Chapter 31
Chapter 31
The next instant, someone swept Yang Xianxian into an embrace and retreated at tremendous speed.
Yang Xianxian raised her head and saw a beautiful face, even prettier than Mommy’s.
But no amount of beauty could dispel the terror in Yang Xianxian’s heart. She struggled desperately. “Let me go! Let me go! Who are you? I want my mommy and daddy!”
“I’m a friend of your parents,” Shen Huaizhou said. “They had something to do and left. I’ll look after you for now.”
“Liar!!” Yang Xianxian cried.
Shen Huaizhou carried her into a small utility room in the basement and frowned. “Quiet. Stop crying. I won’t hurt you.”
“Waaaaah! You’re a bad guy! I’m going to find a police officer and have you arrested!” Yang Xianxian sobbed until tears and snot covered her face, feeling as though her entire world was collapsing.
Was this person, who looked as pretty as Mommy but had a voice as deep as Daddy’s, a human trafficker?
Would he sell children?
Why did this have to happen to her?!
“Waaaaaah!!!” Yang Xianxian’s cries continued without pause.
Children were unbelievably troublesome.
Shen Huaizhou sighed, completely unable to cope. He therefore created a small illusion for her and let her sink into it.
Within the illusion, she remained inside the Children’s Palace, quiet and obedient, following her teacher’s instructions as she waited for Mommy and Daddy to pick her up.
The five senses of someone trapped inside an illusion were no longer connected to reality. They were carried along entirely by the false world around them. Yang Xianxian could therefore neither see Shen Huaizhou nor hear the sounds of slaughter and combat outside.
Her thoughts held only Mommy and Daddy, who would soon arrive to pick her up, and a happy, adorable smile appeared on her face.
Dai Xingyu soon entered the utility room and took over from Shen Huaizhou.
“She’s yours.” After handing Yang Xianxian to Dai Xingyu, Shen Huaizhou visibly relaxed. “I’m going outside to take a look.”
—
Ling Fang and the others arrived at the Children’s Palace at twelve oh five, five minutes after class had ended.
The stench of rotting corpses filled the Children’s Palace. Although someone had tried to conceal it with powerful perfume, Ling Fang’s nose was not fooled.
The skins worn by the two Painted-Skin Ghosts had already begun to rot.
The timing matched the time of death of the two bodies in the basement.
After confirming that both Painted-Skin Ghosts were here, Ling Fang immediately ordered the area cleared.
The other children and parents attending classes were stopped before they could leave through the underground parking garage.
Next, they only needed to lure their targets into the trap.
They merely had to wait for the family of three to enter the garage.
They could not attack immediately, however.
The two Painted-Skin Ghosts still held a hostage.
They waited patiently. Once Shen Huaizhou used his illusion to take Yang Xianxian away, leaving only “Yang Zhenhua” and its wife in the underground garage, Ling Fang raised his crossbow.
With a metallic twang, an arrow shot out like a gale.
The elimination operation began.
The arrow struck “Yang Zhenhua” directly in the ankle.
Its arrowhead had been specially made and carried a burning effect. After striking “Yang Zhenhua,” a weak tongue of flame instantly leaped from its skin, rapidly spreading as if to engulf and ignite it.
“Yang Zhenhua” quickly realized something was wrong.
It opened its mouth wide, threw back its head, and released a piercing shriek as though in unbearable agony.
The next instant, an enraged “Yang Zhenhua” reached up and began tearing open its skin from the head downward.
A burning human skin immediately fell to the ground.
“Yang Zhenhua’s” wife also released a shrill scream, roaring as it tore open the human skin covering its body and revealed its true appearance.
The two monsters were little more than masses of indistinct flesh. Their torsos and limbs resembled a human’s, but no skin covered them. The pitted flesh across their surfaces rivaled the landscape of the moon. Most importantly, their faces had no features.
The pair’s shrill cries continued. Their sirenlike voices battered everyone’s eardrums, making waves of dizziness pulse through their heads.
Everyone instinctively clapped their hands over their ears to withstand the sonic assault.
After an unknown length of time, the deadly shrieking finally stopped.
Xie Qingling and Yu Wei, who had lain in wait for an opportunity to attack, immediately exchanged a look and charged.
One monster each.
They would finish the battle as quickly as possible.
Yu Wei took “Yang Zhenhua.” Xie Qingling’s agile figure darted straight toward the creature wearing the skin of Yang Zhenhua’s wife. With a swish, she drew Bloodsworn from her back and attacked.
The female Painted-Skin Ghost raised an arm to block.
Xie Qingling could not help smiling. Perfect. At this distance, she could clearly see its joint. One slash would be enough to sever its hand at the wrist.
Bloodsworn rose high and hacked downward, but struck the arm instead. She failed to cut the entire hand away at the wrist.
Her prediction had been wrong.
Xie Qingling frowned slightly. Something about that strike had felt completely wrong.
At such close range, there was no reason for her to miss.
Again.
This time, Xie Qingling aimed for the Painted-Skin Ghost’s eyes.
Although the Painted-Skin Ghost had no facial features, a pair of sunken eye sockets marked its face. Even without eyeballs inside, they probably still performed its visual function.
One strike could sever its vision and greatly reduce its combat ability.
The Painted-Skin Ghost attacked. Its swinging arm stirred a rotten, nauseating gust of wind.
Xie Qingling held her breath.
The Painted-Skin Ghost’s body and limbs resembled a human’s, and it exerted force in much the same way. She could easily predict where its attacks would land. Bending backward to evade one, she swept her left hand horizontally toward its eyes.
…No. She still missed.
Xie Qingling’s brows drew into a deep frown.
Her sense of distance was completely off. No matter where she struck, she could not hit the spot she intended.
After several exchanges, Xie Qingling was almost certain that the Painted-Skin Ghost was not particularly strong in close combat. Its true ability must lie elsewhere.
She kept attacking as she searched for a weakness in its defenses.
Then the Painted-Skin Ghost loosed another piercing shriek at her. Pain stabbed through Xie Qingling’s head, as if countless needles had pierced her cerebral cortex and were driving deeper in a dense barrage of sharp agony.
Her mind went blank for an instant. Enduring the pain, she brought the blade in her hand down viciously.
But in that moment of disorientation, she finally saw the person beneath her blade. Cold sweat burst across her skin, and she forcibly wrenched the blade aside, cleaving empty air.
The Painted-Skin Ghost she had been fighting had somehow turned into Ling Fang.
She had nearly cut Ling Fang down.
Ling Fang glanced at her. “Make sure you know who your opponent is.”
Then he walked away.
Xie Qingling gritted her teeth. She more or less understood now. This Painted-Skin Ghost specialized in mental attacks and could even tamper with a person’s thoughts and judgment.
She had to be especially careful.
Once the attack took hold, she might end up killing her own teammates.
Xie Qingling immediately raised her vigilance to its utmost limit.
When she looked back at the battlefield, Yu Wei was still there, facing “Yang Zhenhua” alone while “Yang Zhenhua’s” wife constantly interfered from the side.
The two Painted-Skin Ghosts were attacking Yu Wei from front and rear, leaving even him hard-pressed to fend them off.
Xie Qingling immediately chose her target and charged back into the fight.
This time, the opponent she chose was still “Yang Zhenhua’s” wife.
Once Xie Qingling drew the other Painted-Skin Ghost away, the pressure on Yu Wei eased considerably. She saw him give her an approving smile.
But Xie Qingling had no time to respond.
The vicious battle continued.
She attacked the Painted-Skin Ghost with Bloodsworn while using Soul Recall to sense the dead beneath the ground, hoping to find a few helpers.
She was soon disappointed. The land beneath this newly built city had been thoroughly cleared when construction began. There were hardly any remains for her to use.
More importantly, the Painted-Skin Ghost had somehow become far more formidable this time.
Its fighting style had turned exceptionally fierce. Whether attacking or defending, every move was forceful and domineering. Its strength was so great that it sent Xie Qingling staggering backward again and again.
Could this Painted-Skin Ghost grow stronger as it fought? Was it that quick a learner?
Fortunately, Xie Qingling’s feel for her strikes had returned.
When she practiced with Yu Wei, she could always land a blow precisely where she intended. Missing the Painted-Skin Ghost over and over had been deeply wrong, but now she had finally regained that familiar precision.
Yet the strange feeling in her heart would not go away.
The Painted-Skin Ghost’s moves…
They were familiar.
The longer Xie Qingling fought, the more wrong it felt.
Something in her mind seemed on the verge of surfacing.
Every move, every stance, even that forceful and domineering fighting style – it resembled Yu Wei even more!
Why was the Painted-Skin Ghost using Yu Wei’s moves?
Xie Qingling frowned and unconsciously slowed her assault.
Her mind was about to seize on something, yet everything remained shrouded in chaos.
Without warning, a sharp blade struck her arm, and blood immediately welled from the wound.
A blade…
She had been struck by a blade.
Did the Painted-Skin Ghost have a blade? Apart from Yu Wei, she was the only one here who used one.
Xie Qingling jolted and instantly came to her senses.
She retreated several steps and stopped attacking. Looking across the battlefield again, she still saw two Painted-Skin Ghosts and Yu Wei, along with the occasional arrow Ling Fang fired in support from a short distance away.
Xie Qingling did not initiate another attack.
She had realized that none of the thoughts or judgments in her head could be trusted. She might already be unable to tell friend from foe.
If the “Painted-Skin Ghost” fighting her was actually Yu Wei, then which one was the real Painted-Skin Ghost?
Xie Qingling’s eyes swept constantly back and forth among the figures on the battlefield.
She had never encountered a situation like this. Whenever the unexpected had happened in the past, she had always been able to trust her instincts and make the fastest, most accurate judgment.
But today, she could not trust herself at all!
Just then, a hand pressed down on her shoulder.
Xie Qingling instinctively spun around, ready to slash this uninvited visitor, only for Shen Huaizhou’s exquisitely beautiful face to fill her vision.
“It’s me,” Shen Huaizhou said. His gaze did not rest on Xie Qingling but on the two Painted-Skin Ghosts in the battlefield. His fine brows furrowed slightly. “Those two Painted-Skin Ghosts specialize in illusions. They use them to deceive and confuse the mind.”
“All of you have fallen under their spell,” Shen Huaizhou said.
Xie Qingling’s face went pale. She could not say a word.
They had fallen for it.
But…
“They’re using illusions… Shen Huaizhou, aren’t you the Tushan Clan’s Chosen? Doesn’t that make you an illusionist too?” Xie Qingling asked. “Can you deal with them?”
Only then did Shen Huaizhou lower his eyes to glance at her. He said nothing.
Then his quiet, unearthly voice rang out:
“Thus I observe…”