No One Leaves

"Yeah... isn't Captain Shen pretty strong?"

"Just go in and look. What if they're still alive?"

"Those are human lives we're talking about..."

"Exactly. Like they say, with great power comes great responsibility."

As He Yumin listened to the crowd's discussion, his face turned a deep, livid red, as though the little authority he had painstakingly established had been challenged.

He also worried that losing credibility would make it even harder to impress Shen Ye in the future.

The position of convoy manager had yet to be settled, and he had felt confident about securing it from the start.

What if I don't perform well and someone else ends up getting the position?

At that thought, he slammed his hand on the bus's horn, sending out a deafening blast.

"Shut the fuck up! You don't know shit! Zhou Rong and the others fell behind on their own. Who knows which corner of the village they're scavenging in now, refusing to come out? The village is huge. How are we supposed to find them?"

"Besides, the village is dangerous right now. Didn't you see Captain An pass out? Every one of you..."

But before he could finish.

Shen Ye pushed open the RV's door.

He stepped out and stood beside the door, gripping the Ghost Head Katana.

Its black blade gleamed coldly in the midday sunlight.

Zhao Cuilan's eyes lit up when she saw him get out.

She thought her words had worked.

"Captain Shen, I knew you weren't the kind of person who..."

The blade flashed.

The rest of Zhao Cuilan's sentence caught in her throat.

A thin red line appeared across her neck. It quickly widened, then the flesh parted on either side, exposing her severed windpipe and blood vessels.

Blood gushed out, splashing onto the RV's front bumper.

Her mouth was still open and her eyes were still wide, but her body could no longer support itself.

She toppled backward, stiff as a bundle of dry firewood.

She hit the ground, kicking up a small cloud of dust.

A deathly silence fell over the village entrance.

Everyone stared at the still-twitching corpse on the ground and the steadily widening pool of blood.

Old Zhang stood less than two meters from Zhao Cuilan.

He had been standing behind her moments earlier, and now a few drops of blood speckled his graying beard.

He looked down at the ground, then up at Shen Ye, his lips trembling, unable to utter a word.

Aunt Li screamed and pulled her child several steps back, only to trip over a stone and land on her backside.

Shen Ye flicked the blood off his blade.

"Fourteen people went into the village. Ten came out."

His voice wasn't loud, but everyone could hear it in the dead silence at the village entrance.

"The people you mentioned-Zhou Rong, Zhang Haisheng, Li Dazhuang, and someone called Sun something."

"After entering the village, they slipped out the back door and stole knives from the kitchen. They wanted to kill Eldritch on their own and score some supplies."

He raised his eyes and swept his gaze across every face present.

"By now, they're probably just a few more skeletons among all the others in this village. If any of you want to wait for them, stay here and wait."

No one answered.

No one dared to answer.

Those who had been nodding and joining in the discussion now bowed their heads, wishing they could tuck them into their collars.

Old Zhang opened his mouth as though he wanted to say something.

In the end, however, he said nothing. He merely crouched down slowly and buried his face in his calloused hands.

Shen Ye didn't look at anyone else.

He turned, climbed into the RV, and pulled the door shut.

He shifted into gear, released the brake, and pressed the accelerator.

The RV rolled over the gravel toward the only dirt road out of the village.

He Yumin froze for two seconds, then slapped the steering wheel and shouted at the drivers behind him, who had yet to recover from their shock, "Get moving! Follow him!"

The bus, the Volvo, and the dozen or so modified vehicles of various sizes behind them started their engines one after another and followed the RV out of Qianxing Village.

In the rearview mirror, Zhao Cuilan's corpse still lay beneath the banyan tree.

The blood had stopped flowing. It seeped into the dirt, leaving a dark red stain.

The convoy followed the only dirt road leading onward from Qianxing Village.

The road was still riddled with potholes, and the mountain walls on either side drew closer and closer, leaving barely enough room for a single vehicle to pass.

No one knew where the road led, but the Man-Eating Tree Spirit was behind them and high-tier Eldritch lurked in the village. All they could do was gamble that another exit lay ahead.

After about twenty minutes, the road suddenly began to widen.

The muddy track gradually became a gravel road. A few kilometers farther on, it finally joined a concrete road.

Shen Ye followed the mountain road down two successive peaks. When the tires rolled onto smooth asphalt, he could hardly believe it.

They had actually made it back to the National Highway.

Seeing that it was only just noon, Shen Ye found an open patch beside the road with clear sightlines and parked the RV.

Only then did he let out a long breath of relief.

Song Shiya woke up on the bed, rubbed her eyes, and looked at the blazing sun outside the window. She stared for several seconds before speaking. "Huh? Where are we? Weren't we at the entrance to Qianxing Village?"

Shen Ye unscrewed a bottle of water, took a couple of gulps, and briefly recounted what had happened in Qianxing Village.

The Skin Wraiths, the houses that had already been looted, the abandoned vehicles, and the three Eldritch in the villa whose tiers he couldn't make out.

Song Shiya's drowsiness vanished at once.

"Didn't An Ning say beforehand that she hadn't detected any high-tier Eldritch?"

She had learned that from Lin Wanqiu, but Shen Ye had already led the others into the village by then, so she had simply returned to the RV to sleep.

"I haven't figured that out either." Shen Ye set down the water bottle. "Maybe her sequence level was too low and their tiers were too high for her to detect them from that far away."

He paused, then continued, "It's also possible those things could conceal their own presence. I just don't know why they suddenly revealed it later."

"Later?"

"Yeah." Shen Ye paused. "That thing was watching me from the shadows behind the window. It seemed to have developed some kind of awareness or intelligence."

Song Shiya fell silent for several seconds, fine goose bumps rising along her arms.

She had seen Eldritch with awareness before, such as the Tier Two Green-Scaled Snake Demon in Changchun Village.

But this was the first time she had heard of one possessing intelligence.

She guessed that the one Shen Ye had seen was probably a Tier Three Eldritch, or even higher.

"Whatever the case, you were right to get everyone out," she said quietly.

"I'm a little tired. I'll go make something to eat." Shen Ye stood and headed toward the rear of the RV.

Song Shiya took the hint, opened the door, and stepped out.

She planned to look around nearby for an abandoned vehicle where she could stay for the time being.

Just as she reached the doorway, Shen Ye's voice came from behind her.

"Wait."

She thought he had found it in his heart to ask her to stay, but instead he merely walked over carrying a plastic bag containing a few packets of instant noodles, two bottles of water, and two cans of luncheon meat.

"Take this."

Song Shiya looked at the bag, then at him.

"What's this? Finally found your conscience?"

"Payment for treating me last night." Shen Ye pushed the bag into her hands, then turned and went back inside.

Song Shiya looked down at the bag in her hands, and the corners of her mouth curved upward.