Jiu De Mai, dressed in black combat gear, watched Lu Mingfei's group through a pair of infrared binoculars.
When Liu Miaomiao cried out and Lu Mingfei suddenly disappeared, Jiu De Mai's eyes widened.
"Holy shit, Little White Rabbit vanished!" she exclaimed to Su Enxi.
"What the hell!" Su Enxi spat out her potato chips back at their remote location.
They had to get back now.
Lu Mingfei glanced at Liu Miaomiao. Leaving her here could put her in further danger, so he'd take her back with him first.
Before Liu Miaomiao could say anything, he hoisted her over his shoulder. Activating Flash Step again and again, Lu Mingfei quickly made his way to the edge of the camp.
At a glance, he saw a collapsed campfire and a panicked crowd.
Dead Servants shaped like humans were gathering across the mountainside.
Strangely, most of them only roared continuously without attacking. Instead, they kept encircling the campers, as if waiting for an order.
Only a handful were actually hunting.
But those few were already enough to send the students fleeing in every direction, their cries and pleas for help ringing out without pause.
They were like mice being chased.
Zhao Menghua had been clawed on the arm while fleeing. Blood kept pouring from the wound. If he hadn't reacted in time and run despite the pain, he would've lost his life.
Chen Wenwen, however, kept running alongside Zhao Menghua. He was in so much pain that tears and snot were streaming down his face.
When he saw Chen Wenwen still running after him, he yelled at her, "Can you stop following me? If we split up, I might actually get away. You're only dragging me down!"
"But I'm so scared." Chen Wenwen's tears rolled down her cheeks, each as big as a bean.
"This is all your fault! You suggested coming to this dump. I never should've listened to you!"
Zhao Menghua cried and cursed. He'd had enough of Chen Wenwen. Her head was full of naive ideas. Maybe a donkey had kicked him in the head for him to have been attracted to her literary-girl act.
While they were crying and cursing at each other, a Dead Servant pounced from the side and knocked Zhao Menghua to the ground. Chen Wenwen stood nearby, too frightened to move.
"Am I going to die?" Like a film reel flashing before his eyes, Zhao Menghua's life raced through his mind.
Jiu De Mai had her sniper rifle trained on the Dead Servant atop Zhao Menghua, ready to fire at any moment.
"Stop making me save people at the last second, you bastard!"
At the sound of Lu Mingfei's voice, he grabbed the Dead Servant by the throat with one hand, yanked it off Zhao Menghua, and hurled it aside.
"Little White Rabbit's back, and he brought a little sister with him." Jiu De Mai pulled her eye away from the scope.
"He's always been good at playing the hero and saving the damsel in distress," Su Enxi commented remotely.
After setting Liu Miaomiao down, Lu Mingfei said, "Quick, stop Zhao Menghua's bleeding. He'll die if you don't."
Chen Wenwen nodded through her tears. She was terrified out of her mind.
"Lu Mingfei, be careful," Liu Miaomiao murmured.
There was no reply.
Lu Mingfei drew his blade again and headed toward the Dead Servant he'd thrown into the distance.
The Dead Servant charged at him. Lu Mingfei gripped the hilt and swung once in a horizontal slash. As he walked past it, its upper and lower halves fell apart.
Lu Mingfei used Flash Step again, reaching the center of the camp.
Su Xiaoqiang was right in the middle of the camp, pale-faced and clutching a torch. No monsters had reached her yet.
"Lu Mingfei, hurry up!" she shouted anxiously.
"It's okay now. I've taken care of the monsters attacking at random."
Lu Mingfei came to her side.
Seeing him return, Su Xiaoqiang breathed a sigh of relief.
"How are things? What's happening with everyone else?" Su Xiaoqiang asked.
"Everyone's okay. Zhao Menghua's the only one who's badly hurt. Luckily, they haven't launched a large-scale attack yet. Otherwise, I might not have been able to save many people," Lu Mingfei replied.
But now, watching the Dead Servants gather around the camp, Lu Mingfei knew the main attack couldn't be far off.
For these mindless monsters to be acting in an organized fashion, something must be controlling them.
"Where is Chu Zihang now?" Jiu De Mai asked.
"Chu Zihang headed toward the students as soon as they started screaming. He should be there soon," Su Enxi replied.
Why were there people here?
After hearing the cries in the distance, Chu Zihang immediately sprang into action.
He ran at a speed comparable to a world-class sprinter, like a perfectly calibrated machine that never needed to stop. He'd maintained the same pace for several minutes.
Soon, Chu Zihang saw the ring of Dead Servants.
His pupils contracted. Why were there so many Dead Servants? Just how much had this organization been hiding?
"A group of civilians is surrounded by Dead Servants. When will Academy reinforcements arrive? I need heavy firepower," Chu Zihang asked over his earpiece.
"About half an hour," the operations team replied, at a loss for words. They knew what that delay meant. The people inside might not survive long enough for the rescue team to arrive.
"Agent Chu, this is beyond what you, a first-year student, can handle. Don't act yet. We misjudged the situation, and we'll take responsibility for the consequences."
Chu Zihang looked at the distant mass of Dead Servants and fell silent. He thought of that rainy night and hated himself for being so cowardly back then. He wouldn't run away again.
The only way to save those civilians now was to force open a path through the Dead Servants.
Chu Zihang turned off his comms and took Murasame out of his tennis bag. His Golden Pupils blazed like flames.
"Kassel's people are here too. We can begin the experiment."
In a tree not far from the camp, a man in a white lab coat spoke into a walkie-talkie.
Their organization had established a base in Cangmang Mountain to study the evolution of Dragons. Their recent results had been very promising, so they'd increased the volume of their trades. They hadn't expected that to draw an investigation—or that the investigators would be from Kassel.
Chu Zihang, a first-year student, had excellent counter-surveillance skills. But this was his first mission, and under the organization's surveillance, they'd discovered that he'd already found the approximate location of their base.
Since Kassel had discovered them, they'd decided to abandon the base. As luck would have it, some students were camping at the foot of the mountain. They could use them for an experiment and see how the Dead Servants bred by their organization performed.
They could also lure in the person investigating them, then kill him.
So he'd brought out most of the Dead Servants from the base. Under their conditioning, the Dead Servants could act silently with just a single command.
Once the experiment was over, they could head back. He could hardly wait to see the show.
A strange whistle sounded, and the Dead Servants began a new round of movement. The experiment had begun.
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