The White-Haired Youth
Tao Yu quickly recounted what had happened. An Ying said, "After a creepy world has been cleared, the creepy can spread, but hardly anyone has died here recently. It couldn't have absorbed enough energy, so why would it suddenly expand?"
Wang Ningshui said, "We don't know yet, but we brought back the recorder. There was also something off about the person who saved us. I think it might have something to do with him..."
An Ying suddenly raised a hand to cut Wang Ningshui off and looked toward the roof of the swimming pool.
The others followed his gaze, wondering what he was looking at. Then, the next moment, they saw trickles of black water seeping through the cracks in the roof!
"Oh no!"
A single drop seeped through, and before they could react, the rest of the water burst out after it, blasting a massive hole straight through the ceiling. Great streams of water raced to turn transparent in midair, seemingly trying to merge with the rain filling the sky.
Wang Ningshui could hardly imagine it. If the water ghost really merged with the rain, its danger level would rise by more than two grades!
If the water ghost merged with the colorless rain, those rules would become inescapable rules of certain death!
An Ying moved the instant the water burst out. He snapped his bamboo-woven umbrella shut and leaped onto a high streetlamp. He pressed the tip of the umbrella, and its handle twisted and folded away, revealing a pitch-black gun barrel.
"Bang!"
A bullet infused with energy shot into the mass of water, but did no damage at all. An Ying took a closer look and realized that the water was not the creepy's true body.
The creepy was hiding within the great mass of water. With the water acting as a buffer, energy bullets were of little use.
At that moment, Team 5 finally arrived to provide support. More than twenty of them had come, and they frowned as they stared at the creepy in the sky.
"Set the energy explosives and weaken the creepy!"
Team 5's captain quickly gave the order. At the same time, he took the injured Fang Yue into his care, then looked at An Ying and nodded respectfully.
"Mr. An Ying, you're here too. We'll follow your lead."
An Ying brushed his wet white hair back, revealing white eyebrows and pink eyes. Drops of water slid from the tip of his nose, but he showed no sign of panic.
"Everyone, put on your raincoats and rain gear. Don't come into direct contact with the water ghost's water. Spread out in pairs and use large-scale weapons and flamethrowers to weaken it. Be careful not to trigger its lethal rules."
"Weaken the creepy's form and use firepower to block the water's path. Don't let it escape!"
"This creepy isn't that hard to deal with. Everyone, stay calm."
Wang Ningshui started to speak but stopped himself. An Ying caught it out of the corner of his eye, but said nothing.
That person still hadn't come out of the swimming pool. An Ying didn't believe he was dead, and was more inclined to believe the creepy's strange behavior had something to do with him. An Ying was also holding back from acting personally because he was guarding against the person inside.
"Crash—"
As everyone used their firepower to suppress the mass of water in the air, which was growing ever closer to transparent, the sound of a great shower of bricks and tiles crashing down suddenly rang out. Everyone looked up at once and saw a person emerge from the hole the water ghost had made in its escape.
Only when he stepped into the light could they see what he looked like.
He was a gentle-looking young man with smiling eyes and brows, dressed in a crisp black shirt. He had a refined, scholarly air that was rarely seen these days. But his green eyes and the long saber in his hand lent his gentleness a hint of sharpness.
An Ying sensed that the man seemed to glance quickly in his direction.
Amid the gloomy curtain of rain, the young man swiftly looked away, pushed off hard with his back foot, and charged into the mass of water with his saber!
"What is he doing?!"
The water ghost's creepy rule meant instant death upon entering the water. If he charged in so recklessly and triggered the rule, no one could save him!
An Ying immediately pressed a hand against the umbrella's canopy. Strands of energy carried thin arcs of electricity from his fingertips.
The young man's upper body quickly disappeared into the water. Before they could recover from their worry and shock, they saw him suddenly strain with both arms and drag a pitch-black, monkey-like creature out of the water!
The moment it appeared, the same word flashed through everyone's minds.
Water ghost!
The creature was shaped like a monkey, with sludge-like energy surging over its body. After being dragged out, it clamped its claws tightly into the young man's shoulders, overcome by bloodlust!
Man and creepy slammed onto the roof. The instant they landed, the young man deftly rolled over. His long saber traced a beautiful arc through the air, slicing through raindrops before striking the water ghost's head and pinning it down with a surge of energy.
"Sizzle—"
The sound of burning pierced their ears, and vivid illusions immediately appeared before their eyes.
The swimming pool before them became an ordinary residential building. The young man became a creepy, and the creepy became a frail child.
The fierce, terrifying creepy gripped the child tightly. His face was blue-purple, and his body convulsed as he let out pained whimpers.
They had to save him!
Wang Ningshui shook his head. No, this was an illusion!
The child let out a scream. A surge of anger and sympathy suddenly rose in Wang Ningshui's heart, and he blurted out, "Stop!"
"Bang!"
Someone fired a shot in time. Electricity scattered into the rain, and the faint shocks jolted everyone out of the illusion.
An Ying lowered the gun he had aimed at the sky, his face cold, and watched the young man in black cut the creepy cleanly in half from head to toe.
But the water ghost still refused to give up. It frantically dragged the young man before it into an illusion, but he seemed entirely unaware of it. The gentleness had not even faded from his green eyes as he gently raised his saber, swinging it swiftly and stabbing again and again.
The long saber hacked the water ghost into chunks of flesh, but even then, it still hadn't died. The water around it kept gathering, only to be swiftly scattered by the saber again.
Only after chopping the water ghost into a pulp that could no longer recover did the young man slowly withdraw his saber. Smiling, he bent down and found a piece of transparent, slime-like mucus in a pool of black liquid.
The moment he picked up the mucus, the lingering smell of blood in the air around them suddenly faded considerably.
The rain around them abruptly grew lighter.
The young man slowly straightened and glanced down at the crowd. Team 5's captain immediately called out, "Thank you for killing this creepy and saving our teammate. Would you mind giving us your name?"
But the young man didn't spare them even a glance. He turned, leaped down from the swimming pool, and vanished into the curtain of rain.
Team 5's captain immediately said to the people beside him, "Go after him."
"The rest of you, come with me to deal with the creepy site. Be careful."
"Okay."
Everyone quickly got moving, and Wang Ningshui also prepared to enter the creepy site again to investigate.
Before he left, he saw An Ying standing motionless under his bamboo-woven umbrella, staring into the distance in the direction the young man had gone. He hesitated, then said, "Mr. An Ying, why don't you head back and rest first?"
An Ying's pink eyes slowly turned toward him. "Send me the video you recorded later," he said softly.
Wang Ningshui was a smart man and immediately asked, "Is there something wrong with him?"
"He clearly could have killed that creepy quickly and cleanly long ago." Water was still dripping from the ends of An Ying's hair, and his voice was as cold as water, chilling to the bone. "Yet he deliberately dragged it out and only dealt with the creepy after we arrived. Don't you find that strange?"
"But... maybe it was just because the creepy was difficult to handle? After all, every extra moment spent with a creepy means more danger." Besides, he felt that whatever the young man's purpose was, as long as he killed creepies, he was on the same side as them.
"That's why I'm asking you to send me the recorder's video." An Ying blinked his pink eyes lightly.
"Okay, okay, okay." Though An Ying was so much younger than him, Wang Ningshui felt an instinctive awe of him.
An Ying straightened his bamboo umbrella. Its edge cast a shadow over half his face as he turned and left.