Shadow Weird

Qian Lei took the lead, riding toward the front of the convoy.

His supernatural ability could boost the speed of two-wheeled vehicles. Any motorized two-wheeler he rode would be no slower than a car.

Chen Fan's van followed behind him. A sport scooter and a van led the way.

That was a show of sincerity, too.

They had come to join forces with the man in glasses, but they were also hoping to take advantage of his convoy.

After all, his convoy had a large group of survivors.

By taking the lead and scouting the road, Chen Fan and the others were making up for it somewhat, at least as a matter of principle.

Only then did the man in glasses' convoy follow behind Chen Fan and the others in a long procession.

Because they had to consider the slower survivors at the rear, the convoy as a whole wasn't moving very fast.

For now, they only sensed danger approaching. With the convoy underway and on the move, they were already avoiding it.

Unless they received a stronger warning, there was no need to speed up too much.

It still wasn't light out, and they were traveling in the dark.

Every vehicle in the convoy had its headlights on, beams of white light piercing the darkness.

Traveling in the dark was unwise, but with danger approaching, they had no choice.

They might not encounter danger on the road, but if they stayed where they were, danger would surely catch up. They could only choose the lesser of two evils.

After an hour of traveling through the night, the convoy remained safe and sound.

For a while, even Chen Fan wondered whether they had already shaken off the approaching danger.

But what Qian Lei told him was less than reassuring.

"I feel like the risk of 'going overtime' is gradually turning into the risk of a 'fine.' The danger may already be very close to us..."

Chen Fan's heart sank.

In the man in glasses' convoy behind them, a man named Zhang Dazhuang was driving a Mustang sports car in the middle of the convoy.

The headlights lit up the road ahead as the convoy traveled along in silence.

Zhang Dazhuang was getting sleepy.

The leaders had said something about danger and made them travel through the night.

But they had been on the road for an hour now, and nothing had happened.

As he saw it, the leaders were just making everyone suffer.

They wouldn't let them sleep in the middle of the night. It was infuriating.

In the headlights, a tall, thin, pitch-black figure stood motionless by the side of the road ahead to the left.

The car quickly drove past it.

Zhang Dazhuang jolted.

His drowsiness vanished in an instant.

"Holy crap, my eyes must be playing tricks on me, right?"

The next moment, a tall, thin black figure suddenly appeared in the middle of the road ahead of him.

Terrified out of his wits, Zhang Dazhuang tried to brake, but it was too late. He slammed straight into it.

The figure wasn't knocked away. Instead, it passed straight through the car and came face-to-face with Zhang Dazhuang.

The figure suddenly opened a hideous mouth, revealing terrifying pitch-black fangs.

"Aah-!!"

A scream rang out through the convoy.

At the front of the convoy, among the lead vehicles.

Inside a white BM, a hooded woman in blue held a crystal ball and murmured under her breath.

"It's here..."

In an SUV a little farther ahead, the man in glasses wore a calm expression.

He took a red gourd from his belt and uncapped it. There was liquid inside.

After taking a sip, he put the red gourd back, took down an orange gourd, and drank from it as well.

Inside Chen Fan's delivery van, Qian Lei's voice came over the walkie-talkie.

"I can sense that the 'fine' has started, Captain! It's all around us!"

Chen Fan waved his hand, and dozens of insect souls flew out of the Ten Thousand Souls Banner and began circling the convoy.

The insect souls weren't powerful, but there were plenty of them, making them ideal for scouting.

In the convoy behind them, a tall, thin black figure abruptly appeared in the middle of the convoy, right in front of a car.

It was a Bao-brand electric off-road vehicle with solar panels installed on its roof.

Two girls sat inside. The sword-bearing girl Chen Fan had met sat in the passenger seat.

The driver was also a girl, presumably the chauffeur.

When the tall, thin figure suddenly appeared and blocked the road, the girl at the wheel screamed in fright.

The figure looked bizarre. Its entire body resembled a shadow, and beneath it were four thin, shadowy limbs like spider legs.

The four slender limbs connected to a tall, thin, twisted body that looked like a skinny bamboo pole. It had no arms, and above it was an enormous head, nearly two-thirds of which was taken up by a hideous mouth.

A pair of small, hollow eyes sat above its hideous maw, and three curved spikes formed from shadow grew from the back of its head.

The thing was pitch-black all over and blended into the night. Without the headlights shining on it, it would have been impossible to spot.

Inside the vehicle, the sword-bearing girl in the passenger seat cursed under her breath.

"A Shadow Weird. What a pain."

She kicked the door open, leaped onto the roof, and drew the first crimson sword from her back.

The sword was crimson from end to end and bore flame patterns.

Holding the crimson sword, the sword-bearing girl shouted.

"Crimson Flame Whirlwind!"

She swung the crimson sword, trailing the light of real flames, and slashed at the black figure.

The figure couldn't dodge in time. The crimson sword struck it, cutting it in two.

Specks of shadowy light scattered, and the Shadow Weird vanished from where it stood.

But the next moment, the Shadow Weird reappeared by the roadside, its surface noticeably dimmer.

The sword-bearing girl looked over, her expression grim.

Shadow Weirds were a pain. Her strike had only managed to injure it, not kill it...

Meanwhile, screams continued to ring out through the convoy.

Clearly, there was more than one Shadow Weird.

Shadow Weirds killed by attacking the soul directly.

Many of those attacked by Shadow Weirds suffered mental derangement in the milder cases, going mad on the spot.

In the worst cases, their souls were devoured outright, and they died on the spot.

There were also several people like Zhang Dazhuang, whose souls were devoured while they were driving, causing their vehicles to go out of control and crash.

For a time, the convoy fell into chaos.

Shadow Weirds could move directly through darkness, appearing and disappearing.

As a result, people were dying everywhere in the convoy, from front to back, and screams rang out on all sides.

Without a way to counter it, a single Shadow Weird could often wipe out an entire convoy.

Chen Fan released a large number of souls and managed to find traces of another Shadow Weird in the convoy.

The flying insect souls immediately swarmed toward it.

A single flying insect soul might not have been able to do anything to a Shadow Weird, but against dozens at once, the Shadow Weird was no match for them.

Besides, Chen Fan had already sent Lao Mo's soul over.

Just as the Shadow Weird appeared and tried to devour a survivor, dozens of flying insect souls closed in around it.

The survivor it had targeted saw both the attacking Shadow Weird and the billowing souls floating about, and was already scared senseless.

The man in glasses and the panda man had also gotten out of their vehicle. They had planned to find and deal with the Shadow Weirds, but instead saw a large number of insects trailing billowing black qi.

Startled, they thought another new Weird had appeared and braced themselves for a formidable enemy.

Then they saw the soul of a man in sunglasses fly overhead.

They grew even more bewildered and suspicious.

"Please don't be alarmed, you two. This is merely a little trick of mine."

As the voice sounded, Chen Fan approached slowly with his hands clasped behind his back and the enormous Ten Thousand Souls Banner floating above his head.

Li Yuanyuan followed behind him.

Seeing that it was Chen Fan and his companion, the two breathed a sigh of relief.

"Brother, is this your supernatural ability?"

He looked at the Ten Thousand Souls Banner above Chen Fan's head, billowing with yin qi.

Unable to contain his curiosity, the man in glasses asked.

"Damn, brother, your supernatural ability is really weird. It's so creepy, and a little inauspicious."

The panda man scratched his head and complained in a muffled voice.

Chen Fan glanced at him. "Likewise. Your distinguished looks are something else, too."

Over there, dozens of flying insect souls surrounded the Shadow Weird and tore at it.

The Shadow Weird shed a multitude of shadowy specks of light. When it flashed into view on the other side, its body was already somewhat tattered.

Just then, Lao Mo's soul arrived and hurled a soul flying axe, splitting the Shadow Weird and killing it outright.

Elsewhere in the convoy, the sword-bearing girl faced the remaining Shadow Weird.

She slowly drew the second sword from her back. Its blade was a deep blue, like ice that had endured for ten thousand years.

A crimson sword in one hand, a blue sword in the other.

The girl charged fiercely at the Shadow Weird.