Chapter 17: I Grew Hair!!!
The grilled fish masterpiece Huo Yuhao had unveiled in the kitchen turned out to be more effective than any promotional loudspeaker.
Within just a few days, word that "the Church of the Water God has a little culinary prodigy" had spread across half of Thunderclap City as if it had hit the WiFi airwaves. Many people had originally come just for the free cake and the awakening ceremonies, but now? Plenty were timing their visits precisely around mealtime, just to sample young Brother Huo's cooking. Even the most ordinary coarse-grain flatbread or wild vegetable soup—once it passed through his hands—tasted good enough to knock your tongue right out of your mouth! It honestly made one wonder if the God of Cuisine from ten thousand years ago had descended to the mortal realm.
The lines outside the Church of the Water God grew even longer, often twisting and turning in serpentine coils. The believers walked with a new glow on their faces, their backs a little straighter—see that? That's our Lady Pope for you! Even the cook she randomly picks is a once-in-a-generation talent! The Water God provides—truer words were never spoken!
In the rear kitchen, Huo Yuhao remained a boy of few words, simply burying himself in his work. The kitchen aunties now looked at him the way they'd gaze at their own treasured grandsons, scrambling to assist him, terrified he might tire himself out.
The advance wages and medicinal herbs he'd received had been entrusted to the reliable Uncle Shi Meng to deliver back to his mother in the village. With that weight off his heart, he poured himself into the work with even greater dedication.
Furina, for her part, was happily at leisure. She drifted about each day, counting points and mulling over how to "invest" in this potential stock that was Huo Yuhao.
Neuvillette, meanwhile, barely had a moment to rest, managing the ever-growing crowds and accounts while still fending off the petty provocations from the City Lord's Manor. The furrow between his brows seemed to have deepened since his arrival.
And speaking of the City Lord—Lei Bao had indeed been exceptionally irritable lately. The men he'd sent to cause trouble had all returned with their tails between their legs. They either reported that the Water God Church's followers guarded the place like an iron fortress, or that the white-haired envoy had verbally dismantled them with ledgers and logic until they questioned their own existence.
He'd wanted to find a few terminally ill patients to crash the gates, but in this remote backwater, finding such cases on short notice was easier said than done! This wasn't the information age—you couldn't just Google them.
With no other options, he had to settle for second-best. He rounded up a few old, disabled veterans and paupers with chronic injuries, then assigned the most foul-tempered, bald-headed, stubbornly skeptical soul master from his own guard to accompany them. The plan was to make a scene at the Water God Church's doorstep—claim their medicine and cakes were useless, that they couldn't even cure disabilities!
That very morning, the usual long queue stretched outside the Church of the Water God. Several old soldiers hobbling on crutches or missing limbs, along with a few disabled souls whose faces bore the harsh marks of a hard life, were shoved toward the front of the line. Behind them swaggered a fierce-looking, chrome-dome-bald soul master by the name of Wang Situ.
"Out of the way! Out of the way! Take a good look, all of you!" Wang Situ's voice boomed, deliberately amplified for the crowd. "The Church of the Water God claims they can cure any illness, isn't that right? Don't they have those holy relics? Well, look at these people! Can you heal them? If you can't, then stop all this play-acting and deceiving honest folk!"
A stir rippled through the crowd. The believers' faces flushed with indignation, but looking at the pitiful state of the disabled men and women, none could find the right words.
Furina, who had been bored indoors weighing whether to give Huo Yuhao a Profound Water Pill or a Soul Ascension Pill, heard the commotion outside and strolled out to see the spectacle.
One glance at the setup, and her heart practically sang with glee—Oh-ho, Lei Bao's sent another XP package and free advertising material, has he?
She parted the crowd, stepped forward, and looked over the disabled men and women with their numb, lifeless eyes, then slid a glance at the swaggering bald man whose gleaming scalp could blind the unwary. Suddenly, an exceptionally brilliant smile bloomed across her face (as if she were gazing upon walking billboards and willing test subjects).
"Who says the Church of the Water God can't heal them?" Her voice rang clear, brimming with a mysterious, absolute confidence. "Today, let all faithful bear witness to the Water God's true blessing!"
As her words landed, four soul rings blazed to life beneath her feet—purple, purple, black, black! The final, unfathomably deep ten-thousand-year soul ring pulsed with a heart-stilling energy.
"Fourth Soul Skill: Gold Exp—ahem, I mean, Golden Doughnut Vanilla Cake!" (She'd nearly let the slip stick.)
A flash of light, and a cake radiating a warm golden glow appeared in her hand. Its shape was as distinctive as three stacked doughnuts, and it wafted an enticing vanilla fragrance. The design... was admittedly rather eye-catching, almost making one hear the distant chorus of "Go go go go" in their mind.
Under the eyes of the curious and the skeptical alike, Furina conjured several more identical cakes in quick succession and handed them to the disabled men and women one by one. "Eat."
They hesitated, doubt warring with uncertainty. But under the glare of the bald soul master and the weight of the crowd's stares, they slowly ate.
The very next moment—an astonishing scene unfolded!
A gentle golden light radiated from within their bodies, as if the very source of life had been awakened. The old soldier who had lost his leg stared in utter shock as, within his empty trouser leg, bone and flesh and blood began to grow and reshape like sprouts in springtime—visible to the naked eye! In a few breaths, a fully intact, brand-new leg had grown into place! The woman who had lost an arm felt a tingling, maddening itch at the shoulder socket, as a new arm slowly extended outward, its five fingers flexing with nimble grace!
And that wasn't all—the chronic hidden injuries and lingering pains they'd accumulated over the years felt as though they'd been washed clean by a current of warmth, vanishing in an instant. Even their complexions turned ruddy and healthy!
"My leg... my leg is back!" The old soldier stamped his foot in disbelief, old tears streaming down his face.
"My hand... my hand can move!" The woman sobbed, waving her newly grown arm.
The entire crowd stood in absolute silence, every last person stunned speechless by the miraculous scene before them.
Wang Situ was utterly stupefied. His jaw hung low enough to accommodate a goose egg, and he reached up unconsciously to touch his own smooth, slick, chilled scalp, mumbling, "...This... how is this even possible..."
Furina's gaze swept across this "human light bulb" and a mischievous impulse surged. Casually, she popped the last cake straight into his mouth. "Here—share the fortune. Don't say the Pope is stingy!"
Before Wang Situ could even react, he felt a current of warmth buzz from the crown of his head, rushing through so intensely it nearly made him jump. Instinctively, he reached up again—
What met his hand was no longer a smooth, frictionless scalp. It was a layer of fuzzy, short, prickly stubble! It might not have grown into long hair yet, but it was, unmistakably, undeniably hair! Not an illusion!
He froze as if struck by lightning. His eyes bulged wider than bronze bells. His whole body trembled. His baldness had been congenital—from childhood to adulthood, he'd tried every hair-growth folk remedy under the sun, rubbed in enough ginger and soapberry to fill a bathtub, and nothing had ever worked. It had been the secret torment of his heart and the butt of every joke... and now... now...
A violent, indescribable joy and a wild, primal impulse flooded him! He suddenly raised both hands, clutching at his fuzzy scalp, and screamed in a voice so overcome with emotion it cracked into falsetto:
"It grew! It grew! I grew hair! I GREW HAIR!!!"
Only after he'd shouted it did he realize he'd completely lost composure, but in the grip of ecstasy, decorum was the last thing on his mind! He cast one deeply complicated look at Furina—a look that mixed shock, rapturous joy, and awe—as if he were gazing upon the parents who had given him rebirth (mainly the hair rebirth)!
Then, without another word, he turned and fled—stumbling, staggering, yet charged with a bizarre elation. He didn't even spare a thought for the disabled men and women still weeping with joy. His mind was utterly consumed with one thing: getting back to a mirror as fast as humanly possible, and figuring out how to protect this hard-won hair!
He barreled all the way back to the City Lord's Manor. Lei Bao had been waiting for his report on the "results." What he saw instead was his formerly bald guard (now sporting a sexy stubble top) stumbling in, looking utterly beside himself yet tinged with a suspicious dreamy flush. The man fell to his knees with a thud.
"My lord! This subordinate... This subordinate is useless! That Church of the Water God... that Pope... she... she..."
Stammering and fumbling over his words, he relayed what he'd witnessed, with particular emphasis—in vivid, emotional detail—on the severed-limb regeneration and the miracle of his own hair growth (the latter described with especially meticulous fervor). Finally, he slammed his forehead to the floor.
"My lord... this subordinate... requests to resign from his post as guard! I... I must go to the Church of the Water God! To beg the Lady Pope to take me in! This subordinate... must go and protect this head of fine hair!"
Lei Bao had started off merely impatient. The more he heard, the greener his face grew. By the time he reached the part about severed limbs regenerating, shock had set in. When he heard that the trusted subordinate he'd personally dispatched was now defecting—because he'd grown hair—he was so enraged he kicked the table before him clean over!
"Trash! Get out! All of you, GET OUT!"
Wang Situ scrambled up and fled as though granted amnesty, looking every bit the man who fully intended to defect to the Water God Church and defend his newborn hair to the death.
Lei Bao stood in the great hall, chest heaving with ragged, furious breaths, face ashen. Severed limb regeneration? How was that even possible?! Who the hell was this woman?!
And then—abruptly—he thought of his only son.
The son who, three years ago, during a soul beast hunt, had had an arm torn clean off by a six-thousand-year Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear. The son who had been consumed by despair and apathy ever since, locking himself away in his room, refusing all visitors, as if all color had drained from his life...
Lei Bao's fury was suddenly displaced by a tangled knot of emotion—extreme shock, deep suspicion, and a slender sliver of... something uncontainable. Something faint, yet madly sprouting.
Hope.
If... if that woman truly could...
As a father... if it meant swallowing his pride and humbling himself...
Perhaps... it wasn't entirely out of the question?