Night fell.
Qingshan Village, several li from Yuyang Village.
As usual.
After a day's labor, Lu Chang ate his fill and prepared to rest.
The food was plain and meager, and the house he lived in was made of packed earth.
His family was poor, and he was all alone, but he had no complaints.
When he was young, his village had fallen apart. He had fled with the adults, and along the way, he had lost count of how many people died.
It was not until he reached the Dahe Gang mining district that his days of barely clinging to life finally came to an end.
Mining in the district was exhausting, but at least he would not be suddenly killed and eaten by Fierce Beasts in the wilderness, nor would he encounter anything strange.
Young and strong, he had mined for two years, saved some money, pulled a few strings, and settled in Qingshan Village.
He had a plot of land and a house.
Life would only get better.
He had strength and drive. He had even secretly learned a few martial arts cultivation postures from the Patrol Team members. Though his knowledge was incomplete, he had grown much stronger.
He simply did not dare practice too much. The more he practiced, the more it consumed.
If it did not consume grain, it consumed his body.
Poor families simply could not afford to practice.
Patrol Team members had meat to eat and enough grain, and they could cultivate martial arts as well. They were far stronger than ordinary people. He envied them greatly, but he still did not dare join the Patrol Team.
He was afraid of death.
When ordinary people encountered something strange, they could neither escape nor hide. But when Patrol Team members encountered something strange, there would still be casualties.
He had his own little calculations. For instance, over the past year, he had not cultivated or joined the Patrol Team, yet he was still alive.
But the Patrol Team had already been replaced by half.
The night deepened.
Sleepiness weighed heavily on him, and he slept soundly.
Rustle,
rustle,
in the silent night.
There seemed to be footsteps.
Knock.
Knock,
knock.
A faint knocking suddenly came from outside the door.
The sound was so soft that Lu Chang, deep in sleep, did not hear it at all.
The area outside the door suddenly fell silent for a while.
Suddenly,
the knocking came again, louder this time.
Lu Chang woke in a daze, but he was still not fully conscious.
He was a little irritable from being awakened. Who was knocking at this hour?
Who was playing a prank on him? It was really annoying. A vague knot of anger coiled in his heart.
"Who is it?"
He shouted, abruptly got to his feet, opened the house door, and walked into the courtyard.
The knocking continued, one knock after another, without stopping.
He was furious.
He took several steps to the main gate and placed his hand on the door bolt. With a slight lift, he could open it.
At that moment, Lu Chang suddenly grew alert. Who would be bored enough to play a prank on him this late at night? Wasn't that boring?
The knocking continued without pause.
At first, it had not seemed like much. But now that he was completely awake, he listened to the knocking—once, then again, and again.
The crisp knocking was exceptionally clear in the desolate night, as though it were striking the depths of his heart, once and then again.
His entire heart clenched.
"No... it couldn't be, could it?"
An uneasy thought shot into his mind, followed by cold sweat. Could something strange have come?
"It won't. It won't."
Qingshan Village had Rune Soldiers and the Patrol Team. Strange things could not get in.
Thinking this, he did not dare open the door. Instead, he backed away step by step until he reached the house door, staring fixedly at the main gate.
The knocking continued, but there were no other abnormalities.
"My house is close to the square. If something really is wrong, someone will definitely notice."
After thinking it over, he still felt unsafe. He decided to call for help, so he hurried back inside, took out a Whistling Arrow, and lit it. The Patrol Team had distributed one to every villager, allowing them to send a signal if anything happened at night.
If he was too far away, no one might hear him even if he shouted.
Sizzle!
The signal shot into the sky.
Watching the bright sparks beneath the dark night sky, he felt a sense of reassurance.
After a while, the knocking stopped.
Lu Chang pressed his body against the door, still staring at the main gate.
Thud, thud, thud.
Footsteps sounded.
Knock!
Knock!
The knocking began again. Lu Chang's heart had just risen into his throat when he thought, It can't be. Again?
At that moment, an impatient voice shouted, "Open up! Patrol Team inspection."
The squad leader called out from outside as well, "If no one responds, break down the door directly. If there really is something strange, kill it first."
The Patrol Team member's voice sounded like heavenly music to Lu Chang. As for the impatience in his tone, Lu Chang had already ignored it.
He lifted the door bolt, and four Patrol Team members entered. They immediately restrained Lu Chang and drew a little blood from him. Only after seeing that the blood was bright red did they release him.
"Sorry for the trouble."
The Patrol Team squad leader was bald. Lu Chang had seen him before.
"Damn it, I didn't expect them to draw my blood without even checking first."
He had heard of this before. It was a tradition in Qingshan Village: when someone was suspected of being possessed by something strange, they first checked whether the person's blood was abnormal.
Now that it had happened to him, he was still displeased.
He forced down his anger. There was nothing he could do; it was a tradition. Though he did not know whether it was reliable, he still understood it.
Lu Chang immediately explained what had happened.
The knocking, calling out, and no one answering from outside the door.
"Could it have been a prank? Someone wanted to scare you!"
The bald squad leader analyzed the situation.
"That is possible, but unlikely. I stood in the courtyard for quite a while, all the way until you arrived, and I never heard footsteps leaving."
At this, Lu Chang's expression grew fearful. "Captain, do you think I really encountered something strange?"
"Mm... It's possible. How about this? We'll search the area thoroughly."
The group then searched every corner of his home, inside and out, and checked all the nearby neighbors as well. They found nothing unusual.
They handed him another Whistling Arrow. "Send another signal if you discover anything strange."
The bald squad leader gave the order.
"Understood." Lu Chang accepted the Whistling Arrow and nodded heavily.
The Patrol Team left.
Lu Chang shut the main gate, his face gloomy. "It's like I've seen a ghost."
He continued sleeping. In reality, he only lay down and did not fall asleep. He was not thick-skinned enough to disregard the matter completely.
He remained on alert.
Once the night grew deep and silent, knocking sounded again, just as expected.
"Damn it, are you never going to stop?"
Anger and fear battled in Lu Chang's heart. He suddenly leaped down.
Knock knock!
Knock knock!
The sound seemed closer. He realized it—the knocking was not coming from the main gate, but from—
the house door!
Whoever was knocking was right outside the house door.
The anger that had just flared up vanished instantly, replaced by a bone-chilling cold.
Trembling, he walked to the house door.
An oil lamp glowed inside the house, but it did not cast the shadow of anyone outside the door.
Cold sweat dripped down in beads, joining into a thin stream that fell to the ground.
Fear erupted. Lu Chang was completely panicked. He gripped the Whistling Arrow tightly, hesitating over whether he should rush out and send the signal.
Who knew whether that thing would come straight into the house?
The night was cold—especially cold tonight. At that moment, the oppressive atmosphere made his chest feel tight, leaving him agitated and uneasy.
Suddenly, ka-ka-ka, the house door trembled. It seemed that thing was scratching at the door, trying to get in.
Whoosh! Lu Chang no longer hesitated. He flung open the door and charged outside.
Outside, the sky held no starlight, only an utterly dark night.
Just as Lu Chang was about to fire the Whistling Arrow, a sharp pain suddenly tore through his heart. His hand went limp, and the Whistling Arrow fell.
He clutched his left chest and collapsed to the ground. The pain in his heart nearly robbed him of consciousness, yet the clear knocking remained perfectly audible.
Suddenly, a realization came to him.
This was the two hundred and ninety-fifth knock.
Two hundred and ninety-six,
two hundred and ninety-seven,
two hundred and ninety-eight,
two hundred and ninety-nine,
three hundred.
His heart suddenly burst apart, and his consciousness sank into darkness.
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