Long Night

"Sir, are you there?"

Erui's voice sounded outside a building.

The fear that had originally shown on his face had now faded. He stared at the closed door in front of him and kept knocking.

He knocked for a while, but no response came from inside. Erui couldn't help but freeze.

Could he not be inside? The thought crossed his mind.

Though they hadn't known each other long, Arthur had always been very courteous during their previous interactions. If he was inside now, there was no reason he wouldn't answer.

Erui looked up at the darkening sky inside the building. Forcing down his anxiety, he waited by the door until it was nearly completely dark, then had no choice but to leave, planning to check again later.

A hurried set of footsteps sounded nearby. After Erui had left, Arthur slowly emerged from a wooden house farther away. Watching Erui's retreating figure, his expression was calm and cold.

Night gradually fell, and the sky darkened. The world around them grew quiet all at once.

By then, the residents nearby had all fallen asleep. Only a few households were still awake, their hearts filled not with drowsiness but with anxiety and fear.

Inside a wooden house, several people paced anxiously around the hall. They stared at the night outside, fear plain in their eyes.

Just then, the outer door opened, and Erui's tall figure walked inside, his expression somewhat grim.

"How did it go? Did you find the knight?"

As soon as he entered, several people asked him at once, their faces etched with worry.

Looking at the anxious faces around him, Erui shook his head heavily, his expression grim. "I went to the open ground in front of the village, but I couldn't find him."

"Damn it!" A middle-aged man across from him ground out. "He must have abandoned us and run off with Raman and the others!"

"After all the care we've given him these past few days, this is how he repays us. That foreign bastard really is worthless—a spineless coward!"

His expression twisted, as if he could barely control himself. He stood there cursing incessantly, trying to vent all the fear and anger inside him.

When he had finished, silence fell over the room, and a sense of oppression began to build.

Watching this, Erui sighed. "Don't be like that. Things might not be as bad as you think."

"That knight is a good man. Even if he was leaving, he'd remember to warn us. He wouldn't just forget about us like this."

With that, he stood and addressed everyone around him. "Keep packing here. I'll go check outside again. Maybe he's already returned to where he's staying."

After saying this, he opened the wooden door and went straight outside, his figure gradually disappearing into the darkness.

After walking a short distance, he drew on his familiarity with the area and soon reached the house where Arthur was staying again. He raised his right hand and knocked repeatedly.

The crisp knocks rang out around him, jarringly loud in the silence.

He knocked for a while, but still received no answer from inside.

He couldn't help sighing. Disappointment filled his heart in an instant, and he turned to head back to his own place.

A chill suddenly crept up behind him, making him freeze. Something felt wrong.

It's too quiet! The thought flashed through his mind.

It was the middle of the night. Though everything around him was quiet, there should still have been the occasional faint chirp of insects.

But now, all those sounds had vanished. Aside from his own breathing and heartbeat, there was nothing else.

No, something's wrong! He jolted, faintly hearing several soft pants coming from behind him.

A wave of terror surged through him. He turned around and looked behind him, nearly fainting at what he saw.

In the deep night, several ghastly white corpses stood silently behind him. Their eyes gleamed with bloodlust and madness.

Aaaaaah!!!

A scream burst out, then quickly vanished, so brief that it could almost have been mistaken for an illusion.

"I'm too late..." In a corner some distance away, Arthur heard the scream and sighed before silently walking over.

With his keen eyesight, he could clearly make out the scene there, even from more than ten meters away.

In front of the house where he had been staying, Erui's corpse lay motionless on the ground, his face frozen in a twisted, terrifying expression.

Around his body, several pale, humanoid monsters had blood smeared across their faces. They gobbled down the flesh of the corpse beneath them, pulling out nearly all the intestines.

Perhaps sensing Arthur's presence, the humanoid monsters suddenly stopped. Then they slowly stood and turned around.

They were four naked corpses. Their clothes had long since burned to charcoal, exposing their ghastly white skin. As they watched Arthur slowly approach, their eyes were filled with an intense, bloodthirsty craving.

"Four in all."

Arthur frowned at the familiar pale faces across from him, drew the sword from his waist with his right hand, and swung it hard.

In that instant, a white figure suddenly appeared in front of him and crashed into his sword. Arthur sent it flying with a single blow.

A low growl sounded in his ears. Without changing expression, Arthur kicked hard to his left.

A tremendous force jolted through his foot, and a white figure fell to the ground.

"Agility close to 4, about the same as the one I encountered last time."

Feeling the speed of the corpse before him, Arthur made a rough estimate. Then he thrust his sword into a corner and fought the other two Corpse Spirits nearby.

A blade of wind whistled past, striking one Corpse Spirit hard in the shoulder and severing its arm.

But the next moment, new tissue began to grow at the wound. The Corpse Spirit let out a roar, picked up the severed arm from the ground, and reattached it. In no time, it had recovered, making Arthur's eyelid twitch.

Compared with the various powerful monsters in the wild, these Corpse Spirits weren't especially strong.

But as a kind of aberration, they possessed not only limitless stamina but also, to some extent, an undying body. That was what made them so difficult to deal with. Without finding the right way to counter them, even someone far stronger would eventually be worn down and killed.

Thinking of this, Arthur stirred the Life Energy within him and slowly channeled it into the sword in his hand.

As the Life Energy enveloped it, the black sword was gradually covered in a faint green glow, taking on a uniquely keen edge.

Arthur lunged forward. His rapid movement whipped up a fierce gust of wind around him as he charged straight at them.

Before the Corpse Spirits opposite him could react, he was already upon them, his sword crashing down.

Heavy Slash!!

As the Life Seed within him pulsed, the power of his Life Energy erupted completely, bringing the full force of the Knight Secret Skill to bear.