Stranger Danger

Ye Qing had to give it to Gong Wuwei. She was stronger than either Mrs. Basket or Mountain Tunneling King, and her Plum Blossom Order Magia was especially powerful.

If he had fought her right after he became a Grandmaster, he still could have dismantled her Magia, but it would not have been nearly as easy.

After he left the Death Sea, he spent his time subsuming the wisp of Profound Yellow Mother Qi he absorbed, tempering his body, and studying the fist intent of the “Three Origin Hammers”. Obviously, it wasn’t an easy art to learn, but thanks to the Dark Overlord’s gift of fist intent, the fact that he witnessed the “Three Origin Hammers” in action back at the Demonbearer Abode, and the fact that he was a body-tempering warrior with the Profound Yellow Mother Qi empowering him, it took him half the effort to progress twice as fast per se. He had already become an initiate by the time he returned to the Temple of Divination.

Becoming an initiate of the “Three Origin Hammers” came with its own perks. It was one of the greatest martial arts out there, so it was only natural that his understanding of fist art, fist intent and fist theory grew by leaps and bounds as well. To give an example, the difference between the current him and who he was after he became a Grandmaster was like night and day.

That was how he was able to break Gong Wuwei’s Magia in one punch.

However, right before his palm would land on Gong Wuwei’s skull, a sudden thump came from inside her body.

He had heard the drumbeat twice before this, but this time, it was a different kind of noise. If before the drumbeat sounded grandiose and upbeat, this was one the complete opposite: dark, eerie, and spine-chilling.

Ye Qing blinked when he felt his right hand being pushed away from Gong Wuwei’s head. Not only that, he could feel the sound seeping into his fingers and spreading across his body.

Shred!

Starting from his right hand, his skin was ripped clean off his flesh like it was fabric. Worse, this was just the beginning. As the anomalous energy continued to spread throughout his body, his skin continued to strip itself from his flesh. It was almost as if it had suddenly gained sentience and were struggling to break free from his body with all their might.

Ye Qing frowned and clenched his right hand. When the five fingers made contact with each other, there was a terrible explosion that sounded as if air itself was crushed within his palm. A series of louder explosions came from inside his body as his muscles and bones tensed up at the same time. It sounded like the march of a divine army: loud, continuous, and grand.

The weaker warriors could not withstand the noise and turned as red as a tomato. Some of them were even bleeding from every orifice.

When the noise had subsided a little, Ye Qing opened his mouth and let loose a puff of murky air. His skin immediately ceased struggling and lay obediently back on his flesh, looking as good as new.

“You’re a body-tempering Grandmaster?!” Gong Wuwei let out a cry of shock when she sensed the vast, turbulent, volcano-like vigor and vitality brimming inside Ye Qing’s body.

The good news was that that brief delay allowed her to put ten meters between herself and Ye Qing.

The bad news was that ten meters of distance was nothing to the young man. She knew this very well.

Not daring to slow down in the slightest, Gong Wuwei summoned a round drum the size of an adult human skull to her palm in one thought.

The round drum was dark yellow in color and seemingly stitched from some sort of leather. It was smooth, flexible, and ancient.

The picture drawn on the drum’s surface was nothing good, however. It described a scene of a group of people being skinned alive. It was bloody and horrifying to look at. Strangely, the victims themselves wore no shock, pain or horror on their faces. In fact, they were smiling as if they were enjoying the gruesome torture. It was eerie to say the least.

The other side of the drum showed a swarm of people performing a sacrifice to the round drum. However, a closer inspection revealed that the people were no people at all. They were all floating skins were empty eye sockets. It was extremely unsettling.

A hint of worry and fear bloomed in Ye Qing’s heart as soon as he saw the round drum Gong Wuwei was holding. Unless he was sorely mistaken, the drumbeats he heard before all came from this drum.

Ye Qing took one step forward and closed the distance between himself and Gong Wuwei in the blink of an eye.

In response, Gong Wuwei made a fist and struck on the side of the drum where a bunch of people were being skinned.

Thump!

The drumbeat felt like the murmurs of some unseen deity. Then, a corruptive power worse than the one that affected earlier broke out.

Despite his preparation, he was unable to stop the sound wave and its anomalous power from invading his body and soul. The next moment, he felt itchy and painful all over as if he was being bitten by a million ants. To call it uncomfortable would be an understatement.

His skin began separating itself from his flesh again. If that was all, it would’ve been fine. The problem was that he suddenly couldn’t feel any itchiness or pain from the parts where his skin was stripped anymore. On the contrary, it was replaced by the most soothing and wonderful sensation ever.

For an instant, he found himself drowning in the intoxicating sensation. He almost wanted to rip off his own skin so he could bask in the wonderful sensation forever.

If even he had lost himself to the indescribable sensation for a moment, those weaker than him could only do worse. The second the drumbeat resounded, countless people lost their skins completely and sprayed blood everywhere. Then, they dropped to the ground and died just like that.

The terrible part was that they were all smiling with ecstasy before they passed away.

Feng Xiong, Cheng Xiuyi, Mrs. Basket, Mountain Tunneling King and other Truemen or Half-step Truemen were the only ones who were able to resist the drumbeat to a certain extent. There was also the fact that the drum’s power was mainly centered around Ye Qing. Otherwise, they might have lost their skin and perished on the spot as well.

Of course, that didn’t mean that they weren’t suffering, or more accurately, drowning in ecstasy. Some parts of their skin had pulled free from their flesh, and some people were clawing at their own skin despite themselves.

Thankfully, Ye Qing was not who he was before. In just a single breath, he regained his senses and channeled his vigor, causing the Profound Yellow Mother Qi to circulate once throughout his whole body and eliminate all traces of the anomalous energy. Then, while shielding his mind and body with the Profound Yellow Mother Qi, he brought his foot down on the ground.

His leg was his mallet, and the ground his drum. When combined, they made a thunderclap.

THUMP!

The ground deflated over three inches before it returned to normal. At the same time, a powerful, loud, vast thump overwhelmed Gong Wuwei’s drumbeat.

Gong Wuwei’s hand froze, and her knees buckled for a moment. Her face had also turned as white as a sheet, though she quickly returned to normal.

Ye Qing did not press his advantage even though he could have. Instead, he stared curiously at the Gong Wuwei’s drum and asked, “Is that the Human Skin Drum?”

“You have sharp eyes, scion.” Gong Wuwei drew in a small breath as unnatural rosiness colored her cheeks. “That’s right. This is the Human Skin Drum.”

At first hearing, the Human Skin Drum sounded like nothing special. In reality, it was a Strange Artifact that struck fear in the hearts of countless jiangwu warriors.

The Human Skin Drum was the sixty-third Disaster-class Strange Artifact in the Strange Artifact Register. Legend had it that it was created by the King of Nanjiang over a thousand years ago. Its main material was human skin, and it was supplemented with heart’s blood and all sorts of natural treasures.

The King of Nanjiang was originally just the leader of a small tribe in a place named Nan Miao. The tribe specialized in the art of skinning and controlling skins, and the Human Skin Drum they made possessed immense power. Strike the drum on one side, and one could skin a group of people in an instant. Strike it on the other, and the skins would fall under their control permanently.

Thanks to the power of the Human Skin Drum, the King of Nanjiang cruelly stripped all of his citizens of their skin to create a fearless human skin army. He used it to wipe out all the factions in Nanjiang and eventually named himself the King of Nanjiang. The Human Skin Drum also became his country’s holy artifact.

It was impossible to say how many lives the Human Skin Drum had taken. Add to the fact that it continuously received the worship of countless people all the time, it grew stronger day by day.

The King of Nanjiang was dissatisfied despite having united the tribes of Nanjiang and appointed himself the King of Nanjiang. Overflowing with ambition, he proceeded to set his sites on the fertile lands of the Central Plain and started a war. Countless lives were lost as a result.

Enraged, the You Emperor mustered an army of one million and personally slew the King of Nanjiang at Fusu Mountain. He then enslaved a hundred thousand Nanjiang natives for the use of the Central Plain.

As for their holy artifact, the Human Skin Drum, it was thrown into the You Emperor’s treasury to rot for eternity.

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