The same rocks, the same paths, the same scenery, but without the scattered corpses. Seeing this surreal scene, a chill ran down Lin Feng’s spine, and a foreboding feeling grew stronger. Behind him, it felt as if a pair of eyes was watching him in the shadows. Lin Feng turned around abruptly, but behind him was just as serene, without a hint of the aftermath of a massacre. Yet, this very outcome made Lin Feng’s heart race with fear. However, Zhu Tingting and her companions did not harbor such concerns. After escaping from the cave and finding no one to threaten them menacingly for quite some time, and with the embrace of the fresh, natural surroundings, the harrowing experience of being trapped inside the cave seemed like an unreal dream, fading from their minds. Even the desperate cries of their dying companion before this incident had become so unreal in their memories, gradually dissipating like a wisp of smoke in the wind. Behind them, the young man dressed in tattered black clothes and wearing dark sunglasses, though his appearance was comical and somewhat endearing, was carrying an oversized blade on his shoulder, which seemed rather absurd. Did he think he was the leader of mountain bandits, ready to abduct a few wives for his stronghold? “Hey, handsome! Which one of us sisters caught your eye? If you’re going to make a move, do it quickly! Don’t dilly-dally, give us a straight answer, or we’ll leave!” Zhu Tingting, ever the bold one, even flirted back at the ‘blade-carrying’ young man. Lin Feng, startled by Zhu Tingting’s nonsensical chatter, suddenly remembered he had to take care of these five fools, but the thing that made his heart race was still lurking somewhere unknown. He snapped irritably, “Get lost, all of you, hurry up and get lost, or I’ll strip you naked, rape you, then kill you, and throw you into the mountain gorge to feed the wolves!” Zhu Tingting was about to retort with her usual sharpness, but Lin Feng, growing impatient, swung his large machete at the rock wall, sending sparks and stone chips flying everywhere. The group, now truly frightened, fearing Lin Feng might be an escaped lunatic, screamed and ran down the mountain path in a panic. “Damn! That’s not the way, come back! Don’t run aimlessly! Don’t scatter!” The five girls, like headless flies, ran wherever there was a path or space, ignoring everything else, scattering in all directions. Lin Feng had no choice but to herd them back like a novice shepherd trying to gather stray lambs. Despite all the commotion, the thing he feared did not appear. Lin Feng grew impatient, thinking that if they kept this up, before the enemy even made a move, he’d be too exhausted to fight back. This approach was unsustainable. He herded his ‘loot’ forward for a while, having moved far from the earlier bloody scene, still no sign of the feared entity, but soon they should meet up with Wang Xiaoyun. Lin Feng tried to recall every detail of what had happened, subconsciously touching his injured back, only to find, to his surprise, that the gaping wound seemed to have vanished. He lifted his tattered shirt in shock to confirm, feeling around for a long time, but the wound was indeed gone. He checked other parts of his body, and all the injuries he had sustained were miraculously healed. He even pulled down his mask to find his nose injury had also healed. He frantically felt all over his body, thinking, could all this be an illusion? Had he never been injured, and was there no terrifying old witch? Were the people he had shot and killed merely figments of his imagination, part of an elaborate trap set for him from the start? Just like the time he killed seven people in anger, was it all part of someone else’s scheme? Otherwise, why did the bodies of those monsters disappear mysteriously after each killing? Could it be that their bodies were like in video games, disappearing after a while to be respawned by the system? This would suggest another possibility: those ‘monsters’ he had killed might reappear after some time. Lin Feng subconsciously resisted this thought, a sense of inexplicable fear enveloping him. He feared that if he truly believed killing was just like slaying monsters in a game, he might become addicted to this thrill of killing. Every time he killed, it felt like his blood was on fire, an inexplicable excitement stirring within. Lin Feng was afraid that once this frenzied killing instinct was fully ignited, he would lose himself, becoming a soulless killing machine. He feared this might be why he was so fortunate to possess a divine artifact like Niuniu. The injuries, the old witch, the killings, and even the girls’ actions under control were all false. Even his act of saving them might be an illusion. If not, why did these five girls, in just a moment, snap out of their hysteria and now look at him so strangely? Where exactly was the problem? What was wrong with him? Could it be… Niuniu inside him was causing mischief again? The more Lin Feng thought about it, the more confused and uneasy he felt. Did he really kill anyone? Did he really save anyone? What was he… Suddenly, a sharp “tsk” echoed in his mind, shaking his consciousness. Deep within his sea of consciousness, it seemed a transparent mirror shattered with that angry shout. Lin Feng’s mind suddenly cleared, and when he looked around, he noticed many unusual things. The mountain was the same, the trees were the same, but the air was thick with a nauseating smell of blood, unmistakable. Looking at the five girls he was ‘escorting’, they were far from calm or composed; their faces and bodies were clearly marked with terror, panic, and a plea for help. At that moment, a series of crisp laughs came from the forest: “I didn’t expect you, at such a young age, to have some skill!” Lightly clad in flowing robes, with a veil covering her face, a graceful figure approached with the sound of laughter. Her form was still indistinct, moving as if her feet did not touch the ground, truly bizarre. Finally, the opponent he had been worrying about appeared. “Old witch, you’ve finally shown yourself!” The machete was gripped tightly in his hand. When the imagined figure finally appeared before him, Lin Feng calmed down instead of feeling the previous anxiety. Before the opponent could act, he had already been clouded by an invisible fear and oppression. “What did you call me?” “Hmph! Old witch, stop pretending to be mysterious; you can’t scare me!” “If I wanted to kill you, you would have died a hundred times over!” The old witch still had her face veiled in white gauze, floating lightly on a branch of a large tree ahead, as if merging with the trunk, three feet above the ground, her presence almost ethereal. Her voice was cold and gave an illusion of being superior and elusive. Although her words carried a threat, her voice was oddly seductive, making one’s heart flutter. She looked at Lin Feng quietly, showing no intention of making the next move.
Lin Feng knew her words were true. With her astonishing skills demonstrated in the secret chamber, he had not even discerned how she had concealed her movements during their journey. Indeed, she had the right to boast. “Don’t run around! Come behind me, quickly!” Zhu Tingting and the others, upon seeing a strange woman blocking their path and trying to bypass her, were immediately halted by Lin Feng’s intervention. “These useless ones, what are they here for? If you want to leave, then leave!” “Really? You must not go back on your word! You said you wouldn’t kill them.” Hearing that the opponent had no intention of harming Zhu Tingting and her companions, Lin Feng was overjoyed and quickly seized the opportunity to challenge her words. Whether true or not, he would hold on to this promise before considering other matters.
