Green-Skinned Eldritch

Song Shiya shook her head at his incredulous expression and replied calmly, "After everything we've been through, and everything we're going through now, do you really think anything is impossible?"

"My guess is that our world started changing the moment the Red Moon appeared."

"Besides the arrival of the Eldritch, the roads beneath our feet are quietly stretching. The distances between villages and cities keep growing. More importantly, the buildings along the roads have disappeared."

She pointed to a marked location on the map. "In the world as it used to be, there should be a gas station where we're stopped right now."

That discovery left Shen Ye silent for a long while.

If the world's physical landscape really was changing, as Song Shiya suggested, the map in his hands would gradually become useless.

A journey they expected to take three days could easily turn into a week or longer. Their travels would only become more difficult from here on.

Song Shiya's gaze shifted downward, and she pointed at a dense cluster of city markers. "And if we keep heading south, we'll enter the Pearl River Delta."

"Before the apocalypse, those cities all had populations of over ten million. Given how the Eldritch behave, that area must be no different from hell now."

Lin Wanqiu, who had been listening to their conversation, looked lost. "Then where can we go next?"

Shiya was right. The Eldritch were drawn to the scent of living humans like moths to a flame. Major cities fell the fastest, and they were also the places most likely to harbor high-tier Eldritch.

Heading farther south would be no different from walking into a tiger's jaws.

But where else could they go?

Unlike the women, whose faces were filled with despair, Shen Ye merely shrugged, then pointed to an area on the left side of the map.

"Since the Eldritch gather wherever there are more people, we could try heading west first, toward Western Frontier Province or the Snowland Plateau."

"Those places are vast and sparsely populated. There might be fewer Eldritch there, which would also make them a little safer."

Shen Ye didn't particularly mind living without a fixed home. After all, in his previous life as a mercenary, he had spent most of his time drifting from place to place overseas.

After hearing him out, Song Shiya and Lin Wanqiu both nodded, agreeing with his reasoning.

Although An Ning said nothing, the fear on her face visibly eased.

Her ability told her that they absolutely must not approach the Pearl River Delta.

Seeing that no one objected, Shen Ye spoke again. "Now that we've decided on a direction, let's get back in the cars."

"If things really are as Song Shiya suspects, there should be a gas station a little farther down the road."

"If there isn't, we'll turn around and head west."

"Either way, we need to fill our tanks before nightfall."

After another hour on the road, they did indeed spot a small gas station.

Before approaching it, however, Shen Ye got out and knocked on An Ning's car window.

Before he could speak, An Ning already understood what he wanted.

Her black eyes turned pale purple as she looked toward the gas station ahead.

"There are two Eldritch inside. Both have Tier One auras."

The moment she finished speaking, her eyes closed involuntarily, and her head slumped forward.

Soon, her breathing became slow and steady. She appeared to have fallen asleep.

Lin Wanqiu and Shen Ye were already used to this.

It was a side effect of her Pathfinder ability. Every use consumed a tremendous amount of energy, and sleep was the only way to recover.

With the information he needed, Shen Ye wasted no time and drove straight into the gas station.

Almost the instant the car stopped, Shen Ye stepped out with Ghost Head in hand, his expression grim as his eyes scanned his surroundings.

Even against Tier One Eldritch, he never dared let his guard down.

The abilities of the Eldritch were unpredictable. Even a Sequence Awakened could die without a body left to bury after a moment's carelessness.

Song Shiya was also a Sequence Awakened. Although her combat abilities were far inferior to Shen Ye's, she immediately got out and followed him, ready to heal him at a critical moment.

The instant Shen Ye stepped one foot through the convenience store's entrance, he heard an extremely faint sound from the ceiling.

He looked up, and his pupils abruptly contracted.

A humanoid figure was clinging to the ceiling.

Its limbs were twisted, and it clung there like a gecko, its blue-gray skin coated in an oily sheen.

A tattered gas station employee's uniform hung from its body, riddled with holes where bony spikes had thrust out of its back.

Its heads were the most horrifying part.

Two heads sat atop its neck.

The one on the left drooped, its eyes half closed and clear saliva dribbling from the corner of its mouth, as though it were asleep.

The one on the right stared straight at Shen Ye, its neck twisted at an angle no living human could manage. Its mouth slowly stretched into a grin that reached all the way to its ears.

It revealed a mouth packed with tiny, sharp teeth.

When Shen Ye looked up, both blue-skinned heads were staring at him with deeply unnerving smiles.

Then the Green-Skinned Eldritch's body slowly turned transparent and vanished.

Alarm bells instantly rang in his mind.

His combat instincts made him whip around toward Song Shiya, who was retreating in terror.

The Eldritch had somehow appeared behind Song Shiya. Its thin, pointed tail kept lengthening before suddenly stabbing toward her.

Shen Ye lunged forward, his body shooting out like a cannonball.

As he knocked Song Shiya aside, he twisted sideways in midair to evade the Eldritch's attack.

Its strike missed, and the Eldritch tried to disappear again.

Shen Ye seized the opening as it prepared to vanish and slashed with his blade.

A streak of black light fell, and the Eldritch's body was instantly severed in two.

[Killing Points: +64]

"Watch out!"

Before he could breathe a sigh of relief, he heard Song Shiya cry out.

Shen Ye barely thought at all. His powerful combat instincts drove him to dodge out of the way immediately.

At some point, the Eldritch that had vanished from the ceiling had suddenly reappeared and lunged at him. Its claws were as sharp as blades, and Shen Ye could faintly hear them slicing through the air.

Had he failed to dodge that attack, he would likely have met his end right there.

After its ambush failed, this Eldritch likewise tried to activate its invisibility and launch another surprise attack.

But Shen Ye gave it no chance. As its body became translucent, the pitch-black Ghost Head was already cleaving into it.

[Killing Points: +58]

Even as the two Eldritch corpses dissipated, Shen Ye remained vigilant.

He took out the Life Disk he had obtained from Song Shiya to check again. Only after confirming that its white bead hadn't lit up did he relax a little.

As for this Weird Object's side effect, it was nothing to him.

"You're pretty good. Were you in the military too?" Once she saw that they were completely safe, Song Shiya abruptly asked from beside him.

Shen Ye glanced at her but didn't answer the question.

Song Shiya pursed her lips, then turned and walked toward An Ning's car.