Before Big Niu had finished speaking, a shrill scream rang out from the convenience store behind him.
Immediately afterward, gusts of black wind flew out through the doorway, quickly gathering into a dark cloud that blotted out the midday sun.
Sheltered in the dark cloud's shadow, the old woman's hunched figure chased after Big Niu...
Her voice pierced the black mist, carrying an eerie, cloying sweetness that seemed to steal souls.
"Young man, turn around and look at me... Look at Granny's eyes. Aren't they pretty...?"
When the ordinary people still scavenging nearby heard Big Niu shouting for them to run, they burst into a panic and sprinted out of the village, laden with bags of all sizes.
Li Gang, who was gathering supplies in a nearby farmhouse, froze at Big Niu's roar, then immediately ran toward the village entrance.
If even a Transcendent couldn't deal with that horror, an ordinary man like him had no chance of surviving an encounter with it.
But as he ran out of the farmhouse, he saw Big Niu sprint past. Then a gentle voice called out from behind him.
"Young man, do you think my eyes are pretty?"
Hearing the voice, he instinctively glanced back.
That single glance sealed his fate.
The next second, he let out an agonized scream. His eyes burst, spraying scarlet blood mixed with cloudy ocular fluid in wet spurts.
At the village entrance...
Listening to the shouting inside the village, Chen Mo suddenly felt a sense of foreboding.
The old woman posing as a kindly granny, the eyeless corpses on the ground, and that shout from inside the village just now.
All those eerie scenes began to connect...
Better to believe the danger was real than assume it wasn't.
With that thought, Chen Mo shifted into reverse and began backing up slowly, without any hurry.
He kept everyone sheltered in front of his vehicle, ready to let them cover his retreat at any moment.
Just then, another indistinct shout came from inside the village...
Everyone looked toward the source of the sound.
At the far end of a fork in the village road, several black specks were fleeing toward the convoy. A huge mass of black wind followed behind them, blotting out the sky and sun.
Now it wasn't just Chen Mo. Several people on foot and bicycles also began slowly backing away, edging toward the highway.
"What's going on? Was that Big Niu shouting?"
"I think I heard him too, but I couldn't make it out. He was too far away."
"You must've heard wrong. Nothing happened when we went scavenging earlier, did it?"
"Look! There's something behind Big Niu!"
In the lead vehicle, Lin Lu still sat in the passenger seat of the Command Vehicle, frowning thoughtfully.
Suddenly, the white cloth covering his eyes fluttered twice, and he let out a fierce shout.
"Run!"
"Everyone, retreat! Get clear of Sunward Village!"
"Something's coming out!"
At those words, the survivors at the village entrance erupted into chaos! Shouts and pounding footsteps filled the air.
"Get in! Get in the vehicles!"
"Don't block my fucking way! Move!"
Meanwhile, the distant black specks drew closer, their figures becoming vaguely visible.
Big Niu was running ahead of the others with two enormous burlap sacks on his shoulders, his legs pumping furiously.
As he ran, he shouted toward the convoy.
"Run! The old woman's out!"
"Run!"
Several figures stumbled along behind him. One was Li Gang, who had been scavenging in a farmhouse near the convenience store moments earlier.
Li Gang covered his face with both hands. Thick, scarlet liquid gushed between his fingers, mixed with an unidentified white pulp.
"Help me... My eyes... Help me!"
Racked by excruciating pain and blinded, Li Gang ran around like a headless chicken, all sense of direction gone, wailing as he went.
Every step left a stark, bloody footprint on the dirt road.
What truly made everyone's skin crawl was the thing pursuing them.
A roiling mass of black wind blocked the sun's harshest rays. The old woman's wrinkled face flickered within it, like a shriveled, twisted tree spirit.
She stared fixedly at Big Niu, who was running ahead of the others, and kept screeching.
"Don't run! Turn around and look at me!"
At the village entrance, beside Chen Mo's Dump Truck.
"Chen Mo... Mo!"
"Please, take me with you! Please!"
The next second, a tear-streaked face full of terror pressed against the window.
It was Zhang Nan.
She had followed Chen Mo's reversing vehicle to the back of the convoy, cursing him all the way, with no intention of letting the matter drop.
But the moment she heard Lin Lu over the loudspeaker, she took no more than three seconds to react before putting on a pitiful expression again.
"Chen Mo..."
Her voice was sickeningly sweet, utterly unlike her spiteful tone from seconds earlier.
Chen Mo glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw her pleading face pressed against the window.
Zhang Nan pressed her body tightly against the door, her breasts squeezed out of shape beneath her thin athletic jacket.
All the while, her fingers kept tugging at the door handle...
She was trying to trade her last remaining asset for a chance to live.
"I'll do anything! Really! Just let me in... I know how to do all sorts of things!"
Chen Mo's gaze didn't linger on her face for even half a second. He shifted into drive, cranked the steering wheel all the way over, and slammed on the accelerator.
All in one smooth motion.
The Dump Truck roared and lurched forward.
Zhang Nan stumbled and fell to the ground. By the time she got up, the look she directed at the Dump Truck was filled with venom.
But Chen Mo never looked back, not even once.
A few seconds later, several high-performance off-road vehicles had already raced more than a hundred meters away, kicking up billowing dust along the dirt road.
Close behind them, eating their dust, were several survivors on motorcycles. Taking advantage of their bikes' maneuverability, they stayed close to the lead vehicle.
In third place came Big Niu, running at full speed.
At some point, his body had swelled to half again its size, and a pair of jet-black bull horns had appeared on his head. With two burlap sacks on his shoulders, he kept pace behind the convoy through sheer legwork.
Although Chen Mo's Dump Truck was slow and sluggish off the mark, the distance he had put between himself and the others beforehand allowed him to slot safely into the middle of the convoy.
At the rear were several survivors on bicycles. Through his rearview mirror, Chen Mo could see their despairing faces...
Zhang Nan was worth noting. Somehow, she had secured a seat on the crossbar of an old roadster bicycle and escaped with them.
Farther back... were the people on foot. They were so far away that they had almost vanished into the black wind.
Chen Mo hadn't seen Old Yang. His grip on the steering wheel tightened slightly, and he muttered to himself.
"Buddy, you're on your own. I hope you make it."
He knew perfectly well that with his ordinary human body, turning back now would mean death.
After the convoy had fled for another two minutes or so, the prickling sense of danger finally began to fade.
Once the convoy was a few hundred meters from the village entrance, the black wind turned into black mist and vanished without a trace beneath the midday sun.
Seeing that the danger had passed, the lead vehicle slowed and stopped by the roadside.
The door opened, and Lin Lu stepped out of the passenger seat. Beneath the white cloth covering his eyes, his expression was frighteningly calm.
The surroundings immediately fell silent. Everyone's gaze converged on Lin Lu, watching his movements.
Big Niu had just stopped and dumped the two burlap sacks on the ground. Before he could even catch his breath, Lin Lu's voice reached his ears.
"What did I tell you?"
As he spoke, he reached out and grabbed Big Niu by the collar. His voice remained calm, but it made everyone's skin crawl.
"Sorry, Captain. I know I messed up..."
"There wasn't much in the village. I just wanted to get some more food... That old woman couldn't come out, so I thought I'd grab a little."
"It's not just the people in the convoy. We're running low on supplies in our own vehicles too, aren't we?"
Big Niu lowered his head and mumbled. The burly man, more than two meters tall, sat on the ground looking as helpless as a child, his face full of guilt...
But Lin Lu kept hold of his collar and repeated his words.
"Get some more food."
"So that was your reason for trading the lives of everyone in the convoy for potatoes?"
Before you continue