Invisible footsteps

Su Weiyu paused, then shrugged indifferently. "Not tempting at all."

Beside her, however, Liu Guangyao looked deeply conflicted. Clearly, he found the offer very tempting.

That was hardly surprising. Xia Shou could even imagine what Idrisu had promised him. For an ordinary person like him, it would be incredibly hard to refuse.

Just then, Wang Long suddenly reached out and slapped Liu Guangyao hard on the shoulder, berating him in a low voice:

"The Blood God is the reason you ended up like this! Now this Idrisu is clearly connected to the Blood God, and you're going to kill for him just because he's giving back what was yours to begin with?

"Do you want everyone else to end up like you?"

Those words jolted Liu Guangyao back to his senses. The light that had just kindled in his eyes dimmed, and he sighed.

"Fuck it. I'm... I'm already like this anyway. Heh... forget it." Liu Guangyao stared at his arm, which reeked of decay, his voice trembling as tears spilled from his eyes.

"There has to be another way to fix your arm. Besides, we still have a chance. As long as we stop Idrisu from continuing his treatments, we can get out!

"And someone's already showing us the way."

Xia Shou raised his head and looked at the ghost girl before him.

The hazy girl slowly lifted her hand and pointed straight at a building ahead.

Then the ghost girl teleported to a spot farther ahead, marking out a safe route for them. Xia Shou and the others crouched behind the garden shrubs and crept forward, while Su Weiyu scouted openly nearby to keep them from stumbling into any patrolling doctors.

At times like this, Xia Shou could not help marveling again at how useful Su Weiyu's ability was. Especially when everyone on the opposing side was human, having her around was practically like revealing the entire map!

At last, they entered the building.

"I... I think I've been here before." Liu Guangyao surveyed the spacious hall before them, a trace of fear in his eyes.

"What else do you remember?" Xia Shou asked at once.

At a time like this, any scrap of information Liu Guangyao could recall would be an enormous help.

"I know this place! Whenever I walked through here in my dreams, I often felt like someone was following me. There was always this 'tap, tap' of footsteps. Whenever I walked, the footsteps would start up behind me, and whenever I stopped, they stopped too."

"Were you ever killed?"

"No. There were strange footsteps, but nothing ever happened.

"I just kept going upstairs. I remember there being stairs around a corner up ahead, but they ended at the second floor, so you could only enter the room there.

"As soon as you went in, the door behind you would close. The room on the second floor was pitch-black. There were no windows, not a single bit of light.

"Usually, after I stayed on the second floor for a while, the emergency exit door would open again. The doorway was the only place with any light, and I'd hurry back downstairs as soon as it opened." Liu Guangyao recounted everything he had experienced.

Xia Shou noticed an enormous door in the spacious hall. It had five keyholes, each topped by a different symbol: a pair of eyes, a pair of hands, a pair of feet, a pair of ears, and a heart.

"Do you remember anything about that door?" Xia Shou asked.

Liu Guangyao shook his head. "It's always been there, but obviously you can't open it without the keys."

Xia Shou nodded.

He was probably right. Idrisu was very likely behind that door, but getting through it would probably require collecting five keys.

Those five keys were likely held by the five fully qualified doctors mentioned in the diary-the doctors responsible for treating eyes, ears, hands, feet, and hearts.

"Ah, I remember! That man told me about this place! He said he'd been to the top floor before. Actually, there isn't a top floor at all. It's-" Before Liu Guangyao could finish, a bloody line suddenly split across his throat.

Blood spurted from his carotid artery, spraying all over Xia Shou's head and face.

Liu Guangyao raised his only functioning hand and clutched the wound in his neck in terror, collapsing limply to the floor.

His mouth opened, but no words came out. He could only stare desperately at Xia Shou, pleading for help with his eyes.

"It's all right! I can save you!"

Xia Shou hurriedly crouched down and used Blood Rampage on Liu Guangyao, controlling his blood to keep it from leaving his body.

Blood Rampage was Xia Shou's only skill that came without a cost. Its sole risk was that mastering it would draw "His" attention.

For now, though, Xia Shou could still use the skill without restraint.

Before the blood spraying from the wound could hit the floor, a mysterious force caught it and forced it back into the severed blood vessels in his neck, forcibly maintaining normal circulation.

Besides the blood spurting outward, he also had to control the blood pouring into Liu Guangyao's throat. It demanded every ounce of Xia Shou's concentration.

But as long as he focused completely, he could do it!

He decisively released Liu Guangyao from his arms and leaped aside. Even as he put distance between them, he continued using Blood Rampage to maintain the circulation in Liu Guangyao's body. It took a tremendous mental toll, but he could just about manage it.

"Is it in front of you?" Su Weiyu drew her sword and slashed at the space before Xia Shou, hitting nothing.

Then Liu Guangyao suddenly stopped struggling on the floor. His hand fell limply from his neck. At some point, a finger-sized wound had appeared in his temple, and blood mixed with thick white matter was bubbling from it.

"Damn it!" Xia Shou cursed.

That thing's attack on him had been a feint. Its real goal had been to kill Liu Guangyao!

The footsteps Liu Guangyao had heard in his dreams had actually belonged to an invisible person following him!

"Fuck you! You're dead!" Xia Shou reached toward Liu Guangyao, drawing both the pool of blood beneath him and the blood inside his still-warm corpse through the air.

The blood gathered into a ball in Xia Shou's palm.

He stretched it into a thin membrane and flung it outward in every direction!

Most of the blood fell to the floor after traveling a short distance, coating it in a thin film. But in one spot ahead of Xia Shou, the blood vanished into thin air!

Without exchanging a word, Su Weiyu understood Xia Shou's strategy and sprang into action.

She charged forward and slashed at the spot where the blood had disappeared. That was where the invisible person stood!

Yet her blade cut through empty air again. Then footprints appeared in the film of blood on the floor, moving away from Su Weiyu, seemingly trying to reach an area the blood had not covered.

"You can see me?!"

Shocked, Su Weiyu gave chase again. Wielding her greatsword in one hand, she unleashed three sweeping diagonal slashes from different angles at incredible speed, the blade almost blurring into afterimages!

The next instant, a torrent of blood burst from the empty air. A human outline gradually turned from invisible to translucent, then fell with a thud.

"Got him."

Su Weiyu let out a breath of relief, inwardly thankful she had used [Boy Cutter]'s power. Otherwise, the fight might have dragged on, which would have put her at a severe disadvantage against an enemy who could see her.

The fight had ended in the blink of an eye. Before the fallen enemy's body could even touch the floor, it dissolved into black ash in midair, and a key dropped from the ashes.

Xia Shou stepped forward to pick up the key, but his vision rapidly darkened.

Within just a few seconds, he could see nothing but black, as though he had gone blind.

"Xia Shou, why did it suddenly go dark?!" Wang Long cried uneasily beside him.

Apparently, he was not the only one who had gone blind.