The Painted Skin Ghost had obviously been drawn here by the aura spilling from the grand formation.
At that moment, the smile on its flat face grew even brighter. It raised its hand and continued combing its hair.
The sickly-sweet stench in the air grew more and more intense.
"Not good!"
Chen Mo instinctively held his breath, but it was already too late.
Light and shadows seemed to flicker before his eyes. Familiar and unfamiliar faces twisted into view one after another, while unintelligible whispers murmured in his ears, bringing wave after wave of dizziness.
A spiritual corrosion!
He snorted coldly and bit down hard on the tip of his tongue. The sharp pain instantly cleared his mind.
At the same time, the Paper Doll in his hand began moving without a breeze. It floated into the air, and in the blink of an eye, transformed into three human-sized weapons.
"Quit your spooky tricks! Get this ugly freak!"
The Painted Skin Ghost paused in the middle of combing its hair. Its narrow eyes fixed on the three Paper Puppets, filled with confusion—and even more with anger at being provoked.
The faded floral jacket, together with the old woman's skin covering its body, etched with a web of cracked lines, slid off it like discarded clothes.
The Painted Skin Ghost's true form was revealed.
Its blood-red body was exposed to the moonlight, like a human-shaped slab of flesh that had just been skinned alive. Muscles and fascia lay bare, while viscous, dark-red liquid dripped from it.
Only the patch of scalp atop its head remained intact, black hair streaked with ghastly white. Against the mass of scarlet, it looked especially jarring and uncanny.
It let out a shriek that sounded nothing like a human voice, then lunged at the Paper Dolls on a gust of yin wind, its finger bones brandished like sharp claws.
The three Weaponized Paper Puppets moved with lightning speed. Their featureless faces were blank, yet they radiated a chilling Killing Intent.
At Chen Mo's command, one charged straight at the ghost and met its claws head-on. Its paper arm collided with the ghost's talons with a metallic clang.
The other two circled around, one to either side, their paper-forged blades tracing cold arcs as they aimed for the Painted Skin Ghost's joints and neck.
Though the Painted Skin Ghost was savage, its body was still made of flesh and blood.
Under the coordinated assault of the three Paper Puppets, it was soon forced onto the defensive.
Paper blades swept past, sending sprays of filthy blood and chunks of flesh flying.
It roared again and again, while the cold yin aura around it tried constantly to corrode the Paper Puppets, only to be held back by their Killing Intent.
Seizing an opening, the Paper Puppet facing it head-on suddenly spread its arms. Ignoring the ghost claws as they pierced its paper body, it clamped down hard on the Painted Skin Ghost's arms.
The two Paper Puppets at its sides darted in at once, their paper blades crossing as they slashed—
Crack!
The grating sound of bones snapping rang out.
The Painted Skin Ghost's hideous head, still bearing that intact patch of scalp, tore free from its body and spun through the air.
Its headless body convulsed violently a few times, then melted into a pool of foul-smelling blood that seeped into the ground, leaving only a few wisps of black smoke to dissipate.
The head hit the ground and rolled several times before finally stopping faceup.
Its slit-like eyes were stretched wide, filled with venomous hatred. Its lips moved, but it could no longer make a sound.
Soon, the head melted away like wax, leaving only the palm-sized patch of scalp lying among the filth, gleaming with an ominous, oily sheen.
The three Paper Puppets quietly returned to Chen Mo's side. The gash across the chest of one, torn open by the ghost's claws, was slowly knitting itself back together.
"Good thing this thing wasn't very strong!"
Chen Mo's back was soaked through. He stepped forward, took a sheet of yellow paper from his robes, and wrapped the still faintly throbbing scalp in it, folding it over and over.
It felt heavy in his hand, and its yin aura pierced to the bone.
This thing was an extremely sinister object, but if handled properly, it might still come in handy for certain unorthodox arts or when crafting specific magical artifacts.
Chen Mo put it away and scanned the surrounding area, now silent again. After confirming nothing else was amiss, he hurried toward the city.
He was only a few kilometers from the grand formation. He wasn't sure whether Master Liu could sense the fluctuations in the aura here.
The journey back went fairly smoothly. After skirting several groups of patrolling police officers, Chen Mo made it safely to the side room of Deliverance Studio.
He slid the bolt into place, then leaned against the cold door and let out a long breath.
As the tension drained from his nerves, the fatigue and lingering fear he'd forced down during the fight finally surged up. A chill spread across the cold sweat on his back.
"No, I have to open the Yin Aperture as soon as possible. This situation is too dangerous!"
After several days of preparation, he had planned to break through tonight. He hadn't expected those thugs to interrupt him.
Feeling the urgency, Chen Mo didn't dare waste a moment. He didn't even light an oil lamp, striding into the inner room by the moonlight filtering through the window.
First, he placed the scalp of the Painted Skin Ghost, wrapped in yellow paper, into a clay jar lined with incense ash, then affixed two talismans of suppression to it.
Only after that did he sit cross-legged on the makeshift plank bed.
His heart was still beating a little fast.
What had happened outside the city was like a thorn, reminding him that this world was far more dangerous than he'd imagined.
He closed his eyes and focused, driving away distracting thoughts.
Chen Mo exhaled slowly and began breathing in and out, following the method of the Taiyin Evil Form Technique.
A few days earlier, he had tried cultivating during the day, but his progress was slow. He could barely sense any Taiyin Qi.
It wasn't until he once practiced beneath the moonlight that he realized the difference. His cultivation was clearly more efficient.
Now, he deliberately faced the window, letting the moonlight, red as blood, fall over him.
As he circulated the technique, the Moonlight Treasure Mirror, dormant deep in his sea of consciousness, stirred faintly.
An invisible force of attraction spread out. In the moonlight, the lunar essence imperceptible to ordinary people was slowly drawn toward him.
All the lunar essence drawn in had to pass through the mirror's filtration first.
Yin Sha was stripped away, while the murky impurities were cleared, leaving only the purest Taiyin essence to trickle into his meridians.
A cool current followed the paths of the technique through his body. At first, it flowed like a gentle stream; gradually, it gathered into a stronger current.
Wherever it passed, it brought not a bone-piercing cold but a clear, refreshing coolness that washed over his flesh and seeped into his bones.
At last, all the currents converged on some mysterious, unfathomable place below his dantian.
It had been utterly empty, as if it did not exist at all.
But as the pure Taiyin Qi continued to gather and compress, a tiny, imperceptible gap seemed to slowly widen.
Chen Mo's awareness sank into it as he guided the process with all his strength.
Time trickled by. The moon climbed to the center of the sky, its radiance at its brightest.
The accumulated Taiyin essence reached its limit.
Boom!
A silent tremor rang out in his mind.
Below his dantian, a certain barrier suddenly burst open!
A tiny aperture had been successfully opened!
It had no physical form, yet it existed within his perception like a vortex, slowly rotating as it drew in and expelled the Taiyin Qi around him, purified by the Moonlight Treasure Mirror.
The instant the aperture took shape, Chen Mo's whole body trembled. He felt a little lighter, and his connection to the Red Moon in the sky seemed to have grown faintly closer.
His first Yin Aperture was open!
Chen Mo opened his eyes. A faint glimmer of purple flashed in his gaze, then disappeared.
Feeling the faint pulse of the Yin Aperture below his dantian and the Taiyin Qi in his body, now clearly greater in volume, he finally revealed a look of relief and delight.
"The Moonlight Treasure Mirror!"
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