Chapter 52: An Eye-Opening Experience

When the middle-aged man saw that the method he had always relied upon was ineffective, he tore the black-and-red hair apart with both hands and bit down with all his strength, until his mouth was full of hair.

The monstrous ball of hair in the corner seemed enraged by his actions. Red light flickered across it, and the hair behind the man suddenly turned around and stabbed viciously into his head and body.

The middle-aged man had never imagined that the hair which had accompanied him for a decade or two would turn against him at the critical moment. His already frail body offered no resistance. It was pierced as easily as paper, and he collapsed helplessly into the sea of hair.

Before falling, he still managed to tear away a fistful of the black-and-red hair wrapped around the little girl.

“Why? Hasn’t the Sacrificial Spirit always protected us? Why would it attack us?”

Filled with confusion and regret, the middle-aged man weakly closed his eyes.

The old man cautiously entered, holding a strange object woven from hair. Sensing the object’s aura, the hair throughout the room moved aside to avoid him.

“What outrageous insolence! To show such disrespect toward Lord Sacrificial Spirit! You brought this fate upon yourself. You deserved to die!”

The old man glared at the middle-aged man lying on the floor and spoke through gritted teeth.

He then knelt deeply before the monstrous ball of hair in the corner and prayed. After rising, he headed toward the door as though he had not even seen the little girl in the center of the room.

The instant he stepped out of the dark-red chamber, a short-haired girl with an enlarged, swollen frame stormed into the ancestral hall like an autumn gale sweeping away fallen leaves. Her hands resembled two enormous black blades. With one strike, she split open the wall at the rear of the hall, revealing the dark-red chamber filled with countless drifting strands of hair.

“Dad…”

The first thing the short-haired girl saw was her father lying on the floor. Although the two of them had argued bitterly, they were still bound by deep affection.

But there was no time to grieve. Her younger sister was still waiting to be rescued.

She swung both hands. The two great blades cut through more than half of the densely layered black-and-red hair, faintly revealing the fabric of the little girl’s clothing.

“You little beast! It was bad enough that you usually hid from us, but now you dare barge into the ancestral hall and act against Lord Sacrificial Spirit!

“First your father, and now you! Will you only be satisfied once everyone in our village is dead?

“A crooked beam produces a crooked roof! Go down and join your father!”

The hair behind the old man continued to swell and spread outward, resembling hundreds upon hundreds of small black snakes as it surged toward the short-haired girl.

“Open your eyes and look carefully at the kind of monster you’ve been worshipping all this time!

“You offer up your own flesh, blood, and lifespan to sustain a Aberration, allowing it to control whether you live or die. Is this the protection you wanted?”

The short-haired girl shouted toward the stunned villagers outside the ancestral hall. She then pulled the Little Paper Man from her waist and threw it toward the little girl.

At the same time, she tossed the Little Paper Man an emerald-green seed.

“Senior, this is a first-rank spiritual herb seed. Please help me save my younger sister!”

Leaving those words with the Little Paper Man, the short-haired girl charged toward the old man surrounded by black snakes.

“Hey, hey! You didn’t even ask whether I agreed!”

The Little Paper Man flew out and expanded continuously as Lu Yuan complained inwardly.

Well, the two of them could be added to the cave abode’s reserve of tal—talented personnel, and the first-rank spiritual herb could also broaden the cave abode’s collection of spiritual herbs. For those reasons, he supposed he could reluctantly lend a hand.

As the Paper Figure stretched longer, the monstrous ball of hair seemed to sense an enormous threat. It began throbbing rapidly like a heart. Countless dark-red strands shot toward the Little Paper Man like arrows and whips, either stabbing or lashing at it.

“Hee-hee…”

The Little Paper Man giggled softly.

Within the Little Paper Man’s sea of consciousness, Lu Yuan curled his lips in disdain.

“A mere ungraded Aberration dares attack something on the verge of reaching Strange Grade? You really are blind.

“In that case, I’ll start by stabbing your backside with a little knife and opening your eyes!”

The Paper Figure wrote a huge word across its body:

“OPEN.”

A scarlet eyeball bulged from its arm and stared fixedly at the monstrous balls of hair in the corner.

A huge裂口 suddenly opened across the tightly sealed, impenetrable surface of one ball. A scarlet eyeball emerged from the opening for no apparent reason, dragging out countless black-and-red hairs of varying lengths and thicknesses, along with decayed flesh and dried bones that spilled across the floor.

The scarlet eyeball hurried toward the Paper Figure on its soft pink tentacles. It slipped through a narrow seam in the white of the Paper Figure’s main pupil and merged with it.

The monstrous balls of hair flew into a rage. They scattered into countless black-and-red strands carrying scraps of flesh and poured toward the Little Paper Man like a torrential downpour.

“Tsk, tsk. Too ugly. Rejected.”

Looking at the dark-red, tumor-like mass covered in countless lumps inside the disintegrated ball of hair, Lu Yuan ordered the Little Paper Man to write four words across its body.

Its body grew larger, allowing the strands to pierce straight through it. The Little Paper Man’s tiny hands stretched out and repeatedly scooped up the black-and-red hair that appeared free of flesh.

It swallowed great handfuls at a time. When it spat them back out, they had become fine gray-white hairs that fell to the floor and crumbled into powder.

The lumpy, dark-red mass released a strange howl and burst apart. Countless black-and-red strands suddenly erupted from the eyes, ears, noses, and mouths of the nearby villagers.

The villagers overwhelmed by the hair all fell unconscious. Those who had participated in the sacrifices for many years suffered the worst, and some died on the spot.

Drawn together by an unseen force, the black-and-red hair gathered into a dark-red giant python several dozen feet long. Flicking a tongue formed from condensed strands of hair, it lunged toward the Little Paper Man.

The Little Paper Man continued stretching and became even larger. Its hands in particular grew vast enough to nearly cover the entire ancestral hall.

One hand descended with the crushing force of Mount Tai and seized the dark-red python.

The part of the python caught in its palm rapidly turned gray-white. As power vibrated through it, the gray-white strands shattered one after another into powder, forming a thick layer across the floor.

The giant python struggled several times in the Paper Figure’s grasp. After large sections of its body crumbled away, it stopped moving, like a venomous snake seized at its vital point.

“It looks even uglier up close.”

Lu Yuan watched the lumpy, dark-red mass trying to flee outside and had no desire to approach it. The Little Paper Man exhaled deeply, releasing a stream of chilling energy like a pale-white arrow that pierced straight through the mass.

The cold spread outward from the puncture. The entire mass froze, dried out, and disintegrated into heaps of white hair, flesh, bone, and other assorted debris.

Seeing Lord Sacrificial Spirit, whom he had worshipped for so long, defeated so easily by a mysterious Paper Figure, the old man fell into complete panic.

The short-haired girl seized the opening. One hand split apart the old man’s hair, while the other drove into his chest.

With a violent twist, she destroyed what remained inside. His heavy head fell to the ground, leaving only the lower half of his body standing.

Without the oppressive weight of the hair covering his head, even his legs seemed much lighter. They remained standing upright on the floor.

After dealing with the old man, the short-haired girl did not pause. She joined the Little Paper Man, one of them turning the hair into paper while the other hacked rapidly through the tangled strands.

Before long, they rescued the little girl from within the hair.

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