"Wang Shao?!" The three of them — Li Yifei and the others — heard that familiar voice and shouted in unison.
The trio exchanged glances before dashing toward the narrow alley where Wang Shao had gone.
Lin Qiye stood alone where he was, frowning as he stared at the shadowy alleyway, his complexion grave.
Though he didn't know what had happened, a bad feeling stirred in his chest.
The outskirts of the old district, a serial killer, a bizarre and nauseating stench, a scream…
Something was off.
He hesitated for a long time in place, wrestling with himself, before finally sighing helplessly and picking up his white cane.
Under normal circumstances, Lin Qiye would have never involved himself in such a situation. He would have bolted in the opposite direction, running as far away as possible.
Given that someone was screaming, that definitely meant nothing good.
If it was no good, then it spelled trouble.
Robbery, murder, or stumbling upon some crime scene — any one of those was something Lin Qiye had no desire to get involved in.
He didn't possess such an extreme sense of curiosity that he felt compelled to get to the bottom of what had happened nor did he have an excessive sense of compassion that he wanted to play the hero.
Most importantly, he couldn't fight. If things went wrong, he'd end up six feet under — and then what?
But this situation was different.
If they hadn't insisted on escorting Lin Qiye home, perhaps Wang Shao would have taken another route, or arrived a few minutes earlier and avoided this entirely.
He disliked getting involved in other people's troubles, but he disliked owing favors even more.
In any case, he at least needed to check what was happening — that would be enough to settle his conscience. If he ran into actual danger, he'd run.
Despite being blindfolded, Lin Qiye's pace remained swift. The closer he got to the source of the scream, the deeper his frown became.
The stench was getting stronger.
"Aaaahhhhh!!!"
A second scream tore through the air from around the corner ahead, only this time it was a woman's voice.
Jiang Qian!
Lin Qiye came to an abrupt halt at the corner of the alley. Within the range of his spiritual perception, three figures materialized in his mind — Jiang Qian, Liu Yuan, and Li Yifei.
Just ahead of him, Jiang Qian lay collapsed on the ground, her mouth open wide with terror as she gazed ahead, her entire body trembling uncontrollably.
Liu Yuan and Li Yifei stood petrified, their eyes locked in the same direction, bodies quaking with the same terror.
Beyond that, Lin Qiye's perception faded into nothingness.
His eyes still couldn't open, couldn't allow him to see with his own sight. His spiritual perception had a range of only ten meters, which created an extremely awkward situation.
Within a ten-meter radius, he perceived everything; beyond that, he was truly blind.
So what had Jiang Qian and the others witnessed that scared them like that?
Though he couldn't see, Lin Qiye's hearing was exceptionally sharp. In the distance, he could distinctly make out a rustling, crunching sound.
It was as though someone — or rather, something — was gnawing at something ravenously, savoring every bit with relish.
Strangely enough, it reminded him of how Little Blackie would sound gnawing on a bone.
"What happened?" Lin Qiye lowered his voice and asked.
Jiang Qian was startled by Lin Qiye's sudden appearance, her trembling hands instinctively clutching his sleeve, her teeth chattering uncontrollably.
"Monster… A monster is gnawing at Wang Shao's face!"
Lin Qiye's expression shifted in an instant.
"Run!!"
Lin Qiye and Li Yifei shouted simultaneously.
The word had barely left their mouths when Liu Yuan spun around like a wild animal unleashed, bolting headlong into the darkness. The impact of Lin Qiye's shoulder sent him stumbling, but he recovered in a flash and tore forward at full speed, running for his life.
"Monster… Help! Someone, help me!! Monster!" He shrieked as he ran, his voice raw with panic.
Lin Qiye, unprepared for the collision, stumbled backward. He had barely regained his footing when a dull, thunderous impact echoed from somewhere in the distance.
It was like a grizzly bear was pounding the ground and barreling straight at them.
Jiang Qian's pupils shrank to pinpricks, and as if seized by sudden strength, she shot up from the ground like lightning and bolted away, shrieking as she ran.
As for Li Yifei — he had already abandoned them the moment the word left his lips, and he was now sprinting faster than Liu Yuan, who had been the first to flee.
Had Liu Yuan not collided with Lin Qiye just moments before, he would have been far ahead by now.
But that single second of delay was enough. In that blink-and-you-miss-it moment, he found himself trailing behind alongside Jiang Qian.
In that moment, everyone appeared to have forgotten that Lin Qiye was disabled. Those same classmates who had solemnly promised to escort him had utterly abandoned him, cast aside without a second thought.
When confronted with such grotesque, nightmarish horror, terror overpowered every other emotion — mercy, obligation, even basic morality crumbled beneath its weight.
Just after Lin Qiye had sprinted a few paces, something breached the ten-meter radius of his spiritual perception.
It resembled a human, and yet it didn't.
It appeared human in that it bore four limbs and a head, yet it charged on all fours like a hyena, its physique as enormous as a bear.
Most terrifying of all was the ghostly face growing on its head.
Deathly pale and twisted.
Its tongue was thin and elongated, vivid crimson in color, unfurling like a serpent from its gaping maw. It extended nearly half a meter beyond its mouth, writhing and twisting with a life of its own.
Lin Qiye's face turned grave.
Its speed was terrifying — mere steps and it had already crossed from beyond the ten-meter radius directly into the depths of Lin Qiye's perception, closing the distance at a horrifying speed.
He could already sense it — a violent gust of wind swept in from behind, carrying with it the creature's malevolent presence.
Jiang Qian, beside him, felt it too, her complexion draining of all color in an instant. Terror and panic flooded her heart. Rigidly, almost against her will, she turned her head inch by agonizing inch, as if compelled to measure how much distance separated her from the monstrosity.
It must… still be far away, right?
"Don't look back!" Lin Qiye's voice suddenly pierced through the darkness from beside her.
But it was far too late. Jiang Qian's pupils contracted violently. That grotesque, nightmarish visage was now mere inches from her own face, so close they nearly touched. She could feel the overwhelming reek of blood and decay emanating from the creature's body.
"Aaahhhhhh!!!"
Her scream tore through the alley once more. She shut her eyes forcefully and turned to grab her backpack and smash it against the Ghost Face.
She had completely lost her composure.
A backpack was no weapon, and she was no trained combatant.
In such life-or-death moments, whoever panicked first would lose their only chance to live.
The Ghost Face seized the backpack's strap violently, and that raw, overwhelming strength transferred directly to Jiang Qian's body. She lost her balance in an instant, stumbling backward before crashing hard onto the ground.
A heavy dark shadow plummeted downward, slamming onto her body…
The very next instant, blood stained the night crimson.