Niu Family Village

The White Sun Sect fiendish Daoist risked letting Gu poison enter his body, chanting his spell faster and faster.

Just then, the compound eyes on Liu Feng's face blinked.

In an instant, the scene before the fiendish Daoist changed.

Liu Feng, who should have been a zhang away, suddenly appeared right in front of him, wielding the grotesque greatsword formed from that strange insect.

"You..." The White Sun Sect fiendish Daoist cried out in shock, his hands unconsciously stopping mid-motion.

In truth, Liu Feng was still standing in the mountain hollow. He had merely used the Evolution Pupil Gu technique to splice into his opponent's vision.

Above his head, seven human skins had already caught fire, and over a hundred Human Skin Talismans rained down.

Liu Feng seized that brief opening. The Split-Tooth greatsword flew from his hand, its five insect legs stabbing straight through the fiendish Daoist and pinning him to the ground.

At this critical moment, he channeled what little Buddhist power he had into his legs, while simultaneously activating the Motion Vision Technique and the Mind Eye Technique.

Whoosh, whoosh-whoosh... Nether Fire came crashing down.

Behind him, the Bald Bandit's face twitched as he stared in astonishment at the ghastly pale rain of fire.

The rain of fire bloomed around the seven human skins like a lotus.

Because the White Sun Sect fiendish Daoist had been interrupted at the last moment, the Nether Fire went out of control and spread across a two-zhang radius, engulfing him as well.

Pinned to the ground, the fiendish Daoist was engulfed in flames in the blink of an eye.

"Ahhh..." Nether Fire devoured him, and his bloodcurdling screams rang across the mountainside.

Liu Feng was caught in the rain of fire too, but two quick strides carried him out of its two-zhang radius.

The Bald Bandit, however, noticed that Liu Feng's left arm had been struck by Nether Fire. Two patches of ghastly pale flame danced upon it.

"Fourth Master." Only after seeing the fiendish Daoist dead did the Bald Bandit dare show himself.

Liu Feng ignored him. Beneath the skin burned open on his left arm, his blood turned a vivid red, then burst into vivid red Gu Fire.

The vivid red and the ghastly pale flames both vanished without a trace in the blink of an eye.

When he looked again, he saw a palm-sized, ashen mark on his right arm. The flesh on its surface had lost all vitality.

"So this is the White Sun Sect's Nether Fire! My Buddhist cultivation hasn't yet been tempered to mastery, but at least it gave me a hand." Liu Feng's heart grew heavy.

If he hadn't been bolstered by Buddhist power just now, his movements would once again have failed to keep up with his eyes.

Even with the Mind Eye Technique and the Evolution Pupil Gu technique, it would have been difficult for him to evade all the Nether Fire. Without the boost from Buddhist power, he feared the burns would have covered more than just his right arm.

"Gurgle." Split-Tooth, curled into an insect ball, rolled over to Liu Feng's feet.

Liu Feng gave Split-Tooth a quick look. The Soldier Gu's canine teeth had only been slightly scorched black; its inner body had suffered no serious damage.

"Fourth Master, he still has quite a few talismans on him." The Bald Bandit searched the fiendish Daoist's body and pulled out more than twenty Human Skin Talismans.

When Split-Tooth had killed the fiendish Daoist, a herb gatherer's skin pouch, split in two, had still been hanging from his waist.

Liu Feng was about to examine the White Sun Sect's talismans when he abruptly turned toward the woods on his right.

"Fourth Junior Brother, it's me." Zhu Li came bounding over.

He entered the mountain hollow, first glancing at the fiendish Daoist burned to ashes, then at the other fiendish Daoist being searched.

He had heard the screams from far away. He hadn't expected that by the time he arrived, both fiendish Daoists would already have died at Liu Feng's hands.

"Third Master, Fourth Master took those two fiendish Daoists out the moment he met them," the Bald Bandit said with a wide grin.

Liu Feng shot the talkative bandit a cold glance, then climbed onto a stone platform and turned his gaze to the night sky above.

The human skins had come without a sound. Had he not possessed the Exotic Gu, the Evolution Pupil, he might not have noticed them in time.

Now that he stood on high ground, he could see more human skins drifting through the night sky.

East, south, west, and north—at least thirty of them, by a single glance.

Every human skin was moving toward the same place. In the darkness farther off, there seemed to be many more.

"How many people have the White Sun Sect fiendish Daoists killed here on Shao Mountain?" Liu Feng lowered his gaze.

He leapt down from the stone platform and told Zhu Li what he had seen.

"There's a Niu Family Village on Shao Mountain. The place you're pointing to is exactly where it lies. If the human skins are moving that way, Second Senior Brother is most likely over there."

"When I arrived, those two said their senior brother was dealing with Second Senior Brother."

Zhu Li and Liu Feng exchanged a glance, then hurried toward Niu Family Village. They couldn't let Shen Yushu die; otherwise, it would be difficult to bring back Eldest Senior Brother as the Valley Master had instructed.

Behind them, the Bald Bandit stuffed the more than twenty Human Skin Talismans into his shirt and hurried after them.

Niu Family Village lay on the southern side of Shao Mountain, with a little over a hundred households.

The village sprawled along the slope of a long mountain ridge. This mountain settlement of nearly three hundred people now lay utterly silent.

Three bandits armed with steel sabers were huddled in an inconspicuous hollow outside the village entrance.

It wasn't that they hadn't gone into the village. They had just come out.

Earlier, the three of them and four other brothers had followed Shen Yushu into the village. As they walked through it, they had somehow become separated. About an hour later, they found themselves back at the entrance.

"Second Master and the other brothers are nowhere to be seen. Should we wait here, or head down Shao Mountain first?"

"We clearly saw lamplight after entering the village, but when we came back out and looked from the entrance, there wasn't even a glimmer inside."

"This isn't a place we can go barging into. We'd better wait for Second Master."...

As the three bandits cowered in fear, three people appeared on the mountain path and headed straight toward them.

"It's Third Master and Fourth Master—and Lump."

The three bandits were overjoyed to recognize them. As for the "Lump" they had mentioned, that was the Bald Bandit.

Zhu Li wasted no words. "You three, come with me into the village."

The two groups joined up, bringing their number to six.

Liu Feng walked at the front. Looking past the outskirts of Niu Family Village, he saw that all the human skins had vanished above it.

Just like the mountainside affected earlier by the Evil Object's tainted blood, Niu Family Village was the same.

Once anyone approached a certain boundary, whether a person or an object, they seemed to vanish without a trace upon entering.

Drawing on his previous experience, Liu Feng knew the dozens, perhaps hundreds, of human skins hadn't disappeared. There was tainted blood from an Evil Object in Niu Family Village too.

The area of the village affected by the Evil Object was even larger, which meant there had to be more of its tainted blood within.

"Second Senior Brother should be somewhere in Niu Family Village." Liu Feng pointed toward a spot on the mountainside.

As he spoke, the six of them left the village entrance and stepped into Niu Family Village.

Not even half a quarter of an hour later, before they had gone far, the pitch-black village that they had seen a moment earlier changed in an instant.

Under the night sky, the six looked down the village path and saw scattered lights glowing among the houses.

"Third Master, Fourth Master, this is exactly what happened to us before!" the three bandits stammered.

Just then, movement came from a nearby house, and its door opened.

All six turned to look. An elderly couple came out first.

The old woman stooped over and asked in puzzlement, "You're outsiders. Why have you come to our village at this hour?"

Behind the elderly couple, a brother and sister came out too, both pointing at the three bandits.

"It's those three uncles! They're back again."

"This time, don't run away. Come in and sit for a while." Beneath the dim yellow lamplight, the siblings giggled.

The three bandits stared blankly at them, their spines turning cold.

The Bald Bandit standing beside them felt a chill too. He had heard clearly: the two brats had said, "Don't run away."