Ferrando took a frightened step back, cold sweat beeking from his forehead. It was the first time he had made eye contact with an anomaly from such a close distance.

"Don't be afraid, Doctor Ferrando."

Lin Ye steadied the doctor who had almost fallen. The moment he noticed the Skinner, he had activated the Divine Prayer Spiritual Purification Technique.

As it was his first time using it, Lin Ye took several seconds to complete the preparation.

The Skinner did not move. It seemed to be contemplating how to deal with them.

After successfully employing the Divine Prayer Spiritual Purification Technique, the incessant whispers that had been haunting Lin Ye's ears finally vanished. Gone too were all those distracting thoughts. Now, only one thought remained in Lin Ye's mind: to kill the Skinner before him. All other hindrances had been packaged up through prayer and offered to the deity.

This was the most focused form of prayer.

"What are you doing? Selecting your prey?"

Lin Ye instantly teleported in front of the Skinner and pierced its heart with the Cross Scepter.

The Skinner clearly hadn't expected its chosen prey to fight back. Normally, any prey it selected could only flee until it was caught and had its epidermis stripped away.

This was the first time it had encountered prey that could retaliate.

The Skinner reached out, intending to strip Lin Ye's epidermis, but only managed to peel away a layer of spiritual energy shield.

"Don't move."

Lin Ye first used a Compressed Spiritual Energy Blade to pierce the joints the creature used to control its body, then pinned it to the ground with the Cross Scepter. Like the skinned people, the Skinner was also quite 'normal'.

However, killing the Skinner wouldn't be so easy.

Lin Ye retrieved a sacrificial knife from his loot space and began dissecting the Skinner's body.

"I've handled many corpses. While I don't make a habit of skinning them, my skill in that area is actually no worse than yours."

Lin Ye cut along the midline of the Skinner's body. For him, peeling off a complete human hide wasn't particularly difficult.

The key was the sequence and angle of the cuts;the hard part was that the Skinner was still alive.

The Skinner tried to resist, but after being immobilized by the Cross Scepter, it had lost its ability to fight back.

When Lin Ye acted upon what he deemed to be right, the Cross Scepter would activate its relic properties.

"Good, keep struggling. I like the rhythm of your tremors;it makes my cuts go smoother."

Lin Ye's movements grew faster and faster. Before long, he had completely skinned the Skinner.

Having lost its epidermis, the Skinner let out agonized wails from its position on the Cross Scepter. After struggling for a while, it died completely.

Simultaneously, all the skinned people in the ruins died as well. These beings, long overdue for death, finally ceased their painful howls, finding complete release.

Lin Ye stored the Skinner's human hide, casually pulled out the Cross Scepter, and turned to look at Karan.

"Lead the way."

Dealing with the Skinner was merely a preliminary objective. Lin Ye's true goal was to restore this city.

Freed from distracting thoughts, Lin Ye would tackle this problem in a more efficient manner.

"Okay."

Karan was visibly terrified by Lin Ye. The skinned people wandering and wailing in the ruins were all citizens whose skin had been stripped by the Skinner, including some powerful spiritual energy users. He never imagined someone could skin the Skinner itself.

"You actually killed the Skinner! How did you know you had to strip its epidermis to kill it?"

Ferrando had been studying various anomalies. To kill an anomaly, one had to fulfill certain conditions;otherwise, it was almost impossible.

"I didn't know. I just thought it should also taste the experience of having its skin peeled off. That's only fair, isn't it?"

Lin Ye gripped the Cross Scepter. In this state free of distractions, he suddenly felt his usual combat style was a bit too flashy.

Different weapons had different functions and were suited for different situations—that wasn't the issue. The problem was that he should integrate his mental energy, spiritual energy, physical body, and various weapons, rather than using them separately.

Using mental energy to control spiritual energy and create Compressed Spiritual Energy Blades to attack enemies was convenient, but such loose attacks were fundamentally incapable of dealing with truly powerful foes. They could only kill weaker opponents, which was a fatal flaw.

Lin Ye walked at the rear of the group, seriously contemplating his future combat methods.

"Lin Ye, on behalf of all the survivors, I thank you for killing the Skinner."

Xiya slowed her pace a few steps and spoke to Lin Ye.

"No need to thank me."

Lin Ye didn't elaborate, as he was still pondering combat methods.

"Damn it, the path ahead has changed!"

Karan suddenly stopped and whispered.

"This was originally a lit tunnel. Passing through it led to a subway station, where there was a safe underground passage. Now the lights in the tunnel are out. I don't know if it's safe inside anymore."

"This is definitely not safe! Even in an ordinary city, I wouldn't want to enter such a pitch-black tunnel, let alone here! Find another route!"

Xiya outright vetoed the option of entering the tunnel.

Lin Ye saw no issue with that. Given his past experiences, he also had no desire to enter such a dark tunnel.

"But this is the only safe path nearby leading to the center of the ruins. Any alternative route would be even more dangerous."

Karan didn't want to abandon this safe path to take risks elsewhere.

"I know a more dangerous path. The upside is we know what we'll be facing."

Ferrando suddenly spoke up.

"You're not talking about the path that goes through the department store building, are you?"

Karan was an information dealer, so of course he knew what Ferrando meant.

"Exactly. There are only some mannequins there. If we're careful, we can pass through safely. Taking that route leads to another subway station."

Ferrando had escaped from that direction.

"The situation over there has changed. After you passed through, no more survivors have come from that way. The problem there is far more troublesome than this tunnel."

Karan stated with absolute certainty.

"Then I don't know."

Ferrando had only passed through that area once and couldn't confirm the safety of that path.

"So, which way should we go?"

Xiya looked at Lin Ye and asked.

Lin Ye focused his senses to perceive the interior of the tunnel, only to find there were no issues inside. The lights were out because the tubes inside had been smashed;there were no other dangerous entities.

"To the department store. It's too dark here."

Lin Ye didn't believe a tunnel in such a place would suddenly go dark without a reason. The more normal it appeared, the bigger the problem likely was.

"Follow me."

Karan wasted no words and very decisively abandoned this 'safe' tunnel. After witnessing Lin Ye kill the Skinner, his trust in Lin Ye had risen to a somewhat blind level.

Lin Ye followed behind, continuing to contemplate combat methods. After they left, the tunnel suddenly flickered with light for a moment, but it quickly went dark again. In that brief flash of light and dark, it was as if some creature had blinked.