Snake Shedding Technique

At dawn, Fang Mu instructed Fang Jing to hide well before leaving his home.

The two pairs of eyes that had watched him last night did not follow him.

This allowed Fang Mu to breathe a sigh of relief, but he couldn't help but wonder about the other party's intentions. Was it just a coincidence that they met?

With his mind full of thoughts, Fang Mu arrived at the County Office and, as usual, headed to the Demon Slayer Division's main hall.

Huihai had arrived early today. After exchanging greetings with him, Fang Mu began taking attendance and assigning tasks to the Demon Slayer Envoys.

"Fang Mu, arrange your current matters. You'll be going out of the city with me later."

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

Fang Mu frowned. His intuition told him that Tu Qing definitely had ill intentions.

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

"Of course, you don't have to go, but as a superior officer of the Demon Slayer Division, you must also obey orders if powerful demons attack the common people."

Tu Qing's words were not very clear, but Fang Mu knew what he meant.

This guy was even resorting to threats. If he didn't agree, Tu Qing would definitely find various excuses to deploy him to assist in killing demons.

"I'm quite busy today and need to finish the tasks at hand. I'll accompany you out of the city tomorrow morning to complete the mission."

"Fine! Don't you dare try to be clever or shirk your responsibilities!"

Tu Qing was quite straightforward. After issuing a warning, he left directly.

His objective had been achieved, and he didn't care if Fang Mu delayed for a day.

Watching Tu Qing leave, Huihai frowned slightly.

Fang Mu could see that Tu Qing had ulterior motives. Qi Zhu had told him before she left that she was going with Wen Xuan.

Fang Mu trusted Wen Xuan's strength and character, so he wasn't worried.

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

After parting ways with Huihai, he, along with his clone, went to the Earth Prison as usual.

Huihai did not follow him secretly, clearly wary of the non-existent Chief Envoy.

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

It was a demon wolf that had completely lost its sanity and only knew how to kill. The fierce battle had resulted in many more casualties among the Demon Slayer Envoys.

In the end, the Deputy Chief Envoy intervened, heavily wounding the demon wolf and imprisoning 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. Was the Chief Envoy not at the County Office?

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

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

He either wanted to repeat his previous tactic, having demons attack Fang Mu, who possessed the pills.

However, when he left the County Office, he had crushed the pills and left them behind, which was why the demon wolf had attacked the County Office.

Of course, another possibility was that Huihai wanted to verify whether the Chief Envoy, Ye Tian, was actually at the County Office, or if he was in seclusion in the Earth Prison.

Recalling his thoughts, Fang Mu opened a prison cell door and entered the dungeon with his clone.

The ones imprisoned in this dungeon were the snake people who had secretly attacked him a few days ago.

After being heavily injured, the snake people were imprisoned in the Earth Prison.

Looking at the snake person whose body was pierced by chains and bound all over, Fang Mu was shocked to see it begin to shed its skin, its head already separated from its original body.

Looking at the wriggling, disgusting snake person, he was also horrified. If it had been given more time and successfully shed its skin, wouldn't it have escaped the restraint of the chains?

Without any hesitation, the clone lunged forward, swung the long sword in its hand, and slashed at the snake person.

The snake person let out a hiss and lunged at the clone, appearing extremely ferocious.

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

Therefore, with the clone's full effort, the snake person was eventually cut into several pieces.

After the prison door was opened and the clone left, Fang Mu then activated the Demon Refining Mirror to refine the snake person demon.

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

From the fragmented memories of the snake person, Fang Mu felt its pain.

It was originally a snake that was captured by someone and subjected to various experiments, gradually being modified.

Unwilling to die, it had persevered, eventually enduring until it transformed into the snake person state.

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

Later, it was taken away by Huihai. The fragmented memories were few and somewhat scattered.

However, one thing was certain: the snake person's thoughts and sanity were controlled by a certain drug.

If it didn't ingest a special drug for a long time, the snake person would suffer a fate worse than death.

The snake person's fragmented memories contained no information about the evil organization. Fang Mu only found ten individuals dressed in black, wearing ghost masks, within the memories.

One of them, Fang Mu felt, strongly resembled that old schemer Huihai.

The advanced Essence Blood Pill was refined from the snake person's Blood Essence, and consuming it could strengthen Blood Essence and nourish the physical body.

The Snake Shedding Technique was a spell that consumed one's life source to shed skin. When the physical body suffered irreversible damage, one could shed their skin to reshape their body.

Looking at the pill in his hand and a thin snakeskin, Fang Mu was so excited he almost burst out laughing.

This was truly an unexpected joy, to obtain such a good item. The Snake Shedding Technique was practically a second life.

After swallowing the Essence Blood Pill, Fang Mu discovered many profound characters on the thin snakeskin.

After a drop of blood to recognize him as master, before he could react, the snakeskin merged into his body.

Streams of esoteric information flowed into Fang Mu's mind, allowing him to easily understand and learn the Snake Shedding Technique.

The thin snakeskin transformed into myriad threads, integrating into his physical body and being absorbed and fused.

Without further studying the Snake Shedding Technique, Fang Mu placed the snake person's shed snakeskin into his storage bag and left the dungeon.

The benefit of becoming a Chief Envoy was an additional storage bag, but it was public property, only to be used for collecting items obtained from killing demons.

Storage bags could not be taken out of the Demon Slayer Division's main hall; a dedicated scribe would record them.

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

The reason he had avoided using the Demon Refining Mirror on his clone was the fear that Huihai might have tampered with it.

Although he had checked it once and found nothing, caution was paramount.

After that old schemer Huihai and his clone privately confirmed each other's identities, He instructed the clone, Yuan Fan, to infiltrate the Earth Prison dungeon and find an old monk to ask if he was the Jade Faced Gentleman.

If the other party agreed, they were to find a way to exchange secret contact signals.

The Jade Faced Gentleman would then inform the clone of the next steps.

There were many intricacies to this. After pondering for a while, Fang Mu led his clone to the Special-Grade Dungeon.

This Special-Grade Dungeon was the quietest. It was likely where the old monk was held. Fang Mu had sensed the other dungeons, and they did not seem to have anyone within them.

Cautiously opening the Special-Grade Dungeon, Fang Mu detected a scent of blood.

The dungeon also had nine cell doors. After opening a cell door and entering, Fang Mu discovered a formation within the last cell door.

Holding the Demon Slaying Token, he carefully walked over the formation on the ground.

The glowing formation dimmed its light upon sensing the Demon Slaying Token, refraining from attacking Fang Mu.

After opening the last iron cell door with his clone, Fang Mu was immediately hit by a strong smell of blood.

Indeed, there was an old monk inside the dungeon. The old monk's shoulder blades and limbs were all pierced by chains, and he was bound to a large rock.

Not far from the old monk lay a skeleton, its flesh and blood long gone.

Beside the skeleton lay a tattered piece of clothing, the uniform of a Demon Slayer Envoy.

He must have been the unfortunate Deputy Chief Envoy of the Demon Slayer Division; he hadn't expected to die here.

Next to the tattered clothing were a key that had turned to dust and a Demon Slaying Token.

This was to prevent a Demon Slayer Envoy from being killed, their key seized, and demons escaping.

Even if a Demon Slayer Envoy died, the key, retaining his soul power, would shatter into dust.

The keys to the many cells would also instantly shatter.

The key Fang Mu now held was one of many spare keys.

Of course, if there were any issues with the keys, the locks on the cell doors could also have their keys changed.

"You two young brothers are quite distinguished and promising. Would you mind listening to this old monk recite some scriptures?"

A hoarse voice sounded, interrupting Fang Mu's thoughts.

Fang Mu snapped back to attention and sized up the old monk, who was as thin as a bag of bones and missing two front teeth. He snorted, "Master's scriptures are too profound; we wouldn't dare to learn them."

As Fang Mu spoke, he intentionally or unintentionally glanced at the skeletal remains in front of the old monk. The old monk chuckled indifferently, "I was too hungry before and couldn't help but eat someone."

"Don't be afraid, my two young friends. You two look so tender and fair-skinned, smelling so delicious. This old monk won't harm you."

Seeing the old monk secretly swallow, Fang Mu's scalp tingled. Damn it, do you have to be so obvious? You're really two-faced.

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

Fang Mu instructed his clone, Yuan Fan, and then quickly turned and left, running faster than a rabbit.

When the old monk heard Huihai's name, a flicker of an unusual expression crossed his eyes.

After Fang Mu left, Yuan Fan took a few fearful steps back, asking with surprise and uncertainty, "Are... are you the Jade Faced Gentleman?"

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

"Yes, I have. They say the Jade Faced Gentleman is dashing and suave, possessing the ability to change his appearance at will. Only he knows his true appearance."

"Yo! Not bad, young man. You're quite knowledgeable."

"Then what do you mean by 'mountains remain green and rivers flow long'?"

"In human terms, it means that the mountains remain green and the rivers flow long, there will be a long time to come, and there will be opportunities for regret."

"Who are you?"

"Yuan Fan has met the adult. It was Huihai Shen Shi who sent me to meet the adult. He wants to ask what the adult's next step is."

Looking at Yuan Fan, who knelt and bowed, the old monk pondered before speaking, "Tell that old fellow that I have found a clue."

"But if he wants to get information from me, he needs to save me from this predicament."

"Tell him that I have mastered the Soul Seizing Technique, and he will know how to save me."

As the old monk's faint voice faded, he slowly closed his eyes.

After bowing, the clone Yuan Fan turned and left.

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

Pondering the information he had received, Fang Mu turned and left with his clone.