Huo Yuhao and Beibei settled back into their seats.
Beibei ordered another round of fine wine and dishes before diving into serious talk.
A glimmer of hope softened the worry in his brow.
He asked Huo Yuhao, "Brother Huo, what herbs do you need to treat disfigurement? Name them, and I'll do everything to get them!"
Huo Yuhao paused.
Herbs?
The evil cultivation's Art of Skin-Painting and Heart-Swapping didn't need such fuss—the raw material was human.
The technique had two parts: Skin-Painting and Heart-Swapping.
Skin-Painting required flaying a living person's skin intact, without damage, keeping them alive until fully peeled, or it was useless. A secret method then allowed the skin to be worn, disguising appearance and aura.
Heart-Swapping involved cutting out a still-beating heart from a living person, swallowing it whole, and refining it into one's own heart. This stole the victim's wisdom, memories, and boosted cultivation.
Truly taken from humans, used for humans.
Combined, it transformed one's identity.
The full technique was an evil cultivator's method to evade the Three Calamities and Heavenly Tribulations.
In Pudu Cihang's world, with its immortal and Buddhist elements, the Three Calamities existed, though at a lower level. Monks dodged them to boost cultivation and lifespan. Evil cultivators, laden with malice, faced Heavenly Tribulations without concealment.
The technique mimicked Heavenly Gang and Earthly Fiend arts but was less refined, with typical evil cultivation side effects.
It didn't guarantee dodging calamities. Damaged skin rendered it useless, unrepairable—requiring new skin. Wearing it restricted actions, as overexertion could ruin the disguise.
Side effects were severe.
Dodging one calamity this way made the next far worse.
Swallowing a heart risked the victim's memories disrupting one's mind, leading to split personality or madness.
Due to these flaws, evil cultivators abandoned it—it was meant to ease cultivation, not complicate it.
They developed practical offshoots, like face-swapping for disguise or heart-eating for cultivation.
Some thrill-seeking demon cultivators, eager to mingle in human revelry before fully transforming, used it to mask demonic aura, birthing "Painted Skin" demons.
Wearing human skin, eating human hearts, they seemed carefree but met tragic ends.
Heart-eating stirred human desires, clouding their demonic path, blurring truth and illusion, leaving them muddled.
Few Painted Skin demons succeeded, but tales of romantic flings with charming men and Painted Skin demonesses abounded.
While bards sang of these beauties, few considered that beneath a lovely skin might lurk a male demon.
Indeed, male evil cultivators or demons donned female skins, worked brothels, harvested yang to boost yang, clashing yang with yang.
Such wild tales filled Pudu Cihang's millennium-long memories.
Some, Pudu Cihang had done itself.
Not brothel work, of course, nor using the technique on itself.
With its side effects, Pudu Cihang wouldn't have reached its heights.
It merely used the technique to disguise devoured ministers as still alive.
This couldn't be shared with Beibei.
Huo Yuhao didn't plan to fully use it on Tang Ya.
Adapting the Skin-Painting part into a skin-graft cosmetic procedure would suffice.
He'd prepared his excuse. "Treating disfigurement is like treating illness—you need to know the cause to choose the right herbs and plan."
Beibei nodded slightly.
He found it reasonable, sensing Huo Yuhao's "expertise."
"Brother Beibei, can you tell me how Sister Tang Ya was disfigured?" Huo Yuhao asked, noting Beibei's earlier hesitation, curious if he'd reveal the cause now.
This wasn't crucial for treatment.
Purely Huo Yuhao's gossip.
Also, a setup to seem professional while persuading Beibei later.
Beibei hesitated again but finally disclosed partly, "Fire! A fire near the Ultimate level."
He took a deep breath.
The topic clearly pained him.
Even his hidden wounds ached.
Tang Ya was disfigured by burns; Beibei was scorched too, his injuries unhealed beneath his clothes.
Huo Yuhao raised an eyebrow.
Sea God Lake, fire, incident…
Pattern recognized!
"Was it Ma Xiaotao who disfigured Tang Ya?!" he thought.
The plot felt familiar.
Ma Xiaotao, rushing her cultivation, risked her evil fire going haywire. When and where it erupted was unpredictable.
Life's uncertain, like large intestines wrapping small ones.
Luck was equally fickle—small changes sparked big ones.
Whether Ma Xiaotao's evil fire flared today, tomorrow, or never, all were possible.
"The issue isn't her losing control—it's why her evil fire reached Sea God Lake and hurt people!"
"Could it be Tang Sect's dark clouds?"
In the original story, Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong'er were burned; now, it was Tang Ya and Beibei. Their common thread? Tang Sect!
It couldn't be that every couple dating got burned, right?
If Tang Sect's dark clouds drew misfortune, attracting Ma Xiaotao's evil fire to Tang Sect members, it made sense!
"So, in the original, I took the hit for Tang Ya and Beibei!" Huo Yuhao realized.
Without him, Tang Ya and Beibei grew closer, leading to this. Wasn't he their shield in the original?
But they lacked Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong'er's resilience, so Tang Ya was disfigured, and Beibei overexerted, gravely injured.
Surviving was lucky.
Realizing this, Huo Yuhao had a thought.
Beibei's bitterness when mentioning it—could Ma Xiaotao have gone unpunished?
Very likely!
Ma Xiaotao was Dean Yan Shaozhe's disciple, loyal to Shrek, backed by its leaders, a descendant of the first Shrek Seven Monster Ma Hongjun, and prodigiously talented, destined for Sea God Pavilion.
Tang Ya, Tang Sect's leader, was loyal to a declining Tang Sect, with average talent. Beibei, a student, couldn't help her much.
Would Shrek's unfairness punish Ma Xiaotao over mere Tang Ya?
As for Beibei, Mu En's descendant, he was "family" with Ma Xiaotao. The higher-ups might "forgive" her on his behalf.
Shrek might even welcome this.
Splitting Beibei and Tang Ya, pairing him with Zhang Lexuan, Mu En's arranged fiancée, would bind her and boost Beibei's path to Sea God Pavilion leadership.
To the elders, Beibei, heir to the current Sea God Pavilion master's blood, was the rightful successor.
But now, this "rightful heir" seemed to have a rift with Shrek.
A rift could be mended—or widened!
Huo Yuhao's mind raced, his face showing difficulty.
"This is tricky."