The cry of a night owl pierced the thick fog, and the scholar's fingers, holding the lantern, turned pale. Blood had somehow seeped onto the lantern's surface, casting the words "Jinbang Timing" ("Golden List Title") like a hideous wound. He stumbled, clinging to the old locust tree, when the bark suddenly cracked, spilling out sticky brain matter.

"Young Master..." A muffled sob emanated from the tree's hollow, sweet as honey. The moment the scholar leaned closer, the hollow suddenly widened into a bloody maw, and a fishy breeze, laced with the scent of rotting flowers, blew in. He saw a snow-white wrist draped over the tree's roots, maggots wriggling beneath its fingernails.

The woman raised her head from the pile of rotten leaves, moonlight illuminating the stitches around her neck—made from a baby's umbilical cord. The scholar, grinning foolishly, untied his belt, oblivious to the centipede darting in the woman's pupils.

"I'm so cold..." Her breath fanned the scholar's face. A few days later, a spiderweb of bloody wounds suddenly appeared on the woman's back. The moment she tore off the entire human skin, the roof beam revealed its true form—a spine soaked in a pool of blood! The scholar's terrified scream was caught in his throat. The demon's sharp claws had already torn out his heart, which beat in its clutches, the mark of the character "Seven" appearing on its surface.

"Nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine!" The demon licked the blood from the tip of his heart. Suddenly, a Buddhist chant rang out from outside the window. Buddhist beads pierced the window lattice, each bead imbedded with a wailing infant spirit. The shadow of the Daluo Jinxian cast on the wall, giving rise to a demonic form with three heads and six arms.

"You actually used the Rebirth Mantra to refine a weapon!" The demon, shrouded in the Buddha's light, revealed its true form: a corpse goblin stitched together from nine hundred and ninety-nine human skins. From the bloody hole in its abdomen, countless wronged souls stretched out their arms, "You thought you were saving me? You're saving your own inner demons!"