Chapter 33: Sea Without Light 33
Fang Zhi realized that he could no longer walk into danger unprepared.
The first two times he didn’t believe in evil, thinking the Female Hunter had killed him due to his carelessness. In the following attempts, he became more cautious, but ambushes and striking first proved ineffective; the Female Hunter was like a perfect killing machine, able to quickly adapt and retaliate even if she revealed the slightest flaw.
How could such a person exist in modern society? Was she a professional assassin? What was her identity in the Second World?
Fang Zhi racked his brain trying to recall the details of each time he had been killed.
The first time the Female Hunter killed him was in Jinshui City, next to Tonglin City, his hometown. He had been obsessed with selecting the target for the next sacrifice, spending two nights stealthily searching for prey in the streets, and even managed to kill one person, dragging the corpse into a sewer to hide it. At dawn, he quietly ran into a nearby abandoned building to hide and rest.
At that time, it was Monday morning when the Female Hunter suddenly appeared, drawing her knife and attacking. He attempted to fight her off but couldn’t even grab the hem of her clothing. As Fang Zhi turned to flee, she teleported, using shadows to chase him like a cat playing with its prey, but instead of killing him, she directed him to the rooftop. In the end, with nowhere left to retreat, the Female Hunter kicked him hard, shattering his jaw before kicking him off the building.
In the Second World, Fang Zhi consumed Divine Blood and awakened Extraordinary Abilities while modifying his physique to gain extraordinary recovery abilities. However, even so, he would still die instantly when his skull shattered upon hitting the ground. Only while alive could his flesh regenerate and heal his injuries; once dead, his recovery abilities were rendered useless.
The second time the Female Hunter killed him was a day earlier, on Sunday night.
At the moment, Fang Zhi’s extraordinary abilities were in a state of expansion; who could kill him? No one could! He was immortal! He attributed his first defeat to an accident, convinced that as long as he was a bit more careful, avoided shadowy areas, and didn’t let the Female Hunter lead him around, she couldn’t kill him.
Eager for revenge, Fang Zhi planned to acquire a suitable weapon. He considered robbing a police officer for a gun, but it was too difficult to pull off, so he settled for stealing a big cleaver from a butcher shop. Since he had killed someone, the police were hunting him, and security patrols had intensified; many officers were armed, and being shot in the head would be fatal.
On that Sunday night, Fang Zhi donned a disguise to go to a convenience store to buy food. However, the old, feeble storekeeper saw right through his disguise and recognized him as a wanted criminal, promptly hitting the alarm.
Fang Zhi killed the old woman and fled with the food in hand.
Then the nightmare began. The Female Hunter fortuitously lived nearby. Hearing the blaring sirens from the convenience store, she stepped out to investigate, pulling out a gleaming kitchen knife and chasing after him.
Unluckily, he didn’t have the cleaver with him; he had just gone to buy food.
Even more unfortunate was that at night, the Female Hunter’s abilities could be maximally exploited because shadows were everywhere! Her Shadow Shifting was nearly unrestricted!
The Female Hunter easily caught up, following her old strategy to drive him like a mouse, leaving him with no escape route. Fang Zhi once again fell into her trap, this time cornered at a nearby construction site.
If he dared to run a different path than what she had dictated, she would appear behind him and stab him in the kidney, a swift and precise strike that left him screaming in agony and losing his grip on reality, oblivious to which direction he was actually running.
After the Female Hunter stabbed him over twenty times, Fang Zhi suddenly realized he had been pushed upstairs again. He turned to fight back, but the Female Hunter swiftly chopped his spine with her knife, paralyzing him and rendering him immobile, then dragged him to the window and threw him out.
In this third cycle of death and rebirth, Fang Zhi calmed down and collected information.
The Female Hunter possessed extraordinary abilities, which meant she had to be a player. She was from the Jingchu region, and she must have received a task notification regarding the investigation into the murder of cult members. After being killed twice, Fang Zhi confirmed that the Female Hunter had a strong sense of purpose—her goal was to kill him, and she had indeed done so.
Filled with hatred and eager to teach that woman a lesson, he wanted to kill her as a sacrifice to the omniscient and omnipotent Lord.
From his last death, Fang Zhi had gathered general information about where the Female Hunter lived. Upon resetting time, he stole a meat cleaver and waited near her residence to catch her off guard. He chose a meat cleaver rather than a big cleaver this time, as the latter had proven too conspicuous and unwieldy; being suitable was more important than being large.
His diligence finally paid off; he spotted her.
The first two times the Female Hunter appeared before him, she was fully armed, wearing long clothes and pants, and was masked with a fireman’s protective mask. She even had bandages wrapped around the mask, showing only her eyes.
Moreover, the Female Hunter never spoke; Fang Zhi had never heard her voice. She didn’t talk while hunting him, didn’t say a word while killing, and was silent while tossing him off buildings.
She had never uttered a single word, only coming to kill.
Fang Zhi searched extensively and eventually found the Small Hotel where the Female Hunter stayed. She seemed to be an outsider, coming to this city specifically to investigate him, which explained why she had no permanent residence, only staying in a hotel that didn’t require identification.
What fascinated Fang Zhi was that the Female Hunter even disguised herself when going out to buy things; she wore long clothes and pants, a baseball cap, and a mask, even wearing cheap, colorful children’s sunglasses, completely obscuring her eyes, making it impossible for Fang Zhi to discern what she actually looked like. He bought binoculars to try to spy on the windows of the Small Hotel but found that her hotel curtains were always drawn tight, leaving not a single gap.
Damn, this woman’s defense was truly all-encompassing!
Fang Zhi patiently hid in the shadows, waiting for the Female Hunter to leave the Small Hotel during the day.
He couldn’t attack her at night, as the darkness would only enhance her combat abilities. It was best to wait for the sun to blaze down, follow her out, and ambush her for a quick kill.
People were more relaxed during the day; everyone thought nighttime was the most dangerous.
Fang Zhi finally got his chance.
With the hot weather, there were actually very few people on the street, and the elderly people who would usually relax under the trees had all vanished.
The Female Hunter stepped out just as the sun beat down the hardest, with few shadows around; Fang Zhi knew his chance had come.
He understood that her Shadow Transition ability required shadow coordinates and was limited by distance, and through two chases he nearly figured out the extreme distance.
But what frustrated Fang Zhi was that the Female Hunter walked along the edges of shadows, never crossing the middle of the road.
Fang Zhi felt despair; how could such a woman exist in the world? Was she a person at all, being so cautious to this extent?!
Finally, at a corner, Fang Zhi spotted an opportunity; she needed to cross the zebra crossing, and there were no flower beds, trees, guardrails, or any obstructions within five meters! An unprecedented opportunity!
Fang Zhi pretended to be a passerby, crossing the road alongside her.
As they reached the middle of the road, he quietly sped up, drawing his knife to stab her.
To his shock, the Female Hunter evaded his strike, swiftly drawing her own gleaming kitchen knife from behind and stabbing him in the lung.
He spat out blood, and in that instant, the Female Hunter vanished from his sight. With the absence of shadows around, she lost her agility, but she could still use the shadows of the two of them for transitions. Fang Zhi, drawing upon his experience, knew she preferred to stab from behind, so he plunged his knife backward without turning.
Clang! His knife was blocked!
“You know me. You know my abilities.”
The Female Hunter said grimly behind him.
As she spoke, she kicked Fang Zhi in a particularly sensitive area. His face turned purple, contorted in pain as he was sent flying two meters before hitting the ground, nearly dropping the knife from his hand.
That was the first time Fang Zhi had ever heard her voice, cold, clear, and youthful.
“Your goal is me; you’ve been following me. Before you started tracking me, you were already monitoring my residence. You deliberately chose a spot without shadows to attack. When did you recognize me?” The Female Hunter flicked the blood from her knife, revealing a pair of killing eyes hidden behind the whimsical children’s sunglasses. “Do you possess extraordinary abilities? Did you learn about me through your extraordinary abilities?”
Fang Zhi was terrified by her acuity, scrambling to his feet.
“Run, take your time; I’ll kill you slowly.” The Female Hunter’s mood was exceptionally poor and irritable. “You made me draw my knife in the daylight, made it impossible for me to be a law-abiding citizen. I want to butcher you a thousand times.”
This intersection was newly constructed, with fewer passing vehicles. At noon, there was no one around, but there were surveillance cameras overhead, uncertain if they were operational.
As Fang Zhi just regained his footing, the Female Hunter knocked him down again. Each time he tried to stand and run, she would kick him down. If he tried to pick up speed, she’d stab his kidney to slow him down. If he attempted to counterattack with his knife, she’d inflict a stab on his kidney and leg.
He stumbled several dozen meters, zigzagging to the side of the road, dragging blood behind him for nearly the same distance.
Fang Zhi’s psychological defenses completely collapsed.
His body was bruised, recovering while incurring new wounds.
“Please, just kill me already! Kill me!” Fang Zhi begged, clutching his head, “Stop torturing me!”
“Why ask me to kill you? Aren’t you afraid of death?” The Female Hunter paused. “You can’t really be unafraid of death, can you?”
Fang Zhi: “???”
What kind of monster was this woman? How could she be so perceptive?
Fang Zhi gave up on fleeing, knowing he still had more chances at resurrection.
Time resetting meant everything would start over; he still had opportunities to retry.
Clutching his knife, he contemplated resolving the matter with a swift cut to his own neck for a suicide restart.
However, just as he moved, the Female Hunter kicked his knife away.
“Are you mad from what the so-called God has done to you, or have you always been unafraid of death?” The Female Hunter muttered to herself. “Forget it; during the day, it’s not good to delay too long… You really picked a good time, a good place… I can’t find a better way to handle this.”
Someone could arrive at any moment.
On one side of the road was a small park with a fountain; the fountain wasn’t spraying water, but the basin was filled with enough water to be half a person’s height.
The Female Hunter seemed to lose interest. With a swift motion, she cut his spine again and, gripping his collar, dragged him to the fountain pool before tossing him in.
Fang Zhi, in agony and despair, began bubbling as he sank, fully paralyzed from the severed nerves and unable to struggle.
Fish in the fountain circled around Fang Zhi, pecking at the blood that oozed from his body.
In the final second as his vision faded to darkness, Fang Zhi saw the Female Hunter pulling out her mobile phone, seemingly refreshing some page.
The fourth death cycle.
Fang Zhi entered a frenzied state, his eyes red as he deliberated for a long time before deciding not to confront her directly. He would create a large-scale gas explosion to kill the Female Hunter. As soon as he resurrected, he rushed to the place where he would intersect with her, but to his surprise, during this timeframe, the Female Hunter had not yet arrived in Jinshui City; her original Small Hotel was empty.
Filled with a thirst for revenge, Fang Zhi couldn’t wait another second, running at once to a remote urban village in Jinshui City, killing a family of three as an offering to the Lord he believed in.
The God divided a tiny mental tendril, connecting to his mind and granting him insight.
Mad whispers surged into his brain, accompanied by scattered, disjointed images.
He saw the Female Hunter’s face and her location! She looked much younger than he had imagined, at only eighteen or nineteen; at this moment, she was in a tastefully decorated room, sitting with a beautiful girl. They were at a table, and the Female Hunter seemed to be teaching the girl something.
The images sped up rapidly; Fang Zhi saw the Female Hunter packing to leave. He caught a glimpse of the door number as she pushed the door open, and saw the name of the community and the road sign for the area!
He had seen all the information!
The eerie, mad whispers faded away as Fang Zhi exited the mental connection with the God. Blood streamed from his seven orifices; he wiped his nose, his eyes bloodshot as he couldn’t help but laugh uncontrollably.
Communing with the God came at a price; those who had direct or indirect interactions with the God within the Secret Cult increasingly lost their sanity. This was Fang Zhi’s second communication with the God, and his expression was frenzied yet exceptionally joyful as he knelt on the ground in a devout manner, saying, “Great and merciful Lord, thank you for granting revelation to your most loyal believer.”
Fang Zhi set off immediately, stealing a motorcycle and taking a remote path with no surveillance towards Tonglin City. The high-speed train ride only took twenty minutes, but to avoid being detected, he rode for four hours before arriving. By the time he reached Tonglin City, it was already Friday morning.
This time he wouldn’t rush; he was determined to give that Female Hunter a painful lesson.
He patiently staked out the area and quietly sneaked into the community in the evening, based on the revelation he had seen, breaking into the home of the beautiful girl.
Fang Zhi disguised himself as a delivery person, knocked on the door, and knocked out the girl’s parents. He started intimidating the girl, named Su Rong, demanding her connection with the Female Hunter and their relationship.
But Su Rong kept her mouth shut tightly, refusing to disclose the Female Hunter’s contact information or real name.
Just when Fang Zhi was about to resort to cruel methods to force Su Rong to talk, the doorbell rang.
The familiar voice of the Female Hunter came from behind the door: “Rong Rong, it’s me. I’ve brought my senior year notes for you.”
Fang Zhi, traumatized, instinctively retreated at the sound of her voice. He immediately turned to Su Rong, who was in tears, signaling her harshly to keep quiet.
But Su Rong screamed, “Run, Sister Xin Xin!”
…It was over!
Fang Zhi’s hair stood on end; in the next second, the form of the Female Hunter appeared, her ethereal body passing through the wall, completing two rapid Shadow Transitions before appearing right next to Fang Zhi.
She lifted her leg and kneed him! The sound of his jaw breaking echoed clearly!
The Female Hunter wasn’t carrying a weapon; she fought purely with hand-to-hand combat, deliberately targeting the eyes, temples, and sensitive areas. Even without a weapon, Fang Zhi was no match for her, and he fled through the window.
Su Rong’s home was on the third floor, without any protective window bars, and the fall wouldn’t kill him.
But the Female Hunter went to the kitchen, grabbed a fruit knife, and followed him out of the window. Unfortunately, since the window was on the shady side of the building, she safely landed using her shadow transition, quickly catching up with him. The fruit knife accurately pierced through the gap in his spine, rendering him completely limp.
Three meters ahead lay the community’s lotus pond.
The moment Fang Zhi saw the lotus pond, he knew how he would die this time—by drowning.
The events unfolded just as he expected; the Female Hunter indeed threw him into the pond.
The fifth death cycle.
Fang Zhi woke up on Friday morning.
There was a limit to how many times he could cycle through death; as he died, his resurrection intervals grew shorter, and if the timing of his resurrection coincided with that of his death, he would be unable to resurrect again.
He would have to wait for another seven days for the count of deaths to reset before he could continue using this ability.
Fang Zhi was like a furious bull, panting heavily.
He stumbled through the streets, muttering to himself; he was both praying to his Lord and cursing the Female Hunter.
He didn’t want to run, but the reality was that he had fled every time he faced the Female Hunter, which filled him with humiliation.
“It’s because I’m not strong enough…” Fang Zhi murmured.
He could easily kill a few ordinary people, but he couldn’t defeat the Female Hunter, who was like a killing machine.
Fang Zhi knelt in prayer: “Great and merciful Lord, if I offer you more sacrifices, can you grant me the strength to kill my enemies?”
The God did not respond.
The help the God could provide him was limited; He had not resurrected him, and His power could not descend upon him.
Fang Zhi’s eyes turned completely red.
“A gun…” he thought. “If I just had a gun… just one gun… I could kill her. No… killing her isn’t enough; I want to kill everyone related to her!”
