A life of idleness in the world of demons

Chapter 34. Refugees in Human Skin
Master Ning has his own busy schedule, and Young Master Ning also has his own.

He had completely entrusted 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 never ruin his father's grand plan for the sake of love.

He'll marry whoever his father chooses; at most, he'll have someone else in his bed who isn't his lover.

His busy schedule revolves around daily exercise and getting stronger.

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

He stood on high ground, and because the mountain demons had been eliminated, there were now many woodcutters and hunters on the mountain path.

Woodcutters carrying firewood and hunters carrying their prey are descending the mountain steps.

Ning Xuan watched for a while, and his curiosity grew.

Where did the scent-stealing rat go?

This thing is like a knife; you never know when it will fall, and it keeps bothering you.

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

He turned his gaze northward.

Ping'an Prefecture and Wangyue Prefecture are adjacent to each other.

And if you cross Manfeng Mountain and go a little northwest, that's the west of Ping'an Prefecture.

If he remembered correctly, the Celestial Master of Ping'an Prefecture had mentioned a terrifying demonic scourge in the west of the prefecture.

'They couldn't have gone to Ping'an Prefecture, could they?'

Ning Xuan thought it was quite possible.

But then he remembered that the Taoist priest of Ping'an Prefecture had said that "the black smoke was billowing, it was practically a demonic tide," and he immediately felt something was wrong.

He knew very well what the Scent-Stealing Rat was, but where did the surging tide of demons come from?

After thinking for a while, he shook his head.

If the demons are dealt with in Ping'an Prefecture, all the benefits will go to others, so even if he's curious, he won't go there.

As he was thinking, a faint blue rainbow suddenly flashed from his arms, landing abruptly on his chest with a sharp buzzing sound.
This throwing knife can withstand his Yanming Force.

Combined with high-speed rotation, the two forces can be fully integrated to perform the "Swallow Harmony" technique.

Yan He's two strengths are his techniques and the movement of his flesh and blood; one is overt strength, and the other is covert strength.

But now he doesn't just have two kinds of energy; he has a third.

After a moment's thought, Ning Xuan arrived at a valley.

The golden Bodhisattva sits slowly in the sunset.

The Bodhisattva lowered his hand and flicked it in the air, producing a dark blue "leaf." Then, with a flick of his five fingers, the "leaf" shot out, piercing through the air and flying back to the giant rock.

The "leaves" were completely unharmed, and the thin blade was not damaged in the slightest.

'Perhaps I can also integrate the Bodhisattva's power into Yan He, so that I can unleash all three powers simultaneously, increasing the power by more than double.'

Ning Xuan began to think.

The demons do not know martial arts.

But the atmosphere of the martial arts world is very strong.

This golden statue of the Bodhisattva is a huge shell possessing brute force.

Therefore, he could naturally incorporate the Bodhisattva's power into his attack, without dispersing it, and concentrate it completely on one point to unleash it with the fastest speed and strongest burst.

He fought with the scent-stealing rat.

He was certain that even without using the Bodhisattva's golden body, he could sever the Bodhisattva's outer shell of the Fragrant Stealing Rat in two with just a single "Swallow Harmony" strike from his 5.25 physique.

If the power of a Bodhisattva is added, then...
Ning Xuan pondered for a moment and began to try.

Several days later.
Deep in the mountains.

The golden-bodied Bodhisattva sat motionless, with a compassionate expression. He picked up a dark blue leaf with two fingers as if plucking a flower, and then gave the leaf away as if bestowing a gift.

In an instant, a dense cacophony of sharp chirps filled the air, like a flock of swallows chattering away.

Where the leaves flew, an unimaginable pressure was generated in the air. Even though the leaves hadn't even touched the rocks, the rocks were shattered simply by being blown by the external airflow.

Wait until the leaf flies to a certain mountain peak and passes through that mountain tip.

There was a loud bang.

The mountain peak, subjected to the force, shattered instantly, and the immense impact propelled it towards the ground.

The golden-bodied Bodhisattva raised his hand, supporting the mountain peak with his palm, allowing it to slowly land.

The monkeys that had been standing there dumbfounded suddenly seemed to come back to life, let out a strange cry, and ran away.

Ning Xuan put away the golden bodhisattva body and the flying knife.

'Let's call this move "Swallow Tide."'

He stretched his body with pleasure.

In this way, if we encounter the Fragrance Stealing Rat again, we can kill it with a single blow, thus eliminating the rat spirit hidden inside the Bodhisattva's shell.

He knew exactly where the rat spirit was hiding in the Bodhisattva's shell.

He was hiding in the heart of the golden bodhisattva, because after many tests, he found that this was the easiest place to unify the three forces; while the rat demon was in the stomach of the golden bodhisattva, because that was the easiest place to eat.

Ning Xuan was considering going to find the Scent-Stealing Rat.

The Scent-Stealing Rat must have brought a magical artifact, but he might also have brought a Celestial Master.

However, he only thought about it; he wouldn't bother solving someone else's problem on their territory without any benefit to himself.

Ning Xuan whistled and ran off into the mountains in a carefree manner.

The soft, rose-colored sunset, carried by the fragrant mountain breeze of late spring, and tonight, I am once again immersed in that cloying scent of rouge.
As he was running, he suddenly heard a sharp, abrupt scream.

The sound was completely out of place with the atmosphere.

The screams from the distant mountains and forests were chilling.

The screams didn't stop abruptly, but rather came in fits and starts, sounding like both crying and howling.

Ning Xuan found the words strangely familiar.

I thought about it.
Isn't that the scream he made when he was being eaten?

He moved slightly and rushed towards the direction of the screams.

The screams gradually became clearer, but also gradually weakened.

The scene finally came into Ning Xuan's view.

It was a person, a strong person, as strong as the plague-ridden warrior beside the purple-robed Taoist priest that day.
He was full of energy, his muscles bulging, even his temples protruding, as if he possessed inexhaustible strength. But this burly man was withering away in a strange and chilling way.
His head shrunk into a crumpled ball like a deflated balloon, and the skull inside had vanished.

His body was also shrinking.

When Ning Xuan saw him, he had already shrunk down considerably.

When Ning Xuan approached, he had already become a skin.

Human skin.

The human skin was laid out on the mountainside, following the contours of the terrain.

Just then, Ning Xuan suddenly felt a chilling, sharp sensation rushing towards him.

With a thought, a golden light appeared on his body.

How could a golden statue of a Bodhisattva be such an inconvenient object?

He can make it as large as he wants, but he just can't condense it.

At this moment, the golden light only covered his body with a thin layer.

He saw the golden light in front of his eyes seem to be hit by something, causing it to ripple outwards.

Immediately afterwards, he heard a strange "ding" sound.

Then, the thing hit the front of his nostrils.

ding~~
Ripples began to spread throughout his body, including the acupoints within his body.

Ning Xuan couldn't see the thing; he could only judge it by the golden ripples.

In the instant of the next collision, he was prepared, and the Yanming Force suddenly erupted from his body, directly colliding with that invisible thing.

laugh.
A sound like snow hitting hot water came from inside.

What followed was an indescribable scream.

A cloud of black smoke rose into the air, but it quickly dissipated as the wind blew it away.

The thing stopped attacking, so it was clearly dead.

Although Ning Xuan didn't know what this thing was, he quickly formed a preliminary concept of this unknown invisible entity: it was invisible, liked to burrow into the human body, had little offensive power, but could devour everything except the skin, and could be killed.

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

Several miles later, he saw another human skin, belonging to an old man in brocade robes. The old man and his brocade robes were spread out on the ground.

He continued north.

After traveling another ten miles or so, he saw another human skin.
But this time it was different; the human skin was "inflating" and standing up.

Ning Xuan stepped forward and casually pressed down.

Bang!
The human skin, along with its inflation, exploded.

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

A sense of foreboding rose in his heart.

He continued north for another thirty miles or so, and he saw a beautiful woman dressed in gold and silver jewels tidying her hair on the mountain path. When she saw him, she suddenly cried out in a pitiful voice: "Save me, save me, I'll do anything."

The voice was incredibly pitiful, as if she had encountered something extremely terrifying, to the point where she was 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 energy within her shrieked and dissipated into black smoke.

Ning Xuan gained a few more insights into this invisible, strange thing: it could possess a human body and mimic the words spoken by a person in life.

By this time, it was already dark, and the bright moon hung in the sky.

Ning Xuan thought for a moment, then continued on his way.

This time, he traveled more than a hundred miles directly.

He never imagined that at this time, in such a remote mountain area, he would see a cluster of bright red campfires.

Two guards sat by the campfire, chatting nervously.

"This time the demonic calamity is about to get out of control, but luckily our master ran away quickly."

"Yes, we servants have also benefited from this. We should be safe once we reach Wangyue Mansion."

"Wangyue Prefecture? Wangyue Prefecture is quite close to our Ping'an Prefecture, shouldn't we go further away?"

"What do you know? Master is well-informed. He has his reasons for saying he's going to Wangyue Mansion."

Snapped!
Suddenly, a thud was heard as the object hit the ground.

The two guards jumped up in surprise, gripping their sword hilts as they looked at the newcomer.

"Who?!"

Upon seeing that the newcomer was a young man, both of them breathed a sigh of relief and their expressions calmed down.

One of the guards said, "Young man, what brings you to this remote mountain forest alone in the middle of the night?"

Ning Xuan stared at him for a long time, then sighed, "You bunch of devils, how could you imitate to this extent?"

Before him, the guard was full of vitality and could react promptly to the environment, unlike the beautiful woman before who could only speak "words from her previous life".

It seems that what he just saw was the process of this monster going from "eating people" to "occupying people" and then to "becoming people."

Now, these two guards are in their complete form.

However, there is good news: a ghost can only occupy one body. This is a kind of "possession" rather than a plague-like "contagion." They can change bodies, but they cannot become two from one, or four from two. Otherwise, they would already be under attack.

As soon as he finished speaking, the two guards suddenly let out a sinister laugh, a strange laugh.

The two men simultaneously drew their swords and lunged at Ning Xuan.

Bang! !

The two were shattered.

The black smoke screamed as it dissipated.

Ning Xuan stood under the moonlight and gazed into the direction of Ping'an Prefecture.

Such a calamity is unheard of.

The reason he could feel like he was living in a low-level martial arts world for sixteen years was entirely because the imperial court actually had absolute control over demons.

But now, this control seems to be crumbling.

Something terrible is happening.

Ping'an Prefecture may just be a microcosm.

(End of this chapter)