Mysterious Hair Knot

A rough, cheap sketch—who would have thought it could be so dangerous?

Those pitch-black tentacles were swift and inhumanly powerful. Even a strong adult would have been unable to withstand this sudden attack.

Unfortunately, it had encountered a prepared Tang Qi.

The instant the sketch appeared and he caught sight of that faint glow, Tang Qi almost instinctively sprayed out all the saltwater in his mouth. At the same time, golden flames burst from his fair palms with a boom.

Furnace Power would not damage ordinary paper, but if it was something from the supernatural sequence—and part of the Evil Faction—then sorry.

Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle!

The sound of corrosion rang out. The black tentacles reacted violently the moment they touched the azure saltwater. Gray blotches rapidly appeared across them as they were corroded, and they withdrew into the sketch. But that did not allow them to escape, because the entire sketch began to burn the next moment.

Like paper brought near a flame, the scorching heat turned it yellow and slowly curled its edges before blackening it.

The next step would perhaps be for it to burn completely to ashes.

"No~"

At that critical moment, a scream unexpectedly came from within the sketch.

A magnetic voice rang out as pink light suffused with lewdness rose around the sketch, struggling to resist the burning Golden Flame.

Only then did Tang Qi finally see the sketch's true appearance.

It was a portrait. Its subject was a middle-aged man wearing a well-tailored yet strangely styled black robe. His face was pale, his long hair tied behind his head, and his chin covered in unruly whiskers. His faintly red eyes possessed an extraordinary allure.

The one begging for mercy was this man. With a miserable expression, he spread his hands and cried out to Tang Qi, "Young Male Witch, please do not harm me. I am willing to offer you all my knowledge and become one of your collectibles. Will you spare me?"

What a professional performance!

Tang Qi praised him inwardly, but the flames pouring from his hands did not lessen. Instead, they grew even fiercer.

Behind his slightly lowered eyelids, the Special Interface appeared.

Curio: Gregory's Self-Portrait.

Status: Being damaged.

Information Fragment One: A self-portrait of Gregory, the legendary demon monk of the Slavic States. Imbued with the original body's magic power, it possessed certain supernatural abilities as well, such as granting slaves unimaginably large genitals or controlling human hearts.

Information Fragment Two: To sustain it, a virgin's resentful soul had to be offered at regular intervals.

"Gregory?"

Seeing that name, Tang Qi frowned at first, then recalled a legend he had once read.

Before the Slavic States merged into the Europa Alliance, there had once been a legendary monk. With powerful witchcraft and sexual prowess that drove women mad with desire, he debauched the entire royal court. In the end, a prince used his own wife's body as bait and had him killed.

Based on Tang Qi's deductions, this Gregory should have been a practitioner of the "monk" profession, and one with an extremely high supernatural level.

The small self-portrait before him confirmed that.

Moreover, just as the Information Fragments described, it was highly skilled at controlling human hearts.

After it begged him for mercy, countless whispers appeared in Tang Qi's mind, as though innumerable people were speaking beside his ears. Some threatened him, some tempted him, and some tried to persuade him... An urge to release the sketch began to grow in Tang Qi's heart.

Hmph!

Tang Qi snorted inwardly, and a golden stream flowed out through his mind.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Flames—golden flames several times more intense than before—completely engulfed the sketch. Tang Qi did indeed let go of it, but in that instant, the sketch had already become a mass of pitch-black ash. It drifted toward the floor, disintegrated in midair, and scattered black ash across the ground.

A supernatural item had been destroyed by Tang Qi.

Yet he did not feel the slightest regret. If he had not opened the sketch, it might have been worth keeping as a collectible.

Unfortunately, he had opened it.

It was a very dangerous thing. If he did not destroy it, Tang Qi would have to keep struggling against it to prevent himself from being controlled. That did not fit Tang Qi's expectations. Destroying it completely was best.

Tang Qi shook his head and fetched a broom, preparing to sweep up the ashes.

Just then, Tang Qi gave a soft cry of surprise and reached into the black ash to pull out a clump of something.

Hair?

That was right. The thing was several dozen strands of tangled hair.

With a light shake, the black ash fell away and revealed the hair's true appearance. Not every strand was black; black, red, green, and purple strands were intertwined, forming a very complex knot.

Strangely, unlike the disgusting hair clumps commonly found in sewers, these strands gave Tang Qi a sense of purity.

A faint ghostly glow flashed, and the interface appeared before Tang Qi's eyes.

Curio: Mysterious Hair Knot.

Status: Intact.

Information Fragment One: Gregory's Self-Portrait once had many slaves. Every slave had killed a pure virgin and offered her resentful soul to it for torment. The virgins' souls became intertwined and eventually transformed into this Mysterious Hair Knot.

Information Fragment Two: Each time you untie a hair knot, you may receive a virgin soul's gratitude, or you may gain some kind of special knowledge.

Information Fragment Three: Deciphering method: patiently guide it with magic power. Break one strand, and the entire hair knot will disappear.

"Interesting!"

Tang Qi held the multicolored hair knot in his hand, immediately intrigued.

Tang Qi could vaguely guess the hair knot's origins.

In the books he had read, accounts of that legendary monk mentioned that he liked collecting virgins' hair as trophies. Clearly, Gregory's Self-Portrait had inherited the original body's habit, and through a strange twist of fate, it had ultimately formed another supernatural item.

It just so happened that he could not cultivate right now, and Tang Qi had yet to think of the best way to handle his other supernatural items. He put tonight's gains—the fourteen canine teeth, Skana's Manuscript, and the Therand Dual Blades—into the safe.

Then Tang Qi brewed himself a pot of richly fragrant coffee, took a small piece of cake from the refrigerator, and returned to his second-floor bedroom. Sitting cross-legged on the carpet, he held the Mysterious Hair Knot and began deciphering it according to the fragments.

He could not use brute force. He had to patiently guide it with magic power.

Tang Qi recalled this as he fixed his gaze on the first hair knot. It was formed by one black and one red strand intertwined together, not particularly complicated.

Tang Qi slowly channeled Furnace Power into it. The magic power that could burn Gregory's sketch did not harm the hair, but instead made the strands seem softer, as if they were about to come alive. Suddenly, Tang Qi heard the sounds of young girls playing and laughing in his mind.

In reality, whenever Tang Qi tried to untie the first knot, the other tangled strands would wriggle over to interfere, like a group of mischievous girls.

Tang Qi was very patient. His fair, slender fingers moved deftly as he guided the magic power, separated the strands one by one, and smoothly untied the first hair knot.

Buzz

When the knot came undone, the two strands of hair burned at once and vanished into the hair clump. Before Tang Qi, however, two figures of young girls appeared.

One wore a court lady's dress. She had red hair and a black mole on her nose, and she smiled gratefully at Tang Qi.

The other was a country girl with black hair, a full figure, and fair skin. She was smiling as well.

When they saw Tang Qi looking at them, they bowed to him together. Then their figures slowly dissipated within the bedroom.

Haa~

Tang Qi let out a long breath.

He rose to his feet, a faint smile appearing on his face as well, and gave the two vanished figures a gentleman's bow.

Clearly, after untying the first hair knot, Tang Qi had not obtained knowledge. Instead, he had received the gratitude of two young girls' souls.

Still, Tang Qi was very satisfied with this reward.

He sat cross-legged again, took a sip of the coffee beside him, then picked up the hair clump with both hands and prepared to untie the second hair knot.

Just then, movement came from the first floor.

Ding ding ding!

The doorbell rang, and Tang Qi instinctively glanced out the window.

It was still the dead of night. At this hour, who would come looking for him?