"Thud—!" Rough, razor-sharp strands of hair pierced through Gao Yang's lower back, hoisting him into the air like a fish skewered on a spear.
The first sensation wasn't pain—but an eerie, spreading coldness in his waist. Then came the agony, so intense it felt like his soul was being ripped from his body, before finally localizing into a white-hot burn at the wound.
"AHHH—!" The pain was so unbearable that death seemed merciful.
In his delirium, a bizarre thought flickered through his mind: How did Qing Ling do it? She didn't make a sound when she was impaled through the chest. Did it not hurt? If I were left like this, I'd be rolling on the ground screaming until I died.
The monstrous "black stinger," woven from thousands of hairs, retracted from Gao Yang's body. Another wave of agony seared through him, but this time, he lacked the strength to scream. Only a heavy, suffocating dizziness remained.
His body began to fall.
Yet seconds later, he didn't hit the ground. An unseen force gently caught him—one hand under his armpit, another supporting his right heel.
Gao Yang forced his eyes open. He was still midair. Standing beside him was a man wearing a fierce red tengu mask.
The stranger held Gao Yang's arm with one hand while balancing him effortlessly with the top of his foot.
"You…?"
"Zodiac Organization, Tengu." The voice was youthful, lazy, and utterly at odds with the mask's menacing aura.
Gao Yang noticed now that the man wore a black martial arts uniform, his arms wrapped in white bandages, his hair tied into a short, upward-pointing ponytail—giving off vague "Eastern ninja" vibes.
"You guys…"
"Leave the rest to me." The one called Tengu didn't elaborate. He raised a hand languidly toward the hair monster. "Sever."
For a split second, the air seemed to freeze—or more accurately, to fracture in a subtle, almost imperceptible distortion.
In the next instant, the hairs binding Qing Ling snapped cleanly apart.
"Catch her." Still holding Gao Yang, Tengu "flew" toward Qing Ling without moving a muscle. Understanding, Gao Yang gritted his teeth against the pain and reached out, grabbing Qing Ling.
"Ah—!" The agony in his waist forced a cry from his throat.
Tengu extended his right hand again toward the hair monster.
"Sever."
That same sensation of space solidifying and shattering. The monster split vertically down the middle. However, the skull—its core—sensed danger and lurched left, losing a massive chunk of hair but escaping unharmed.
"Again."
An invisible blade sliced horizontally this time.
The white skull darted away, sacrificing another quarter of its hair but surviving once more.
"Again."
"Sever."
"Sever."
...
In just ten seconds, Tengu transformed into a deranged hairdresser, giving the skull the most aggressive trim of its life. Yet each cut narrowly missed the skull itself.
Realizing the fight was hopeless, the skull stopped engaging and began retreating upward.
Tengu, still lugging two injured people, couldn't keep up. He glanced down and called lazily, "Rabbit, it's getting away."
Gao Yang looked down. It was White Rabbit—the same girl from their last encounter.
This time, she wasn't in her KTV uniform. Her white rabbit mask had been replaced by a medical mask adorned with a cute pink rabbit mouth. A baseball cap sat backward on her head, her black-and-white varsity jacket open to reveal a cropped red tank top. Light denim shorts showcased her toned legs, and white sneakers completed the sporty look. In one hand, she casually swung a metallic-black baseball bat—like a trendy athlete straight out of a manga.
She'd just finished settling Officer Huang and Fatso on the ground. Looking up, she yelled, "You useless trash! You owe me new shoes!"
"Yeah, yeah. Hurry up, it's really leaving," Tengu replied, sounding utterly unbothered.
White Rabbit crouched, palms flat against the ground.
"Leap!"
With a single kick, she launched into the air.
Officer Huang felt a shockwave blast outward, forcing his eyes shut. When he opened them, White Rabbit was gone—only two deep footprints and cracked cement remained where she'd stood.
A hundred meters up, she closed the distance in under two seconds.
Her jump was perfectly calculated. Even as the skull ascended, her peak trajectory aligned flawlessly.
"Hey there!" She greeted the skull cheerfully before winding up her bat for a textbook-perfect swing. "HOME RUN—!"
The recoil sent her flying another two meters upward.
Meanwhile, the skull took the hit like a meteor, plummeting into the dried-up pond at the village center and cratering the mud.
Moments later, the skull emerged from the muck. Its cranium was cracked, its jaw dislocated—but it wasn't dead yet. It tried to flee.
Wu Hai stood at the pond's edge, still rocking his punk-meets-emo leather outfit. With a dramatic flourish, he slicked back his spiky hair and flashed a cocky grin.
"Zodiac Organization—Lord Electro-Rat's ULTIMATE TECHNIQUE—!" He leaped two meters into the air, fist aimed at the skull. "SUPER LIGHTNING FIST!"
In reality, no lightning came from his punch. It came from the sky.
To Gao Yang's eyes, the entire pond dimmed for half a second. Then the air erupted with spiderwebs of blue-white electricity, all converging on the skull before—"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"—multiple lightning bolts as thick as telephone poles struck it simultaneously.
For an instant, night turned to day.
By the time Gao Yang's vision cleared, Tengu had descended gently to the ground.
Gao Yang's legs gave out. Still clutching Qing Ling, he collapsed.
As consciousness faded, Wu Hai's excited voice reached him: "We got it! Holy shit—it did have a rune circuit!"
"Wu Hai, I swear to god, next time just attack. Your cringey poses give me secondhand embarrassment," White Rabbit groaned.
"You philistine! It's called style!"
"Your 'style' needs therapy."
"Uh, guys? These two are dying," Tengu interjected flatly.
"Lemme see—whoa. Yikes." A childlike voice piped up.
"Team, there's another one inside," a man with a heavy nasal tone added.
"That's just a Chimeric Beast. Ignore it," Wu Hai said.
"Not… a beast…" Gao Yang's voice was barely a whisper. "My friend… save… him…"
He tried to say more, but his eyelids weighed like lead. Darkness swallowed him whole.