Cultivation through Skin Making novel Chapter 53

Chapter 53: 53. Deformed Soul

Sha sha sha...

The engraving knife alternately chiseled and pushed, pulling out strands of "snowflakes" on the fox demon skin.

This skin was incredibly tough, if Song Yan hadn’t infused the engraving knife with Profound Qi, it probably wouldn’t even make a mark.

At times, the "sha sha" sound turned into the teeth-gnashing "ka ka" sound, as if the blade might snap at any moment.

Clearly, this fox demon was not something a low-level demon beast like the "Two-Headed Wolf" could compare to, yet it still fell short of a strong intermediate demon beast like the "Bodiless Phantom Crow".

However...

Song Yan paused slightly, stroking the skin of the demon.

He could feel that the skin was not yet fully developed.

This was a fox cub that hadn’t matured yet.

If it had matured, it might surpass the "Bodiless Phantom Crow".

Since Fox Grandmother arrived in the Northern Land, it’s been no more than four or five years. If every few days a litter could be born, over time this would accumulate into a "fox cub army" of one or two thousand.

And the fox demon in his hand was merely one among them, and one that hadn’t matured.

Song Yan closed his eyes slightly, recalling the results from the previous Soul Search.

The memory of this man-eating fox demon was quite simple: birth, dominated by "hunger", with a forever echoing gentle and enchanting voice in its mind, "eat, eat, eat, grow quickly, become strong, and return to mother’s side".

The owner of the voice cared not for their life or death.

It relied on some inherent knowledge within its bloodline: deceit, man-eating, growth, and quickly gained wisdom.

Then one day, with a large batch of "brothers and sisters", it broke into the Puppet Sect, swarming from dark corners of deep mountains and thick forests to remote locations to feed on humans.

They were sensitive in perception, flexible in movement, and excelled at changing their appearance with Illusion Techniques. Without specific Magic, few could detect them in the same Realm.

This caused them... in low-level Realm areas, they were completely without natural predators.

Song Yan couldn’t help but think of a description — invasive alien species, ecological disaster outbreak.

In the world before his transmigration, humans stood high, atop the ecological chain, not partaking in the competitive selection of species, treating events like "crayfish invasion" and "rabbit invasion" with a mocking attitude. But in this otherworld... it seemed not to be the case.

Without cultivators, or if the cultivators couldn’t stop them, these "high ecological niche foxes" would eat all the "indigenous humans", turning the place into a demon country solely of fox demons.

In this vast unknown world, humans were just one of many species, neither inferior nor superior, without the privilege of arrogance.

That’s all there was to it.

...

...

Swoosh~

Song Yan raised his hand, shook the crafted shadow puppet, then formed a gesture as if offering incense, bowed slowly towards the shadow puppet, then with one hand pressed it and with the other hand raised and lightly beckoned to the darkness of the void.

The shadow puppet, which should have long been cooled, suddenly gained temperature, its hard surface even having the warm soft touch of a living being.

Yet the hand that summoned the soul became incomparably cold.

Unfathomable chilling ink-like color flowed from Song Yan’s fingertips, stopping on the shadow puppet’s surface, gradually solidifying.

This was the "Summoning" in the "Skin Painting Soul Summoning Technique".

When combined with Skin Master’s "Skin Making Experience", there were three sources for the "soul" in "Summoning".

The first, which was also the most common: the remnant soul of the original owner.

Even after death, the original owner might have shattered remnant souls mingling with the skin. Besides, newly dead souls would linger in the human world for a few days, rapidly shattering and discarding all soul fragments containing this life’s cause and effect before leaving this realm.

The saying "with the body’s death, the Dao disappears, and cause and effect vanish" reflects this logic, subtly implying concepts like "Seven Days" and "Meng Po Soup", which Song Yan understood well.

These fragments are the best source for "Summoning".

To put it plainly, it’s... "must make skin while it’s hot, emphasizing originality".

The second is: solitary souls from the wild.

The Divine Soul Fragments containing cause and effect do not ascend to reincarnation, thus scattered here, combining with Profound Qi to form Evil Qi, or creating some invisible and untouchable "wandering ghosts" that can cause severe illness if bumped into.

Such wandering ghosts are scattered everywhere in this world. When they feel the flesh power from the "shadow puppet", they’ll instinctively come close and be absorbed within, then cluelessly bond with the remnant souls on the "shadow puppet", believing themselves as what the "shadow puppet" depicts.

This is the most common.

But because "it’s not original", the crafted shadow puppet would naturally be a bit inferior.

The third, as speculated by Skin Master: Great Power Remnant Soul.

Skin Master thought, if the death of a being leaves behind Divine Soul Fragments, then if a great power dies, would such fragments also remain? Summoning a great power’s remnant soul into a shadow puppet would unleash a much stronger power.

...

As the Divine Soul gradually coalesced.

Song Yan’s gentle soul-summoning hand suddenly turned violent, tightly grasping the solidifying soul and pressing it into the skin.

This step was the "Skin Painting Slave Soul Technique", evolved from a single mutation of the "Skin Painting Soul Summoning Technique".

The Soul Summoning Technique allowed the soul to enter the skin voluntarily, but it carried risks, and skin masters could very likely fail at this step, leading to the destruction of the shadow puppet and the escaping of the summoned soul.

But Slave Soul entailed no such problem, for regardless of the soul’s willingness, Song Yan would directly press it in.

With the remnant soul of the original owner entering the body, a wisp of Profound Qi shot from Song Yan’s left fingertips, connecting like the strings of a "marionette", controlling the fox demon shadow puppet. The fox demon shadow puppet inflated as if filled with air, rising sharply on the table and moving its legs in a rustling, swaying motion.

But, Song Yan’s right hand did not stop.

That hand continued summoning in the darkness.

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