As three nails stained with black dog blood pierced precisely into the ghostly claw formed by the gathering of yin energy, they immediately emitted a sizzling sound that made one's teeth ache, like a red-hot iron being pressed onto flesh.
At the same time, wisps of blue smoke dissipated.
But the Taoist priest's longing for that candle, or rather, for the human skin burning on that candle, overwhelmed everything else.
Upon seeing this, a hint of surprise and uncertainty flashed across Master Zhang Qingxiao's face.
I breathed a sigh of relief; my efforts had not been in vain.
Just as the ghost claw was about to touch the candle, a sudden change occurred!
The human skin candle suddenly exploded, not burning out completely, but bursting into countless tiny sparks.
These sparks drifted through the air, not extinguished, but gradually coalesced into a blurry humanoid outline.
The silhouette looked strangely familiar. Li Huai scratched his head and suddenly shouted:
"Holy crap, Yan-ge, isn't that you?!"
Luo Tianhe recognized it too, and was completely baffled by this scene. Although it was my human skin, it could be condensed into my shape after being burned. That was too outrageous.
Master Zhang Qingxiao's face turned ashen, as if confirming his suspicions, and he suddenly looked at me:
"Soul Imprint Skin Technique?! You actually branded your soul mark onto your skin! There was absolutely no need for you to do that!"
I lay on Luo Tianhe's back and nodded weakly.
Master Zhang Qingxiao was able to see through the forbidden technique of our Second Cobbler lineage. When peeling off the skin, he injected a wisp of soul power into it, so that the skin was no longer just an inanimate object.
This is naturally not without side effects; the price is that the soul may be permanently damaged.
But I had no choice. I spoke with a bitter smile, my voice hoarse:
“Grandmaster, you overestimate me. If I don’t inject my soul power, my human skin won’t be very attractive to him at all! That human skin sachet is made of materials far superior to my human skin; it’s very likely that it was made from a single compressed human skin.”
Unless he takes an unorthodox approach, this ghostly Taoist priest would never be so desperate to obtain my human skin.
Upon hearing what I said, the Taoist priest froze on the spot.
A hint of annoyance and self-blame flashed in his eyes. He gripped the Thunderstrike Sword so tightly that his knuckles turned white from the excessive force.
At this moment, Lei Jijian finally understood what had just happened.
He suddenly remembered the person who had arrogantly threatened to skin him alive—wasn't that still me?!
It immediately wilted.
At this moment, my human skin has become the best bait!
The physical clone formed from the burning skin swayed in the air, emanating an aura that shared the same origin as mine.
For a skin-peeling swindler like the Ghost Taoist, who craves immortality through human skin, this skin containing the soul power of a living person is no less precious than dew and nectar in the eyes of a starving ghost.
The ghost claw froze in mid-air, then let out a roar of excited, twisted ecstasy.
The entire locust tree in the distance seemed to have Parkinson's disease, trembling violently. The ghostly claw ignored everything else, treating Zhang Qingxiao's burning talismans as nothing, and frantically pounced on my physical clone.
"Walk!"
Seeing the Taoist priest descend into madness, Master Zhang Qingxiao seized the fleeting opportunity. The Thunderstrike Sword in his hand shone with a brilliant purple light, as if real lightning had appeared in the world.
Master Zhang Qingxiao used lightning as a talisman to temporarily block the connection of yin energy between the tomb and us.
We immediately felt a sense of lightness throughout our bodies, and the chilling cold that had been seeping into our bones disappeared.
Luo Tianhe carried me on his back and rushed into the woods, with Li Huai supporting Lao Dao as they followed closely behind.
He is now awake, and there is no need to hold the copper coin sword to his forehead anymore.
At this moment, he still didn't understand what had happened. He was holding the copper coin sword blankly as Li Huai, a complete stranger to him, dragged him away.
After all, during the process just now, his consciousness was sometimes clear and sometimes controlled, probably like a dream, the plot felt disjointed and not coherent at all.
We stumbled and staggered into the dense forest, with the ghostly Taoist's unwilling roar coming from behind us.
He seemed to have noticed something was wrong. At that moment, we could hear the sound of the locust tree branches whipping wildly through the air, and we couldn't help but gasp.
No wonder the Taoist priest led us away first; it turns out this thing is incredibly powerful.
If that branch were to strike us, it would be the least of our worries; we could even suffer broken bones and torn flesh!
It was so late at night, and we were running into this forest. It was pitch black, and you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. The road was also full of potholes. Luo Tianhe had a very hard time carrying me, even though he was in good physical condition.
I wasn't much better off; it wasn't just the physical pain, but the tearing of my soul made me feel like my consciousness was blurring.
As the car bumped along, the wound on my back seemed to reopen, and warm blood kept seeping out, soaking Luo Tianhe's clothes.
Luo Tianhe felt the warm liquid and became even more anxious.
Luo Tianhe knew that I was somewhat anemic.
Because they often draw talismans by drawing blood.
But now my blood is flowing out like it's free, so of course he's extremely worried.
I can only say that it's fortunate that I received treatment from Dr. Sun before, otherwise I'd probably be dead by now.
Although things aren't much better now, my consciousness is already extremely blurred, and all I can hear are heavy breathing and messy footsteps.
I don't know how long I ran. Although I haven't run out of this mass grave yet, the roars behind me have been blocked by the layers of trees and have become almost inaudible.
We then stopped in a relatively dry depression. Luo Tianhe carefully put me down and let me lean against a large rock on my side so that my wound wouldn't come into contact with it.
Li Huai collapsed to the ground, exhausted. His physical strength was average; he had been dragging someone along, and now he was panting heavily with his tongue lolling out, like a dog.
Old Dao, on the other hand, leaned against a tree with a blank look in his eyes, not yet fully recovered from being controlled.
Master Zhang Qingxiao walked over with a solemn expression and began to examine my wounds. After just one glance, his brows furrowed tightly.
“Although your wound isn’t very deep, because of the loss of your soul in that area, yin energy has already seeped in. Moreover, your wound reopened while you were running, and you’ve lost too much blood. You don’t look like you have much energy or blood.”
As Master Zhang Qingxiao spoke, he quickly took out medicinal powder and bandages from his cloth bag, but it was clear that ordinary medicines had very limited effect on the invasion of yin energy.
The muscles on my back that were exposed had even started to turn bluish-black.
I feel like I can no longer feel my back; it's as if what's behind me isn't my own body, but a cold, hard stone slab.
"Master, don't worry about me, Old Dao, he..."
I struggled to turn my eyes and look at the old knife standing there, dumbfounded.
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