Human Skin

Lin Guanhuo frowned. The voice from behind the door was hoarse and strange, making him uncomfortable.

Lin Guanhuo said in a deep voice, "I'm not here to buy tofu. I'm an official from the government office. The neighbors said there's a foul smell coming from your yard, and we were worried something might have happened to you, so we came to check. Since you're home, please open the door."

His words fell.

There was a moment of silence from inside the door.

Just as Lin Guanhuo and the other man began to feel suspicious.

"Creak—"

The two tightly shut doors slowly opened.

Then, the two men smelled...

A thick, nauseating stench of decay emanating from the courtyard.

"Gag..." Zhou Kai, caught off guard, quickly covered his mouth and nose, then whispered, "What kind of hellhole is this..."

Lin Guanhuo also frowned deeply. "Should we go back?"

Hearing this, Zhou Kai gritted his teeth. "We have to see if they're alive or dead. If we go back without reporting, we'll be kicked out of the government office and starve to death anyway."

"The lives of low-ranking officials don't matter, I guess. I hope there are no ghosts inside..."

After speaking, Zhou Kai, holding his saber, bravely entered the courtyard. Lin Guanhuo cautiously followed behind him.

The main house was not far ahead, and the source of the stench seemed to be coming from inside.

Lin Guanhuo exchanged a look. The two carefully pushed open the door to the main house.

Creak~~

The door was pushed open.

In the lamplight, they saw that the square table inside the room was neatly laid out with boards of prepared tofu.

However, this tofu...

It seemed to have been left there for a long time. It had already spoiled and grown mold, emitting a suffocating smell of rot.

"This... this tofu has been moldy for at least seven or eight days?" Zhou Kai looked at the room full of rotten tofu, his face ashen.

Lin Guanhuo said nothing, merely looking around.

Although the room was filled with daily necessities, it had an indescribable dead and oppressive atmosphere.

Strange, very strange.

Extremely strange.

Just then.

Creak~~~

The door to the side room suddenly made a light sound, as if blown open by the wind, or perhaps someone inside had gently pushed it.

Immediately after, a faint sound of footsteps came from the side room.

That was Widow Sun's boudoir.

The sudden sound made Zhou Kai react sharply, and he instinctively shouted:

"Who's there?!"

No one answered.

After a moment, although Zhou Kai was scared, he felt emboldened by the saber in his hand.

He rushed to the side room door in a few steps and shoved it open.

Lin Guanhuo followed closely behind.

However, the instant the lamplight shone into the room, both men froze!

They saw...

This should have been Widow Sun's boudoir. The pink curtains were still embroidered with mandarin ducks playing in the water.

But... the scene on the bed made Lin Guanhuo and Zhou Kai stunned.

On the bed lay two "things," not living people.

But...

They were two skins.

Two complete, shriveled human skins, completely naked, as if all their flesh and bones had been drained away!

They lay there like two pieces of clothing, limp and clinging to the bed.

"This..."

Both of them were dumbfounded.

Looking at the two human skins, one of them had heavy makeup on its face. Although shriveled and deformed, it was still vaguely recognizable as a charming woman in her prime – it was Sun Sanniang.

The other skin was wearing a loose, gray monk's robe, and its bald scalp was shriveled. It should have been a monk.

It looked like this monk had been up to no good with Widow Sun before he died.

"Wh-what is this ghastly thing?!" Zhou Kai stumbled back a few steps, terrified. "Human... human skin?!"

As low-ranking officials, they were no strangers to moving and collecting bodies. They considered themselves quite experienced.

Yet, witnessing this scene firsthand still sent a chill down their spines.

Moreover, these two pieces of human skin were extremely dry, their edges brittle, suggesting they had been dead for at least five or six days.

"This monk... seems to have had an unusual relationship with Sun Sanniang," Lin Guanhuo suppressed his fear and analyzed in a low voice. "He met her in secret late at night, only to run into something foul that drained his essence, blood, and flesh, leaving nothing but a husk."

"What a lecherous monk."

In this world overrun by demons and monsters, such a death was not uncommon. It was likely he had encountered some sort of fiend that specialized in draining vital energy.

'Hmm?'

I couldn't find it by searching the book title. You could try searching for the author. Maybe the title was just changed!

Lin Guanhuo's gaze swept over the dead monk. His robes seemed to be bulging with something inside.

While Zhou Kai wasn't paying attention, Lin Guanhuo took two steps forward and used his scabbard to lift the monk's robes.

An ancient book was revealed.

Lin Guanhuo had initially thought it was some scripture, but upon closer inspection...

Four large characters were written on it.

Precept Breaking Saber Art!

Lin Guanhuo's heart stirred.

A martial arts manual?

In this world, martial arts manuals were incredibly precious resources.

Most of them were monopolized by noble families, sects, factions, and the imperial court.

To learn martial arts, one either had to buy a manual at a high price or join the Demon Suppressing Division, a martial arts school, or a prominent martial arts family.

It was clearly very difficult for ordinary people to achieve this.

Precept Breaking Saber Art, though the name didn't sound like a legitimate Buddhist scripture, any martial arts manual, even the most basic farming techniques, could fetch a few taels of silver on the black market, enough to keep him fed for a while.

If he could practice it... that would be an opportunity to defy fate!

Lin Guanhuo's hands moved swiftly. He snatched the book and casually tucked it into the inner lining pocket of his clothes, his movements fluid and natural.

Then he said, "Let's go. Load this thing onto the cart and we can report back."

Beside him, his fellow low-ranking official, Zhou Kai, had finally calmed down a bit.

He suppressed his nausea and nodded.

"Wait!!"

Just then, Zhou Kai seemed to realize something, his voice trembling. "Brother Lin..."

Zhou Kai stared intently at Lin Guanhuo, speaking almost word by word. "Have you... have you considered?"

"If these two were already dead..."

"Then who answered us at the door just now... and who opened it?"

"And whose footsteps were those in the room just now?"

His words silenced them both.

Could it be... one of the human skins opened the door for them, and then lightly floated back into the room?

This...

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~~

A cold wind swept through the old, somewhat eerie house.

"Stop imagining things. We shouldn't linger here!" Lin Guanhuo said in a low voice. "Let's get these... two corpses out of here first, and then we can finish our duty!"

With that, the two of them, steeling their nerves and suppressing their disgust and fear, wrapped up the two light, ethereal human skins.

However, just as they were carrying the corpses out of the main house and preparing to move them to the carriage outside the courtyard...

Aow~~

A scream, like a cat's cry mixed with a baby's wail, suddenly erupted.

Then, a gray afterimage shot down from the rafters, lunging straight for Zhou Kai, who was in front.

"Ah! What is that thing!"

Zhou Kai let out a scream, and his hand trembled!

The thing managed to scratch his arm several times.

Lin Guanhuo reacted with lightning speed, slashing at it with his saber.

The blade sliced through the air, but the thing was incredibly fast, leaping onto the wall in an instant.

Only then did the two clearly see it was a fox.

It crouched on the wall, its narrow eyes coldly staring at them.

"You damn beast! How dare you grab me!" Zhou Kai gritted his teeth in pain, cursing loudly.

The fox seemed to understand, letting out a "ge ge" sound like a human laugh, then turned and disappeared into the darkness.

"Don't chase it, let's go! This place is extremely strange." Lin Guanhuo urged. This mansion was clearly being disturbed by demons and monsters, something beyond what he and Zhou Kai, two low-ranking officials, could handle.

Hearing this, Zhou Kai relented. The two threw the human skin onto the carriage.

They then affixed a seal to the gate of Widow Sun's mansion before leaving.

A long time passed.

The mansion once again returned to a deathly silence.

After an unknown amount of time, inside Widow Sun's mansion.

The gray fox silently crept out again.

It stood in the center of the courtyard, coldly gazing at the empty, dark mansion.

It opened its mouth, emitting a hoarse voice: "Eat... eat tofu... make, make tofu... please..."

"Hahahaha..."

Only.

Beneath the fox's head was a human face.