Chapter 40: Ambush from All Sides

The police officers were each enveloped by several spiritual lights.
These lights blocked the surrounding cold aura from invading their bodies, allowing them to move freely in the eerie environment.

Several powerful flashlights and spotlights shone on the Painted Skin Ghost.
The cold aura immediately vanished under the light, and even the Painted Skin Ghost itself continuously lost vital energy when illuminated.

These lights were different from ordinary illumination.
Normal lights are transparent, only serving to brighten the surroundings, whereas these beams were flawlessly white, seemingly solidified into pillars of light, visible to the naked eye, focusing on the Painted Skin Ghost, as if it had been thrown into a pot of boiling oil.
I felt a holy, scorching aura from these light beams.
This aura made one feel extremely dangerous, yet also compelled one to rush towards it like a moth to a flame.
I instantly understood: the police’s flashlights and spotlights were also Dharma artifacts.

The appearance of the police gave me great inner peace.
Finally, I didn’t have to face the Painted Skin Ghost alone.
And their auras were truly well-hidden; I had thought I was the only one in the entire park.

“Ah ah ah ah!!!” The Painted Skin Ghost suddenly let out a howl.
The piercing sound waves made me cover my ears instantly, followed by a sound of shattering glass.
All the surrounding flashlights and lamps exploded, plunging everything into darkness.

Using the moment all the police officers covered their ears due propelled by the ear-splitting shriek, the Painted Skin Ghost instantly lunged at me.
A brave police officer, enduring the shriek, wielded his baton and stood in front of me, only to be swatted away by its claw.
Seeing it about to grab me, I had already clutched the jade pendant tightly, but then I saw an extremely thin silver light flash past, accurately striking the charging Painted Skin Ghost’s body and knocking it to the side.
It wasn’t until the Painted Skin Ghost landed that I heard a very faint gunshot coming from the tall buildings surrounding the park.
If my five senses hadn’t been significantly enhanced for some unknown reason, I wouldn’t have heard the shot.

I immediately remembered the police conversation I overheard at the station earlier.
The Second Team had set up snipers around the park, and those distant snipers were unaffected by the shriek.
Sure enough, with the first shot, flashes of fire continuously sparkled in the distance.
Silver lines cut through the air from various angles, striking the Painted Skin Ghost and instantly riddling it with wounds.

“Open fire!” As the police officers recovered from the shriek, they also raised their pistols and concentrated fire on the Painted Skin Ghost.
Countless silver lights, accompanied by flashes of gunfire in the darkness, struck the Painted Skin Ghost.

The Painted Skin Ghost was seen trembling incessantly, its body grotesquely writhing and twisting.
Each bullet piercing its body sprayed a gush of blood and left a silver mark on the wound.
But even though it was riddled with holes, the Painted Skin Ghost still didn’t fall.
Instead, I could still hear it letting out malicious cackles amidst the dense gunfire, seemingly mocking the police’s utterly ineffective shots.

“How is this possible?
Why can’t even silver bullets kill it?!” A police officer, while firing, asked in disbelief.
As long as the Painted Skin Ghost didn’t fall, they dared not stop shooting, but silver bullets were extremely expensive, and their ammunition was running low.

“Damn it!
That Painted Skin Ghost is wrapped in human skin; we can’t directly harm its true body!” the officer shouted loudly.
He indeed knew that this demon was a Painted Skin Ghost.

Several police officers, seeing that bullets had no effect on the demon, all unfastened their waist pouches and pulled out several Daoist talismans.
The spiritual power emanating from the apricot-yellow talismans immediately told me they were of the same caliber as the talismans Xiao Qing used last night—genuine Daoist talismans, not mere printed copies.

“Too Shang Lao Jun, by urgent decree!” The police officers collectively shouted this command, full of incongruity, and flung out their talismans.
The talismans instantly transformed into thunder-fire, blasting onto the Painted Skin Ghost.

Under my complicated gaze, my original skin was shattered by the Daoist talismans, and even the fragments were burned to ashes by the thunder-fire.
Although such a huge price was paid, surely the Painted Skin Ghost should be completely annihilated now?

I had just begun to breathe a sigh of relief, and the police officers had also stopped firing to observe, when suddenly a shriek once again erupted from the center of the explosion.
As it scattered the thunder-fire, the piercing shriek once again made the police officers instinctively cover their ears.

“Ah ah ah ah!!!!” With boundless rage, a black shadow darted out from the thunder-fire and charged directly at me.
I focused my eyes and saw, to my shock, that it was my mother.
Compared to my father, who often yelled at and hit me, my mother, though also short-tempered, was slightly better towards me.
I had some fond memories, and seeing my mother for an instant, I was momentarily dazed.

With that one moment of hesitation, I was directly tackled to the ground.
Just like before, my throat was squeezed, and I was pressed down.
I didn’t even have time to pull out my jade pendant.

“Let her go!
Damn it!” When the police officers recovered from the shriek, they saw me already pinned to the ground with my neck clutched.
The Painted Skin Ghost was too close to me; they dared not use talismans to attack, and even shooting risked accidentally injuring the hostage.

“This time, no one can save you!” The Painted Skin Ghost grabbed me and sprinted into the darkness with incredible speed, leaving the police officers behind in the blink of an eye.
And because the police were wary of harming me, no one dared to shoot.

I was once again in a state of suffocation, while my body felt a series of collisions and scrapes.
The Painted Skin Ghost, holding me, dashed through the pear tree grove, constantly slamming my body against branches.
The jade pendant could protect me from being harmed by ghosts, but it couldn’t protect me from physical harm.
Racing at high speed through the jungle, the branches were like blades and whips, lashing me until I was covered in wounds, my school uniform tattered, and some places even bleeding.
Moreover, my breathing became increasingly difficult, and my mind began to wander.
Just as I thought this was truly the end, a golden light suddenly flashed before me.

“Ah!!!” The Painted Skin Ghost let out a bloodcurdling scream, and then I felt myself being thrown off, landing on the ground.

I was still being choked by the Painted Skin Ghost.
Upon landing, I instinctively reached to pull at the hand clutching my throat, but it felt soft and limp, like an empty glove.
When I finally pulled it off, I found that what I held in my hand was a blood-soaked severed hand—no, more accurately, a severed hand-skin.
Only a layer of human skin had been ripped off by me, still dripping blood.
I quickly threw this skin to the ground.

Not far away, the Painted Skin Ghost clutched its shoulder.
It still maintained the appearance of my mother, but its arm had been severed.
It looked with hatred at a person standing opposite it.
Yi Zhiqiu.
He had, at some point, changed back into his Daoist robe and was holding a sword, but it wasn’t an iron or steel sword.
It was a wooden sword carved from timber.
Did he just use this wooden sword to sever the Painted Skin Ghost’s arm?

“Don’t meddle!” The Painted Skin Ghost, still unwilling to give up, lunged at me, its familiar mother’s face filled with murderous intent.

“Utterly evil, I cannot spare you!” Five golden ropes shot from Yi Zhiqiu’s hand, tightly binding the Painted Skin Ghost.