Villain: Manipulating the Heroines into hating the Protagonist

Chapter 901: Silent Puppet Guild Takes Action

While the great sects postured and planned, moving their armies and drawing their political lines in the sand, the fourth member of the Righteous Yue Alliance made their move. It was not with the roar of a beast tide, nor the schism of a great sect. The Silent Puppet Guild’s contribution to the war was, true to their name, utterly silent. And it was, perhaps, the most terrifying of them all.

Their strategy was not one of attrition or logistics. It was one of infiltration.

Deep in a lightless, forgotten corner of the Endless Mountain Range, a place where even the spirit beasts dared not tread, the Silent Puppet Guild had established a hidden, temporary workshop.

Deacon Zhao Wuji of the Mystic Peak Sect, a proud, competent disciple at the peak of the Twelfth Stage of Qi Condensation, did not know how he had gotten here. One moment, he had been on a routine solo patrol mission, tracking a troublesome Earth-Spine Lizard. The next, a shadow had fallen over him, a silent, weightless array had snapped shut, and his world had gone black.

He awoke to a nightmare.

He was strapped to a cold, metal table, his body paralyzed, his spiritual energy completely sealed. He was in a dark, cavernous room, lit by the eerie, green glow of soul-fire lamps. Around him stood figures in black, their faces hidden by impassive, porcelain masks. The disciples of the Silent Puppet Guild.

A high-ranking puppet master, his mask adorned with silver filigree, stood over him. "The subject is conscious and stable," the master said, his voice a flat, synthesized monotone. "Begin the transference."

Zhao Wuji tried to scream, to struggle, but his body would not obey. He could only watch in abject horror as two masked disciples wheeled a horrific device over to him. It was a cage of black, twisted metal, and suspended within it was a single, large, cloudy crystal that pulsed with a sickening, grey light.

Another disciple approached, carrying a puppet. It was a crude, unfinished thing, a humanoid form carved from Ghost-Vein wood, its limbs articulated but its face a blank, featureless slate.

"Prepare the vessel," the master commanded.

They placed the puppet on an adjacent table. The master then produced a small, writhing mass of what looked like raw, pinkish flesh, contained within a glass vessel. He uncorked it, and the flesh, with a wet, slurping sound, began to flow out, slithering over the wooden puppet like a living shroud. It covered the puppet completely, weaving itself into the wood, forming a grotesque, skinless parody of a human form.

Zhao Wuji felt a sharp, stabbing pain in his arm. He looked down and saw a needle had been inserted into his vein, and his blood, his precious, life-infused cultivator’s blood, was being drawn out and fed into the flesh-covered puppet. The flesh began to take on his skin tone, his features. Hair began to sprout from its scalp, a perfect match for his own.

He was watching them grow a copy of him.

"The physical matrix is stabilizing," one of the disciples reported. "Begin the memory extraction."

The true horror began. They wheeled the cage with the grey crystal over his head. The crystal began to glow brighter, and Zhao Wuji felt a cold, invasive presence enter his mind. It was not a violent intrusion; it was a silent, meticulous theft.

It sifted through his entire life. His first memory, of his mother’s warm smile. The taste of the Spirit Peaches from his family’s orchard. The day he first channeled Qi. The pride he felt when he was accepted into the Mystic Peak Sect. The face of the junior sister he secretly loved. Every single sword technique, every sect secret he knew, every patrol route, every casual conversation he’d ever had with his friends. His entire existence, his very soul, was being copied, downloaded like a text from a scroll.

The process was agonizing, a violation so profound it shattered his will to live. As the last of his memories were siphoned away, he felt his life force, his very essence, drain away with them. His last conscious thought was of his best friend, Tai Long, and the promise they had made to take the Foundation Establishment trial together.

Then, darkness. His life was extinguished.

On the other table, the puppet, his perfect replica, sat up. It blinked, the movement perfectly natural. It looked at its hands, then flexed its fingers. It spoke, its voice a perfect, flawless imitation of Zhao Wuji’s.

"The patrol was uneventful. The Earth-Spine Lizard was a juvenile. Easily dispatched."

Its internal "thoughts" were not thoughts at all, but a cold, logical processing of its new data. Objective: Return to the sect. Re-integrate with subject’s social circle. Establish deep cover. Await instructions from the Guild Master. Priority: Maintain flawless imitation. No anomalies permitted.

The Flesh-Woven Mimic stood, now fully dressed in a perfect copy of Zhao Wuji’s robes. It was flawless. It was a ghost in the shell, a perfect spy, a silent, walking time bomb placed at the very heart of the Mystic Peak Sect.

And it was just one of a dozen.

A week later, Tai Long, a bright-eyed and enthusiastic disciple at the Eighth Stage of Qi Condensation, was on duty at the Western Gate of the Mystic Peak Sect’s outer region. He was a good-natured youth who idolized his Senior Brother Zhao Wuji. When he saw the familiar, confident figure approaching from the forest path, a wide, relieved grin spread across his face.

"Senior Brother Zhao! You’re back!" he shouted, waving enthusiastically. "We were starting to get worried! You were gone for two whole weeks!"

The figure, Senior Brother Zhao, raised a hand in a casual, familiar greeting. He looked tired, his robes a little dusty, exactly as one would expect after a long, arduous solo patrol.

"Tai Long," he said, his voice warm with a hint of weary amusement. "Still stuck on gate duty, I see."

"Hey!" Tai Long protested good-naturedly as his senior brother approached. "It’s important work! Besides, how was the patrol? Did you get that Earth-Spine Lizard?"

"I did," the mimic replied, its performance flawless. It even managed a convincing, weary sigh. "It was a troublesome beast, led me on a merry chase all the way to the Shadowfen Marshes. More boring than anything, honestly. How have things been here? Anything more exciting than the usual rumors about the war?"

The mimic’s words, its tone, its very posture, were a perfect match for the real Zhao Wuji’s personality—a little arrogant, a little dismissive, but fundamentally good-natured. Tai Long felt nothing but the familiar comfort of his friend’s presence.

"Nah, it’s been quiet, Senior Brother," Tai Long said, his voice dropping. "Too quiet, you know? Everyone’s on edge. The Elders have doubled the patrols, and everyone’s talking about the Righteous Yue Alliance. It’s scary."

The mimic reached out and playfully ruffled Tai Long’s hair, an action so perfectly in character that it brought a happy, reassured smile to the younger disciple’s face.

"Don’t listen to rumors, kid," the mimic said, its voice a perfect imitation of Zhao Wuji’s comradely advice. "That’s just noise for the Elders to worry about. You just focus on your cultivation. We’ve still got that promise, right? We’re going to take the Foundation Establishment trial together."

Tears welled up in Tai Long’s eyes. He had been so worried, and hearing his Senior Brother say that, so calmly, so confidently... it was a massive relief. "Right, Senior Brother! Of course!"

The mimic smiled, a warm, genuine-looking smile that did not, in fact, reach its cold, calculating puppet core. It clapped Tai Long on the shoulder. "Good lad. Well, I’m exhausted. I’m going to report to the Mission Hall and then get some rest. I’ll see you at the training grounds tomorrow."

"Okay, Senior Brother! Rest well!" Tai Long called out as his friend walked away.

He watched the familiar figure walk through the sect gates, disappearing into the bustling crowds of the outer sect. He felt a swell of pride and relief. His best friend was back, safe and sound. And he was so cool, so calm, even with everything going on. He was everything Tai Long hoped to be one day.

He had no idea that his best friend, his idol, was dead.

He had no idea that the man he had just spoken to was a monster wearing his friend’s face.

And he had no idea that this perfect, undetectable spy was just one of a dozen such silent invaders, now walking the halls, eating in the dining pavilions, and sleeping in the barracks of the Mystic Peak Sect, their secret purpose a silent, ticking bomb waiting to explode.

While the great sects played their deadly games of espionage and war, far away from the turmoil, in a hidden, nameless cave, a lone wolf was forging his own strength.

Ye Fan, the opportunistic protagonist, was in his element. He sat cross-legged on the cold stone floor, his expression one of intense, focused concentration. Before him, laid out on a clean, dark cloth, was his prize from the bloody chaos of Serpent’s Pass.

A small, unassuming pouch, filled with pure, priceless Jade Soul Sand.

He opened the pouch, pouring a small amount into his palm. It was not like the coarse, mundane sand of the mortal world. This sand was as fine as dust, each minuscule grain shimmering with a soft, silvery light, as if it contained a captured star. It felt cool to the touch, and hummed with a pure, concentrated spiritual energy, an energy perfectly attuned to the profound and esoteric art of array-crafting.

This was his key. His path to greater power.

He clutched the Temporal Jade Bead, the greatest secret of his life, and with a single thought, his consciousness entered the mysterious, time-accelerated space within. The week of political maneuvering that had passed in the outside world was, for him, a luxurious expanse of several months of uninterrupted, solitary training.

He began his work.

His goal was to master a profound, complex defensive array from his legacy inheritance, the "Myriad Heavens Turtle Shell Array." It was a formation far beyond the scope of a mere Qi Condensation cultivator, but Ye Fan’s ambition knew no such bounds.

He carefully arranged a small amount of the precious sand on the floor, his fingers tracing the first of the array’s one hundred and eight complex, interlocking runes. He channeled his Qi, trying to activate it.

Fizzle.

The runes flared for a split second, then collapsed, the silvery light of the Jade Soul Sand dimming, its spiritual energy expended and wasted.

He gritted his teeth, a flicker of frustration in his eyes. But there was no despair. Only a cold, unyielding determination.

He tried again.

Days turned into weeks, then months, within the timeless space of the bead. The small pouch of Jade Soul Sand, which had seemed so plentiful at first, began to deplete at an alarming rate.

He failed. He failed hundreds of times. The array would collapse at the tenth rune, the fiftieth, the ninety-ninth. Each failure was a lesson, a small piece of the puzzle falling into place. He was not just tracing lines; he was learning the profound principles behind them—the flow of Qi, the balance of the elements, the very geometric laws of the spiritual world.

He ate when he was hungry, slept when he was exhausted, and spent every waking moment lost in the profound, obsessive world of the array.

Then, one day, after what felt like an eternity of failure, something clicked.

He laid out the last of his Jade Soul Sand, his movements no longer hesitant, but fluid, confident, and impossibly fast. His fingers danced, leaving behind a perfect, intricate pattern of shimmering silver lines on the floor. He channeled his Qi.

This time, the runes did not collapse.

They blazed to life. The first rune connected to the second, the second to the third, a chain reaction of pure, golden light. In seconds, all one hundred and eight runes were connected, forming a perfect, complex, and breathtakingly beautiful diagram of profound power.

A deep, resonant hum filled the space, and a shimmering, multi-layered, hexagonal shield, like the shell of a divine tortoise, erupted from the array, enclosing him completely. It hummed with a defensive power so profound, so absolute, that Ye Fan knew, with utter certainty, that it could easily withstand the full-powered strike of a mid-stage Foundation Establishment expert.

He had done it. He had succeeded.

But the true prize was not the array itself. It was the understanding he had gained in creating it.

The moment of mastery, the moment he finally comprehended the profound principles of the Myriad Heavens Turtle Shell Array, was a moment of pure, unadulterated enlightenment. A dam in his mind broke, and a flood of new understanding about the nature of Qi, of cultivation, of the very Dao itself, washed over him.

This profound enlightenment, combined with the residual, pure spiritual energy he had absorbed from the months of practicing with the Jade Soul Sand, acted as a powerful, irresistible catalyst.

The bottleneck in his cultivation, the barrier between the Eleventh and Twelfth Stages of Qi Condensation, simply... shattered.

A wave of raw, untamed power surged through his meridians. He felt his spiritual energy expand, condense, and then expand again, becoming denser, purer, and infinitely more powerful. His aura, which had been a sharp blade, was now a heavy, powerful hammer.

He had broken through. He was now at the absolute peak of the Twelfth Stage of Qi Condensation, the very precipice of the Foundation Establishment Realm. He could feel the next realm, so close he could almost taste it.

He stood within his newly created array, feeling the thrum of his new, profound power. He was stronger than he had ever been. And it was not because of a sect, or a master, or a lucky inheritance. It was because he had seized an opportunity born from chaos, and through his own sweat, his own blood, his own unyielding will, he had forged it into strength.

He looked at his empty pouch of Jade Soul Sand, then at the powerful array surrounding him, and a cold, confident smile touched his lips.

His internal monologue was a quiet, absolute declaration of his independence, his life’s philosophy.

"Let the great sects play their games of war. Let the old monsters scheme for power and territory. I will feast on the scraps of their conflict and forge my own path to the heavens."

He clenched his fist, the feeling of his new power a heady, intoxicating drug.

"In this world, only your own strength can be trusted."