Thank you, Shiya

Black liquid covered half his face, sealing his mouth and nose.

A suffocating sensation surged through him.

His vision went pitch-black, his breathing was completely cut off, and all he could hear was the sticky squelch of writhing liquid.

Searing pain kept flaring across his face, tormenting his nerves.

The black liquid was trying to burrow into his nostrils and mouth, intent on suffocating him alive.

Yet the closer he came to death, the clearer Shen Ye's mind became.

Enduring the searing agony, he strained his left hand, trying to grab the liquid plastered over his face and tear it off in one go.

But it was like a sheet of extremely sticky rubber. The harder he pulled, the tighter it clung.

Not only could he not rip it off, but his left hand was now firmly stuck as well, all five fingers trapped in the black liquid.

The suffocation grew worse. His chest tightened and swelled, white spots flashed before his eyes, and his heart raced as if it would leap out of his throat.

He swung his blade fiercely, trying to use his right hand-the only one he could still move-to slash at the body of the Oil-Shadow Ghost covering his face.

The blade was caught halfway through the swing.

Unbeknownst to him, another Oil-Shadow Ghost had already wrapped both arms tightly around the blade and his wrist. Its black tendrils dug into his flesh like iron bands.

Two Oil-Shadow Ghosts held him fast, one locking down his left arm, the other his blade.

Another clung to his face.

His vision grew darker and darker, a buzzing filled his ears, and his lungs felt stuffed with wet cotton. Every desperate attempt to breathe yielded only the faintest trickle of air.

I'm going to die here.

Just as his consciousness began to fade, a glow of interwoven red and white sank into his body.

Warmth spread from his chest.

Most of the intense burning pain vanished in an instant, and the wounds corroded by the oily sludge stopped worsening.

More importantly, that warmth suppressed the anxiety and terror threatening to explode inside him, clearing his mind once again.

This familiar feeling.

It's Song Shiya.

Through his gray-white vision, he saw that Song Shiya had appeared in the doorway of the toll booth at some point. She held a flashlight in one hand and extended the other toward him, continuously releasing that pink glow from her palm.

Shen Ye stopped struggling.

He drew one last deep breath. With the pain suppressed, he could finally channel all his strength into his right hand.

With a sudden burst of force, he pried a narrow gap in the grip of the Oil-Shadow Ghost coiled around his arm.

That tiny bit of room was more than enough right now.

Once his right hand had room to move again, he adjusted the angle of Ghost Head's edge and swept it upward.

He did not aim this slash at the body of the Oil-Shadow Ghost covering his face, but at its weak point.

A thin, narrow "neck" connected the black liquid plastered over his face to the Oil-Shadow Ghost's body.

That connecting strand was the thinnest part of its entire body.

And its most fragile.

One slash severed the strand instantly.

The black liquid covering his face immediately lost its vitality. It peeled away like dead skin, fell to the ground, and dissolved into a puddle of black water.

Air rushed into his lungs, and a hoarse gasp tore from his throat.

Shen Ye gulped down breath after breath, bracing both hands on his knees and bending over for several seconds before he recovered.

He touched his face.

A layer of sticky oil remained on his skin, along with patches of burned, mangled flesh.

Fortunately, Light of Holy Healing was still working, rapidly restoring the burns on his face. Otherwise, his face would truly have been ruined.

Song Shiya's support had come just in time. She had not only suppressed his injuries, but also given him the chance to break free.

His gaze sharpened again.

Rage roiled in his chest, and an invisible killing intent spread from his body.

The three remaining Oil-Shadow Ghosts regrouped, standing three or four meters in front of him.

They seemed to have grown wary and no longer dared attack recklessly.

Shen Ye gave them no time to catch their breath.

He lunged forward, first feinting a slash to draw out the middle ghost's block, then turning his blade and slicing open the chest of the Oil-Shadow Ghost on the left.

Slaughter Mark activated again, its dark red brand lighting up in his gray-white vision.

His movements did not pause for an instant.

After marking one, he reversed his grip and slashed at another Oil-Shadow Ghost's right leg, using the mark refreshed by his earlier Eldritch kill.

Two Slaughter Marks were branded onto two separate Oil-Shadow Ghosts.

After Shen Ye broke free of their joint assault, all three Eldritch creatures had already begun to fear him.

Now that two of them bore Slaughter Marks, those negative emotions were amplified further, until their almost human-shaped bodies actually began to tremble.

The rest of the battle became utterly one-sided.

Once marked by Slaughter Mark, the Oil-Shadow Ghosts' defensive ability and desire to attack dropped sharply.

Wounds that had previously required a full-strength slash now took only sixty or seventy percent of his strength to inflict.

And every time he landed a hit, he could siphon off a portion of their attributes through the marks.

Although each gain was tiny, after more than a dozen consecutive slashes, he could clearly feel his strength climbing with every increment.

In less than two minutes, all three Oil-Shadow Ghosts had turned into dried, hardened black earth scattered across the ground.

[Killing Points: +78, +81, +74]

[Blood Feast stacks +3, strength slightly increased, recovery speed slightly increased]

Shen Ye stood amid the hardened black earth, taking great gulps of fresh air.

His clothes were covered in black oil stains, several charred blisters dotted the backs of his hands, and burns still lingered on his face. But he paid none of that any mind. His eyes were filled with delighted surprise.

The Butcher Sequence's abilities were even more useful and powerful than he had imagined.

Still, he had only just awakened it and was not very proficient yet. Otherwise, he would never have fallen into such danger. Fortunately, there was still plenty of room for improvement.

"Are you all right?"

Song Shiya jogged over from the toll booth, sweeping her flashlight over Shen Ye from head to toe, her eyes full of worry.

After surviving several life-and-death ordeals together, she seemed to have become especially concerned about this man.

"I'm fine." Shen Ye flicked the remaining black liquid off his blade and said casually, "What about you? Find anything in the toll booth?"

"There's a valve for an oil storage tank behind the toll booth. The manual pump still works, so there should be quite a bit of fuel left."

Song Shiya was breathing heavily too. "But I ran into two of the same Eldritch creatures in there just now..."

Only when she raised her hand did Shen Ye notice a shallow wound on her right arm that was still seeping blood.

"Your arm..."

"I got scratched by accident while running out."

Shen Ye looked at the wound on her arm, still oozing blood, and fell silent for a second.

He could guess what had happened. The moment she encountered the Eldritch creatures, she had realized he might be in trouble too, so she had rushed out without a thought for her own safety, not even stopping to tend to herself.

Something seemed to tug at his heart, and before he knew it, he said something that surprised even him.

"Thank you, Shiya."

If she had not come to his aid in time, he might really have died here. There seemed to be nothing wrong with saying that.

But Song Shiya froze for a moment, then seemed to notice something amusing. Covering her mouth, she laughed so hard her whole body shook.