Netherworld Painted Skin Scroll

Chapter 56 Three Flowers Gather at the Top
Li Wuxiang smiled slightly: "You are not an immortal either."

He pointed his knife at the bloody corpse on the ground and said, "He told me that anyone who appears before a person is an evil spirit."

Zhao Kui laughed bitterly and sneered, then took two steps forward and with a flick of his finger, Zhao Qi's outer robe that was scattered on the ground was draped over him. With another flick of his finger, the scattered talisman papers also flew up. Some of the talisman papers were drawn by Zhao Qi before, and some were still blank. Zhao Kui ordered the talisman papers to fly into his human skin mouth one by one. As soon as the talisman papers entered his mouth, they immediately turned into a flame. He seemed to have gained magical powers, and his crooked facial features gradually became vivid, and the blood on his skin quickly disappeared under the skin.

He ate the talisman paper while staring at Li Wuxiang with empty eyes: "Haha, that's right, you stand still and don't even think about leaving. You can't go anywhere today."

He finished eating the talisman paper and exhaled a puff of smoke. "Do you know how much effort I put into choosing the skin you are wearing now? Kidnapping people cannot be done in one place, otherwise people will notice it. I have to travel around and slowly find a little kid with a noble fate, a healthy body, and the appearance that I like the most."

"I have tried my best to find them all, but do you know how many people died afterwards? Do you know how much effort I put into searching for the skin you are wearing now? I was about to become an immortal, but you ruined my destiny!"

Li Wuxiang nodded: "I can imagine that, but I don't care about this. What I want to ask is Zhao Xi - is the one in the stove Zhao Xi?"

"Hehe, she's a sentimental creature. Yes and no, she thinks that everything she does is what I tell her to do. Don't worry, I'll let you experience our - hahaha, the taste of our Ranshan sect's talisman technique in a short while. Little beast, do you want to skin yourself now, or do you want me, your master, to do it myself?"

Li Wuxiang looked around and saw that the sky in the distance was still clear, but there was a very low layer of red clouds above the Chen family compound, rolling slightly, like a thin wave of fire. He held the knife across his body and said, "Wait, let me ask you one more question. I think the magic of the Ranshan School's talisman technique is the talisman, not the technique, right?"

Zhao Kui's dark eyes suddenly narrowed: "Oh?"

"You are very nervous about how much talisman paper Zhao Qi has left. You were eating talisman paper just now, and there are still some that haven't been drawn. Zhao Qi just laughed wildly and said that he finally summoned the true god this time. It can be seen that he was not sure that he could succeed before. So the trick is not in the magic, but in this paper?"

Zhao Kui held the sword and raised his hand to stroke his beard, but he didn't touch it, so he rubbed the skin on his chest fiercely: "Little beast, you are smart... Well, my good disciple is stupid, but he did something smart unintentionally. He mistook the Taiyi Refining Technique I passed on to him as a method of summoning gods, which made me become an immortal here. As for you, why are you asking this? Are you waiting for him!?"

Zhao Kui suddenly rose from the ground, as if lifted by the air current, rising ten feet high in the blink of an eye. A flying sword behind him shot into the air with a whoosh. Zeng Jianqiu, covered in blood and with his eyes swollen into slits, staggered to his feet with the support of one leg on the overturned altar, and waved his arm to make the flying sword turn in mid-air.

Li Wuxiang immediately shouted: "Use saliva!"

I don’t know if Zeng Jianqiu heard it or not, but the sword’s momentum paused slightly, and immediately flew back to him. A beam of white light went directly from his left cheek through his right cheek, and shot towards Zhao Kui above.

This time Zhao Kui didn't dodge and was pierced by the sword. Zeng Jianqiu swung his arm again, and the sword thread immediately wrapped around him several times. With a light "puff" sound, Zhao Kui's skin was immediately torn into several pieces in mid-air.

But there is no trace of it!
His head left his skull, and his skin floated in the air in sections, as if it could no longer cover the things inside due to the rupture. So a wisp of smoke burst out from the skin, lingering around him, and suddenly there burst out a chaotic sound like a rainstorm, as if countless people were whispering and praying in a low voice. Finally, the black smoke suddenly converged, and Zhao Kui's face was swollen and bulged, and it really became the face of the Kitchen God that Li Wuxiang had seen before.

The black smoke formed his body, and the pieces of skin that had been stretched and deformed into thin strips were dancing in the black smoke, like a shawl on his body. The fire clouds in the sky spun and fell, forming three fiery red canopies above his head, reflecting his entire body surrounded by flames, as if he had really become an immortal!

"Stupid thing, saliva? Didn't I tell you? That's for dealing with ghosts. I've already achieved the Three Flowers Gathering at the Top of my Head and am now a fairy. You're going to use it against me?" Zhao Kui suddenly raised his two arms high, "Now I'll let you see the skills of a fairy!"

The three flame canopies suddenly shone brightly, and the strange light instantly distorted everything in the courtyard. Zhao Kui's two bloodshot eyes were also filled with light, and he shouted loudly: "Give it to me!"

The red light from the two canopies immediately condensed into two beams, one fell on Zeng Jianqiu and the other fell on Li Wuxiang.

The skin on Li Wuxiang's body swelled, as if the golden entanglement underneath the skin wanted to break out of his body! He immediately threw the knife in his hand at Zhao Kui in the air. The sharp blade pierced through his body and cut the skin in two. However, the thing swung in the black air, making Zhao Kui look even more ethereal - ordinary blades really couldn't hurt him. Has he really become an immortal? !

At this time, Zeng Jianqiu shouted, "What the hell! You have the golden entanglement?! Go! Don't let him get it! If he really becomes an immortal, he won't be able to stay in the human world for long... Go!"

Li Wuxiang was attracted by Zhao Kui's red light, and he only felt pain in his body, as if the golden coil was being sucked out. But when he looked at Zeng Jianqiu's mortal body, he saw that his face, which was originally swollen due to the wound, began to shrink rapidly, and the wounds on his body healed quickly. After just a few words, he became tall and strong again. But the next moment, his face began to become thin, and fine wrinkles began to appear on his forehead, cheekbones, and corners of his eyes, as if he had aged ten years in an instant... No, Zhao Qi once said that after building the foundation and refining Qi, he would remain young for decades. How much of his life span was taken away in an instant! ?
"Let's go! Find out about a place called Youjiuyuan and tell them that the leader of Ranshan Sect has turned evil!" Zeng Jianqiu shouted loudly, kicked his feet, and jumped high up on the ground. The energy in his body was flowing and dissipating, making his hair and beard stand up. "I'll hold him back for you! If you don't go to Youjiuyuan, I'll settle the score with you in the underworld!"

Zhao Kui laughed wildly: "Hold me? Why do you do that?! Get out of here!"

He raised his hands and hooked them, and Zhao Qi's sword on the ground flew up with a buzzing sound. He then raised his arms again, and the three fire clouds above his head immediately turned into a red light. At this moment, the whole world seemed to be filled with endless low humming sounds, and dense and noisy human voices merged into one, like a devil's sound filling his brain. Even with Li Wuxiang's hearing ability, he could only hear a few scattered words...

Those are all people’s wishes and prayers!
These sounds were like the invisible but intangible smell of fireworks, which came from all directions and turned into thousands of threads that merged into the black smoke inside Zhao Kui's body. His body and the three flowers on his head suddenly grew larger. The long sword that he had captured in the air suddenly emitted a dazzling mysterious light, and with a sharp whistle, it shot towards Zeng Jianqiu.

Zeng Jianqiu was still in mid-air at this moment, unable to avoid it. However, he hooked up his ten fingers and fiercely slashed them together, and blood immediately flowed from his fingertips. The blood followed his sword line and wrapped around his small sword. The sword body suddenly glowed with blood and spewed out sword light. The small sword almost became a blood spear, and it was facing the long sword shot by Zhao Kui. With a sharp ping, the light of the blood sword dimmed, and the long sword was also shattered into large pieces of snow-white steel chips, which splattered Zeng Jianqiu's body with blood, but the blood did not dissipate, and formed a red mist on his body, causing him to rise another half a foot in the air and approach Zhao Kui.

“What a demon! Get off my feet!!”

He grabbed one of the three flowers on Zhao Kui's head. This time, his hand did not shoot through like the previous flying sword did. With his body covered in blood and essence, he actually caught it!

Zhao Kui's body was pulled sideways by him, and he immediately roared. The steel chips that were still flying in the air rolled back and rushed towards Zeng Jianqiu's back. There was only a crackling sound like rain hitting banana leaves, and all the steel chips sank into Zeng Jianqiu's back, almost turning him into a sieve!
But the blood that splashed out turned into a blood mist lingering on the surface of his body, and the wound healed in the blink of an eye. The steel chips that penetrated his body wrapped around his blood and essence, and shot Zhao Kui through!

Zhao Kui finally let out a scream, and the canopy that Zeng Jianqiu had grabbed suddenly vanished into thin air. A small portion of the black energy in his body was gone, and the buzzing prayers in the field became weaker than a whisper. He fell to the ground in a crooked manner, wrapped in black smoke, but a more violent whirlwind was stirred up on the ground. The broken stones, iron sheets, incense burners, tables and chairs were all torn apart by the fierce wind, and turned into a torrential rain, shooting towards Zeng Jianqiu!

When Zhao Kui was halfway down, he managed to stabilize his body. The prayers suddenly became louder. The canopy above his head that was scattered by Zeng Jianqiu showed signs of gathering again, while the blood light on Zeng Jianqiu's body was so weak that only a thin layer of red light remained. Seeing that Li Wuxiang was still standing there, he immediately shouted, "Get out! Stop fussing! Go find You Jiuyuan!"

"You Jiuyuan?! I told you to go to the underworld to look for him!" Zhao Kui's black smoke gathered and the severed human skin around him strangled Zeng Jianqiu who was about to fall like a rope, and lifted him up all of a sudden. Several ropes were wrapped around his limbs, and another one was wrapped around his neck to straighten his head. The red human skin mouth sucked hard, and immediately sucked a breath of fresh air from Zeng Jianqiu's face.

Zeng Jianqiu roared, struggled hard, and tried to turn his face away, but as the buzzing prayers in the field became louder, the human skin that was strangled him became tighter and tighter. After he struggled several times, the blood on his body suddenly dissipated, and he was immediately tightly wrapped by Zhao Kui's human skin, unable to move. Zhao Kui straightened his head, sucked it hard, and let out a long roar: "What a swordsman! How vigorous is this vitality? Hahahahaha!"

Zeng Jianqiu was originally a tall and strong man, but after being sucked a few times by Zhao Kui, he gradually became a skinny tall man, his cheeks shrunk, and his hair began to turn gray. He still shouted at Li Wuxiang: "Go! Idiot!"

Li Wuxiang still stood there without moving. It was not that Zhao Kui could not pose a threat to him - the red light from a canopy had been covering him tightly. When Zeng Jianqiu and Zhao Kui were fighting, he had tried several times, walking slowly, walking quickly, turning back and dodging, but he could not get rid of it.

Zeng Jianqiu's body recovered quickly after being enveloped by the red light, probably because the magic light sucked away his life span, as if many years had passed in an instant. Although Li Wuxiang did not look old, he could feel that his skin was quickly becoming rough, stiff, and brittle, as if it had been exposed to the wind and sun for many years. He could even feel that the white beard in his body was gradually becoming listless.

It wasn't that he was just being stubborn and didn't think he should abandon his partner and run away alone. When faced with a crisis that he couldn't fight, he had to save himself first. This was one of his beliefs in the past. But in this situation, he couldn't run away. He was sure that Zhao Kui would be able to find him easily after he dealt with Zeng Jianqiu. Judging from the situation of the two fighting, Zeng Jianqiu was no match for Zhao Kui at this time.

So he was observing.

After peeling off Zhao Qi's skin, Zhao Kui picked up his outer robe and talisman paper through the air, and just now he grabbed Zhao Qi's sword in mid-air. After being approached by Zeng Jianqiu, he just used his magical powers to roll up the gravel and steel chips on the ground to hit him. He did not have any substantial contact with Zeng Jianqiu throughout the whole process. This means that Zhao Kui did not seem to be able to really touch anything at this moment.

The second point - saliva can't deal with him, but Zeng Jianqiu's blood can. He knows the story that human saliva can drive away ghosts, and he also knows about "spitting out a mouthful of blood" to enhance magic power, because Zhao Qi did so on the night when Chen San bit his house, and Zeng Jianqiu did the same now.

Also, that night...the ghost sucked the popularity of Chen Sanbite in the same way.

So he is not an immortal, but just a stronger evil ghost.

And where does this evil spirit get its power from?

Li Wuxiang closed his eyes slightly and listened more carefully to the buzzing prayers in the courtyard. They were all asking the Kitchen God for protection and to avoid the evil spirits in the town. These prayers obviously came from the townspeople... The people were panicked by the haunted house last night. At this moment, they must have seen strange visions from afar and heard the scenes described by the town soldiers who had escaped before. Therefore, they were extremely panicked and frightened and prayed to the Kitchen God enshrined at home.

It seems that Zhao Qi failed this time. He did not really summon the Kitchen God, but summoned the ghost of Zhao Kui who was driven away by chicken blood to steal the throne.

So, how to deal with evil spirits?

Li Wuxiang glanced at Zhao Qi, who had been turned black and brown by the flying sand and rocks on the ground.

This cheap master had already taught me last night——

"Because even though you can see it, it is not here with us, but in the netherworld."

"It would be time-consuming and troublesome to get rid of it now. But if we let it enjoy some incense and popularity, and come to this world, we will have less worries."

　Two chapters merged into one
　　
　
(End of this chapter)