So Human Heads Can Grow into the Shape of Sunflowers

The tiger-headed monster, pierced through the eye, rapidly withered away as if being sucked into the Bronze Key.

The Bronze Key then unleashed an invisible force, dragging Li Fan into a strange space!

Everything around him plunged into darkness in an instant, and the scene shifted rapidly.

Darkness, gloom, a sense of oppression from within, and the scent of scorched earth at his nostrils.

He had stepped into another world!

Li Fan opened his eyes in a pitch-black void where he couldn't even see his own hand.

What kind of hellish place is this?

What about that anomalous infected entity?

Li Fan groped his way forward through the room, his heart filled with confusion.

He felt a door.

Pushing it open gently, a faint, blood-red glow appeared.

Before him was a square hall with a pitch-black stone stele standing in the center.

The surroundings featured faint, antique-style pillars and carvings, making it look like an ancient structure.

Li Fan grumbled to himself, yet felt his heart relax significantly as he strode forward to the stele.

Regardless of where this place was, the stele might hold the answers.

Squinting in the mysterious blood-red light, Li Fan read the large characters inscribed upon it:

"I have cultivated the Dao for thirty years. Upon descending the mountain, I witnessed a purgatory on earth: the heavens inverted, the world in ruins, and living beings reduced to ghosts. My fury reached the heavens! I opened the gates of the underworld, established the Prison of Suppression, and locked away the souls of malevolent spirits! The Dao is the way of man! The God is the spirit of refinement! Since no gods manifest, I shall take their place! This is the Prison of Suppression!"

Could this place really be something akin to hell?

Aren't anomalous events supposed to be the domain of parapsychological research?

This is leaning far too close to mythology...

The text on the black stele looked vigorous and powerful; one could feel the overwhelming dominance within it at a single glance.

Li Fan reached out to touch the characters on the stele and couldn't help but gasp.

There were indentations on the stone—they had been carved directly with fingers!

The moment he touched the stele, a majestic voice thundered in his mind:

"The Prison of Suppression reopens!"

A surge of information flooded Li Fan's mind simultaneously.

He understood in an instant that this place was called the Prison of Suppression, a facility designed to contain the "anomalies" of the world!

He had now become the successor of this Prison of Suppression!

Immediately following this, a rumbling sound echoed through the surroundings, and even the ground began to tremble.

Within Li Fan's line of sight, the areas that had looked like ancient architecture transformed into a modern style.

They turned into cold, concrete structures!

The shaking stopped, and the surroundings were now entirely modern.

It looked like a real prison.

It felt even more oppressive than before.

Li Fan was astonished; he circled the black stele and peered into the darkness deep within the hall.

This place was massive.

Only a faint, blood-red light shone in from somewhere, casting a dim, eerie glow that made it impossible to gauge the true size of the area.

Rows of tightly shut doors lined the hall; he wondered if there were others inside.

Li Fan fumbled around the stele for a moment, finding only a worn-out windproof lighter and a pair of rusted handcuffs.

He flicked the lighter, and a weak, blood-red flame appeared. Though dim, it was enough to illuminate a few meters around him.

With the lighter in one hand and the handcuffs in the other, Li Fan began to explore the other areas of the hall.

The blood-red flame, while strange, provided clear visibility.

Li Fan arrived at the door of a room.

The door was made of metal and featured a small viewing window that could be opened from the outside, though all were currently sealed shut.

This was a standard cell layout!

He pushed the door, but it was locked tight and wouldn't budge.

Li Fan then pushed open the viewing window and shone the lighter inside, only to see a pitch-black, dusty room about ten square meters in size, with a pile of ash on the floor.

It really was a prison cell!

Li Fan kept the lighter lit and moved to the next room. He still couldn't open the door, and looking through the viewing window, he saw a pile of yellowed bones scattered across the floor!

A chill ran through his heart, and he continued toward the next room without attempting to push the door.

According to the stone tablet, this place is some sort of "Prison of Suppression." If he were to push open a door and accidentally release some heinous, malevolent entity, that would certainly not be a good thing.

Walking past the cells one by one, Li Fan realized this place was impossibly vast. He had already passed at least a hundred cells and still hadn't reached the end of this corridor.

Peering through the viewing windows, he saw that most of the cells were empty, save for the occasional pile of withered bones or scattered ash.

The further he walked, the stronger a certain feeling became.

He was the master of this place!

Every blade of grass, every brick, and every tile belonged to him!

It was as if this massive prison were a living, breathing entity, resonating in harmony with him.

Suddenly, a rustling sound broke the silence, sounding jarringly sharp in the darkness.

Someone was there!

Li Fan immediately followed the sound to a cell, carefully pushed open the viewing window, and peered inside by the light of his lighter.

The entity within seemed to sense his arrival and looked back at him.

It was that tiger-headed monster!

Li Fan recoiled sharply, bracing himself for an attack, only to see the tiger-headed monster let out a fearful hiss upon spotting him. It scrambled into the corner, trembling violently.

The crisp sound of clanking chains followed.

Only then did Li Fan notice that metal chains extending from the floor had firmly bound the tiger-headed monster, piercing directly through its flesh and becoming a part of its very body.

Its body was now tattered and broken, a testament to the cruel torture it had endured.

On the door of this cell, there was a circular hole from which a metal chain protruded, dangling down to the floor.

This monster had been brought into the Prison of Suppression by him.

Li Fan gave the chain a gentle tug, and the tiger-headed monster immediately adopted a fawning expression, its previous ferocity entirely gone.

In an instant, Li Fan knew its name.

Tiger Pillar God!

He held absolute power over this monster's life and death, and he could also borrow its strength.

Regardless of how these supernatural, god-like things existed in this world, at the very least, he now possessed some means of self-preservation.

"Didn't I warn you? Still feeling arrogant?" Li Fan yanked the chain hard, slamming the Tiger Pillar God against the door. It winced in pain, its ferocious tiger face twisted in terror and dread.

"Get down!"

The Tiger Pillar God prostrated itself on the ground like a bizarre cat, the two giant pythons on its arms also lying flat in submission.

"Squat!"

The Tiger Pillar God immediately shifted from a prone position to a squat.

"Shake hands!"

One of the giant pythons serving as an arm reached out, swaying gently with a fawning look.

Li Fan nodded in satisfaction.

Why didn't you do that earlier?

Suddenly, another sound came from a cell not far away.

Were there other prisoners?

Leaving the Tiger Pillar God behind, Li Fan approached the cell and pushed open the viewing window.

Eighteen eyes locked onto one another.

Li Fan felt every hair on his body stand on end. A chill shot from his tailbone straight to the back of his head. He jumped backward, unable to stop himself from shouting:

"Holy shit!"

The creature in this cell looked like a monster stitched together from parts!

Eight heads were arranged like a flower around a single neck. While the torso was humanoid, the lower half consisted of over a dozen strange, twisted limbs. It had no arms, only a dozen tentacle-like appendages writhing about!

Upon seeing Li Fan, the monster let out a shrill, piercing scream and instantly scrambled into the corner.

His lighter slipped from his hand and flickered out. Li Fan immediately relit it and slapped himself across the face to steady his nerves.

He carefully peered through the viewing window again, confirming that the monster hadn't rushed out.

Li Fan suddenly noticed that the monster was huddled in the corner, trembling all over, with all eight heads facing the wall, not daring to move an inch.

It seemed... it was even more terrified than he was?

Suppressing his physical discomfort, he closed the viewing window and sighed as he looked at the endless row of cells ahead.

What kind of hellish prison was this? Was it suppressing a whole legion of demons and ghosts?

Moreover, the sunflower-headed monster inside wasn't bound by any chains; it seemed he couldn't control it yet.

Just then, a heavy thudding sound erupted from the very next cell!

The door shook violently under the impact, and plumes of black mist seeped through the cracks, as if something were about to break out!

Li Fan could even hear a shrill, mournful wailing, as if hundreds of men and women were screaming in unison—it was heart-wrenching!

He hurriedly retreated. Was some evil spirit about to emerge?

Go back. Forget inspecting this prison for now; go back and have some tea first!

Li Fan took out the Bronze Key and frantically slashed it through the air, only to find it useless.

In his desperation, he jammed it into the door of an empty cell and yanked it open.

The next instant, he appeared outside the duty room, and that door had transformed into the door of the duty room!

He was back!

"Bang!"

The Psychic Radiation Counter he was wearing suddenly shattered.