Ma Laotou felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.
Without time to react, he was abruptly pulled by that cold, sallow hand and dragged under the car.
"Ahhh——"
He screamed, struggling like an insect for its life.
Fortunately, it was difficult for an adult to crawl under a car. His hand was dragged under, but his body got stuck in the gap between the car and the ground.
That boneless hand extended longer and longer, slithering up his arm like a snake, coiling around it, and moving toward his head.
He could clearly feel the cold, slightly elastic touch.
It's the feel of human skin.
"Help! Help!"
Ma Lao San was more than just a split scalp; his whole body felt like it was splitting apart. With all his strength, he cried for help frantically.
"Ma Lao San, what are you doing?"
Hu Zi was closest to Ma Lao San and was the first to run over. Seeing Ma Lao San struggling wildly, stuck by the car, he couldn't help but be full of confusion.
Lu Fei and Liang Ge also heard the commotion and were hurrying back.
"Hu Zi, save me, quick…"
The hand Ma Lao San had exposed reached out desperately toward Hu Zi, as if grasping for a lifeline.
"What the heck?"
Hu Zi was alarmed and uncertain, but still pulled on Ma Lao San.
Just at this moment.
A weird, yellowish hand suddenly emerged from behind Ma Laosan's neck and crawled towards his head.
"What the hell!"
Huzi was greatly startled.
"Help me…"
The hand crawled over Ma Laosan's mouth, over his nose, toward his forehead, heading straight for the wound on the top of his head, seemingly trying to tear his skin off from head to toe.
"I'm on it!"
Huzi quickly swung his ghost-head saber and carefully slashed at the eerie hand.
The blade fell heavily, as if chopping a ball.
The hand dented in the middle.
"Ah!"
Old Ma San screamed even louder. The ghost-headed knife was as if hacking at his face; although it wouldn't cut the skin, it still left a deep red mark.
"Don't move around!"
Hu Zi pressed down hard on that hand.
But this hand was not at all afraid of the ghost-headed knife. Although it was restrained, its fingers kept elongating, stretching like rubber, tenaciously crawling towards Old Ma San's scalp.
Feeling those icy cold fingers inch closer to the wound on his scalp, Old Ma San turned pale.
Fortunately, Lu Fei and Brother Liang arrived just in time.
Seeing this scene, they were immediately shocked.
Lu Fei hurriedly infused half his magical power into a stick and swung it at the human-skin hand.
Faint blue electric arcs flickered.
"Ah!"
The human skin glove suddenly trembled, letting out a hoarse roar, and a wisp of black gas emanated from it. Then, like a deflated ball, it visibly shrunk back to its original size at an observable speed, quivering slightly.
"It's not dead yet!"
Clearly, one blow wasn't enough to finish it off.
"Huzi, don't let go!"
Lu Fei told Huzi to keep holding down the glove, and he once again channeled half of his magical power to strike the trembling glove.
A flash of electricity streaked by.
Another wisp of black gas emerged, and the glove struggled like an insect for a few moments before finally coming to a complete stop.
"Boss, is it over now?"
Just as Huzi was about to breathe a sigh of relief, Lu Fei shook his head with a grave expression.
"Not yet, this evil thing has killed at least three people, it won't be that easy. Put it away first and think of another way!"
With the magic power in his dantian temporarily exhausted, Lu Fei felt dizzy. After taking a deep breath, he put on the special gloves from Sinisterium Pawnshop.
"I will get the box."
Liang Ge immediately found the box for the skinning knife from the car.
"Lu Fei, be careful."
"Mm."
Lu Fei put on the gloves and carefully reached out to the leather sheath.
But Ma Laosan's body trembled like a shaking sieve, and blood kept flowing down from his head, staining the leather sheath red.
The leather sheath struggled again.
As soon as Lu Fei's fingers touched the leather sheath, he felt a bone-chilling cold penetrating through the gloves, reaching all the way to his finger bones.
In addition to the cold, there was also a strange, elastic sensation to the touch.
"Human skin! This sheath is made of human skin!" Although Lu Fei had already guessed as much, he was still slightly startled.
The sheath twisted and struggled desperately.
Old Ma San's face was full of pain; perhaps the ghost-head knife was pressing too tightly, his head began to retreat, causing the knife tip to loosen slightly.
"Don't move!" Lu Fei shouted, quickly grabbing one end of the sheath.
The sheath stretched forward with all its might, rupturing and leaving behind a piece of broken skin. It slipped out from under the ghost-head knife and darted into the dark underside of the car.
"After it!"
Lu Fei, greatly alarmed, hurriedly bent down to look underneath the car.
Brother Liang, carrying the box, started running to the other side of the car.
It was pitch black under the car, and nothing could be seen.
Lu Fei took out his phone and shone the flashlight inside.
A curved blood trail extended from under the car to the rear.
"Brother Liang, it ran to the back of the car."
Lu Fei took off in pursuit.
Brother Liang followed closely behind.
"Boss." Hu Zi also wanted to help.
"Hu Zi, don't come, quickly call an ambulance." Lu Fei shouted as he ran, following the blood trail.
Ma Lao San had lost a lot of blood, and if he wasn't taken to the hospital soon, there might really be a risk to his life.
Although he wasn't a good person, he couldn't be left to die here.
"Yes!"
Huzi resisted the urge to follow, stopped in his tracks, and glanced back at Ma Laosan.
Ma Laosan was lying weakly, his face covered in blood, his skin deathly pale, his eyes slightly rolled up as he was about to lose consciousness.
Huzi called an ambulance, watching Lu Fei and Liang Ge speed away into the night, his heart filled with anxiety and worry.
The night was very dark on the small path.
Lu Fei, holding a flashlight, and Liang Ge followed the fainting trail of blood on the ground.
But when they reached a river, the blood trail disappeared completely.
"Damn!"
Liang Ge, staring at the pitch-black river, couldn't help but stomp his foot in frustration.
The river was long, with gentle flowing water.
The leather pouch was only as big as a finger, and finding it in the river was like looking for a needle in a haystack.
"Damn it! We were so close! If it got away this time, will we ever have another chance to find it?"
Liang Ge was filled with regret. If Lu Fei hadn't stopped him, he might have jumped into the river right then and there.
"Liang Ge, there's still plenty of time in the future! At least now we know what kind of evil thing it is," Lu Fei said, trying to comfort Liang Ge despite his own frustration.
Liang Ge, unwilling to give up, searched along the riverbank several times. Finally, in a fit of irritation, he plopped down on the grass and lit a cigarette, taking deep, angry drags.
"Damn it, we were so close!"
"Liang Ge, I'm sorry." Lu Fei felt very apologetic.
"It's not your fault, it's my lack of understanding about these evil things that left us helpless!" Liang Ge rubbed his disheveled hair, "If only I could have been of some help, that thing wouldn't have gotten away!"
"Lu Fei, what exactly is this evil thing?"
"I've heard of an evil creature called the Human Skin Ghost," Lu Fei sat down beside him.
"This kind of evil thing loves to eat human skin. At first, I thought it was the vengeful spirit of someone who died under a skinning knife, but now it seems that's not the case. The knife is just its tool for removing skin."
"Once it has eaten enough human skin, it can transform into a human!"