Chapter 26 An Encounter

Ruan Di used his yellowed, hardened fingernails to scrape at the cheek of the charred head, easily peeling off a layer of carbonized skin.

Beneath the carbonized skin was a dark, ugly face contorted in extreme terror.

A familiar face.

Wu Hu.

*Thud.*

From the broken neck of the charred head fell a large puddle of blackish-green, viscous substance. It looked like countless plant fiber threads clumped together, densely packed, interwoven,

landing on the dusty ground and wriggling incessantly, like a chewy, soft jelly.

Ruan Tian and Ruan Di's hearts trembled. They hurriedly threw away the head and retreated several steps.

Only then did they realize that other parts of the charred corpse also had blackish-green plant fibers.

Clumps of plant threads, along with an unknown, dark red viscous liquid,

poured out continuously from the cross-section of the corpse's waist and abdomen, spreading and covering the ground.

No internal organs were visible...

In other words, this corpse had long been hollowed out.

Ruan Tian and Ruan Di felt an icy chill flow through their bodies. Their eyes widened as they clearly saw countless fiber threads piercing through the charred corpse's skin,

twisting together to form thin tendrils,

contacting the ground and, seemingly slowly but actually quickly, reassembling the lower half of the headless corpse with the upper half.

Finally, this headless corpse, covered in "green fluff," picked up the charred head and stood up from the ground, slowly placing the head back on its neck.

"Oops, I've been discovered."

A slightly frivolous voice came from behind the dilapidated temple.

The two maidservants retreated violently, leaving only Wu Hu, wearing tattered clothes and a smile on his face, standing alone in place.

"Just who are you?!"

Ruan Tian roared in a low voice, his face stern, his trembling hand gripping the hilt of his short dagger.

Wu Hu, or rather, Li Ang, didn't answer. As if he couldn't bear an itch, he scratched his cheek, tearing through a layer of skin.

"Why do you have so many hands? It would have been better to leave the corpse alone. I could have mixed with you and taken a trip around Luzhou or something."

Li Ang sighed, scratching his cheek more forcefully, completely tearing off the human skin mask that had been modified from the biological template.

Xiao Shusheng slowly retreated, trying to stay as far away from Wu Hu's corpse and Ximenzi Daoren as possible, and said gloomily, "What is this thing?! What did you do to Wu Hu?"

"Nothing much, just treated him to a little something to eat."

Li Ang casually flicked away the skin flakes left on his fingertips and smiled casually. "Don't worry, you guys will be eating it soon too."

Ruan Tian's peripheral vision swept over the Wu Hu corpse standing there with a blank expression. His heart sank like a stone.

He would rather die than become this eerie, terrifying thing, devoid of all human rights and dignity.

"Want me to die? I'll kill you first!"

Ruan Tian's face was twisted as he roared and threw two thumb-sized, iron cylinder hidden weapons from his palm.

*Boom*—

The two iron cylinder hidden weapons, called "Soul Hunting Sand," flew in a straight line trajectory and exploded directly in mid-air in front of Li Ang, bursting out with a dense, choking grayish-white smoke,

as well as the dense, poisonous iron sand hidden in the grayish-white smoke, spreading out in a fan shape.

Li Ang didn't panic. He took out a black cloak from his backpack and activated his breathing technique.

He poured Ripple energy into the black cloak,

making the black coat straight and hard, like a shield.

He held it in his hand and swung it diagonally in the air, covering all the fine iron sand.

The Ripple energy was instantly released, and the black cloak returned to its original state.

With a shake of Li Ang's hand, the fine iron sand fell to the ground with a rustling sound.

But in the dilapidated temple, the shadows of Ruan Tian and Ruan Di could no longer be seen—the two had taken advantage of the smoke to smash open the wall of the dilapidated temple, slipped out through the cracks, and fled.

Xiao Shusheng's expression changed drastically. Before he could curse the Ruan brothers in his heart for betraying their fellow disciples and being unfilial,

the Wu Hu corpse, covered in green fluff and standing there in a daze, moved.

It kicked off the ground, and its stiff legs propelled it out of the dilapidated temple gate with an agility that completely belied its appearance. Under the guidance of the Reconnaissance Bee flying swiftly in the high sky, it locked onto the Ruan brothers who were fleeing.

Ruan Tian heard hurried footsteps coming from behind. He turned his head and saw Wu Hu chasing him with a smile on his face.

From his gaping mouth, several plant tendrils stretched out through the gaps in his teeth, swaying and shaking.

"Die!"

Ruan Tian was terrified out of his wits. The giant fish tattoo on his back emitted a faint red light as he threw out two narrow, sharp iron needles with all his might.

These two iron needles were accidentally obtained by the two brothers from an unknown shipwreck when they were sailors at sea,

Once touched, they could drag people into an illusion, making them mistakenly believe that they had come to a vast sea, facing raging waves and turbulent tsunamis,

terrified and uneasy, and willing to be slaughtered.

It was precisely with this thing that the two brothers had murdered their former employer and embarked on the path of maritime bandits.

*Buzz*—

The two iron needles pierced into Wu Hu's corpse's skull steadily, and Wu Hu's figure did pause for a moment.

Success!

Ruan Tian and Ruan Di were overjoyed. They didn't have time to feel sorry that those were the last two hallucinogenic iron needles they had left. They quickened their pace and ran wildly.

They were not fanatical believers of the Holy White Lotus. There was no need to sacrifice their lives for just two maidservants,

What's more, there were still people in this world who could lift the Three Corpse Charm of Suppression.

As long as they were alive, there was hope...

One second, two seconds, Wu Hu's corpse stood in place, silent for a while, before calmly removing the iron needles, and still using a stiff running posture, chasing after Ruan Tian and Ruan Di.

This corpse had long been hollowed out by mycelium. It was immune to any illusions.

The one who had been manipulating it all along was Li Ang, disguised as Wu Hu.

———

"A substitute is enough to trick out all your tricks."

Li Ang, standing in the dilapidated temple, shook his head and looked at Xiao Shusheng and the maidservants who were silent and said, "Now two of your companions have run away. Do you want to consider surrendering?"