Licker

Raccoon City Police Department, west corridor.

The rain was blocked out by the thick walls. An eerie silence filled the place, broken only by the occasional drip from the ceiling echoing through the empty corridor.

"Drip... drip..."

The Shrek Seven Monsters pressed themselves against the wall, holding their breaths as they carefully inched forward.

After the despair in the lobby and the shortage of supplies, they now treated every step as if walking on thin ice. Bei Bei led the way, while Huo Yuhao covered the rear, keeping the injured Dai Huabin and the mentally shattered Xu Sanshi protected in the middle.

"We need to find the key in the west offices." Bei Bei lowered his voice and gestured. "Keep it quiet. A lot of the windows on this floor are broken. Those things may have crawled in."

When they reached the corner of the corridor, Huo Yuhao suddenly stopped.

His pupils contracted. A needle-like stab of pain pierced the back of his head. There was no Soul Power, no Mental Detection, but as a Spirit Eyes soul master, his instincts, far sharper than those of ordinary people, were frantically warning him!

"Stop." Huo Yuhao exhaled the word and grabbed Wang Dong, who was about to turn the corner.

"What is it?" Wang Dong jumped, but before she could ask, Huo Yuhao clamped a hand firmly over her mouth.

Huo Yuhao said nothing. He only raised a finger and pointed overhead.

Everyone followed his finger.

Hanging upside down from the ceiling was a nauseating creature. Its skin seemed to have been peeled away, exposing scarlet muscle fibers and bulging veins.

Its head was enormous, but where its eyes and nose should have been, there was only a huge, exposed brain that sent chills down their spines. Its limbs were incredibly developed, ending in razor-sharp claws that were embedded deep in the ceiling concrete.

Wang Dong's face instantly went pale. Even when facing ten-thousand-year soul beasts, she had never felt anything so disgusting and terrifying.

This thing... was like some kind of biological weapon evolved solely for slaughter.

Maybe she was too nervous, or maybe the floor beneath her was too slippery, but Wang Dong instinctively tried to take a step back.

A faint crack sounded.

The sole of her shoe had stepped on a shard of glass scattered across the floor.

"Hiss—!!!"

The monster on the ceiling, which had been completely still, reacted instantly. Its exposed brain trembled violently, locking onto the source of the sound like a radar. Then it let out a sharp, piercing shriek as its two-meter-long tongue shot out like a venomous snake!

Whoosh! Without any run-up, it launched itself directly from the ceiling, so fast that it left a red afterimage in the air!

"Open fire!!" Bei Bei roared, raising his gun and firing.

Bang! Bang! Two bullets struck the Licker, bursting into sprays of blood, but to it, the shots seemed little more than a scratch!

Its muscle density far exceeded that of ordinary zombies. The bullets lodged in its flesh, only provoking its savagery.

"Roar!" The Licker landed, its massive claws scraping sharp sparks across the floor. Ignoring Bei Bei completely, it lunged straight at Wang Dong, who had made the sound!

"Ah!!" Wang Dong panicked. She wanted to run, but her legs had gone weak.

She wanted to shoot, but her hands shook so badly that she could not aim at the rapidly moving red blur.

"Don't come near me!!"

Just as the Sharpness claws were about to rip open Wang Dong's throat.

A hand suddenly seized Wang Dong by the collar and viciously yanked her backward.

Screech! The claws swept past Wang Dong's nose, carving three deep Scratch marks into the wall behind her.

"Don't move!!" Huo Yuhao's voice exploded beside Wang Dong's ear.

"Don't shoot! Don't run! Don't make a sound!" Huo Yuhao held Wang Dong down tightly, even restraining Xu Sanshi, who had been about to rush over to help.

"It can't see!" Huo Yuhao stared fixedly at the monster, speaking incredibly fast but in a low voice. "Look at its head! It has no eyes! It moves by sound!"

"The gunshots just made it lose its precise position. As long as we don't make any noise, it won't be able to find us!"

Everyone froze.

No eyes? It hunted by sound?

During that brief exchange, the Licker had already recovered from the stiffness following its attack.

It crouched low to the ground like a leopard ready to pounce. Its exposed brain kept writhing, seemingly gathering the faint sound waves in the air.

"Pant... pant..." It let out heavy breaths.

The scene instantly fell into deathly silence. No one dared move, and no one dared fire.

Pinned in the corner by Huo Yuhao, Wang Dong trembled all over as the Licker slowly crawled toward her.

One step, then two.

Its skinless red body stopped less than half a meter from Wang Dong. A nauseating stench of blood washed over her.

It raised its head, its mouth full of sharp teeth opening slightly. Its barbed tongue probed through the air.

It seemed to have smelled the scent of living people, but it could not determine their exact location.

Its saliva dripped onto Wang Dong's shoe.

Wang Dong's pupils widened to their limit, tears welling in her eyes. If the monster extended itself even an inch farther, it could bite through her neck. Her heart hammered wildly in her chest, as though it were about to leap out.

Huo Yuhao's hand gripped Wang Dong's arm tightly. Steady warmth flowed from his palm as his eyes told her: Trust me. Don't move.

Time seemed to stretch into an entire century.

The Licker prowled before Wang Dong for a long time, even bringing its ugly massive head close to her face and sniffing.

In the end, it seemed to lose patience, or perhaps it was drawn away by the sound of a water droplet in the distance.

"Hiss..." It growled softly, then turned and crawled up the wall, making its way through the ventilation ducts toward the other end of the corridor.

Only after the red figure had completely vanished into the darkness.

"Phew..." Wang Dong's legs gave out, and she collapsed onto the floor. She gulped down air, drenched in cold sweat as though she had just been pulled from the water.

"Move." Huo Yuhao did not give them time to rest. His face was pale as well. That extreme state of concentration had drained a great deal of his mental strength.

"Before it comes back, walk slowly. Put your heels down first. Don't make any sound."

Over the next five minutes, the Shrek Seven Monsters experienced the most terrifying stretch of road in their lives.

These soul masters, who usually soared through the skies and raced across the earth, now moved like a group of thieves who had only just learned to walk, inching across the mere twenty-meter corridor as though trapped in slow motion.

Only after they pushed open the door marked "S.T.A.R.S. Office" and locked it behind them did they finally dare to breathe loudly.

"I... I never want to see something like that again." Wang Dong curled up in a chair with her knees hugged to her chest, her voice still trembling. "It was right next to my face... I could even smell its breath..."

Xu Sanshi was also slumped on the floor. Looking at Huo Yuhao, there was an added trace of awe in his eyes. "Yuhao... if you hadn't stopped me just now, I might have rushed in and gotten myself killed. How did you notice it had no eyes? In that situation... you could still observe its physical structure?"

Huo Yuhao leaned against the desk, loading bullets into his pistol. He looked up. Though his Spirit Eyes no longer held the glow of Soul Power, they seemed unusually profound.

"Because of fear," Huo Yuhao said calmly.

"Fear makes ordinary people lose their minds. But for spiritual-type soul masters... fear is a stimulant that sharpens our senses."

"If we hadn't stayed calm, we would all be dead by now."

The real world, second floor of the internet café.

Clap, clap, clap! A lone burst of applause rang out.

Di Tian set down the half-eaten roast chicken in his hand and looked at Huo Yuhao on the Screen. For the first time, undisguised admiration appeared in his golden vertical pupils.

"What a promising seed!" Di Tian said.

Xuan Zi beside him nodded as well, his expression complicated. "In that situation, even Dai Huabin, that White Tiger Soul Elder, was scared senseless. But Yuhao... that kid has nerves of steel."

"Without a soul skill like Mental Detection, he still possesses the instinct to notice the smallest details. Without great strength, he still holds absolute command."

Xuan Zi sighed, his eyes full of gratification. "Mu En did not misjudge him. That child... was born for grand occasions."

Lu Yuan's voice drifted over from the side. "Don't praise him too soon. This is only the beginning. The Licker is just an appetizer."

Lu Yuan pointed toward the depths of the Screen. "Next, a gentleman who likes wearing a trench coat and a hat, and whose every step carries an imposing air, is on his way. That is the true... sense of oppression!"