life but then quickly spread her Heavenly Cicada Wings and chased after her father. Even if she would not be able to keep up with him, she would only be a few minutes behind him by the time he arrived.