Her Eyes

Jiang Qian was dead.

Lin Qiye witnessed the entire process of her death.

The monster fell from the sky and sliced open her neck with its claws as cleanly as if cutting tofu, then began devouring her in wild delight.

Until her final moment, Jiang Qian's eyes were filled with terror and despair.

Lin Qiye's mind clearly sensed every detail. His stomach churned, and he nearly threw up.

Though he had endured plenty of hardship and suffering, making him far more mature than others his age, this was still the first time he had seen something so bloody.

And this was not the time to vomit.

Without the slightest hesitation, Lin Qiye turned and ran toward the other end of the alley while the monster fed on Jiang Qian's corpse!

His original escape route had already been blocked by the monster, so he could only do the opposite and run in the direction where Wang Shao had been attacked.

That monster seemed more interested in the corpse and did not chase after him, which made Lin Qiye breathe a slight sigh of relief.

He had no idea what that monster was, but one thing was certain: it belonged neither to the category of "human" nor to any beast known to mankind.

He might have believed it was a radiation-mutated ape. Its size, strength, and speed were simply beyond anything an ordinary human could contend with.

But only might have.

In this world shrouded in mist, after personally witnessing the Seraph's existence, he did not believe science was the only truth in the world.

He believed in the existence of "mysteries."

And Lin Qiye always felt that... he had heard of creatures like these somewhere before.

Just as his thoughts ran wild, something else entered the range of his mental perception. Lin Qiye slammed on the brakes and abruptly stopped.

His breathing grew heavier and heavier.

Ten meters ahead of him, another monster appeared. Lin Qiye was certain that this was not the same one from before.

It was similarly hideous, but it was definitely not the same creature.

The most obvious evidence was that it held Wang Shao's dead body in its arms and was still gnawing on it.

By then, Wang Shao's face had completely disappeared, leaving only a mangled blur of flesh and blood. If not for his distinctive clothes, Lin Qiye might not have recognized him at all.

This was the second monster.

And it was the one that had killed Wang Shao!

When he had been with Jiang Qian and the others, he could not see anything beyond ten meters away, so he had instinctively assumed there was only one monster. But now that he thought about it, he had been terribly wrong.

From the behavior of the monster that killed Jiang Qian, it was clear that these creatures preferred eating corpses to chasing living people. Otherwise, Lin Qiye could never have escaped the scene.

But after Wang Shao died, a monster had immediately chased after Lin Qiye and the others.

That could only mean... another monster had already been feasting on Wang Shao's corpse.

One alley, two monsters. Every route of escape had been completely sealed off.

Lin Qiye's face turned deathly pale as an emotion called despair surfaced in his heart for the first time in a long while.

In seventeen years, he had only truly felt despair twice.

The first time was ten years ago, when he saw those eyes on the moon.

The other time was now.

Before him, the monster that had finished eating Wang Shao's face tossed aside his body like garbage, then turned toward Lin Qiye and licked the blood from the corner of its mouth with its long scarlet tongue.

At that moment, Lin Qiye wanted to curse.

Fuck, why am I always this unlucky?!

When I was little, I climbed onto a roof and somehow saw the Seraph,

Went blind and fell off the roof,

Then everyone thought the fall had driven me insane, so I spent a year in a Psychiatric Hospital,

And now, after I finally made it through and was about to study hard, take the college entrance exam, and welcome a brand-new life...

I ran into an ugly freak like you?

Most people never run into one their whole lives, yet I ran into two at once?!

This was ridiculous!

Under the pressure of death, the anger and grief Lin Qiye had suppressed in the depths of his heart for years erupted like a volcano!

That fury blazed fiercely. The fear in his heart was compressed smaller and smaller, while a vicious determination rose from nowhere!

He tightly gripped his blind cane, his chest heaving violently as he faced the monster poised to strike.

At that moment, the creature before him no longer seemed like a monster that had just eaten someone, but all the grievances and setbacks he had suffered over the past ten years.

Not even his aunt or Yang Jin knew what kind of rage had been hidden within the heart of this boy who had been suppressed for ten years!

He refused to accept this!!

Perhaps even he himself had not noticed that, beneath those surging emotions, the eyes that had been closed for ten years began trembling violently, as though they were about to open.

"Kreee—!"

The monster looked at the fair-skinned Lin Qiye like a hooligan who had spotted a beautiful woman. With a shriek, it sprang into the air!

"Fuck it, I'm not afraid of you!" Lin Qiye roared, raising his blind cane as he charged straight at the leaping monster!

The distance between them rapidly shrank!

Just as the monster's claws and fangs were about to tear open Lin Qiye's throat, he suddenly twisted aside and narrowly evaded the strike!

However, although Lin Qiye could perfectly track the monster's movements, his physical abilities were still lacking. The claw grazed past his temple, leaving behind a faint streak of blood.

At the same time, the black ribbon was cut apart and carried away by the gusting wind to parts unknown.

With his eyes closed, Lin Qiye seized the opportunity and let out a furious roar, driving the blind cane in his hand toward the monster's lower abdomen!

Snap—!

A crisp sound rang out. Lin Qiye felt the weight vanish from his hand, and then a tremendous force struck from behind as the monster's tail sent him flying!

Lin Qiye rolled across the ground several times before forcing himself up through the pain. His mental perception told him that the blind cane in his hand had snapped into two pieces.

The blind cane had been made for guiding the blind, so its material was not especially sturdy. Against the monster's incomparably hard body, it was naturally of little use.

"Fuck!"

He cursed and hurled the Half a Blind Cane in his hand to the ground.

He had finally caught an opportunity, and it had been wasted just like that.

The broken blind cane was like a fuse that ignited all of Lin Qiye's emotions. He stood there with both fists clenched tight, his nails digging into his flesh and leaving bloody marks.

"I refuse to accept this!!" he roared!

At that instant of surging emotion, a strange sensation suddenly rose in his heart.

Like spring rain nourishing the earth, it came naturally. A trace of coolness flowed from his heart to the congested place in his mind, gently touching it...

And that thin layer shattered in response!

Lin Qiye felt as though a sun had erupted within his body. Unprecedented heat filled every part of him, while the eyes beneath his eyelids burned as though being roasted!

And so, naturally...

He opened the eyes that had been shut for ten years.

And the final image those eyes saw was another pair of eyes—

The Seraph's eyes!

In an instant, a dazzling, blazing pillar of light erupted from an alley at the edge of the old district and shot straight into the sky!

At that moment, the night shone as bright as day!