The woman stood in front of her umbrella and lifted her hand above her head, smoothly peeling off a beige layer of human skin and casually tossing it aside, revealing a brand-new face on the woman standing there.
Xu Huo’s expression darkened; this woman was wearing more than one layer of human skin on her body.
"Huang Yue, I remember now," the woman in the qipao said. "The last time, I came across a young girl, tender and fresh. Before she died, I tortured her for quite a while and didn’t hear her mention having a relative who was a Player."
"Is that so?" Xu Huo said solemnly, "Then perhaps I was mistaken. Her surname might have been Zhang or Wu."
The woman in the qipao gave a snort, "These days, there really are all sorts of people."
"Can’t help it. I got the name from the news," Xu Huo said expressionlessly. "But compared to the disgusting hobby of wearing human skin, what I do is trivial."
The woman in the qipao showed a ferocious expression, but at that moment, Xu Huo ignited his lighter. She reflexively dodged onto the wall, however, his real target was the umbrella on the ground!
The woman in the qipao turned her head in shock, only to find that during the brief fight, the white umbrella on the ground had been drenched in gasoline, surrounded by broken glass bottles, and now, touched by the flame, the umbrella burst into fierce flames!
Seeing her immediately rush towards the umbrella, Xu Huo grabbed the Crimson Sword and slashed through the air!
The Sword Qi became a towering slash tens of meters high, cutting the wall on one side of the alley in half!
The woman in the qipao, having changed her direction mid-jump, landed on the opposite wall. Her eyes skimmed over the cracks on the wall, and then her figure flashed, moving rapidly through the alley once again.
From Xu Huo’s perspective, he could only see the craters and cracks made by forceful steps, which appeared on the walls and the ground one after another, drawing closer and closer!
"Die!" In the brief time it took to relocate, the woman in the qipao had already reached him. Xu Huo raised his sword to block her right hand and controlled the piano strings to tie up her left hand. After kicking her away, he threw out several gasoline bottles!
The woman dodged the bottles, hesitated for a moment between the white umbrella prop and Xu Huo, and then chose the former. She rushed back, picked up the white umbrella, put it into her inventory, and turned to dash out of Rain Alley!
With the white umbrella stowed away, the rain also stopped. Xu Huo tossed aside his backpack and followed her without hesitation.
This area was full of complex and narrow alleys, easy for someone to hide and enter. The woman in the qipao planned to do just that, but she didn’t expect that Xu Huo’s speed was not the slightest bit weaker than hers, and he followed her effortlessly!
After failing to shake him off several times, the woman in the qipao went through the crisscrossing alleys for a while, and finally stopped in a dead-end alley. She opened the white umbrella again, and a light rain began to fall. "I had intended to spare your life, but it seems you are eager to meet your death, which is just as well, anyone will do," she said.
As she spoke, her petite and exquisite qipao was distorted by swelling muscles, her height stretched, and the outer layer of skin burst, splitting from the head, blooming like a flower to reveal a square and stern male face.
"Cross-dressing?" Xu Huo raised an eyebrow.
The woman in the qipao’s face showed anger, "I am a genuine woman!"
Without removing her skin this time, she threw the white umbrella and leaped onto the air-conditioning unit hanging in the alley, pouncing down at Xu Huo from a higher position!
As Xu Huo dodged the woman’s attacks, he kept an eye on the white umbrella. Burned around the edges, it showed abnormal yellowing and curling, revealing the black umbrella fabric inside.
A vague scent of flesh wafted out, and it was not hard to guess what that white layer was.
However, he noticed that after the umbrella was torn, the rain grew heavier.
"It’s your bad luck!" The woman in the qipao seemed to have also noticed this, and her attacks grew even fiercer. In just a few minutes, she had nearly demolished the walls on both sides.
"What kind of man only knows how to dodge!" After her attacks repeatedly failed, she roared in irritation at Xu Huo.
Xu Huo was waiting for this opportunity. After chopping off her right hand with a sword, he quickly grabbed the lighter!
The woman backed away rapidly and said, "In the rain, the effect of your prop will be suppressed, and it’s impossible to ignite my clothes..."
However, before she could finish her sentence, the human skin draped over her shoulders caught fire, and her cheongsam was instantly engulfed in flames!
"How is this possible!" The woman screamed as she tried to rip off the fabric and skin on her body, and the next second, both of her legs were chopped off, and she collapsed to the ground.
Even with her legs chopped off, her reaction was relatively quick. She first stored the cheongsam in her prop bar and then tore off the human skin and threw it away. Although she had quite a few burns on her body, they were not severe. She would just need to drink a few more bottles of Self-Healing Potion. What was miserable was that she had lost her feet and one hand!
Frantically pouring Self-Healing Potion into her mouth, Xu Huo didn’t stop her but waited until the bleeding slowed before looking at the blood on the ground and saying, "I thought you didn’t bleed human blood, turns out it’s red too."
As the woman inched backward on the ground, she said, "Don’t kill me, I can give you all my props!"
"If I kill you, the props will be mine anyway." Xu Huo pointed the Crimson Sword at her, "Say something valuable."
The woman was sweating profusely, her eyeballs trembling. It took her a few seconds to say, "You’re here to do the copy, aren’t you? I know quite a few strategies for the copies; I can tell you all of them!"
"Then let’s hear about Rose Castle." Xu Huo said, "You’ve been here for a few years; you should know something."
The woman looked at the sword in his hand and swallowed hard before saying, "Actually, my Player Level isn’t that high..."
"I can see that," Xu Huo interrupted, "Staying here for a few years and only daring to kill in the residential area of ordinary residents shows you don’t have much skill."
The woman did not argue with him and quickly said after encountering his gaze, "There is a copy in Rose Castle, but I’ve never been there..."
Xu Huo stabbed her shoulder with his sword, "Weren’t you invited as a guest? It’s not far from here to Rose Castle and you go out at night; don’t tell me it’s a coincidence."
The woman, in excruciating pain, twisted her features and hurriedly said, "I’m telling the truth, I have never done the Rose Castle copy; I was just invited as a guest!"
Xu Huo slightly loosened his grip, "Inviting a Cannibal Player as a guest, it seems the owner of this castle is not simple... Is this your first visit?"
"Yes... yes!" the woman stammered, "The invitations to Rose Castle are not named; anyone can buy them in the black market, but there aren’t many. I heard that you could eat players for free there, so I sold a few props at a high price to buy an invitation!"
"Invitation." Xu Huo gestured for her to take it out, compared it with his invitation, and noticed the only difference was in the signatory. His copy was invited by the castle owner, He Pu, while the woman’s invitation had just a pattern of a rose.
"Second question, how did you avoid the random copies that happen every three months?"
"You should have been here for a few years, and you should have been teleported to a random copy already."
The woman grinned, "If I tell you, will you let me go?"
"No, but I can make your death quicker." Xu Huo said, "A Cannibal Player should have stronger vitality than other players, and even without hands and feet, you still have quite a bit left, though the skin’s been charred bit."
Hearing the implication in his words, the woman couldn’t stop trembling, and after persistent coaxing, she finally said, "Leave the Original Wormhole Point. My original point was E15 Wormhole Point."
Xu Huo sized her up, "Method."
"I don’t know!" The woman raised her voice, "I really don’t know! How could I possibly have a way to cross Wormhole Points with such a low level? I came across a dimensional storm while fleeing, and when I woke up, I was here!"