Stealth Attack

Stealth Attack

They searched the hall from top to bottom, turning over everything they could find, but still came up empty.

"Where the hell is it?" Yuan Yao punched the wall. "This place is tiny. I even checked the decorations, but there's no mechanism or secret passage."

It was true. The building was shaped like the Chinese character for "enclosure," with a spacious square courtyard in the center. Compared with the rest of the building, it would have been the easiest place to hide something. But aside from the decorations behind the counter, there wasn't a single painting on the four walls. They'd knocked on them, too, and they were solid. There couldn't be a secret room or passage.

"This decoration's odd." Huang Junjie went behind the counter and pressed hard on the protruding Round Solid Wood Block. With a click, the block sprang open, revealing a space of about one or two square meters. A Movable Wooden Board covered the floor; when he pulled it open, a flight of stairs led underground.

"So it opens when you press it. We wasted all that time picking at the decorations." Yuan Yao's face grew hot.

Huang Junjie turned to Xu Huo. "Want to go down and take a look?"

The three of them went down the Underground Passage one after another. As soon as the wooden door outside closed, the rich kid and Liu Yuanyuan emerged from one side.

"I knew Huang Junjie and that Xu kid were whispering to each other. They probably figured something out." The rich kid spoke under his breath. A while later, he pressed the wooden door open.

After the two of them left, Abel emerged from nearby as well and followed them down the passage.

A few minutes later, Zhang Xiong and the other two returned from the Wooden Cabin. They searched everywhere, realized that everyone who was supposed to be there had disappeared, and started smashing things in a rage.

"There seems to be a sound behind here!" Wang Wei pressed his ear to the wooden decoration and listened closely.

Zhang Xiong rushed over and kicked it. The round door sprang open, and he jumped inside first, speaking excitedly. "No wonder we couldn't find the Head Chopper Demon anywhere. Turns out he's hiding in here. We might even get a prize for killing him. Let's go!"

The three of them climbed inside, too.

The Underground Passage was wider than they'd expected; two people could walk side by side. At the bottom of the stone steps, it split into three Forked Paths.

Xu Huo and the others chose one. They found no sign of the college student, but discovered that this Forked Path branched off again. The exit of one narrow branch lay beneath a Stone beside the hot spring in the room to the left.

"Looks like the Head Chopper Demon uses these passages to get around," Huang Junjie said. "Jia Xuyang was carrying so much food. He probably hid it down here. Was he really responsible for what happened yesterday?"

"Let's find him first." Xu Huo hurried back through the Underground Passage. The moment he landed, he heard the sound of a blade striking a stone wall.

He ran toward the sound. Just as he rounded a corner, he ran into Abel.

"Why are you here?" Huang Junjie drew his knife.

"Don't get the wrong idea!" Abel quickly waved his hands. "I came down after Miss Liu and the others. I didn't know the branches connected, so I got lost. I only came over when I heard the noise."

Xu Huo ignored him and entered the next branch. When his flashlight shone across it, he first caught a glimpse of a tall shadow darting away. Then he saw the college student's body leaning against the wall, its head already severed.

"There's blood over here." Abel glanced at the ground out of the corner of his eye. Two distinct trails of blood ran along the passage in another direction.

"Hurry, after him!" Huang Junjie led the way.

They followed the blood around two bends. Unexpectedly, they kicked something on the ground. In the darkness, a spherical object rolled away with a hollow clatter.

Huang Junjie's hair stood on end.

It wasn't just him. Yuan Yao had kicked something, too. "N-no way..."

The flashlight beam fell on the ground. Three heads lay scattered there, surrounded by splashes of blood, some dried and some fresh. The one they had just kicked had struck the wall, leaving a smear of blood.

Staring at the heads, Xu Huo frowned and asked, "When you came down earlier, had Wang Wei and the other two come back yet—"

Before he could finish, he sensed someone approaching from behind. Before he could react, a Thin Thread cinched around his throat, lifting him off the ground!

Abel, the one Xu Huo had asked, was about to answer. He turned around, but before he could speak, he saw the flashlight fall. Xu Huo's feet dangled in the air as a tall shadow carried him backward!

Abel yanked the Cross from his necklace and flung it at the shadow, but an axe knocked it aside. Huang Junjie picked up the flashlight and lit the entire passage.

"He has no feet!" Yuan Yao was holding one of the heads and had been about to throw it on the ground, hoping the Head Chopper Demon would slip. But when he looked down, he saw that there was nothing beneath the Black Cloak!

Just as Xu Huo was about to be carried out of the passage, he suddenly raised both feet and kicked off the wall. His head shot backward and slammed into the Head Chopper Demon's Mask!

The plastic Mask clattered to the ground. Xu Huo broke free of the Head Chopper Demon's grasp, wiped the blood from his neck, and turned to face the figure with only a torso, floating in midair.

Huang Junjie and the others hurried over. They stared at the motionless Black Cloak, an axe in hand, their scalps prickling!

"No head and no feet. The Head Chopper Demon really isn't human!"

"God, heavens above, ghosts really do exist!"

"What do we do?"

The four faced off against the Head Chopper Demon. Suddenly, the Mask on the ground flew back into his hand, and he put it back on. As he raised his hand, Xu Huo pulled out a dagger and threw it at him!

The weapons clashed with a shower of sparks and bounced apart. A lit Lighter flew down the passage, and Xu Huo opened a second one in his hand.

"Burn!"

The Lighter struck the Black Cloak and slid to the ground without even sparking.

"Let me try!" Abel shoved Xu Huo aside. A massive Cross appeared out of nowhere in his hands. The muscles in his arms bulged as he lifted it and hurled it at the Head Chopper Demon!

The Cross smashed into the axe. The Black Cloak was forced back, and both his hands were pressed down toward the ground as he held the axe up to block it!

It worked!

The other three brightened and started forward, but the enormous, heavy Cross suddenly turned into a sheet of bubbles. Its weight vanished, and the Head Chopper Demon easily flew off into another Forked Path!

The four hesitated for only a moment before giving chase. But when they reached the branch, the Black Cloak had vanished. At the same time, a light approached from the other side.

"It's you!" Zhang Xiong hurriedly backed away. "I saw Jia Xuyang's body. Did you do this?"

"No!" Abel said. "We were attacked by the Head Chopper Demon, too. We're chasing him!"

The group in pursuit grew from four to five. They wound through the passages until five became seven, then nine, but they still didn't catch sight of the Head Chopper Demon again.

"I don't think we should keep looking," Huang Junjie panted. "That thing appears and disappears at will, and the passage is so dark. We don't even know how many branches there are. Searching like this won't get us anywhere."

"Let's carry the bodies back up first." Xu Huo had no intention of continuing the search. It would be a complete waste of time.

The group carried Jia Xuyang's body and the other two heads back to the surface. They put them together and managed, more or less, to restore a complete corpse.

"Jia's death was so gruesome." Wang Wei looked at Jia Xuyang's body with sorrow. Then he said, "You were too careless. You knew the Head Chopper Demon was hard to deal with. Even if you found his trail, you should've waited until everyone was there before going after him."