They simply won’t believe me!
Huang Xiu gritted his teeth, tucking his phone back into his pocket with a hint of resignation.
His words carried little weight, and he had no connections; reporting it to the police had been the best solution he could conceive.
Since calling the police seemed futile, he would have to make preparations himself.
Huang Xiu composed himself; though last night’s experience had been terrifying, it had brought him more than mere fright.
He had a vague, dawning realization: a certain power seemed to reside within his blood.
That power had not only caused the cactus to mutate.
Even the various changes he had noticed in his body this morning were likely its doing.
‘The root of everything lies in my blood, and its mutation seems to have emerged after that burst of rage.’
As a child, Huang Xiu had sustained injuries and bled before, yet no such changes had ever occurred.
‘That extreme emotion was like a key, unlocking a door to the unknown.’
He made this judgment in his mind.
Recalling that inexplicable fury now.
Huang Xiu remained shocked by the dark emotions hidden deep within himself.
How could a perfectly ordinary, sunny young man like him harbor such malevolence within?
‘I need to experiment with the changes in my blood; it might just be the key to resolving everything.’
After all, wasn’t that how it always played out in anime and novels?
Huang Xiu lowered his gaze, meticulously examining his right hand.
Under the gentle morning sun, his hand appeared fair, tender, and slender as a scallion stalk, its delicate nature further accentuated by the faint blue veins visible beneath the skin.
His five pale red fingernails seemed to imprison a cluster of sunlight, so dazzling that one found it difficult to look away.
Had it not been for the faint scar still visible on his index finger, a memento from a mischievous childhood incident involving a kitchen knife.
Huang Xiu would never have believed this was his own hand.
Previously, his hands, from writing and using the computer, had developed a layer of hard calluses on his middle fingertip and wrist.
‘It’s so beautiful, I almost don’t want to cut myself.’
Huang Xiu smacked his lips.
Were it not for the life-threatening implications, he would have been quite pleased with the changes in his body.
Though these transformations made him appear somewhat like a ‘pretty boy,’ that was still a type of handsomeness.
What young man wouldn’t wish to be more handsome?
Huang Xiu had no intention of cutting himself immediately to test the secrets within his blood.
He planned to get a haircut first.
For a guy, skipping a shower for a day was acceptable, but washing one’s hair daily was a necessity.
Having spent all last night online.
His clothes and body reeked of smoke, and he could barely stand it any longer.
Now, he could conveniently wash his hair while getting it cut.
Huang Xiu ran a hand through his hair, then, with a pursed mouth, headed to the barbershop across from school, spending twenty yuan on a buzz cut.
A pang of regret struck him.
For a child raised frugally in an average household, twenty yuan represented his entire food budget for a day.
After the wash, cut, and blow-dry, feeling significantly refreshed, Huang Xiu decided to put his plan into action.
Before that, however, he needed to buy a utility knife.
Attempting to draw blood by biting his thumb, as seen in anime, was highly impractical; it would be painful and yield very little blood.
There was no need to ask how Huang Xiu knew this; suffice it to say, *Naruto* had led many astray.
After purchasing a utility knife, band-aids, and tissues from a stationery store, Huang Xiu ambled around the vicinity to ensure no one else was nearby, then sought out an overgrown, weedy corner.
Click, click, click… The sharp blade was pushed out halfway.
With a sense of grim resolve, he held the blade horizontally against his left thumb.
‘Should I cut it? Right now, right here?’
Huang Xiu swallowed hard.
As a child, he had dared to scramble up trees several meters high and forcefully bite his own finger, but he no longer possessed such courage.
The older he grew, the more he feared death.
As he blinked, the tragedy of the previous night echoed in his mind, and he immediately steeled himself.
With his right hand, he firmly held the knife and made a decisive slash across his left hand.
Under the pressure from his right hand, the sharp blade effortlessly sliced through his tender skin.
Drops of fresh blood instantly welled from the wound.
A sharp, stinging pain surged from his fingertip to his brain, and Huang Xiu’s expression froze instantly.
“Damn it, that hurts like hell!”
The unexpected agony of the cut finger brought tears to his eyes, making his vision misty.
However, he quickly suppressed them.
Grimacing, he squeezed the wound, then turned his arm, letting drops of blood, as vivid red as pomegranate seeds, fall onto the weeds.
Drip, drip…
The blood fell like raindrops, one by one, bending and saturating the slender blades of grass.
This was a weed that had already turned yellow.
Ying City had seen little rain for nearly a month, and the weed was on the verge of withering away.
Now, this heaven-sent blood was the finest nectar.
Its leaves trembled, absorbing, and savoring the exquisitely delicious crimson rain.
Drop after drop, drop after drop…
The yellow spots covering its body began to fade, and the weed turned green at a visible pace.
Its leaves began to unfurl and lengthen, while its delicate roots seemed to awaken like snakes or worms, writhing through the soil.
The weeds were spreading outwards!
One meter, two meters… The previously bare yellow earth was instantly covered by a layer of vibrant green.
A patch of grass that would naturally take months, or even a year, to grow had, before Huang Xiu’s very eyes, materialized without any concealment.
“This, this, this…” Huang Xiu recoiled half a step, his mouth agape.
It was real, all of it was real!
The Pig-headed Teacher was real, and his own death had also been real!
This irrefutable evidence utterly shattered the last shred of doubt in Huang Xiu’s heart.
Suddenly, a tingling, itching sensation emanated from his left thumb.
Huang Xiu instinctively looked down.
The flesh that had been severed by the blade had, at some unknown point, reconnected, covered by a faint scab.
A gentle rub with his right hand caused the scab to peel away, revealing skin that was still faintly pink.
He patted his cheeks, forcing himself to calm down.
‘Enhanced self-healing is an unexpected bonus.’
‘The rest is pretty much as I expected: my blood can make plants grow rapidly.’
‘And the effect… is quite astonishing?’
Huang Xiu observed the weeds, which had ceased growing due to the lack of blood nourishment, marveling inwardly.
From the moment he drew blood until his wound healed, approximately ten seconds had passed, and less than twenty drops of blood had fallen in total.
Yet, the weeds had transformed from withered to vibrant, visibly spreading over two meters in every direction.
Huang Xiu dared not imagine what would happen if all his blood were extracted and poured onto a single plant.
It might instantly turn a sapling into a towering tree.
‘This is far more potent than Jin Kela; its effects are comparable to Han Li’s Sky-Reaching Creation Dew.’
Huang Xiu suddenly laughed.
Now, he wouldn’t fear having no path forward.
Even if he didn’t get into a good university, he could go out, lease a few acres of land, and become a farmer.
‘Ahem, I’m getting a bit ahead of myself. The immediate priority is still dealing with that Pig-headed Monster.’
The genuine efficacy of his blood proved that the Pig-headed Teacher truly existed in this world.
Perhaps their previous encounter had merely been a coincidence.
However, as long as Huang Xiu remained a student at First High, he would inevitably have opportunities to encounter the monster again.
After all, Stand users tend to attract each other.
Pulling his attention back to the present, Huang Xiu keenly noticed another issue.
Namely—the effect of his blood today seemed less potent than it had been last night.