Lord Facai Is Badass!

The moon hung high overhead. Once night had fully fallen, there were noticeably fewer pedestrians on the streets, and everything was bleak and deserted.

After parting ways with Old Daoist Liu and the others, Chen Yan headed straight back toward Ping An Fang.

He hurried along until he reached the entrance to Ping An Fang. Before he could enter, he heard bursts of rustling coming from Lin'an Ward across the street.

Alert, Chen Yan narrowed his eyes and looked toward the source of the sound.

He saw groups of Rebirth Cult followers dressed in white hemp garments weaving through the streets and alleys. From time to time, Lin'an Ward residents greeted them and saw them off with devout expressions.

"Rebirth Cult?"

Chen Yan frowned.

He had not expected the Rebirth Cult's influence to have quietly spread to the vicinity of his home.

It made the warning bells in Chen Yan's heart ring louder.

Though the Rebirth Cult had not yet shown its harmful side, cults like this were, by nature, calamities that brought ruin upon a region. It was only a matter of sooner or later.

Chen Yan even had a suspicion: could the mastermind behind the Skin-Peeling Puppets be the Rebirth Cult stirring up trouble in the shadows?

Looking across all of Shanxi Town, the Rebirth Cult was undoubtedly the place most likely to harbor Evil Cultivators.

The more Chen Yan thought about it, the more likely it seemed. He made up his mind to inform Liu Fujing about the Rebirth Cult's appearance in Shanxi Town when he delivered the human skins tomorrow. As for the rest, it was beyond what a small fry who had only just completed Blood Exchange could handle.

After pausing to watch for a moment, Chen Yan turned and left.

Across the way, the strange, gaunt man he had encountered before was there as well. At the same time, he spotted Chen Yan.

Watching Chen Yan's vaguely familiar back, the gaunt man's brows drew together slightly.

"Is that him?"

Suddenly, a respectful voice from a cult follower sounded beside him.

"Incense Master."

Still watching Chen Yan's departing figure, the gaunt man said blandly, "Speak."

Behind him, the cult follower lowered his head respectfully and replied, "The Flying Fish Guard has arrived."

"Who came?" The gaunt man's expression did not change.

"Bronze-Rank Flying Fish Guard—Slovenly Daoist Liu Fujing."

"Only a Bronze-Rank Flying Fish Guard?" A sneer appeared on the gaunt man's face. Then he calmly ordered, "Pass down the command. Everything proceeds according to plan."

"Yes!"

The cult follower respectfully accepted the order and was just about to withdraw when the gaunt man suddenly spoke again.

"Wait."

"What other instructions do you have, Incense Master?"

The gaunt man nodded slightly and gestured toward Chen Yan's retreating back. "Go. Investigate that young man's background."

"As you command!"

Once the cult follower left, the alley fell silent once more. As Chen Yan vanished from sight, the gaunt man's eyes gleamed with interest.

"Blood and qi spilling outward... Blood Exchange in three days? Interesting..."

On the other side, the moment Chen Yan returned home, he was greeted by Facai's triple meow interrogation, every cry brimming with displeasure.

"Meow meow meow!"

It seemed to be demanding why he had come back so late, and whether he still had any regard for this home at all.

"Ha... sorry, sorry. Look what I brought you."

Chen Yan laughed awkwardly. As he spoke, he pulled a fish out from behind his back and waved it before Facai, saying rather proudly, "Well? I just bought it from the fish market. Absolutely fresh!"

"Meow!"

Yet to Chen Yan's surprise, Facai cast a rather disdainful glance at the fish in his hand. Then it leaped down from the dead tree, padded over to the water vat in the middle of the courtyard, and stopped before it.

Chen Yan usually used this vat for bathing. It was filled with water and covered with a round wooden lid to keep out dust.

Facai gave a light leap, then kicked off with its hind legs in midair. The round wooden lid traced a graceful arc before landing on the ground.

Moonlight spilled down onto the still water in the vat, glimmering with specks of silver.

Suddenly!

Ripples appeared, and a black fish tail broke the surface before diving back underwater in the blink of an eye.

Chen Yan's eyes immediately widened. A plump black silver carp had somehow appeared in the vat. Compared to it, the little fish in Chen Yan's hand was practically its kid brother.

What was more, Chen Yan's sharp eyes spotted clear claw marks and bite marks on the silver carp's body.

He could practically picture it in his mind: a sleek and graceful Black Cat darting across the rooftops, arriving at the riverbank, crouching low as it waited quietly for its prey.

The moment the silver carp surfaced, the Black Cat would strike with lightning speed, swatting it onto the shore. Then it would pick up the fish in its mouth, return home as if it knew the route by heart, and place it in the water vat...

"Hiss—"

Chen Yan sucked in a cold breath. He was utterly stunned. After staring dumbfoundedly at Facai for a long while, he finally squeezed out a sentence. "Were you sitting behind me during the college entrance exams?"

Facai gave him a thoroughly baffled look.

Chen Yan had known Facai was intelligent, but he had never imagined it would be intelligent to this extent.

Who the hell had adopted whom?

"Meow~"

Facai let out a haughty cry, then padded over to Chen Yan. It raised its head slightly, exposed its neck, and shot him a sidelong glance. Its meaning could not have been clearer.

Chen Yan understood instantly. Obediently, he picked Facai up and held it in his arms, running a hand through its fur and giving it a massage as he said, "Lord Facai, how is it? Comfortable?"

"Meow meow~"

Facai narrowed its eyes in enjoyment and let out soft little cries.

"Lord Facai, I heard there's an earthen slope three li north of the city, and wild rabbits often appear there... Not that we want to eat them. Just mentioning it."

"Meow."

"Lord Facai is mighty!"

"Ahem, there's one more thing. Sigh, it's rather tragic, really. I've grown this old and never had beef even once... Hey, hey, hey! Lord Facai, don't leave! I'm not done massaging you yet!"

Late at night, when all was quiet, the moon was dark and the wind howled.

Suddenly—

Tap!

A faint sound abruptly rang out beyond the courtyard.

Chen Yan, lying in bed, suddenly opened his eyes. He exchanged a glance with the equally alert Facai by the bedside.

This time, Facai did not need to warn him. Chen Yan had sensed the danger himself.

In the darkness, man and cat communicated silently with four eyes. Then they slipped out of bed without a sound, landed on the floor, went to the window, opened a crack, and peered outside.

Two figures seemed to float over the courtyard wall like ghosts before landing lightly in the yard. Had Chen Yan not made preparations in the courtyard beforehand, he might not even have noticed them.

The dim moonlight revealed their true faces.

They had blue faces and protruding fangs, skin as pale as corpses, and blue-black complexions. Most eye-catching of all were their eyes: a pair of blood-red vertical pupils like those of wild beasts.

They looked exactly like the middle-aged human skin from before!

They were, astonishingly, two more Skin-Peeling Puppets!

The instant Chen Yan saw the two Skin-Peeling Puppets, a cold smile appeared on his face.

Just as he had expected, after he killed the Skin-Peeling Puppet belonging to the mastermind, how could that person possibly let the matter rest?

It was only the second night, yet the other party had already come seeking revenge, even dispatching two at once. Clearly, they would not rest until he was dead!