Cultivation through Skin Making

The reserved female cultivator was taken aback.

Song Yan nodded seriously and said, "This one of mine is a mutant, its essence blood has reached the level of an advanced demon beast, yet even so, refining the Crimson Palace Pill cost me a great deal of effort."

The air suddenly became quiet, eerily silent.

The reserved female cultivator suddenly said, "Enough, Song Yan, there's no point in saying more. Without trying, I can't tell if you're speaking the truth or not, and you... would surely be unwilling to work for me."

Song Yan did not make a move, merely asked curiously, "I wonder what task the senior wants me to do, I naturally enjoy helping others, perhaps I'm willing to help you too?"

The reserved female cultivator said, "I want you to accompany me to the Mountain and Sea Demon Country."

Song Yan nodded thoughtfully and then asked, "To do what?"

The reserved female cultivator was obviously not fooled. She directly took out a green bottle from her bosom and said, "Song Yan, there's a pill in here. You take it, and I'll tell you."

Song Yan glanced at the green bottle, but before he could speak, Hua Linglong had already opened her mouth.

"Song Lang, this is an Immortal Pill. After taking it, mortals can develop a Profound Root, and cultivators can enhance their Profound Root Talent. This is a blessing you earned from your previous life."

The reserved female cultivator glared fiercely at Hua Linglong.

Hua Linglong bowed her head in fear and mumbled, "Master, I... I was just advising him..."

Song Yan interrupted, "The senior is right."

The reserved female cultivator looked up at him, her stiff eyes oddly shifting.

Song Yan continued, "It's just that... if the senior doesn't demonstrate some ability, this junior cannot take the pill."

The air instantly became still.

Neither knew the other's abilities, and after circling around, they both chose to first test each other.

As in the story of the "The Donkey of Guizhou," watchers only sigh at the donkey's foolishness, daring to act brazenly in front of the tiger; laugh at the tiger's silliness, actually being bluffed by a mere donkey; but how many people noticed the tiger's caution? If the tiger didn't test, how would it know the donkey was something it could eat?

"Very well."

The reserved female cultivator gave a strange smile and then surprisingly floated into the air without using a Profound Artifact, her hands gesturing mechanically, and the dark clouds in the sky, the shadows of the mountains all "hissed" and began to wriggle, a fine, weird high-pitched sound that could make someone with a fear of holes instantly go mad, covering their ears and breaking down hysterically.

...

...

At this moment, in the canyon, the team composed of the Flying Knife Gang and the remaining four loose cultivators was still advancing.

Suddenly, one of the gang's hall masters exclaimed, "What the hell is that?"

"Don't panic, it's just a night candle bug."

An elderly loose cultivator's calm voice sounded, and along with it, a gleaming golden small bell rose up, floating in the air four or five feet high, slowly rotating, scattering faint golden rays about the length of fingernails.

The rays scattered, forming a small light domain covering about ten feet.

The other three loose cultivators immediately gathered around, and the remaining ten or so members of the Flying Knife Gang rushed into the light domain, squeezing closely together, looking exceedingly ludicrous but no one dared laugh, only fearfully watching the writhing shadows outside.

One loose cultivator said, "Madam Ling and Zhu'Er haven't returned, it's probably not looking good for them."

Another snorted, "I think there's something shady about them."

"Stop arguing, now we must work together, find the exit first," the elderly loose cultivator said, "I'll use the Profound Artifact for now, later when it's exhausted, you take turns."

As the words left his mouth, the shadows instantly rose into the air, like a black wave slightly gathered mid-air.

"Here it comes."

The old man's expression tightened, struggling to control the bell-shaped Profound Artifact more rigorously.

In the next moment, the black wave slammed down violently onto the golden light shield, exploding rapidly into black mist.

But this was just an initial strike, quickly followed by waves of black pounding down.

At the periphery, one gang member in the pushing couldn't stand stable, taking a slight misstep, leaving half a leg outside. This leg was brushed by a black wave, and that gang member felt a sting in the nerves throughout his body, instantaneously kneeling down on one knee, raising his hand in agony, crying "Help me," but before he could finish, his entire body was covered in blackness.

The crowd finally saw clearly, they were actually black, strange bugs.

And that gang member, instantly stopped moving, oddly without a single wound on his body.

It seems that those insects don't eat people.

This left everyone in a daze.

But just in that moment of hesitation, the Profound Artifact small tower of the old man couldn't hold on anymore. The golden light shield instantly cracked, and a black insect tentacle quickly reached in from the outside. With a gentle stroke, it touched a cultivator's left arm, and that cultivator's pupils contracted. Just with that touch...his left arm completely lost all sensation, exhibiting exactly the same symptoms as the ordinary gang members before!

Fortunately, at this moment, another cultivator quickly stepped in and took out an umbrella, tossing it into the air.

The umbrella's light expanded, pushing the insects away, but it only shone for four or five seconds before it started making cracking sounds, as if it was about to shatter under the impact of the black insects.

Everyone was horrified, cold sweat streaming down, feeling a strong sense of suffocation and despair in their hearts.

A sharp-eyed cultivator suddenly said, "These insects are not actively attacking us; they're like they're on their way somewhere. We must avoid the main road! Otherwise, we'll all die!!"

As soon as the words were spoken, everyone hurried to the side...

The loose cultivators hastily took out their Profound Artifacts.

But as loose cultivators, their resources were not abundant, the number of Profound Artifacts was limited, and they didn't know how long they could hold out.

From time to time, there were loose cultivators grabbing a member of the Flying Knife Gang, throwing them out to distract the insects.

And those gang members, once they fell into the black insect swarm, would immediately become immobile, but their bodies... showed no injuries.

...

...

When the black insect swarm started moving, Song Yan felt a strong divine soul threat, a unique sensitivity brought by his "Chang Wang Tiger Blood."

In fact, he could also feel that even if these insects really fell on him and attacked his divine soul, he wouldn't be affected much for the time being.

Because his divine soul still housed many transformed minions, coupled with those soul-capturing black spots, it was more than enough.

At least, the Night Candle Soul Insects attacking divine souls would need an assault battle to deal with him.

"Master, she is still probing you," said the Grandmother Fox. "If you have the Chang Wang Tiger Blood, you won't die immediately; but if you die, it means you don't have the Chang Wang Tiger Blood and are of no value to her, so if you die, you die."

Song Yan looked up at the dull female cultivator suspended in mid-air, and at Hua Linglong who was standing in the distance but ignored by the insects. Moving his hands, his ten fingers immediately linked to ten Demon Beast Shadow Puppets, most of which were intermediate.

The advanced one was a one-tailed fox demon.

And the highest level... was a one-armed shadow puppet made from the body of the Grandmother Fox.

The multi-tailed fox race essence blood of the Grandmother Fox, Song Yan had kept it, and after being in the wilderness for such a long time, naturally made her skin into a three-tailed shadow puppet.

To ensure the restoration of power, he didn't trim much and maintained the original one-armed appearance to use as much skin as possible.

To mislead others, he deliberately bundled the three tails into a "fake tail," making it appear at first glance as just an ordinary one-tailed demonic fox.

This technique, for other Skin Masters, would be impossible, but for him... it was completely doable.

In addition, generally speaking, the skin of a demon at the Crimson Palace level requires many special handling techniques to make a shadow puppet. Song Yan, wanting to create such a level, still needs to learn more advanced magic... However, the "Skin Painting Strange Soul Technique" is indeed somewhat absurd.

The "Deformed Soul" can make up for such shortcomings.

Although it did not, like other demon beasts, "exceedingly perform beyond the power of the original body before death," it could however manifest the power of the one-armed Grandmother Fox without essence blood.

And this... was already the power level of the Middle Stage of the Crimson Palace.

It could be said, if not using essence blood, nor using techniques, just relying on physical and talent alone for a battle, Song Yan with this one-armed Grandmother Fox at the Crimson Palace middle stage could only hold a 50-50 chance, even possibly being suppressed in terms of illusion technique.

In making his move, Song Yan not only concealed his trump card; among these ten shadow puppets, he even hid a "nuclear bomb."

Instantly launching the "Ten-Finger Illusion Skin Technique" mutated twice from ordinary "Skin Control Technique," the deformed soul scattered outwards. Illusions immediately appeared, amidst the hazy ghostly air, flickering with many ghostly figures.

From high above came a heavy exclamation, "This... what is this?!"

Beside, Hua Linglong's beautiful eyes lit up, and she applauded with praise, "As expected of the teacher! Can drive away almost all the Night Candle Soul Insects in the secret realm!

Song Lang, although your methods are not bad, you better concede quickly.

Even if you become ten times stronger, it's useless. The Night Candle Soul Insects are immortal creatures in the night; you will soon be exhausted by these insects."

Above, the dull female cultivator paused for a moment, then coldly glanced at Hua Linglong, no longer pretending to be shocked.

Hua Linglong also quickly shut up and said no more.