Chapter 75: My long hair, she’s alive (2)
Huang Qi’s bright, watery eyes widened as he prepared himself for a surprise. The comb in his hand slowly dipped into the diesel-like juice.
“One breath… two breaths… three breaths…”
Time ticked by slowly. Huang Qi’s eyes were sore from staring, but nothing strange happened.
“This is wrong. Is it because I didn’t use enough?”
Huang Qi, unwilling to give up, crushed the fruit and dragged the comb back and forth in the juice, like a plasterer whitewashing a wall.
“Tch! Trying to make me laugh!”
After a long while, Huang Qi sneered dismissively. Apart from the juice decreasing, no surprises occurred.
Huang Qi gave up and took out a piece of paper to wipe the juice off the comb. But what truly startled him was that the juice stuck to it like super glue, refusing to come off.
“What the heck? Is it some kind of strong adhesive?”
Huang Qi’s anger surfaced. He grabbed the Tongming Comb and rubbed it against a nearby rock, but it was still to no avail.
“Damn it, I don’t believe it!”
Fueled by a surge of malice, Huang Qi subjected the juice to all sorts of torture – scraping with a knife, drenching with water, and burning with fire. The cruelty of his methods would make even the devils in the eighteen levels of hell shake their heads. However, it still didn’t budge the juice.
“It’s over. I haven’t turned evil yet, and you’ve already turned black!”
Huang Qi was on the verge of tears. The Tongming Comb in his hand was now completely “blackened.” Its original chestnut color was gone, leaving it entirely black and sinister-looking, undoubtedly implying something bad.
“Now that the comb is covered in the juice, I don’t know if it’s still effective?”
Huang Qi suddenly realized that the situation was more serious than he had imagined. Regardless of the consequences, he picked up the comb and began to comb his hair.
“Swish!”
With just one stroke, Huang Qi felt as if he had been doused with a bucket of cold water, shivering violently.
“Crackle!”
Huang Qi felt something in his brain crack. His muddled thoughts became incredibly clear, and the fatigue vanished, as if he had woken up from a dream.
“How is this possible?”
Huang Qi stared blankly at the Tongming Comb, unable to comprehend why its effectiveness had suddenly increased so much after “blackening.” It had been no different from an ordinary comb before.
“Could it be because of that black juice?”
Huang Qi could only think of this possibility. He then examined the comb closely and found that indeed, quite a bit of the juice had been scraped off by his hair during his last stroke.
Huang Qi touched his hair and found no black residue on his hands. The juice seemed to have been absorbed instantly.
“Oh my! So you’re a hair dye! No wonder you stuck to the Tongming Comb so stubbornly.”
Huang Qi suddenly understood, his heart filled with immense joy. This juice had such a significant enhancing effect on spiritual sense; it was truly a rare treasure.
Having tasted the benefits, Huang Qi could no longer wait. He picked up the comb and began to comb his hair repeatedly.
“Once… five times… ten times… a hundred times…”
After combing hundreds of times, Huang Qi’s spiritual sense finally achieved a qualitative breakthrough. He discovered that he could now see internally.
“Internal vision! This is something only cultivators in the Body Refining realm can achieve!”
Huang Qi looked internally at his Qi Sea, his mouth split into a wide grin. He didn’t want to waste the “hair dye” and crouched down, gathering all the remaining juice onto the comb.
“If there’s a seed, and I can take it back to plant, then won’t I have an endless supply of ‘hair dye’?”
A sudden idea struck Huang Qi. He rummaged through the fruit peel and quickly found a seed the size of a broad bean.
“Haha, now I can sustain this!”
Huang Qi was exhilarated. He carefully put away the seed and headed out of the cave. After all, he had been in the cave for too long and had no idea how much time had passed. He had to set off immediately.
Huang Qi combed his hair as he walked. Anyone who didn’t know would have thought he was very narcissistic.
Upon finally emerging from the cave, Huang Qi found his surroundings completely unfamiliar. Fortunately, he had been to the Prefecture Capital countless times, so he could navigate by terrain alone.
Huang Qi climbed a large tree to observe his surroundings. He quickly located the direction of Ping’an County and set off again. The most pressing matter on his mind was to find someone to ask for the time, as he had no idea how long he had stayed in the cave.
Huang Qi walked and combed, and as evening approached, he had combed his hair tens of thousands of times. Most of the juice on the Tongming Comb had been used up. However, at this very moment, his spiritual sense broke through again.
Huang Qi was caught completely off guard as his spiritual sense suddenly surged out of his head and spread in all directions. Everything within several dozen feet was clearly perceived. For a moment, he felt like a frog leaping out of a well, its perspective suddenly broadened.
“This… this is what it feels like to release spiritual sense?”
Huang Qi was so excited that he almost cried. He knew that spiritual sense not only could detect hidden enemies but also scan for ghosts invisible to the naked eye and even launch attacks. This meant his self-preservation ability had increased immensely.
“Cultivation? What’s that? Taking shortcuts is the kingly way!”
Huang Qi secretly rejoiced. It would probably take ordinary cultivators their entire lives to reach the Guiyi Realm with their spiritual sense. But him? He had only dyed his hair once!
“This is wrong. According to my Master, spiritual sense must break through the Baihui acupoint on the head and enter the Guiyi Realm before it can emerge from the body. My current cultivation level is only at the second layer of the Juling Realm. So, where did this spiritual sense emerge from?”
As his emotions gradually calmed, Huang Qi quickly noticed the inexplicable aspects of the situation. He reached out to touch his head in confusion.
As he touched his head, Huang Qi’s eyes suddenly widened as if he had seen a ghost! He had suddenly discovered that his hair seemed to have a sense of touch.
“How is this possible? Hair doesn’t have nerves, so how can it have a sense of touch? Could it be coming from the scalp?”
Both surprised and frightened, Huang Qi grabbed a lock of hair from his chest and gently rubbed it without pulling on his scalp. A strange thing happened: a faint, tantalizing sensation of numbness permeated.
“Oh my heavens! My hair is alive!”
Huang Qi suddenly let go of his hair, his face pale with fright. He knew there was only one explanation: his hair had grown nerves. Such a bizarre phenomenon was unheard of before.
Although shocked, Huang Qi had seen ghosts before, so he quickly calmed down and began to search for the cause. His gaze soon fell on the Tongming Comb in his hand, specifically the dwindling “hair dye.”
“It must be this thing causing trouble!”
Huang Qi recalled the events and immediately locked onto his target. After all, his hair only gained sensation after using this product. But so what? Apart from condemnation, he had no means of revenge.
“Damn it! My hair has feelings, doesn’t that make me a monster?”
Huang Qi grumbled, but a thoughtful expression soon appeared on his face.
“No, if there are nerves in this hair, can I control them?”
Huang Qi suddenly had this strange thought. He focused his consciousness on a lock of hair near the corner of his right eye, trying to control it to lift up, just like controlling his limbs.
In Huang Qi’s sight, the lock of hair, without any breeze, slowly floated upwards.
