Chapter 5: Under the Black Fog (5) (Bonus)
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“Thud… thud…”
The fallen corpses were all headless from the mouth up, bl**d splattered everywhere like a grotesque art installation.
Feng Yalin clung tightly to the wall, terrified that even a sneeze would alert the monsters lurking nearby.
Fortunately, the cave was filled with a stench so thick that even her human scent was completely masked.
The monsters, resembling Lickers, feasted merrily before dragging the corpses by their feet and tossing them into a bl**d pool.
What sent chills down her spine was that as soon as the bodies touched the surface of the bl**d pool, they dissolved like sugar in boiling water, leaving only a few tufts of hair and bits of limbs bobbing about.
So that’s where the bl**d in the pool came from?
Feng Yalin felt a wave of nausea.
It wasn’t until these monsters completely vanished that she cautiously began to move away, light on her feet.
She was slow and deliberate, as she had no idea where those beasts were hiding. Last time, they had appeared out of nowhere while hunting Li Ying Tian, and their speed had caught her off guard.
But thankfully, just as she was about to leave the underground passage, those infuriating monsters didn’t show themselves again.
Emerging back to the surface, she noticed that all the disciples from Thousand Bird City guarding the entrance had also vanished.
Presumably, they had met the same fate, dragged away by the monsters.
At this point, Feng Yalin still felt a bit shaken.
There was no way she was daring to enter the forbidden area of Thousand Bird City again; those monsters had made short work of Li Ying Tian, and thinking she could confront them head-on was like volunteering for a d*ath sentence.
As of now, Shiyuan was still missing, too.
Feng Yalin decided that no matter what, she had to explore the whole Floating City before anything. If she ended up with no leads, at least she could say she tried.
Just as she was about to leave the forbidden area, something jaw-dropping happened.
The black fog above the Floating City parted again, revealing a big hole blasted open by dozens of red sword winds.
And who strided in leading the charge? None other than Li Ying Tian!
What the heck? That dude just had his head bitten off! How is he here, fully intact?
This script doesn’t feel quite right. Has she unexpectedly stumbled onto a sci-fi or supernatural film set?
Before she could fully process this, Li Ying Tian marched in with a crew, heading straight for the forbidden zone like they were on some sort of field trip.
Feng Yalin quickly ducked into the shadows.
She decided to observe their next moves more carefully.
Chillingly, Li Ying Tian made the same arrangements as before.
He took ten men into the tunnel, leaving the remaining Inner Door Disciples outside as lookout.
Feng Yalin thought for a moment and decided to follow Li Ying Tian.
She wanted to see if this time would be any different from her ordeal.
Sure enough, that gaggle of goofballs treated the tunnel like it was their first camping trip, roasting… well, let’s just say they weren’t cooking marshmallows.
Feng Yalin was utterly speechless.
Seriously? Are you guys the Thousand Bird City’s Poop BBQ Crew or something?
Every time they came in, they had to spoil the air. She was about ready to lose her mind trailing behind them.
Then, suddenly, when Li Ying Tian shouted, “Who’s there?” she quietly slipped out of the tunnel.
Looks like the Poop BBQ Crew was about to meet their end, and she definitely didn’t have the chops to save them.
As for what had happened to the Outer Thousand Bird City Disciples, that was worth investigating.
When she stealthily left the tunnel and hid in the shadows, she calculated the time. Li Ying Tian and his crew must be facing doom right about now.
At almost the same moment, twenty or so humanoid monsters, roughly the same size as humans, crept low to the ground like beasts on the hunt, surrounding the remaining disciples in a flash.
Freaked out, they brandished their hearts’ swords, trying to cut their way out.
But these monsters knew the drill. A few nimble dodges later, and they had taken down the panicking disciples one by one.
“Crunch…”
Their heads were bitten off like it was a snack, and bl**d sprayed everywhere.
In less than a minute, the outside was cleared.
Soon after, their bodies were dragged away, apparently tossed into a nearby thicket.
Feng Yalin patiently waited for the monsters to disperse before tiptoeing over to the disposal site.
In the shadow of the trees, the ground was littered with a dense mass of headless corpses, a pool of bl**d turning the area into a soggy mess.
Although she had mentally prepared herself, seeing such a nightmarish scene still shook her up.
What the heck? How many times did these guys d*e?
Counting quickly, there were roughly a hundred corpses, which meant Li Ying Tian and crew had, at the very least, died six or seven times.
It felt like a never-ending cycle of d*ath—had Thousand Bird City under the black fog truly descended into hell?
What puzzled her was that every time they came and went, they had never noticed there were so many bodies nearby?
Then it struck her: she could see everything clearly because of her night vision passive skill.
But in the pitch-black fog surrounding the Floating City, they could barely see a few feet ahead, relying solely on the light emitted by their heart swords. Beyond that, it was as if they were navigating blind.
What now?
Since she figured something was amiss, should she wait till they come back again to warn them?
If she could help Li Ying Tian escape d*ath, maybe their torturous fate could be altered.
Even though she had no idea why they had been reduced to this plight, Feng Yalin’s internal alarm bells were ringing loud.
Wait… what if she too had unknowingly fallen into a cycle of reincarnation?
Remembering her own experiences since she had entered the black fog, plus witnessing Li Ying Tian and his crew’s complete annihilation twice, she shivered, increasingly terrified of the fog’s strangeness.
No, she probably hadn’t died yet.
After all, she was merely a character card under her body’s control. If she faced d*ath, there would be a chance to escape. Up until now, she hadn’t encountered a guaranteed d*ath situation.
So at least for her, everything that had happened after entering the black fog must be real.
“Boom!”
In the distance, the black fog parted for a third time, swallowed by a whirlwind of red sword energy.
The Poop BBQ Crew was making a comeback.
Two minutes later, the rush of Li Ying Tian and his party landed near the entrance to the forbidden zone.
Like the last two times, Li Ying Tian still assigned ten disciples to follow him while the rest stayed at the entrance.
From her spot in the trees, Feng Yalin suddenly let out a shriek.
I can only help you this far…
Her scream pierced the tranquil night air like a siren.
Already nervous about the potential arrival of enemies, Gongsun Ding and the others jumped at the sound.
“Master, I think it’s better to get a sense of the surroundings before entering the forbidden zone,” Gongsun Ding cautiously suggested.
Li Ying Tian pondered for a moment, then addressed the leader of the ten disciples, Yun Hong, “You stay with two others outside; the rest of the disciples will come in with me.”
Yun Hong shot a glance at Gongsun Ding, shaking his head internally, “As you command, Sect Leader.”
At a distance, Feng Yalin watched as Li Ying Tian took seven people into the tunnel, leaving three behind.
Finally, the tension in Feng Yalin’s heart eased.
Things were finally changing compared to before; it seemed they were not completely oblivious to the changes around them.
In other words, even if they had died several times, right now, they were still alive and capable of rational thought.
