Cultivation through Skin Making

The taciturn female cultivator, once exposed by Hua Linglong for her tactics, stopped pretending. She soared higher and then raised her hand to press down heavily. The pitch-black swarm of insects fell like a water column directly onto Song Yan.

Song Yan hurriedly dodged while manipulating the shadow puppets with his ten fingers.

The shadow puppets spun around him like a carousel. Supported by Profound Qi, they collided with the black column, emitting a continuous "sizzling" sound, reminiscent of a water mill spinning wildly or a dark waterfall plunging into a deep pool.

Wherever Song Yan dashed, the insect swarm followed.

The insects themselves were not particularly strong and many shattered upon colliding with Song Yan's ten shadow puppets, bursting into pieces and scattering in all directions.

But Song Yan soon noticed that those insects which should have died after exploding quickly flapped their wings again. Even though they appeared deformed, it did not hinder their continued attack. As for the ones turned to dust, an eerie force reassembled them into the "insect form," and they continued to attack.

It was like a super zombie from the Insect Realm, capable of moving even after being shredded or exploded...

This kind of attrition warfare was extremely unfair, and soon, it seemed like a lapse on Song Yan's part allowed a Blood Blade Deer shadow puppet to lag slightly and get struck by the black tide due to insufficient Profound Qi.

In an instant, Song Yan felt the complete severance of his connection with that shadow puppet.

The Blood Blade Deer shadow puppet, which had seemed alive, turned into a lifeless piece of skin, fluttering to the ground. No matter how much Profound Qi he infused, it remained motionless.

In just a moment, the deformed soul within had been dispersed by the black insect tide.

In his moment of surprise, Song Yan could only focus more, controlling the remaining nine shadow puppets in a state of "barely holding on."

High in the sky, the taciturn female cultivator looked at him dully and coldly said, "If this is all you have, there's no need for you to accompany me to the Mountain and Sea Demon Country. Die."

In the next moment, another black insect tide fell from the sky.

Boom!

Another shadow puppet exploded.

Song Yan's expression froze instantly, shouting in shock, "Why can you control all the insects in the Secret Realm? Wh... why?!"

The taciturn female cultivator remained expressionless, though anyone could sense her profound disappointment.

She did not answer but continued maintaining the magic.

The black night candle soul insects converged from all directions within the Secret Realm. From the sky, they appeared as numerous long pythons, twisting and winding, rubbing against the mountains with strange scales, producing a ceaseless clamor of overlapping dense noise.

Hua Linglong saw Song Yan struggling desperately, on the brink of death, and her eyes showed an unwillingness to look. Biting her lip, she took a deep breath, intending to beg for Song Yan's life, but was suddenly interrupted by a sudden "boom."

The black insect tide that nearly engulfed Song Yan exploded unexpectedly. Everything near the center turned into black powder and then swiftly burned.

A searing, indescribable force, like a molten furnace, erupted from the dense red-black burning insect carcasses.

Hua Linglong could barely make it out, but she recognized a red meteor soaring into the sky, colliding with the taciturn female cultivator, then dragging her down with it. Amidst the loud echoes and vibrations, the earth and insect tide were reduced to water, spreading to the surroundings.

Dust surged immediately.

When it cleared, Hua Linglong hurried closer, only to see that the taciturn female cultivator was being pressed to the ground by Song Yan with one hand.

The female cultivator's skin was gone, and so was her face, leaving only a bizarre human-faced insect.

The insect's four limbs were intact, but they had turned into strange insect legs, and the suckers at the bottom reinforced the adhesion of the human skin.

The human-faced insect screeched in anger, "You deceived me?!"

The entire insect was trembling.

Shaking with rage!

Hua Linglong had never seen it so angry.

Yet, upon reflection, she understood.

Before, the insect pretended to be shocked to deceive Song Yan, but was exposed by her, so it stopped. But who would have thought it would fall for the same trick by Song Yan in the blink of an eye?

It had been lulled into complacency and didn't even have time to escape...

It wasn't originally Song Yan's match in solo combat. It relied on manipulating the Secret Realm to contend with Song Yan...

The gap between it and Song Yan was actually enormous, but it realized too late...

In the moment it underestimated Song Yan due to his "shock performance," it had already lost.

If it had realized sooner, it would have kept its distance and used the night candle soul insects to grind Song Yan down.

Recalling Song Yan's mere semblance of struggle and shocked shouting, Hua Linglong couldn't help but twitch at the corner of her mouth... and remembering his "performance" in Celestial Cloud City, her mouth twitched even more.

Nonetheless, Song Yan was exceedingly terrifying, and his explosive power far exceeded her imagination.

...

...

Song Yan looked at the bizarre human-faced giant insect without speaking, raising his finger to jab forcefully.

But he chose not to use the "Changwang Hu's" power, instead employing the "Ghost Slayer Soul Revival Technique."

Instantly, initiating the Soul Search...

But just as he was about to devour the soul, he suddenly felt the soul he touched explode rapidly, dissipating instantly into nothingness.

Soon after, the human-faced giant insect began to decay rapidly.

Song Yan pulled back to a safe distance.

Amid the decaying human-faced giant insect, a strange golden dot emerged slowly, sesame-sized, hovering motionlessly in mid-air.

Grandmother Fox's voice echoed in Song Yan's mind, "Master, one day, if I were to be possessed and then soul-searched, I would also disappear like him."