Human Skin Book Skin Refiner

Ren Qing sat cross-legged in the dim mountain cave, trying to find the opportunity to advance to Skin Refiner.

He had assumed that once he neared the bottleneck, his advancement would follow as naturally as water flowing into a channel.

Yet more than an hour had passed without his noticing. Other than the numb tingling in his skin refusing to fade, he felt no sign of a breakthrough whatsoever.

Ren Qing's mouth twitched, and he opened his eyes.

He suddenly realized the most crucial point.

Although Ren Qing had three Arts at the Half-Corpse Realm, he had never actually experienced advancing an Art before.

If he had to feel his way through it alone, advancing anytime soon would be an uphill battle. Something might even go wrong while he was mining.

Gritting his teeth, Ren Qing took an oil-paper packet from his Strange Mouth.

The powder inside came from poisonous herbs found near the forest. They had been dried and ground into powder, mixed with a little iron sand.

Zhou Qianwu had helped make all of it. Ren Qing had not paid much silver, only given him a bit of dried rations as a token gesture.

Ren Qing removed his clothes, then fiercely scrubbed the powder across his skin. A searing pain immediately spread through his body.

Hiss...

Ren Qing sucked in a cold breath. If he had not needed to advance to Skin Refiner tonight, he would never have resorted to such an extreme method.

He had no intention of stopping until all the skin on his body had turned dark red and the poison had gradually seeped into his marrow.

The numb tingling produced by the Human Skin Book grew fiercer and fiercer.

Ren Qing did his best to calm his mind and sense the gradual transformation of the Art, swallowing Beast Eyes from time to time.

More than an hour passed. The pain caused by the poison had begun to fade, but he still could not detect any opportunity for advancement.

Ren Qing shook his head with faint disappointment.

Just as he was about to apply more powder, he suddenly felt his blood racing. A baseless terror surged up in his heart.

The bats in the cave flew outside in swarms, and the insects and rodents did the same.

Before Ren Qing could suppress his fear, a violent tearing pain suddenly erupted from his skin.

He could not help looking at his arm. The skin there flowed like mucus, strange and grotesque beyond words.

Ren Qing's pupils dilated as he suddenly realized something.

This was what cultivators looked like after death. He had never imagined it would now happen to his own body.

His skin seemed to be undergoing aberration, trying to fuse with his flesh and blood.

"What kind of underworld art style are these Arts?"

Ren Qing instinctively grabbed his skin, trying to stop the process of aberration, but his human skin instead became even more active.

Whispers sounded beside his ears.

He finally understood why Song Zongwu had been surprised that he had advanced to the Half-Corpse Realm without anyone protecting him. There truly was an unknown and terrifying horror hidden within it.

Ren Qing steadied his mind. If it truly came to it, he would consume lifespan and force his advancement.

Then he began to visualize the Eye-less Method.

The whispers turned into miserable screams. The aura of the Double Pupils Art directly suppressed the aberrant human skin.

Only the strange could fight the strange.

Seeing this, Ren Qing swallowed a large number of eyeballs, and his stomach began to writhe.

It was his first time trying to visualize the Taotie Method and Eye-less Method at the same time. To his surprise, he succeeded under his intense concentration.

His human skin returned to normal, with not the slightest trace of its previous aberration.

When the rising sun drew a white line across the horizon, the consciousness within the human skin was finally completely worn away. This also meant that Skin Refiner had finished advancing.

Rather than forcing his way through the advancement, Ren Qing had survived the calamity, and his aura had become even more steady.

Information Flow surged.

Ren Qing

Age: Seventeen

Lifespan: Six years, two hundred and eleven days

Arts: Eye-less Method (Double-Pupil User), Divine Feet Scripture (Wolf-Foot User), Human Skin Book (Skin Refiner), Taotie Method (Vice-Stomach User)

The Information Flow showed no abnormalities, proving that it was possible for Arts to advance on their own. It was simply impossible to avoid the risks involved.

At this point, all of Ren Qing's Arts had reached the level of the Half-Corpse Realm. What he needed next was to blend the various Arts into one harmonious whole.

The Aberration Tree concerning the Human Skin Book in his mind also gained new developments.

The three directions of aberration for the Ghost Envoy Realm were as follows.

Substitute Ghost Skin: Take wounds without dying.

Boneless Blood Demon: Flesh and blood without form.

Human-Faced Beast Demon: Fuse skin and transform into a beast.

Ren Qing pondered for a moment. It seemed that the Boneless Blood Demon after Skin Peeler advanced would possess even more terrifying control over flesh and blood.

The Beast Herder, meanwhile, should transform into a beast through some method. Judging by the lifespan cost, it required the greatest price to be exempted.

As for Ren Qing's Skin Refiner, while it had no offensive means, it perfectly made up for the gaps in his defenses.

To test Skin Refiner's abilities, he found a fairly thick branch and savagely smashed it against his right leg.

The branch snapped on impact.

Yet Ren Qing could not help frowning. A faint bruise had clearly appeared on his leg, showing that the blow had not been completely blocked.

His skin did feel tougher, but he had expected it to be immune to blunt weapons.

Ren Qing shook his head in slight disappointment. Just as he was about to return to camp, he suddenly discovered that he could control his injuries with his mind.

The bruise vanished from his leg and reappeared on his right arm.

His expression turned to surprise. Clearly, Skin Refiner's potential did not fall short of Beast Herder and Skin Peeler in the slightest—perhaps it even surpassed them.

Aside from strengthening the toughness of the skin, Skin Refiner's true main function was controlling injuries.

Ren Qing picked up the Great Miao Saber and forcefully slashed the back of his hand.

He then noticed that wounds caused by sharp weapons could likewise be transferred, though the severity of the injury could not be altered.

This way,

weak points such as the throat and groin were as good as nonexistent.

Furthermore, once he advanced to the Ghost Envoy Realm in the future, the ability would certainly go a step further, granting him an extremely horrifying capacity for survival.

No wonder it was called "Substitute Ghost Skin."

If he could master an Art that allowed rapid recovery as well, he could be said to stand undefeated.

Ren Qing could not help feeling deeply satisfied.

Now that he had experience with advancing on his own, if he wanted to master the Demon Seeding Scripture next, he would not need to deliberately consume lifespan to reach the Half-Corpse Realm.

Once the matter of sealing off the Disaster Aversion Forbidden Zone came to an end, he could accumulate lifespan and prepare to use it to break through to the Ghost Envoy Realm.

Ren Qing stretched his limbs and returned to camp while the sky was still faintly bright.

Most of the Yamen Runners had already awakened and were diligently cutting down trees.

The prisoners had even less time to sleep.

But compared to entering the Karst Cave, they would rather do grueling work outside. At least they would not face the threat of sudden death at any moment.

Song Zongwu had just emerged from the Karst Cave, intending to eat something. When he saw Ren Qing, he asked, "Where did you go so early in the morning?"

Ren Qing answered with an embarrassed laugh, "I had nothing to do, so I went hunting."

"Hold on for a few more days. Excavating the mountain has been going quite smoothly."

"Alright, I'll get to it right away."

Ren Qing hurried into the Karst Cave.

Song Zongwu watched his retreating back and muttered to himself, "Why does he seem to have changed a little? Could it be related to the Human Skin Book?"

"Or did the Taotie Method break through to the Half-Corpse Realm? That really is..."

Song Zongwu shook his head, thinking that once the excavation was complete, he would tell Ren Qing about some of the pros and cons of the Ghost Envoy Realm.