Chapter 73: Human-Headed Tentacles

Mr. Xu was so terrified that his soul nearly fled.

He could see the face faintly outlined beneath the bulging skin on his daughter’s back.

The face growing on his daughter’s back filled him with abnormal horror.

But when he saw Lu Xin also revealing a strange, grinning face, it became more than just horror.

The two faces gazed at each other and smiled. For some inexplicable reason, this scene made his legs go weak…

…

“What kind of monster is this?”

Lu Xin paid no attention to Mr. Xu. He pinned the girl down with his knee pressing into her waist and saw the eerie facial pattern on her back become increasingly distinct. This meant the “snake” beneath her skin was now wriggling far more rapidly…

The faster it moved, the more agitated the thing inside her body was becoming.

Strangely, the strength of the girl beneath his restraint began to wane instead.

Lu Xin couldn’t help but frown.

By now, it was clear this human face was the cause of Mr. Xu’s daughter’s frenzied state. Through her skin, he could almost sense this thing had a physical form. Therefore, to cure her, he needed to figure out how to deal with it. Lu Xin had never encountered anything like this. Instinctively, he thought it would be helpful if Han Bing was available to analyze it for him at a moment’s notice.

But since there was insufficient information available, he’d have to figure out a solution himself.

Staring at the human face, Lu Xin frowned slightly.

Theoretically, the simplest and most direct solution to handle this human face…

Was to scoop it out!

…

And so, he earnestly began considering the feasibility of this plan…

Making a small incision shouldn’t be fatal.

But how to make that incision?

He wasn’t part of the Support Team; he didn’t carry tons of gear around.

Thinking this, he instinctively glanced at Little Sister. She was squatting nearby, clearly also drawn in by this bizarre human face. Her eyes gleamed brighter and brighter, her small hands twisting slowly as if she were poised to lunge out and grab it at any moment.

Little Sister’s hands were extremely sharp, sharp enough to tear through the girl’s skin.

But Little Sister sometimes lacked restraint, and Lu Xin worried she might tear the girl apart too.

With this thought, Lu Xin turned towards Mr. Xu and asked, “Do you have a knife?”

Mr. Xu was momentarily stunned, his expression extremely tense: “What kind of knife?”

“Any kind of knife.”

Lu Xin said simply, then added, “A kitchen knife will do.”

Mr. Xu’s face twisted with terror: Why do you need a kitchen knife now, pinning my daughter down?

Just as he snapped back to reality and was about to find a knife regardless, the girl pinned down by Lu Xin’s knee let out a piercing, hysterical scream. It was so shrill it cracked the glasses on the table.

Simultaneously, the human face on the girl’s back suddenly became unnervingly vivid.

Lu Xin sensed something wrong. He sprang back, retreating two steps to the side.

Then he witnessed it: tentacles, one after another, began springing from the girl’s back. These tentacles were each about three centimeters thick, their surfaces covered in fine black scales. They sprouted rapidly from her back without breaking her skin. Emerging too fast and too numerous, her back now resembled a dense, writhing thicket.

At the tip of each tentacle grew a fist-sized human head.

They possessed distinct human features: some masculine, some feminine; some handsome, some grotesque. Each face wore a fixed expression – fervent, vacant, or other extremes. Their eyes were two black dots, doubtful if they could actually see anything.

Once emerged, they swayed slowly, rhythmically, almost in unison, like strands of underwater seaweed, scanning their surroundings.

“What happened?”

Mr. Xu, stunned by the shriek, was deafened by ringing in his ears, his head pounding.

Regaining his senses with difficulty, he saw Lu Xin had retreated to one side, while his daughter lay motionless, face down.

A sudden, desperate urge to rush over and check on his daughter surged within him.

“Don’t move.”

Lu Xin quickly turned and gestured for him to stop.

This very gesture instantly drew the attention of the tentacles sprouting from the girl’s back. From Lu Xin’s perspective, the human-headed tentacles moved with a slow, synchronized, and rhythmic swaying. Like a bed of seaweed dancing with the ocean current, their movement gradually synchronized before, as one, they turned their heads towards Lu Xin’s location.

To Lu Xin, it appeared as a chilling thicket of heads.

All wore the same bizarrely stiff expressions, grinning unnervingly towards him.

The atmosphere felt deeply unsettling.

So, Lu Xin drew back the corners of his own lips, offering them a faint smile in return.

…

“Swoosh—”

The instant Lu Xin smiled, the group of human-headed tentacles lunged towards him.

Though each appeared only about thirty centimeters long, they seemed capable of elongating infinitely in that moment.

A cluster of tentacles, bearing fervent expressions, shot towards Lu Xin’s position.

Lu Xin frowned, but before he could dodge, a flash of white darted beside him. Little Sister appeared right in front of him, giggling wildly. Her hands shot out, snatching the two leading heads and tearing them off viciously.

“Hsssss…”

The remaining tentacles seemed startled, jerking backward abruptly.

Little Sister wouldn’t relent. She scuttled rapidly across the floor after them, her cruel eyes gleaming intensely.

As she closed in, the human-headed tentacles seemed to perceive imminent danger.

Strangely, the expressions etched onto their faces began to shift – morphing from fervent zeal into something resembling fear.

Then, in a flurry.

All the remaining tentacles abruptly dispersed in all directions, exploding outward like startled snakes.

They coiled around the coffee table, twisted around pillars in the living room, entwined within potted plants, and even crawled onto a nearby medieval European male statue, seemingly trying to merge with it.

In that very instant, the surrounding objects seemed to stir with an unnatural vitality.

…

Mr. Xu, standing nearby, had just shaken off the dizziness from the earlier scream.

When he looked around again, everything seemed unnervingly bizarre.

The coffee table now seemed imbued with life, like a coquettishly charming young girl.

The potted plant resembled a slender maiden dressed in green silk.

The statue by the corner seemed to be awakening, slowly opening its eyes…

…

The living room retained its original layout, yet suddenly, inexplicably, everything felt utterly transformed.

Every single object now pulsed with life, brimming with an unsettling… allure.