Chapter 251 Human Skin Demon

Everything within sight was collapsing. Broken cement and gravel cascaded down like waterfalls, tilting the ground beneath their feet from horizontal. Cracks and caves spread wantonly, shaking the field of vision unsteadily. The few survivors had to look for their next foothold.

In the rising smoke, there was a flash of dazzling light, which changed from blazing bright to an ominous scarlet.

“What……?”

Song Yutang narrowed her eyes, observing the other person’s movements, and saw that the strong man with the tattooed face was covered with mysterious lines all over his body, which rose and fell with his breathing; every inch of the lines flowed slowly like real blood, and even the smoke could not completely block the eerie light.

“This pattern looks familiar… Oh, that’s right, it was the light emitted from Lame Old Seven’s feet when he was resisting Teacher Cen’s attack. So is it some kind of formation? But the color is a little different…”

Jiang Yunmei’s mumbling as she thought and deduced appeared in her ears.

In such a chaotic scene, only her “eyes” can see clearly everything happening on the field.

Song Yutang tensed up. According to her judgment, Scar Boss obviously wanted to fight back after using his “shedding skin” ability to get rid of paralysis, but for some reason he stopped.

She originally wanted to seize this opportunity to pursue the victory, but she stopped abruptly, smelling a hint of foreboding from the situation before her.

“Oh no, the Qi fluctuations in this guy’s body have suddenly become so strong!… Step back and let Teacher Cen handle it!”

Hearing the senior’s warning, Song Yutang pursed her lips. Her body reacted faster than her mind and she immediately jumped high and left her original position.

……

“Lame Old Seven——!!”

On the other side, when Scar Boss found that familiar array patterns appeared on his body, he lost control of his body at the same time…

The man quickly realized what had happened, and he was shocked and angry, roaring towards the sky.

That bastard old man, he did something to himself!
When the two were working together, Lame Old Seven used animal blood as paint to paint formation patterns on him and his men, saying that after the barrier was activated, they would rely on this thing to distinguish between friend and foe and move freely… But now it seems that this was the backup plan left by the old man.

Of course, Scar Boss had not failed to anticipate this, but he was very confident in his abilities.

“Shedding the skin” – the unique skill of the leatherworker, the trump card to save life, and the reason why he was able to escape from the pursuit of the four great families.

He is confident that he can escape from any trap or desperate situation; even if he is seriously injured or cursed by strange powers, he can completely get rid of it by sacrificing the skin wrapped around his body, leaving behind only a brand new “person”.

Leatherworkers hunt living people and spell-breakers and take their skins, not because they are cruel by nature, but because they need them to practice their techniques. The skins are their nourishment as spell-breakers, their magic tools and armor.

Through tanned human skin, leatherworkers can not only take over other people’s identities, change their appearance, but can even copy some of the victims’ abilities; in addition, each layer of “human skin” itself is equivalent to a stand-in for them and can withstand most damage.

As the leader of the leatherworkers, Scar Boss has stitched together more than a dozen pieces of skin that do not belong to him. Not only were some of them made by him, but there were also heirlooms passed down from several generations ago.

The multiple tattoos and stitches on his body symbolize that he can use this technique to transcend the limitations of ordinary spell-binding masters and display multiple abilities. People who have fought with him often mistakenly believe that he has “more than one life” and is extremely difficult to deal with.

But he obviously underestimated the old man who had been immersed in the study of formations for decades. The patterns drawn by the other party himself seemed to be just shadows left on the skin, but they had quietly penetrated into the flesh and blood.

Scar Boss was hit without any resistance.

The man’s pupils gradually turned red and were covered with bloodshot. Several crazy wills were eroding his brain.

He had a premonition that he was being transformed into…some kind of “other existence”.

He didn’t even have a chance to display his strength. As the leader of a line of leatherworkers, he had the responsibility to revive his family business, to avenge his former partners, and to occupy the ghost market. But he had to die in such a miserable way.

There was nothing else he could do except curse.

The man’s breathing was slowly becoming sluggish and he was feeling suffocated.

It was not until this time that Scar Boss belatedly realized that the pieces of skin that were sewn on his body – which should have been dead long ago, seemed to have been reborn and began to grow wildly.

Human skin and animal skin spread out one after another, as if trying to occupy territory on one’s body. A fierce struggle ensued… Only the body tissues that originally belonged to one’s own body were quickly squeezed out of the living space by these foreign objects.

What on earth did that old man do to himself? !

He opened his eyes wide, waiting for the footsteps of death to approach quietly. Having to face the strange changes happening to his body, this murderous curse master felt unspeakable fear.

……

In the past, leather workers often used the skins of wild animals.

“Leatherworker” has been a certain profession and livelihood since the Zhou Dynasty, and it is a profession with a long history. The incantations invented on this basis used the skins of vicious and ferocious beasts, which were used to protect people.

With the changes of the times and the growing expansion of human civilization, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth once fell to a low ebb, and wild beasts suitable as materials became increasingly scarce.

In Scar Boss’s father’s generation, they thought hard about preserving and promoting the craftsmanship left by their ancestors, but finally went astray – they improved the technology and learned to use human skin and even the skin of other curse masters to refine forbidden objects.

If they could foresee the coming of the era of spiritual revival, perhaps they would have hope and not taken this extreme path, but there are no ifs in this world;

Ironically, this path is actually “right” in a sense, because the items made from the skin of the curse master often retain the power of the deceased. In an era of scarce spiritual energy, the number of curse masters is obviously larger than that of monsters, making it easier to obtain materials.

This change greatly increased the strength of this lineage, far surpassing the achievements of their ancestors.

Take Scar Boss himself as an example. Among the twelve “foreign objects” on his body, eleven are human skins, and only one is an animal skin passed down from generation to generation. It is said that it was cut off from the “bull demon” that was once worshipped as a god by people in a small village in the countryside. This shows how scarce it is.

But after resorting to the practice of killing and skinning people, they inevitably fell from being one of the “three religions and nine classes” to becoming a lineage of sorcerers. Eventually, the truth was exposed, and their evil deeds were not tolerated by their companions, so they were jointly driven out of the Shanyin Ghost Market.

After that, their behavior did not change at all, but became even worse.

The new leatherworkers had been rampant for decades, using cruel means to skin hundreds and thousands of people. This practice was against nature, and they seemed to be receiving retribution at this moment.

The leatherworkers who followed Scar Boss were wiped out by the aftermath of “Tiger’s Roar”, with heavy casualties; and their boss was used to death by his own partner.

After the bright red light faded, those left there were no longer human beings.

The size of “it” was over four meters, and the skin that spread all over its body continued to grow in the process of mutual devouring and fighting, eventually forming a flesh and blood monster that completely wrapped up the original body.

Scar Boss’s own flesh was naturally eaten clean by these foreign objects, leaving nothing behind.

The monster’s muscles were so developed that they were almost deformed, with two long arms hanging down to the ground, a pair of recurved hooves, and sticky bloodstains on the surface of its muscles, as if it had just been born from its mother’s womb. Its appearance was similar to the “devil” in Western mythology and legends.

The most bizarre feature is its head, which has two horns covered with spiral patterns. They are thick and thick, and their color is shiny black.

This proves one thing: in this struggle with Scar Boss’s body as the battlefield, it was the skin from the ancient bull demon that ultimately won the victory and gained control of this new body.

The skin of the dead and the demon merged and mutated under the stimulation of external forces, giving birth to a creature that could not be born in nature. It was not a demon, nor a ghost, nor a human. If I had to describe it in one word, it would be…

“magic”.

*
The whole world was shaking, and the “culprit” who caused all this stood in front of Lame Old Seven with an expression that said “You fell before I even used any strength” and asked in a nonchalant tone:

“Why, is this the end?”

The old man looked depressed and miserable, and remained silent.

The marble slabs beneath his feet had crumbled to dust; below that the soil had turned dull and gray.

The temporary magic circle constructed by the “Dragon Method” is connected to the earth vein energy flowing under the Ghost Market.

Therefore, the three punches that Cen Dongsheng just threw were not aimed at him, but at the dragon vein energy that gathered together – the man was equivalent to punching the earth.

This is why the shaking in the underground city just now continued and has not subsided until now.

Taking advantage of the great cycle of nature to amplify one’s own power is the forte of the earthly immortal curse masters; and Lame Old Seven, who is proficient in formations, has brought this advantage to the extreme.

He himself was old and frail, and had suffered serious injuries when he was young, falling from a higher level and suffering serious injuries. Only one tenth of his own strength remained, so he had to find another way and put all his energy into figuring out the formation. This led to the creation of the “Dragon Swimming Method”.

Even with the help of the earth veins, which were huge in scale compared to ordinary spell-forbidden masters, he still couldn’t completely stop the young man’s fierce “one-man power” –

The entire ghost market was shaking because of his fist!
“Don’t want to continue? Well, let me finish it then.”

Cen Dongsheng waited for a moment, and seeing that he didn’t move again, he quickly made a judgment.

Although it was a bit regrettable, he would not wait any longer.

Being eager to fight is one thing, Cen Dongsheng has not forgotten his purpose, which is to get the truth out of the old man.

It was unexpected that the opponent could catch his tiger roar head-on.

……

The wind picked up again.

The same slow and unhurried action was a waste of opportunity. There was no hope left by relying on him alone.

In the breath-taking feeling of oppression, the old man even had the illusion of himself being crushed into powder.

“I’m sorry, this is all I can do…”

The old man murmured in a low voice, seemingly speaking to his partner who had been harmed by him, but no one could hear him; even if someone heard him, he would not be able to get anyone’s forgiveness.

So, this is actually him talking to himself.

His master hoped that his disciples would become people who care about the world and uphold justice, and he once asked himself to do the same…

If he were the young “Old Seven”, he would never betray his partner, even if the other party was a murderous skinner; he should not have associated with the sorcerer from the very beginning.

But although he is gone, the fire of hatred in his heart has never been extinguished for a moment in the past few decades.

To let him give up at this crucial step in the plan? Absolutely impossible.

The old man stretched out his wrinkled fingers and touched the back of his neck with trembling hands.

There was a bright red mark there, like a scar that would never heal, and every touch would bring fresh pain.

If you look closely at the direction of the branding, you will find that it is very similar to the pattern on Scar Boss’s body…

“Want to escape?”

The young man opposite noticed his action.

“Don’t worry, I don’t plan to leave like this.”

The old man grinned, revealing his leaky teeth.

“Let’s have a fight with my ‘partner’.”

……

Amid the smoke and dust, a tall figure like a demon was looming, exuding an astonishing sense of oppression.

Seeing this scene, Cen Dongsheng laughed softly.

With Jiang Yunmei there, the situation at the scene was actually always under his control, including the tricks that Lame Old Seven had done to the leatherworker leader and the changes that had occurred to the latter.

As to whether he was in time to stop it, probably he was in time…but he was driven by another instinct and let it happen.

Lame Old Seven’s goal was to create an enemy that was tough enough to entangle him;
But for Cen Dongsheng, besides the difficulty in finding an opponent who is suitable to be his “grindstone”, he also smelled a familiar smell –

“That seems…”

The man narrowed his eyes. Due to the existence of “Transmutation”, he was very sensitive to similar auras.

“It’s a ‘demon’.”

The “demon” among monsters and demons is the rarest of all the supernatural threats that humans in this world have to face.

The conceptual division is not clear: some demons are the fallen humans who were curse-casters, and some demons are fictional creatures imagined by a group of people, born out of worship, belief, or even fear.

Cen Dongsheng needs to absorb the power of “devil” as a puzzle piece of the special curse, but even with the support of An Zhizhen and the Super Working Committee, the relevant information he can get is still scarce. Now he is only one step away.

and so–

What a coincidence.

“Oh, I feel a little embarrassed for sending you this great gift…”

(End of this chapter)