Chapter 34: 34 Human-Skin Refugees

Chapter 34: Human Skin Refugees

Master Ning had his own busyness, and Young Master Ning had his own.

He had already handed the great matter of marriage entirely over to his father, for his marriage was no longer merely a personal affair; it involved the safety and future of the entire Ning family.

He would never ruin his father's grand strategy for the sake of love.

Whomever his father pointed to, he would marry—at most, he would simply have someone with whom he shared a bed but not a dream.

His own busyness consisted of daily training and becoming stronger.

At dusk today, he returned once more to Manfeng Mountain.

He stood at a high vantage point. Because the demon plague in the mountains had been resolved, many woodcutters and hunters had returned to the mountain paths.

Woodcutters carried firewood and hunters carried their prey, all descending the mountain steps.

Ning Xuan watched for a while, his curiosity growing.

Where exactly had the Fragrance-Stealing Mouse gone?

The thing was like a knife; it had fallen at an unknown moment and sat in his heart, causing restlessness.

After watching for a while, Ning Xuan suddenly remembered Tang Chuan's hurried farewell that day.

He turned his gaze toward the north.

Ping'an Prefecture and Wangyue Prefecture were adjacent.

And if one crossed Manfeng Mountain and went a bit further northwest, one would reach the western part of Ping'an Prefecture.

If he remembered correctly, the Celestial Master of Ping'an Prefecture had mentioned that a terrifying demon plague had appeared in the west of the prefecture.

'It couldn't have run off to Ping'an Prefecture, could it?'

Ning Xuan felt it was quite possible.

But then he remembered the Ping'an Celestial Master saying it was "rolling black smoke, practically a demon tide," and he immediately felt something was wrong.

He knew very well what a Fragrance-Stealing Mouse was; where would a rolling demon tide come from?

After thinking for a moment, he shook his head.

If the demons were resolved in Ping'an Prefecture, the benefits would go to others; even if he were curious, he wouldn't run over there.

As he was thinking, a streak of faint blue rainbow light suddenly shot from his bosom. The light landed abruptly against his chest, emitting a sharp, high-pitched hum.

This flying knife could carry his Yanming Strength.

Combined with high-speed rotation, he could perfectly fuse the two strengths to perform "Yan He" (Swallow Union).

The dual strengths of Yan He consisted of one technique and one physical movement; one was Bright Strength, and the other was Dark Strength.

But now, he didn't just have two strengths; he had a third.

After a brief moment of thought, Ning Xuan arrived at a valley.

The Golden Bodhisattva sat serenely in the setting sun.

The Bodhisattva lowered his hands, pinched the void, and pulled out a faint blue "leaf." Then, with a spread of his five fingers, the "leaf" shot out, piercing through a giant boulder before spinning back.

The "leaf" was unscathed; its thin edge showed no sign of damage.

'Perhaps I can integrate the Bodhisattva Strength into Yan He as well. If I do, I can launch all three strengths simultaneously, and the power will increase by far more than twofold.'

Ning Xuan began to contemplate.

Demons do not know martial arts.

However, the atmosphere of the *Jianghu* in this world was very thick.

This Golden Bodhisattva was essentially a massive shell possessing brute force.

Therefore, he could naturally layer the Bodhisattva Strength into his own attacks, not dispersing it, but concentrating it entirely on a single point to strike with the highest speed and strongest burst.

He had fought the Fragrance-Stealing Mouse.

He was certain that even without the Golden Bodhisattva, a single "Yan He" strike powered by his 5.25 constitution could slice the mouse's Bodhisattva shell in two.

If he added the Bodhisattva Strength, then...

Ning Xuan's eyes showed deep thought as he began his trial.

A few days later...

Deep in the mountains.

The Golden Bodhisattva sat motionless with a compassionate expression. He pinched the faint blue leaf with two fingers as if plucking a flower, then sent the leaf out like a gift.

In an instant, a dense, piercing whistling sound filled the air, like a flock of swallows chirping.

Wherever the leaf flew, an unimaginable pressure was generated in the air. Even before the leaf touched anything, merely being grazed by the external airflow caused rocks to shatter directly.

When the leaf reached a certain mountain peak and pierced through the summit.

A loud boom echoed.

The peak took the force and shattered instantly, the massive impact sending the tip crashing toward the ground.

The Golden Bodhisattva raised a hand, his palm catching the mountain peak and allowing it to land slowly.

A few monkeys perched upon it, frozen like wooden chickens, suddenly regained their senses, let out strange cries, and fled far away.

Ning Xuan retracted the Golden Bodhisattva and the flying knife.

'I'll call this move "Yan Chao" (Swallow Tide).'

He stretched his body with satisfaction.

This way, if he encountered the Fragrance-Stealing Mouse again, he could shatter it with a single "Yan Chao," killing the mouse spirit hidden inside the Bodhisattva shell instantly.

He knew very well where the mouse spirit was hiding within the shell.

It hid in the heart area of the Golden Bodhisattva, because after multiple tests, he found that this was the easiest place to converge the three strengths; the mouse spirit was in the stomach, because that was the easiest place to feed.

Ning Xuan felt a bit like going looking for the Fragrance-Stealing Mouse.

The mouse must have brought a magical treasure, but... he could bring a Celestial Master.

However, it was just a passing thought; he wouldn't go resolve trouble on someone else's territory without any benefit.

Whistling, Ning Xuan ran out of the mountains in a carefree manner.

The soft rose-colored sunset glow carried the fragrant mountain breeze of late spring, and tonight, the air was once again steeped in a cloying, rouge-like scent...

As he was running, a sudden, abrupt, and piercing scream reached his ears.

The scream was completely out of place with the current atmosphere.

From the distant forest, the scream was bone-chilling.

The scream did not stop abruptly; instead, it was intermittent, sounding like a mix of weeping and wailing.

To Ning Xuan, it sounded strangely familiar.

On second thought...

Wasn't that the same miserable scream he had made when he was being eaten?

His figure shifted slightly as he sped toward the direction of the scream.

The screaming grew clearer, yet it also grew weaker.

Finally, the scene fell into Ning Xuan's eyes.

It was a person—a strong person, as strong as the demon-plagued martial artist who had been beside the purple-robed Taoist that day.

He had been full of vitality, with bulging muscles and even protruding temples, as if his body were filled with inexhaustible power.

But such a strong man was currently shriveling in a strange and terrifying manner.

His skull was shrinking like a deflated balloon, becoming a wrinkled mass, while the brain inside had vanished without a trace.

His body was also shrinking.

By the time Ning Xuan saw him, he had already shriveled significantly.

By the time Ning Xuan approached, he had become nothing more than a skin.

Human skin.

The human skin lay across the mountain terrain, conforming to the undulations of the land.

At that moment, Ning Xuan suddenly felt a cold, piercing sensation lunging toward him.

With a thought, a layer of golden light emerged on his skin.

How could the Golden Bodhisattva be such an inconvenient thing?

He could make it as large as several yards; he just couldn't compress it.

At this moment, the golden light merely covered his skin in a thin layer.

He saw the golden light in front of his eyes seem to be struck by something, creating ripples.

Immediately after, a strange "ding" sounded in his ear.

Then, something struck him right in front of his nostrils.

*Ding—*

Ripples began to spread across his entire body, even through his internal acupoints.

Ning Xuan could not see the thing; he could only judge its position through the ripples in the golden light.

At the moment of another collision, he prepared himself. His Yanming Strength erupted abruptly from his skin, colliding directly with the invisible entity.

*Sss...*

The sound of snow hitting hot soup echoed.

Accompanying it was an indescribable, grotesque shriek.

A cloud of black smoke rose into the air, which quickly dissipated when blown by the wind.

The thing did not attack again; it was clearly dead.

Although Ning Xuan did not know what the thing was, he quickly formed a preliminary concept of this unknown, invisible entity: it was invisible, liked to burrow into human bodies, possessed little offensive power, but could eat everything except the skin clean. And it could be killed.

He glanced at the human skin on the ground, and with a thought, he sped further away.

Several miles later, he saw another piece of human skin—it was an elderly man in brocade clothing; both the man and his clothes were spread out on the ground.

He continued north.

After another ten miles or so, he saw another piece of human skin...

But this time it was different; the skin was "inflating," as if it were standing up.

Ning Xuan stepped forward and pressed down casually.

*Bang!*

The human skin and its inflation exploded instantly.

A cloud of black smoke accompanied by a scream dissipated.

An ominous premonition rose in his heart.

He continued north. After another thirty miles, he saw a beautiful woman dressed in gold and silver on a mountain path, tidying her hair. Upon seeing him, the woman suddenly let out a pitiful voice: "Save me, save me, I'll do anything."

The voice was incredibly pathetic, as if she had encountered something extremely terrifying and had reached the point of being willing to sell everything to survive.

Ning Xuan sighed softly and threw a punch.

*Bang!*

The beautiful woman shattered. Her skin fluttered like butterflies, while the essence inside turned into black smoke with a strange cry and dissipated.

Ning Xuan gained a few more insights into this invisible monstrosity: it could occupy a human body and could mimic the words spoken by the person while they were alive.

By now, darkness had fallen, and a bright moon hung in the sky.

Ning Xuan thought for a moment and continued his journey.

This time, he traveled over a hundred miles.

He never imagined that at a time like this, in such deep mountains, he would see a cluster of bright red campfire.

Two guards sat by the fire, chatting with tense expressions.

"This demon calamity can't be suppressed anymore. Luckily, our Master ran fast."

"Yeah, we servants are also benefiting from his luck. Once we reach Wangyue Prefecture, we should be safe."

"Wangyue Prefecture? Wangyue Prefecture is also very close to our Ping'an Prefecture. Shouldn't we have run further?"

"What do you know? The Master is well-informed. The Master has his reasons for going to Wangyue Prefecture."

*Thud!*

A sudden sound of something hitting the ground rang out.

The two guards jumped up in fright, hands gripping their sword hilts as they looked toward the newcomer.

"Who is it?!"

Only after seeing that the newcomer was a youth did the two of them breathe a sigh of relief, their expressions calming down.

One of the guards said, "Young man, why are you wandering alone in the deep mountains in the middle of the night?"

Ning Xuan stared at him for a long time before letting out a long sigh. "You ghostly things... you can actually mimic to this extent?"

Before his eyes, this guard had abundant blood and qi and could react timely to the environment, no longer merely repeating "the words of the living" like the beautiful woman before.

It seemed that what he had seen earlier were the stages of this ghostly thing: from "eating humans" to "occupying humans" to "becoming human."

And now, these two guards were in their complete form.

However, there was also good news: one ghostly thing could only occupy one body. This was a type of "possession" rather than a plague-like "contagion." They could change bodies, but they could not turn one into two, or two into four. Otherwise...

At that moment, he was attacked.

As his voice fell, the two guards suddenly began to laugh sinisterly, a bizarre, eerie laugh.

Both drew their blades simultaneously and lunged at Ning Xuan.

*Boom!!*

The two were pulverized.

Black smoke screamed as it dissipated.

Standing under the moonlight, Ning Xuan looked toward the direction of Ping'an Prefecture.

A demon calamity of this magnitude was unheard of.

The reason he had felt for sixteen years that he lived in a low-martial world was entirely because the Imperial Court actually possessed absolute control over the demons.

But now, that control seemed to be crumbling.

Something terrifying was happening.

Ping'an Prefecture might just be a microcosm.