The Living Human Skin

Ren Qing felt the blood rush to his head.

He let go, dropping the corpse to the ground, then braced his foot against its armpit, grabbed its arm, and twisted hard.

Crack.

The sound of bones popping rang out as Ren Qing forcibly dislocated the corpse's joints.

"Let's go."

Xiao Wu's scalp went numb, but the fear in his heart was somewhat diluted by this.

Still, he felt that the corpse's hollow eyes carried a bone-chilling resentment...

The two quickened their pace, and nothing else strange happened after that.

By the time they returned to the Fire Refining Hall, the sky was nearly bright.

Ren Qing couldn't help but collapse to the ground, gasping for breath. His constitution was still weak, and he was only kept going by the heat radiating from the Pig Eyes.

He rested only a moment before climbing back to his feet, then dragged the corpse over to the furnace in a few quick strides.

"What's wrong, officer?"

Li Mian and the other two hurried over. They saw Ren Qing yank open the furnace door, which hadn't been cleaned in days, sending a cloud of bone-ash dust scattering everywhere.

"Light the fire. This corpse can't stay."

"Understood."

Ren Qing shoved the Bookshop Owner's corpse inside with some effort, filled the gaps with firewood, and closed the door.

Xiao Wu's hands trembled from nerves, and it took him a while to light the kindling with the fire starter.

As the flames rose, the temperature around the furnace gradually climbed.

They all let out a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat from their brows.

Before long, crackling sounds came from inside the furnace—the fat of the corpse melting under the high heat of the flames.

"We'll have to work hard these next few days. Take turns resting and get the corpses in the Corpse Room cleaned up."

Ren Qing thought of the blood trail the corpse had left. Though the path was fairly secluded, it was better to cover it up just in case.

"Keep an eye on the furnace and don't forget to watch the Corpse Room."

With that thought, he relied on the heat from the Pig Eyes to force himself back outside.

Suddenly, knocking sounds came from inside the furnace, faintly mixed with thin screams, enough to send a chill down anyone's spine.

Ren Qing hesitated for a few breaths, and when the noise stopped, he turned and left.

Wait...

He suddenly realized something absurd—could the Bookshop Owner not be completely dead yet, kept alive by the Eye-less Method?

No, the Information Flow hadn't reacted. He was definitely dead.

Ren Qing stopped dwelling on it. After all, the corpse had already turned to ash in the flames.

He carefully followed the blood trail, covering it with sand and dirt.

The outer wall of the Yamen was at most passed by occasional people; as long as it didn't look suspicious from a distance, that was enough. No need to be too meticulous.

Ren Qing also took the chance to check his own Information Flow.

[Ren Qing]

[Age: Seventeen]

[Lifespan: Five years, eighty-five days]

[Art: Eye-less Method]

Though it had only increased by two or three days, Ren Qing was still satisfied.

The effect of eating raw Pig Eyes to extend life should be gradual and subtle—otherwise, the Hundred-Eyed Old Monk would have noticed.

He just needed to eat Pig Eyes while cross-referencing the Information Flow to figure out the rate of lifespan increase, and then he'd know the best way to consume them.

With the lifespan issue temporarily resolved, mastering a second technique had to be put on the agenda.

The Eye-less Method was indeed well-suited to Ren Qing, but relying on it alone to face eerie things was still too much of a stretch.

Could he consider the "Divine Feet Scripture"?

But those beggars were likely controlled by some force West of the City, and with Ren Qing's current strength, the risk was still too great.

It took him nearly half an hour to clean up near the outer wall. Just as he was about to head back the way he came—

Suddenly, he keenly sensed a terrifying presence, like being locked onto by a predatory beast.

Ren Qing was already hunched over, so he quickly flattened himself to the ground and scanned his surroundings with his peripheral vision.

In the distance, a tall figure was walking toward the eastern district of the Yamen.

The man wore light armor and a bamboo hat, with a sword over three feet long at his waist, and in his hand, he seemed to be holding a bloody piece of leather.

Ren Qing's gaze first landed on the token hanging at the end of his scabbard, where a bold, flowing character was carved: "Forbid."

Jailer...

This was the first time Ren Qing had encountered a Jailer. Previously, whether he was handling corpses at the scene or inside the Yamen, he had never heard of anyone coming into contact with them.

He even suspected that the Yamen was divided into four sections, leaving the central area for the Jailer Hall, precisely because of the Jailers.

Ren Qing looked again at the leather object in the Jailer's hand. His eyes ached from the strain of focusing.

The leather object kept dripping fresh blood and squirmed like a living thing, trying to break free from the Jailer's grip, but it was held fast.

Ren Qing opened his mouth in disbelief. The more he looked, the more it seemed like human skin.

Living human skin?!

This was indeed a world with a bizarre style.

After the Jailer's figure vanished, Ren Qing lay there for a long time before dragging his exhausted body back to the Fire Refining Hall.

Over the next two days, the furnace never stopped burning, not even for a moment.

When the last three fireworker corpses turned to ash, a thick layer of bone dust had accumulated inside the furnace, along with some fragments of bone.

The Lictors took away the bone ash. What the Yamen wanted it for, no one knew.

During this time, the West of the City was relatively calm, and not a single person died on Tan Street.

But in other sections of the Yamen, fireworkers carrying corpses could be seen coming and going every day.

According to news Ren Qing had gathered, over a dozen people had died in the East of the City, and all the corpses were missing their heads, their bodies posed in a kneeling posture.

He felt it was the work of the Hundred-Eyed.

If Ren Qing were that Hundred-Eyed, he would deliberately avoid the West of the City while committing crimes, then cut off the heads to confuse the investigation, preventing anyone from discovering the missing eyes.

Acting this way, he probably thought the "Eye-less Method" had fallen into the Yamen's hands, not knowing that Ren Qing had snatched the advantage.

These past few days, Ren Qing had to watch over the furnace and explore the path of cultivation, so his visits to the meat stall had greatly decreased.

Aside from seeking information about the Eye-less Method, he noticed that things seemed unsettled inside the Yamen, but he had no time to pay attention.

The gains from seclusion were naturally quite substantial.

Ren Qing could now freely enter the state of visualizing the Eye-less Method, though he kept it within one hour.

If he exceeded that time, the darkness in his eyes would become terrifyingly strange, and he would develop an urge to gouge out his own eyes.

Ren Qing had also found the pattern for increasing his lifespan by eating raw pig eyes. Swallowing one pig eye every three hours was the most suitable rhythm.

This way, he could gain four or five days of life each day.

Progress was slow, but at least he no longer had to worry about his lifespan running out.

Now Ren Qing no longer looked like the sickly person he once was. His complexion was much fuller.

It was just that Xiao Wu and the other two looked at him with increasingly complicated expressions.

Had he really eaten some great tonic?

After finishing his study of the Eye-less Method, Ren Qing was about to head to the Martial Arts Field inside the Yamen. Even if he couldn't find clues about techniques, learning some external martial arts for self-defense would be good.

But suddenly, trouble came knocking at his door.