At noon.
Deep in the wilderness, two hundred and thirty kilometers out, the vast sky stretched endlessly beneath a brilliant blue canopy.
On the winding mountain road, an off-road vehicle sped forward. Through the open windows, swirling snowflakes fell headlong inside, and the piercingly cold wind blew against their faces, bringing a sense of comfort and freedom.
The peaks on either side pierced the clouds, and the ravines between the mountains wound like crouching dragons, revealing a deep and mysterious blue. In the distance, the mountain range stretched for ten thousand miles like a sleeping giant, with white snow covering its spine in a magnificent and grand landscape.
This road was surrounded by mountains on three sides, with a circular basin below. In the center of the basin lay a glacial lake spanning hundreds of square kilometers. The lake water was a deep blue, like a massive mirror reflecting the sky, extending far into the distance to meet the horizon, responding to the call of the distant mountains.
This was a typical cirque landscape. The road had long been in disrepair, with the railings on the right side broken and irregular at intervals, covered in thick rust. Combined with the winding nature of the path, it was extremely easy for an accident to occur if a driver suffered from long-term fatigue.
There was an altitude difference of at least several hundred meters between the mountainside where they were and the basin below. Without a doubt, there would be no chance of survival in a fall.
At this moment, in the front of the off-road vehicle, Chen San was gripping the steering wheel. Through the rearview mirror, he could be seen driving with intense concentration, his poker face wearing its eternal, unchanging expression.
Since the dispute broke out this morning, the atmosphere in the car had been somewhat subtle.
It was Lin Xing who finally broke the silence: "Why is everyone so quiet? The weather and scenery are so good."
"How about I tell you guys a joke? One day, the little animals in the forest had a dinner party. Everyone was there, but only the baby elephant was angry. Why?"
No one responded.
"Because he was at the 'Elephant-Temper' Bureau! Hahaha!"
The temperature inside the car seemed to drop a few degrees.
Lin Xing scratched his head. "Why is there no reaction? Is it not funny?"
"Are we here on a road trip?" Chen San said coldly.
Lin Xing was struck by a wave of embarrassment. He wanted to turn on the car radio, but Chen San slapped his hand away expressionlessly.
"Don't reach over while I'm driving, especially on such a dangerous road."
"Do it one more time, and I'll start questioning your motives. You can take your jokes and get out of the car yourself."
"Lin Xing, settle down." In the back of the car, Lin Sheng massaged his temples, his tone somewhat helpless.
The back seat of the off-road vehicle was not crowded; there was more than enough room for four people. They wouldn't bump into each other because of sharp turns or anything of the sort, and each pair maintained a social distance from the other.
Tang Xin was woken up by the commotion in the cabin. She slowly opened her eyes, sat up from the golden-haired girl's shoulder, and rubbed her eyes sleepily.
She let out a yawn. After leaving the snowy plains, she had slept for a while, and her spirit was now better than ever.
Turning her head, she found that Xu Xiaoyou was still wearing a stiff face, leaning against the open window, lost in thought. Her golden hair was messy from the cold wind, with white snowflakes caught between the strands.
"You're awake," Xu Xiaoyou nodded.
Tang Xin opened her curtain, only to find that it was offline. All functions requiring a network connection could not be opened; she could only play some single-player games like "Angry Pigs." She tried clicking on the map, but after several failed loading attempts, she gave up.
"Where are we now?"
"The Fars Mountain Range. This winding mountain road is over three hundred kilometers long. Once we reach the end, we won't be far from the place where the puppeteer was last seen in the reports," Xu Xiaoyou said.
Tang Xin nodded thoughtfully.
Fars—she was no stranger to the word. She had heard it many times in textbooks. It was the name of the Star of Art before the Company-Church War. Back then, it wasn't called the Star of Art, but the Fars Theocracy, ruled by the Church. Fars was the title used by successive popes.
This road had been built during that period, making it at least a century old.
After another two hours of driving on the mountain road, the off-road vehicle came to an abrupt stop with a shudder and a slightly piercing screech of brakes.
Chen San slammed his hand onto the steering wheel and cursed.
"What happened?" Lin Sheng asked.
"It stalled. Everyone out, check it over."
Everyone got out of the car and looked around. Unknowingly, a thick mist had filled the mountainside. The distant scenery was completely hidden in the fog, and it was difficult to see even ten meters ahead.
"Why did such a thick mist suddenly appear?" Lin Xing's brow furrowed.
"I don't know, but we aren't inside a hive city right now. This place is affected by the badlands. Unusual occurrences following one after another are never a good sign," Lin Sheng said, squinting toward the front.
A cold aura suddenly descended. Xu Xiaoyou looked around, a vague sense of foreboding rising in her heart.
"Dammit! The engine froze and cracked!" Chen San cursed.
As he cursed, he walked to the trunk and took out a pile of repair tools and metal parts. Just then, Lin Sheng noticed something and pointed toward the distance of the road.
"Is there something over there?"
Everyone present looked up in the direction he pointed. There was a figure in the thick mist, about a hundred meters away from their position. Because the fog was so thick, the figure appeared blurred, and only its outline could be vaguely seen. Long, straight, branch-like pole objects were extended horizontally; from a distance, it looked like a cross standing on the ground.
At this moment, that figure seemed to be swaying slightly.
"Brother, it's a tree, right?" Lin Xing said after looking closely.
Lin Sheng didn't think much of it. Just as he lowered his head, a girl's voice suddenly came from beside him.
"That's not right."
"Behind us... were there trees on the road we just came from?"
Tang Xin's words immediately put everyone on guard. They turned around.
Sure enough, on the road behind them, they also saw similar figures—and more than one.
At a glance, there were nearly a dozen such figures with varying shapes. Some looked like crosses, some like strange rocks with peculiar angles, but most stood alone in place like spruce trees, motionless and blending into the environment.
A strange sound drifted through the air. The sound was very faint, and only now could they hear it clearly. It sounded like a woman's sobbing, yet also like someone letting out a high-pitched, thin laugh.
"Urban eldritch creatures, and they're appearing in a group," Xu Xiaoyou quickly judged. "We're surrounded."
"This thick mist is probably related to their traits as well!"
Everyone's internal alarms went off, and a sense of crisis suddenly descended.
Chen San's face darkened slightly. He quickly walked to the front of the car with his repair tools, calmly and steadily repairing the cracked engine and replacing parts.
"Keep a close eye on them. Don't let them get close. Once the car is fixed, we'll charge straight out!"
Hearing this, everyone present reacted. Lin Sheng quietly manifested a decapitating blade, while two short daggers appeared in Lin Xing's hands beside him—those were the mimicry of the shadow brothers. Tang Xin quickly moved to Xu Xiaoyou's side, and Xiao Xin also flapped her wings, flying out from behind her head.
"They don't seem to have any intention of attacking us," Lin Xing said. "At least for now."
A tense atmosphere spread. Neither side made a move, maintaining a standoff across a hundred meters of distance until a certain moment two minutes later, when all four of them blinked at once.
A sharp howl echoed through the air above the entire road.
"Lin Xing!" Lin Sheng roared.
A pale-skinned monster had appeared in front of the youth at some unknown moment. It was nearly three meters tall, its ulcerated skin hanging off its body like rotten rags, revealing the bright red muscle beneath. Its arms, as long as bamboo poles, were severely disproportionate to its body, and a massive shadow cast over the youth's entire frame.
Lin Xing slowly looked up, coming face-to-face with the monster's hideous visage and blood-red eyes. Its entire jaw was pulled extremely long; the masseter muscles were torn, and it almost dragged on the ground.
At the moment, the monster held a pose with its arms spread wide. Its open mouth was filled with sharp, horrifying teeth, as if it were about to swallow the youth whole.
"Don't look into its eyes!" Xu Xiaoyou shouted, sensing something.
The previously motionless monster, at the moment the youth locked eyes with its crimson orbs, suddenly showed an expression of extreme pain. It clutched its head and crouched on the ground, its entire body twitching violently. Its voice became shrill and distorted, reminiscent of a damaged old record.
"Shit, what the hell is this thing!"
Lin Xing cursed, his body instinctively reacting. His twin daggers sliced an arc of light in front of him, directly decapitating the monster!
The head of the mist people flew up, and the tall body fell straight down with a heavy thud.
Its blood stained the white mist, and the scent of blood began to spread.
Everyone looked around and found that the number of those monsters in the thick fog had increased. Previously there were only a dozen, but now at both ends of the road, dense groups of tall figures could be vaguely seen in the mist. At a preliminary estimate, there were hundreds of them, and they were approaching the group's position!
The monsters from before were still a hundred meters away, but now, excluding the one Lin Xing had killed, the closest ones were only a dozen meters from their position. Eerie red lights, like red lanterns, lit up one after another.
In an instant, several more mist people let out sharp, distorted, eerie cries and charged out from the mist.
Lin Xing's movements were incredibly fast. He moved through the shadows as several streaks of cold light sliced through the thick fog. Before those mist people could get close to the group, Lin Xing had already finished them all off.
As a grade 3 assassin, doing all this in the blink of an eye was not difficult for him; it didn't even count as a warm-up.
"Don't look into their eyes. Keep watching their bodies. As long as we keep our eyes on these monsters, they can't move!" Xu Xiaoyou observed the trait of the mist people and shouted in a low voice.
Everyone nodded and quickly changed positions, standing at the front and back of the off-road vehicle to ensure their lines of sight covered every spot in both directions, leaving no blind spots.
Then, while maintaining her gaze, Xu Xiaoyou walked to the side of the off-road vehicle, opened the door, and took out a sniper rifle.
After cycling the bolt and chambering a round, she took a step back with her right foot, braced the stock against her shoulder, and used the vehicle door as a rest. While aiming, her fingertip slowly settled on the trigger.
She let out a soft breath, her heart tranquil and focused.
The gunpowder in the chamber exploded upon the impact of the primer. Propelled by the scorching energy, the glowing red bullet accelerated and spun through the barrel. The burning flash shattered the thick fog and tore through the air.
A sharp whistle sliced through, and a tall figure in the thick mist fell with a heavy thud.
White smoke puffed from the vents of the metal gun body, heat washing over the golden-haired girl's face as tiny sparks flickered. In an instant, the sound of breathing was replaced by the low thud of gunfire, like the whisper of a death god in the mist.
A second figure fell, followed by a third, a fourth... Every time the girl pulled the trigger, a bullet accurately struck a monster in the mist. Above this thick fog, the silhouette of a black death god appeared.
It swung a massive scythe. Every time a gunshot rang out, it would swing its blade to cut through the mist and reap a life.
The hundred-meter distance vanished in an instant as the bullets, carrying killing intent, arrived. Blood splattered, and another figure of the mist people fell. The stock kicked against Xu Xiaoyou's shoulder. She turned slightly, shifting her aim and placing her finger on the sights of the gun body to make fine adjustments.
The girl's performance surprised everyone in the team, especially Chen San. While repairing the engine, he cast a deep glance at the girl. He had only seen this level of marksmanship in companions at the agency who specialized in firearms. And they had all undergone professional training. Rather than handling commissions related to urban eldritch creatures, they mostly moved in the world's shadows, responsible for assassinations and dealing with the unsavory affairs of important figures.
Wailing, sharp sounds echoed above the mist. The monsters seemed to feel fear. Those tall figures further back, out of everyone's sight, gradually slowed their advance and came to a halt somewhere, remaining completely still.
After sniping three more mist people, Xu Xiaoyou did not relax in the slightest; on the contrary, her nerves grew even more taut. She quietly checked her magazine; the bullets were gone.
A premonition surfaced in her heart. The noises they were making weren't out of fear, but suppressed excitement.
Like a pack of wolves eyeing their prey, they were about to begin a feast of flesh and blood.
That feeling grew stronger. Xu Xiaoyou wanted to find the source of the anomaly. Her gaze swept over the valley and even further down the mountain road. Suddenly, she noticed something. Below the broken metal railing on the left side of the road, she heard heavy breathing.
At the same time, Tang Xin's voice rang out in her ear.
"Yuzu, watch your left!"
Xu Xiaoyou instantly turned her aim. Several monsters lunged from beneath the railing, opening their bloody maws and pouncing straight toward her.
In that same instant, Lin Sheng's figure appeared in front of her. His decapitating blade slashed forward. In the light of the annihilating blade, those monsters were all sliced in two, as a rain of blood poured down!
"Get back!" he roared with the momentum of a fierce tiger.
Xu Xiaoyou quickly took a few steps back.
In the dense coniferous forest on the mountainside, crimson lights flickered everywhere. Looking out, countless monsters were actually clinging to the nearly hundred-meter-high cliffs. They were climbing rapidly, making a dense scuttling sound.
This pale tide was surging upward!
These monsters could actually climb up from below. Xu Xiaoyou immediately deduced something.
She looked up. As she had thought, above them, those monsters with skin like pale corpses were climbing upside down, their forms hidden in the mountainside vegetation. If one didn't look closely, they were hard to notice. Her reflection was mirrored in their crimson eyes.
There were at least thousands of such monsters in the entire valley, and they had already surrounded this place so tightly that not even water could leak through.
An unavoidable, brutal battle was about to begin.
Rate on N.U.
