Chapter 15: A Crude Imitation

The footsteps were frantic and heavy, coming to an abrupt halt just outside their door.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

The violent knocking rattled the very door panel.

“Senior Sister Lu! Senior Sister Lu! Something’s happened!” The voice from outside belonged to a young woman, her tone strained with tears and rising in panic.

Having just removed her outer robes, Lu Hongzhuang had barely settled into bed and was not yet asleep.

She snatched the red robes hanging nearby, pulling them on swiftly as she strode toward the door.

Creeaak—

The door was pulled open.

A young woman in the uniform of the Demon Exorcism Division stood outside, her face deathly pale and her forehead beaded with sweat.

Upon seeing Lu Hongzhuang, her lips trembled so much she could barely form a complete sentence.

“Xiao Qing, what is it? Speak slowly.” Lu Hongzhuang steadied her by the shoulders, her voice calm and firm.

The young woman named Xiao Qing gasped for breath, her eyes rimmed with red.

“Another… another death! It’s at Butcher Liu’s place in the west of town! His youngest daughter… her face… her face was skinned! She’s… she’s dead!”

Lu Hongzhuang’s body went rigid.

Without another word, she turned to leave.

Just then, Su Qinghan, who had been sitting cross-legged in a chair all this time, suddenly stretched languidly.

She pushed herself up using the armrests and then, with an agility that utterly belied her frail appearance, launched herself through the air, landing perfectly on the narrow, hard wooden bed.

With a soft *thump*, she sank into the bedding.

Her cheek pressed against the pillow, and the faint, clean scent of Lu Hongzhuang drifted into her senses.

‘How comfortable.’

Su Qinghan nuzzled the pillow contentedly, ready to drift off into a sweet slumber.

‘Investigating a case? That’s a job for your Demon Exorcism Division. What does it have to do with a helpless woman like me, who can’t even truss a chicken?’

She had no desire to get mixed up in this mess again.

However, she had barely closed her eyes when a shadow fell over the bed.

Lu Hongzhuang was standing beside her.

The next second, Su Qinghan felt a firm grip around her waist, and she was lifted into the air by a pair of strong arms!

The world spun!

Su Qinghan was stunned.

Lu Hongzhuang had hoisted her over one shoulder like a sack of grain, leaving her head hanging down as blood rushed to it instantly.

“Wait… Lu Hongzhuang, are you insane?!” she yelled, furiously pounding on her back.

Lu Hongzhuang’s steps didn’t falter for a moment. Her voice, cold and resolute, drifted up from below.

“You’re coming too. Perhaps you’ll notice some clues.”

“What does this have to do with me? I’m not an employee of your Demon Exorcism Division! Put me down!” Su Qinghan struggled.

‘This position was just too humiliating!’

But Lu Hongzhuang paid her protests no mind, already carrying her out of the inn with great strides and disappearing into the deep night.

West of town, at Butcher Liu’s home.

The once-spacious courtyard was now packed tight with torch-bearing officials and exorcists from the Demon Exorcism Division.

When Lu Hongzhuang burst into the courtyard in a flurry, carrying a living person over her shoulder, everyone froze.

Countless gazes snapped toward them, a mixture of astonishment, confusion, and sheer oddity.

Su Qinghan buried her face in Lu Hongzhuang’s back, feeling her own cheeks burn.

Even though in her past life she had been a handsome, accomplished Celestial Master in purple robes with skin as thick as a city wall, she couldn’t help but feel a little awkward now.

“Put me down!” she hissed through clenched teeth, her voice low.

Only then did Lu Hongzhuang realize the impropriety of the situation and gently set her down.

Su Qinghan steadied herself with a hand on Lu Hongzhuang’s arm, straightened her slightly disheveled clothes, and finally looked around.

Several exorcists stood guard with solemn expressions at the door of a side room in the center of the courtyard. From within, a dim yellow light glowed, and the faint sound of weeping could be heard.

Lu Hongzhuang wasted no time, helping Su Qinghan over to the room.

“Senior Sister Lu!” The exorcists at the door immediately saluted.

Lu Hongzhuang nodded and pushed the door open.

A heavy stench of blood, mixed with a strange, sweet fragrance, washed over them.

The scene inside the room made Su Qinghan’s brow furrow.

A young woman, appearing no older than fifteen or sixteen, lay stiffly on the bed.

Her body was clean, without a single wound, except for her face, which had been reduced to a blur of raw flesh.

The entire skin of her face had been completely peeled away.

But unlike the carpenter’s daughter, this girl showed no signs of life.

Or rather, her body was still functioning—her heart still beat faintly—but her soul was gone.

She had become a living corpse that could only breathe, worse off than even a person in a vegetative state.

“The method was crude.”

Leaning on Lu Hongzhuang’s shoulder, Su Qinghan carefully examined the mangled face.

“The edges of the wound are uneven, with clear cutting marks. This was done with some kind of extremely sharp tool, peeled off bit by bit. By the time it was removed, the skin itself was likely mangled beyond recognition.”

She reached a conclusion.

“This is not the same method used in the case from earlier today.”

The carpenter’s daughter’s face had vanished into thin air—a clean, neat job with an unnatural, eerie quality that immediately pointed to demonic means.

This one, however, felt more like a mortal’s clumsy imitation, full of blood and violence.

Listening to her analysis, Lu Hongzhuang also realized something was amiss.

“Help me over there,” Su Qinghan said softly.

Lu Hongzhuang carefully supported her as they moved to the bedside.

Su Qinghan extended her slender fingers and gently placed them on the young woman’s wrist.

A moment later, she withdrew her hand.

“Her soul is gone.”

Her voice was quiet, yet it seemed to make the very air in the room freeze.

“Someone used a special technique to extract her soul.”

An image of the ruined temple flashed through Su Qinghan’s mind.

Her Senior Brother Liu had also used this kind of evil art related to ghosts—a method for luring a ghost into a body.

This was not a technique an ordinary demon could use.

‘An evil cultivator!’

‘Someone is trying to collect souls using this method, deliberately imitating the skinning demon’s modus operandi to frame that unknown monster!’

Just then, a constable scrambled into the room from outside, his face etched with terror.

“N-no… it’s terrible! Over at the marketplace… the owner of Wang’s Fabric Shop is dead too! His face… his face was also skinned! That monster has struck again!”

Before one wave had settled, another rose!

Everyone in the room was thrown into a panic.

But amid the chaos, Su Qinghan remained perfectly calm.

She turned her head and spoke softly to Lu Hongzhuang.

“Let me ask you, did these skinning cases only begin after that exorcist guarding the Demon Prison went missing?”

Lu Hongzhuang paused, then nodded. “Yes. The first victim appeared half a month after that—the carpenter’s daughter from today.”

“You suspect her?” Lu Hongzhuang’s brow furrowed.

She shook her head, her tone certain.

“Impossible. I worked with her. She was… introverted and quiet, but she wasn’t a bad person. She would never do something so cruel.”

“A person’s heart is not so easily read.” Su Qinghan’s reply was noncommittal.

She looked at Lu Hongzhuang’s face, so full of conviction and trust, and found it almost amusing.

‘This woman despises evil, yet she is also remarkably naive.’

‘But now was not the time to dwell on that.’

Whether it was a demon’s work or an evil cultivator’s frame-up, all the clues seemed to point to one place: the Demon Prison that exorcist had guarded.

Su Qinghan raised her head, met Lu Hongzhuang’s confused gaze, and spoke clearly, enunciating each word.

“Take me to the Demon Prison.”

📚 Also on NHV Novels

Scream for Me

BLLove–Hate RelationshipModern

Read Now →
Not interested