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“Young man, it’s easy to run into ghosts wandering around alone at night.” The sharp blade snipped noisily. Earlier Han Fei did not notice that the middle-aged man’s fingers had all been snipped away. They were then individually sewn back together with stitches. They looked horrifying.

“Thank you for saving my life. That family is crazy. They plan to chop off my limbs so that I will stay with them forever.” Han Fei’s voice was filled with appreciation. He did not seem to realize the true problem yet. For all intent and purpose, he looked like he was still reeling from the earlier scare.

“They are indeed a family of crazies, but…” The man’s head slowly turned around, “If you’ve stayed with them, you’ll at least be kept alive but now you’ve lost that chance.” With a strange cackle coming out from his mouth, the man’s eyes were filled with joy and excitement. He could not believe his luck. “This shop’s original owner has gone to the Cattle Alley so he needed someone to look over the shop for him. Therefore, he turned me into a living doll. Look at the stitches on my arm, the cuts on my legs and finally, take a gander at my face!”

While still holding the scissors, the man started to display the scars on his body to Han Fei. Tight stitches patched his body together, the middle-aged man was like a ragdoll that was sewn out of human skin. The middle-aged man was made crazy by the constant sting of pain. He needed desperately to vent. To do that, he intended to replicate that pain on Han Fei.

“I will turn you into my resemblance so that you can take my place to look over this shop. But don’t worry, I am not as cruel as the owner, I will only slice through your chest and neck.” The man said as he trundled towards Han Fei.

“Wait, so you’re not the owner of this place?” The fear on Han Fei’s face slowly faded away. “I do wish to meet him in person, he must be quite impressive to be able to start a business here. Furthermore, barbershop is quite a unique choice of business.”

“Acting dumb won’t work on me. Do you have any last words?” The threads on the man’s face were unravelling. His body was stuffed with bloody hair.

“Now that I have a closer look, the boss did have quite a good hand with needlework.” Han Fei made himself look harmless to prevent being ambushed by Top Lingering Spirit. After all, there was danger at every corner in the cryptic world and the role of prey and predator could be switched at any moment. Now that he was certain the barbershop’s real boss was not around, he did not need to continue acting anymore. Opening the urn, Han Fei allowed Weep and Drake to go ham. The two lingering spirits easily took down the middle-aged man. “The boss of Nocturnal Barbershop has gone to the Cattle alley, I might run into him there. Leave the human skin doll behind, we might still have use for it.”

Han Fei picked up the man from the ground. The man’s Yin energy had been consumed by Weep, he now was a tattered skein of skin. Activating Soul-depth touch, Han Fei could feel deep fear and anxiety from the middle-aged man, the fear was inspired by someone deep inside his heart. Ever since he levelled up Soul-depth Touch, Han Fei could feel more palpable emotions. He could even reconstruct the ghost’s fragmented memory from reaching into their hearts. ‘From the man’s impression, the barbershop’s boss is extremely powerful, he is more powerful than a normal Lingering Spirit!’

With his neighbours’ help, Han Fei could deal with a normal Lingering Spirit easily. A medium Lingering Spirit was slightly tougher but with good coordination, they could still take them down. But if they ran into a Top Lingering Spirit like Little Eight and Jin Sheng, they should consider themselves lucky if they managed to escape alive.

After folding the man’s skin into a travel size package, Han Fei stuffed it into the urn. Then he had Drake inspect the stuff inside the shop. Drake had worked for a long time at the convenience store, so he had a discerning eye for valuable stuff. He could often spy treasures that normal ghosts would miss. “Boss, the wigs inside this shop contain heavy negative energy.” Drake led Han Fei deeper into the shop. There was a bedroom behind there. When they pulled back the bedsheet, everyone was shocked. A normal barbershop would help their customer trim and model their hair but this shop shaved their customers’ heads. The boss captured his customers off the street, shaved off their heads and then used their bodies as nutrients to cultivate and nurture the hair. These hairs were suffused with deep Yin energy, they were as tight and as sturdy as ropes.

“Are the Yin energy on these hairs usable to you?”

“Yes.”

“Then what are you waiting for? Drain them all and then we need to leave! If the boss returns now and finds us in here, we won’t be able to explain our way out of it.” Instead of mannequin heads, the barbershop used actual human heads as décor. The human heads had fear frozen on their faces, Han Fei was helping them seek salvation. Han Fei did not expect a small barbershop to be filled with so many dead bodies and Yin energy. The barbershop boss appeared to be planning something big.

After absorbing the last trace of Yin energy, Weep’s body started to change. A child’s crying echoed around them. All the Lingering Spirits within 10 metres radius were affected. Sadness, pain, despair gushed out from their hearts and slammed against their rationality like waves. The air dampened with negative energy. All the happiness and joy in the world had been sucked out of existence. It was as if God had turned the switch on human emotions and humans as well as ghosts were no longer able to taste joy.

With blood tears oozing out from his eyes, Weep reached out his small hands to pick up the ceremonial urn. He sought out a wrinkled picture from the bottom of the urn. The picture captured a shy young boy. An adult which had their face rubbed off stood next to the boy. The negative energy was palpable as the pair of bloody eyes stared at the picture. Weep had attempted to destroy this very picture that reminded himself of his horrible life in the past but he failed to do so. Even now, he could not bring himself to do it.

The picture seemed to represent something important in Weep’s memory. He thought after he became stronger, he could destroy that thing but reality proved that he was still too powerless to do it. His nails scratched through his skin. Despair and pain pulled his nerves taut. Thorns started to pierce through his thin body, they twirled around his body like briar.

The thorns which were sharper than knives were morphed from pain and despair. Weep who had consumed a large amount of Yin energy appeared to have gained a new power. He could not only affect other people’s emotion but he could now manifest his sadness and pain in another form.

‘The stronger the Lingering Spirit, the deeper the pain and despair in their hearts will become?’ Han Fei was familiar with Weep’s past. Reaching out to touch the arm covered with thorns, Han Fei squatted down beside Weep. “Don’t worry, I’m sure one day you’ll accomplish the goal you set out to do. And we will be there with you all along the way.”