At the Critical Moment, Dawn Arrived

Seeing Uncle Yu in mortal danger, I did not hesitate.

I picked up the bamboo pole on the ground that had been sprayed with tongue-tip blood and cursed loudly:

"Fuck you!"

Then I drove it into Zhang Qiang's back.

With a whoosh, the bamboo pole pierced straight through Zhang Qiang's body.

His body trembled in pain, and he let out muffled wails.

He also let go of Uncle Yu.

Seizing the chance, Uncle Yu hurriedly broke free.

But Zhang Qiang turned his head around.

At that moment, wisps of black energy seeped from his entire body, making him look incredibly eerie.

Not only that, he glared at me with half of his bloodied face.

He grabbed the bamboo pole I had stabbed into him.

With a squeeze of his hand, there was a bang, and the bamboo pole instantly exploded into strips.

The shattered bamboo also cut two bloody gashes across my palm.

Waves of cold wind pressed down on me so hard that I could barely breathe.

I could only back away step by step, retreating behind the pile of dying embers.

I tossed several pieces of cardboard into it, trying to make the fire burn bigger.

But the fire simply would not catch.

What flames it produced were a ghostly green, and they seemed to give off no heat at all.

Uncle Yu also picked up the Dragon-Head Cleaver that had fallen to the ground.

He hurried over to me.

Neither Uncle Yu nor I were a match for Zhang Qiang, this Drowned Ghost.

We did not dare confront him head-on. We could only stay on guard and defend ourselves.

"Uncle Yu, are you all right?"

I asked anxiously.

Uncle Yu stared at Zhang Qiang, who was slowly pulling the bamboo pole from his chest, and answered:

"I'm fine. This bastard is even stronger than I imagined."

"Uncle Yu, is there any other way?"

But Uncle Yu shook his head.

"There's no way. Make the fire bigger.

Delay him as long as we can. If we can't hold him off, we'll both die."

As he spoke, Zhang Qiang had already pulled the bamboo pole completely out.

Half his face was missing, and there was a huge bloody hole in his chest.

He looked utterly terrifying.

With his head slightly lowered, he began walking toward us.

In a hoarse voice, he said:

"Come with me. It's time to go..."

But I angrily snapped back:

"Go to hell! You're dead, and you're still pestering me!"

Yet Zhang Qiang acted as though he could not understand me and continued closing in.

With every step he took, the chill in the air grew stronger.

The flames before us shrank a little more.

He continued speaking:

"The teacher is calling..."

As soon as he said that, the fire before us went out with a puff, blown out by the cold wind.

With the fire no longer deterring him, Zhang Qiang had no more reservations.

He raised his ghostly claws and lunged at Uncle Yu and me with a howl.

Uncle Yu's eyes widened. He raised the Dragon-Head Cleaver and swung it down.

But he failed to hit the ghost and was instead slapped to the ground by Zhang Qiang's claw.

A gash was torn across his neck and face, and blood streamed out.

The Dragon-Head Cleaver also fell in front of me.

"Uncle Yu!"

I cried out.

Uncle Yu clutched the wound on his neck and could not get back up for the moment.

But Zhang Qiang had already set his sights on me.

His voice became even lower.

"Come with me. It's time for class..."

Seeing there was nowhere to run and Uncle Yu had been injured, I gritted my teeth.

I picked up the Dragon-Head Cleaver from the ground and roared:

"Fuck your mother..."

Then I raised the cleaver and chopped it into his forehead.

But after taking that blow, he acted as though nothing had happened.

Instead, he raised his claw and viciously grabbed my throat.

At that instant, it felt as though all the air had been let out of my body. I lost all my strength in a flash.

I saw that his eyes had turned completely black.

There was not a trace of white left in them.

Together with his half-bloodied face and savage features, the sight made my scalp tingle.

He gripped my throat and continued:

"This time, you can't run away..."

With that, he lifted me into the air by my neck.

I could not breathe. I felt as though I was about to suffocate.

Struggling had become useless.

Uncle Yu clutched the wound on his neck, trying to get up and save me.

But he could not even stand. He could barely save himself—how could he save me?

Gradually, dizziness washed over me.

My eyes kept rolling upward.

I knew that I probably could not escape this disaster. I was going to die here.

The only thing was, I had dragged Uncle Yu down with me.

My heart was filled with endless unwillingness...

But just as I was about to lose consciousness and be strangled to death,

I suddenly caught a faint whiff of pungent formaldehyde.

That trace of smell instantly gave me a flicker of awareness.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone standing on the Rooftop of a nearby building.

He wore yellow clothes and looked like a food delivery rider.

He was looking in our direction with his neck craned out, though I had no idea what he was doing.

But in the next moment, a rooster suddenly crowed.

"Cock-a-doodle-doo..."

It was loud enough to echo through the surrounding area.

Zhang Qiang, the Drowned Ghost gripping my throat, reacted as if he had been struck by lightning.

His entire body jolted violently.

His black eyes suddenly turned gray, and pupils appeared in them.

The claw gripping my throat released me at once.

With a clang, my limp body crashed onto the ground.

Then I saw Zhang Qiang blankly reach up, pull the Dragon-Head Cleaver from his forehead, and casually toss it aside.

The missing half of his face and the bloody holes in his body healed on their own.

Still wearing that vacant expression, he turned around.

He no longer looked at Uncle Yu or me, nor did he say another word.

Standing on tiptoe, he walked toward the Rooftop door.

Before long, he vanished from sight...

Uncle Yu, clutching his neck as he struggled to his feet, saw the Drowned Ghost Zhang Qiang leave.

He immediately said excitedly:

"Hahaha, the rooster crowed.

Xiao Jiang, we're safe. We're safe..."

Hearing Uncle Yu's excited voice, some strength gradually returned to my body.

I painfully pushed myself up from the ground as well.

The first thing I did was look toward the Rooftop of the neighboring building.

But when I looked again, it was empty.

The pungent smell of formaldehyde was gone from the air too.

Still, the most urgent matter was treating Uncle Yu's injuries.

A claw wound had torn open his neck, and blood had soaked through his shirt.

His face had also become deathly pale.

If we did not stop the bleeding and treat him quickly,

Uncle Yu could very well go into hemorrhagic shock from excessive blood loss, or even die.

"Uncle Yu, don't talk. I'll take you to the hospital."

After saying that, I took off my shirt and used it as a bandage to apply temporary pressure to stop the bleeding.

I sheathed the Dragon-Head Cleaver.

Then, regardless of whether Uncle Yu agreed, I hoisted him onto my back and ran downstairs.

As we passed the entrance to the seventh floor, I saw that the door had already been closed, but I still sped up.

I was afraid the Old Crone would rush out of the room and harm us both.

When I reached the ground floor, Uncle Yu was still telling me:

"I'm fine. Put me down. I can walk!"

But how could I put him down? There were already many blood vessels in the neck.

With a laceration like that, the bleeding had to be stopped as quickly as possible.

The more he moved, the more blood he lost.

"Uncle Yu, don't talk. Keep pressure on the wound. I'll get you to the hospital first..."

When we reached the entrance, I discovered that Uncle Yu's electric scooter had been stolen.

My phone had gotten wet and would not work, while Uncle Yu's phone was still inside the Cursed House.

There was not a single car in sight on the road.

With Uncle Yu on my back, I could only keep running forward.

We came across three private cars along the way. Seeing that I was shirtless and Uncle Yu was covered in blood,

not one of them was willing to give us a ride.

Uncle Yu's condition, meanwhile, was getting worse and worse.

Just when I was frantic with worry,

an early morning bus silently pulled up in front of us...