Painted Skin Ghost

The Paper Doll froze instantly, Chen Mo's spiritual energy attached to it feeling as though it had been soaked in ice water.

Master Liu's cold, tangible aura washed over the withered trees and wild grass on the outskirts of the Mass Grave Mound like a tidal wave.

Almost the moment his words fell, a fierce and scorching aura erupted from behind a pile of rubble on the perimeter!

A sharp shout rang out like a thunderclap: "Moon-Worship Cult remnants, how dare you refine living people into medicine and poison the three counties!"

A figure arrived with the sound, fast as a thunderbolt.

It was none other than Yue Shan, captain of the Linhe County detachment of the Inspection Bureau!

He held the Crimson Flame Broadsword in both hands, the blade glowing with a crimson light that dispelled the foul yin energy as he slashed directly at Master Liu, who stood at the eye of the formation.

"Flies from the Inspection Bureau, you really did come sniffing for the scent." Master Liu sneered, lifting his withered right hand. Five streaks of pitch-black finger wind manifested out of thin air, easily dissolving Yue Shan's sharp blade aura.

Yue Shan's expression changed drastically; he felt a cold, venomous force travel up the blade, causing his blood and qi to churn.

He hurriedly changed his stance to retreat, only to be entangled by four ghost-like cultists in black who cut off his path.

At this moment, the massive black handprint unleashed by Master Liu arrived, brimming with lethal intent.

Yue Shan had nowhere to dodge, a flash of determination in his eyes.

Just then—

"Enough."

A tall, burly figure stood between Yue Shan and Master Liu before anyone could notice.

The newcomer wore a simple dark gray martial suit covered by a worn leather vest. He looked to be around fifty, his short hair like steel needles, his jawline rigid.

He merely stood there, and the air around him distorted slightly from the intense heat; even the soil beneath his feet showed faint signs of scorching.

The blood and qi energy, like a roaring furnace, instantly diluted the yin Sha and deathly aura permeating the graveyard.

This was the external manifestation of having cultivated blood and qi martial arts to the Blood Furnace realm.

He did not attack Master Liu, merely flicking his sleeve to the side.

A scorching, fire-like gale manifested out of thin air, wrapping perfectly around Yue Shan and sending him smoothly back over ten yards, clearing him from the range of Master Liu's palm strike.

Master Liu's lethal handprint was retracted in turn, the black energy roiling around him pausing slightly. "I wondered who could sneak here without a sound; so it is Yue Changkong of the Anomaly Suppression Bureau. I suppose I should call you Inspector Yue now."

"What, is Inspector Yue here to conduct an inspection?"

His words were probing, clearly implying something, and his tone lacked the intensity of facing a mortal enemy, carrying instead a strange, eerie calm.

Yue Changkong's expression remained unmoved, his gaze sweeping over the bizarre formation and the piled firewood before returning to Master Liu. "I am taking this person. Before the formation is complete, behave yourself."

Ghostly light flickered in Master Liu's eyes as he seemed to weigh his options, finally letting out a cold snort: "Very well, I will give you this face. But Inspector Yue, remember your words. If any more blind flies come to disturb us..."

He left the rest unsaid, the threat hanging heavy in the air.

"Go." Yue Changkong said no more, turning to command Captain Yue Shan of the Inspection Bureau in a tone that brooked no argument.

Yue Shan was filled with shock. Why did he not attack?

Why did their conversation carry such an odd, tacit familiarity?

But he knew this was no time for questions, so he suppressed his mounting doubts and replied in a low voice: "Yes!"

Before leaving, his gaze flickered toward a certain spot, seemingly by accident.

Master Liu stood where he was, making no move to stop them, only watching coldly as their backs disappeared into the shadows of the Mass Grave Mound.

The surrounding black-robed cultists returned to silence, each attending to their duties as if the interlude had never occurred.

On the other side, in the tall grass one kilometer away.

Chen Mo exhaled a turbid breath, his face slightly pale.

Forcibly severing his spiritual connection to the Paper Doll and suppressing his own aura to the absolute limit the moment Master Liu's presence swept by had taken a heavy toll on his mind.

"Yue Changkong... Blood Furnace realm... and he seems to have a history with the Moon-Worship Cult..."

"What is the Anomaly Suppression Bureau waiting for?"

"Or is there a deeper exchange of interests between them and the Moon-Worship Cult?"

He replayed the scene the Paper Doll had transmitted back in his mind, his brows locked in a tight frown as his thoughts raced.

"Forget it, leave this place first."

The strength of those two was too terrifying; Chen Mo knew that facing either one would result in instant death, with no chance of escape.

Staying any longer was too risky!

He suppressed all his energy, moving like a true shadow, traveling silently through the wild grass and rubble.

The further he moved from the core of the Mass Grave Mound, the more the surrounding air became permeated with an unsettling, deathly silence rather than becoming fresh.

The chirping of insects had long since vanished, and even the sound of the wind had died away; only the dull thumping of his own heartbeat echoed in his ears.

This silence was not peaceful; it felt more like the fear of all things holding their breath before the arrival of some colossal entity.

Something was wrong.

A sense of impending danger surged in Chen Mo's heart.

This environmental anomaly did not seem natural; rather, it felt as if it had been tainted by the domain of some entity.

He slowed his pace, rapidly scanning his surroundings.

By the light of the dark red moon, the outlines of the vegetation appeared somewhat blurred.

The air was permeated with a faint, sweet, fishy scent, mixed with the stench of rotting flesh.

"What is it?"

Chen Mo's scalp tingled. He stopped moving forward and instead pressed his back against a cold, massive boulder.

With a flick of his wrist, three pale yellow Paper Dolls, faintly radiating a sharp aura, were already gripped between his fingers.

Almost at the exact moment he prepared his Paper Puppets.

Not far ahead, beneath a withered old locust tree, the soil rose silently.

There was no violent sound, no towering Yin energy; just like that, quietly and calmly, a humanoid thing stood up.

It wore a faded floral-patterned jacket, its figure resembling a short, hunched old woman, standing with its back to Chen Mo, seemingly combing its hair.

Its movements were sluggish, carrying an extremely discordant stiffness.

Chen Mo's pupils constricted.

Where the old woman's fingers brushed, a faint sizzling sound could be heard, like paper rubbing together, or perhaps flesh slowly peeling apart.

The sweet, fishy, rotting stench suddenly intensified.

The old woman slowly turned its head.

By the light of the dark red moon, Chen Mo saw its face.

If that could even be called a face.

It was a flat visage, as if the features had been casually sketched onto white paper by the clumsiest of painters.

The eyebrows were two ink dots, the eyes were two thin slits, the nose was a triangle, and the mouth was a scarlet hook.

All the organs were merely two-dimensional patterns embedded into that overly smooth layer of skin.

Moreover, this eerie face was still changing.

The slit-like eyes struggled to widen, attempting to mimic the curvature of eyeballs, while the scarlet mouth stretched wide, forming a horrifying grin.

The color of the floral jacket it wore was fading at a rate visible to the naked eye, and the exposed skin began to show cracked patterns, like over-dried leather.

Painted Skin Ghost!

Holy crap!

Chen Mo's heart sank, his hair standing on end.

He had seen descriptions of this type of ghost in the miscellaneous books of Chen Dachuan.

It was an extremely troublesome entity, adept at disguise and lurking, capable of peeling the skin off living beings to wear as its own, mimicking their appearance and aura.

It could even create a terrifying sensory-eroding field, causing people to suffer a mental breakdown in silence and become the new garment it would wear.