Painted Skin Ghost

The Paper Doll instantly froze, and the spiritual power Chen Mo had attached to it felt as if it had been drenched in ice water.

Master Liu's tangible, icy aura had already swept like a rising tide over the dead trees and wild grass on the outskirts of the Mass Grave Mound.

Almost as soon as he finished speaking, a fierce, scorching aura suddenly erupted from behind a pile of rubble on the outskirts!

A sharp shout exploded like thunder: "Remnants of the Moon-Worship Cult, how dare you refine medicine using the living and bring calamity upon three counties!"

A figure arrived with the shout, swift as a bolt of lightning.

It was Yue Shan, captain of the Inspection Bureau's Linhe County squad!

He held the Crimson Flame Broadsword in both hands. Its blade glowed with crimson light, driving back the baleful filth as he hacked straight at Master Liu, who stood at the formation's core.

"Flies from the Inspection Bureau. Of course they caught the scent and came buzzing," Master Liu sneered. He raised his withered right hand, and five streams of foul, black energy appeared out of thin air, effortlessly dissolving Yue Shan's fierce blade aura.

Yue Shan's expression changed sharply. He felt an icy, poisonous force travel up the blade, sending his qi and blood surging.

He hurriedly changed his move and retreated, but four black-robed cultists, ghostlike, cut off his escape and closed in on him.

At that moment, the enormous black handprint Master Liu had unleashed drifted toward him, brimming with killing intent.

With nowhere to dodge, Yue Shan's eyes flashed with grim resolve.

Just then—

"Enough."

A tall, burly figure had appeared between Yue Shan and Master Liu without anyone noticing when.

The newcomer wore a simple, dark-gray martial outfit beneath a somewhat worn leather vest. He was around fifty, with short hair like steel needles and a jawline as hard as stone.

He merely stood there, yet the air around him shimmered slightly from the heat, and even the earth beneath his feet bore faint scorch marks.

His furnace-like qi and blood instantly dispersed the graveyard's pervasive gloom and deathly baleful aura.

It was the outward sign of someone who had cultivated Blood-Qi Martial Arts to the Qi-Blood Furnace realm.

He didn't attack Master Liu. He simply turned slightly and flicked his sleeve.

A scorching gust of force sprang into being, catching Yue Shan at just the right moment and gently sending him more than thirty yards backward, beyond the reach of Master Liu's palm.

Master Liu's supposedly fatal handprint also withdrew with the movement. The black aura roiling around him paused slightly. "I wondered who could slip in here without a sound. So it's Yue Changkong of the Anomaly Suppression Bureau. Or should I call you Inspector Yue now?"

"What, Inspector Yue? Come to inspect the work?"

His words held a probing edge, clearly hinting at something. Yet his tone lacked the vehemence one would expect when facing a sworn enemy. Instead, it was strangely calm.

Yue Changkong's expression didn't change. His gaze swept over the bizarre formation and the piles of firewood before returning to Master Liu. "I'm taking this man with me. Behave yourself until the formation is complete."

A faint light flickered in Master Liu's eyes as he seemed to weigh his options. At last, he gave a cold snort. "Very well. I'll do you this favor. But remember what you said, Inspector Yue. If some other clueless flies come along to disturb us..."

He left the threat unfinished, but its meaning was unmistakable.

"Let's go." Yue Changkong said no more. He turned to Yue Shan, the Inspection Bureau squad captain, and spoke in a deep, unquestionable tone.

Yue Shan was filled with shock. Why hadn't Yue Changkong attacked?

Why had the exchange between the two sounded so strangely familiar, so full of unspoken understanding?

But he knew this was no time to ask questions. He forced down his suspicions and answered quietly, "Yes!"

Before leaving, he seemed to glance casually toward a certain spot.

Master Liu remained where he was and made no attempt to stop them. He merely watched coldly as their silhouettes vanished into the shadows of the Mass Grave Mound.

The black-robed cultists around them settled back into silence and resumed their duties, as if the interruption had never happened.

Meanwhile, a kilometer away, in a patch of grass.

Chen Mo slowly let out a breath, his face slightly pale.

Forcefully severing his spiritual connection to the Paper Doll and suppressing his own aura to the absolute limit the instant Master Liu's aura swept over him had taken a heavy toll on his mind.

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

"What is the Anomaly Suppression Bureau waiting for?"

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

The last images sent back by the Paper Doll played over and over in his mind. His brows furrowed as his thoughts raced.

"Forget it. I need to get out of here first."

Those two were far too powerful. Chen Mo knew that either one could kill him in an instant. He wouldn't even have a chance to run.

Staying any longer was too risky!

He suppressed every trace of his aura and moved soundlessly through the wild grass and rubble like a true shadow.

The farther he got from the heart of the Mass Grave Mound, the less the air felt fresh. Instead, a disquieting stillness grew heavier around him.

The insects had long since fallen silent. Even the wind had died away. Only the sound of his own heartbeat echoed dully in his ears.

This silence wasn't peaceful. It was more like the terror of all things holding their breath before some colossal presence descended.

Something was wrong.

Alarm bells rang in Chen Mo's mind.

This change in the surroundings didn't seem natural. It was more like the area had been tainted by the field of some unknown thing.

He slowed his steps and swiftly scanned his surroundings.

In the dark-red moonlight, even the outlines of the plants and trees looked blurry.

A faintly sweet, rank smell hung in the air, mingled with the stench of rotting flesh.

"What is that?"

Chen Mo's scalp prickled. He stopped moving and pressed his back against a cold boulder.

With a turn of his wrist, he held three pale-yellow Paper Puppets between his fingers. A faintly sharp aura emanated from them.

At almost the same moment he prepared the Paper Puppets,

the soil beneath a dead locust tree not far ahead silently bulged.

There was no loud noise and no surge of baleful energy. Just like that, a human-shaped thing calmly stood up.

It wore a faded floral jacket and skirt, and had the small, hunched frame of an old woman. Its back was turned to Chen Mo as it seemed to comb its hair.

Its movements were slow, with an intensely unnatural stiffness.

Chen Mo's pupils contracted.

Wherever the old woman's fingers passed, a faint crackling sound came from it, like paper rubbing together—or flesh slowly peeling apart.

The sweet, rotten stench suddenly grew stronger.

The old woman slowly turned its head.

In the dark-red moonlight, Chen Mo saw its face.

If it could even be called a face.

It was a flat countenance, like the crude sketch of a careless artist, with features scrawled haphazardly on white paper.

Its eyebrows were two dots of ink, its eyes two narrow slits, its nose a triangle, and its mouth a crimson, crooked hook.

Every feature was merely a flat design, embedded in that unnaturally smooth skin.

And that bizarre face was changing.

The slit-like eyes strained to open, trying to imitate the curve of eyeballs. The crimson mouth stretched wider, forming a terrifying grin.

The floral jacket and skirt it wore were turning gray and lifeless before Chen Mo's eyes. Cracks began to form in the exposed skin, like leather left out to dry too long.

Painted Skin Ghost!

Holy shit!

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

He had read about this kind of ghost in Chen Dachuan's collection of odd books.

An exceptionally troublesome ghost, skilled at disguise and lurking. It could strip the skins from living creatures and wear them, imitating their appearance and aura,

and it could also create a terrifying field that eroded the senses, driving people insane without their realizing it until they became its next new clothes.