73: Painted Skin Ghost (Part 3)

Liao Yuan watched as his junior brother was surrounded by the bustling crowd of pedestrians, his heart filled with extreme anxiety.

With a flash of his silhouette, he leaped out from the high windowsill. This jump down was actually five stories high!

However, what was truly staggering was that from the moment he jumped to the moment he landed, the entire process took less than two short seconds!

"Amitabha! Benefactors, please listen to this poor monk. My junior brother does not have any protective items on him." Liao Yuan pressed his palms together, while the Buddhist beads in his hand began to move rapidly.

In that instant, the noisy crowd of elderly men and women suddenly seemed as if a freezing spell had been cast upon them, and they all fell silent.

Their eyes widened, staring blankly at the setting sun, their gazes hollow and lifeless, as still as wooden chickens.

Then, one after another, they turned around and walked toward their respective homes, muttering, "Amitabha... protective talisman..."

Billowing black smoke rose continuously into the air, and the pungent, foul smell of a decaying corpse drifted everywhere with the breeze.

Yan Xiaoyan's body had already been completely swallowed by the raging flames, her entire form resembling an incredibly scorching fireball.

Under the frantic licking of the tongues of fire, she struggled in agony.

Skin and flesh peeled away from each other at an alarming speed, and waves of intense, burnt stench wafted over. The police officers leaned against their patrol cars, vomiting uncontrollably.

"Holy crap! It's like a biological weapon!"

"I can't take it anymore. I'm going to puke."

"Captain Mo, I really can't hold it in. This doesn't count as embarrassing the Special Affairs Bureau, does it?"

...The scene was as if what was being burned by the fire was not a living person, but a corpse that had long since rotted, emitting waves of putrid stench!

Meanwhile, Liao Chen came to a sudden halt just over a meter away from Yan Xiaoyan's remains.

He silently gazed at everything before him, his eyes fixed on the charred human skin, but he remained silent throughout.

But for some reason, the warning signs in his heart did not diminish but instead increased, and an indescribable sense of unease welled up within him.

[Third-tier Painted Skin Ghost methods—Skinning, Golden Cicada Sheds Its Shell, Skin Swapping...]

In an instant, it was as if a ray of Buddhist light flashed through Liao Chen's mind.

"Oh no, Senior Brother! It's the Golden Cicada Sheds Its Shell. This Painted Skin's strength was too weak."

Liao Chen secretly cried out in alarm. With a flash of his silhouette, he leaped up to the fifth floor and once again smashed through the kitchen window to burst into the living room.

The next second, he saw Mo Yuze lying across the living room floor, covered in blood.

A wound had appeared on his abdomen, blood gushing out continuously, and even a small section of his intestines was exposed!

Liao Chen's heart sank. He instantly cast aside his cherish for the temple's secret Ganlu Pills, taking out three without hesitation and stuffing them into Mo Yuze's mouth.

Fortunately, the medicinal effects of the Ganlu Pills were extraordinary, and they managed to barely stabilize Mo Yuze's injuries, saving his life.

Just then, Liao Yuan also flew up. Seeing Officer Mo lying in a pool of blood, he asked anxiously, "Senior Brother, how is Officer Mo?"

Liao Chen took a deep breath, calming the waves in his heart, and replied, "Fortunately, his life is temporarily out of danger. Go and pursue the Painted Skin's true body immediately!"

"Understood!" Before his voice had even faded, Liao Yuan performed his movement technique again, leaping through the living room's floor-to-ceiling window and landing steadily at the end of the alley.

He reached into the storage bag at his waist, took out a stick of soul-chasing incense, and with a light rub of his finger, the incense offering was instantly lit.

Liao Yuan followed the wisp of blue smoke closely, his pace like the wind, reaching the West Alley entrance after a few quick steps.

The entire process was as fast as lightning, taking no more than a few dozen seconds from start to finish.

After looking around and searching the area, he still failed to find any trace of the Painted Skin.

"Truly cunning to the extreme!" Liao Yuan whispered to himself.

[Even if it used the Golden Cicada Sheds Its Shell technique, vanishing so quickly into thin air is truly inconceivable. Even the soul-chasing incense cannot capture its whereabouts.]

Doubts flashed through his mind as Liao Yuan stood rooted to the spot, looking around, the palm of his hand gripping the soul-chasing incense tighter and tighter.

"How detestable!"

At the narrow entrance of West Alley, the ground was covered with messy, scattered vegetable leaves.

A vegetable vendor was hurriedly packing up his stall, while nearby, a middle-aged man wearing a tank top and large shorts held a broom, sweeping away the rotten leaves.

Liao Yuan's gaze had originally swept past that area hurriedly.

But suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck his mind, and he snapped his head back, staring at the middle-aged man again.

"That person..."

"Shouldn't he be in the morgue?"

Although it was just a fleeting glimpse, Liao Yuan still clearly and unmistakably recognized that the face before him was one he had seen in a photograph at the Special Affairs Bureau—Qin Tan, the boss of the underground casino in C City!!!

Just as this thought crossed his mind, the middle-aged man, as if sensing it, turned his head and cast a sharp glance in this direction.

His face, which had been obscured by shadows, was now fully revealed before Monk Liao Yuan.

Liao Yuan stared at him intently, only to see the man's lips curl into a provocative smile as he muttered, "Useless bald donkey!"

After cursing, the middle-aged man tossed aside the broom he was holding.

"Evil creature, do not be so arrogant!" Liao Yuan's eyes turned cold as his hands formed a seal and he began to chant the Golden Light Incantation.

Suddenly, a beam of golden light shot from his hand, heading straight for the middle-aged man's vital point.

Seeing this, the middle-aged man twisted his spine, folding his body in half to dodge the attack.

He then pulled out a poison-laced short sword from his robes and lunged at Liao Yuan.

Liao Yuan sidestepped the attack and kicked the middle-aged man's wrist. The short sword flew out of the man's hand into the air.

Taking the opportunity, Liao Yuan closed in and struck the middle-aged man's chest with his palm.

The middle-aged man smiled triumphantly and flew back several meters.

Liao Yuan sensed something was wrong and was about to step forward when he saw the middle-aged man turn into a cloud of black mist and vanish.

"He actually got away..." Liao Yuan stomped his foot in frustration.

In the blink of an eye, the middle-aged man had reached the Linyuan Street intersection. Before anyone could react, he grabbed a taxi driver waiting at a red light and threw him out with force.

He then quickly slid into the driver's seat and skillfully started the engine.

This series of smooth, fluid actions was actually completed in just two short seconds!

Obviously, the escape route had been meticulously planned and prepared for a long time.

So much so that Monk Liao Yuan had no time to make any further reaction.

In the blink of an eye, the taxi sped away from the Linyuan Street intersection like a runaway horse.

Leaving the taxi driver standing there cursing loudly, waving his arms frantically as he tried to chase after it.

However, after chasing for a short while, he was so out of breath that he had to lean against a roadside tree to stop and catch his breath.

"Damn idiot! What bad luck to run into a taxi highjacker."