The Slit-Mouthed Woman

Huiwanjia Supermarket.

A two-story concrete monster crouched at the edge of town, like a giant beast lying dormant.

A faded sign, glass doors shattered to bits, and utter darkness inside, where not even the wind could enter.

The convoy arrived at ten in the morning.

The sun hung high, its light dazzling.

Yet the entire street was so quiet they could hear the sound of blood flowing backward.

No birds, no insects, no living things.

Only deathly silence.

"Half an hour, same as before."

The assistant's voice was tight. "High-calorie food, medicine, batteries, lighters. Take those first."

"No going alone, no getting greedy, no running around."

He paused, lowering his voice further, as though delivering his last words:

"If anything happens, don't scream, don't shout, don't look back."

"Your only chance of survival is in the sunlight."

Zheng Xiaofeng wasn't making a racket as he usually did.

He stood before the shattered doors, the Stone Armor patterns on his arms flickering, every muscle in his body tensed to the point of bursting.

A few seconds later, he looked back at Old Cao and gave a single nod.

"The entrance... is safe for now."

The words "for now" weighed heavily on them.

The crowd filed inside.

Yang Yong and Li Zhi were paired up again, one on the left and one on the right, like two wary feral dogs.

They headed straight behind the fresh food section-to the storeroom, where the supplies that could truly save their lives were.

The moment they stepped inside the Shopping Mall, the sunlight was swallowed up.

Darkness rose like water, enveloping their bodies.

The air smelled of mold, rot, and dust, mingled with a faint trace of... perfume.

An eerie perfume scent.

Shelves lay tilted and toppled, and merchandise crunched beneath their feet. Every step felt like stepping on a land mine.

Yang Yong switched on his flashlight. The beam was pitifully weak, swallowed by the darkness almost as soon as it shone out.

People were everywhere.

Some frantically grabbed compressed biscuits, some stuffed chocolate into their clothes, and some clutched medicine, trembling.

Everyone was fighting for their lives.

Because they all knew-a moment too slow meant death.

"Quick, the storeroom," Yang Yong whispered.

The farther they went down the aisle, the darker and colder it became.

Their heartbeats were piercingly clear.

Just then-

An extremely faint, soft, sinister sigh drifted over.

"..."

It sounded neither like wind nor like a person.

It sounded squeezed through a narrow gap in a throat.

Yang Yong froze instantly, his hair standing on end from his feet to his scalp.

Li Zhi's face went deathly pale. "Did you hear that...?"

Yang Yong didn't answer. He only mouthed:

Get the supplies, then leave immediately.

The storeroom door stood ajar.

They pushed it open to find a room full of dried goods, canned food, cured sausages, compressed biscuits-

All of it was hope for survival.

And the deadliest trap.

The two stuffed their backpacks like madmen.

Their hands shook, their hearts trembled, and every second they felt someone watching them from behind.

Just as Yang Yong stuffed in the last pack of cured sausages-

The voice came again.

This time, it was so close it seemed to breathe into his ear.

A woman's voice, soft and sickly sweet, yet bone-chillingly cold:

"Where... are... you...?"

Yang Yong's heart stopped.

He slapped off the flashlight, clamped his hand over Li Zhi's mouth, and both dropped into a gap between boxes.

Their breathing stopped.

Their blood froze.

The next second, the voice drifted over again, mere inches away.

"Where are you...?"

"Where are you...?"

The voice echoed throughout the Shopping Mall, everywhere at once.

An utterly stifled gasp came from outside.

Then came a clatter of footsteps.

Then the dull thud of something heavy hitting the floor.

Then-

Utter, deathly silence.

Everyone had hidden.

Those who couldn't were already gone.

Yang Yong peered out through the gap.

A red figure drifted slowly through the aisle.

She wasn't walking. She was floating.

Her feet never touched the floor, her red clothes trailed along the ground, and long hair covered her face.

The instant her profile came into view, Yang Yong was scared out of his wits.

Her mouth-from its corners, the split stretched all the way to her ears, then to the back of her neck.

The wound was pitch-black, the flesh curled outward.

That split mouth was still moving softly:

"Where are you...?"

It was the Slit-Mouthed Woman.

An Eerie that, according to legend, forced anyone she set her sights on to answer whether she was beautiful.

Answer correctly, and she tore your mouth apart.

Answer incorrectly, and she tore you to pieces.

But today, she couldn't even be bothered to ask.

She was simply-hunting.

The footsteps receded.

Yang Yong had barely begun to breathe in relief when his body stiffened.

Li Zhi was shaking.

Shaking violently.

The sound of his chattering teeth rang like a gong in the deathly silence.

Even more terrifying-

His trouser cuff had caught on a nail, and an aluminum can lay trapped beneath his foot.

One movement would expose them.

"Don't move," Yang Yong hissed in a breath.

But it was already too late.

Li Zhi panicked and tugged desperately at his trouser cuff.

His toe slipped-

Clatter-

The can rolled.

The sound wasn't loud.

Yet it was like a bell pronouncing a death sentence.

The red figure drifting outside stopped abruptly.

The deathly silence lasted three seconds.

Then the voice came from right against the storeroom door, gentle enough to drive them mad:

"Found... you..."

The red figure crashed through the doorway.

The Slit-Mouthed Woman stood right there.

Pitch-black eyes with no whites, and a mouth split to her ears that curved upward-

She was smiling.

"Help... mmph-"

Li Zhi cut off his own cry for help.

Sharp nails extended from her sleeves, ten centimeters long and gleaming coldly, aimed at Li Zhi's throat.

Physical attacks were useless.

Running-it was too late.

Hiding-they had already been found.

Despair swallowed everything like the earth splitting open.

Yang Yong tightened his grip on the crowbar, only one crazed thought in his mind:

Even if I die, I'm taking her down with me!

Just as the nails were about to pierce his throat-

Clang-!!!

White light burst.

The metallic impact made their eardrums ache.

Sister Ying had appeared at the storeroom entrance at some point, her long blade held across to forcibly block that sharp claw.

Dark red patterns lit up along the blade, like flowing blood.

"Go!"

One word, cold as a blade's edge.

Practically dragging Li Zhi, Yang Yong scrambled out of the storeroom.

The instant they returned to the main shelving area, both went cold all over and froze in place.

Everyone was there.

Yet they all looked as though they were already dead.

Under shelves, behind counters, beneath checkout counters... people lay prone everywhere.

Every one of them covered their mouths, heads buried, bodies trembling, not even daring to breathe heavily.

Make the slightest sound, and they would become the next target.

Zheng Xiaofeng huddled behind a collapsed shelf, his Stone Armor fully activated, like a stone statue on the verge of shattering.

He didn't dare move.

Even a Transcendent didn't dare.

Deep in the aisle, Sister Ying's flashing blade clashed repeatedly with the Slit-Mouthed Woman's sharp claws.

Every piercing metallic clang struck at the line between life and death.

Sister Ying was retreating.

Step by step, she was being forced into a corner.

"Sunlight... there's sunlight at the entrance..." Li Zhi murmured, trembling.

Twenty meters away, the Shopping Mall doors stood wide open.

Sunlight spread across the floor, golden, warm, safe.

That was the only way to survive.

But whoever stood first, whoever ran first-

Would die first.

Time tortured them second by second.

In the darkness, the Slit-Mouthed Woman's laughter drew closer and closer.

Soft, sweet, and utterly terrifying.

"Found... all of you..."

Everyone knew-

If they didn't leave now.

In just a few minutes.

This place would become a morgue, with every last one of them dead.

Yang Yong stared fixedly at that patch of sunlight.

His heart roared in his chest, and only one thought thundered through his mind:

I can't die here.

I have to run.

I have to survive-whatever it takes!