Chapter 182: Night Howl

"How far from here?" Du Zhengyi asked calmly.

"I don't know the actual distance," Luo Qi pinched his own forehead, trying to calm himself down as quickly as possible, "but I know it's roughly over a mountain, in a place that might be the border between two mountains."

"Surface?" Du Zhengyi asked.

Luo Qi thought nervously; he hadn't entered the mind of any living creature, he was using his Yajian to distinguish biological forms, and then relying on the relative positions of the creatures to judge the terrain. He quickly backtracked through any places he might have missed, and finally nodded, "I think it's the surface."

"How many?" Du Zhengyi asked again.

"Eleven." Luo Qi kept up with Du Zhengyi's crisp, efficient rhythm, "Evenly distributed, so it feels like the natural population of a village, but other than that, there are no other living things."

"If it's only eleven, it doesn't matter," Du Zhengyi said, though Luo Qi could hear a potential turn in Du Zhengyi's words, missing a "but."

Before he had time to think, a series of screams erupted in the village, the sounds of doors opening and closing emerged, and the living people in the village let out ghostly wails.

"What is going on?" Du Zhengyi asked again, walking toward the door, and Luo Qi hurriedly followed, the two of them moving along the corridor toward the house entrance.

Luo Qi seized the time to say as they walked, "My Yajian had just arrived there when a high-level energy source was triggered. I sensed a consciousness, that thing made people especially afraid, so I withdrew. Those few human screams happened almost at the same time."

They reached the doorway, and Luo Qi subconsciously reached out to grab Du Zhengyi's forearm, "Brother, do you remember that village middle school teacher Wen Lin mentioned?"

He saw Du Zhengyi's pupils watching him in the dim corridor, the gaze sharp, "I remember."

"The villagers screaming are the ones among the humans with more sensitive spirits; they must have been startled awake from nightmares," Luo Qi said.

But Luo Qi also knew that these screams were too terrifying, far beyond what an ordinary nightmare could force out of someone; it was more like it had acted directly upon the fear units of the brain's nerves. Perhaps everyone had felt the panic, it was just that those with more delicate nerves were affected more intensely.

"Go out and see." Du Zhengyi pushed the door open.

They were perhaps the only courtyard that hadn't turned on the lights. Luo Qi looked around; there were lights everywhere, and every household's courtyard seemed to have turned on their high-hanging lamps. Now the ghost-like screams had stopped, replaced by chaos; the whole village had turned into a blind bull, a monster missing its head.

This monster was composed of countless sounds of doors opening and closing, crying, shouting, and the sound of countless hooves stomping on the ground; countless beasts had broken their chains and smashed through their pens. People ran out of their homes, sprinting along the street, but without any definite direction.

All Luo Qi could feel was one word: Chaos.

"This might be a Night Howl," Du Zhengyi said composedly.

Luo Qi's brain reacted sluggishly in shock. Du Zhengyi had already walked toward the gate, and he hurriedly followed, hearing Du Zhengyi explain further. "Ancient humans fighting, when camping at night, encountered this situation. Although rare, the number of recorded instances is actually quite high. According to their current medical explanations, it should be a mass panic triggered by sudden stimulation, a type of stress response."

"Like the sudden mass stampede of herbivores?" Luo Qi said. They had already opened the gate, and he couldn't help but tremble.

"A bit like that, like a mass stampede on the African savanna. In the end, whether it's a Mage or a human, they are all just animals," Du Zhengyi said in a low voice. He frowned in disgust, as if he were about to do some dirty work.

"Then we..." Luo Qi was at a loss for words; he didn't know what to do.

"Follow me, don't get too far from me," Du Zhengyi said, and with that, he stepped into the night of the village.

Luo Qi followed him closely. He didn't know how Du Zhengyi judged that the two adjacent houses weren't worth entering; Du Zhengyi jumped directly over the courtyard wall of the third house to the south. Luo Qi had no experience in handling emergencies, but the physical structure of a Mage meant that jumping over a rural courtyard wall was no problem for him. Although he didn't see clearly under his feet when he landed, he immediately steadied his body and chased after Du Zhengyi, heading straight for the house's door.

He ran desperately; the depth of the northern rural courtyard was a full fifty meters, but in the blink of an eye, they reached the door. His heart was pounding, and he suddenly realized that this courtyard had no lights on, and only one light was on inside the house.

Just as they reached the door, the house door swung open with a boom, and a burly man stood at the entrance, glaring at them.

Luo Qi's heart sank sharply; there was no light of reason in the man's wide-eyed stare; he was like a muscular wild beast. Luo Qi smelled a hint of blood, and borrowing a bit of light from the neighboring courtyard, he saw the kitchen knife the man was holding.

The man seemed to instinctively judge that Du Zhengyi was a greater threat to him, and he raised the knife in his hand and swung it crazily at Du Zhengyi. Du Zhengyi swung his fist to knock aside the man's wrist and agilely chopped his palm onto the man's neck; the man's body tilted, and he passed out.

Luo Qi anxiously stepped over the man; there was the sound of a child crying in the house. He ran in, feeling along the wall to turn on the lights. The layout of these villagers' houses was almost the same, and he found the crying child in the kitchen at the very back. A four or five-year-old child was convulsing and wailing. Luo Qi felt as if he had been struck on the back of the head with a club, looking in despair at the bloody gash hacked into the child's back.

Du Zhengyi followed closely into the kitchen, heading straight for the child's side, "I know a little first aid for bleeding, and I can accelerate healing, but I'm not as professional as Mahjong. Luo Qi, call the human emergency number immediately."

Luo Qi tremblingly took out his phone and did as told. After making the call, he heard Du Zhengyi using Magic to help the child heal while repeatedly asking him, "Where is your Mama?"

He must have thought the woman had also been attacked, but Luo Qi could understand what the child was saying better than he could, "Don't ask, Brother, the child said she ran away."

He saw that Du Zhengyi hadn't understood; Du Zhengyi had a firm, unbreakable obsession with the relationship between mother and child. Luo Qi said softly, "Not running away to save her life, it means they got divorced."

Du Zhengyi looked up at him blankly, and Luo Qi swallowed, "I think there must be many murders tonight; the long-buried evil thoughts of the people here may have all been released."

Du Zhengyi let go of the child; the child had already calmed down quite a bit. He said to the child, "An ambulance will come."

He spoke too rationally to the child; Luo Qi estimated that Du Zhengyi wouldn't know how to talk to a child at all. He squatted down and picked the child up, and the child immediately clung to Luo Qi for dear life, refusing to let go. Luo Qi held the child, burying his head in the child's small body; he might be about to collapse too. What kind of devil had he released?

"It has nothing to do with you," Du Zhengyi said suddenly. Luo Qi hadn't even expected Du Zhengyi not to scold him; he was taken aback.

Du Zhengyi continued, "Every Yajian Mage who comes here to investigate will cause such a result."

"Did Da Hei do this?" Luo Qi asked.

"I suspect it's Guan Yushan," Du Zhengyi said coldly, "This is an ancient defensive measure."

Luo Qi's mind was a mess, feeling Du Zhengyi squeeze his shoulder, "Wait here, I'm going to check other places. The ambulance will come, and the police will come too; don't forget to wipe away the traces."

Luo Qi nodded.