Snake Shedding Technique

At dawn, Fang Mu instructed Fang Jing to hide well before leaving the house.

The two gazes that had watched him last night had not followed him.

This let Fang Mu secretly breathe a sigh of relief, but he could not help wondering about their purpose. Could it have merely been a coincidental encounter?

With his mind full of worries, he arrived at the County Office and took the familiar route to the Demon Slayer Division's main hall.

Huihai had arrived early today. After greeting him, Fang Mu began calling the names and assigning tasks to the Demon Slayer Envoys.

"Fang Mu, arrange the matters on your hands. Later, come out of the city with me."

At that moment, Tu Qing walked in from outside and ordered Fang Mu.

Fang Mu's brows furrowed slightly. His instincts told him that Tu Qing definitely had bad intentions.

Just as he was about to refuse, Tu Qing added, "This time, we're going to rescue someone. Qi Zhu has a good relationship with you, and she ran into trouble on a mission."

"Of course, you can choose not to go. But as a Chief Demon Slayer Envoy of the Demon Slayer Division, if powerful demons attack the common people, you'll also have to obey the summons."

Tu Qing had not made himself too clear, but Fang Mu knew exactly what he meant.

That fellow had even resorted to threats. If Fang Mu refused him, he would certainly use all sorts of excuses to dispatch him to help kill demons.

"I'm rather busy today. I need to finish the tasks at hand. Tomorrow morning, I'll accompany you out of the city to complete the mission."

"Fine! Don't deliberately shirk or play tricks!"

Tu Qing was quite direct. After issuing that warning, he left without another word.

He had achieved his purpose and did not care if Fang Mu delayed for another day.

Watching Tu Qing leave, Huihai frowned.

Fang Mu could see that Tu Qing had ulterior motives. Before Qi Zhu left, she had told him that she would be going with Wen Xuan.

Wen Xuan's strength and character could still be trusted, so Fang Mu was not worried.

Collecting his thoughts, he personally led Huihai into the Mortal Character Prison.

After parting from Huihai, he brought his clone along the familiar route to the Earth Prison.

Huihai had not secretly followed him, clearly wary of the nonexistent Chief Envoy.

From his clone's memories, Fang Mu unexpectedly learned that a demon invasion had occurred at the County Office last night.

It had been a demon wolf that had completely lost its reason and knew only slaughter. After a fierce bloody battle, quite a few more Demon Slayer Envoys had been killed or wounded.

In the end, the Deputy Chief Envoy had intervened, severely wounded the demon wolf, and locked it in the Seven-Star Dungeon of the Mortal Character Prison.

The Chief Envoy had not appeared during last night's battle, which made Fang Mu suspicious. Could the Chief Envoy not have been at the County Office?

But this had helped Fang Mu cover his lie, making Huihai even more convinced that the Chief Envoy might truly be cultivating in seclusion in the Earth Prison.

As for the demon wolf that had suddenly attacked the County Office, Fang Mu strongly suspected that Huihai had secretly released it.

Either Huihai had wanted to repeat his old trick and have a demon attack Fang Mu, who possessed pills,

or perhaps the demon wolf had attacked the County Office because Fang Mu had crushed the pills and left them there when he departed.

Of course, there was another possibility: Huihai had wanted to verify whether Ye Tian, the Chief Envoy, was actually at the County Office—or, more precisely, whether he was cultivating in seclusion in the Earth Prison.

Collecting his thoughts, Fang Mu opened a cell door and brought his clone into the dungeon.

The prisoner in this dungeon was the Snake person who had secretly attacked him a few days ago.

After being severely wounded, the Snake person had been imprisoned in the Earth Prison.

Fang Mu watched as chains pierced the Snake person's body, binding and wrapping around it from head to toe.

He was shocked to see that the Snake person had actually begun shedding its skin. Its head had already separated from its original body.

Looking at the writhing, revolting Snake person, he was horrified as well. If this continued for some time and the Snake person successfully shed its skin, would it not escape the chains' restraints?

Without the slightest hesitation, the clone darted forward and swung the long sword in his hand, slashing at the Snake person.

The Snake person hissed and lunged at the clone, biting viciously.

But it was extremely weak during the shedding process. Its strength was inferior to the clone's, and half its body was restrained, making escape difficult.

Thus, when the clone attacked with all his might, the Snake person was ultimately hacked into several pieces.

After the cell door opened and the clone left, Fang Mu finally activated the Demon Refining Mirror and refined the demon.

However, he kept the snake skin left behind by its shedding, intending to use it to report back.

From the Snake person's fragmented memories, he sensed its pain.

It had originally been a snake. After being captured, it had been subjected to all kinds of experiments and gradually transformed.

Unwilling to die, it had struggled bitterly all along, ultimately enduring until it became a Snake person.

It seemed to have been captured by an evil organization. From the fragments of its memories, Fang Mu could sense its fear of that organization.

Later, it had been taken away by Huihai. Its fragmented memories were few and somewhat disordered.

But one thing could be confirmed: the Snake person's thoughts and reason were controlled by a certain drug.

As long as it went too long without swallowing a special drug, the Snake person would wish for death.

There was no information about the evil organization in its fragmented memories. Fang Mu had only found ten figures wearing black clothes and ghost-face masks.

One of them looked very much like that sinister old fox, Huihai.

Advanced Essence Blood Pill, refined from a Snake person's vital blood. After consumption, it could strengthen the qi and blood and nourish the body.

Snake Shedding Technique, a technique that consumed one's life origin to shed the skin. When the physical body suffered irreversible damage, one could shed the skin to recreate the body.

Looking at the pill and the thin sheet of snake skin in his hand, Fang Mu was so excited that he nearly laughed aloud.

This was truly an unexpected delight. He had actually obtained such an excellent treasure. The Snake Shedding Technique was practically a second life.

After swallowing the Essence Blood Pill, Fang Mu discovered that the thin snake skin was covered in many profound characters.

After dripping his blood to acknowledge ownership, before he could react, the snake skin melted into his body.

Streams of profound information flowed into Fang Mu's mind, allowing him to understand and master the Snake Shedding Technique with ease.

The thin snake skin transformed into thousands upon thousands of threads, merging into his flesh and being absorbed and fused by his body.

Without studying the Snake Shedding Technique further, Fang Mu put the snake skin that the Snake person had shed earlier into the storage pouch and left the dungeon.

One benefit of becoming a Chief Demon Slayer Envoy was receiving an additional storage pouch. However, it belonged to the government and could only be used to store items obtained from killing demons.

The storage pouch could not be taken out of the Demon Slayer Division's main hall. A registrar specifically responsible for recording such things would make an entry.

After leaving the dungeon, Fang Mu and his clone arrived at the Special Dungeon.

The reason he had avoided the clone when using the Demon Refining Mirror was that he feared Huihai might have tampered with the clone.

Although he had inspected it once and found nothing, caution could never hurt.

That sinister old fox, Huihai, had privately confirmed their respective identities with the clone.

He then instructed the clone, Yuan Fan, to enter the Earth Prison dungeon, find an old monk, and ask whether he was the Jade Faced Gentleman.

As long as the other party acknowledged it, Yuan Fan was to find a way to exchange the contact signals with him.

The Jade Faced Gentleman would naturally tell the clone what he needed to do next.

There were quite a few twists and turns involved. After pondering for a while, Fang Mu brought his clone to the Special Dungeon.

The Special Dungeon was the quietest. The old monk might be imprisoned there. Fang Mu had sensed through the other dungeons, and none of them seemed to contain anyone.

Cautiously opening the Special Dungeon, Fang Mu detected a bloody stench inside.

This dungeon likewise had nine cell doors. After opening the doors and entering, Fang Mu discovered a formation inside the final cell.

Holding the Demon Slayer Token, he carefully crossed the formation on the floor.

After sensing the Demon Slayer Token, the glowing formation dimmed and did not attack Fang Mu.

Fang Mu brought the clone to open the final iron cell door. A pungent bloody stench immediately rushed into his nose.

There was indeed an old monk inside the dungeon. His shoulder blades and all four limbs had been pierced by chains, binding him to a massive stone.

Not far from the old monk lay a skeleton that had long since been stripped of all flesh.

A tattered robe lay beside the skeleton. It was the uniform of a Demon Slayer Envoy.

That must have been the unfortunate Deputy Chief Envoy of the Demon Slayer Division. Fang Mu had not expected him to die here.

Beside the tattered robe lay a key that had crumbled into powder, along with a Demon Slayer Token.

This was to prevent a Demon Slayer Envoy from being killed and having his key stolen, allowing a demon to escape.

As long as a Demon Slayer Envoy died, any key containing his soul power would shatter and turn to powder.

The many keys to the cells would also be destroyed immediately.

The key Fang Mu held now was one of the many spares.

Of course, if anything happened to a key, the locks on those cell doors could also be fitted to a new key.

"You two young brothers are quite handsome and promising. Would you care to listen to this old monk expound a few scriptures?"

A hoarse voice rang out, interrupting Fang Mu's thoughts.

Fang Mu came back to himself and sized up the old monk, who was missing two front teeth and was so thin he looked like skin stretched over bones. He snorted. "Master's scriptures are too profound. We wouldn't dare learn them."

Seeing Fang Mu glance intentionally or otherwise at the skeletal remains before him as he spoke, the old monk smiled unconcernedly. "I was too hungry before and couldn't resist eating someone."

"Don't be afraid, young friends. Looking at your tender flesh, you smell delicious, but this old monk won't hurt you."

Looking at the old monk secretly swallowing, Fang Mu felt his scalp prickle. Damn it, do you have to make it so obvious? You're being completely two-faced.

"Um... Yuan Fan, you stay here. Master Huihai asked you to learn Buddhist teachings from this old monk. I'll wait outside."

After giving that instruction to his clone, Yuan Fan, Fang Mu hurriedly turned and left, running faster than a rabbit.

When the old monk heard Huihai's name, a strange glint flashed through his eyes.

After Fang Mu left, Yuan Fan retreated two steps fearfully and asked uncertainly, "A-are you the Jade Faced Gentleman?"

"Oh? You've heard of the Jade Faced Gentleman?"

"I-I have. They say the Jade Faced Gentleman is suave and dashing and can change his appearance at will. Only he knows his true appearance."

"Oh! Not bad. You're quite knowledgeable for a youngster."

"Then, what do you mean by 'the green hills remain unchanged, and the lucid waters flow on'?"

"As the saying goes, the green hills remain unchanged, and the lucid waters flow on. The road ahead is long, and we shall meet again."

"Who are you?"

"Yuan Fan pays his respects, my lord. Huihai, the Shen Shi, sent me to make contact with you and ask what you want us to do next."

Looking at Yuan Fan kneeling in greeting, the old monk began speaking after a moment of thought. "Tell that old fellow that I've already found a clue."

"But if he wants to learn the information from my mouth, he'll have to rescue me first."

"Tell him that I've already mastered the Soul Seizing Technique. He'll know how he should save me."

After the old monk's faint voice fell, he slowly closed his eyes.

After Yuan Fan bowed, he turned and left.

As for Fang Mu's true body, he was controlling the clone from outside the dungeon.

Pondering the information they had obtained, Fang Mu turned and left with his clone.