Chapter 131 - 124 Tattoo Transformation

Chapter 131: Chapter 124 Tattoo TransformationThe frenzied world that Peng Long and the Spiritual Snake witnessed was a road, bustling with pedestrians, where a man holding a Ghost Head Blade killed on sight; with one swing, heads spun into the air, quick to dye the world red with blood. Every decapitation by the man aggravated Peng Long’s mental frenzy further, and given the man’s swift execution, Peng Long’s mind spiraled into madness at an alarming rate. As for the tide of whispers, "Kill, kill, kill!" "All people should die, kill! Kill!" "Anyone who walks this world bears sin, and deserves to die, deserves to be killed!" The content of the whispers was violent, enticing Peng Long and also corrupting the Spiritual Snake. Peng Long felt the Spiritual Snake becoming violent and uncontrollable, filled with festering resentment, beginning to tremble within his skin, attempting to turn itself around. Peng Long knew all too well what it meant for the tattoo to turn itself around. "Little Hu, Quickest, dig out the Spiritual Snake from my body!" Peng Long instinctively sought Peng Hu’s help, but his mind was already in extreme disarray, while Zhou Xuan, with his superior Perception, located the direction of the Spiritual Snake’s Perception, connected, and instilled madness and corruption... The Spiritual Snake went mad; Peng Long’s mind held onto merely a sliver of clarity, and it wasn’t realistic to rely on this faint lucidity to control his body and send out a distress signal. The Spiritual Snake was still turning around, initially just with intent, but once it truly began the turn, Peng Hu finally noticed the signs on his brother’s body. His actions were decisive, first conjuring a Bone Needle, piercing Peng Long’s tear duct. When the flesh began to peel away, he used the needle to catch the edge of the skin, to tear and peel it off— —to strip away the skin of his brother’s face, neck, in short, any skin that bore the Spiritual Snake. It wasn’t that he was heartless, As a member of the Ancient Tattoo Clan, he knew this was the only way to resist the "Tattoo Transformation." He moved with ruthless efficiency and sharpness, but in absolute time, he was still half a second too slow. Half a second determined his brother’s life and death. Just as he lifted the last small patch of skin bearing the "Spiritual Snake tattoo," intending to sever it with the sharp point of the Bone Needle, the Spiritual Snake had already completely turned its form inside the skin. Its dorsal scales were all raised, each muscle brimming with sinewy strength, as it swam deeper into the skin, into Peng Long’s flesh. "Ah!" Peng Long’s pained howl arose; a thick and lengthy bulge formed in his throat, like a long embankment. The "embankment" was twisting rapidly, meandering through every corner of his body, accompanied by the sounds of gnawing flesh and crunching bone, his figure quickly withering away, like a popped balloon. "Brother!" Peng Hu knelt before Peng Long, watching helplessly as his brother transformed from a living person to an empty piece of skin. After the last morsel of flesh was consumed, the Spiritual Snake reemerged quietly on Peng Long’s skin, the sense of grievance and vitality gone, as if a dead image. "Nuo God, you killed my brother!" Peng Hu pummeled the human skin, then clenched his fist, wanting vengeance, his eyes glued to the floating Bone Needle, anger filling his gaze. ... Yunluo Mountain Range, Sacrificial site, The Copper Coin Priest poked his cane furiously into the ground, seething with anger, not because of Peng Long’s death at the hands of the Spiritual Snake tattoo, or because of Zhou Xuan’s overpowering Perception. His anger never arose for any particular clan member; he saw the Ancient Clan as a whole and was enraged for the clan as a whole. "Peng Long Peng Hu, you two are too foolish! Underestimating the power of the Nuo God, death is your cost! This is the punishment from Lord of the Netherworld Stone!" In the heart of the Copper Coin Priest, Peng Long’s true cause of death was his underestimation, thinking Zhou Xuan’s Incense Fire Level was low, daring to release all his Perception to probe for Zhou Xuan’s location. "Peng Hu, go back, return to where you live; you are no longer suited to watch over the Nuo God, Do you hear me, go back; you just need to focus on coordinating the Legend of the Hundred Spirits!" Peng Hu, ensnared in intense hatred, did not take the Copper Coin Priest’s words to heart. He wanted revenge. "Go back!" The Copper Coin Priest, furious, shook his entire body of "copper coin tattoos," their clinking reverberating as he forcefully drove his fingertip into a copper coin, then ferociously dug that "copper coin" from his body. Upon murmuring a Spell, the copper coin melted away... ... Peng Hu draped Peng Long’s human skin over himself, tying his brother’s arms around his neck to prevent them from being blown away by the rooftop’s strong wind during the upcoming battle with Zhou Xuan. He walked towards the rooftop; Zhou Xuan’s Perception was also released. He pulled out his folded fan and gavel; Lv Kunming had the Bamboo Leaf Blade in hand. The standoff between the two, separated only by a rooftop iron door. The moment Peng Hu stood in front of the door, revealing the left hand gecko tattoo, a copper coin tattoo appeared on his neck. The copper coin had the intent to turn itself around; the edges trembled with a rustling sound. The scent of death suddenly intensified. "Peng Hu, enough! Because of your stupidity, your underestimation, you have exposed the weaknesses of the Ancient Tattoo Clan in front of the Nuo God, Every time a weakness is exposed, it will become the Nuo God’s fatal strike to the Tattooed Clan members! What else do you want to do? With your foolishness, with your life, continue to expose more weaknesses of the clan members in front of the Nuo God? Do you think you can overcome the Nuo God? With your level of Incense Fire? Go back, before I completely lose my reason, I do not wish for a clan member’s life to be taken by me." A succession of admonishments, along with the threat of the copper coin tattoo, helped bring clarity back to Peng Hu’s eyes. He looked at his brother’s skin, tears streaming, and finally turned away, descending the stairs with heavy steps leaden as if filled with lead. ... The overwhelming pressure gradually dissipated. Zhou Xuan put away the folded fan and gavel. "Who are they?" Lv Kunming asked. "The Ancient Tattoo Clan." Zhou Xuan never expected that by trying to use his heightened perception to contaminate and track the Tattooed Clan, disrupting their minds so he could plead for the "person" at the pharmacy entrance to wash away injustice, he would inadvertently discover the Tattoo Clan’s weakness. The Tattooed Clan can possess many miraculous abilities through tattoos, but those tattoos are not real tattoos; they are Evil Ghosts nurtured in human skin. Evil Ghosts and humans coexist over a long period to achieve a delicate balance. But once this balance is broken, the backlash brought by the Evil Ghosts is extremely terrifying. The members of the Tattoo Clan have almost no ability to resist this backlash. "The Ancient Tattoo Clan?" Lv Mingkun feared he had misheard and asked again. Zhou Xuan didn’t keep secrets and frankly replied: "Yes, those Tattoo Evil Ghosts." He indirectly killed Peng Long with his perception, and then confronted Peng Hu; these acts were known by the Ancient Clan through the ancient clan link on his body, Pretending not to know that the people tracking him were "Tattoo Clan" would seem forced. Zhou Xuan only had to pretend he didn’t know he was tagged by the Ancient Clan to continue the charade with them. "Really Tattoo Evil Ghosts?" Lv Mingkun was somewhat surprised: "The oppressive feeling from that person earlier was too strong. Even two against one, we might not be sure to win." "As long as he dares to make a move, we are sure to win," Zhou Xuan said. "I have grasped two of their weaknesses, each one is fatal." His Sukuna Hand can reach into the skin to grasp and pull out the tattoo! Furthermore, once the Tattoo Clan uses their abilities, they could also be contaminated by his perception. As long as the Tattooed Clan makes the first move, Zhou Xuan can completely counteract the tattoo. Without their tattoos, the Tattoo Evil Ghosts can only rely on their Bone Needle. "My dream can make his Bone Needle temporarily lose its target." When Zhou Xuan ascended to the second incense fire level, his dreams could entangle the Human Turtle for a long time, even under the Human Turtle’s use of the "Eye of Illusion Breaking," which was a countermeasure against dreams. A member of the Tattoo Clan with only a Bone Needle had no way to counteract the storyteller’s dreams. Even if their incense fire level was two levels higher, they would only be entangled by the dream for longer. Zhou Xuan could fully generate dreams, entangle Peng Hu, and then have Lv Mingkun act as the slicer, with two quick blades to kill Peng Hu. "So you have calculated all of this? Since we have such a great chance of winning, why don’t we take the initiative to pursue?" Lv Mingkun questioned. "Because we can only defend, not attack. Before he makes a move, I can’t contaminate his tattoo. If his tattoo can unleash its power, that’s a real Tattoo Evil Ghost!" Zhou Xuan opened the door to the rooftop and walked downstairs: "Let’s go, Fifth Senior Brother, we still need to keep looking for Du Kaili." ... Under the Ancestor Tree of Zhou Family’s Troupe, Zhou Lingyi, with a smile on her face, said to Yuan Buyu beside her: "Elder Yuan, my brother has accidentally discovered the Tattoo’s weakness." The situations with Peng Long and Peng Hu were only detected by Zhou Xuan using his perception. The connection with the Ancestor Tree could not observe this scene. Therefore, Zhou Lingyi could only infer what may have happened during Zhou Xuan’s fight from her brother’s chat with Lv Mingkun and could not witness it herself. "My disciple is naturally the bane of the Tattoo Clan. Master Zhou, what do you think the Ancient Tattoo Clan is following my disciple for?" "I’m not sure." Zhou Lingyi said, "However, the risk is not great for the time being. If only a few people from the Ancient Tattoo Clan make their appearance in Mingjiang Prefecture at a time, the God Traveling Department will not sit by and ignore them." "If it’s just a few men from the Ancient Tattoo Clan, they are no match for my disciple and Lao Wu." "Sister doesn’t know yet, Fifth Senior Brother is not at all afraid of the Tattoo Clan’s Bone Needles; that’s the natural talent of a corpse speaker. Together, just a few Tattoo Evil Ghosts are nothing more than their prey." Corpse Speaker was the former name for the Wuzuo Tangkou. ... The Copper Coin Priest was both angry and frustrated, angry that the emerged members of the Ancient Clan were starting to ignore his authority, and depressed that Zhou Xuan had truly grasped the weakness of the tattoos. "Peng Qing, send the Shi Family’s four brothers to Mingjiang Prefecture..." The death of Peng Long made the Copper Coin Priest realize Zhou Xuan was much more difficult to deal with than the Nuodai from the previous generations of the Zhou Family. "Having the Nuo God’s Hand, he is indeed not comparable to any ordinary Nuodai. This opportunity must be seized; as long as we retrieve the Nuo God, the Tattoo Clan will ascend through the Jade Gate." He looked up at the sky, feeling the rolling layers of the cloud sea above, where a wide and massive gate of dark jade shone brilliantly. ... At Mingdong Shande Hospital’s pharmacy. It was mealtime, and most doctors had gone to eat, Lv Mingkun asked a nurse on duty: "Hello, we have an appointment with Dr. Du, is she here?" "Dr. Du Kaili?" "Yes." "She’s on shift in the afternoon, she comes at two-thirty." "Then we’ll wait for her, thank you." While Lv Mingkun was inquiring about the news, Zhou Xuan, who was standing in the corridor, felt someone writing behind his back again, with the Wash Away Injustice Talisman on his chest vibrating. "Appealing for injustice." Zhou Xuan turned around, but there was clearly no one there, not even a ghost’s shadow to be seen. "Who is it writing behind my back?" Zhou Xuan released his perception, but still, no one was there. "Could it be related to the Wash Away Injustice Talisman?" Just as the thought crossed Zhou Xuan’s mind, he reached into his inner pocket, pressing against the Wash Away Injustice Talisman’s cover, and suddenly he saw a "person"...