"This damned artifact always fails when it matters!" You An could not help cursing.
"Don't panic. If he can still speak so calmly, it probably isn't too serious. We'll just go help him."
Li Chen took a burning piece of wood as thick as his arm from the campfire and wrapped it in specially prepared oilcloth, making a simple but durable torch.
He and You An left their prepared campsite and headed south.
Old Hou was not far away. After walking roughly a li, they saw a figure standing beside a conspicuous boulder at the foot of the opposite slope.
With the night vision of Qi Refining cultivators, they could see clearly that it was indeed Old Hou.
He held his right leg slightly raised, his expression somewhat pained, as if some wild beast had bitten him.
"Brother Hou, what happened?" Seeing this, You An hurried forward to support him.
"Something bit me. It was too fast-I didn't get a clear look," Old Hou said in a somewhat stiff voice.
"Don't move yet. Let us look at the wound."
Li Chen approached them and held up his torch to illuminate Old Hou's right leg. Just then, however, his gaze brushed past Old Hou's face, and an inexplicable sense of strangeness suddenly arose within him.
Having made progress in studying Shape-Stealing Skin-Painting, Li Chen had mastered the methods of capturing appearances and committing impressions to memory. He had also gained some understanding of the shapes and appearances of various things, naturally making him exceptionally sensitive to such details.
To his senses, there was something slightly unnatural about Old Hou's expression and complexion.
An ordinary person might have attributed it to his injury and overlooked it, but Li Chen could not help growing wary.
Yet when he looked more closely, there seemed to be no flaw. To the naked eye, Old Hou still looked no different from before.
Should I trust my eyes, or my senses?
In the flash of a spark, Li Chen chose the latter.
It was something he could neither explain nor put into words. Li Chen seized You An and pulled him back, swinging the torch forward at the same time.
Crack!
The torch was blocked, and the sharp snap of breaking wood rang out. But Li Chen used that opening to retreat, leaving You An beside him looking utterly bewildered.
"How did you notice?" The man swept a hand over his face and, astonishingly, peeled away a thin skin mask. Then he lowered his head slightly and rubbed his face, swiftly transforming into another person.
"You're that Zuo Shan!" You An exclaimed.
Indeed, the man before Li Chen and You An was not Old Hou at all, but Zuo Shan, the young master's guard!
His gaze grave, Li Chen looked at the skin mask in Zuo Shan's hand. "What have you done to our friend?"
"That's right! What have you done to Brother Hou?" Coming to his senses, You An hurriedly demanded an answer.
Zuo Shan said, "Rest assured, he isn't dead yet. Though whether that will still be true in a little while is another matter."
"Fuck! If you dare touch him, I'll never let you get away with it!" You An cursed.
Li Chen said, "Brother, we're merely duckweed meeting by chance on the water. Why must you press us so relentlessly?"
Zuo Shan said, "It isn't me pressing you. Our young master wants to compete with you."
At that, he stopped and looked off to one side.
Li Chen and You An looked that way as well. They saw Zuo Hao, whom they had met that afternoon, drifting toward them on the Flying Chair. Behind him came a woman in fitted black martial attire, escorting Old Hou under guard.
They seemed to have some special method of concealment. Li Chen had also let his guard slip for a moment and had failed to notice them immediately.
"Old Hou, how are you?" Li Chen called.
Old Hou sighed. "Little brother, I'm ashamed. I fell into their trap. Look for a chance to make tracks, and don't listen to all their nonsense."
"Heh. I have yet to ask your distinguished name." Zuo Hao ignored Old Hou entirely and simply stared steadily at Li Chen.
"A man of the martial world changes neither his name nor his surname. I am Long Aotian!" Li Chen said in a firm voice. "What have you done to our friend?"
"Long Aotian-Fellow Daoist Long, then? Don't worry. I merely used a little trick to capture him. You refused to compete with me earlier, so now I have no choice but to stake your friend's life on the contest and force you to participate," Zuo Hao said.
"Fuck." This time, even Li Chen could not help swearing. "All this just for that? Was it really necessary?"
Zuo Hao said, "We cultivators seek the Dao with single-minded devotion. What else is worth mentioning? If you don't want anything to happen to your friend, you can only accept. Enough nonsense. Will you compete or not?"
Fuck, another bastard treating human lives like weeds! Li Chen cursed inwardly.
Old Hou looked at him and sighed. "Ah, little brother, agree to it. Things have come to this. There's no other way."
Li Chen was speechless. Only after a long while did he look at Zuo Hao. "What kind of contest do you want?"
Zuo Hao said, "Very simple. We are both inheritors of Shape-Stealing Skin-Painting, so we will compete in Shape-Stealing Skin-Painting alone!"
"Shape-Stealing Skin-Painting is Yan Shi's Secret Art of creation. It uses human form to supplement human essence, emphasizing exquisite likeness and lifelike presence, with living authenticity as its supreme principle."
"I have already seen your earlier work. Its quality was exceptionally high, which is why I judged you worthy of being a formidable opponent. Now that I have tested you again, you have indeed seen through the disguise I placed on Zuo Shan at a glance."
"However, Zuo Shan's facial structure and build differ greatly from your companion's. Besides, I put it together in a hurry and did not display my true abilities at all, so it is hardly surprising that you managed it."
At this point, he said with considerable conceit, "If you hadn't even recognized it just now, there would have been no need to discuss a contest. I would simply have had Zuo Shan kill you both and be done with it!"
Zuo Hao continued, "Next, we’ll both take this seriously and start afresh, with a time limit of one double-hour. Within that time, I’ll craft four Puppet Dolls and place them alongside your friend for you to shoot."
"You will have only four chances. If my skill is great enough to deceive your perception and judgment, then after four arrows, at least one false person will remain. I will then kill your friend and collect my stake."
"But if you are not deceived and eliminate all the false people, you will have successfully rescued your friend. You may take him away. I guarantee on my Lineage's honor that I will not stop you."
"Of course, in the interests of fairness, I’ll also put up one person as a stake. You’ll craft the Puppet Dolls, and I’ll rescue that person!"
"Heh. Then I’ll be free to show my abilities, using my own judgment to eliminate the Puppet Dolls and save the real person."
Hearing this, Li Chen and You An broke into a cold sweat. This bastard really was sick in the head, and it looked like no mild affliction, either!
Yet the more someone was like this, the less they could afford to provoke him. If he truly turned on them without mercy and started killing outright, wouldn't they all be finished?
Li Chen fell silent for a moment. Finally, he gritted his teeth and said coldly, "Fine. Let's do it!"