Hunting God Era

Chapter 66 Painted Skin
In the afternoon, Li Ye received the information sent by Sun Shun.

There are three things in total.

Painted Skin, Ren Family, Locust God Cult.

The Painted Skin and the Ren family are the most important, while the Locust God Cult is only vaguely mentioned. It is known that it is an ancient cult that originated from the White Lotus Cult.

The story of Painted Skin spans approximately ten years. Painted Skin first appeared ten years ago and has remained unresolved ever since.

This matter seems to have nothing to do with ordinary people, and no one has heard of it. But what is now being revealed to Li Ye is an even more cruel case of demons harming people, which has spread from Ningjiang City to various counties.

Especially since last year, there have been more incidents, and this year they have doubled.

On January 1st, a crime of passion occurred in private room number 8 of the "Brilliant World" nightclub in Yunlu County, leaving behind a corpse and a human skin as evidence of the perpetrator.

On February 17th, a double suicide occurred in room K9 of the "Shanshui Impression" foot massage parlor in Xuanyue County. Both victims died, and a body double was created but was promptly eliminated.

On February 26, evidence of a large-scale sexual ritual was discovered in room number 6 of the "Night Encounter" nightclub in Yunxiu County; all the victims were stripped naked.

【March 5.】

There are many cases. Clicking on one of the titles reveals more detailed information and even includes pictures of the aftermath of the crime.

The photo of the crime of passion shows a male customer with his throat slit, covered in blood, while next to him is a lifelike female human skin.

The photos of the lovers' suicide show the man and woman dying with their faces swollen and pale, as if they had drunk some kind of poison. There are also signs of a battle around them. According to the information, they discovered the masked creature, but the pest control workers were no match for it, and the seriously injured pest control worker fled.

Below is a 2D and 3D photo of the painted skin, with a blue face and fangs, and a body as black as ink, resembling a humanoid object formed from solidified and hardened filth.

As for why there are no real-time photos and videos of the painted skin, it's to avoid contamination. After all, the data clerk is below the three-dragon gate and might not be able to withstand it completely.

Inside the private room of the Jingpu County nightclub, blood and filth flowed freely under the bright lights. Several people lay sprawled out, their skin peeled off, a truly bizarre sight that made him click his tongue in disbelief.

The demons he's been fighting lately are all naturally occurring, and you can see signs of protozoa.

But this thing has some ghostly signs.

In all the years Li Ye has lived in this world, strictly speaking, he has only killed two truly dangerous demons.

One plague demon, one evading lizard demon.

The former was overwhelmed by the joy of gaining power, while the latter just casually fought in the mountains and forests, and had no real experience of the danger posed by demons.

After all, how dangerous can it be for students? Even their training is strictly controlled, but what happens to disinfection workers is not something that can be controlled by anyone.

He couldn't help but think of the information about Painted Skin that he had found in the past.

Common accounts of this can be found in "Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio" and "Notes from the Thatched Cottage of Close Observation," where spirits and monsters disguise themselves in human skin to harm people. Once contaminated, they will exhibit three symptoms: mild "disorder of appearance," moderate "cognitive confusion," and severe "deformation of flesh and blood."

The skin becomes disordered, with irregular bluish-purple bruises appearing on the skin of those who come into contact with it. This is accompanied by unbearable itching or burning sensations, and the skin becomes abnormally sensitive and fragile, easily breaking and oozing pus with the slightest friction.

Cognitive confusion can lead to identity recognition disorder. Those who come into contact with the person will forget who they are, and will not be able to see their own face clearly when they look in the mirror. They will gradually obey the commands of the person in disguise.

Flesh and blood mutate, pollution penetrates deep into the bone marrow, and the body of the person who comes into contact with it begins to crack, with localized distortions and mutations, leaving marks like stitches. Ultimately, the body collapses and the mind becomes twisted, yearning for a new body.

"Human skin slaves"

Li Ye thought to himself, "This case in Yunxiu County was committed by a human skin slave. Usually, a painted skin slave would eat the person's flesh and blood clean and seize the skin. Only a human skin slave would peel off the skin and paint the skin. The influence of this is profound."

Painted Skin is a demon that can be included in general education textbooks, just like Hungry Ghost. Although the teaching materials only touch on it briefly, Li Ye himself can consult various materials and has a good understanding of Painted Skin's habits.

Generally, after a demon is born, the first thing it does is devour flesh and blood, put on a human skin, and hide in the human world. At this stage, the demon mainly learns human habits and imitates human life to reach a standard that is no different from ordinary people.

Generally, these people who use fake appearances will use human skin to find people they are close to, such as relatives or friends, and those people will then show the initial symptoms of 'disorder in appearance'.

Over time, as the pollution deepens, those exposed to it will experience cognitive confusion. At this point, the painted-skin person can eat food in front of them without any problems; they might even help the painted-skin person find food—food that is definitely not for human consumption, but rather cannibalism. If the pollution becomes even more severe, the flesh and blood will mutate, transforming the person into a human-skin slave, wreaking havoc on humanity.

For a painted skin to spawn human skin slaves, it would probably have existed for a very long time.

Most importantly, it seems there's more than one of these.
Those murders and sex parties related to lust will give rise to new forms of deception.

Secondly, there are human skin slaves. If enough skin is peeled off, they will also become painted skin after being alienated.

And now the number of these files
Li Ye frowned and said, "Ningjiang City has probably been taken over by the masked company."

But this matter cannot be discussed yet.

The main responsibilities of the extermination bureau are to kill demons and maintain stability. This cannot be publicized until the very last moment; otherwise, everyone will be in fear, and if this creates panic in Ningjiang City, demons may emerge.
Li Ye knew that some demons fed on fear.

The most typical example is ghosts.

Moreover, these demons are very cunning; it's estimated that encouraging people to get medical checkups could help avoid them.

There are no means of detecting pollution sources in the world, otherwise there wouldn't be data collectors searching everywhere for surveillance footage to observe traces of demons. A demon with divine intelligence that causes pollution would be a great scourge if it appeared even once.

Unlike normal demons that cause disasters, which, once they cause a disaster and pollute a place, seem to be related to people, they actually affect all aspects of life, and can be eliminated even without people.

So it's easy to spot when it appears, and you can just take it down.

No, Painted Skin is a human-specific attack that doesn't cause regional pollution, but affecting one person can trigger a chain reaction.

It is indeed a troublesome demon.

Let's look at the Ren family again.
Even more incredible.

The Ren family has been a powerful force in Ningjiang since the Qing Dynasty. Their ancestors were officials and contributed to the war effort when the Central Plains were lost. Later, when China was re-established and war broke out again with the world's powers, they also sent people to participate in the war.

In their early years, they chose the right side, were sensible and well-behaved, and had their own strength. They gradually accumulated a lot of resources in Ningjiang City, including real estate in half of Ningjiang, and one-third of the livelihood of the people was also related to them. They even controlled two-thirds of the entertainment venues behind the scenes.

But Li Ye also saw a lot of bloody things in these materials.

For example, in the real estate industry, from earthwork construction to land sales, there are many cases of coercion and inducement.

Kidnapping someone else's child to force them to quit.

Break the leg of a fellow martial artist to make them understand the consequences.

They even remotely control others to set fire to their homes, forcing people to submit automatically.

They engaged in bullying and monopolizing the market, assaulting men and harming women. They basically did everything.

However, the other party was very clever; they didn't do it themselves. The things mentioned in the documents were all done by their hired undercover agents.

It's a massive criminal gang.

But this is just something from the folk tradition; there are also positive aspects in the official version.

The Ren family guaranteed that the businesses they operated would never breed demons. Over the years, they had also rectified the chaos in Ningjiang City, paying taxes as required and providing employment where necessary, thus maintaining stability in the secular world.

When they encountered demons that the extermination bureau couldn't handle, they even sent people to help them defeat them together.
But the more this happened, the more dangerous it felt to Li Ye.

Director Pan had said that the Ren family was not yet a prestigious family, but even so, he was certain that his family's size really couldn't handle it.

Ren Xu was turned into a spinning top and sent abroad. If he comes back...
We can't just wait until others make their moves before we take action ourselves.

Get started first!
Even a tiger that sits still has its limits. If you encounter a tiger, kill it before it eats you!
(End of this chapter)