"Ouch!"
Qi Liu, running behind, stumbled. Fortunately, the elite man beside him pulled him up, preventing him from falling flat on his face.
"There's a ditch here," the elite man reminded him in a low voice.
Qi Liu's heart pounded. He said fearfully, "I know... it's just so dark."
Even though he knew the way by heart, running in the darkness made it difficult to orient himself, to gauge how far he had come, or how much distance remained.
As he started running again, Qi Liu became much more cautious.
*Swish—*
The flame of the kerosene lamp flickered, dimming and brightening.
Aunt Hui, surrounded by the others, pulled a cleaver from her waist and nervously scanned their surroundings.
At the same time, Jiang Lin, walking beside her, spoke up:
"They're coming."
As soon as he finished speaking, from the direction of Daqingshan, a beast-like roar echoed.
"Roar—!"
The elite man instinctively reached for his watch, but only saw a blurry shadow of it when he looked down.
He couldn't see the hands at all.
"They shouldn't be this fast..."
Although he didn't know the exact time the shadows appeared the previous night, he had taken some time to fall asleep after the lights were turned off.
Furthermore, according to the streamer, the shadows had appeared no earlier than midnight.
It was now just past ten o'clock, and the timing didn't match.
Liu Yao and the woman in the red dress ran ahead.
Liu Yao said, "They must have discovered that we're running away with Aunt Hui, so they're getting anxious."
Normally, they would be given some time to fall asleep or explore on their own. But if the players were already escaping with important figures, waiting any longer would mean losing everything, hence their urgency.
The woman in the red dress gripped her bottle tightly, ready to strike at any moment.
"It would be abnormal if they let us escape this smoothly."
After all, the malevolence of this place... was so profound.
As they spoke, Qi Liu, running behind with the elite man, suddenly cried out.
"Oh my god! Who's touching my leg!"
Qi Liu jumped, kicking backward with the leg that had been touched.
Simultaneously, he quickly opened the water bottle in his hand, turned sideways, and focused his gaze on the shadowy, indistinct figures behind him.
His scalp tingled.
With a flick of his wrist, he splashed a sheet of pond water.
*Sizzle, sizzle—*
A faint corrosive sound immediately followed, along with the pained cries of the shadows.
"Aahhh— aahhh—!"
"Damn you—! You traitors!"
The shadows doused in pond water cried out in pain, their movements slowing. They were trampled underfoot by more shadows surging from behind, crowding and reaching towards the faint light ahead.
Hands, the outlines of heads, appeared in the flickering, dim glow of the oil lamp.
"You're not allowed to leave... I won't let you leave! Stay here, all of you!"
"Traitors, you can't go..."
...
The viewers in the live stream gasped, instinctively tucking their feet closer. They turned to look for their "bedtime companions."
...
In the sky, the bullet comments became excited.
[Here they come, the most exciting moment!]
[Get hyped, everyone!]
[Ambush! Attack from the side! Let's go!]
...
"Damn it all!"
Qi Liu cursed as he fended off the pursuing shadows. At that moment, he had completely forgotten about the streamer beside him. His mind was filled with the scene he had just glimpsed behind him, his nerves taut, all he wanted was to escape quickly.
Seeing this, the elite man also quickened his pace, occasionally reaching back to splash a semicircle of pond water, forcing the pursuing shadows to either be corroded or slow down.
The two girls in front weren't faring any better. As they rounded a corner, two shadows lunged from a nearby house. The shadows, initially amorphous shapes, gradually transformed into humanoid outlines, startling the two girls into cries of alarm.
The water bottles they held tightly were already open, and as they dodged, some pond water splashed out. The shadows, too close, quickly lunged again. Liu Yao, her nerves frayed, raised her water bottle and smashed it forward. More than half of the bottle's contents poured out. Fortunately, the expected sizzling corrosion sound followed. Taking advantage of the shadows clutching their heads in pain, she kicked at them.
On the other side, the woman in the red dress had her jacket, previously given to her by Qi Liu, grabbed by a shadow crawling up from the ground. In her hasty escape, she directly took off the jacket. As she removed it, the water bottle slipped from her hand and rolled onto the ground. The pond water spilled onto the ground. A shadow on the ground seized the opportunity, leaping up and tackling the woman in the red dress to the ground beside her, pinning her down and choking her neck.
The oil lamp in the air flickered, dimming and brightening. A blade of wind cut through the air. Aunt Hui's cleaver struck the shadow's neck. The blade was incredibly sharp, severing the shadow's head, which rolled onto the ground. Without its head, the shadow's body stiffened briefly. The woman in the red dress seized the opportunity to scramble up, too panicked to be terrified, too breathless to say anything. Her legs trembling, she ran back to the original path. As she did, she took out a jar of pond water from her waist and opened the lid. Just as the decapitated shadow's head and body were about to reconnect, she splashed the entire jar of pond water.
"Hiss—!"
The shadow completely collapsed onto the ground, writhing in pain with its rejoining head.
The group continued to run towards the village entrance. However, the shadows appearing around them grew more numerous, gradually forming a encirclement.
"The path is blocked!"
Liu Yao and the woman in the red dress could now see the outline of the village entrance in the distance. But they quickly discovered that the silhouettes of shadows coming from all directions were crowding together, forming a wall in front of them.
Elite man: "Splash the pond water!"
The woman in the red dress's voice became high-pitched with tension, "It's not enough!"
In this critical moment, Liu Yao instinctively looked to the side—at the streamer beside Aunt Hui. Under the faint glow of the oil lamp, the streamer's half-body was vaguely visible, half in light, half in darkness. Although she couldn't see his expression, she knew the streamer was watching all of this! But he showed no intention of intervening. Was this another test for them?! At a time like this?!
The moment she realized the streamer wasn't acting, Liu Yao felt tears welling up in her eyes. But the current situation left her no time to cry. Gritting her teeth, she opened the lid of the last bottle of pond water on her waist and ran towards the 'black wall.'
"Roar—!"
At the critical juncture, a beastly roar echoed throughout the entire village.
That half-beast, had emerged from Daqingshan!
...