[A Cicada's Cry!]

Shen Xiu, far off to one side, had neither the chance nor the time to observe Cao Hongzhuo's movements.

He had not even noticed when the other man vanished from sight.

All his attention was on the red skeleton before him. When his attacks failed to break its defenses, he immediately changed tactics, turned and retreated, with the red skeleton close on his heels.

The sharp bones all over its body glimmered with a faint red light.

After observing it for some time, he found that this demon possessed formidable killing power, but its attacks were monotonous. He thought he could outrun it.

Just then, Shen Xiu felt a slight tremor in his Dantian. It was so faint that he would not have noticed it if not for a vague feeling stirring within him.

Then, a cicada's cry rang out between heaven and earth.

As that cry sounded, invisible ripples spread through the air.

It was as though everything around them had resonated with it. The leaves in the surrounding woods suddenly rustled, and together with that cicada cry, it seemed as if countless summer cicadas were shrieking mournfully amid the trees.

At last, the cry gradually faded.

The cicada's call rose in the spring breeze, hid among crimson leaves, and sank into the grass and mud, vanishing without a trace.

At that moment, the red skeleton suddenly halted its assault. Its body paused, and it stood there blankly in place.

The counterattack Shen Xiu had expected never came, nor was there any sign of its towering rage.

Of course.

There was no way he could read an expression from a skull.

In any case, the red skeleton seemed not to have noticed anything. It stood quietly before Shen Xiu, the ghostly fire in its eyes flickering as it examined him.

It really was examining him.

God knew how he had drawn the verb "examine" from those empty sockets that did not even contain eyeballs, but the black flames drifting faintly within its skeletal eyes—

gave him the unmistakable feeling that it was scrutinizing him.

It seemed to be trying to understand where the cicada's cry had come from, and it also seemed somewhat wary.

Though being scrutinized by a skeleton was an extraordinarily strange feeling.

Just as Shen Xiu's expression turned grave and he considered whether to retreat, the red skeleton suddenly raised its left hand.

Its movements were neither hurried nor slow. Shen Xiu had no idea what it intended to do. He leaned back, gripping his long saber, his expression solemn.

But the next instant, his expression became strange.

The red skeleton pointed at its own abdomen.

Shen Xiu frowned and stared blankly at the lump in the red skeleton's abdomen.

Why did that thing look like a lump of gray mud?

It was gray mud!

Startled, he raised his head and looked over the red figure's body again. This time, he inspected it even more carefully, and was truly shocked.

Where would a skeleton get flesh and blood? Its entire body was packed full of gray earth!

Earlier, he had thought the red skeleton's body looked somewhat like mud, but it had not merely looked like it—it was filled with grayish earth from the start.

So what did this mean?

Shen Xiu frowned, utterly at a loss.

The behavior of this unknown creature was simply too bizarre.

Yet something even more astonishing happened with its next movement.

The red skeleton raised its right arm, its bones still smeared with dirt. Because of the large movement, the dry cracked outer layer of reddish-brown soil fell away with soft rustling sounds.

Before Shen Xiu's dumbfounded gaze, it used that right arm to point at his Dantian.

A huge question mark appeared over Shen Xiu's head.

The red skeleton before him did not seem to intend to attack him, and it was staring at his Dantian.

Its purpose appeared very clear.

Judging by its behavior, it seemed to have heard the earlier cicada cry come from there and wanted to communicate with it.

What was this supposed to be?

Did it think the Golden Cicada was one of its own kind too?

He felt that something seemed to have gone haywire in the red skeleton's head.

Shen Xiu lowered his head and pointed to the Dantian at his abdomen in question.

His gesture received a response from the red skeleton opposite him.

The red skeleton nodded. The pitch-black ghostly fire in its hollow eyes drifted in the wind, as if confirming his question.

Fine, that was indeed what it meant.

Shen Xiu could not make heads or tails of the red skeleton's way of thinking, much less understand how this thing could convey such intent.

He found it strange. Why had it not directly struck with lethal force, unlike how it had treated the others before?

He figured it must be because of the Golden Cicada. Glancing around and seeing no one nearby, Shen Xiu released the Nine Transformations Golden Cicada. At once, the Golden Cicada transformed into a streak of light and flew out.

The jade-white wings of the Golden Cicada fluttered as its body spun through the air, like a sprite.

Sure enough, the terrifying red skeleton's eye-fires froze, as though it felt some apprehension.

Seeing the tiny figure fluttering harmlessly in the air, the red skeleton could not help but take a step back.

The black ghostly fire in its eyes flickered between bright and dim.

It flashed with great urgency, like a candle flame wavering in a gale, like a small boat swaying amid raging waves.

Seeing this, Shen Xiu took the Golden Cicada, turned, and ran.

When faced with a thing with something wrong in its head, what else could he do but run? Still, he had never expected the Golden Cicada to hold such deterrent power over that kind of creature.

After all, the disparity in size was like that between mosquitoes and lions or tigers. He had not expected the red skeleton to fear the Golden Cicada at all.

Thus, the Golden Cicada became his protective talisman.

When Shen Xiu ran, the red skeleton pursued him, but did not dare get too close. Whenever it came too near, Shen Xiu controlled the Golden Cicada to drive it away. The red skeleton was wary, yet did not dare advance further.

This continued again and again.

Only after Shen Xiu had run dozens of meters beyond the woods did the red skeleton finally stop pursuing him and remain at the edge of the wild grass and forest.

It stared blankly at his departing figure.

Only after a long while did it raise its head and gaze from afar at Shen Xiu's retreating form. It looked rather foolish.

But for Shen Xiu, the more foolish it was, the better. If it had possessed intelligence, he likely still would not have escaped its poisonous clutches.

Seeing that the red skeleton was no longer chasing him, Shen Xiu did not relax. He sprinted with all his strength, racing at a speed of over a hundred miles per hour.

In just a few seconds, supported by Dragon Subduing Strength, he ran several hundred meters. Until he had completely escaped danger, he did not dare relax for even an instant.

After crossing a hillside, the outline of a town at the far horizon began to appear in his sight.

When he looked back again, he found that the red figure, which had been gradually shrinking in his field of vision, had now vanished without a trace, as though it had never appeared at all.

Shen Xiu's heart tightened.

That red skeleton was far too elusive, appearing and disappearing like a ghost.

Turning back around, he also saw Cao Hongzhuo and Steward Chen from Sifang Medicine Workshop racing desperately toward Yang Family Town.

There were also a few other scattered men fleeing at full speed. From afar, all of them looked thoroughly bedraggled.

Their clothes were tattered, with tears everywhere. Compared to the high spirits they had displayed before leaving, they looked as miserable as could be.

Still, at least they had kept their lives.

After glancing at the situation behind him, he did not spot Dong Qi. There was no need to say it—he had most likely met a violent end. Shen Xiu sighed, feeling some regret.

An acquaintance who had been speaking with him one moment could become a cold corpse the next.

This was the side of this world that was even crueler than life for ordinary people.