Chapter 246: Mutation Under the Trait
In a relatively remote factory area, black long hair converged into thin snakes, some crawling along the ground where steel materials were haphazardly stacked, while others coiled around pillars and beams, presenting an astonishing density.
Xu Huo snatched a snake flying toward him, intending to bring the person behind him out, but as soon as he rounded the nearby pillar, the snake reverted to hair and slipped from his grasp—this strand had already been severed.
At the same time, a giant snake above opened its mouth to bite down. Xu Huo grabbed a steel rod he had picked up and thrust it into the snake's mouth. The giant snake instantly dissolved into countless small black snakes that poured down, binding his hands, feet, and body!
The steel rod in his hand was absorbed by the writhing hair-snakes, and the soft yet resilient hair wrapped around him, gradually consuming his space to move.
The hair-snakes moved frenetically, and Xu Huo noticed no sign of Zhou Ning approaching nearby. However, he wasn't in a hurry to escape. Instead, he pulled out the Adult Fairy Tale Book, slapped its cover, and said, "Time to work."
This time, the fairy tale book didn't refuse to open or go on strike. It randomly selected a page, and as bleeding letters appeared on the page, a sinister, terrifying voice echoed: "She noticed all the snakes around her turning their heads. Their pitch-black colors became vibrant and multicolored, pairs of scarlet eyes surrounding her like stars in the night sky. Bright forked tongues flickered, dripping foul-smelling liquid. Some snakes, overly full, even vomited up eyeballs and remnants of human hands..."
"The thick scent of blood drove those venomous snakes even more ravenous. They crawled toward her, spitting out undigested food..."
"Ah!" A sharp scream erupted from the pile of hair-snakes. Zhou Ning abruptly retreated from the hair mass, frantically slashing to cut off her own hair!
"Smack!" Xu Huo closed the fairy tale book.
Zhou Ning stepped back several times before steadying herself. She looked at the hair scattered before her and the man standing nearby, her eyes momentarily dazed, but she quickly recovered. "Do you have a mental attack item?"
"Your trait has mental aspects, so can't you tell reality from illusion?" Xu Huo asked.
Zhou Ning felt a bit ashamed. "Even though I can launch attacks, my defense isn't great. Simply put, I have to believe in the illusions I create for them to have lethal power."
Xu Huo paused. "Explain in detail."
Zhou Ning elaborated on her newly developed trait.
Her profession, as she had told Xu Huo before, was Medusa. The basic trait was "Elder Medusa," which could simply turn hair into snakes or create a giant snake illusion, but the attack power was very weak. The giant snake illusion was almost entirely bluff and had no real lethality, having little effect on those with stable mental states and sharp minds.
The second trait she used to hide her tracks was "Transient Medusa." She could imagine herself as one of the hair-snakes and blend in, making her very hard to detect.
Additionally, during her use of the trait, she discovered that the richer her imagination, the more realistic the trait's effects became.
"I killed a player tracking me with this trait once. In a critical moment, I imagined I was a snake, even my perspective dropping to a snake's height. The other person seemed completely unable to spot me. Even I didn't expect to succeed. But when I 'became a snake,' my hair looked even more like snakes."
After listening, Xu Huo said, "So your trait can expand your perspective. Have you tried controlling the range?"
Zhou Ning shook her head. "Afterward, I could never find the feeling again."
Xu Huo put away the fairy tale book, put on the "Peeping Eye," and gripped the Crimson Sword. "Be careful. From now on, don't blame me if you lose an arm or a leg."
No sooner had he spoken than sword energy slashed toward Zhou Ning!
Zhou Ning flinched and retreated, but she reacted quickly. As she fell back, her loose hair rapidly lengthened, and one strand shot toward the factory beam.
"Trying to go up?" Xu Huo called out her intention. With two quick steps, his speed surged, and he cut in front of her, severing her hair!
Zhou Ning had already used hair growth agent, so her hair grew back very fast. The next batch surged out immediately. She grabbed a handful, and several hair-snakes automatically twisted together into a flexible whip, whistling as it swept toward Xu Huo!
The hair whip was predictably cut, but it was just a feint. Seizing the opening, she flipped behind a pile of steel materials!
Xu Huo leaped atop the steel pile but didn't see Zhou Ning's shadow—only a few hair-snakes disappearing around a corner.
He didn't rush to chase her. Standing upright, he slashed left and right, cutting through the stacked steel!
Zhou Ning's trace appeared on one side, but as he hurried over and looked down, he found only a fallen steel beam. He spun around abruptly, only to face a mass of interwoven hair. The hair ball reached his eyes, and from its center, dozens of small snakes surged, aiming for his eyes!
Xu Huo twisted his wrist to cut the hair-snakes in front of him, but the next second, his feet were bound by hair again. Unbeknownst to him, the hair had already infiltrated the stacked steel. Pulling from left, right, and below simultaneously, it buried him in the pile.
Countless hair-snakes wrapped around him again, forming an oval cocoon. But Xu Huo didn't rush to break free. He only cut the hair-snakes that lunged at him. Through the "Peeping Eye," he re-examined the endlessly intertwining hair and noticed details he had missed before.
These hair-snakes moved with a certain rhythm. They were roughly the same thickness, at first glance like a repeating animation. Staring for more than two seconds made one dizzy, and because they moved so fast, it was hard to spot differences—at least during the previous encounter, Xu Huo hadn't detected Zhou Ning hidden among them.
But under the "Peeping Eye," there was a subtle change among the hair-snakes. In one elongated section, the movement cycle of the hair-snakes had slowed down!
He thrust his sword in and pulled it out. The Crimson Sword was stained with blood.
But the next second, someone approached from behind!
Xu Huo spun and kicked, but the noise came from a few hair-snakes, while Zhou Ning crouched low beneath them, stabbing upward with a knife!
At such close range, with one foot still tangled in hair, it seemed impossible to dodge this strike.
Zhou Ning thought so too, so she hesitated in her attack. But she quickly regretted it, because Xu Huo forcibly tore the hair-snakes free, swung his leg in a circle, and drove his knee into the side of her head!
The hair-snakes quickly swallowed the fallen Zhou Ning, then surged forward again!
"Swish! Swish!" Two sword energies pierced through the hair cocoon, sending countless severed strands drifting down. But to his surprise, there was an even larger hair cocoon outside, and the fallen hair on the ground was also writhing.
Xu Huo narrowed his eyes. Gripping the violin string, he rose into the air and slashed an opening above. Just as he was about to exit, several sharp steel beams stabbed down from above, and the injured Zhou Ning stood on them, her round pupils beginning to contract toward the center!