Slaying Painted Skin with a Sword

Before Zhang Xuan had finished speaking, Monk lunged toward Zhao Wu with a speed utterly at odds with his hulking physique.

For an instant, Zhao Wu had the illusion that what came hurtling toward him was not a man. That burly figure became a savage tiger choosing its prey to devour, making every hair on his body stand on end!

"You... who are you people? Help! Help!" Zhao Wu's hair bristled with fright. He waved his pipe wildly, his voice trembling as he backed away again and again.

Yet Monk did not stop in front of him. He swept past with a whistling gust of wind. Zhao Wu turned in bewilderment, only for crimson to fill his vision, followed by the teeth-grating crack of bone and a growl that sounded anything but human.

The heavy blue stone brick seemed weightless in Monk's hand as he smashed it into someone's head again and again. Flesh and blood flew, bone fragments scattering everywhere.

An ordinary person would have died from even a single blow of Monk's powerful, crushing brick. Yet this man's head seemed cast from iron. After several strikes, he could still block and struggle, apparently looking for a chance to flee.

Zhao Wu froze for a moment, then shuddered and cried hoarsely, "Dafu!" The person being battered was none other than his third son, Zhao Dafu!

"Don't worry, old sir." Zhang Xuan strolled over as though wandering through a peaceful courtyard, a smile at his lips and a ghostly gleam in his eyes. "That isn't your son. I doubt your son could withstand such a beating."

Before entering the house, Zhang Xuan had already activated his nether candle mystic eyes. Even a lion used its full strength to hunt a rabbit, and his current body could not withstand the slightest mishap.

The old man glared at Zhang Xuan with reddened eyes. "Who are you? What nonsense are you talking about?"

Zhang Xuan shook out his crimson cloak, revealing the jade badge at his waist. "Great Zhou's Demon Suppression Bureau, Hundred-Man Commander of the Azure Dragon Guard! Here under orders to slay demons. All uninvolved persons, stand back!"

Though Zhao Wu did not recognize the Demon Suppression Bureau, the words "Hundred-Man Commander" rang in his ears like thunder. In an instant, his anger turned to awe—the reverence for authority that Great Zhou's hundred years of rule had etched into the bones of its people.

While Zhang Xuan chatted casually in the courtyard, a fierce battle raged nearby.

"Zhao Dafu's" body swelled several times, as though something were about to burst out of it, only for Monk to smash it back down again and again with the Bluestone Brick imbued with the incense aura of the Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple.

Once Monk seized the initiative, turning the tables was no easy feat. The late Xu Ming knew that better than anyone.

A vicious gleam flashed through "Zhao Dafu's" dull eyes. His flesh swelled all over, making him look like a drowned corpse that had soaked in water for ages. Just then, Monk darted in close and drove his hulking body straight into his opponent's chest, putting all his force behind his shoulder...

"Want to come out? Dream on!"

The crack of bone set teeth on edge. Zhao Dafu flew backward, his swollen body returning to its original shape.

Monk clung to him like a maggot burrowing into bone. Gripping his shoulder with one hand, he used a grappling hold to slam him into the ground, sending shattered stones flying. Then he straddled him like a mountain, both hands clamping his shoulders firmly in place.

Zhang Xuan paid Zhao Wu no further heed and drew the Demon-Slaying Sword at his waist.

The blue Falcon on his shoulder seemed to sense something and took flight with a beat of its wings!

Through his nether candle mystic eyes, Zhang Xuan clearly saw another face beneath Zhao Dafu's skin, stretching the corners of its mouth in silent laughter.

Zhang Xuan smiled too, his face beneath the Azure Dragon crown bright with exuberance. Holding his sword point-down, he walked step by step toward the "Zhao Dafu" pinned beneath Monk.

"Laughing, are you? Tell me, what's got you so happy?" Zhang Xuan planted his sword before him and looked down from above.

"Mere human livestock, nothing but fodder for our divine race. How dare you act so brazenly..."

The next moment, cold light flashed. The sword was not fast, but it was sharp!

A head shot into the air, trailing a great spray of sticky black fluid.

Zhang Xuan curled his lip. "Seriously? I told you to talk, and you actually did? You're not even human, yet you speak our language and put on airs to boot. What rotten luck!"

Though this was his first time cutting off a human head, Zhang Xuan did not dwell on it. He merely felt that severing a neck with a sword took a little too much effort. A saber would probably have worked better...

His thoughts wandered, but his hands remained brisk and sure. With a flick of the Demon-Slaying Sword, he scattered the sticky black fluid from its blade onto the ground, frightening some of the nearby villagers into retreating.

Strange. This was my first time using a sword, so why... did it feel so natural?

As Zhang Xuan's thoughts wandered, an agonized, throat-rending wail rang out...

"Dafu... Dafu, my Dafu!!!"

Zhao Wu's eyes bulged as though their corners would split. His own son had died before him. He no longer cared how vicious the fiend before him was, or whether he was some high-ranking official. Gripping his pipe, the old man made to rush at Zhang Xuan and fight him to the death.

"Hahaha..." Mocking laughter came from behind him. "You old beast, open those dog eyes and look! Is that your son? Your son was eaten clean long ago, and even his skin and flesh were put to use. How... pitiful!"

The old man's beard trembled wildly with rage. He was about to speak when his face suddenly turned deathly pale. It was as though someone had clamped a hand around his throat, leaving him unable to make a sound.

He saw the severed head at his feet. Where its forehead had been battered into a bloody mess, the exposed flesh was not the tender red of a human's, but a patch of bluish purple...

Beneath the skin lay another face—a bluish-purple face!

"Namo!" Monk rose and pressed his palms together, then spoke calmly to Zhao Wu. "My condolences, old benefactor. This was no human, but a kind of Demon Ghost called 'Painted Skin.' It delights in eating human organs and can assume the appearance of the dead it devours. Rumor has it that it also inherits some of their memories, allowing it to mingle among people undetected."

Zhang Xuan's gaze shifted slightly as he cast a discreet glance at Monk—the big fellow seemed to know a great deal about Demon Ghosts. How could an ordinary person know such things without deliberately seeking them out?

"Nonsense! You're talking nonsense! This is my child..." Zhao Wu clutched the severed head and wailed.

Though he kept repeating those words, anyone could see that Zhao Wu already believed them. After all, the second face beneath the human skin could not lie.

The crowd stirred uneasily. Some villagers comforted Zhao Wu, while others gathered together, their eyes constantly straying toward Zhang Xuan and Monk as though discussing something.

Zhang Xuan and Monk withdrew to one side.

"My lord, shall we still spend the night here?"

Monk's way of addressing Zhang Xuan as "my lord" was something they had agreed upon earlier. Zhang Xuan was now posing as a Hundred-Man Commander of the Demon Suppression Bureau's Azure Dragon Guard, while Monk acted as his attendant. Naturally, while traveling, he had to address him as "my lord."

Zhang Xuan shook his head slightly. "Whether we killed a Demon Ghost or not, Zhao Wu will probably never forget the sight of me cutting off 'Zhao Dafu's' head with one stroke. Now that the Demon Ghost is dead, I suspect he'll blame his son's death on us. A wise man doesn't stand beneath a crumbling wall. Let's leave as soon as possible!"

Monk frowned. "People should not be so foolish."

Zhang Xuan smiled and shook his head, then turned to look at Zhao Wu, who was still clutching the severed head and sobbing. "Foolish? A little, yes. But... that's human nature!"