Chapter 366: Save Me!

Seeing the fog surround them from all sides, gradually closing in, they were like people trapped in a snare meticulously laid by a hunter, unable to escape; the five youths looked at the sudden, bizarre phenomena around them, at a loss for what to do.

At this very moment, the only bright thing in the distant scenery was the Blood Moon in the sky, but that moon did not point the way to an exit; it was the eye of the "Cruel Hunter," looking like it was watching rabbits fallen into a trap, crickets unable to escape a jar, mocking and cold.

Suotou and Yumi, this pair of cowardly brothers, were the first unable to withstand such terror; they roared and screamed like they had lost their minds, fleeing in the direction of the Old Crow House gate.

Seeing this scene, Sanmao also collapsed and fled afterward.

Shougou was panicked, but he had not yet lost his reason, shouting a curse from behind: "You bunch of stinking idiots, why are you only looking out for yourselves? If we're going to run, we run together!"

After shouting, he also set off to run, but his heels had barely lifted before he pulled them back; he turned back to grab Wei Chengye's arm, taking him along to run, catching up to Sanmao who was running in front.

After running a few steps, Wei Chengye also came to his senses and ran along with Shougou; he very much wanted to break free from the hand that Shougou was gripping so tightly it hurt his wrist, but seeing the extent to which the other's shoulders were trembling, he knew Shougou was afraid, so he had to relax and let Shougou pull him.

"Wuaa!"

"Ah! What is that!"

While running, Wei Chengye suddenly heard two miserable screams from Suotou and Yumi coming from somewhere nearby, from a direction where he couldn't distinguish east, west, north, or south, followed by a low, strange laugh that made one's bones shiver; the tone of the laughter emitted the timbre of the crow he had heard before—it seemed that the evil, strange bird hidden in the fog was letting out a malicious, treacherous laugh.

Sanmao, running in front, also heard the ominous, tragic cries of Suotou and Yumi; terrified, he stood rooted to the spot, shouting their names.

"Suotou! Yumi! Where are you? What happened to you?" Sanmao's frantic roars did not receive a response from the two; their life activities seemed to have merged into this fog filled with gloom and death. That suffocating feeling of being surrounded by danger pushed Sanmao's mental state to the peak of madness; hallucinations appeared in his mind, and he seemed to see his two good friends torn to pieces by a bird-like creature with a blurry form. Their tragic, miserable deaths were so shocking, and that gluttonous, treacherous monster was not yet satisfied; it had quickly hollowed out and eaten their flesh and internal organs, and that wasn't enough—it had also set its sights on the remaining people.

It's here! It's coming!

It wants to kill me!

Kill us!

Sanmao's eyes were filled with terror, his face ferocious, staring dead at a certain direction in the fog; although he could no longer distinguish the source of the strange crow calls around him, he seemed to have foreseen the date of his own death and the direction from which the danger was coming.

"No!" Just as Wei Chengye and Shougou were about to catch up to Sanmao, just as they had seen his back—tensed up and roaring in shock and anger toward a certain direction—a high-speed black shadow that blasted a black hole into the fog flashed before their eyes; in the blink of an eye, it used its sharp claws to grab Sanmao, take him away, and disappear into the depths of the fog.

Wei Chengye and Shougou could only hear Sanmao's screams, but their feet were too terrified to move a single step; their outstretched arms could not grasp the life that had already passed.

Shougou lost all his strength, kneeling on the ground in despair, then collapsed onto the ground clutching his head. "Ho... how could it be like this... how could it be like this? It shouldn't be like this. Why did it turn out like this... I shouldn't have brought them here. The adults all said it; one cannot come near here, it is very dangerous..." He repeated his muttering over and over; the light of humanity in his eyes was slowly disappearing, gradually replaced by chaotic madness, and his eyes reflected only the Blood Moon that he could only see when he looked up.

"Shougou, pull yourself together! This all has nothing to do with you, it's not your fault. Get up quickly, let's run together!" Wei Chengye listened to the crow calls getting closer and closer; he was afraid but had not lost his reason or conscience, shaking Shougou's shoulders to make him pull himself together.

However, when he saw clearly the look in Shougou's eyes—thoroughly morbid and possessed—he saw only the final madness before falling into the abyss of ultimate despair.

Shougou suddenly wore a ruthless expression, stood up, and with a gnashing of teeth, kicked the caught-off-guard Wei Chengye violently; Wei Chengye was kicked until he was dizzy and his ears were ringing.

"Right, hehehehe... it's not my fault, it's all you, it's your damn fault!" Shougou acted as if he had gone mad, forgetting that Wei Chengye was his dearest friend, looking at him like he was a lowly servant, violently punching and kicking him, laughing wildly, "Everyone else didn't see that strange bird, only you damn well saw it! The four of us went into the woods to dig for bird eggs and didn't see anything strange, only you damn well ran into a hallucination! You're a damn jinx, a piece of stinking dog shit, trash..."

All sorts of foul language accompanied his all-out beating, severely wounding Wei Chengye's body and mind. Wei Chengye was beaten until his face was bruised and swollen, his head broken and bleeding. Being insulted and framed by Shougou like this, his heart was broken; although he knew the other was so terrified he had gone mad, which was why he wanted to escape everything, he hesitated, not knowing whether to fight back, and could only desperately protect his vital parts from being injured by the other.

This defense lasted until Wei Chengye noticed the other suddenly stop for a few seconds; catching a glimpse of the small figure picking up a sharp stone from the ground, he finally panicked.

He scrambled up and retreated repeatedly, seeing the murderous intent in Shougou's ferocious expression; he knew the other was completely insane and now wanted to kill him!

"The monster set its sights on you first, it must want to kill you!" Shougou gripped the stone, which was nearly the size of a human head, with both hands and roared as he charged over. "So go to hell! If you die, there won't be any problems! Kill you, kill you, kill you..."

Wei Chengye looked at the other as if he were a vicious devil; he could no longer restrain the fear in his heart and turned to flee.

Running desperately, running non-stop, he heard Shougou's hoarse, snarling pursuit, knowing full well the other was still chasing him fiercely.

Boom!

Suddenly feeling a jolt at the back of his head, his whole body stiffened, and he fell down uncontrollably; as he fell, he saw the blood-stained stone that had dropped to the side—it turned out that the stone had smashed into the back of his head.

"Hehehehe..." Shougou laughed with saliva flying everywhere, walked step by step onto Wei Chengye, sat his butt down on his stomach, then picked up the blood-covered stone and raised it high, trembling.

"Don't..." Wei Chengye murmured weakly, but his vision went black; his feeble consciousness flickered like a television screen with a poor signal.

In the blink of an eye, Shougou, who had wanted to smash him to death, was gone, and Shougou's screams came from all around.

"Who... who will come and save me..." A tear flowed from the corner of Wei Chengye's eye; he wept, struggled, and using his last bit of strength and consciousness, rolled over and crawled forward, the wound on the back of his head bleeding profusely.

"Save me, save me..."

Wei Chengye crawled forward, crawled forward; unknowingly, he could no longer hear the strange crow laughter, and he didn't notice at all that the surrounding environment seemed to have undergone some strange change, and his body seemed to have become light again, possessing a little strength.

He simply saw a small wooden house in front of him, with lights shining inside, as if it were filled with hope.