Yu Yan brought the tea over. Yang Yong took a bowl, had a sip, and set it down.
For the past two weeks, all he had eaten was corn-boiled, roasted, stir-fried, or made into porridge. Now, just smelling corn made acid rise in his stomach.
"Two things." Cao Xianming raised two fingers, then lowered one. "First, Zhang Weifeng's death. We can now be certain... something got in."
"It wasn't Eerie. At least, it wasn't anything the formation could detect."
"It killed someone, drank his blood, and took his body."
"Fifteen days without any activity doesn't mean it's gone."
He raised his second finger.
"Second, Wan Qi has contacted three convoys nearby."
Everyone looked at Wan Qi.
The man who had once stammered whenever he spoke stood up now, his voice considerably steadier.
But Yang Yong watched his fingers...
All ten were twisted together, his knuckles white, exactly as they had been two weeks earlier.
"Three convoys, about twenty people each."
"Northwest, due north, and northeast. All three are heading toward us at the same time."
Wan Qi paused. "When I contacted them today, all three convoys were fighting."
"At the same time?" The chalk in Cao Xianming's hand stopped in midair.
"At the same time." Wan Qi nodded. "Three directions, almost exactly the same moment."
"The last words from all of them were 'Something's got its sights on us,' followed by sounds of fighting."
"The leader of the northwest convoy got half a sentence out..."
"'They don't seem to be chasing us,'" Cao Xianming finished.
Wan Qi jerked his head up. "How... how did you know?"
"You told us. You just said it."
Cao Xianming drew three arrows on the Data Model, converging on a single point.
"Three convoys, none of them acquainted, all targeted at the same time, all