A silent world

Su Weiyu lay against Xia Shou's back, biting her lip, her skin flushed red from her neck to the tips of her ears.

She held her breath and adjusted her legs, crossing and hooking her feet together somewhere in front of him to secure herself.

Xia Shou felt as though a powerful python had coiled tightly around his waist. It left him with a very peculiar... indescribable feeling.

"This should be pretty secure, right? Will it interfere with your movements?" Su Weiyu asked.

Her warm, moist breath brushed his ear, making the atmosphere even stranger.

He had almost forgotten-the person on his back was a genuine beauty!

"Whew..." Xia Shou took a slow, deep breath and focused on their tactics.

This was no time to let his imagination run wild. He had to devote every bit of his brainpower to carrying out their plan!

Xia Shou reached out and cradled the firm, supple thighs around his waist, then squeezed the right one. "If I think the enemy is attacking from the right, I'll squeeze this leg. If it's the other side, I'll squeeze the other one."

"Got it!"

"Let's test it first. Can you feel this?"

"Yes... but you might have to run later, and you might squeeze harder without realizing it. That could send the wrong signal, so let's use a pinch instead. It's fine to pinch hard." Su Weiyu carefully revised their tactics.

"Like this?" Xia Shou pinched hard, and the python tightened its coils.

"Good. That's much easier to feel." Su Weiyu expressed her satisfaction and approval.

Then they fine-tuned a few more details. Only after making sure their movements and counterattacks would flow smoothly without a hitch did Xia Shou push open the door to the second floor.

Beyond the door lay darkness.

The sunlight behind them failed to illuminate even an inch past the threshold, as though it had been cut off the instant it entered.

Breathing heavily, Xia Shou stepped into the dark room. Of course, he already couldn't see anything, and this fight wouldn't require his vision at all. Yet the moment he entered, he still felt his already darkened field of vision grow a shade darker.

Click!

The door closed behind them on its own. Rather than continuing forward, Xia Shou took a step back and pressed his back against the wall beside the door to prevent an attack from behind. An injury to Su Weiyu would be much harder to deal with than one to him.

He had deliberately made his breathing so heavy, both to mask Su Weiyu's breathing on his back and to help the Ear Doctor pinpoint his location and launch the most accurate attack possible.

But the seconds ticked by, and no attack came. His arms had begun to ache slightly from supporting her thighs, but he dared not make any large movements to adjust his posture. The rustle of clothing might alert his opponent that he was carrying someone.

Xia Shou moved slowly along the wall, not daring to lift his feet. Instead, he slid his soles sideways inch by inch, testing whether the surrounding floor was level or held any dangerous traps.

With his sight gone, his other senses were amplified enormously. After the initial disorientation, somewhere around the five- or ten-minute mark, his hearing and sense of touch grew sharper.

He could feel the seams between the tiles through the soles of his shoes. Su Weiyu's once almost imperceptible breathing became excessively clear beside his ear. Even her heartbeat traveled through their tightly pressed clothing to his back, reaching him through vibrations... it was practically like hearing things.

Where was the attack? Why hadn't his opponent attacked yet?

The darkness and absolute silence were sheer torture. Time seemed to pass both quickly and slowly-or, more precisely, his brain could no longer clearly judge how much time had elapsed. His taut nerves began to slacken intermittently, and his mind even started to wander.

He couldn't keep his attention fixed on his senses. He began imagining what the enemy might be doing.

Perhaps, while they moved fearfully and cautiously, the Ear Doctor was sitting nearby, drinking cola and eating a burger, resting comfortably while he waited for their minds to gradually crumble.

Or perhaps the Ear Doctor was less than half a meter in front of them, walking in step with them, except his movements were on mute, producing no sound at all.

Did his opponent really have superhuman hearing?

Did the two of them look as ridiculous as a circus act to him right now?

The instant his attention wandered, a sudden, searing pain pierced Xia Shou's throat!

It felt like something sharp had plunged into his neck!

Instinctively, Xia Shou pinched both thighs around his waist hard. Then he heard a rush of air ahead.

That was the sound of Su Weiyu swinging her blade!

But she had hit nothing...

Su Weiyu remained completely still on his back, proving that this counterattack had failed.

And Xia Shou knew why.

If his opponent had attacked him with a weapon held in his hand, Xia Shou should have felt a sustained tugging and tearing at the wound when he was struck.

Yet the force of the strike that had pierced his neck had diminished rather than continued. There had been no sustained pressure at all.

There was only one explanation: his opponent had used a throwing knife to attack from a distance.

If he was using throwing knives, their tactics were useless. Their opponent wouldn't come near him, but would slowly wear him down with ranged attacks until he died!

Moreover, the fact that he could pinpoint Xia Shou's throat from a distance by sound alone was enough to prove that his hearing far surpassed an ordinary person's. Xia Shou and Su Weiyu's tandem tactics were nothing but a cheap trick to him. He had seen through them long ago.

This guy... had known there were two of them from the very beginning.

In that case, he could only resort to the other tactic.

Xia Shou activated Blood Rampage, manipulating the blood flowing from his wound into extremely fine threads suspended in the air. Then he spread those threads in every direction, extending them throughout the space like a spider weaving a hunting web.

This would let him sense the doctor's movements just as a spider sensed vibrations in its web.

It was another tactic he had thought of before entering, but it had severe limitations.

He wasn't a real spider, after all. Even if contact with the blood threads transmitted vibrations, his brain would still have to analyze that information to determine his opponent's exact location. If his opponent moved quickly, Xia Shou would struggle to pinpoint him.

Even if he did pinpoint his location, the Ear Doctor would surely evade them while they ran over, because he could easily hear their running footsteps.

Xia Shou took his hands off Su Weiyu's thighs. Blood gathered into needle points at his fingertips, and he inserted his fingers into his ears, puncturing both eardrums and deliberately making him-

self deaf.

Since he couldn't hear anything anyway, he might as well sharpen his remaining senses even further.

He only needed to touch him once... just once would do.