Chapter Seventy-Two: Come and Kill Me! Double Awards!

Lin Yi smiled faintly. While the middle-aged men thought the matter was unsolvable, and the Skinwalker Ghost believed that even if Lin Yi agreed, he would have to argue first, Lin Yi did something completely unexpected—he simply peeled off his t-shirt with a crisp motion.

The newly changed t-shirt had already showcased the brand’s allure, but once Lin Yi took it off, his charm only heightened. His bare-chested figure, with those well-defined yet understated muscles and sculpted abs, was enough to drive countless young women wild and fill countless young men with envy.

Lin Yi pointed to the spot above his heart, then to his neck, and addressed the Skinwalker Ghost, “Alright, let them go. Just come at me. Attach that black smoky thread connecting others’ hearts to mine instead.”

“I...”

The Skinwalker Ghost had meant to say more, but Lin Yi was not following any expected script. The ghost hadn’t even gotten around to making many threats, and yet Lin Yi was already courting death, volunteering himself to take the place of these civilians and stepping forward as if seeking his own demise.

Lin Yi’s demeanor was unmistakably sincere. For a long moment, the Skinwalker Ghost’s face lit up with delight and he burst into laughter.

“You want to die yourself? I’ll grant your wish! I just love cultivators like you, who would rather die than see innocents perish. What a fool, what a wonderful fool…”

Still laughing, the Skinwalker Ghost’s skeletal fingers, trailing with black smoky threads, reached out—one bony hand after another, all grasping toward Lin Yi.

If those hands closed around him, those elongated, skeletal fingers would crush Lin Yi’s entire body in an instant.

But just as those bony hands were about to touch Lin Yi, the Skinwalker Ghost let out a blood-curdling scream.

A harsh, burning sound filled the air.

A wave of putrid stench burst forth!

Within Lin Yi, the energy of the “Great Void Sutra” surged relentlessly. This pure, blazing yang energy incinerated everything, released without restraint.

In the blink of an eye, all the black smoky threads connected to the Skinwalker Ghost’s fingers were completely incinerated.

The people in the distance, clutching their hearts in agony, suddenly found the pain gone and their minds instantly cleared.

The two middle-aged men who hadn’t yet lost consciousness broke into delighted smiles. “Nice one, Lin Yi! You really came through for us.”

...

“Impossible… You and I have the same cultivation level and equal energy, so why, why? What is this technique? What kind of cultivation art is this?”

The Skinwalker Ghost, shrieking in disbelief, could not fathom what he was seeing. He was about to fail? Lin Yi possessed the same cultivation and energy as himself, and had willingly allowed him to strike, yet he couldn’t do a thing?

What on earth was happening?

Dazed and stunned, Lin Yi suddenly leaped forward. With the sounds of cracking and shattering, the bones on the Skinwalker Ghost’s body—once smeared with bits of flesh—were smashed to pieces under Lin Yi’s relentless fists.

With a mighty leap, Lin Yi soared five meters into the air, nearly hovering, and after pulverizing the mass of bones, found himself directly above the Skinwalker Ghost’s forehead.

Amid the ghost’s furious howls, Lin Yi pointed to his own badge. “Come, take a look at my badge. This is the energy meter on my wrist. The demon before me has reached a grim energy value of 9,999—so, after I kill it, how many upgrade points do I get?”

---

Lin Yi didn’t spare the Skinwalker Ghost so much as a glance, leaving the creature feeling utterly dejected—as if he wasn’t even worthy to carry Lin Yi’s shoes. Was he not even worth a single look?

Before the Skinwalker Ghost could utter any last words, Lin Yi’s fist came crashing down on its skull, giving it no chance to complain.

His fist seemed to blaze with fire, and the Skinwalker Ghost began to emit greenish smoke—the head instantly melted away.

In the end, flesh and bone alike were incinerated completely. Truly, as the saying goes: Heaven and earth are vast, but you, Skinwalker Ghost, have left nothing behind.

With several clattering noises, as the grotesque demon fox Skinwalker Ghost vanished, a rainbow of lights flashed and shot skyward, swiftly being collected into the mysterious space within the “Godslayer Tome,” disappearing within its pages.

“Abnormal Demon Fox Skinwalker Ghost sealed and recorded. Reward: Yellow-grade Mid-Tier Breath Concealment Technique. Reward: Profound-grade Low-Tier Soul-Calming Pill.”

“Yellow-grade Mid-Tier Breath Concealment Technique: A cultivation method that allows the user to suppress and hide their internal energy, deceiving enemies and playing the fool to catch the tiger.”

“Profound-grade Low-Tier Soul-Calming Pill: A soul pill. If the soul of someone at the same or lower level is damaged, as long as there is the slightest spark of life, it can be fully restored.”

The rewards were delivered, and this time there were two!

What most caught Lin Yi’s eye was the Profound-grade Low-Tier Soul-Calming Pill. With this pill, even if his soul were wounded, he need not worry. Aside from the body, the most important thing in a person is the soul—the three spiritual and seven corporeal souls, that is, consciousness itself.

With this pill, even in the face of disaster, he would be safe. He wondered, if he broke it apart and took just a piece, would each fragment have the same effect?

Lin Yi’s thoughts began to wander, spiraling into a brainstorm.

Still, he was also quite interested in the Yellow-grade Mid-Tier Breath Concealment Technique. Of all the rewards he’d received, yellow-grade was the lowest, but if used well, this technique could completely fool enemies! Don’t underestimate its low rank—it’s easier to master, and once mastered, perfectly sufficient.

In the hierarchy of Heaven, Earth, Black, and Yellow, yellow-grade skills were considered comparable to grandmaster-level techniques—rare and precious. Every one of them was a great opportunity. He had to master the Breath Concealment Technique—then he could play the fool and ambush his foes.

See? The “Godslayer Tome” had become so user-friendly, it even started using phrases like “playing the fool to catch the tiger.”

As the tome absorbed the demon fox’s spectral lights, its pages flipped rapidly, finally settling on the entry for the Abnormal Demon Fox Skinwalker Ghost. The previously gray illustration now filled with color, and the more vivid it became, the more revolting the ghost looked.

Lin Yi noticed that the original gray illustrations in the tome differed greatly from the revolting, flesh-draped skeleton the Skinwalker Ghost had just revealed.

A torrent of memories flooded his mind: scenes of cruelty tinged with helplessness.

Just as with the abnormal demon fox he’d slain before in Qinghe, this one too had endured a tumultuous path of cultivation.

---

The reason it had killed far more people than its mate, and grown so much stronger, could be summed up in one word: it was more ruthless, more heartless, and had slain many cultivators.

After slaying its mate last time, there had been a memory: a rainy night, the other abnormal demon fox exchanged a smile with a burly man, who drew a fingernail across his own forehead—skin peeled away with a crisp sound.

The fox and that skin merged perfectly—this was the sign of the Skinwalker Ghost’s ultimate transformation, showcasing the terrifying power of the one Lin Yi had just destroyed.

That was, in fact, the form the Skinwalker Ghost most often assumed.

The middle-aged man’s forehead bore a scar—a crescent-shaped mark.

...

Outside the cave, rain poured down in torrents.

Inside, seven foxes lazed in sleep. One was particularly ugly, but lived well. Of the litter its mother had given birth to, there were six in total. Despite its looks, there’s a saying: ugly ones are treasures, and ugly foxes even more so.

As the only male among its siblings, the fox, though unattractive, had been spoiled from birth.

Just like many humans, its mother cherished it dearly, afraid it would melt in her mouth or break in her hands.

She had little interest in anything except shiny objects—sparkling, glimmering, and dazzling. She’d collected quite a few over the years.

The cave was tucked away in a remote part of the mountain range, rarely visited by humans.

Years passed, and as the mother fox grew stronger and more skilled, she found ever more brilliant treasures.

At some point, human craftsmanship advanced: better cuts, flashier designs. The mother fox changed—she developed a taste for these more sophisticated human-made ornaments. The natural allure of gemstones no longer satisfied her.

But as the saying goes, walk by the river often and your shoes will get wet; hunt geese daily and one day a goose will peck your eye. Such are the eternal laws of cause and effect.

One day, the mother returned, but her leg was lame. In the dappled sunlight, her leg dripped blood, staining the grass and flowers a vivid red. Her voice, when she returned, carried a note of weeping.

Her cries, like a sudden downpour, roused all seven kits in a flurry.

That was when they heard the voices of humans.

To them, human voices meant battle, meant death, meant the end.

“Hahaha… There’s a hoard of gold and silver in this cave—we’re rich today!”

“Who would’ve thought? That was a fox with real intelligence, daring enough to steal from our jewelry shop—and it even bit someone! We can’t let that go unavenged. This fox is a bit stupid, though. It has no idea how advanced human methods have become these days. The taser must’ve shocked it badly, but let’s finish it off. There’s bound to be a trove of treasures in its lair!”