Don't go in

The blade struck the human skin.

The clean cut he had expected never came.

The bone cleaver sank less than a centimeter into it, as though he had struck a slab of hard rubber, and would go no farther.

Only a faint white mark remained on the surface of the skin, without a trace of blood.

Zhou Rong's eyes widened. Panic completely overwhelmed him.

A second later, he realized he seemed to have made a stupid decision. He released the handle, turned, and tried to run.

But it was already too late.

The instant he turned around, he found another Skin Wraith behind him, almost face-to-face. He had no idea when it had appeared.

On that withered face, the lips also curled upward into a sinister smile.

Before he could react, both Skin Wraiths pressed against him at once.

One in front and one behind, they wrapped around his body like two sheets of paper.

Zhou Rong tried to scream. His mouth opened as wide as it could, but no sound came from his throat.

The two human skins clung to him like waterlogged cloth, tightening until every pore on his body was sealed shut.

Then came an agonizing, rending pain.

His skin began to dissolve. Starting with his cheeks, his flesh melted into bright red liquid, which the human skin greedily absorbed.

Then came his chest, his abdomen, and his thighs. His flesh melted away layer by layer, exposing the white bones beneath.

It took less than ten seconds.

Zhou Rong's eyes were still open, his eyeballs still moving, but he could no longer blink. His eyelids were gone.

At last, his skeleton collapsed onto the floor. Every bone was completely clean, without even a scrap of flesh remaining.

The two pieces of clothing lay piled beside his skeleton-the same clothes he had worn when he entered.

The two Skin Wraiths floated up from the floor. Their bodies were much fuller now, their facial contours clearly visible. Even their features could be distinguished.

One had the face of an elderly woman in her fifties; the other, that of a young woman.

Both wore exactly the same smile.

By noon, Shen Ye and An Ning had cleared no fewer than forty houses.

Almost every home concealed one or two Skin Wraiths.

Some lay spread across living room floors, some hung inside bedroom wardrobes, and others curled up beneath kitchen sinks.

No matter where they hid, the result was the same once Shen Ye entered.

One slash, one kill.

The edge of Ghost Head kept flashing with dark red light inside the dim houses.

The hissing of Skin Wraiths being torn apart spread from the entrance of the village to its center, then from its center to its far end.

At first, the team members had not dared to watch. Gradually, they grew accustomed to it. A few of the young men even grew eager to try a couple of swings themselves, but An Ning stopped them.

The young men merely smiled sheepishly and said nothing.

All they had to do was wait for Shen Ye to go in and come out. Then they could enter and carry off supplies.

After each house was cleared, An Ning swept it with the Eye of Perception. Only after she confirmed nothing had been missed did Shen Ye take her to the next house.

The team members following them had long since scattered to scavenge supplies from the cleared houses.

One found half a sack of rice at the bottom of a rice jar, another unearthed a case of canned food, and another dragged two strips of moldy cured pork out from beneath a bed. They were so excited they nearly dropped to their knees before Shen Ye.

"Shen Ye."

An Ning tugged at Shen Ye's sleeve and pointed toward a three-story building nearby.

Its front door stood open. A faint, dark red drag mark crossed the threshold, extending from outside all the way into the house.

Shen Ye frowned and walked over, blade in hand.

He pushed open the door, which had been left ajar. A skeleton lay in the main room.

The white bones were spotless, each one as smooth as though it had been polished with sandpaper.

Two pieces of clothing and a bone cleaver lay scattered beside the skeleton. The blade still bore that faint white mark.

"This is the fourth one," An Ning said quietly.

Shen Ye looked up toward the guest room at the back of the main room.

Two Skin Wraiths stood motionless in the shadows, as though they had been waiting for a long time.

One had an elderly woman's face; the other had a young woman's. They were no longer as shriveled and withered as the earlier Skin Wraiths. A thin layer of fullness beneath their skin made them look more like living people.

When they saw Shen Ye enter, both Skin Wraiths floated toward him.

Ghost Head swept out.

One slash cleaved both Skin Wraiths in two. They turned to ash before hitting the floor.

[Killing Points: +33] [Killing Points: +36]

An Ning crouched down and watched the two fading piles of ash on the floor. Suddenly, she spoke softly.

"These Skin Wraiths were probably villagers here when they were alive. After the Man-Eating Tree Spirit killed them, they turned into this."

She paused.

"And they seem to grow stronger... after absorbing flesh and blood."

Shen Ye glanced at the skeleton on the floor, then left without looking back. "Come on. Next house."

They cleared their way from one end of the village to the other.

Qianxing Village had roughly seventy or eighty households, most of which had already been cleared.

But the meager supplies they found left quite a few people frowning.

The kitchens in several houses had been stripped bare.

Cupboards stood open, rice jars were empty, and a thin layer of dust coated the stoves.

Even the dry provisions hidden in jars and pots had been taken beforehand.

Shen Ye was the most disappointed of all. After a whole day's work, he had not seen so much as a trace of a solar panel.

"Someone's been here."

Shen Ye stood in a thoroughly ransacked kitchen, his gaze passing over the empty wooden shelves.

He ran a hand over the layer of dust on the shelves. "And it was probably a week ago."

That discovery explained why the village had so few supplies left.

An Ning nodded, but she no longer had the strength to speak.

Constantly using her skill along the way had severely drained her energy. Her lips were so pale they had taken on a bluish tinge, and she had begun to sway as she walked.

"Can you hold on a little longer? This is the last house."

"I can!" An Ning forced herself to rally.

They left the house and followed the village road uphill toward the far end of the village.

Shen Ye had already lost count of how many Skin Wraiths he had cut down.

From the first house at the village entrance to the second-to-last building at the far end, Ghost Head had barely stopped moving.

Shriveled ones, half-filled ones, ones that had just absorbed flesh and blood-he had seen Skin Wraiths in every form.

By his rough estimate, at least seventy or eighty Skin Wraiths had died beneath his blade.

[Remaining Killing Points: 5520]

When the number appeared in his mind, Shen Ye's hand trembled slightly around the hilt.

Five thousand five hundred.

Today had been quite a haul.

He gathered his thoughts and looked up at the white villa on the hilltop.

Only one house in the entire village remained unchecked.

It stood at the top of the slope at the far end of the village, higher than any other house.

The three-story, privately built villa had white walls and blue-gray roof tiles, with stainless steel railings enclosing its yard.

Compared with the exposed red-brick houses below, the villa looked like something from another era altogether.

Shen Ye reached the front entrance and was about to push the door open.

An Ning grabbed him.

Her pupils had turned deep purple, and she stared fixedly at the tightly shut door.

The hand gripping Shen Ye's sleeve trembled incessantly.

"Don't... don't go in."