Fuck.
Xia Fan's heart sank straight to the bottom.
At first glance, it looked like a half-crouching kangaroo, broad at the bottom and narrow at the top, with an enormous pouch on its belly. But one look at its head made it clear that this thing was no benign creature—it had several faces, as though someone had deliberately stitched together multiple bloody strips of facial skin. Each face bore a different expression: some screamed in agony, while others glared with savage fury. From the faintly discernible brows, eyes, lips, and noses, Xia Fan could tell that all those faces had belonged to women.
A tattered hooded robe concealed the rest of the intruder's features. Only when it extended an arm did Xia Fan notice that it had no five fingers; instead, they were fused together into a sharp bone sickle.
It simply raised its arm and swung down.
Judge Zhang's head, at the very front of the group, flew silently into the air.
The gushing blood formed a thin fountain, and the familiar rusty scent flooded Xia Fan's nostrils.
Only then did the leader's body slowly crumple to the floor.
He had just... died?
A massive warning blared frantically in Xia Fan's mind, yet no matter how he struggled, his body would not move an inch.
The monster slowly took two steps forward and raised its arm toward Yue Feng.
Just then, a sharp clang rang out behind them. A bronze candlestick suddenly toppled over, and the two candles atop it were flung away, rolling toward the doorway as they spun.
The shifting firelight caused the shadows to scatter as well.
At almost the exact same moment, Xia Fan felt control return to his body!
He nearly toppled backward from using too much force.
The others moved as well, and