A Ruthless Man Even Harder on Himself

Old Wolf struggled up the ridge, its claws ground bloody.

It could not help panting. Its gait had become severely distorted, and its fur kept falling away, exposing large swathes of bloody flesh.

It looked as though it could breathe its last at any moment.

Old Wolf forced itself onward into the depths of Camel Peak Mountain. Its clouded eyes could barely make out the path, but even its most basic consciousness had likely been completely extinguished.

When it finally stopped, dense vines blocked the way before it.

Bang.

Old Wolf collapsed weakly to the ground. Only the rise and fall of its belly faintly showed that it had not yet completely died.

At that moment, the fur on its abdomen gradually split open in tiny cracks, like a clam opening its shell.

A shriveled head drilled out from the fissure. There was not a trace of flesh visible beneath its skin; it looked like a White Bone skeleton.

Who could have imagined that an aged living man was hidden inside the wolf's belly?

The old man slowly wriggled out into the open. He was a Human Swine without limbs.

"Ghost Envoy... Ghost Envoy... Ghost Envoy..."

The old man's expression was cold and severe, while a barely restrained excitement shone in his eyes, adding an unnatural flush to his ashen skin.

He lowered his head and greedily tore into and devoured Old Wolf's flesh.

His limbs gradually grew back, but wrinkles spread across his body like ravines, and his aura seemed ready to cut off at any time.

A moment later, the starving wolf was left with nothing but a skeleton.

"Fifteen days of lifespan remaining..."

The old man rose to his feet. After wiping the flesh from the corner of his mouth, he drew an almost imperceptible wound across his forehead with a finger.

He seized the wound and pulled hard, forcibly tearing away his Human Skin.

Most horrifying of all, the Human Skin actually writhed like a living thing, trying to reattach itself to the flesh-and-bone frame.

The old man's face twisted viciously. Knowing that his chance would vanish in the blink of an eye, he could only pull harder, making the Human Skin struggle violently.

Just as the Human Skin was about to come off, the sound of something slicing through the air rang out.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Several throwing knives embedded themselves in a distant tree trunk.

Though they were more than ten meters away, the naturally cautious old man still stopped moving. The Human Skin fused back into his body, leaving behind not even the slightest wound.

The old man said darkly, "Who is it?"

"This one is Ren Qing. This is already our second meeting."

Ren Qing slowly stepped out. He appeared calm on the surface, but his muscles were taut, and his right hand had never loosened its grip on the knife hilt.

A flash of surprise passed through Song Rong's eyes. He had clearly recognized the other man; after all, there were not many yamen runners who came to the Martial Arts Building to borrow Chronicles of the Thatched Cottage.

Ren Qing locked Song Rong down with his Double Pupils. Even if the latter no longer had Hundred Eyes, his other two Arts could pose no threat.

Yet Ren Qing still kept more than twenty meters between them.

Song Rong asked mildly, "Your eyes are rather interesting. Is that the Eye-less Method?"

Clang!

Ren Qing did not answer. The Great Miao Saber in his hand slid half an inch from its sheath.

Song Rong suddenly no longer seemed anxious. As if instructing a junior, he explained, "I always thought the Eye-less Method had a third Aberration path. I never expected to see it on you."

He broke into a sickly smile. "If my Hundred Eyes had not been stripped away, I would definitely have taken an interest in your eyes."

"Is that important?"

Ren Qing felt a chill run down his spine, but he quickly regained his composure.

"It truly isn't important."

Song Rong smiled and took a probing step back. Ren Qing immediately advanced.

"Since you are not in a hurry to attack, there must be something you wish to ask me?"

"Is there any method in this world to extend one's lifespan?"

"Heh, of course there is. But every one of them comes at a price. Eating human eyes raw is merely the most ordinary method. Some methods are so vile that even I cannot bear to look at them."

Song Rong slowly approached Ren Qing and said in a strange tone, "The Forbidden Guards will likely arrive in around a hundred breaths. Don't you want to know..."

When only half a meter remained between them, his right arm suddenly snapped off at the shoulder and flung itself out, moving too quickly for the naked eye to see.

Even in midair, the arm could still move. Traces of an Art could be seen in its fingernails; it could likely slice off Ren Qing's flesh with ease.

Song Rong had originally planned to strip away his Skin Peeler Eerie Object and form a Forbidden Zone to break the Forbidden Guards' Art blockade.

Now, however, if he could use this chance to kill Ren Qing, he could preserve some strength for entering the Disaster Aversion Forbidden Zone.

But how could Ren Qing possibly let him have his way?

Ren Qing effortlessly caught the arm's trajectory with his Double Pupils. As he closed his eyes, it was as though he had returned to that mine cave where he had swung his blade a hundred times.

The mountain wind brushed across his face. He could sense wisps of airflow gathering and dispersing.

Clang!!

The blade scraped against the sheath with a piercing shriek, as though the Great Miao Saber could not wait to reveal its edge.

Unsheathed.

Ren Qing vanished from where he stood.

Before Song Rong's disbelieving eyes, Ren Qing appeared within half a meter of him, while the arm containing two Arts had split into two halves.

The cut was incomparably smooth, even through the bone.

"Eating human eyes raw is out of the question. The upper limit on extending lifespan is obviously too low."

Ren Qing knew that the Forbidden Guards within Camel Peak Mountain were continuously searching for Song Rong. If he could not quickly obtain the answer he wanted, he could only give up.

"Far too interesting."

Song Rong came back to his senses and swung his left hand.

The flesh of his arm bloomed like flower stamens, forming a grotesquely shaped beast head in the blink of an eye as it bared its fangs and claws at Ren Qing.

This was the Skin Peeler's ability: it could control its own flesh, bizarre to the extreme.

Ren Qing showed no panic whatsoever. With a slight lift of the Great Miao Saber, he blocked the beast head's bite.

He knew that, in order to plot his entry into the Disaster Aversion Forbidden Zone, Song Rong had resorted to every possible means. His body had long since been drained to the brink of death.

He had arranged in advance for wolves to attack Hunter, then forcibly grafted his arm onto Hunter's body, along with the stripped Hundred Eyes Eerie Object.

That was also why Ren Qing's Information Flow had failed, because Hunter's limbs and body had already become separate individuals.

Ren Qing even suspected that the Dungeon Forbidden Zone had been Song Rong's handiwork as well, all to experiment with how to better use Eerie Objects.

"If you refuse to speak, forget it."

Werewolf Transformation emerged in his legs, and he swung his blade again at a speed too fast for even Song Rong to react.

The flesh beast head was instantly severed.

Song Rong's expression turned playful, and a smile even curled across his lips.

The blade was only a hair's breadth from his neck.

Song Rong said with a smile, "So, Ren Qing, you and I are the same kind of person."

"You are deeply obsessed with lifespan and immortality as well. But your luck is better than mine. At least an Eerie Object did not cut off your path of cultivation."

He gazed deeply at the sky and muttered, "My fortune is simply too poor. I could never make it to the end. Either I will die in the Disaster Aversion Forbidden Zone, or I will die during the process of advancement."

Ren Qing did not sigh sentimentally. He merely felt a little regret.

In a normal cultivation world, a ruthless man like Song Rong could have achieved unimaginable heights, but this world was ruled by the eerie and strange.

Simply staying alive was already difficult.

Song Rong became fervent. Like a pilgrim paying homage, he said, "Ren Qing, the true method of extending lifespan lies in the Far North..."

I hope all you esteemed readers will keep following along. The results will naturally become clear in these final two weeks. Once it goes premium, I will update as much as possible every day.