Chapter 794: Snake

Heimu turned and prepared to step forward, then suddenly noticed the hem of their clothing behind them being gently tugged.

Heimu turned back, Xi Lian lowered her head, her fingers still gripping Heimu's cuff.

Those blue rhombus-shaped eyes held a layer of watery light that glimmered under the green glow.

She swallowed, and her throat emitted a "Guh" sound.

Heimu noticed her shoulders trembling slightly.

"Xi Lian. You may go back first," Heimu said softly, "I'll handle this."

Xi Lian lifted her head, her blue rhombus pupils meeting Heimu's violet‑black eyes; under the dim green light those eyes appeared especially calm, showing no fluctuation despite the changing surroundings.

She opened her mouth, moved her lips twice, then shook her head forcefully.

Her fingers clenched Heimu's cuff even tighter.

She swallowed again, her voice still trembling, but with a stubborn edge: "I... will follow Black Curtain Lady. Follow."

Heimu looked at her for two seconds and nodded.

Then she reached out and drew a Magic Staff from the void.

The staff shaft was entirely jet‑black, and its tip held a dark‑purple gem.

She tilted the Magic Staff in her hand; the gem at its tip glowed a dim dark‑purple, not very bright but enough to dispel the dim green darkness within a few steps around.

The violet light fell on Xi Lian's face, finally restoring her complexion from a horror‑film pallor to a normal pink‑white.

"Then let's go," Heimu said, stepping deeper into the corridor.

The soles of her boots pressed on the carpet, the sound largely absorbed by the pile, leaving only a faint rustle.

The dark‑purple glow at the tip of the Magic Staff swayed gently with Heimu's steps, casting their shadows on the wall; the edges of the shadows were tugged by the dim green and dark‑purple lights, sometimes stretching, sometimes shrinking.

The doors lining both sides of the corridor receded one after another behind them, each a dark wooden door with identical copper handles, all tightly shut.

No light seeped through the cracks.

After walking about thirty steps, Heimu slowed her pace.

Within her perception range a signal source appeared; at some point ahead, at least several Yingjie were gathered together.

She squinted, the halo deep within her violet eyes quickening slightly.

One, two, three, she counted the number of signal sources in her mind.

Six.

Heimu's steps halted for an instant.

Previously, in the Weng Fa Luo Si remake, she had at most encountered three Golden Descendants clustered together.

Six Yingjie bearing joyful tags gathered together—what chemical reaction might that produce? She imagined the scene, and the image that surfaced made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

Xi Lian seemed to sense her tension, turned her head slightly and asked softly, "What's wrong?"

"... There are six ahead," Heimu said, only those words.

At that moment, a sound came from behind.

It sounded like someone barefoot on a metal floor, tiptoeing and scurrying past.

Or like a piece of cloth being quickly dragged across a corner, producing a scraping sound.

Heimu whirled around abruptly.

Her ash‑white long hair snapped into a sharp arc, and the Magic Staff thrust forward, its dark‑purple light shining toward the back of the corridor.

Dim green wall lamps. Dark red carpet. Dark wooden guardrails.

The empty corridor.

Nothing at all.

Heimu held the forward‑pointing stance of the Magic Staff for several seconds, then slowly retracted her hand.

Beside her, Xi Lian also turned her head, looking back with puzzlement.

"What that just now was..."

Xi Lian's voice was hushed, her blue rhombus pupils darting anxiously left and right in the darkness.

Heimu touched her chin, turned around and walked back a few steps, the Magic Staff's light skimming across the carpet surface.

After walking four or five steps, her foot suddenly made a "Squelch" sound as the sole struck something.

The texture was slick, producing a tingling, skin‑prickling squish between her sole and the carpet.

Heimu lowered her head and aimed the Magic Staff at her foot.

The dark‑purple light illuminated a puddle on the carpet—transparent, with a faint green phosphorescence, forming a small depression among the carpet's red fibers.

The liquid was pushed outward by her boot, leaving a faintly reflective wet ring around it.

She lifted her foot, several sticky transparent threads clinging to the sole, which, under the Magic Staff's light, stretched into slender arcs.

Heimu crouched down, leaning in to examine the puddle of slime.

The surface of the liquid bore an oily sheen, its viscosity far greater than water; a fingertip touch felt icy, and the pulled thread could stretch over a dozen centimeters before breaking.

This texture.

Four words flashed in Heimu's mind.

Mei Bi Wu Si.

Snake's slime.

She held the slime‑coated fingertip in the air for a moment, then suddenly sensed something amiss, her ears catching a faint whooshing sound.

The sound came from behind, emanating from the spot where Xi Lian had just stood.

Heimu's head tilted slightly, the Magic Staff's light turning with her movement, the dark‑purple halo sweeping across the empty corridor.

Xi Lian was gone.

No footstep echo remained on the floor, and the air held no trace of her departure.

Only the pale‑green wall lamp illuminated the dark‑red carpet there; the carpet's pile lay smooth as if untouched, with no trace of having been stepped on.

Heimu crouched half‑down on the floor, maintaining the posture of inspecting slime, and stared at the empty floor for several seconds.

"Mei Bi Wu Si,"

She murmured to herself, her voice echoing briefly in the pale‑green corridor before fading, "Mei Bi Wu Si… still hasn't let Xi Lian go."

The pale‑green light flickered once. The corridor was quiet as if nothing had happened.

Heimu sighed, straightened up, and drew an arc in the air with the right hand.

A semi‑transparent surveillance panel unfolded before her; it was the safety tracking system she had previously set up for Xi Lian.

The moment the image popped up, Heimu's pupils narrowed slightly, dazzled by the screen's visuals.

The image jumped wildly.

One frame showed the pale‑green ceiling of the corridor; the next frame turned into the red carpet on the floor retreating rapidly; the following frame swept across a bronze door‑frame handle, then abruptly flung to the left, the edges of the image stretching into blurry trails from the high speed.

Heimu counted the frame rate; in less than two seconds the view switched through roughly a dozen completely different perspectives.

The whole image was being flung back and forth by an invisible hand, producing a rhythm almost grotesquely frantic.

Heimu stared at the image, their eyelids flickering several times in sync with it.

At the same time, the sound coming from the panel was also striking.

Sss—, shhh—, the fine rustle of snake scales rubbing, poured from the screen's speaker, densely covering Heimu's ears.

It was the sound of tiny scales crawling over a smooth surface, layered upon layer, making one's molars tingle.

A real‑time three‑dimensional map popped out from the side of the panel.

A pink light dot representing Xi Lian was moving at high speed across the map.

Seeing that trajectory, Heimu's eyebrows jumped.

First it darted toward the northeast, then abruptly turned ninety degrees left, flew a few hundred meters before suddenly reversing southward; after running south for a few hundred meters it began circling in place, defying any logical path, and after several loops it suddenly accelerated toward the southwest.

The pink light dot hopped around the map, its trailing line showing no logic at all, like a mad firefly crashing headlessly inside a glass jar.