Netherworld Painted Skin Scroll

Chapter 361 Are there any normal people left in this world?
Xue Baoping's head, which had rolled to the ground, was not dead yet. Her eyelids trembled rapidly, and her mouth opened and closed repeatedly, as if she wanted to speak.

Li Guichen stood up, walked to her head, picked it up, and held it in his hands. Then, it felt as if countless tiny insects were wriggling in his palm, quickly stretching the flesh into strips of flesh that probed into the wound on her neck.

The wound was sealed, and Xue Baoping opened her mouth wide as if to gasp for air. But since she no longer had lungs, she naturally couldn't inhale anything.

Li Guichen said softly, "Miss Xue, don't be afraid. Don't breathe now—you don't need to breathe now, you won't die. You've been affected by Xu Zhen's supernatural powers, which is actually a kind of illness. This kind of illness needs strong medicine to cure it, and I'm treating you now."

Xue Baoping glanced towards the door again. Li Guichen smiled and said, "Don't worry about that little girl. Some things are easier to explain to you than to her. She's just inside my horse's belly, so she'll be fine. Once I've healed you, I'll release her too."

After he finished speaking, he picked up the knife from the ground again. With another flash of light, the hand supporting her head was severed at the wrist. He tossed the knife aside and caught it with his left hand, squinting at it—the hand, once separated from his body, immediately became unrecognizable, as if freed from its restraints, swelling into countless worm-like strips of flesh, densely covering Xue Baoping's face, leaving only her eyes and mouth exposed.

And from his severed wrist, a hand slowly grew back. At first, it looked like a baby's little hand, pink and tender, and soon it grew to the same size as before, only much whiter.

Li Guichen sat down again, his head still covered in meat strips, and said in a low voice, "I really can't unravel Xu Zhen's supernatural powers, so the current method is to let you die once and then live again. Don't worry, it will only take three or four days. If I heal you, we'll go back to find Li Wuxiang together. If I can't heal you, you can go wherever you want, and I'll go find him myself."

Xue Baoping's mind was still clear. She had even felt pain when she was chopped down and rolled on the ground. Then she felt drowsy, as if she was extremely sleepy, unable to keep her eyes open, and just wanted to fall asleep.

But now, enveloped by these things on her face, she suddenly felt her head clear up again. She was no longer sleepy or in pain, only feeling a slight itch on her neck. This itch then seeped into her brain—a cool sensation spread through her head, and she knew it must be something that was Li Guichen's hand that was drilling into her head.

Li Guichen told her not to be afraid, but how could she not be afraid!?

According to Li Wuxiang, in this kind of world, those who seem normal are either truly normal or are simply insane. She really doesn't know which one Li Guichen belongs to!

She couldn't speak, but her mouth could still move. Feeling the chill in her head and the tingling on her scalp, she tried to calm herself and mouthed, "How are you going to save me?"

Li Guichen understood. As he tidied up the things on the ground, he said, "I'll gradually replace you. You see, when people take a bath, they can rub off dirt. But that's not dirt; it's the skin that slowly peels off your body. Think about it, how much skin does a person shed from childhood to adulthood? It's more than a person."

“But these things are still yours, while what’s on your face now is mine. I’ll gradually replace what’s in your head, bit by bit, so that you’ll still remember what you originally remembered, but the new things can’t really be called yours anymore, they’re mine. In this way, I might be able to break Xu Zhen’s supernatural powers.”

Is he crazy? Will this method even work? Or is he really planning to do this, or is he just making excuses for something else?
Xue Baoping couldn't help but open her eyes slightly. Li Guichen had already gathered up everything on the ground and packed it into bundles.

He smiled at Xue Baoping: "This isn't the first time I've done this; I've done it three times before. But don't worry, it's not something to harm anyone; it's all about saving people. The people I saved are still the same as before, except all their illnesses are gone. Actually, the body isn't that important; the most important thing is the mind—do you still want this body?"

What he said was truly frightening... But at this point, Xue Baoping could only take it as true and hope that it was true.

She opened her mouth and slowly mouthed, "Should I put my head back in?"

Li Guichen shook his head: "I'm afraid that would be a waste. So I can't keep your body. But it would be too much trouble for me to keep your body alive, so let's just leave it here."

Xue Baoping asked, "Has it been buried?"

Li Guichen was silent for a moment, then said, "Stay here. You can save many lives."

Xue Baoping's scalp tightened slightly; she understood. A chill ran through her... Li Wuxiang was right before; in this world, the more normal a person appears, the more cautious they should be. This Li Guichen... she couldn't quite put her finger on it... He was a bit mad; a normal person wouldn't cut off their own head without a second thought and leave their body here for those refugees...

But his madness is strange, and he's mad in a very "good" way!
All she could say was, "Thank you very much, Mr. Li."

Li Guichen repositioned the package on the horse, picked up her head, pulled his own robe outwards, and placed her in his arms, face up.

He went outside, mounted his horse, and rode towards Yehuang Island City, saying, "Don't think I'm crazy. Xu Zhen's supernatural powers are extraordinary, and the only way to undo them is through an even more extraordinary method. If you were someone else, and you said you didn't want to, I wouldn't force you. But I know about you and Li Wuxiang, and I can empathize with you. I just don't want you to be separated like this."

He spoke with such sincerity, his words tinged with undisguised sorrow. Xue Baoping had noticed this sorrow the moment she met him, but felt it inappropriate to inquire further.

But at this point, she had to ask. She needed to find out who this person really was and what they wanted to do!
She said, "Mr. Li, what do you mean by empathy?"

However, Li Guichen was staring blankly ahead when she spoke, not yet having come to his senses. She repeated herself several times, and finally Li Guichen looked down at her and saw her.

At this moment, the white horse entered the city gate—the buildings inside the city, like the one outside, were almost all burned down, resembling a black, carbonized forest. However, some buildings that were originally made of stone and brick still stood in the distance, so Li Guichen turned his horse around and headed in that direction. He was silent for a while before saying, "To empathize means that I was also separated from my family and am also looking for them, but I feel that I may never find them."

He shook his head, then suddenly smiled: "I have a younger sister who grew up with me. I was born in Fuhe Town and went out to cultivate when I was very young. I first worked as a servant in a cultivation family, hoping to learn something from them. But when I got there, I found that they were very strict about guarding against outsiders, and I didn't learn anything except a little bit of martial arts."

He glanced down at Xue Baoping: "You can tell from my appearance that I looked similar to Li Wuxiang when I was young, and I was quite likable. One of the young ladies from that family fell in love with me... At that time, I didn't want to think about anything but cultivation. In my eyes at the time, that young lady's appearance was too ordinary, and I didn't like her."

"But in order to learn something, I pretended to like her a lot. She then gave me her heart and stole the cultivation techniques for me. Because this was later exposed, she was almost beaten to death by her family. But it was okay later, her family found that I was indeed quite talented, so they took me in as their son-in-law... We had three good years together."

"After three years, I felt I had learned enough and didn't want to stay here any longer. I wanted to go to the Sword Sect to learn the swordsman's techniques, so I secretly ran away. I did become a disciple of You Jiuyuan, and then, sigh..."

He used to be a swordsman?!
Xue Baoping slowly realized something was wrong. How could there be a swordsman who looked so much like Li Wuxiang?

"And then?" she mouthed.

"Later... after the Great Cataclysmic Mountain Fire, I figured it out and decided to go find them. The first person I wanted to find was my sister, whom I thought was probably no longer alive. When I arrived in Fuhe Town, I asked around and sure enough, no one knew of such a person anymore; she must really be dead."

“I was at peace when she died, so I went to find my wife. My wife’s name was Ye Hui. Her home was also near Fuhe Town, in a mountain I remember called Daheishan. Ye Hui also practiced cultivation, although her aptitude wasn’t good, but she had already reached the Qi Refining stage when I left. I’m sixty years old now, and she should be fifty-four. At fifty-four, she should still be alive if she hadn’t suffered any calamities or illnesses.”

By this time, the black horse had already entered the area of ​​houses that still stood. These houses must have been inhabited by wealthy families, because little wood was used and a lot of parts remained. One of the small courtyards had only its gatehouse collapsed, and the first and second courtyards were missing their roofs, with the stone walls blackened by fire.

Li Guichen helped Xue Baoping, who was in his arms, off the horse. It was still untied, so he went into the house to check.

The room wasn't very clean; it was piled with more than a dozen skeletons, some large and some small. It looked like they had been killed first, then dumped inside, and then burned.

He took a handkerchief from his pocket and spread it on the ground outside, placing Xue Baoping's head on it. Then he walked to the corner of the west courtyard wall and vigorously swung his right arm. With the first swing, the fingers of his newly grown hand seemed to close together, leaving only a long palm. With the second swing, his arm grew even longer, reaching all the way to his ankle. With the third swing, the front of his hand turned calloused, gleaming faintly with a metallic sheen in the sunlight.

Li Guichen started digging a hole at the corner of the wall, saying as he dug, "But I found Daheishan Mountain, yet I didn't find the Ye family. I asked around, and everyone said they'd never heard of a Ye family in the mountains. That's very strange... Although the Ye family is a reclusive family that cultivates in seclusion, they still need to go to nearby towns to buy things and hire servants from outside—I only went there because the Ye family's steward was recruiting in Fuhe Town. How come no one has heard of them?"

"After thinking about it, I figured they might have been wiped out by their enemies. So I went to some independent sects and gangs in nearby towns to inquire—but strangely, they all said they had never heard of them."

“Miss Xue, you must find this strange too, right? These people are all saying the exact same thing. Isn’t there only one possibility—they did it together and agreed to keep it a secret?”

“In this world, those gangs and sects are no good either. I wiped them out one by one. There were good people among them, or those who weren’t extremely evil, so I released them. The remaining wicked people were subjected to severe torture, but they still claimed they didn’t know anything.”

“I knew something was right then. It’s one thing if one person can endure torture, but if they all do, it must be because of some kind of supernatural power.” By this time, he had already dug a large pit, so he flicked his arm, and it turned back into a hand. He went back into the house, carried out the skeletons, and placed them one by one in the pit, then began to fill the pit with soil by hand.

After he finished filling the hole with soil, he turned to look at Xue Baoping and asked, "Miss Xue, don't you think so?"

He's insane. Xue Baoping is now certain. Hearing him say that, she had only one thought in her mind—though somewhat inexplicable, she was absolutely certain: there was no Ye family at all! Those rogue sects and factions had all inexplicably fallen into bad luck!

Taking advantage of Li Guichen's gaze, she immediately asked, "Mr. Li, do you suspect that Xu Zhen did it?"

Li Guichen laughed: "Xu Zhen is the Demon King of the Eastern Continent. How could he get involved in the affairs of a reclusive family in Fuhe Town? It's not that I doubt him, but I think someone else has some supernatural power that makes those people forget everything from the past."

He suppressed his smile and rubbed the dirt off his hands. This was a normal gesture, but coupled with his next words, Xue Baoping suddenly felt he was being somewhat awkward and uneasy—

"Or...sometimes I think about something else. Is it possible that the Ye family really doesn't exist? Like Li Wuxiang told me at the beginning, is it all a lie?"

"When I heard you tell your story, this came to mind. You know how close you were to Li Wuxiang before, yet you're afraid of him and want to leave him. As for me, sometimes I know some of the things I think might be false, but I also know they're true. Miss Xue, do you know that this can drive a person crazy if it goes on like this for too long?"

She knew. She knew it better than anyone else!

“Sigh.” Li Guichen sighed deeply. “A healer cannot heal himself. I can cure you, but if I get sick, I can’t cure myself. So whether you’re better or not, I have to go to Li Wuxiang. Not just to find him, but also to find Xu Zhen—he might have a way to cure my illness.”

(End of this chapter)