Skinning

Liu Feng recognized the Crooked-Mouth Daoist at a glance; it was the very same man he had seen before the Near-Water Pavilion.

Recalling the visceral mural that had been "glued" to the wall that day, and witnessing the Crooked-Mouth Daoist swallowing the filthy blood of an Evil Specter, Liu Feng was almost certain that the martial artist had met a miserable end at this man's hands.

"Junior Brother, have you seen him before?" Shen Yushu did not dare to rush over; it was his first time seeing a living person who dared to stuff an Evil Specter into his mouth.

From a distance, the Crooked-Mouth Daoist finished eating one, then dug a second one out from the pit.

Liu Feng said in a low voice, "That day, Third Senior Brother and I went to the Near-Water Pavilion first, and I happened to catch a glimpse of him."

Mentioning the Near-Water Pavilion was enough; Shen Yushu needed to ask no more.

At this moment, inside Niu Family Village, whether it was the villagers or the Evil Specters skinned and refined into existence, all were rampaging about.

Only one person had a clear objective: a White Sun Sect disciple who had been hiding in the village all along.

"Return to me." The man stopped thirty paces away and pointed through the air, attempting to retrieve the Human Skin Talisman stained with the Evil Specter's blood.

The response was an identical gesture from afar; the Crooked-Mouth Daoist held the Human Skin Talisman in one hand and pointed with the other.

Both being Daoists, the two pointed at each other.

In the next instant, the Crooked-Mouth Daoist stuffed the second talisman into his mouth and chewed vigorously, while the White Sun Sect disciple clutched his chest and shrieked in agony.

"Poof, poof..."

Before he could howl twice, blood-colored flames erupted from his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, burning through his chest, flesh, and clothing alike.

Ten paces away, Zhu Li swallowed hard, staring at the corpse.

Judging by the charred remains, the fire had ignited from within the heart, then surged up the throat to burst out through the eyes, ears, mouth, and nose.

Liu Feng saw more clearly than Zhu Li; he caught a wisp of Blood Flame shooting from the Crooked-Mouth Daoist's fingertip, sinking into the heart of the White Sun Sect Daoist.

"A spark of fire ignites another's heart; his Daoist arts are indeed related to the internal organs."

Capable of refining Blood Flame and disposing of a White Sun Sect demonic Daoist with a single finger, Liu Feng guessed that this Crooked-Mouth Daoist was at least in the Two-Forms Realm.

At this moment, neither Shen Yushu and Liu Feng, nor Zhu Li, dared to disturb the Daoist.

The Daoist ate the Human Skin Talisman, treating the three brothers, the madmen in the village, and the Evil Specters alike as if they were invisible.

He had come solely for the evil objects and had no interest in anyone else.

Morning light spilled over Niu Family Village, and the Daoist's sleeves fluttered as his figure soon vanished into the crisscrossing village paths.

Shen Yushu withdrew his gaze and said, "The two White Sun Sect disciples I marked are already on the path down the mountain. Let us go."

Liu Feng beckoned to Zhu Li, who was still lost in thought, and followed Shen Yushu down the mountain in haste.

Behind the three of them, aside from the Medicine Slave Li Si, three surviving bandits followed closely.

As the group descended, they encountered the other five surviving bandits, though two of them died from Gu Fire poisoning before they could even draw near.

They had to die because they had seen Liu Feng unleash Gu Fire on the mountainside, and Liu Feng had silenced them.

Danhe Prefecture, outer city.

Compared to the residents of the inner city, the outer city was populated mostly by the destitute and refugees gathered for survival.

Abandoned or half-collapsed houses were visible everywhere.

Even so, many of these dilapidated shacks were occupied; after all, they provided some form of shelter from the wind and rain.

Within this outer city lay an old district dense with tile-roofed houses.

On this evening, as the sky grew dim, twenty or so figures scattered and wove through the old district.

These people all had deathly pale complexions and stiff features.

If anyone were to pull back their sleeves or collars to look closely, they would surely be shocked: the skin on their necks and elbows looked as if it had been pulled on, wrinkled like ill-fitting clothing.

When night fell, the scattered figures returned like birds to their nests, arriving at a deserted courtyard.

"Great Elder, the east side of the outer city has been searched thoroughly; there is no sign of that person."

"Sect Master, the south side of the outer city has been searched; not a trace of that person." Two waves of disciples arrived one after another, kneeling on one knee before the two figures sitting cross-legged in the courtyard.

Under a thatched shed in the courtyard, two old men sat in the shadows.

On the wrist of one elder were tied over a hundred leather cords, each covered in runes; the other wore a dozen copper spheres, though the surfaces were not inscribed with Daoist runes but sealed with Buddhist scriptures—it was unclear what was trapped inside.

The former was the Great Elder of the White Sun Sect, and the latter was the Sect Master.

"That person stole our sect's treasure and is currently at the critical juncture of his second rebirth. He must not be allowed to succeed. Go back and continue searching."

"As you command."

Just as the ten or so disciples were about to leave, shadows flickered outside the gate, and two more disciples darted in.

"Sect Master, something has happened in the west; we were ambushed."

"There is a small gang here called the Tooth Gang. The entire gang has been subdued by that person, and it was the Tooth Gang's martial artists who ambushed us."

As the two disciples knelt on one knee, their expressions were frantic and they were wounded, clearly having just clashed with the martial artists.

Judging by the resentment and fury on their faces, they had evidently suffered a great loss.

Had they been in a more desolate region, they could have unleashed their Daoist arts with abandon, but this was the outer city of the prefecture.

If they caused a massive commotion with Nether Fire or summoned a horde of Evil Corpses using talismans, the local authorities would surely dispatch troops to surround and slaughter them in an instant.

"Follow me. How dare a pack of low-class martial artists seek their own deaths?" The two elders in the shadows rose in unison.

A moment later, led by the Sect Master and the Great Elder, a group of nearly twenty Daoists gathered before a dilapidated courtyard.

Before they even drew near, the sounds of fighting and miserable wailing drifted out from within.

With a loud bang, a White Sun Sect disciple flew backward, slamming heavily against the alley wall.

"Hack him to pieces!"

"Wild, demonic Daoists, how dare you come to disturb our new Gang Leader!"

"Another bunch of spineless Daoists, and two old geezers to boot!" Amidst the wild roars, over thirty burly men, looking like crazed tigers, charged out of the courtyard.

They lunged forward, and before the White Sun Sect disciple pinned to the wall could even rise, he was hacked into a bloody mess by a dozen steel blades on the spot.

The expressions of the White Sun Sect group turned hideous, their faces darkening until they were practically dripping with gloom.

Their gazes fell into the courtyard, where five dismembered corpses lay—they were their own men.

With their Qi-refining cultivation and their mastery of Daoist arts, when had they ever been reduced to being hacked to pieces by a bunch of brutes?

Looking again at the burly men closing in, their eyes were bloodshot, and each of them was covered in dozens of Gu insects.

A closer look at their bulging veins revealed that they had clearly been stimulated by Gu poison, causing their blood to surge and granting them a massive boost in strength.

"Truly, their audacity knows no bounds." The White Sun Sect Master knew exactly who this "new Gang Leader" they spoke of was—it was none other than that Gu Master.

"Stand back, and watch this old man peel the dog-skin off their bodies."

The Great Elder narrowed his aged eyes, and the hundred-odd leather cords on his wrists fell away simultaneously.

"Brothers, attack together!"

Opposite them, the thirty-plus burly men packed the alleyway, fearless of death.

They leaped into the air, sprinted along the walls, or crouched and charged forward.

Like starving wolves, they brandished their steel blades, hacking toward the Great Elder of the White Sun Sect.

Yet, the next moment, a flash of white light flickered before the eyes of the thirty-plus figures, and they all collapsed where they stood.

Immediately after, the faces of the thirty-plus men split open from the center; the gashes widened, and their skin shed on its own, leaving behind thirty-plus human skins in the alleyway in the blink of an eye.