Ma Laosan felt as if he had fallen into an icy abyss.
Before he could react, a cold, yellowish hand suddenly grabbed him and dragged him toward the underside of the car.
"Ah—!"
He screamed, struggling desperately like an insect fighting for its life.
Fortunately, an adult's body was too large to fit under the car. His hand was pulled beneath the vehicle, but his body got stuck at the edge.
The boneless hand grew longer and longer, twisting like a snake. It coiled around his arm, climbing toward his head.
He could clearly feel it—a cold, slightly elastic sensation.
It felt like human skin.
"Help! Help!"
Ma Laosan screamed at the top of his lungs. His scalp wasn't just tingling; his entire body felt like it was about to burst apart as he desperately cried for help.
"Ma Laosan, what are you doing?"
Tiger, who was closest to him, ran over. Seeing Ma Laosan struggling madly by the car, Tiger's face was filled with confusion.
Lu Fei and Liang Ge heard the commotion and were hurrying back.
"Tiger, save me! Quick..."
Ma Laosan's free hand flailed toward Tiger, reaching out like a drowning man clutching at a straw.
"What the hell is this?"
Tiger was startled but instinctively grabbed hold of Ma Laosan to pull him out.
At that moment, a strange, yellowish hand suddenly emerged from the back of Ma Laosan's neck, crawling toward his head.
"Damn!"
Tiger jumped back in shock.
"Save me..."
The hand crawled across Ma Laosan's mouth, slid past his nose, and moved toward his forehead. It seemed intent on tearing the skin off his body from head to toe.
"Here goes nothing!"
Tiger swung his ghost blade cautiously at the eerie hand.
The blade struck heavily, landing as if on a rubber ball.
The hand caved in slightly under the impact.
"Ahhh!"
Ma Laosan's screams intensified. The ghost blade hadn't cut his skin, but it left a deep red mark across his face.
"Stop moving!"
Tiger pressed down hard on the strange hand.
But the hand seemed impervious to the ghost blade. Although restrained, its fingers stretched further and further, like unyielding rubber, creeping relentlessly toward Ma Laosan's wounded scalp.
Feeling the icy fingers inching closer to his injury, Ma Laosan's face turned as white as a sheet.
Fortunately, Lu Fei and Liang Ge arrived just then.
Seeing the scene before them, they were visibly shocked.
Lu Fei channeled half his spiritual power into his staff and struck the human-skin hand.
Faint blue arcs of electricity crackled.
"Ah!"
The hand shuddered violently and let out a raspy howl. Black mist seeped out, and the hand deflated like a punctured balloon, shrinking back into its original skin-like form, trembling slightly.
"It's not dead yet!"
Clearly, one strike wasn't enough to deal with this thing.
"Tiger, don't let go!"
Lu Fei instructed Tiger to keep holding the skin, then charged up another strike with his staff.
Electric sparks flashed again.
More black mist spewed out. The skin writhed like a worm before going completely limp.
"Boss, is it over?"
Tiger was about to breathe a sigh of relief, but Lu Fei shook his head gravely.
"Not yet. This evil entity has already killed at least three people. It won't be that easy to deal with. Let's seal it away first and figure out what to do later!"
Exhausted from using his spiritual energy, Lu Fei felt a wave of dizziness. After a deep breath, he slipped on the specialized gloves from the Evil Pawnshop.
"I'll grab the box," Liang Ge offered, retrieving the container for the skinning knife from the car.
"Be careful, Lu Fei," Tiger warned.
"Got it."
Lu Fei cautiously reached for the skin.
Meanwhile, Ma Laosan's body was convulsing violently. Blood trickled down from his head, staining the skin in Lu Fei's grip.
The skin began struggling again.
The moment Lu Fei's gloved fingers touched it, a bone-chilling cold seeped through the gloves, piercing his fingertips.
Besides the cold, there was also an unnerving elasticity to it.
"Human skin! This sheath is made of human skin!"
Although Lu Fei had suspected it, he was still taken aback.
The skin writhed and resisted furiously.
Ma Laosan groaned in pain. With the ghost blade pressed tightly against him, his head tilted backward slightly, loosening the blade's hold.
"Don't move!" Lu Fei shouted, gripping one end of the skin tightly.
The skin stretched desperately and suddenly tore, leaving behind a small piece under the ghost blade before slithering into the darkness beneath the car.
"Chase it!"
Lu Fei was alarmed and immediately bent down to peer under the car.
Liang Ge, holding the box, ran to the other side of the vehicle.
The space beneath the car was pitch black—nothing was visible.
Lu Fei pulled out his phone and shone its flashlight.
A trail of smeared blood stretched from under the car toward the rear.
"Liang Ge, it's heading behind the car!"
Lu Fei took off in pursuit.
Liang Ge followed closely behind.
"Tiger!"
Tiger, wanting to help, shouted, "Boss, I'll come too!"
"No! Stay back and call an ambulance," Lu Fei ordered as he ran.
Ma Laosan had lost too much blood. Without medical attention, he might not survive.
Although Ma Laosan wasn't a good person, Lu Fei couldn't let him die.
"Got it!"
Tiger resisted the urge to chase after them. He glanced back at Ma Laosan, who lay weakly on the ground, his face pale, covered in blood. His skin was ghastly white, and his eyes rolled back as he hovered on the edge of unconsciousness.
After calling for an ambulance, Tiger watched anxiously as Lu Fei and Liang Ge disappeared into the night.
The narrow road was engulfed in darkness.
Lu Fei shone his flashlight as he and Liang Ge followed the increasingly faint blood trail.
But when they reached a river, the trail vanished completely.
"Damn it!"
Liang Ge stomped his foot in frustration as he stared at the dark water.
The river was long and flowed gently.
The skin, now no bigger than a finger, had slipped into the water. Finding it would be like searching for a needle in a haystack.
"Damn it! We were so close!" Liang Ge fumed. If Lu Fei hadn't stopped him, he might have jumped into the river on the spot.
"Liang Ge, we'll get another chance. At least now we know what we're dealing with," Lu Fei consoled, though he himself was frustrated.
Liang Ge searched along the riverbank several times before sitting down in the grass, lighting a cigarette and taking a deep drag.
"Damn it, just a little more!"
"Sorry, Liang Ge," Lu Fei said, his guilt evident.
"This isn't on you. It's because I don't understand these evil entities well enough. I couldn't do anything!" Liang Ge ruffled his messy hair. "If I could've helped even a little, we wouldn't have lost it!"
"Lu Fei, what kind of evil entity is this?"
"I've heard of one called the Human-Skin Ghost," Lu Fei replied, sitting down beside him.
"This type of entity loves to consume human skin. At first, I thought it was a vengeful spirit tied to the skinning knife, but it turns out the knife is just its tool."
"Once it consumes enough human skin, it can transform into a human!"