Opening the Yin Aperture

This Painted Skin Ghost was clearly drawn here by the aura leaking from the grand formation.

At this moment, the smile on its flat face grew increasingly brilliant as it raised its hands to continue combing its hair.

The fishy, cloying sweetness in the air grew ever more intense.

"Not good!"

Chen Mo instinctively held his breath, but it was already too late.

Light and shadow seemed to flicker before his eyes; faces both familiar and strange twisted and flashed into view, while unintelligible whispers murmured in his ears, bringing waves of dizziness.

Mental erosion!

He let out a cold snort and bit down hard on the tip of his tongue, the sharp pain instantly clearing his mind.

At the same time, the paper figures in his hands moved without wind, fluttering outward to transform into three human-sized Weaponized Paper Puppets in the blink of an eye.

"Playing god, are you? Kill this monster for me!"

The Painted Skin Ghost paused its combing, its slit-like eyes staring fixedly at the three paper puppets, showing a hint of confusion and the anger of being provoked.

The already tattered floral dress, along with the cracked, old-woman skin covering its body, slid off it entirely like a discarded garment.

The true form of the Painted Skin Ghost was revealed.

Its blood-red body was exposed to the moonlight, looking like a human-shaped chunk of meat that had just been skinned alive; muscles and fascia were laid bare, dripping with viscous, dark red liquid.

Only the scalp on the top of its head remained intact, a mix of jet black and ghastly white that looked particularly jarring and eerie against the scarlet backdrop.

It let out a shriek that sounded nothing like a human, waving its claw-like finger bones and lunging at the paper puppets while wreathed in Yin wind.

The three Weaponized Paper Puppets moved with agility, their featureless faces blank yet filled with a chilling Sha Qi.

Under Chen Mo's control, one charged straight ahead to meet the claws head-on; the collision between the paper arms and the ghost claws actually produced the sound of clashing metal.

The other two slid and circled to the left and right, the thin blades formed from paper in their hands carving out cold, sharp arcs to strike directly at the Painted Skin Ghost's joints and neck.

Though the Painted Skin Ghost was ferocious, its body was still made of flesh and blood.

Under the seamless coordination of the three paper puppets, it was soon forced into a defensive struggle.

The paper blades swept past, drawing out sprays of foul blood and shredded meat.

It roared repeatedly, its cold Yin aura constantly attempting to erode the paper puppets, only to be repelled by the Sha Qi radiating from them.

Spotting an opening, the puppet engaging it head-on suddenly threw its arms wide, ignoring the ghost claws piercing its paper torso, and clamped down tightly on the Painted Skin Ghost's arms.

The two puppets on the flanks lunged forward in an instant, their paper blades crossing in a slash—

Crack!

A teeth-grinding sound of breaking bone rang out.

The Painted Skin Ghost's hideous head, still attached to that intact scalp, was severed from its body and sent spinning into the air.

The headless torso twitched violently a few times before melting into a pool of foul-smelling blood that seeped into the ground, leaving only a few wisps of black smoke to dissipate.

The head landed on the ground, rolling with a gurgle before finally coming to a stop facing upward.

Its slit-like eyes were wide open, filled with venomous resentment, and its lips parted and closed, though it could no longer make a sound.

Soon, the head melted away like wax, leaving only that palm-sized scalp lying quietly in the filth, shimmering with an ominous, oily luster.

The three paper puppets retreated silently to Chen Mo's side, the tear in the chest of one, caused by the ghost claws, slowly knitting itself back together.

"It's fortunate that this thing's strength wasn't very high!"

Chen Mo, his back already soaked through, stepped forward and took a piece of yellow paper from his robes to wrap up the still-pulsing scalp of the Painted Skin Ghost, folding it layer by layer.

It felt heavy in his hand, the Yin energy biting to the bone.

This thing was an extremely evil object, but if handled correctly, it might prove useful for certain unorthodox arts or the refining of specific magical artifacts.

Chen Mo stowed it away and scanned his surroundings, which had returned to a deathly silence. Confirming there were no further anomalies, he hurried toward the city.

He was only a few kilometers away from the grand formation, and he wasn't sure if Master Liu could sense the fluctuations of energy here.

The journey back was relatively smooth. After bypassing a few patrols of police, Chen Mo successfully arrived at the side room of the Deliverance Studio.

After sliding the bolt shut behind him, he leaned his back against the cold door panel and let out a long breath.

As his taut nerves relaxed, the exhaustion and lingering fear he had forcibly suppressed during the battle surged up, and the cold sweat on his back began to chill him.

"This won't do. I must open my Yin Aperture as soon as possible; this situation is too dangerous!"

After several days of accumulation, he had intended to make his breakthrough tonight, but he hadn't expected to be interrupted by those thugs.

Feeling the urgency, Chen Mo dared not delay. He didn't even light an oil lamp, instead walking quickly into the inner room by the moonlight filtering through the window.

He first placed the yellow-paper-wrapped scalp into a ceramic jar lined with incense ash and applied two suppression talismans.

Only after finishing this did he sit cross-legged on the makeshift wooden bed.

His heart was still beating a little too fast.

The encounter outside the city was like a thorn, reminding him that this world was far more dangerous than he had imagined.

Closing his eyes and focusing his mind, he dispelled all distracting thoughts.

Chen Mo exhaled a long breath and, following the methods of the Taiyin Evil Form Technique, began to breathe in and out slowly.

A few days ago, he had tried cultivating during the day, but progress was slow, and he could barely sense the Taiyin energy.

It wasn't until he practiced under the moonlight that he realized the difference; the efficiency was significantly higher.

At this moment, he deliberately faced the window, allowing the blood-like moonlight to spill over his entire body.

As the mental cultivation method began to circulate, the Moonlight Treasure Mirror, which had been silent in the depths of his consciousness, stirred slightly.

An invisible force of attraction radiated outward, and within the moonlight, those lunar essences imperceptible to ordinary people were slowly drawn in.

All the drawn-in lunar essence had to first pass through the filtration of the Treasure Mirror.

The Sha was stripped away, the impurities were clarified, and only the purest Taiyin essence remained, trickling into his meridians.

The icy current flowed along the path of the technique; at first, it was like a trickling stream, but it gradually gathered into a flow.

Wherever it passed, it was not bone-chillingly cold, but rather a crisp, clear coolness that washed over his flesh and permeated his bones.

In the end, all the currents converged toward a mysterious and unfathomable location below his Dantian.

That place had originally been completely empty, as if it were a void.

But as the pure Taiyin energy continued to gather and compress, a tiny, imperceptible fissure seemed to be slowly forced open.

Chen Mo sank his consciousness into it, guiding it with all his might.

Time slipped away bit by bit until the moon reached its zenith, its brilliance at its peak.

The accumulated Taiyin essence had also reached a critical point.

Boom!

A silent tremor echoed in his mind.

Below the Dantian, a certain barrier suddenly burst open!

A tiny aperture had been successfully opened!

It was not a physical entity, yet it existed within his perception like a vortex, slowly rotating and autonomously inhaling and exhaling the Taiyin energy that had been purified by the Moonlight Treasure Mirror.

The moment the aperture formed, Chen Mo's entire body trembled; he felt as if he had become slightly lighter, and his connection to the Red Moon in the sky had grown vaguely tighter.

The first Yin Aperture was complete!

Chen Mo opened his eyes, a faint trace of purple light flashing through his pupils before vanishing instantly.

Feeling the weak pulse of the Yin Aperture beneath his Dantian and the Taiyin energy within his body that had grown significantly stronger, a look of relief and joy finally appeared on his face.

"Moonlight Treasure Mirror!"