When he saw the other party, Lu Ban was suddenly seized by a shudder.
The hairs on his back stood on end, and goosebumps rose across his skin. A bizarre feeling that reality had been broken enveloped him, as cold and bone-chilling as the night around them.
The figure was pitch-black, as if shrouded in dark mist, or wrapped in seaweed. Its eyes had vertical pupils and were dark red as blood. Lu Ban could not see any of its other facial features. Only two hands clung to the window, and they were not human hands either. They looked more like a collection of tentacles. The writhing limbs gripped the windowsill and twisted constantly, as though they contained the deepest malice in the world.
The moment their eyes met, Lu Ban's body moved on its own. He shouted as he pushed open the window.
Bang—
The creature seemed stunned by Lu Ban's actions, or perhaps it wanted to flee. It toppled from the windowsill.
"Someone come!"
Lu Ban shouted as well. He saw the creature fall from the second floor and hit the ground with a slap, spreading out like a puddle of mud. Yet under Lu Ban's gaze, it quickly pulled itself together. It wriggled like a caterpillar before fleeing into the darkness.
"What happened?"
Xiya poked her head out and saw Lu Ban standing by the open window, calling out about something.
"I saw that thing—the person from the water."
Lu Ban gave a brief explanation. He tried to determine which way it had gone, but the woods surrounding the villa were too dense to see clearly in the moonlight. He could only remember the general direction. Looking that way, he realized it led to the settlement below the mountain, with the harbor nearby.
"You saw it?"
Xiya