The next instant.
As Zhang Yuan's words fell, the mountain's vegetation erupted into motion. Every weed shone with sword light; for a moment, every blade of grass and every tree became a soldier, intercepting each strand of hair that had broken apart and scattered.
If any of those hairs dared to move, the three-colored divine light of [Three Calamities Returning to Origin Divine Radiance] would instantly flare, annihilating it into nothingness.
The hair possessed extraordinary intelligence. Realizing it could no longer escape, it gathered back into a heap and, in a deeply bizarre posture, knelt and kowtowed toward Zhang Yuan in the Immortal Palace, as though begging for mercy.
Zhang Yuan's gaze remained calm as he swept his eyes over the heap. Suddenly, his brow furrowed. Among the myriad strands, he spotted some fresh hairs still stained with blood.
Before coming to Brightheart Residence, it had eaten people.
Zhang Yuan's brows knitted tightly. Ignoring the heap's kneeling and kowtowing, he had the venomous vegetation surrounding it unleash the Divine Ability [Three Calamities Returning to Origin Divine Radiance].
The heap of hair, originally the size of a human head, began shrinking rapidly. Every strand touched by [Three Calamities Returning to Origin Divine Radiance] ignited without exception.
In mere moments.
Only a single withered, half-burned strand of hair lay on the ground, barely clinging to life.
Zhang Yuan stepped out of the Immortal Palace, crossing space to appear before the strand, then reached out and levitated it.
"Since it harmed people in the Capital City, that means this strand's owner is somewhere in the city."
Zhang Yuan examined it for a while. Rather than bother drawing inferences from a heap of hair or a single strand, he directly used his Celestial Person Status to deduce its karma.
A cultivator of the Form