But merely retrieving the Gu worms was not the whole purpose of Fang Yuan’s journey.
After placing all of the Gu worms into his aperture, he turned his attention to Chang Shan Yin’s corpse.
He started using Gu worms, helping the body to detoxify.
“Isn’t he already dead?” Ge Yao asked by his side, looking confused. Detoxifying a living person made sense, but what was the point of detoxifying a corpse?
Fang Yuan did not bother turning to answer her, but told her: “Stop looking, use your cleansing Gu and help.”
Fang Yuan and Ge Yao worked in turns; gradually, Shang Chan Yin’s corpse was losing its toxicity.
“Don’t tell me… is he Chang Shan Yin? He’s your father?” Ge Yao had a sudden realization, and sent a look of inquiry towards Fang Yuan, “No, Chang Shan Yin’s son is a native of northern plains. Looking at your appearance, you’re obviously a foreigner.”
Fang Yuan let out a cold grunt, saying expressionlessly: “I told you, I am Chang Shan Yin.”
As the toxins in his body were purged, the surface of Chang Shan Yin’s skin gradually returned to it’s natural complexion, losing the wretched green color that came as a result of the poison.
Fang Yuan, upon seeing that the cleansing was almost complete, asked the girl to step back. He stripped Chang Shan Yin of his clothes, and rinsed them with water.
“You… you want to bring his body back?” Ge Yao surmised.
However, Fang Yuan’s following actions immediately overturned her conjecture.
She saw Fang Yuan retrieve a regiment of black ants from his aperture.
Fang Yuan injected his primeval essence, and the black ants immediately rushed towards Chang Shan Yin’s pale and naked corpse and began to consume it.
The black ants crawled all over Chang Shan Yin, swallowing all of his skin into their stomach, turning the corpse into a mess of fleshy tendons, and leaving the body beyond recognition.
Ge Yao saw what was happening, and resisted the urge to vomit.
Fang Yuan collected the ants once they were done, took out a seed, and planted it into the ground.
As he poured his primeval essence, the seed began to grow at a visible rate: rooting, germinating, and blooming into a beautiful flower.
The flower was in full bloom, yet it was quite strange in that it appeared as if it was covered in a membrane of skin, like the inner flesh of a mouth. The inner petals also had a row of tiny jagged sawtooth.
The black ants converged into a group, climbing up the flower, and entered the core of the flower.
The flower then closed again, its jagged teeth whirling wildly, as the teeth rubbed against each other, it made a humming sound, and made the whole flower tremble.
Fang Yuan took out another Gu worm, which Ge Yao failed to recognize. The Gu turned into a multi-colored blaze, and attached itself to the top of the flower.
The flower twisted wildly while it burned in the flame, giving off a sharp shriek.
The shriek of the flower was so sharp that it forced Ge Yao to cover her ears and move backwards several more steps.
At this point, the girl realized that something was amiss, this strange method reeked of the demonic path. Ge Yao’s complexion paled, and when she looked at Fang Yuan, she saw that his face had not changed, standing on the spot, both his eyes were shining as he paid attention to the flower.
“Open.” Suddenly, both of Fang Yuan’s eyes emitted an explosion of light as he shouted loudly.
The corolla of the flower opened up a small slit, allowing the multi-colored flame to enter. Afterwards, the whole flower suddenly exploded and a Gu worm flew out.
The Gu Worm had a multi-colored tint, constantly transforming; occasionally yellow-green, and occasionally blood-violet. Like a smokey fog that was rising upwards.
“Human skin Gu, the refinement has finally been completed.” Fang Yuan, upon seeing it, let out a sigh of relief. Next, he willed, retrieving an old removal Gu from his aperture, as it turned into a cooling breeze.
The breeze flew out of the aperture, flowing all over Fang Yuan’s body, permeating his skin, tendons, and bones.
Fang Yuan had originally used three Gu; ancient bronze skin, essence iron bones, and golden steel tendons, to modify his body, and now it was all washed away.
Then, from the moving perspective cup Gu, he took out a sharp dagger.
“The following scene is going to be a bit bloody, you should close your eyes.” With his hand clutching the dagger, he gave his warning to Ge Yao.
Ge Yao hurriedly took a breath, looking at Fang Yuan in confusion, unable to speak a word.
Then at the next moment, the girl’s pupils shrank, both of her hands covered her mouth, unable to suppress her alarmed yelp.
Under her horrified gaze, Fang Yuan pointed the dagger to his chest and softly sliced it.
Swish!
He had cut from himself from the neck down to his abdomen.
Yet strangely enough, his blood did not flow out, he had prepared a staunch bleeding Gu in advance.
After that, Fang Yuan expressionlessly slit the dagger along the middle of his body, then he stretched out his hand and ripped the skin off of his chest.
The girl, upon seeing this horrifically violent scene, could not help but repeatedly step backwards again, her entire face had turned pale like paper.
Fang Yuan gritted his teeth to endure the pain, and under the urging of his mind, the colorful smoke that was in floating in midair covered his whole chest.
Sizzle…
In the midst of the strange sound, Fang Yuan’s bare and bloody chest was covered by a new layer of skin.
The peculiarity of it was, although the skin had just grown, it did not have the expected baby-like tenderness; instead it had the pale solidity of old skin.
Then, Fang Yuan repeated the process, peeling the skin of his arms and his legs, completely removing them, to grow a new layer of skin.
“This, don’t tell me…” Ge Yao could gradually see what was happening, and was flabbergasted.
When he was peeling the skin of his back, Fang Yuan was somewhat troubled, but under his strenuous effort, he managed to succeed.
Eventually, it was time for the most critical part, the face.
Fang Yuan stop for a moment, taking a quick rest, then, lifting up his dagger, he aimed at the tip at his eyelid.
Ge Yao watched with her whole body trembling, yet Fang Yuan’s hands were steady like they were cast iron, each of his actions were precise and minute. He first cut his eyelids off, followed by his eye sockets, the knife tip curved out and reached his ear, and moved from his cheek to his chin.
Turning around at his chin, he did the same to the other side, and ended up completing a circle.
Next, Ge Yao saw Fang Yuan removing his own face; her heart pounded furiously, and her legs felt weak.
The colorful smoke then flew over again, and grew a new layer of skin.
Subsequently, Fang Yuan did the same to the skin on his neck, ears, and scalp.
When he turned his face to look at Ge Yao, he had already changed into a new person, sporting the appearance of Chang Shan Yin.
“I told you, I am Chang Shan Yin.” He said in a bland tone.
Ge Yao looked at Fang Yuan in disbelief, he had actually spoken in a perfect northern plains accent.
Of course Fang Yuan could speak in the northern accent, he just chose not to earlier.
“You, you!” Her finger was pointed at Fang Yuan, her body trembled violently, her face had turned pale, and her expression was filled with horror.
Fang Yuan laughed in disdain internally: the human body is merely a sack of flesh, I was just changing the sack, what was the point of making such a fuss? The so-called beauty and ugly are superficially and weak things. If this is Earth, people have no powers and the immortal path is cut, then so be it. But in this world, only eternal life is worth pursuing!
This human skin gu, hundred of years later, it would be developed by Gu Masters during the five region chaotic battle. It could be used by Gu Masters to cleverly disguise themselves as another person, with their face being identical.
Many of central continent’s Gu Masters, using human skin Gu, were able to penetrate deep into enemy headquarters. Allowing for secret assassinations and mass destruction, it had greatly augmented the military power of the central continent, making the four other regions panic and doubt each other.
Not paying any attention to the pretty lady who was scared out of her wits, Fang Yuan stood where he was and brought his hands to eye level to observe them.
By now, his hands had completely changed.
His fingerprints and palm prints were exactly the same as Chang Shan Yin’s.
Next, he felt his chest.
His chest was originally smooth and flat, but now it sported chest hair that extended downwards from his throat to his crotch.
He felt his own nose, a northern man’s stiff nose, then he felt his rough cheeks. He took out a mirror and observed his features, his face had already become that of Chang Shan Yin, going to the extent that he had begun to grow hair in the same style. Even the grey hair that came with old age were completely replicated.
Human skin Gu, it referred to the fact that human skin was the main ingredient of the Gu worm. In addition, the transformation was a complete transformation. Not just skin, but hair, eye color, the shape of his bones, and even old injuries were completely replicated
…
Ge Yao looked at Fang Yuan, it felt like a dead man had just resurrected.
“You, who the hell are you?” She stared at Fang Yuan, full of vigilance and alertness.
Fang Yuan gave her a smile, saying gently: “I told you, I am Chang Shan Yin.”
“Do you think I’m a fool? Just a moment ago, I saw the whole thing, I saw it first-hand till the end. Also, you are an outsider, stop using our northern accent to speak!” The girl shrieked, her expression looked almost deranged.
Fang Yuan looked at her with a considerate gaze, his face showing great wisdom that came with age, he let out a sigh filled with great emotion: “Little lady, rest assured, I mean you no harm, I am Chang Shan Yin, from the beginning to the end, I did not lie to you.”
“So, so how do you explain what just happened?” The young girl asked.
Fang Yuan’s eyes glanced upwards, ignoring the girl, and looked at the sky, his expression was in daze as he spoke in a reminiscent tone: “Little lady, have you ever heard of soul seizure?”
“Soul seizure?” Ge Yao had a blank look, her eyes flickered with confusion, and her tone was uncertain, “You mean, when a body is taken over by another soul?”
Fang Yuan slowly and gently explained: “It seems you have heard about it before. Yes, you’re right, I was on the verge of death, with no one to rescue me, so I had no choice but to escape with my soul. In poison grassland, it is cloudy all year round, and the sun isn’t visible, which allowed my soul to wander freely. I wandered for a whole twenty years, until I was able to seize the body of a foreign Gu Master. While I teleported back with my Gu worm, I met you coincidentally.”
“Really? Is what you are saying really true?”
“Hehehe, if I meant you harm, I would have killed you long ago, there would have been no reason to allow you to accompany me here, or even teaching you how to battle right?.”
“That’s true but…”
“If I wanted to guard against you, I wouldn’t have let you witness these things. You are a northern plains native, and I am the great Chang Shan Yin, I wouldn’t do despicable things to a girl such as yourself. Why was it that I only managed to seize a body after twenty years? It was because I did not want to slaughter a northern plains native for my own selfish reasons. Little lady, will you attack me because of an outsider?” Fang Yuan’s smile was bright as the sun, speaking in a righteous tone.