Su Chen drove toward the far end of the village.
It was close to the hill behind the village.
That was where the village graves lay, the second site of abnormal changes besides the banyan tree.
"Su Chen!"
As Su Chen passed, he heard someone calling his name.
By the roadside.
There was a classmate.
He was calling out to him.
He seemed delighted.
A classmate?
Su Chen did not think he could run into a classmate here.
Besides.
He had always been practically invisible.
None of his classmates would truly care about or remember him.
"Big Brother!"
Then his younger sister appeared beside the road.
Su Xi was in the passenger seat, unconscious.
Naturally, Su Chen was unaffected.
He calmly drove past the hill behind the village.
As they passed,
the hill seemed to sense something, and white mist actually began to emerge.
An eerie presence was gradually awakening.
In the rearview mirror, Su Chen saw people stopping their cars and leaving the country road.
They entered the weeds and headed toward the hill.
Or else.
Someone jumped out of a vehicle and fell injured by the roadside.
Su Chen felt as though he were watching a wildlife documentary.
A herd of migrating herbivores had to cross a river full of crocodiles.
The unlucky ones.
Ended up in the crocodiles' bellies.
Except.
People had become animals, and crocodiles had become Weird Entities.
Everyone has their own fate!
Su Chen had no intention of saving anyone.
Who knew exactly what dangers lurked on that hill?
Su Chen realized something.
Not everyone could be like him.
The Intelligence System assessed danger based on his circumstances.
Those illusions, and even those phantom sounds, had no effect on him.
For some people, they might be fatal.
So.
I'm not that weak!
Of course, it was also possible he simply had not encountered a Weird Entity that targeted him.
"Woof, woof, woof!"
Suddenly, Su Chen heard barking.
It was Black Dog, whom Old Yang had told them to bring along, left aboard the truck.
Black Dog's barking helped quite a few people break free of the illusions.
Some who had fallen behind actually began catching up.
Of course.
The white mist was growing thicker.
Elsewhere.
At the village entrance.
At Fan Hui's urging, Gao Yue had decided to turn back and arrived here.
Bang!
The car ahead suddenly burst apart.
Flesh and blood scattered everywhere.
The person inside had turned straight into a tree, forcing it apart.
The car's fragments were also corroded in an instant.
As though they had been abandoned for a long time.
The banyan tree at the village entrance seemed to have grown considerably larger, with many aerial roots hanging from its branches.
They resembled rows of fencing, blocking the road.
The country road was blocked in an instant.
Where was the road out of the village now?
There was only a grove of trees.
The crucial thing was that the grove had not been visible a moment ago, as though it had only just appeared before them.
Bang!
Another car crashed into a tree.
Once the car overturned, roots immediately coiled around it.
The entire grove seemed to come alive, all its trees moving in unison.
They were as agile as snakes.
Even those who survived inside the cars began to age once the roots wrapped around them.
They could barely struggle.
Rootlets and branches immediately sprouted from that person's body.
"Hhrr, hhrr, hhrr!"
Their voice also grew hoarse.
"Turn around, quick!"
Seeing the scene before her, Fan Hui immediately cried out.
There was absolutely no getting through the village entrance.
Damn it!
No wonder Su Chen didn't come this way. Maybe he knew all along.
Bastard!
Once again, Fan Hui selectively forgot that no one had made her choose this route.
Gao Yue reacted fairly quickly.
After Fan Hui's warning, she immediately turned the car around.
Luckily, their car was at the very back, making it the easiest to escape.
Of course, quite a few trees behind them also began moving.
They turned into Tree People.
Some of the Tree People were clearly dead people.
The Tree People were mangled, their bodies half flesh and blood, half roots.
The Tree People began giving chase.
The Tree People were not slow.
They would stand still, bend both legs, and leap a considerable distance.
This peculiar way of traveling almost allowed them to keep up with the car.
Bang!
One of the Tree People even slammed onto the roof.
A decayed, aged face pressed against the windshield.
Countless writhing tendrils.
The tendrils, bearing flesh and blood, probed across the windshield.
"Ah!"
Startled, Gao Yue instinctively slammed on the brakes.
By sheer coincidence.
The Tree Person was actually flung off.
Gao Yue hit the accelerator again, speeding away.
The car actually escaped.
It kept some distance from the Tree People the whole time.
Gao Yue no longer had the slightest desire to go her own way and began heading after Su Chen.
A few minutes later.
Gao Yue passed near Old Yang's house.
Suddenly,
she spotted a familiar figure.
Old Yang!
Gao Yue took another look.
Old Yang was actually stained with blood.
"Hah!"
Holding an axe, Old Yang swung it down at the person before him.
Murder?
He's gone mad!
And that was not all.
Old Yang actually splashed oil over someone and tossed a match onto them.
That person caught fire.
However, as that person struggled in pain, branches also began sprouting from their body.
That wasn't a person!
That was a Tree Person!
Gao Yue's hurried glance nearly made her lose control of the car and drive off the road.
"Could you pay attention to your driving?"
Fan Hui snapped at Gao Yue.
After speaking, she even grabbed the steering wheel and shifted it a little.
Gao Yue immediately came to her senses, took control of the wheel, and continued speeding along the country road.
Old Yang glanced toward the roadside and saw the two women.
They actually came back?
Such good luck!
The person before him was precisely the Tree Person Su Chen had mentioned before leaving.
Old Yang knew the villagers well and had already grown suspicious.
After all, he had witnessed another scene last night.
Some "people" had headed toward the village entrance, which was, in a sense, a lure.
Unfortunately, some people simply would not listen to warnings.
To avoid alerting the enemy, he could only watch those people go to their deaths.
Behind them.
Several more Tree People came chasing after them.
Old Yang watched those "people" approach, along with the tree burning beside him.
He poured the gasoline beside him onto the road.
As the Tree People drew near, they immediately charged at Old Yang.
Old Yang lit a cigarette and held it between his teeth.
A plastic bag containing a mixture of incense ash and black dog blood also struck the Tree People.
That stopped the Tree People in their tracks.
Then the cigarette butt landed in the gasoline on the road.
In an instant.
A blaze erupted across the road, the flames blocking it off.
Several Tree People began struggling in the flames.
Old Yang panted heavily, propping himself up with his axe.
He was exhausted!
Fortunately, those few Tree People were not very mobile.
Otherwise, he might not have been a match for them.
In the east.
A red sun suddenly appeared.
The sun had risen!
Old Yang turned, his eyes moist as he gazed at the red sun.
"My old comrades."
"Yang Ling of the 362nd Regiment, 121st Division, 41st Army will stand guard over Banyan Tree Village and yield not an inch!"
Old Yang set down his axe and gave a military salute to the rising sun in the east.
He had never mentioned that he was actually a veteran of the Vietnam War.
After leaving the military for civilian work.
He had stayed in the village, slaughtering pigs.
He knew full well that with trouble at both the entrance and the far end, the village was dead.
Like a dead group in Go.
But people were not game pieces.
Old Yang intended to guard Banyan Tree Village alone, waiting for the others to arrive.
Or rather.
For Su Chen and the others to return.
They surely would!
Old Yang looked north.
He had always felt that Su Chen and his own son were not fleeing.
They were on a Long March.
And the Long March would surely end in victory!
He, the village's last guardian, waited for victory to come...
Before you continue