"Ugh..."
Yang Wei's pupils dilated instantly.
Then, under Guo Shuai's stunned, nearly blank stare, Yang Wei's upper body slid off at the waist.
Thud.
His upper body crashed into the dust, while his still-twitching legs remained standing where they were.
His intestines and organs, along with steaming hot blood, instantly dyed the wheat field beneath him red.
"Ol... Old Guo..."
With only half his body left, Yang Wei lay in a pool of blood and struggled to lift his head.
His eyes were growing dim, but he still tried to open his mouth.
"Run..."
"Don't look back... Run..."
After saying that, his head struck the ground with a heavy thud, and the light in his eyes went out forever.
"AAAAAAAH!!"
Guo Shuai felt as if his skull were about to explode.
He looked at the good friend who, just a moment earlier, had still been joking with him,
saying he'd find a doctor to graft skin onto him—now reduced to a pile of mangled flesh.
Devastation.
Despair.
And an overwhelming hatred!
"Why... Why didn't I notice sooner?!"
Guo Shuai screamed furiously inside his mind and slapped himself hard across the face.
"Am I useless?! Huh?!"
If only he hadn't been in such a rush to look for him, if only he'd stayed by his side... Old Yang might not have died!
"Heeheehee... Run... Hurry and run..."
The monster wearing Bai Lianhua's tattered skin stepped on Yang Wei's corpse and giggled.
It wasn't in a hurry to eat. It seemed to enjoy its prey's despair more.
"I'll kill you! I'll kill you!!"
Guo Shuai's eyes blazed red. He wanted nothing more than to charge in and fight it to the death.
But he knew he couldn't die.
Old Yang had bought him time with his life!
"Run!!"
The will to survive overwhelmed his impulse. Guo Shuai spun around and sprinted with all his might into the depths of the wheat field!
He had to live!
He had to escape this damned wheat field!
He had to grow stronger, then come back and tear that monster limb from limb!
He would avenge Old Yang and everyone else who'd been killed here!
"Huff... huff..."
His lungs felt as if they were burning, and his legs as heavy as lead.
From the wheat field behind him came the rapid rustling of something crawling.
Bai Lianhua was closing in fast, like a spider!
"I can hear you... Heehee... You run so fast..."
The monster's voice came from one side, then the other, full of mockery.
Guo Shuai glanced at the Mechanical Watch on his wrist.
[23:58]
Two minutes left!
If he could hold out for just two more minutes, the times would align and the exit would open!
"Stay calm! Guo Shuai, get a damn grip!"
Guo Shuai bit down hard on his tongue, using the sharp pain to force himself out of his anger and fear.
If he kept running blindly like this, he'd be caught in less than thirty seconds!
He had to think of something!
"Weakness... What's its weakness?"
Guo Shuai's mind raced as he recalled every detail of the fight.
The Small Scarecrows had been drawn to the stones...
They had no eyes!
"Sound! It's sound!"
"They can't see! They hunt by hearing!"
As he realized this, he glanced at himself, still running frantically.
His footsteps in the silent night were the perfect guide!
"I'll take a chance!"
Guo Shuai gritted his teeth and, while running, quickly took off the Mechanical Watch that had been with him for years.
The old-fashioned watch had a worn-out movement, and its second hand made a crisp "click, click" as it moved.
In this deathly still wheat field, it was the perfect bait!
With all his strength, Guo Shuai hurled the watch at a forty-five-degree angle to his right!
Whoosh!
The watch landed among the rows of wheat several dozen meters away.
Thud.
The instant it hit the ground,
Guo Shuai suddenly dove forward, plunging straight into the thick wheat to his left like a diver!
He clamped both hands over his nose and mouth, pressed his body against the ground, and didn't dare breathe.
One second.
Two seconds.
The crawling sound behind him... stopped.
The terrifying monster halted in the middle of the path. Its head, stuffed with wheat stalks, turned strangely as it tried to make sense of what it heard.
"Click... click..."
In the distance, the faint ticking of the Mechanical Watch drifted over on the night breeze.
"Over there..."
The monster let out an excited howl and sprang into the air!
Whoosh!
A foul gust swept over Guo Shuai's head!
It didn't even glance at him lying on the ground. It headed straight for the watch!
"I guessed right!"
Guo Shuai was ecstatic.
A few seconds later, a sharp crunch rang out in the distance. The Mechanical Watch had been crushed underfoot.
Then came the monster's puzzled roar.
"Not... not this..."
Guo Shuai stayed motionless on the ground, peering through the gaps between the wheat stalks and staring fixedly in that direction.
By moonlight, he saw something he would never forget for the rest of his life.
The monster's body began to twist violently, and Bai Lianhua's human skin peeled away like a ragged piece of cloth.
Rrrip!
A gigantic scarecrow, over two meters tall, with three withered wood arms,
emerged from the back of that skin!
This was its true form!
The Terrifying Scarecrow!
"Can't find you... Where are you..."
The scarecrow angrily swung its three arms, seeming to grow frantic now that it had lost its target.
Guo Shuai held his breath and silently repeated, "It can't find me. It can't find me..."
But then,
the scarecrow suddenly stopped moving.
It raised its three arms high and began making that eerie "waving" motion toward the empty wheat field.
Whoo~
A cold, uncanny wind suddenly swept across the previously still night sky.
It blew through the wheat field, making countless wheat stalks sway and strike one another with a rustling sound.
Smack.
The wind bent a stalk of wheat, and it lightly brushed against Guo Shuai's back.
The sound was faint.
But at that moment, Guo Shuai felt as if he'd heard the gunshot announcing his execution!
The scarecrow in the distance abruptly turned its head.
Its split-open mouth grinned in the direction where Guo Shuai was hiding.
"FOUND! YOU!"
Boom!
It dropped to all fours and lunged toward Guo Shuai at astonishing speed!
Guo Shuai's pupils constricted. His whole body turned cold.
"So that's it..."
"It wasn't waving to greet me! It was making wind!"
"It uses the sound of the wind to echolocate! Even if I don't move, as long as the wind passes over me, it can find me!"
This was a dead end with no way out!
As he watched the terrifying mouth draw closer and saw the Death God's Scythe swinging through the air,
Guo Shuai closed his eyes in despair.
"Old Yang... I'm sorry. I still couldn't get out..."
"I'm coming to join you."
He counted down to his death in his mind.
Three.
Two.
One.
The pain he expected never came.
Nor did he hear the sound of blood splattering.
Everything around him suddenly went quiet, and even that eerie wind seemed to have stopped.
"What's going on?"
Trembling all over, Guo Shuai tentatively opened one eye.
The next moment, he froze.
The terrifying scarecrow had stopped less than five meters in front of him.
It wasn't attacking Guo Shuai.
Where its eyes had once been—just two black holes—two blinding red lights now shone!
It was on extreme alert!
It stared fixedly at Guo Shuai... or rather, at the space behind him.
"What... is it looking at?"
Guo Shuai stiffly turned his head and followed the scarecrow's gaze.
There, in the wheat field behind him,
a man was standing. Guo Shuai had no idea when he'd appeared.
He wore a black shirt, its collar slightly open to reveal his strong collarbones.
The night wind whipped around him, fluttering the hem of his shirt.
He wasn't looking at Guo Shuai or at the corpse on the ground.
His dark eyes were calmly fixed on the scarecrow.
His gaze held neither fear nor anger.
Instead, it was...
the appraisal and appreciation one might give to something that belonged to them.
The powerful aura he carried was even more terrifying than that three-handed monster in front of them!
Guo Shuai's lips trembled, and tears poured from his eyes.
He recognized that face.
The mute who'd always been quiet on the bus.
"J-Jiangnan..."
Before you continue