Netherworld Painted Skin Scroll

Chapter 362 The Divine Blade Sect Attacks!
What he said sounded perfectly normal—but he was perfectly normal before he chopped off his own head!

Although she didn't know who he really was, Xue Baoping gradually formed a judgment about Li Guichen in her heart. He had some mental issues, issues... somewhat similar to her own. Knowing what something was like, but just unable to believe it.

This Li Guichen might not have a sister or wife at all. He himself had a little doubt, but he was unwilling to believe it!
So now she doesn't know—did he say he wanted to go to Xu Zhen for treatment to bring his thoughts back to rationality and admit that those people didn't exist in the world, or did he want Xu Zhen to erase the doubts in his heart?

Should he help Li Wuxiang subdue Xu Zhen before asking for his help, or should he simply stick with Xu Zhen?
At this point, she herself couldn't call herself well. Her head grew increasingly cold, and she slowly felt like she was dreaming. One thought after another would pop up and then disappear, making it difficult to truly concentrate on anything. She would think of one thing, only to have her thoughts immediately drift to another. It was as if a child was attracted by countless toys around them, looking at this one and then that one, gradually forgetting what they had originally thought of.

She could only tell herself to stop thinking about complicated things, clear her mind, and focus only on the present moment—lip-reading to Li Guichen, "Then I hope Mr. Li can really cure you."

Li Guichen smiled at her: "You might think I'm crazy, and you might even be a little afraid of me. But that's because you're not fully recovered yet. Don't worry, you'll be better in a couple of days, and then you won't be afraid of me anymore. Miss Xue, please wait a moment while I tidy up the room a bit more—how are you feeling right now?"

“I’m not afraid of you, Mr. Li. I feel fine right now.”

"Well, in another half a day you'll feel like you're dreaming, and you might not be able to distinguish between the present and the past. But you're a spiritual practitioner, so your mind is better than ordinary people, and this won't be difficult for you. Just treat it as meditation and cultivation, and it would be even better if you could enter a state of deep concentration."

After saying this, he went into the house and carried out all the odds and ends, piling them up against the west wall. The area where the body parts from the house had been buried was now a small mound; Li Guichen had added the miscellaneous items, making it look like a proper grave.

After clearing away the clutter, he went to the backyard. After a while, he carried the planks into the yard one trip after another. He then selected some long ones, measured the angles, and built a roof over the house, covering it with weeds and scraps of wood.

Xue Baoping watched him busily working for a while, then suddenly saw him carrying a large vase as he hurried back from the backyard, his face beaming with joy: "Miss Xue, look what I found!"

It was a large vase decorated with the Five Blessings, but it was blackened by fire and stood about chest-high to Li Guichen. She didn't know what he was planning to do, but could only say, "I didn't expect this one to survive."

“Yes.” Li Guichen walked happily to the northeast corner of the courtyard—there was a well there. He peeked inside, seemingly wanting to draw some water to wash the vase, but after one glance, he pulled his head back and said to Xue Baoping, “Miss Xue, don’t come to this well to draw water in the future, and don’t look inside. Wait for me, I’m going out for a bit.”

So he picked up the vase and went outside. Xue Baoping counted in her mind, and after counting to thirty, she immediately tried to get herself moving.

She only had a head left, but the writhing strips of flesh covering her face had gradually merged with her. Before, when these things moved, she only felt a chill run through her body, and she had to struggle very hard to hold back her cries. Now they didn't move much, and she felt like a person whose whole body was numb, slowly regaining consciousness—all she could feel were those strips of flesh.

She tried to control a few of them. But like someone whose feet are numb, she didn't even know if her feet were flat on the ground when she walked, so she wasn't sure if she had actually gotten them moving...

Have.

Her head tilted to the side and rolled off the handkerchief. A surge of joy filled her, and she immediately tried to manipulate the fleshy strips to make herself move. A person has five fingers on one hand, and you don't need to consciously think about moving them. The fleshy strips she could now manipulate, while not as clearly as her fingers, also didn't require conscious thought—about seventeen or eighteen in total. When the thought arose, they began to slowly wriggle, and thus her head slowly began to roll.

Li Guichen had disappeared, and Xue Baoping took almost a quarter of an hour to move five or six steps. But she was becoming more and more skilled at manipulating those strips of flesh, and gradually, she was able to use a few of them to support her head and walk like they were legs.

She hadn't figured out what to do with just a head left, or where to go, but she knew that Li Guichen might be in danger just like Li Wuxiang and Xu Zhen, so she decided to escape first!

She slowly walked to the gate of the courtyard and saw the broken walls and ruins outside. She stopped and waited for a while, but heard no footsteps, so she began to try to climb over the pile of rubble at the gate.

But just then, the clatter of hooves sounded behind them—the white horse came over, opened its mouth, took her head in its mouth and put it back on the handkerchief, then walked to the wall and stood still.

Forgot about this horse... it might not even be a horse!

Xue Baoping dared not move again. After a while, Li Guichen returned carrying a large, clean vase. He glanced at the white horse, then at Xue Baoping, his expression still amiable. He placed the vase on the ground, walked up to Xue Baoping, said "Excuse me," and gently lifted her head to the mouth of the vase.

The vase was the perfect size, just enough to sink half of her head in, leaving only her eyes and nose sticking out.

Li Guichen took a half step back and looked around, seemingly quite satisfied: "I can't put you on the ground; the dust is too heavy and the smell is unpleasant. It's also inconvenient for us to talk. I'll have to make you stay here for two or three days, just in time for your newborn body to emerge—I don't mind, but you might not like it. It's perfect here; you won't bump into anything and there won't be any dust."

After saying this, he gently lifted Xue Baoping's head, smoothed out the strips of flesh wrapped around her face one by one, and stuffed them all back in: "Now it's all right, we just need to wait a little longer."

Xue Baoping didn't know if he had seen her do it before he did it, but she just said, "Okay, thank you, Mr. Li."

For the next three days, Xue Baoping still wanted to find a chance to escape. According to Li Guichen, her body would slowly grow back. But by that evening, she knew she probably wouldn't be able to.

Because her consciousness began to become confused, just as Li Guichen said, she began to be unable to distinguish between the past and the present. Sometimes she could remember her situation, but sometimes when she saw Li Guichen's face, which looked so much like Li Wuxiang's, in the dim light, she would feel that she was still in Jinshui, and that Li Wuxiang was in a small bowl or vase, feeding her with his blood.

This chaotic state lasted for a day and a half. It wasn't until the evening of the second day that she suddenly felt her mind clear up—like someone suddenly waking up from a dream.

She could feel her body again. Her body felt constricted by something, causing her immense discomfort. However, compared to the state of her mind, this discomfort was negligible—she felt she had understood everything. From childhood to adulthood, many things she had forgotten before had become clear and understood.

For example, when Zhao Kui first arrived in Jinshui... something was so obviously wrong, how come his parents didn't notice? She remembered Zhao Kui's appearance very clearly, even the number of wrinkles on his face.

She also thought of Li Wuxiang… That’s right, he wasn’t a demon, he was just a human. He wasn’t from the Eastern Continent either; he was captivated by Xu Zhen’s supernatural powers. Actually, she was the same way—Xu Zhen’s supernatural powers made her feel that she had no desire to get involved with Li Wuxiang, and that it was best to only consider her own safety. This thought had once dominated her mind, which was why she had fled in a panic.

And then there's Li Guichen—he must have some connection with Li Wuxiang, and moreover, he should be related to Siming Zhenjun! There's so much flesh on his body that it's impossible to cut it all off... These past few days, he's been feeding the vase with his own flesh!

Even if a cultivator creates something out of nothing, they still need something to rely on. How much did Li Guichen feed into the vase in the past day and a half? Even if you shaved off all the flesh on his body, not counting his internal organs, it still wouldn't be enough! Yet he can still grow back... This is clearly the supernatural power of the Kitchen God and the True Lord of Fate!

She felt that she had been captivated before. This wasn't just when she was influenced by Xu Zhen, but even before that, she was still the same.

She felt that everyone in the world was obsessed—because of their own experiences and emotions, it was impossible to think or do things impartially.

But now, she felt as if she had jumped out of a fog that shrouded the world and was looking at herself and others with great clarity.

Master was right. Li Wuxiang didn't like her... not in the romantic sense. He was indeed very good to her, but it was no different from the kindness Master Zeng had shown her along the way. He would indeed go through fire and water to save her—she felt she could do the same. But it wasn't love; it was more like a responsibility. It was less romantic love and more like sibling affection.

And what about him? She was terrifyingly clear-headed now, and the answer came immediately the moment the thought arose—he was a good person, he wouldn't harm her. If he were in trouble, she would immediately rush to his aid. But nothing else mattered. What she wanted wasn't that little home in Jinshui, but… but… she couldn't quite put her finger on it, she felt it was somewhere, she hadn't found it yet, but one day she would!
These thoughts popped into her head the moment she opened her eyes. At that moment, Li Guichen was sitting opposite her, observing her.

"Miss Xue, you're awake?"

Xue Baoping is no longer afraid of him; in fact, she feels a bit sorry for him. If Li Guichen could heal him the way he healed himself, his mind wouldn't be so confused, and he wouldn't be in so much pain.

She let out a long breath: "I'm awake—"

She discovered that she could speak.

Li Guichen smiled and nodded: "Don't rush, you should be able to feel your body now, right? But it's not fully healed yet. This is the time to be most careful, because, to be honest, this vase is like your skin, and it's still very fragile inside. Wait a little longer, wait another day and a half—do you still think Li Wuxiang is a great demon from the Eastern Continent?"

Xue Baoping tried shaking her head, then realized she could: "He's not. He's just a person who was harmed by Zhao Kui and then saved by me. He won't harm me; on the contrary, he's the one in trouble now. Mr. Li, once I'm better, I'll go with you to save him."

Li Guichen smiled and clapped his hands: "Good, good, you've really woken up."

After laughing like that, his expression turned somewhat melancholy: "Alas, it's just a pity I can't heal myself."

This couldn't comfort him. Xue Baoping was still wondering what Li Guichen would do if he really saw Xu Zhen. She couldn't let him think about that too much... "Mr. Li, have you inquired about the situation at Dapan Mountain these past two days? How are Li Wuxiang and Xu Zhen doing?"

At this point, Li Guichen's expression turned solemn: "Logically speaking, this place is far from Dapan Mountain, and there is almost no contact between people, so it is difficult to get information. But yesterday, news came to our doorstep—the great demon king Xu Zhen you mentioned has established a force. The Divine Blade Sect has submitted to him, and they have a large and powerful force. In just a few days, the people of the Divine Blade Sect have already arrived at Yehuang Island."

Xue Baoping was somewhat surprised. But upon reflection, she realized that six or seven days had passed since she left Dapan Mountain. Xu Zhen was incredibly skilled, and Li Wuxiang was completely captivated, believing himself to be Xu Zhen's younger brother. If the two of them worked together, they would likely be unmatched in the world. Zheng Jingxi, the sect leader of the Divine Blade Sect, was originally a spineless coward, so it was only natural that he would submit to Xu Zhen.

"What are they doing here? Are they looking for me?"

Li Guichen shook his head: "It's hard to say. The people of the Divine Blade Sect... are very strange, all of them are very strange. I heard that the Divine Blade Sect originally only had a few hundred disciples, but in such a short period of time, for some reason, they suddenly have so many, almost everywhere. And it seems that they have all been affected by Xu Zhen's supernatural powers and are obsessed—they should be different from you and Li Wuxiang, it would be more appropriate to say they are walking corpses."

He lowered his voice: "I saw more than a dozen this morning. They all had the same expression, looking for things everywhere, not saying a word, with blank faces, walking non-stop as if they didn't know how to get tired. They would whisper to each other, but it wasn't really talking, it was just gesturing... It was very strange."

This sounds really weird...

Just as Xue Baoping was about to speak, Li Guichen's expression changed slightly. He raised his index finger to his lips and made a shushing gesture.

Xue Baoping's heart skipped a beat, and she immediately shut her mouth. She saw Li Guichen winking at her, seemingly telling her to look at the ground, so she followed his gaze—

But all I saw were two ants on the ground. They touched heads and then crawled out one after the other.

Li Guichen had been staring intently at the two ants the entire time. Only after they crawled out did he immediately stand up, press himself against the wall, and quickly peek outside. He then let out a soft sigh and frowned at Xue Baoping: "You see, just like those two before, they don't speak, only gesture. But like I said, they're both engrossed, caring about nothing but what they're looking for. It's strange, what exactly are they looking for?"

(End of this chapter)