Chapter 097: [Second Identity]

With a splash, a ripple of water broke the still night at a remote corner of Red Lake.

Carrying his diving gear, Tang Mubai walked toward the shore, removed the breathing mask from his face, and let out a long breath.

That mysterious beautiful youth on the lava-side reef had been deeply unnerving. After Tang Mubai left, he checked the metal cylinder and found that the amount of fire malice absorbed was still one notch short of being full. He immediately made a decisive retreat, no longer lingering in the rift, and swam swiftly back to the surface.

Fortunately, the beautiful youth seemed to have no intention of giving chase, allowing Tang Mubai to leave unhindered.

Only after returning to the lake surface did he finally exhale in genuine relief.

But then—

"What happened to my hair?"

Tang Mubai stared in shock.

After setting down his diving gear onshore, he ran both hands through his hair and over the back of his head, his expression turning odd.

His hair had grown longer.

Perfectly fine not long ago, it had actually become long.

The neat short cut he had worn was now transformed into shoulder-length locks.

He grabbed a handful and discovered that these were indeed real long hairs, grown out from his original hair.

"When did this happen?"

Tang Mubai could not make sense of it.

He picked up his diving gear again and left the Red Lake shore, then found the parked car.

Inside the cabin, he looked at himself in the rearview mirror, and once again fell into astonishment.

"Half black, half white?"

"Fine, so my hair got longer, but now the long hair is half black and half white..."

"Hm, wait!"

Suddenly, a possibility flashed through Tang Mubai's mind. He murmured, "Half black, half white... could it be because of the Tai Chi Heart Sutra?"

Without hesitation, he immediately circulated the Tai Chi Heart Sutra, then stared into the rearview mirror.

At first, his hair showed no reaction, but before long, the half-black, half-white long hair began to lengthen again.

It was as if some miraculous growth tonic had been sprayed on it, the roots continuously sprouting and extending.

And the two colors were not even a neat division of black and white.

They were intertwined, each within the other. The black and white strands were woven together, inseparable.

Under the framing of this long hair, Tang Mubai realized that even his temperament was changing.

"If I didn't have long hair... wait!"

A sudden flash of insight struck him.

If the hair length changed, and his temperament changed with it, then if his appearance also shifted at the same time, wouldn't he be able to create another identity for himself?

The human-skin mask he had torn from Hu Zonghan's face was still at home, and he had no idea when it might prove useful.

Now that his hair had grown longer, the need had arisen. It was perfect for use here.

"Uh, maybe that still won't work."

Tang Mubai slapped his forehead, frowning.

"This hairstyle is too conspicuous. Even with a mask on, people would notice unless I can freely control the length of my hair..."

Right.

Since the hair had grown because of the Tai Chi Heart Sutra, then in reverse, could it also make the hair shorten?

This martial art was extraordinarily strange and marvelous.

Perhaps shortening his hair was possible too.

Thinking of this, Tang Mubai kept the Tai Chi Heart Sutra circulating while silently commanding his hair to shorten.

Short, short, short...

"Haha, it really shortened!"

Joy surged wildly through Tang Mubai.

When he circulated the Tai Chi Heart Sutra without conscious control, his hair would grow longer, but under deliberate control, it could shorten again.

At the same time, the half-black, half-white hairstyle and color returned to their original pure black.

This was incredible.

If he wanted it long, it became long. If he wanted it short, it became short.

When his hair was long and he wore the mask, he would be a completely different person.

When he cut it short and removed the mask, he would be himself again.

With an extra identity, there would be far fewer restraints in handling certain matters.

"Haha..."

Tang Mubai laughed inwardly. After shortening his hair back to its original length, he stopped circulating his power.

He had not expected absorbing fire malice to bring such an unexpected gain.

Right now, he could hardly wait to go home and try it with the mask.

To that end, after starting the car, he drove back at breakneck speed.

Upon returning to base, he entered the house, took the human-skin mask from a box in the bedroom, and first cleansed it with his internal force.

After all, the mask had been torn from Hu Zonghan's face and worn by someone else before. Washing it a few times would make it easier to wear without discomfort.

Especially with internal-force cleansing, it became as clean as could possibly be.

Though a professional-level protective aura could not be projected outward, using it to wash the mask by hand did not count as external release; it merely flowed over the skin.

After cleansing it three times, Tang Mubai took the mask into the bathroom and closed the door.

Then he circulated the Tai Chi Heart Sutra, letting his hair grow long again, half black and half white.

Once it reached shoulder length, he put on the mask and controlled the change in his facial expression.

Young would not do. He needed a middle-aged appearance.

Very quickly, a blank-faced middle-aged man appeared in the mirror.

Unlike Hu Zonghan's domineering majesty, the face Tang Mubai had shaped leaned more toward cool pride and detachment.

In terms of bearing, it moved toward the presence and demeanor of a grandmaster-level expert.

That was right. Tang Mubai had decided to create a grandmaster identity for himself.

At present, his physique was at grandmaster level, and so was the pressure he gave off, but in terms of blood and qi cultivation, he still fell far short of a true grandmaster.

Even with the help of the Blood King Pearl, he could not impersonate one for long before being exposed by a genuine grandmaster.

But if he could refine the Two Elements Sword Qi, that would be a different matter.

The Two Elements Sword Qi could both destroy flesh and erase the soul.

Against a true grandmaster, a sudden ambush with a single sword qi would be enough to settle the matter outright.

Combined with this cold, aloof temperament, in the eyes of others he would absolutely be a master who either did not strike at all, or killed the instant he did.

"Tsk, tsk..."

As excitement swelled, Tang Mubai could not help swallowing.

After a long while, once he had calmed down, he looked again at the unfamiliar face in the mirror before controlling his hair to shorten and return to its original state.

He removed the mask, placed it back in the box, took it in hand, and walked out of the bathroom.

If he wanted to create a grandmaster identity, the first prerequisite was to refine the Two Elements Sword Qi.

To that end, Tang Mubai gave up on sleep. He turned on the computer and searched for the nearest location where yin malice appeared close to Redleaf City.

Now he had fire malice, but he still needed yin malice, or perhaps ice malice or water malice as substitutes.

After a round of searching online, he finally found a suitable place.

It was in the Seventy-Fifth Domain, in Kexiong City, inside a mountain forest eighty kilometers southwest of the domain wall.

At the center of the forest lay a city reduced long ago to ruins.

More than two hundred years ago, that city had still been within the domain wall, but when the beast tide erupted and assaulted the Seventy-Fifth Domain, it shattered the domain wall of the time and poured into the city.

As a result, fewer than ten thousand of the city's more than one million inhabitants managed to escape.

The rest were all buried there, dying miserably beneath the claws of the savage beasts.

The yin malice generated by so many deaths had never fully dispersed even after more than two centuries.

Of course, there was not much left.

Yin malice was the primary energy source used in forging certain special treasures.

After more than two hundred years, the yin malice lingering in the city had already been mostly absorbed by others.

Tang Mubai chose this place to try his luck.

Because every other place damn well lay inside a forbidden zone.