My lord, spare his life!

"Look at you, you got beaten up for being so talkative, didn't you?"

Guan Zong's lips twitched violently.

He was very curious about how Zhang Yang could utter such sarcastic and provocative words with such a calm and collected demeanor. He was also very curious about what had gotten into Guan Si that made him return and beat him up, just because he had complained.

Guan Zong grimaced and stood up, clutching his wound.

He said angrily, "Don't you even know where his evil temper comes from?"

If Zhang Yang hadn't used two fake human skins to trick Guan Si, would the other party have become so enraged and attacked him so severely? But he dared not say these words aloud, fearing that the utterly unethical Zhang Yang would take advantage of his vulnerability. Being beaten twice for the same thing was too unjust.

"Excessive internal heat? Is it from eating too many pan-fried buns?"

Guan Zong: "..."

He closed his eyes, deciding to skip over this humiliating topic.

"Can the lord's appearance be restored to normal?"

He was a man of rough exterior but meticulous interior, and he noticed with his sharp eyes that Zhang Yang looked several years older than she had not long ago. In order to avoid unnecessary trouble, he decided to maintain the status quo as much as possible.

Zhang Yang took out a character customization item from his game inventory.

He casually replied, "Yes, I guarantee it."

Guan Zong: "..."

Looking at the familiar human skin prop in Zhang Yang's hand, and then thinking about the two that Guan Si had taken away, he was overwhelmed with mixed feelings, but mostly with schadenfreude—Guan Si, that demon star, had finally gotten his comeuppance.

Zhang Yang put on the new character customization tool and took out a slightly curled notebook from her game inventory. She skillfully opened it to a page with writing Guan Zong couldn't understand. Guan Zong naturally couldn't understand it, because it contained her character customization data.

Players can save their character creation data to their accounts without worrying about losing or mixing it up, but this isn't the case for Zhang Yang, the game NPC pretending to be a player. To ensure everything is foolproof, she manually backs up the character creation data for every character creation item.

One of the sculpted human skins Guan Si took away was the one she had been using for the past few months, and it was also the face that Fan You and the others had become accustomed to seeing. Zhang Yang put on the new sculpted human skin prop as if no one else was around, and then changed the facial features data of the prop. Only a few breaths had passed in the whole process.

Zhang Yang took out a mirror to admire himself.

She is flawless from every angle.

"alright."

Guan Zong: "..."

She's still just a human skin beneath a human skin; she's really not a demon in disguise.

Zhang Yang returned to the council hall as if nothing had happened, his eyes frequently glancing towards Fan You near the door before he breathed a sigh of relief: "He didn't come along?"

"Who?"

"Guan Siyin".

Zhang Yang said, "You mean him? Go back and get ready."

With only one month left, Guan Si had to hurry.

"Go back and prepare?"

What is Guan Si preparing?

"We need to cooperate with Guan Si, but he doesn't have control of the trade routes right now. Of course, he's going back to prepare to seize the trade routes from the Eastern bandits." Zhang Yang was a little worried and doubtful. Could 93's intelligence be demented so early?

Isn't this something that was mentioned just a few days ago?

"How did the lord subdue him?"

Fan You looked Zhang Yang up and down to check if he was injured.

I had previously learned some things about Guan Si from Guan Zong. His most prominent characteristic was his unpredictability; he acted on a whim, including murder. No one in this world could control him, and his only weakness had long since disappeared.

This kind of person is extremely dangerous.

Du Guan also cast a concerned and curious glance at them.

The magistrate was clean from head to toe, not a single hair was out of place.

He didn't look like he'd been in a fierce battle with someone at all.

She didn't sense any fighting taking place here.

Zhang Yang said, "He said he would agree to any condition if he wanted my human skin, so I took off my human skin and gave it to him. I even gave him two skins. He was very satisfied with the two skins and immediately agreed to cooperate with us, saying that he wanted to go back and take back the trade route."

One sentence silenced both of them.

An eerie, deathly silence descended.

"Lord...did you give him your human skin?"

Du Guan was certain that Guan Si's demand for the Prefect's skin meant not only to skin her but also to take half of Prefect Zhang's life. Prefect Zhang, for some unknown reason, naively believed that human skin was just human skin, and so she took it off?

She! Took! The! Skin! Off!

I recognize every single one of these characters.

Why does she develop reading difficulties when the words are put together?

Du Guan expressed the same doubt as Guan Si.

"Is the Lord of the Underworld... a demon in disguise?"

There aren't many who can shed their human skin as easily as playing with the power of the stars and demons.

The Painted Skin Demon is one of the most famous among them.

Fan You's rebuttal came quickly.

"Impossible, she did not descend from the stars."

Ordinary demons can't simply change into human skin at will. At the first level of the Star-Descending Calamity, the original human skin will emit a putrid stench from the inside out, causing various skin diseases that lead to ulceration and suppuration. At the second level of the Star-Descending Calamity, the original human skin melts away like wax, and the demon must then wear someone else's skin. However, the new skin doesn't last long and needs to be changed frequently.

The Painted Skin Ghosts all like to collect human skin for future use.

Of course, some people also collect animal hides.

Du Guan: "The painted skin demon is generally not easy to detect."

If we were to rank the various ways a star can conceal its malevolent aura, the Painted Skin Demon would easily be in the top ten. Most Painted Skin Demons are cunning and ruthless, adept at bewitching and deceiving their targets, and are generally disliked. At one point, some Painted Skin Demons even caused serious trouble, earning a bounty from the royal family—anyone found with a Painted Skin Demon was to be killed without mercy, their heads worth a hundred gold pieces!

However, once the painted-skin ghost puts on a new human skin, its malevolent aura can be concealed to the greatest extent, making it impossible to guard against.

Fan You: "..."

Du Guan said calmly, "The Prefect will give Guan Si two human skins."

The subtext is something Fan You, the junior, should understand.

This means that before Guan Si appeared, Zhang Yang carried three human skins with her. Why would a normal person carry so many specially treated human skins? Among the human skins that Guan Si took away, one was the one that Zhang Yang had been using all along, but her current human skin was fresh and flawless.

This also means that the spare human skin Zhang Yang used was very fresh.

Wearing it makes you look like you were born.

Fan You: "Is my lord a demon in disguise?"

Zhang Yang: "What are you all babbling about?"

Fan You's eyes flickered with an inexplicable light, his expression so complex that Zhang Yang couldn't decipher it. The favorability rating notifications popping up in the system log kept increasing and decreasing, leaving everyone completely bewildered.

Finally, he asked Zhang Yang, "How many human skins does our lord possess?"

Why ask that?

"I'd like to see."

Zhang Yang: "How strange."

This was the first time she had encountered an NPC who wanted to see the player's character customization.

Not only Fan You wanted to see it, but Du Guan did too.

Since the two of them were so eager to watch it, Zhang Yang, as a parent who didn't want to spoil the fun, naturally wouldn't refuse: "You can watch it, but I've collected quite a lot over the years, and the styles from the earlier periods don't keep up with current aesthetics. If you want to watch it, be prepared."

Zhang Yang has over a hundred character creation tools.

Why are there so many?

Because you get an achievement for creating 100 different characters.

Under the horrified gazes of Fan You and the others, Zhang Yang pulled out a large box from his game backpack. Inside the box were many human skins neatly stacked. Half of the human skins looked remarkably similar to Zhang Yang at this moment, as if the appearance of a person in infancy, childhood, adolescence, youth, adulthood, and old age had been engraved.

The remaining human skins had different appearances.

Du Guan picked up one of the cards and opened it.

The texture felt almost exactly like human skin, yet there was no trace of blood; instead, it carried a refreshing fragrance, like orchids blooming in a secluded valley. The shape wasn't the whole human skin she had envisioned; it was more like half a hood, each piece of skin fully made up.

They all touched the human skin with their fingers.

The lip rouge on her lips was made of some unknown material; it was crystal clear, full, and rosy, as if it were coming from her skin. It couldn't be wiped off. Her cheeks were also powdered with a rosy blush, making her look extremely healthy. Her eye makeup and even the floral decoration between her eyebrows were exquisite and beautiful.

"Where is this makeup style from?"

Not only is the makeup style refreshing, but the quality of the powder used is enough to make any beauty-loving man or woman swoon. It's unlike the powders on the market that you can see mottled fragments when you get close to them; they can only be admired from afar, not up close.

Zhang Yang: "I learned it from others."

The observed samples showed an astonishing talent for sculpting faces.

With Zhang Yang's permission, Du Guan also admired other character creations.

People's skin color is not completely uniform. Some are extremely glossy brownish-black, while others are pure white to the point of glowing. Their appearances also vary greatly, from ladies of noble families to girls from humble backgrounds, from wandering knights to noble nobles, from pale to vibrant to vibrant to pale, as if all the world's top beauties have been gathered here... Of course, there are also those whose appearances are so ordinary that they have no distinguishing features.

Du Guan sighed, "These are mostly works that Nuwa painstakingly created."

Zhang Yang said, "That's right."

Can someone who isn't pretty become a social media influencer with a "face"?

Du Guan and Fan You exchanged a glance.

The two were fairly certain that these were not human skins taken from people, but rather lifelike fake skins made of some unknown material. Their reasoning was quite convincing—it was impossible for a man and a woman to produce such flawless beauty.

Only through careful crafting and refinement can such an effect be achieved.

Seeing that they hadn't put down the human skin, Zhang Yang misunderstood that they liked it: "You like this face-pinching? If you like it, you can take one."

In this respect, Zhang Yang has an advantage over the players.

Players cannot create their own character and give it to others, but she can.

Guan Si could take two human skins, so naturally, the two NPCs, Du Guan and Fan You, could also accept the gifts. However, Zhang Yang said that while the faces created by internet celebrities are beautiful, they are easy to get tired of after seeing them too much, and they are not pleasing to the eye. They are far less distinctive than the original appearance.

Fan You: "Take it?"

Du Guan, quick-witted as ever, asked, "Can I use it too?"

Zhang Yang said, "Of course."

The materials used to make it are all dropped by NPCs.

What is taken from NPCs can naturally be used for NPCs.

Zhang Yang had previously done some unethical things. In order to disrupt players from the opposing faction, she deliberately gave character customization items to quest NPCs, which caused a large number of players to be unable to find the NPCs to turn in quests, almost overwhelming the game's official phone lines.

The game's official team investigated several times but found no bug.

Fan You wasn't very interested in this.

Du Guandao said, "This is a good thing."

Zhang Yang: "Of course this is good stuff."

Du Guan waved his hand and said, "That's not what I meant. What I meant was—how many people in this world are dissatisfied with their physical imperfections, and how many wish they could be more beautiful? If we had this, wouldn't that solve the problem?"

Its value is even greater than that of a hundred blankets!

Zhang Yang: "Huh?"

Du Guan's tone carried a hint of extremely restrained excitement.

She asked, "How much does Your Excellency know about the Painted Skin Ghost?"

Zhang Yang shook his head.

Fan You, standing to the side, was also reminded: "Senior means... this item might be something that the Painted Skin Demon would be eager to possess?"

Even a ghost who changes his skin suffers excruciating pain.

The replaced human skin cannot be used for a long time.

The higher the number of stars descending to vengeance, the shorter the lifespan of a human skin, and the greater the suffering it endures. If this substance could replace human skin and be used for a long time, why wouldn't the Painted Skin Demon covet it? The value of just one piece would be worth tens of thousands of gold!

Even if the Painted Skin Ghost doesn't rave about it—

Those who love beauty can also drive its price to exorbitant levels.

Zhang Yang was still completely confused.

"Because it's pretty?"

Du Guan: "Because it is not human skin, yet it is better than human skin."

As she spoke, she paced back and forth, her mind constantly searching for major clients, her steps quickening and becoming more hurried with each thought. Only when she met Zhang Yang's gaze did her mind suddenly calm down.

"Does Your Excellency know how to make this kind of human skin?" If you don't know how to make it and only have what you see here, then you should think carefully.

Yes.

Finished items are too difficult to drop, which is time-consuming.

To solve the problem once and for all, they tried to obtain the creation method. However, whether it was the players or Zhang Yang, only one face was displayed at any given time. Most character creation was just for novelty; once the novelty wore off, they still used the most commonly used characters.

This was based on Zhang Yang's experience after frantically creating dozens of character creations, leaving him with a feeling of utter emptiness after his body had been completely drained.

"Yuan Yi wants to sculpt a new one?"

Du Guan: "That was not my intention."

Besides blankets, their trump card in trade is a fake human skin. If used properly, this fake skin could bring immeasurable profits. People say that appearance is given by one's parents, and beauty or ugliness is fate, but now they can defy destiny!

However, this still requires the Lord's permission.

Fan You and Du Guan explained to her in detail the pros and cons and the huge potential market!

Zhang Yang didn't care about any of these things.

She only cares about one thing—

"You're saying you can exchange all this for so much grain and cloth?"

"Grain varieties can also be exchanged."

Due to its terrain, the counties of Shan China have a high level of agricultural development, and their grains are renowned for their high quality. Outsiders have considered plundering them, but Shan China is surrounded by two mountain ranges, with only two routes in and out, making it easy to defend and difficult to attack.

The only way to get their seeds is to exchange them for money or goods.

The counties in the mountains of China often demand exorbitant prices.

Now that we have such leverage, we can surely turn the tide of the battle!

Zhang Yang mentally did a quick calculation.

No matter how you calculate it, it's a huge profit.

How much does the raw material for a human skin face-sculpting prop cost?

Compared to the cost, this profit is practically robbery! After making money, the customer will clap their hands in delight, thanking Zhang Yang for giving them the opportunity to be robbed! Zhang Yang's eyes grew brighter and brighter, and even his usually stiff and rigid smile gained a touch of natural curve.

"Okay, okay—that's what we'll do!"

Fan You and Du Guan exchanged a subtle glance.

He said, "My lord, have you considered taking in a ghost with a painted skin?"

Zhang Yang: "Your friend?"

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Zhang Yang: "The brilliance of character customization!"