Chapter 34: Human Skin Refugees

Old Master Ning had his own busy schedule, and Young Master Ning also had his own.

He had already thrown the matter of his marriage to his father, because his marriage was no longer just his personal matter, but involved the safety and future of the entire Ning family.

He would not ruin his father’s grand plan for the sake of love.

He would marry whoever his father pointed to. At most, there would be another person in his bed with a different dream.

His busy schedule was his daily training and getting stronger.

At dusk today, he once again came to Manfeng Mountain.

He stood on a high place. Because the demon infestation in the mountain had been eliminated, there were already many woodcutters and hunters on the mountain road.

The woodcutters carried firewood, and the hunters carried the wild beasts they had killed, and they were going down the mountain along the mountain steps.

Ning Xuan watched for a while, and he became more and more curious.

Where on earth did the Incense-Stealing Mouse go?

This thing was like a knife, and he didn’t know when it would fall, which made him feel restless.

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

He cast his gaze to the north.

Ping’an Prefecture and Wangyue Prefecture were adjacent.

And after passing through Manfeng Mountain and going a little further northwest, it was the west of Ping’an Prefecture.

If he remembered correctly, the Heavenly Master of Ping’an Prefecture had said that a terrifying demon infestation had appeared in the west of the prefecture.

‘Could it be that it ran to Ping’an Prefecture?’

Ning Xuan felt that it was really possible.

But he remembered that the Heavenly Master of Ping’an Prefecture had said that “the black smoke is rolling, it’s simply a demon tide,” and he immediately felt that something was wrong.

He knew very well what the Incense-Stealing Mouse was. Where did the rolling demon tide come from?

After thinking for a while, he shook his head.

If he solved the demons in Ping’an Prefecture, the benefits would all go to others. Even if he was curious, he would not run over.

As he was thinking, a faint blue rainbow light suddenly shot out from his bosom. The rainbow light suddenly settled in front of his chest, emitting a sharp hum…

This flying knife could carry his Swallow’s Cry Power.

Combined with high-speed rotation, it could completely fuse the two powers and perform “Swallow’s Union.”

The two powers of Swallow’s Union were one, the move, and two, the squirming of flesh and blood; one was a bright power, and the other was a dark power.

But now he didn’t just have two kinds of power, he also had a third.

After a little thought, Ning Xuan came to a valley.

The golden-bodied Bodhisattva sat slowly in the sunset.

The Bodhisattva lowered its hand, and with a pinch in the air, it pinched out a faint blue “leaf.” Then, with a spread of its five fingers, the “leaf” suddenly shot out, pierced through a huge rock, and then flew back.

The “leaf” was unscathed, and the thin blade was not damaged in the slightest.

‘Perhaps I can also integrate the Bodhisattva’s power into Swallow’s Union. In this way, I can release three powers at the same time, and the power will increase by more than double.’

Ning Xuan began to think.

The demons did not know martial arts.

But the martial arts atmosphere in this world was very strong.

This Bodhisattva golden body was a huge shell with brute force.

Then, he could naturally also add the Bodhisattva’s power to his own attacks, not scattered, but completely concentrated on one point and launched at the fastest speed and with the strongest burst.

He had fought with the Incense-Stealing Mouse.

He was sure that now, even without using the Bodhisattva golden body, just with his 5.25 constitution, a single “Swallow’s Union” could cut the Incense-Stealing Mouse’s Bodhisattva shell in two.

If the Bodhisattva’s power was added, then…

Ning Xuan’s eyes showed a look of thought, and he began to try.

A few days later…

Deep in the mountains.

The golden-bodied Bodhisattva sat motionless, its expression compassionate. It pinched the faint blue leaf with two fingers as if pinching a flower, and then sent the leaf out as if granting a gift.

In an instant, a dense and sharp cry sounded in the air, like a flock of swallows chirping.

Where the leaf flew, an unimaginable pressure was generated in the air. The leaf had not even touched it, but was just scraped by the external airflow, and the rock directly shattered.

When the leaf flew to a certain mountain peak and passed through the mountain tip.

A loud bang.

The mountain tip was subjected to force and directly shattered. The huge impact force carried the tip and fell to the ground.

The golden-bodied Bodhisattva raised its hand, and its palm supported the mountain tip, letting it land slowly.

The few monkeys on it, who were as dumb as wooden chickens, suddenly seemed to have their souls returned. They let out a strange cry and all ran away.

Ning Xuan put away the golden-bodied Bodhisattva’s body and the flying knife.

‘Let’s call this move Swallow’s Tide.’

He stretched his body with pleasure.

In this way, if he encountered the Incense-Stealing Mouse again, he could shatter it with one slash of Swallow’s Tide and directly kill the mouse spirit hidden in the Bodhisattva’s shell.

He knew very well where the mouse spirit was hidden in the Bodhisattva’s shell.

He was hiding in the heart of the golden-bodied Bodhisattva, because this was the position he had found to be the easiest to combine the three powers after many tests; and the mouse spirit was in the stomach of the golden-bodied Bodhisattva, because it was the easiest to eat there.

Ning Xuan kind of wanted to go find the Incense-Stealing Mouse.

The Incense-Stealing Mouse must have brought a magic treasure, but… he would also bring a Heavenly Master.

But it was just a thought. He would not go to solve the trouble in someone else’s territory without any benefit.

Ning Xuan whistled and ran out of the mountain in a dissolute manner.

The soft rosy sunset, the fragrant mountain wind of late spring, and tonight, he would be soaked in the cloying fragrance of rouge again…

As he was running, he suddenly heard a sharp and abrupt scream in his ear.

This scream was out of place with the atmosphere at this time.

In the distant mountain forest, the scream was hair-raising.

The scream did not stop abruptly, but was intermittent, like crying and howling.

Ning Xuan found it extremely familiar.

With a thought…

Wasn’t this the scream he made when he was being eaten?

His figure moved slightly, and he swept towards the direction of the scream.

The scream gradually became clearer, but also gradually weakened.

The scene finally fell into Ning Xuan’s eyes.

It was a person, a strong person, a person as strong as the demonic plague martial artist next to the purple-robed Taoist that day…

His spirit was full, his muscles were bulging, and even his temples were protruding, as if his body was full of inexhaustible power.

But such a burly man was shriveling in a strange and creepy way…

His skull was like a deflated balloon, shrinking into a wrinkled mass, and the skull inside had disappeared.

His body was also shrinking.

When Ning Xuan saw him, he had already shrunk a lot.

When Ning Xuan got closer, he had become a piece of skin.

Human skin.

The human skin was spread on the mountain field, following the terrain, with concave and convex features.

Just then, Ning Xuan suddenly felt a cold and sharp刺 (cì – piercing) sensation rushing towards him.

With a thought, a layer of golden light appeared on the surface of his body.

How could the Bodhisattva golden body be such an inconvenient thing?

He could make it as many zhang as he wanted, but it just couldn’t be condensed.

At this time, the golden light only covered a thin layer on the surface of his body.

He saw that the golden light in front of his eyeballs seemed to have been hit by something, and ripples spread out.

Then, he heard a strange “ding” sound in his ear.

Then, his nostrils were also hit by that thing.

Ding~~

Ripples began to spread from all the acupoints on his body that were connected to his internal organs.

Ning Xuan couldn’t see that thing, and could only judge by the golden light ripples.

The moment it collided again, he was prepared. The Swallow’s Cry Power on the surface of his body suddenly erupted, directly hitting the invisible thing.

Hiss…

A sound like snow meeting soup came.

Accompanied by it was an indescribable strange cry.

A cloud of black smoke appeared in the air. The black smoke was blown by the wind and soon dissipated.

That thing did not attack again, and was obviously dead.

Although Ning Xuan didn’t know what this thing was, he quickly had a preliminary concept of this unknown invisible thing in his mind: invisible, liked to drill into the human body, had no attack power, but could eat everything except the skin, and could be killed.

He glanced at the human skin on the ground, and with a thought, he swept away into the distance again.

A few li later, he saw another piece of human skin. It was an old man in brocade clothes, and the old man and his brocade clothes were all spread on the ground.

He continued north.

After another ten or so li, he saw another piece of human skin…

But this time it was different. The human skin was “inflating” and was standing up.

Ning Xuan went forward and pressed down with a casual hand.

Bang!

The human skin and its inflation directly exploded.

A cloud of black smoke, accompanied by a scream, dissipated.

A bad premonition rose in his heart.

He continued north. After another thirty or so li, he saw a beautiful woman in gold and silver on the mountain road, tidying her hair. When she saw him, the beautiful woman suddenly let out a pitiful voice, “Save me, save me, I’m willing to do anything.”

The voice was extremely pitiful, as if she had encountered something extremely terrifying and had reached the point where she could sell everything she had to fight for her life.

Ning Xuan sighed lightly and threw a punch.

Bang!

The beautiful woman shattered, her skin flying like butterflies, and the qi inside let out a strange cry and turned into black smoke and dissipated.

Ning Xuan had a few more cognitions about this invisible strange thing: it could occupy the human body and could imitate the words spoken by the person before death.

At this time, the sky was already dark, and the bright moon was high in the sky.

Ning Xuan thought for a moment and continued to move forward.

This time, he went straight for more than a hundred li.

He had never thought that at this time, in such a deep mountain, he could still see a cluster of red bonfires.

Two guards were sitting by the bonfire, chatting nervously.

“This time, the demon disaster can’t be suppressed. Fortunately, our master ran fast.”

“Yeah, we servants are also blessed. We should be safe when we get to Wangyue Prefecture.”

“Wangyue Prefecture? Wangyue Prefecture is also very close to our Ping’an Prefecture. Shouldn’t we run further?”

“What do you know? The master is well-informed. The master has his reasons for going to Wangyue Prefecture.”

Thud!

Suddenly, a sound of something landing was heard.

The two guards jumped up in shock, their hands on the hilts of their sabers as they looked at the person who had come.

“Who?!”

When they saw that the person who had come was a young man, they both breathed a sigh of relief, and their expressions relaxed.

One of the guards said, “This little brother, why have you come to the deep mountains and old forests alone in the middle of the night?”

Ning Xuan stared at him for a long time and sighed, “You ghostly things, you can actually imitate to this extent?”

In front of him, this guard’s qi and blood were sufficient, and he could react in time according to the environment, and was no longer like the beautiful woman before who could only say “the words before death.”

It seemed that what he had just seen was the process of this ghostly thing from “eating people” to “occupying people” and then to “becoming people.”

And now, these two guards were the complete bodies.

However, there was also good news, that is: a ghostly thing can only occupy one body. This is a kind of “possession,” not a plague-like “contagion.” They can change bodies, but they cannot one become two, two become four, otherwise… he would have been attacked by now.

As soon as the words fell, the two guards suddenly laughed sinisterly, their laughter strange.

The two of them drew their sabers at the same time and pounced on Ning Xuan.

Bang!!

The two of them shattered.

The black smoke screamed and dissipated.

Ning Xuan stood under the moon and looked at the direction of Ping’an Prefecture from a distance.

This level of demon disaster was unheard of.

The reason why he had been able to feel that he was living in a low-martial world for sixteen years was entirely because the imperial court actually had absolute control over the demons.

But now, this control seemed to be crumbling.

Something terrible was happening.

Ping’an Prefecture was perhaps just a microcosm.