[Rain-Praying Village] Reconnecting [Literally]

"Help me! Help me! I'm still back here!!"

Lü Ting felt the icy presence closing in behind him. He reached desperately toward the people ahead, screaming in panic!

But everyone ahead was too busy running for their lives. Who would turn around to look?

Lü Ting finally understood what Ning Qiushui had said earlier.

He had refused to risk his life for his teammates, and now his teammates refused to risk theirs for him.

He had been abandoned.

Lü Ting gritted his teeth, his eyes filled with resentment!

Those goddamn bastards actually left me behind to save themselves!

I've done my part for the team too. How dare they?

What gives them the right?

"Fucking hell, not a single one of them can be counted on when it matters!"

He cursed furiously to himself, but he dared not pause for even a moment. Despite his injured leg, he kept limping forward!

But as Lü Ting ran, he suddenly felt something was wrong...

It was as though... his body was growing lighter and lighter.

The sensation came out of nowhere, but once it appeared, it never went away.

Lü Ting kept running with all his might, but his body grew lighter and lighter... until it felt like a drifting feather, utterly weightless.

Lü Ting could no longer feel his body.

He stared ahead in terror, his eyes stretched wide, as though he had seen something unimaginably horrifying-

A headless body with his exact build and clothes was stumbling forward!

Before long, the body collapsed to the ground and lay motionless...

"Hungry..."

A horrifying bubbling voice sounded beside his ear.

It was not the vocal fry a normal human could produce. It sounded more like some long-neglected machine suddenly starting up again, its knobs scraping against rusted metal!

A mangled, bloody hand held Lü Ting by his hair and slowly turned his face around.

At last, Lü Ting saw just how horrifying the person chasing him truly was!

His mouth opened wide in utter terror, but he could not make a sound...

"Hurry, it's almost dark!"

Ning Qiushui panted. After running so far carrying Bai Xiaoxiao's body, even he was struggling.

But he dared not stop.

The distant sun was sinking little by little.

The last remnants of its glow were gradually slipping toward the horizon.

He had to reach the Spirit Medium's residence as fast as possible and reunite Bai Xiaoxiao's body with her head!

"Beardy, get the door open!!"

At Ning Qiushui's shout, Liu Chengfeng immediately hurried ahead and kicked open the Spirit Medium's front door. Then he went to the inconspicuous little room in the corner of the residence, slipped a wire into the keyhole, and tried to pick the lock.

Fortunately, he was highly skilled at this. Even without being able to see, he quickly opened the lock using sound and touch alone.

Ning Qiushui reached the corner and immediately lifted out the clear glass jar containing Bai Xiaoxiao's head. He said to her:

"Sister Bai, we brought your body back. What do we do now?"

Inside the clear glass jar, Bai Xiaoxiao's alluring, pale face looked unnaturally stiff. Her eyes were growing vacant and fixed. Compared to how she had looked during the day, she now seemed more like a lifeless statue.

Seeing that something was wrong, Ning Qiushui hurriedly slapped the glass jar hard and shouted her name several times:

"Bai Xiaoxiao! Bai Xiaoxiao! Can you hear me?!"

Perhaps his slapping had worked. Inside the jar, Bai Xiaoxiao's rigid eyes finally moved a little. She stared at Ning Qiushui outside, then spoke after a moment in an extremely weak voice:

"You're... back..."

Ning Qiushui glanced back at the sun, which was about to set. Still panting, he called loudly to Bai Xiaoxiao:

"We brought your body back! What do we do now?!"

Bai Xiaoxiao replied:

"Break... the glass... put my head... back on... my body..."

Crash!

The moment Bai Xiaoxiao finished speaking, Ning Qiushui slammed the glass jar against the ground. Its fragile walls shattered instantly, spilling a great deal of liquid across the floor, while Bai Xiaoxiao's head remained cradled in his hands!

Without a moment's delay, he and Liu Chengfeng hurriedly put Bai Xiaoxiao's head back onto her body!

The instant the severed surfaces of her neck touched, they fused together!

Only a faint red line remained around Bai Xiaoxiao's slender neck, as though a rope had merely tightened around it.

At the very last moment before the sun set, she lay in Ning Qiushui's arms and finally opened her eyes.

Her limpid eyes first trembled slightly, like a drop falling into a lake and disturbing its mirror-smooth surface. Then light and vitality returned to them.

Only when Bai Xiaoxiao let out a soft murmur did the two men finally relax, knowing she was alive.

"Fuck, you scared the hell out of me!"

"Sister Bai, we almost thought you weren't going to make it!"

Seeing that Bai Xiaoxiao had finally regained consciousness, Liu Chengfeng wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and gulped down great breaths of air.

Bai Xiaoxiao thanked them both, then gently braced herself with her hands and rose from Ning Qiushui's arms.

Looking toward where the distant sun had already set, she gave a bitter smile:

"This blood gate really is dangerous..."

"I thought I'd been cautious enough, but I still nearly got myself killed..."

After speaking, she looked at the two men with an indescribable gratitude in her eyes.

People willing to risk their lives to save you were... truly few and far between in the Haunted Lodge.

Of course, beyond her gratitude, she also felt a barely perceptible trace of embarrassment toward Ning Qiushui.

She knew that, in the Temple on the mountain, Ning Qiushui had pulled at her pants and seen her... butt.

Of course, people who frequently faced life and death cared less about such things than ordinary people did, so she soon regained her usual composure.

"Where are the others?"

Bai Xiaoxiao asked.

"Most of them are dead. Unless something else has happened, there are probably only... five of us left now."

At the mention of how many survivors remained, Liu Chengfeng's expression darkened considerably.

Fourteen people had entered, but in just five short days, fewer than half were left!

Now only the final two days remained. If they still failed to help the monk who bestowed [Tranquility] recover his head within those two days, they would face a reckoning at the hands of Guang Xiu, who would become a vengeful ghost, and all the resentful spirits who had died over the past century!