Chapter 50: Heavenly Troops Descend

"Thud—" The coarse and sharp hair-like strands pierced through Gao Yang's lower back, lifting him in the air like a fish speared on a harpoon.

The first sensation wasn't pain, but an eerie coldness spreading across his waist. Then came the overwhelming agony shooting straight to his skull, followed by the searing pain at the wound on his back.

"Ahh...!" Gao Yang screamed in agony, feeling as if he might die at any moment.

In his dazed state, an unexpected thought crossed his mind: How did Qingling manage it? Her chest was pierced, and yet she didn't even make a sound. Was she not in pain? If I just let this happen, I'll probably roll around screaming on the ground until I die.

Thousands of hair-like tendrils that formed the "black giant needle" were pulled from Gao Yang's body. Once again, a surge of intense pain shot through his skull, and he could no longer cry out, left only with a heavy dizziness.

His body began to fall.

But after a few seconds, he did not hit the ground. A force gently caught him. The power came from two places: his armpit and the back of his right heel.

Gao Yang struggled to open his eyes and saw that he was still suspended in midair. A man was standing beside him, wearing a menacing red Tengu mask.

The man supported Gao Yang's arm with one hand and pressed his foot against Gao Yang's heel, steadying him effortlessly.

"You are..." Gao Yang muttered weakly.

"Zodiac Twelve, Tengu," the man replied lazily, his voice young and indifferent, in stark contrast to the fierce mask he wore.

Gao Yang finally noticed the man's attire: a black Daoist robe with white bandages wrapped around his arms, and a short ponytail tied high on the back of his head. His style had an "Eastern Ninja" vibe to it.

"You guys..." Gao Yang began, but the man interrupted.

"I'll take care of the rest." The Tengu man raised his hand lazily, pointing at the Hair Monster in the air. "Cut."

Gao Yang felt the air around him freeze for a second—more precisely, the air around them seemed to slightly warp and shift.

In the next instant, the hair that had entangled Qingling was severed.

"Catch her." The Tengu man, still holding Gao Yang, flew toward Qingling without moving his body. Gao Yang understood immediately, despite the pain, and reached out to grab Qingling.

"Ah..." The sharp pain in his waist caused him to groan.

The Tengu man extended his right hand toward the Hair Monster again.

"Cut."

The sensation of space freezing and shattering returned. This time, the Hair Monster was cleaved vertically in two. However, its skull sensed the danger and swiftly moved to the side. The monster lost most of its hair but the skull itself remained unharmed.

"Cut again."

The space shifted again, but this time horizontally.

The skull moved swiftly, causing the Hair Monster to lose another quarter of its hair, but the skull remained safe.

"Cut."

"Cut."

"Cut."

In a span of just ten seconds, the Tengu man had become like a barber, repeatedly trying to cut the hair of the Hair Monster. But each time, he missed the skull by just a little.

The skull, cunning as ever, no longer wanted to fight. It began to ascend, attempting to flee.

The Tengu man, still holding two injured individuals, couldn't keep up with the speed. He looked down and shouted to the ground, "Rabbit, it's running away."

Gao Yang glanced down and saw none other than the White Rabbit, whom he had met before.

This time, she wasn't wearing the KTV waitress outfit. Instead, her white rabbit mask had been replaced by a white face mask, with a cute pink bunny mouth drawn on it.

She wore a baseball cap, a black-and-white baseball jacket, and a red cropped tank top underneath, with light denim hot pants showing off her muscular, toned legs. She wore white sneakers and carried a black metal baseball bat in one hand, looking like a trendy baseball girl.

She had just helped Officer Huang and Fat Jun sit down on the ground and was now shouting to the Tengu above, "You useless brat! Come back and buy me new shoes!"

"Okay," the Tengu man responded in his usual lazy tone, showing no sign of urgency.

The White Rabbit quickly crouched down, her hands braced against the ground.

"Jump!" With a powerful push of her legs, she instantly leaped into the air.

Officer Huang felt a gust of wind blast from around the White Rabbit, making his eyes water. By the time he could open them again, the White Rabbit was gone, leaving only two deep footprints on the cracked cement in front of him.

In less than two seconds, she had leaped over a hundred meters.

Her jump was perfectly timed, matching the height of the skull as it continued to flee upward.

"Hello!" She casually greeted the skull, then raised her baseball bat high and executed a perfect overhead swing. "Home run!"

Due to the force of the swing, the White Rabbit was sent soaring two meters higher from the recoil.

The skull took a heavy blow and plummeted like a meteor, crashing into the dry pond in the center of the ancient village, creating a large muddy crater.

After a while, the skull slowly emerged from the pit. Its cranium was cracked, and its jaw was dislocated, but it was still alive, attempting to escape.

Wu Dahai stood by the edge of the pond, dressed in an eccentric mix of punk and alternative clothing. He raised both hands, smoothly ran his fingers through his spiky hair, and grinned confidently.

"Zodiac Twelve, Electric Mouse Master, Ultimate Technique—" He jumped two meters into the air and punched toward the white skull in the pit. "Super Lightning Fist!"

In fact, there was no lightning emanating from Wu Dahai's fist. The lightning came from the sky.

From Gao Yang's perspective, the space around the pond darkened for half a second. In an instant, the entire pond was surrounded by tiny electric sparks, crackling and spreading toward the skull. Then, several massive bolts of blue-and-white lightning, the size of utility poles, struck the skull.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

For a moment, the night sky was as bright as day.

When Gao Yang regained his senses, the Tengu man was already slowly descending to the ground.

Unable to hold on any longer, Gao Yang collapsed, still holding onto Qingling.

As his consciousness faded, he vaguely heard Wu Dahai's excited voice coming closer, "It's done! Wow, it really has rune circuits on it!"

"Wu Dahai, I asked you to finish it quickly, not to make a show out of it. You're giving me a headache with all that nonsense." White Rabbit's voice could be heard in the background.

"You don't understand. This is all about the sense of ceremony!"

"Being obsessed with drama is a disease, it needs treatment."

"Hey, someone's about to die here." The Tengu man's voice.

"Let me take a look... Wow... How tragic!" A sweet, high-pitched voice came from a little girl.

"There's another one inside." A man with a heavy nasal voice spoke.

"It's just an idiot beast. Don't worry about it." Wu Dahai replied.

"It's not a beast... it's my friend... save... him..." Gao Yang tried to say something more, but his eyelids grew too heavy, and his consciousness was abruptly cut off.