Chapter 107: Skinning Case

When the silver-white scale armor covered over, I only felt a chill.

Like a spring, it soothed the burning sting of the scorch mark.

Liu Junyan's hand kept pressing on the scale armor, continuously pouring true qi into it, and his face grew paler and paler.

From behind, in the main hall, a faint howling of the yin wind could be heard.

The merit had been depleted too much; the unclean things in the main hall were becoming restless again, so Liu Junyan had to return.

Liu Junyan released his hand, and that piece of scale armor grew onto my left arm as if inlaid.

"Xiao Jiu, I have to go." Liu Junyan raised his hand to touch my cheek, his eyes full of worry, "This seclusion might take longer; you must be careful in everything, don't push yourself too hard, if anything happens, have Qingying go find Thus line: Xiaoye."

Li Qingying kept nodding beside him: "Seventh Lord, rest assured in your seclusion, take good rest, I will take good care of Xiao Jiu."

"Xiao Jiu," Liu Junyan solemnly instructed, "No matter what others say, you must remember, Wangting Mountain, do not touch!"

I nodded vigorously, eyes red, promising: "I know, I'll listen to you; everything can wait until you emerge from seclusion."

Only then did Liu Junyan relax, push himself up, and leave.

The side room was in disarray; I and Li Qingying silently cleaned up, our mood shifting from the initial excitement of defeating Granny Bai and the evil monk to present desolation.

This matter had many variables from the start; Liu Junyan might not have anticipated that the variable lay with Granny Bai, but he had made full preparations.

From the moment the evil monk first appeared, he had already resolved to use the six-corner palace lamp and his own merit to help me break the deadlock.

Now that the dust has settled, all victory should belong to him.

Yet he also suffered the gravest injury.

I and Li Qingying, on the contrary, hardly got hurt at all.

And we even obtained a mystic cat.

After we finished cleaning, it was already broad daylight; Li Qingying went to make breakfast, while I stood under the west corridor, looking up at the six-corner palace lamp.

That mystic cat, bathed in the Merit Light, will surely heal the wound on its back sooner or later.

All nine pieces of its cat bone have returned to place; it will eventually restore its true form as the original Calamity-surviving Cat Sandalwood.

By then, will it truly be willing to stay by my side as my spirit pet?

I smiled helplessly; I fear it will be difficult.

After breakfast, we each washed up and went to bed.

I was too tired.

Today the pawnshop won't open; Li Qingying and I both need to sleep well.

That sleep left us in darkness; nightmares came one after another, and upon waking, I remembered nothing at all.

By then it was already past lunchtime, roughly around three in the afternoon.

I leaned against the headboard, looking toward the window, and with the weak sunlight filtering through the curtains, I let out a long sigh.

Unconsciously I reached out to touch the scale armor on my left arm, and I felt as if Liu Junyan were still by my side.

Immediately I saw that water ripple pattern again.

I never expected this little trinket to be so formidable; that dragon's roar had overwhelming deterrent and piercing power.

But it seems it cannot exert such power out of thin air; it needs water.

Without Liu Junyan simultaneously drawing in sea mist and waves, it could not smoothly take shape.

But... what if one day it returns to the water?

No, it originally came from Linghai!

There, that is its true home.

It belongs to Liu Mu; how could it be just a commonplace thing?

Previously, I underestimated it.

Today Wufu Town is especially quiet.

Originally today should have been Granny Bai's funeral, but with such a major incident, I don't know how the Bai family will wrap things up, and I haven't deliberately inquired.

However, after Granny Bai's soul was drawn away, her corpse began to rot rapidly.

Li Qingying feared she would rot in the Nan Shu Fang, so he immediately had her cleared out and buried.

I had been waiting for Bai Jingmo to come to my door demanding his grandmother's corpse, but he never showed up.

Bai Jingmo seemed to have vanished into thin air; for a while afterward, even the entire Bai Family Medical Clinic kept a low profile.

I don't know whether Granny Bai's death dealt too heavy a blow to the Bai Family Medical Clinic, or whether they are secretly plotting something else.

If the enemy does not move, we will not move either.

Li Qingying and I actually spent several peaceful days, and our vitality recovered considerably.

For a time, we felt as if we had returned to when we first met, each attending to our duties, practicing together when idle, and occasionally going out for a nice meal.

Until Wufu Town produced a horrifying skinning case.

The victim was a girl named Chen Tao, who had just turned sixteen.

Her family was well-off, her grades were good, and she was studying in the first year of high school at the county town.

At the end of the tenth lunar month, the school released a big holiday, giving two and a half days off.

Chen Tao's family ran a small factory in the south of Wufu Town; they were usually busy, no one came to pick her up, and during vacations she would return by herself on the bus.

I was the same when I was in school.

But that day the school released vacation at noon; Chen Tao boarded the return bus and was still on the phone with her mother.

Until her parents finished their factory work and called her in the evening to ask if she had arrived home, they could not reach her.

Her parents immediately grew anxious; the couple themselves searched everywhere, all the way until midnight, yet still heard nothing.

Later, those in the know joined the search.

Yet throughout the whole night, they found neither hide nor hair of Chen Tao—no living person, no corpse.

Chen Tao's parents reported to the police, but there were still no clues.

Until three days later, at the bend of the Pearl Plate River opposite Dang Pu, a bloody female corpse floated up.

The corpse's entire skin had been peeled off, making its original appearance unrecognizable, but judging by its build, it resembled Chen Tao.

The police immediately organized personnel to fish out the corpse with hooks.

But there was clearly no undertow; when the hook touched the corpse, the corpse suddenly stood upright in the water, frightening everyone into shouting.

A corpse standing in the water is not a good omen.

Several people went down one after another, trying many methods, but they could not get her out of the water.

As the sky gradually darkened, an experienced person suggested calling a professional corpse-fisher for help; otherwise, if the corpse remained standing in the water too long, something might change.

As soon as I heard the news, Li Qingying and I also went to have a look.

Upon seeing that bloody standing corpse, my first reaction was to vomit.

Too cruel!

But after I calmed down, I realized something was wrong.

Chen Tao has been missing for three or four days; if she had been skinned and thrown into the Pearl Plate River, she should have already become bloated and floated.

Moreover, without skin, her body covered in blood would easily attract fish and shrimp to nibble.

Yet she had neither become bloated nor been nibbled by fish and shrimp—why?

Jin Wuya once said that the Pearl Plate River flows from west to east, and at the bend opposite Dang Pu it suddenly turns north; all the yin-sha entities in the whole Pearl Plate River gather at this bend.

So it's not surprising that the corpse would eventually float up here.

What's strange is her condition.

More importantly, she died from being skinned.

After I vomited, my first reaction was to rush back to Dang Pu, passing through the rear wing and heading straight for the main house.

Skinning cases are not uncommon in Wufu Town.

A hundred years ago, many people died in such a gruesome state at Zhao Zixun's hands.

Mei Lin Shuang was one of them.

Could Chen Tao also have died at Zhao Zixun's hands?

Is the death-by-a-thousand-cuts dagger I enshrined on the offering table in the main house still there?