Chapter Sixty: Entry

"Peanut, you..." I stammered, mouth agape, unable to form a coherent sentence.

Fatty helped me to my feet, groaning, "Damn, how is this even possible?"

We furrowed our brows, our eyes locked on Peanut. At this moment, his hands were clamped firmly around the throat of the Underworld Specter. He stood rigid, motionless. Yet, the hair on his head had begun to grow, inch by inch, quickly slithering like snakes toward the creature’s head.

Peanut’s hair was originally a dull, malnourished yellowish-brown, fluffy and seemingly permed. But now, it was darker than the surrounding void, stretching out as if pulled by unseen hands. Within moments, it reached a length equal to his height and continued to spread, a black waterfall cascading over the creature’s crimson body.

" 'Sin-Manifestation'... could this be 'Sin-Manifestation'?" Zhuge Xuan cried out from the side.

"What is Sin-Manifestation? What’s happening to Peanut?" I asked urgently.

Zhuge Xuan seemed plunged into extreme terror—a reaction I hadn't even seen from her when the creature first revealed its true form.

"Impossible, how could this person undergo Sin-Manifestation?" she muttered, shaking her head, her speech rapid. "Something must be wrong. It’s just a legend, it can’t be, it absolutely cannot be..."

I knew asking further was useless; she was trapped in her own internal struggle. Turning my head, I saw that both Peanut and the specter were enveloped by the expanding black silk.

The hair formed a tent-like structure above Peanut’s head. It was sparse on the edges but terrifyingly dense inside, turning into an absolute mass of darkness. Then, movement began within the black strands.

Fighting? Too faint.

Struggling? Too superficial.

Fatty stared blankly for a long time before suddenly saying, "When the kid comes out, we should ask him what brand of shampoo he uses. If this scene were made public, the big brands wouldn't stand a chance."

I wanted to laugh at Fatty’s absurdity, but my face remained frozen. Looking back, that was the first time I had ever heard the term "Sin-Manifestation." It was a word that would later nearly destroy everything I had.

The three of us fell silent first. We stopped speaking, struggling to steady our breathing as we waited for the ordeal to end. For a moment, I feared Peanut might vanish entirely, and when we peeled back those tresses, we would find nothing left.

Ten minutes. Half an hour. Perhaps four or five hours. Just as we were too exhausted to stand, the black strands began to retract rapidly.

The hair spiraled inward, shrinking to half its size in the blink of an eye. Once more, I saw the eye-covered body of the Underworld Specter and Peanut sitting atop it. The long, flowing hair seemed like a hallucination; as soon as I realized it, it was gone.

Peanut’s hair was back to its dull, fluffy yellow, showing no signs of the violent transformation. His hands rested lightly at his sides, his face tilted upward. We moved closer, desperate to know what had transpired.

The specter no longer moved. Peanut stood up, relaxed his body, and turned toward us.

I noticed a hole the size of a human head in the specter's chest. Looking at the edges, it appeared its entire body was filled with eyes.

When we looked at Peanut, however, we instinctively backed away. His face still wore that inscrutable smile, unchanged. But now, his face, chin, and the corners of his mouth were stained with fresh, red blood.

If you are a rugged soul who has ever bitten directly into a large watermelon, you would know exactly why that red stained his face in such a way. Looking at the blood on his lips, comparing it to the hole in the specter’s chest, and reflecting on the strange movements from before—we all reached the same conclusion.

My mind raced, settling on the creature's final words: *"Kindred?"*

"My god..." Suddenly, images flashed through my mind: the coffin in the black-and-white photo, the first time Peanut appeared before me, his superhuman abilities, my father's words—*"Have you ever seen a person like this?"*

I couldn't help but ask myself: "Peanut, what exactly are you?"

Peanut walked up to us and suddenly reached out a hand...

We took a step back instinctively. Peanut paused for half a second, then seemed to smile even more broadly. He pulled a cigarette from his pocket and asked, "Got a light?"

We were too stunned to react, but Fatty retrieved the smokeless stove from the ground to light Peanut’s cigarette. Peanut then pulled out three more and handed them to us.

The situation was awkward and bizarre; I didn't know how to respond. Zhuge Xuan spoke up.

"Chen Zixiang, what exactly..."

Peanut cut her off immediately: "You talk too much."

At his words, I saw Zhuge Xuan shiver.

Fatty, already puffing on his blood-stained cigarette, said, "Folks, let’s be practical. Let’s discuss how to get out of here."

"Heh, you're right," Peanut chuckled.

Fatty had handled the tension well, and I finally calmed down. Once my mind cleared, I asked him, "When did you two plan this, and why didn't you tell me?"

Fatty laughed, "With your level of wit, you wouldn't have been able to handle such high-level work."

He began to explain, and I realized how bold Fatty truly was. He hadn't known Peanut and Zhuge Xuan’s plan at all. Back then, he had genuinely wanted to throttle her. But Zhuge Xuan’s skills were formidable; a direct confrontation would have been Fatty's end. When she grabbed his wound, it was their signal.

She had used a precise technique that caused him no pain. Fatty sensed something was off, and when she tapped his wound with her fingers while locking eyes with him, he instantly realized she had a plan.

Even with that suspicion, few would have had the courage to act as Fatty did. The subsequent performance was all his, though the kick Zhuge Xuan gave him later had been quite heavy.

Fatty kicked the specter and said, "It’s all thanks to your Fatty’s wit. Otherwise, no matter how skilled you are, Kid, if this thing hadn't revealed its true form, nobody could have done anything to it."

I had no words, mostly because I was still thinking about whether the hole in the specter was from Peanut eating... *ugh*, I couldn't wrap my head around it.

Zhuge Xuan said nothing, staring fixedly at Peanut.

Fatty, curious about the creature, wanted to reach out and pluck an eyeball off it.

"Hey, keep your hands to yourself. Be careful, it might not be fully dead," I warned. I felt that such a thing should not be touched, even in death.

Fatty hesitated, but seeing Peanut didn't stop him, he squatted down and said, "Bullshit. The kid just gutted it; how could it still be alive?"

After rolling his eyes at me, Fatty prepared to reach out.

But at that moment, unexpectedly, the specter on the ground suddenly straightened its body.

In an instant, Fatty’s face went pale, and even Peanut was momentarily stunned.

In the blink of an eye, the specter’s right hand, wrapped in red eyes, was shoved into Fatty’s mouth.

Even Peanut was too slow to react. The eyes all over the creature’s body surged like frenzied insects into Fatty’s mouth. Just as Peanut lunged toward him, half of the specter’s body had already entered Fatty’s stomach.

My mind went blank, though an inappropriate thought crossed it: *Damn it, so this is what it means to "enter your body."*