The Buddha is actually me

Chapter 176 The Painted Skin Master's Counterattack
Yangzhou Lantern Festival.

Countless lanterns lit up the night. The city of Yangzhou was brightly lit, with a constant stream of pedestrians, including many young men and women.

The ladies who used to hide in their boudoirs stepped out of their rooms on this day to light lanterns and enjoy the fireworks.

Zhang Jiuyang and Yue Ling walked side by side, getting closer and closer in the endless stream of people.

“It’s so lively.”

He saw a couple selling buns. The husband was chopping the meat and his wife was wrapping the buns. They worked in perfect harmony. Although they were both quite old, they were still very much in love. The wife would wipe his sweat from time to time and whisper to him.

A stage was set up in the distance. People in Yangzhou love to listen to operas, and the audience was bustling with noise and applause.

The most lively place is the flower boat performance, where gorgeously dressed dancers dance on the boats, as graceful as swans. The spectators on both sides of the river are so crowded that some even fall into the river.

Yue Ling turned a blind eye to the excitement and said calmly, "I have sent a message to the headquarters. The supervisor said he would come to Yangzhou in person."

Zhang Jiuyang's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he said, "That's great."

However, he still warned: "Secrecy is the key to success, and leaks are the key to failure. The news of what we are going to do must not leak out, and only trusted people can reveal it. Otherwise, if the Painted Skin Master knows, I'm afraid he will fight back desperately!"

Yue Ling nodded and said, "I only told a few people to make the necessary preparations."

Zhang Jiuyang stopped talking. He walked to the flower boat, chose a good position, looked at the dancers on it, and said with emotion: "This dance is really big and white."

Seeing Yue Ling's suspicious expression, he quickly explained: "It's the moon."

The dance is over.

The dancer on the flower boat bowed to the crowd and slowly retreated. Listening to the cheers from both sides of the river, she had a smile on her face, thinking that the outcome was already decided.

Everyone's eyes shifted to another flower boat.

I wonder who this ship will send to fight?

After a while, the flower boat fell into an eerie silence. There was no music, no dancers, and even the lanterns were extinguished.

Just when everyone was getting a little impatient, it suddenly got dark around them.

The lights that were bright just now went out in an instant, and the place was plunged into darkness. Only the faint moonlight remained, but it was unable to illuminate everything.

Zhang Jiuyang began to frown, noticing something strange. It would be fine if only the lights on the flower boat were out, but why were the lanterns in other places also out?
Something isn't quite right.

There was some commotion all around, and the darkness caused many people to panic.

"Yue Ling."

"I'm here."

A warm jade hand took the initiative to hold Zhang Jiuyang, but there was no ambiguity or charm, and her voice was particularly solemn.

"Be careful, don't leave my side."

She took the Dragon Sparrow Knife handed to her by Zhang Jiuyang, and at the same time exerted force with her feet. Her beautiful long skirt made a crackling sound, and the bottom of the skirt split slightly.

“It’s easier to use a knife this way.”

She explained, then held Zhang Jiuyang with one hand and held the knife with the other, her eyes blazing and sharp as frost.

"I'm coming!"

"Finally showed up!"

"Oh my god, it looks like she flew down!"

As exclamations rang out, a beautiful woman was seen slowly falling from the sky. She was wearing a red dress, with untied hair fluttering in the wind. In her hand, she held a bright lantern, illuminating her charming face.

In the pitch-black environment, the lantern was like a spotlight, attracting everyone's attention.

From a distance, it looks like a fairy descending from the sky and mistakenly entering the mortal world.

Zhang Jiuyang opened his Dharma Eye between his eyebrows and looked at the clothes she was wearing.

I saw black lines on the red skirt that were difficult to see with the naked eye, and wisps of death and yin energy lingered on the black lines.

From the outside, the red skirt looked extremely exquisite and gorgeous, even better than Yue Ling's Shu brocade skirt.

He took something out of his arms. It was a strand of hair, which he found in the coffin during the old lady's birthday party.

With the Dharma Eye, everything is as clear as seeing fire.

The dead energy and yin energy above are exactly the same and have the same origin!

A name emerged in his mind.

Embroiderer!

On the flower boat, the embroiderer looked at him from a distance. She smiled, cast a coquettish glance, and then looked at Yue Ling beside Zhang Jiuyang.

"Shameless."

Yue Ling's eyes were as cold as knives, and murderous intent was concentrated in them.

The embroiderer giggled, and the sound spread with the wind, like a devil's sound, piercing the ears and echoing in everyone's ears.

Then she held the lantern in her hand and bowed to Yue Ling.

"I, the embroidered maid, would like to extend my regards to Prince Yue Ming on behalf of my master."

It turns out to be an embroiderer!
Zhang Jiuyang's heart sank as he had a bad premonition. The embroiderer's strength was definitely not as good as Yue Ling's. Why did she dare to show up here so brazenly?

And the timing of its appearance was too coincidental.

Just when the Imperial Observatory was preparing to ambush and kill the Painted Skin Master, she suddenly showed up in broad daylight. There must be something fishy going on!

As expected, the embroiderer smiled and said, "If Prince Yue Ming really wants to investigate the Yan Luo case, he can go to Qingzhou, which is Yan Luo's territory. Don't keep harping on Yangzhou, otherwise..."

Yue Ling sneered and asked, "What do you think?"

"Haha, it's okay. Otherwise, I can only give King Yue Ming a big gift. I just don't know...if you can bear it."

"If you can't bear it, don't blame me for being cruel."

Yue Ling remained calm and unperturbed, not at all threatened by him, and said firmly: "Then I can tell you, Yangzhou, I will investigate it thoroughly!"

"Your master has killed countless people. Sooner or later, he will die under my sword. But don't worry. Before I kill him..."

"I will kill you first, today."

After she finished speaking, a sound of a sword rang out, clanging like thunder, and the bright sword light illuminated her sharp eyes. The Dragon Sparrow Sword was only an inch out of its sheath, and the terrifying murderous intent enveloped the embroiderer. Even though they were a hundred feet apart, the lantern she was holding was blown out by the sword intent.

The embroiderer was startled, a chill ran down her spine, and her scalp went numb.

The next moment, a bolt of thunder fell from the sky and struck her with a loud bang.

The flower boat trembled and turned black, but the figure of the embroiderer disappeared. Her voice could be heard from all around, with a hint of shock and anger.

"Since Prince Yue Ming is determined to be an enemy of my master, it seems that I have no choice but to give this gift."

"Prince Yue Ming, you should take a good look at Yangzhou... whose territory it is."

Snapped!Snapped!
As the applause sounded, the lanterns around them lit up again, but the atmosphere changed strangely. Zhang Jiuyang's pupils condensed, and a chill suddenly surged in his heart.

The people who had been somewhat frightened just now suddenly became quiet. Many of them slowly turned their heads and looked at them in unison, revealing a weird smile.

Some people were normal. They looked at their relatives or friends around them, wondering why they suddenly became so strange.

The singing stopped, the noise of children playing disappeared, and even the sound of chopping meat for buns stopped.

It was as if the whole world was paused.

After a moment, the voice sounded again.

The opera singer held a flower spear in his hand and sang opera loudly to the sound of gongs and drums, and then he stabbed his companion in the eye and pierced his head.

The audience in the audience immediately screamed in fear, but not because of the horrifying scene on the stage, but because someone in the audience poured kerosene on himself and others and then set themselves on fire.

The flames spread, and there were bursts of heart-wrenching screams and cries for help.

The husband who sold buns picked up the kitchen knife again, but instead of chopping the meat, he chopped it on his wife's face. Looking at the disbelief in her eyes, he had no expression on his face and just kept chopping.

Until the once loving wife turned into a pool of meat paste.

He turned and looked at Zhang Jiuyang and Yue Ling, a strange smile appeared on his blood-spattered face, and then he slashed his neck with a kitchen knife.

Even until his death, his eyes were fixed on the two of them.

"Mother, mother!"

A little child was bumped into by the terrified crowd and cried for his mother.

Her mother came over following the sound, and quickly held the child in her arms, using her body to protect him from being trampled.

However, the next moment, a strange smile appeared on the little boy's face.

He opened his mouth and bit his mother's throat.

However, even until her death, the mother did not loosen her arms around her son, using her own flesh and blood to protect him from being trampled.

On the top of the tall building, young girls stood together with their pigtails tied together. Some of them were trembling and wanted to escape, but their acupoints were pressed.

As one of them jumped off the building, the remaining girls followed suit. Falling from such a high place, if nothing unexpected happened, these flower-like girls would turn into bloody flesh on the ground.

"Hurry up and save people!"

Yue Ling moved, her body was like thunder, spanning a hundred feet, she jumped up and hugged the group of flower-like girls.

One of them tried to attack with a knife, but she broke his neck with a snap.

She breathed a sigh of relief, but the next moment, the sound of plops continued to be heard, as if dumplings were being dropped into the ground, and one figure after another fell from the ground, turning into bloody mud on the ground.

Like blooming blood flowers.

Those eyes filled with pain, struggle, and desire to live pierced into her heart like a knife.

But she was powerless to do anything.

Sons killed fathers, husbands killed wives, brothers drew their swords, brothers killed each other...

One after another, the painted skins voluntarily exposed themselves, paying the price with their lives, and staged one human tragedy after another.

That night, the lanterns were still lit, emitting blood-red light. The evil spirits hidden in the crowd replaced the living and brought chaos to Yangzhou.

Yue Ling and Zhang Jiuyang have tried their best to save people, but they are powerless. Too many innocent people died in this disaster.

Perhaps what hurts more than the physical body is the hurt from the heart.

"Big brother... Daddy... Why are you going to kill me..."

"Is it Nannan... not behaving well?"

Zhang Jiuyang was lying in the ruins, looking at the little girl who was stabbed three times and covered in blood, in silence.

She was only four or five years old, and she couldn't understand why her father, who had just been holding her in his arms, suddenly wanted to kill her with a knife.

Zhang Jiuyang couldn't answer her question, nor could he save her. Although he continued to input his magic power, he could only watch the little life gradually close its eyes.

He lowered his eyes, reached out his hand and gently closed his eyes, then grabbed a handful of dirt from the ground.

Even the soil was black and red, and I wonder how much blood was mixed in it.

The Yangzhou riot lasted for a whole hour. The government sent people to deal with the riot, but they were unable to suppress it. Some of the people sent by the government even had painted skins.

Zhang Jiuyang and Yue Ling saved many people, but even more people died. Everywhere they looked, there were skeletons.

This is a warning from the Painted Skin Master, as well as a demonstration.

"Zhang Jiuyang..."

Yue Ling's body was covered in blood, her makeup was gone, and her bright eyes had become somewhat dim. To her, this experience was even more exhausting than the previous direct battle with Painted Skin.

She entered the Imperial Observatory at the age of sixteen and had been handling cases for many years, killing at least eight hundred evil spirits, but what she encountered tonight was unprecedented.

Even someone as tough as she was, she was still hit hard.

The arrogance and terror of the underworld evil spirit far exceeded her imagination.

"There is a traitor among us."

Zhang Jiuyang's voice sounded a little hoarse.

It was all too coincidental. They had just found the important clue of Shenju Mountain and were preparing to ambush and kill the Painted Skin Master, but Xiu Niang immediately came to warn and protest, and she looked like a desperate dog.

You know, the Painted Skin Master's previous strategy in Yangzhou was to keep a low profile as much as possible, but now he has not hesitated to expose so many Painted Skins and show them openly to the world.

This must be done at all costs to suppress the Imperial Observatory and protect Shenju Mountain!
If Yue Ling insists on investigating, it is conceivable that they will be even crazier next time, and may even expose some high-ranking officials to cause greater damage to Daqian.

Yue Ling also thought of this. She clenched the Dragon Sparrow Knife in her hand, was silent for a moment, and said, "Besides you and me, the others who know the news about Shenju Mountain include Shentu Xiong, Li Yan, and Lao Gao."

“Why is there Lao Gao?”

Zhang Jiuyang suddenly asked. He could understand that Shen Tuxiong and Li Yan knew the news. After all, one was the main fighting force and the other was a trusted Lingtai Lang. But Lao Gao had just entered the third realm and was Si Chen, so he should not know about this.

"He is an experienced Si Chen and also my confidant, so I sent him to collect some information related to Shenju Mountain. I dare not go to Tianji Pavilion for this matter, after all, I don't know if there are Painted Skins lurking there."

Zhang Jiuyang was silent for a moment. There was nothing wrong with Yue Ling's approach, and it could even be called cautious. However, even she could not have imagined that there would be a traitor among those three people.

In other words, it's painted skin.

He sprinkled the bloody soil in his hand on the little girl's body, and then slowly raised his red eyes. The hostility gathered uncontrollably, and the whole person seemed to be covered with a layer of blood.

"The plan needs to change."

"Shen Tuxiong, Li Yan and Lao Gao, the devil is hiding among them. We must find him first, and then let them..."

Zhang Jiuyang's eyes were as red as fire, and he was filled with hostility. He squeezed out a few words fiercely from between his teeth.

"eye for eye!"

(End of this chapter)