Lured into a death trap

Lin Hao put down his teacup, his tone flat. "I have other things to do. It's not on my way."

"You're really going to turn me down like that, Lin Hao?"

Seeing this, Xia Zhi simply stood up and sat beside Lin Hao, pressing her shoulder against his arm. She leaned toward his ear and lowered her voice. "Then... how about taking me home? That hothead A Chao knows nothing except spending money. He's nowhere near as charming as you. He can't give me what I want, but you can."

Lin Hao pressed a hand against her shoulder and pushed her away, then shifted to the side to put some distance between them.

The smile vanished from his face completely, and his voice turned icy. "Jiang Chao is my brother. Since you're dating him, you should know what you can and can't do."

The smiles on Xia Zhi's and Su Xiaoran's faces immediately turned cold.

Contempt crossed Xia Zhi's face as she sneered. "Why pretend to be a gentleman? A penniless brat who can't even make use of a chance when it's handed to him."

Just then, Jiang Chao returned, an easy smile back on his face.

He picked up the bill, scanned the code to pay, then draped an arm over Lin Hao's shoulders and gave him a pat. "Haozi, stay safe on your way home. I'll take Zhizhi and Xiaoran home first."

As though nothing had happened, Xia Zhi and Su Xiaoran put their sweet smiles back on and waved at Lin Hao. "Bye, Lin Hao! Let's eat together again next time."

With a somber expression, Lin Hao nodded. Watching the three leave, he sighed, then turned and headed home himself.

The night wind carried the chill of the riverside against Lin Hao's face.

His steps grew slower and slower.

His phone screen remained on his chat with Jiang Chao.

He typed a few lines, then deleted them, repeating this several times.

He really didn't know how best to say these things.

Just then, hurried footsteps sounded behind him, along with a panicked, tearful voice.

Lin Hao turned to look. To his surprise, it was Xia Zhi.

Her hair was largely disheveled, a large tear ripped through the hem of her dress, and tear tracks covered her face.

She rushed over in a panic and grabbed Lin Hao's arm, her voice trembling uncontrollably. "L-Lin Hao! Something terrible happened! A Chao... he's in trouble!

"We'd just reached the alley up ahead when suddenly... suddenly a mimic beast jumped out. A Chao held it back and told me to run. That's how I got away. You... hurry and save him!"

Lin Hao's heart tightened. He asked gravely, "Did you call the Martial Arts Bureau to report it?"

Xia Zhi's expression visibly stiffened.

But she quickly shook her head repeatedly, as though she had only just realized it. "I... I was in such a hurry to escape that I completely forgot! I... I'll call right now!"

She fumbled for her phone and dialed.

Lin Hao watched her screen, watching her connect to the Martial Arts Bureau's number.

Soon, the voice of an operator from the district Martial Arts Bureau branch came through the phone.

After confirming the address Xia Zhi gave, the operator said they would immediately dispatch nearby branch martial artists.

In the meantime, they were absolutely not to act rashly.

While Xia Zhi was on the phone, Lin Hao quietly took out his own phone and called Jiang Chao three times. None of the calls connected.

Xia Zhi hung up and grabbed Lin Hao's arm again, crying even more urgently. "Lin Hao, we can't! Who knows how long it'll take the branch martial artists to get here? A Chao can't hold out that long! Let's go there first. If we're late, it'll really be too late!"

Lin Hao stared at her face, a cold sneer flickering at the corner of his mouth.

He paused for a moment, shook off her hand, and said gravely, "Fine. Lead the way."

A flash of delight passed through Xia Zhi's eyes. She immediately turned and led him at a run toward the old town.

The two wound through turn after turn along the way, finally stopping in an alley without streetlights.

Abandoned old buildings lined both sides of the alley. There wasn't a single human voice, only the wind's low howl as it passed through.

Xia Zhi abruptly stopped and turned around. The panic and helplessness on her face had vanished without a trace, leaving only a sinister smile.

She raised her hand toward Lin Hao and flicked it hard. Several silvery strands of spider silk sliced through the air, shooting straight for his face and limbs.

There was no sign of panic on Lin Hao's face.

He shifted his footing, his figure swaying as he used the sliding step from the Mountain-Subduing Basic Fist.

He positioned himself precisely in the gaps between the strands, and every attack skimmed past the edges of his clothes.

Xia Zhi's expression changed drastically, and she demanded sharply, "When did you notice something was wrong?"

Lin Hao's expression remained flat, his voice cold. "I'm not an idiot. If a beast really had cornered Jiang Chao, a normal person's first reaction would be to call on people nearby for help, not go several streets out of their way to find me.

"Besides, how could you possibly know my route home? If you found me this quickly, what else could it mean except that you'd been following me beforehand?"

He took a step forward and mocked, "Following a human in the middle of the night, then leading him into a deserted alley like this-who else do you think it could be, other than a mimic beast?"

The spider silk dangling from Xia Zhi's fingertips slowly retracted.

Her once-sweet skin and flesh shifted as though tugged by invisible hands.

The contours of her jaw tightened into the cold, hard texture of a carapace.

The corners of her eyes split open to her cheekbones, revealing the densely packed outlines of compound eyes within.

She let out a sneer, her voice stripped of all softness, leaving only a sinister chill. "So what if you figured it out? Those humans I killed never knew how they died, even at the very end. At least they got to be clueless ghosts. They even got to have a fling with me before dying. Wasn't that a pleasure?

"But you? Impervious to every approach, pretending to be some innocent romantic? You knew it was a dead end ahead, yet you still dared follow me in. Tell me, aren't you even stupider than they were?"

Lin Hao looked at Xia Zhi's bizarre appearance, his expression icy but utterly unafraid, and asked, "Where is Jiang Chao?"

"Oh my, what deep brotherly affection."

Xia Zhi laughed until her shoulders shook. The tip of her tongue swept across the corner of her mouth, leaving a streak of faintly blue mucus. "Relax. That fool is still alive and well. He's probably home already. Originally, no man who fell into my hands ever lived longer than three days.

"But I've changed my mind this time. He's quite rich and can buy me those medicinal meals that replenish qi and blood. Much less trouble than going out hunting myself.

"But it's been so many days since I tasted human blood. I'm really not used to it. I'll just have to feast on your body first."

"You think you can?" Lin Hao said contemptuously. "Mimic beasts only have around 1.2 qi and blood. You can only kill people by relying on underhanded tricks like these."

Those words were like a sharp knife stabbing Xia Zhi's sore spot.

The smile faded from her face, and an inhuman hiss rose from her throat. "What's wrong with 1.2 qi and blood? It's more than enough to deal with a brat like you who's still wet behind the ears!

"Besides, I can unleash combat power twice my qi and blood-a full 2.4! That's what you humans call a martial arts genius!"

Before her words had faded, more than a dozen strands of spider silk suddenly shot through the air with piercing shrieks, heading straight for Lin Hao's face, limbs, and vulnerable joints.