Netherworld Painted Skin Scroll

Chapter 416 Big Dudu

Before Kong Youxin could speak, Li Wuxiang had already fled. In just a few breaths, he had covered two miles and released Zhao Qi, Tu Nan, and Chang Buqing from the Myriad Transformations Pagoda.

He instructed again, "Zhou Xiang is currently in the southwest direction. The three of you will follow him in a bit. Don't make a move yet. Stay with him until tonight and then we'll talk. Slowly make him feel like someone is following him. Once he senses something is wrong, then you can make your move."

"Don't say a word when you make your move. Go for the kill on his lower body and make him unable to move. I'll help you break his supernatural abilities, so just keep fighting. When I need to save him, come at me, and then we'll fight further and further apart—understand?"

The three of them whispered, "Understood!"

"Okay! Let's go!"

Li Wuxiang left again with Wan Huafang on his back, leaving only Zhao Qi, Chang Buqing, and Tu Nan.

Zhao Qi closed his eyes and muttered incantations. Soon, his body underwent a transformation—his form swelled slightly, and his flesh bulged. The Taoist robe he wore merged with his rapidly growing flesh, as if a person had suffered many injuries, and now the wounds had healed, and the fabric of his clothes had grown into the wounds.

His face changed too; his features twisted and moved slowly, as if each had come alive and had its own plans. This made his appearance appear unpredictable, sometimes like a human, even an extremely handsome one, and sometimes like a demon, a deformed and twisted demon.

He had stolen the divine power of the Blood God in the Crimson Heaven. He hadn't used it while in the Myriad Transformations Realm because he knew it was theft, and if the one in the Crimson Heaven discovered it, it might expose the current location of the Myriad Transformations Realm. Besides, he didn't need it while inside.

But using it outside feels different—no matter how high his skills are within the sect, he knows they are only half real. How strong the Blood God in the Myriad Transformations Formation is depends on how strong Li Wuxiang is at imagining the space within as real. It can be said that Li Wuxiang is his limit, and his skills within it are borrowed from Li Wuxiang.

However, here, his methods are just like those of the disciples of the Six Departments of the Mysterious Sect who invoke spirits and talismans; they are truly his own.

After using such a real supernatural transformation, he felt extremely proud and looked at Tu Nan and Chang Buqing: "How was my method?"

Chang Buqing immediately exclaimed, "Great Sword Master is truly superior!"

Tu Nan said, "It's so high."

Zhao Qi gave a twisted smile: "Stop flattering me all day. Do as we said before, surround him from three sides. You two are no match for Zhou Xiang, so don't get too close. Just be able to vaguely see him. Leave footprints and spit on the ground to make him think there's an ambush all around, but don't make it too obvious. Before you make your move, don't let him actually catch you, understand?"

Chang Buqing said, "The Great Sword Master is indeed very meticulous."

Tu Nan said, "Haha."

"Alright, alright, let's go!"

The three of them split up and acted separately.

Zhao Qi headed due north first, and before he had gone far, he heard faint wolf howls.

He thought to himself that, judging from Li Wuxiang's description, Zhou Xiang was practically insane. If she encountered a pack of wolves, would she be torn apart alive? Such a thing was unlikely for a Golden Core cultivator, but was it possible that Zhou Xiang might lose all hope and give up all resistance?

You never know. Sigh, is love really that addictive? Why didn't I ever think about this before? Li Wuxiang said Zhao Yu was pretty, but I didn't think she was pretty at all when I was on the mountain. Now, thinking back, she really is quite pretty. Speaking of which, what does it feel like to fall in love? Hearing Li Wuxiang talk about Zhou Xiang and Sun Ji's antics, it seems really addictive… Those female disciples in the sect… ugh, ugh, they're all disciples…

As he walked along, lost in thought, he finally realized that it wasn't a wolf howl—he saw Zhou Xiang in the distance. She was just a tiny black dot in the dim night, swaying and howling across the meadow, seemingly calling out Sun Ji's name.

The scene gave him goosebumps—Li Wuxiang was too ruthless. In just a few days, he had ruined a perfectly good person like this!
He crouched low, watching where Zhou Xiang was going and leaving footprints along the way. At first, he tried to conceal his footprints to avoid making them too obvious and alerting Zhou Xiang. But later he stopped doing that and instead deliberately stomped his feet deeper. Since Zhou Xiang was just wandering around aimlessly on the plain, Zhao Qi was certain he wouldn't even bother to look at the ground, let alone suspect anyone was trying to harm him.

Lost in thought as he followed, Zhao Qi suddenly heard a noise not far behind him. Turning around, he saw what appeared to be a person wearing a cloak and a straw hat, running towards him. Zhao Qi was startled, but then he saw clearly—

It wasn't a disheveled figure wearing a straw hat; it was humanoid. However, its head was a bird's head, with feathers around its eyes propping it up like a straw hat. The torso didn't have arms, but two wings, now perked up like a rooster fighting. The clattering sound came from its feet, which weren't human legs, but bird claws. This thing looked like a person with a bird's head, wings, and feet, its feathers still a vibrant red.

He recognized her immediately. Back in the sect, Li Wuxiang had said that simply transforming into a pheasant wouldn't suffice; no one would be afraid of a pheasant. Tu Nan then revealed that her true form was actually a Vermilion Bird, but because she was framed by her half-sister, her cultivation had declined, forcing her to manifest as a pheasant. She also claimed to have other ways to become more frightening.

The other method she mentioned was probably what we're doing now. But Zhao Qi wasn't scared at all; he even found it a bit ridiculous.

He immediately turned his face away, staring at Zhou Xiang from a distance as he whispered, "Keep your voice down, or he might hear you! And are all the demons of the Eastern Continent like this? Not only are they not scary, they're kind of laughable?"

The footsteps suddenly became lighter, and Tu Nan rushed to his side and stood down, tilting his head like a bird to look at him.

Zhao Qi grabbed her wing and pulled her down abruptly: "What the hell are you looking at? Aren't you over there? What are you doing here? Get to the point!"

Zhao Dajian was quite easygoing with the other disciples in the sect, but he was a bit fierce towards Tu Nan and somewhat distant towards Liu Jieling. The latter was a different story, but the former was because she had previously refused to become his disciple—a young girl who was both delusional and ambitious, and didn't understand the importance of respecting her teacher. Zhao Qi felt that she would eventually go down the path of betraying her master and being kicked out of the sect by Li Wuxiang, so he couldn't be bothered to give her a kind look.

Tu Nan remained silent, folding one wing up and using the other to stroke Zhao Qi's neck. The feathers on this wing were not soft at all, but rather stiff, like thin sheets of iron. Zhao Qi's neck rustled as the feathers scraped against it, and he couldn't help but shrink back.

As he shrank back, Zhao Qi felt a slight itch on his neck, knowing his skin had been scratched. "You son of a bitch—" Zhao Qi roared, turning to curse, but then a thought struck him, and he swallowed the words back down his throat.

Then he turned to look at Zhou Xiang in the distance, then to look at Tu Nan who was squatting to the side, tilting his head and looking at him. Suddenly he understood, he understood everything!
Did this girl have feelings for me from the very beginning? Is that why she refused to become my apprentice?
Zhao Qi had never cared much about his appearance before, only about his demeanor—the two things are somewhat different. He had been thinking about Zhou Xiang and then Zhao Yu, and only now did he think about his own appearance.

While he might not be as handsome as Li Wuxiang, he was still quite good-looking. Plus, when he first appeared, he claimed to be a master seeking disciples, so it's not impossible that the young girl Tu Nan might have fallen for him instantly.

He wasn't just making things up randomly; it was all because of Tu Nan's actions just now—what kind of good girl would casually rub a man's neck?

Is it because she only got a chance to be alone with him tonight? And she's too embarrassed to show her true face, so that's why she looks like this?
Thinking about it, Zhao Qi thought of her hysteria again. Come to think of it, his own mind was impaired after his death, which was actually quite similar to hysteria... Thinking about it this way, it seemed like they were in the same boat.

However, he truly couldn't bring himself to like Tu Nan; all he felt now was a sudden surge of awkwardness, embarrassment, and sympathy. He frowned: "—Have you made enough of a scene? If you have, go back to your business and keep a close eye on Zhou Xiang!"

Tu Nan suddenly covered his face with the wing that had been touching his neck, and then ran off again.

Zhao Qi wondered if he had been too harsh on her. Was she crying with her face covered, or was she just embarrassed? Thinking about it, he also felt sorry for Tu Nan; she seemed to have quite a personality, and actually wasn't so bad after all…

……

The bird-headed man ran clattering through the night, his figure gradually shrinking until he transformed into a large rooster with fiery red feathers. He took one step at a time, then two, then three, until finally only a blurry shadow and swirling dust remained beneath him, as if he were riding a small cloud.

After flying for several dozen breaths, a hole about half a person's height appeared on the meadow ahead, sloping open on a dried-up lake shore. The bird-headed man plunged into it.

The cave was much larger inside than it appeared from the outside, enough to hide more than a dozen people. But now there were only three people, or rather four, humanoid demons inside. The largest and strongest of them sat cross-legged on the ground, his head still touching the cave entrance. He had a snake's head, a third eerie green eye on his forehead, a white belly, and a dark back covered in scales.

The two beside him were a tall, thin man with a human face, short legs, and a very long torso, with eight thin arms, wearing black armor, and lying coiled up next to the burly man with the snake head. The other man also had a human face, with a round, plump white belly, wearing only a short red cloak, and was curled up on the other side of the burly man.

As soon as the burly man saw the rooster burrow back, he immediately asked, "Youming, did you find anything?"

The rooster flapped its wings wildly, then transformed back into its previous bird-headed human form, speaking in a shrill voice: "Governor She, that looks like someone from the Blood God Cult!"

The burly man, called Commander She, spat out his tongue: "The Blood God Cult? Explain yourself!"

"At first I thought he was a living person, and I wanted to peck his head open, but he just looked at me. After looking at me, he wasn't afraid at all, and said to me: 'Keep your voice down, or he'll hear you!' Are all the demons of the Eastern Continent like this? Not only are they not scary, they're kind of funny?"

Governor She's tongue snapped back: "That's what he said?"

"Yes. I stopped right next to him, wanting to ask him who he was, how he knew we were from the Eastern Continent, and how he was so bold. Then I saw Zhou Xiang, the one the Five Mountains Sect had asked us to find—this guy was staring at Zhou Xiang!"

"You found Zhou Xiang?!"

"Yes. He's right over there. That person wasn't afraid of me. I looked at him and realized he wasn't human. He looked a lot like the Corpse Immortal from the Blood God Cult who came to our area! His face wasn't human either. Like that Corpse Immortal, it was all messed up!"

Governor She stuck out his tongue again and circled it on his face: "Oh, I see. The Five Mountains Sect told us to keep an eye on Zhou Xiang, and to make our move once he handed the things over to the Blood God Sect—so now it's the Blood God Sect coming to collect what he brought? And those stinky Taoist priests also told the Blood God Sect that we're here?"

You Mingguan nodded repeatedly: "Yes, Commander, you must be right! Because that person pulled me back and said: What are you looking at? Aren't you over there? What are you doing here? Get to the point!"

Governor She immediately retracted his tongue: "That's what he said?! He knew we were here all along?!"

"Yes, that's exactly what it said, not a single word different!"

Governor She shook his head: "Oh dear, when we came here, the General told me that the Corpse Immortal of the Blood God Sect was quite remarkable, far more so than those stinking Taoist priests of the Xuan Sect or the swordsmen of the Taiyi Sect. Now it seems he really is remarkable—he saw us, but we didn't even know he had seen us! And what else?"

You Mingguan said, "I was afraid that his appearance was some kind of illusion, so I made a cut on his neck and tasted it. Governor She, after tasting it, I was absolutely certain. It was the Corpse Immortal of the Blood God Cult—not the kind with a single human scent, but a mixture of many human scents, just like the Corpse Immortal who came to our Eastern Continent before, maybe even more powerful! Because the human scent on him was even more mixed!"

"Then he said: Have you made enough trouble? If you have, go back to your business and keep a close eye on Zhou Xiang! So I rushed back to report the news."

Governor She hissed, "It really is? This is absolutely certain! Don't you all agree?"

He gave the long, thin one on the left a slap with his left hand, and the round, chubby one on the right a slap with his right. The two demons jumped up immediately, saying, "Absolutely! Absolutely!"

Governor She shrank back, instantly transforming from human form into a large, fat python: "Let's go! Let's find that Corpse Immortal! When we came here, the General told us to also investigate the Blood God Cult's strengths and weaknesses, so let's go investigate that Corpse Immortal's strengths and weaknesses first!"

(End of this chapter)