The early morning sunlight streamed through the open window, falling onto Li Muyang's shoulders.
Having sat quietly all night, Li Muyang's expression brightened, and a smile finally appeared on his face.
After a whole night of struggle, he had finally killed the Spirit Feather King.
This Spirit Feather King was extremely tough to defeat, and Li Muyang had failed many times.
The main issue was the stiff cooperation between the Puppet and Nie Yubing.
Even though he used voice commands to instruct Nie Yubing, the delay caused by verbal command transmission still led to many failures.
Especially during the Second Phase of the boss transformation, as soon as the Spirit Feather King's health bar dropped by half, it would scream for help, and many smaller monsters would rush out of the monster mist to attack Nie Yubing.
As is well known, the bodies of summoners are very fragile.
Once those small monsters got close to Nie Yubing, she would be killed instantly.
In the Second Phase, not only did Li Muyang have to withstand the Spirit Feather King's attacks, but he also had to rush over to protect Nie Yubing and clear out the small monsters continually emerging from the mist.
After failing all night and constantly reloading, Li Muyang finally defeated the Spirit Feather King and could at last breathe a sigh of relief.
It felt like a release.
[Spirit Feather King Killed]
[Special Item Acquired: Corpse of the Painted Skin Monster]
The system notification that popped up in his field of vision made Li Muyang start.
The next second, the body of the Spirit Feather King burst open, and a ghastly pale orb exploded out of the body.
It wasn't until the orb rolled to Li Muyang's feet that he could see clearly what it actually was.
It was a strange lump of flesh, its surface full of folds.
[Corpse of the Painted Skin Monster: The rare corpse of a Painted Skin Monster, frozen in the last form it assumed before death. The Painted Skin Monster does not have an inner core; instead, it condenses its monster power within its flesh, thus possessing a special ability to take on the appearance of the beings it devours]
Seeing the lump of flesh before him, Li Muyang was slightly astonished.
"It's a Painted Skin Monster…"
This type of special monster is extremely rare and mostly weak.
However, the corpse of the Painted Skin Monster before him was saturated with monster energy, and its strength before death was definitely not weak.
The Spirit Feather King had obtained the Painted Skin Monster's corpse and wanted to eat it to digest its monster power, but it did not expect to be slaughtered by Li Muyang…
Was this the more powerful treasure that the Prince had told him about, suggesting it was even stronger than the Puppet?
Li Muyang had the little girl abandon the Puppet to control the corpse of the Painted Skin Monster instead.
The invisible threads that had been on the little girl left the Puppet and consecutively entered the ghastly pale lump of flesh.
As the lump of flesh came under the control of the little girl, the folds on its surface began to stretch out, and eventually, the entire lump unfolded, transforming into the image of a young man in the dimly lit wilderness.
This was the final form of the Painted Skin Monster before its death, which Li Muyang did not recognize.
But Nie Yubing widened her eyes in shock.
"Is… is that the Crown Prince!"
She had actually recognized the appearance of the Painted Skin Monster.
Li Muyang was also slightly startled, surprised that this Painted Skin Monster... had actually devoured the Crown Prince of the Dayuan Dynasty?
Shit!
Could it be that even the Emperor had been replaced by a monster?
Li Muyang looked at the little girl, only to see her controlling the corpse of the Crown Prince to stand up and run back in the direction they came from.
Indeed, the strength of the Painted Skin Monster's corpse was much greater than that of the Puppet.
The little girl was carried on its shoulder, yet it still moved swiftly and rapidly raced through the wilderness.
Li Muyang closely followed behind, slightly puzzled, "What are you going back for?"
Having obtained such a powerful monster puppet, shouldn't she consider escaping the sinister Capital City engulfed in miasma?
The little girl sat on the shoulder of the painted skin monster and said, "I want to go back and save my brothers... my two brothers are imprisoned in the dungeon, and they are to be beheaded the day after tomorrow."
"Dad has already passed away, and my two brothers are the last relatives I have in this world."
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Nie Yubing's face was filled with sadness.
This little girl had encountered a great disaster and had barely escaped alive, yet instead of thinking about herself, she thought about going back to rescue her family.
Even though she knew that returning to the Capital City at this time would be extremely dangerous...
Looking at the little girl's nervous yet resolutely determined profile, Li Muyang smiled and said, "Okay, I will help you."
"But before going back, let's meet with Prince Six and ask him about your stepmother's case."
"If your stepmother's connections can help us, our chances will be greater."
Following Li Muyang's guidance, the little girl quickly returned to Red Leaf Villa via the same route they had come. In the ruins of Red Leaf Villa, she met the spirit of Prince Six.
"...Why have you returned?"
Seeing the little girl return with the corpse of the painted skin monster, the spirit of Prince Six emerged from the ruins, his expression somewhat displeased.
However, the little girl directly stated her purpose; she wanted to return to the Capital City to save her two brothers who were to be beheaded.
Upon hearing her words, Prince Six's face turned somber: "Nonsense! Having obtained the corpse of the painted skin monster, you should take the opportunity to leave the Capital City and head beyond the pass."
"With your shallow mastery of the Puppetry Technique, you think you can raid the execution ground?"
"Any of those big monsters in the Capital City could devour you down to your bones!"
Faced with Prince Six's furious outburst, Nie Yubing remained resolute.
"I would rather die than not try to save my two brothers."
"I believe if my brothers were in my situation, they would not run away either!"
Despite being only eight years old, the little girl exploded with immense courage at that moment.
Prince Six's spirit fell silent, looking at the little girl in front of him. After a long silence, he finally shook his head, both headache-stricken and helplessly sighed.
"...Truly Nie Ming's daughter, as stubborn as he was."
"Since you are insistent on seeking death, I will show you a way."
Prince Six looked at the painted skin monster beside him, his expression cold.
"Only I and the Spirit Feather King knew of the painted skin monster's death." Explore more stories at Freewebnovel
"But since the Spirit Feather King stole the painted skin monster's corpse, trying to monopolize it, I am certain he would not dare let other monsters know of this affair."
"Now that the Spirit Feather King is dead, I am the only one who knows about the painted skin monster's death."
"You could impersonate the painted skin monster to enter the Capital City, getting back to the Emperor's side."
"My royal brother is quite fond of the painted skin monster's transformative abilities."
"He also needs the Crown Prince to continue upfront to stabilize the situation."
"When it gets dark, I will have someone look for you, and at that time, someone will tell you how to conduct the rescue."
Prince Six spoke hastily and was about to leave.
But the little girl looked at the painted skin monster beside her, hesitating before she spoke again.
"Prince Six... um..."
Nie Yubing still asked, "Was the Emperor also eaten by monsters?"
The fact that the Crown Prince had been eaten by the painted skin monster and had his identity taken over had shocked the little girl tremendously.
Upon hearing the little girl's question, Prince Six's spirit scoffed.
"I would indeed hope that despicable dog of an Emperor got eaten by monsters... but alas, he did not."
"It was the Emperor's doing that the Crown Prince got eaten."