Chapter 1280: Jade Shattered

"What the hell is this..." Di Hou muttered.

Di Hou and Di Ji exchanged glances, momentarily unsure whether to seize the opportunity for a sneak attack or to make a quick escape.

Tian Ji and Tian Hou held hands tightly, their bodies hunching over rapidly as deep wrinkles, like tree bark, covered them from head to toe. Any trace of their once handsome features had vanished, leaving only sunken eye sockets and drooping corners of the mouth. They arched their backs like shrimp, their necks bending as if about to burrow into the ground, and their hair spread out across the floor like a carpet.

At first, Di Hou thought the two resembled Xuanwu, but now, they looked nothing like it. Even if Xuanwu had undergone some kind of "mad growth," it wouldn't have been for such an extended period. If Tian Ji and Tian Hou didn't let go soon, they would surely age to death right there.

"Something's not right..." Di Hou said. "Let's get out of here... They can handle their own mess."

"Got it!" Di Ji nodded, and the two started moving toward the exit.

Finally, Tian Hou released her grip. The two unsteady figures, along with all the long hair in the room, shifted slightly. Di Ji and Di Hou felt the carpet-like hair pull away beneath their feet, nearly causing them to fall.

"Cough... You madwoman..." Tian Ji tried to scold, but her voice was hoarse, like sandpaper scraping. "What's the point of this... You ruined a war we could have won..."

"War...?" Tian Hou's aged voice rasped from her throat. "Are you kidding... My life is already ruined... Why would I care about anyone else's war?"

Tian Ji opened her mouth to respond, but she felt her consciousness slipping away rapidly. It wasn't just her body aging from the "mad growth"—her mind was dulling too. In just a minute or two, she had already forgotten what she and Tian Hou had been arguing about so fiercely.

A sense of helpless fear spread through her—now, with this aged body and slowed mind, could she turn things around? Turn around what, exactly?

"How nice..." Tian Hou said, head bowed, her voice grating. "In the end, we both grew old together... Now neither of us will think the other looks ugly... Right? We can be together forever, and you won't need to pull those little tricks on me anymore..."

Tian Ji paused, feeling like that might be true, but what tricks had she pulled? And who was this old woman anyway?

Tian Hou tried to step closer to Tian Ji, but her back was bent into a perfect arch, making it impossible to lift her head. Instead, she used her hands to support herself on the ground, crawling toward Tian Ji like an animal. The mass of gray-black hair radiating from her began to writhe, covering the entire room and making it seem as if the room itself was moving.

"Now we've grown old together..." Tian Hou struggled to extend her hand and grasp Tian Ji's wrist. "There are just two pests left... Once we kill them, nothing will stand in our way..."

"Kill them...?" Tian Ji slowly raised her head and looked toward Di Ji and Di Hou.

That glance sent chills down their spines. It was a pair of yellowed, completely clouded pupils, hidden in deep, shriveled sockets, reflecting no light at all.

"That's right... Let's kill them..."

Both of them lifted their heads, their bark-like faces scanning the room.

"Holy shit... What the hell..." Di Hou felt the hairs on his body stand on end. The situation was getting eerily strange. These two were clearly on the verge of death, yet they seemed ready to take everyone down with them in a final desperate act.

A completely deranged Tian Hou and a senile Tian Ji made things even more dangerous than before. Di Hou rushed to the door and reached for the handle, but in the next second, all the hair in the room stirred like a receding tide, contracting rapidly.

The two lost their footing. Di Hou saw Di Ji about to fall and quickly reached out to steady her, which only frustrated him more.

"Ow! Don't touch me!" Di Ji shouted anxiously.

"Shit, I forgot."

They looked up to see two massive clumps of hair floating into the air, nearly filling the entire room. There were clearly people at the center, but their figures were completely obscured by the black waves of hair writhing in midair. The terrifying sight made their skin crawl.

Di Hou shoved Di Ji out of the way and tried to dodge, but every step he took landed on the hair on the floor, quickly entangling his ankles. The black hair in the air closed in instantly, and two twig-like withered hands emerged, grabbing his neck and slamming him to the ground.

"Shit... You old bastard..." Di Hou couldn't tell if it was Tian Hou or Tian Ji in front of him, only seeing a face covered in wrinkles looming over him. The hands were stiff and ice-cold, digging into his neck like wires.

Di Hou swung his fists, but they kept hitting the hair. He had to squint and make out the glowing outline of his attacker, realizing the figure had wasted away to something unrecognizable, like a dead tree.

Seeing Di Hou in danger, Di Ji tried to rush over, but another massive clump of hair pounced on her, covering her face and body so she couldn't even open her eyes. It felt like falling into a cave full of spiderwebs, with every inch of her entangled.

"Ah! This stuff is so annoying!"

Suddenly, a withered hand shot out from the hair and struck Di Ji in the abdomen. She spat out a mouthful of blood, but all she could see was the black hair, no matter how she waved it away.

"Quail!!" Di Hou yelled from within the unseen mass of hair. "Are you still alive?!"

"I'm alive..." Di Ji struggled to open her eyes, just in time to see a hand lunging for her face. She quickly raised her arm to block it. "But I might not be for long! That bitch has completely lost it..."

"Shit, I can't get free either!" Di Hou gritted his teeth. "But these two are like a last burst of energy before death! If we just hold out, they'll die soon!"

"Damn it..." Di Ji's veins bulged as she grabbed the attacker's arm and flipped over, trying to pin them down, only to get more hair wrapped around her. "If we drag this out, I might die too... This freak doesn't even care about her own life..."

"Heh heh..." A withered hand parted the hair, revealing a terrifying face hidden in the darkness. "Sister... Your face is so pretty... Can I tear off your skin and have it?"

"My skin's too thin—go tear off some tree bark instead!"

Di Ji punched the face, knocking out almost all the teeth.

"Since you don't want peace before you die... I'll give you a fight."