Chapter 30 Beautiful Hair (5) No More Hair~

Chapter 30: Beautiful Hair (Part 5) The Hair Is Gone!

Yu Xing felt a chill run down her spine, every hair on her body bristling.

Just as she prepared to unleash her ultimate move, a wave of scorching heat suddenly radiated from beside her, and light flooded the surroundings once more.

It was Wang Kunyu. After the lights in both their hands went out simultaneously, Wang Kunyu had transformed into a human-shaped flame, his entire body engulfed in fire.

The intense blaze instantly illuminated everything around them. Both saw a black silhouette at the same time—one pressed flush against Yu Xing’s side.

Before Yu Xing could react, Wang Kunyu reached out. A wave of heat surged past her, the exposed skin on her body stinging from the scorching sensation. She felt as if her hair might catch fire at any moment. For a moment, only one thought crossed Yu Xing’s mind: *Thank goodness my hair is already gone, or I’d turn into a flaming figure right now.*

As Wang Kunyu raised his hand, the flames rushed past Yu Xing and engulfed the black figure.

The moment the figure was set ablaze, Yu Xing also caught a glimpse of its appearance—it… wasn’t Sister Xiu, as she’d expected. Instead, it was a pitch-black, woman-shaped monstrosity woven entirely from hair.

The searing flames instantly enveloped the hair monster. It seemed this was the full power of Wang Kunyu’s Divine Skill—no wonder he had managed to escape into the kitchen earlier under the hair’s assault.

However, just as Wang Kunyu had warned, such an attack would consume an enormous amount of spiritual energy. Sure enough, as soon as the hair monster was engulfed in flames, Yu Xing heard a pained scream—one that came from Wang Kunyu himself.

Yu Xing turned her head and saw Wang Kunyu clutching his head, writhing on the ground in agony.

"Are you okay?" Yu Xing instinctively crouched down to help him but quickly withdrew her hand, remembering her own special ability.

She watched as Wang Kunyu’s face twisted in pain, blood trickling from his nose, mouth, and ears.

*Dear god, blood streaming from his seven orifices!*

*Are the side effects of exhausting spiritual energy this severe?*

Before Wang Kunyu could recover, Yu Xing sensed something wrong nearby. She spun around just in time to see the flames covering the monster weakening, a chilling white mist creeping through the air. A strange sizzling sound reached her ears, like a red-hot iron being plunged into water.

*This hair monster… had been drenched as well?*

Yu Xing found it absurd, but at that moment, the flames on the monster flickered out completely. As the light vanished, the last thing Yu Xing saw was the woman-shaped hair monster exploding into a writhing mass of hair, twisting like a flood, nearly filling the entire room in an instant.

Yu Xing and Wang Kunyu were both swept up and entangled by this torrent of hair.

The hair invaded every crevice. If even a single strand managed to invade their bodies, becoming pollutants would be their inevitable fate.

Without hesitation, Yu Xing reached out toward Wang Kunyu, grabbing his collar with one hand while raising her magic staff with the other. She opened her mouth and shouted,

"LET THUNDER SHATTER THE DARKNESS!!!"

The moment her mouth opened, countless strands of hair eagerly surged toward it—but in the next second, dazzling lightning filled the room.

Even Wang Kunyu, whose head was splitting from spiritual exhaustion, was momentarily stunned by the seemingly endless bolts of lightning. For a brief moment, his pain was forgotten, replaced by dazed shock.

The blinding flashes and deafening thunder persisted for a while before finally subsiding.

All the hair in the room had vanished. Yu Xing and Wang Kunyu collapsed to the ground.

Wang Kunyu landed unluckily—face-first into the jagged edge of a toppled shelf. The sharp metal edge slammed into his nose with a heavy thud. He let out a choked, guttural groan and lay there for a long moment, unable to move.

After a struggle, he managed to lift himself halfway up, his face a mask of blood from his nose.

He was a pitiful sight, but his eyes blazed with fierce focus, locked onto Yu Xing with glowing intensity.

The lightning just now... Bull Warrior is definitely not a Level 2 Divine Blessed! She's Level 3... No, even a Level 3 Divine Favored of the God of Thunder and Lightning couldn't unleash such power. She must be a Level 4 Divine Favored, or even higher!

For a moment, Wang Kunyu overlooked the physical and mental pain, immersed in shock. Bull Warrior was such a powerful Divine Favored, and he had actually been in close contact with someone so powerful!

Just as he remained stunned, he heard Bull Warrior speak in a grave tone: "Why hasn't the pollution source appeared yet?"

Wang Kunyu stiffened, then looked around.

After Bull Warrior eliminated all the hair with lightning, their terminals had returned to normal, and the lights had come back on.

Now, as he scanned the room, he realized something was wrong. Indeed, the hair monster had been destroyed, so why hadn't the pollution source appeared?

A terrifying thought occurred to both Wang Kunyu and Yu Xing—the hair monster from earlier... wasn’t the pollution source.

The moment this thought surfaced, they simultaneously heard footsteps outside the door.

"Tap, tap, tap, tap..."

In the silent room, the footsteps were eerily clear. They were somewhat unsteady, slow, but undeniably approaching.

Yu Xing, standing, and Wang Kunyu, still on the ground, stiffened, their minds frozen with fear.

Meanwhile, the live chat on the Transmigrator Trade Forum exploded with frantic messages.

[Holy shit! What the hell is that outside the door?!]

[Can someone explain what’s happening? That thing earlier wasn’t the pollution source?]

[Ahhhh! So scary, I’m freaking out!]

[Isn’t this the last room? Isn’t the pollution source supposed to be hiding here?]

[What do we do? Her charm ability is spent, and that bug-user is useless now!]

[Someone tell me what’s going on?!]

[What do we do, what do we do...]

Amid the flood of messages, Yu Xing gradually calmed down. But staying calm didn’t help—what exactly was that thing slowly approaching outside?

"Tap, tap, tap, tap..."

The footsteps drew nearer, finally stopping right at the doorway.

Yu Xing’s hand twitched, and her terminal’s light illuminated the entrance. At last, she saw what stood outside.

A skeletal figure, leathery dark skin clinging to bone, clothes tattered and unrecognizable, patchy hair on a gaunt skull...

It was... the corpse from the neighboring room, the one suspected to be Sister Xiu.

Staring at the withered corpse silently standing in the doorway, Yu Xing swallowed hard. The questions haunting her mind finally had an answer.

Why was Sister Xiu’s doppelgänger the only intelligent contaminant? Why hadn’t the pollution source appeared after the hair monster was destroyed?

Because Sister Xiu was the true pollution source.

The chat went wild again.

[Holy shit! Isn’t that the corpse?!]

[What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck why is the corpse walking?!!!]

[Holy shit now I get it, the corpse is the real pollution source!]

[How could this be? Wasn't this corpse completely motionless before?]

[We've been tricked! We were all fooled by a corpse!]

[This corpse has been observing Heartthrob and the others the whole time. After studying them, it figured out the pattern of Heartthrob's ultimate move—it can only be used once per hour. So the corpse used the hair monster to exhaust Heartthrob's ultimate move before daring to show itself.]

[This corpse is way too cunning!]

[Ahhhh I'm scared again, what do we do now?!]

[Heartthrob is so unlucky.]

[Heartthrob, you can't just sit there and wait to die!]

[The real pollution source is here, Heartthrob, kill it now!!]

Yu Xing: "..."

Can't kill it. The magic staff is completely drained...

Yu Xing glared daggers at the desiccated corpse outside the door, feeling deeply wronged. She said, "You tricked me. You're the real pollution source."

Wang Kunyu, still lying on the ground, was stunned. He had wracked his brains but never expected the thing outside the door to be the desiccated corpse.

They had moved and examined this corpse earlier—who would have thought it was the real pollution source all along?

"Impossible..." Wang Kunyu muttered, his entire worldview collapsed. "How could a contaminant have this level of intelligence...?"

"It's possible," Yu Xing said, still staring at the mummy. "You saw it with your own eyes, didn't you?"

Wang Kunyu's lips trembled, his fear uncontrollable. His voice shook as he asked Yu Xing, "Bull Warrior, that lightning earlier..."

"Can't do it again." Yu Xing couldn't admit the move had a cooldown, so she said, "I'm out of mental reserves."

Of course, a Divine Skill of that magnitude must consume an enormous amount of psychic energy. Wang Kunyu felt despair creeping in—were they really going to die here?

"Hair..." The mummy outside the door suddenly spoke in a grating, rusted-gear voice.

As it spoke, its dry, sparse hair suddenly turned glossy black. Clumps of hair sprouted from its scalp, and within seconds, the mummy had long, floor-length black hair.

"Hair transplant..." The mummy's voice remained hideous. "Hair is very important. Look at me..."

Before it could finish, Yu Xing interrupted, "Nice hair alone won't help. If you're ugly, no amount of beautiful hair will save you."

The mummy fell silent. After a moment, it lifted a hand, brushed back a lock of hair near its temple, and struck a flirtatious gesture. "He said I was beautiful..."

"He lied to you." Yu Xing turned and walked toward the dresser mirror. She adjusted the mirror's angle, pointing it directly at the mummy.

"Maybe you should take a look at yourself first?"

The room was small, so even from the doorway, the mummy could see its reflection clearly.

The mirror captured its entire body—the skeletal frame, the dark-brown skin clinging tightly to bone, devoid of flesh. It was the image of a long-dead desiccated corpse.

"AHHHHH!!!"

A piercing, horrifying shriek nearly ruptured Yu Xing's eardrums.

......

"Did you guys hear something?" At the entrance of Sister Xiu's Barbershop, a group of people stood. Li Sen, a muscular man in a tank top, turned to his companions.

Bai Qinghe was busy scrolling through his device. "This place was classified as a pollution zone twenty years ago. The pollution source was rated Class A back then. The Federal Government sent Divine Chosen Teams twice to deal with it, but both failed—one even took losses. At the time, Divine Chosen were rare, and the Federation didn’t want more losses. Since this pollution source was dormant, they chose to quarantine it instead. Twenty years passed without incident."

"Wow." Su Wenmo squinted at the aged barbershop. "Over two decades... that's rare."

She then glanced at Li Sen. "So why is your friend inside?"

Li Sen's expression turned complicated. "My friend is also a Divine Chosen—a Fire God's Chosen. But... he's a Wild Divine Chosen."

That explained it. Wild Divine Chosen were known for recklessly entering pollution zones.

In the early days of the *New Era*, every Divine Chosen was precious, and the Federation recruited them all. But as humanity's living conditions improved and more Divine Chosen emerged, problems arose.

Some Divine Chosen refused to work for the Federal Government—they didn’t join the military or Divine Chosen Teams, preferring unconstrained lives.

Others awakened their Divine Skills without registering with authorities and never trained in churches, figuring out their powers by trial and error. These individuals gained wealth and status without government oversight, making them even less inclined to join official organizations.

Eventually, the Federal Government allowed Divine Chosen to remain independent, provided they obeyed laws and refrained from using Divine Skills for crimes or threats to federal security.

Wild Divine Chosen who didn’t take ordinary jobs usually had two ways to earn money:

First, as bodyguards for the wealthy. Divine Chosen bodyguards were paid insane amounts—way more than regular bodyguards made. The job was also leisurely, mostly just hanging at their employer’s place or accompanying them occasionally. Other tasks could be refused at will.

Most importantly, it was the safest option.

But some still found bodyguard work too restrictive, so they chose a more independent line of work:

Pollution Source Hunter.

Many pollution sources within the Federation’s walls were either neglected or too difficult for official teams to handle. The government welcomed Wild Divine Chosen taking care of them—they could turn in pollution sources at churches for rewards.

Some pollution zones also obstructed business ventures, leading rich clients to offer bounties for their removal. Solving one pollution source could earn both government pay and private bounties—enough to live on for years.

Clearly, Li Sen’s friend was a Pollution Source Hunter.

"His name is Wang Kunyu," Li Sen explained quietly under the night sky. "Five days ago, he asked me about this pollution source. I warned him—this is serious business. But when he learned it was weak against fire, and he’s a Fire God's Chosen... he ignored me and snuck in."

"And hasn’t come out in five days?" Su Wenmo flicked her locs, eyeing the dilapidated barbershop. "So you dragged us here to rescue him?"

Li Sen’s hardened face contorted with guilt. "He... he's like a brother to me..."

Bai Qinghe cut in, "But after five days, are you sure he’s even alive?"

Li Sen stiffened, his expression darkening. He clearly wasn’t sure.

He cursed Wang Kunyu inwardly—how dare he sneak into a pollution zone? By the time Li Sen received the timed message announcing Wang Kunyu’s entry, five days had already passed.

Total fucking moron! Li Sen seethed. If Wang Kunyu somehow survived, he’d kick his ass, then spill all his misdeeds to his aging grandfather. He swore it.

At this point, this person was after all Li Sen's childhood friend, so Bai Qinghe and the others couldn't just leave him to die.

However, Bai Qinghe still cautioned, "It's already been five days... You should brace yourself."

Li Sen nodded silently.

At that moment, Su Wenmo spoke up, "Did you all hear that sound just now?"

"Yeah," Bai Qinghe nodded. "Sounded like a woman's scream."

"Weird noises in a place like this aren't unusual," the skinny guy in a leather jacket standing behind them remarked, looking down at the data on his terminal. "Twenty years ago, residents in this neighborhood reported hearing weird noises coming from the barbershop."

"Shall we go in?" Li Sen glanced at the others.

Su Wenmo shrugged. "Your good friend's in there—what else can we do?"

Bai Qinghe nodded as well.

Grateful, Li Sen tugged at the corners of his mouth. He reached out, grabbed the door handle, and slowly pushed open the dusty glass door of Sister Xiu's Barbershop.

As the door swung open, the sounds inside became clear to everyone.

"Boom!"

"Boom! Boom!!"

"Boom! Boom! Boom!!!"

All five froze at the entrance.

Bai Qinghe frowned hard. "What is that sound?"

"Sounds like... thunder?" Su Wenmo said uncertainly.

The skinny man in the leather jacket asked, "Since when does a barbershop have thunder?"

"Maybe it just sounds like it," Li Sen muttered. "Not actual thunder."

"But look," Su Wenmo pointed deeper into the barbershop with her index finger. "That flickering—doesn’t it look like lightning?"

"..."

At that moment, lying on the ground and staring at the dried-up corpse charred by lightning, Wang Kunyu's emotions were complicated.

Just moments ago, he had been certain he was about to die, wondering what the point of it all was, when Bull Warrior suddenly took down the corpse with just a mirror.

He couldn’t quite understand why the infected entity would break down just from looking in a mirror.

But what happened next was even more confusing—Bull Warrior began frantically throwing things at the infected entity.

Anything she could grab, she chucked at it.

It almost seemed like Bull Warrior was the one losing it, as if she had been contaminated herself.

Or like a terrified little girl acting purely on instinct, not thinking straight.

But Bull Warrior was no little girl—she was at least a Level 4 Divine Chosen, a big deal in her own right. How could she break down so easily?

After exhausting everything she could throw, she started zapping the infected entity with lightning.

The first bolt struck the infected entity, making its body twitch as countless strands of hair, like black threads, tried to burst out from beneath its skin.

But they quickly retracted—the contamination seemed to be trying hard to keep a vaguely human form.

Once it stabilized, the hair on its head rapidly grew and shot toward the mirror.

It wanted to destroy the mirror!

But Yu Xing wasn’t having that. Raising her magic staff, she shouted, "Avada Kendagua!"

The incoming hair was turned to ash. Still, Yu Xing kept talking, "Do you see yourself now? Even if he came back, he wouldn’t love you—he’d just be terrified. You’re not gentle at all. You’d only scare him away..."

This was a tip from the live chat. Forum users had noticed that Yu Xing’s random comments seemed to destabilize the corpse’s rationality, so they told her to keep going.

A mindless contamination was far easier to deal with than a cunning one.

Under Yu Xing’s relentless verbal and lightning attacks, the contamination could no longer hold its human form. Hair erupted from its body until even its outer shell collapsed.

Earlier, this contamination had displayed scary-smart intelligence—that was what made it so dangerous.

But once it fully lost control, becoming nothing more than a monster driven by instinct, it became much easier to handle. Yu Xing began dodging around the room, continuously hitting the main body with lightning.

The contamination’s hair wasn’t infinite, but the lightning from her staff nearly was.

Finally, after too much of its hair had been destroyed, the contamination could no longer attack. The remaining strands retracted, cocooning the dried-up corpse in a black chrysalis.

The chat went wild with demands for Yu Xing to finish it off while it was weak. She let out a relieved breath—she'd made it through... for now.

Not daring to let her guard down, she raised her staff high and aimed at the black cocoon. "Avada Kendagua!"

Lightning struck, leaving behind a burnt, stinking mess.

Wang Kunyu was floored. Just moments ago, Bull Warrior had said her spiritual energy was too depleted to cast lightning—so where'd all those lightning bolts come from?

"Is it dead?" Yu Xing stared at the charred blob.

"N-no..." Wang Kunyu wanted to say he didn’t know, but before he could finish, he saw a faint purple glow rise from the surface of the charred mass.

He quickly corrected himself, "M-maybe?"

The purple light came together, floating above the remains as a glowing purple ball.

Yu Xing was over the moon—the infected entity was finally out! She could trade it with Cultivator A-Yuan in the Immortal Realm for healing potions! Gran would pull through! She'd make it! Her hair would grow back!

The live chat erupted in celebration.

[Is that the infected entity? That took ages!]

[I was sure The Fan Favorite would be the time-jumper with the shortest survival time in history.]

[+1, I thought she was toast.]

[It's actually sorta pretty, though.]

[Mine! Mine! I claimed it first! The Fan Favorite, wrap up the stream and trade with me!]

[Hah, check out how thirsty A-Yuan is...]