Chapter 195: The Hidden Threat (Guaranteed First Chapter Update)

Don't know?

Fang Yue's heart sank.

"Even you didn't notice anything strange… we're in danger."

An Shenyi, one of the trio of leaders in the team, may not be much else, but he always carried plenty of lifesaving tools.

Yet even he failed to detect the strange entity that infiltrated the team, injured someone, and left…

Originally, An Shenyi had been mentally sluggish due to his inability to recall the specific memories of earlier events.

Hearing Fang Yue's words, he immediately grasped the severity of the situation, his face darkening.

"Yes—if even I can't detect it, then no one else in the team can sense this strange entity! All our vigilance and defenses are useless against it!"

"Don't panic yet, Blood Hunter—what's the reaction of the 【Giant-Headed Blood Dog】?"

Fang Yue turned to the Blood Hunter, who was frowning in deep thought; upon hearing Fang Yue's question, he nodded.

"I have a hunch—just before the incident, the Blood Dog showed a brief moment of agitation, but calmed down quickly. The agitation lasted only a moment; I thought it was just in a bad mood… now it seems, that was when the strange entity appeared!"

The Blood Hunter's words brought a flicker of hope to Fang Yue, but soon he fell into thought again.

"But the 【Giant-Headed Blood Dog】 didn't lock onto the strange entity or alert us?"

"Exactly—that's one reason I misjudged it. If there truly was a strange entity, the Blood Dog would've warned me!"

"…Does this mean the 【Giant-Headed Blood Dog】 only caught a fleeting glimpse of the strange entity's trail, then couldn't find it again, so assumed it had left?"

"There's a possibility."

Fang Yue scratched his head; the situation seemed more complicated than he'd thought.

"Let's observe first. The strange entity only injured Ma Ling'er'er and then vanished. Either Ma Ling'er'er did something to anger a passing strange entity, or this entity can only injure one person per strike. Since Ma Ling'er'er wasn't killed outright, its lethality must be limited."

Fang Yue's analysis was somewhat forced, but An Shenyi and the Blood Hunter both silently accepted it without contradiction, and cooperatively relayed this assessment as intelligence to the rest of the escort team.

"Just a strange entity with strong stealth but weak lethality? That's reassuring…"

"I was terrified—I thought we'd encountered some powerful strange entity."

"Look at you all panicking—after injuring Ma Ling'er'er, this entity hasn't shown up again for so long—that proves the issue: it's not that it doesn't want to kill us all, but that it can't!"

Even so, the seed of unease had already been sown within the team.

Since this is a strange entity with exceptional stealth, its likelihood of being a 【Phantom Strange】 is higher; under normal conditions, only one person can see a 【Phantom Strange】, so An Shenyi's failure to detect it might be related to this.

After thinking it over, Fang Yue asked An Shenyi to keep his eyes moistened with 【Vision-Seeing Juice】 at all times to spot 【Phantom Stranges】, but An Shenyi hesitated and refused.

"After using 【Vision-Seeing Juice】 so frequently before, my eyes have started to ache faintly—I probably need rest before I can use it again."

"Are you alright?" Fang Yue asked, concerned— the team's only healer couldn't afford to go down.

"I should be fine—just need some rest."

【Vision-Seeing Juice】 causes the tendons around the eyes to swell and inflicts significant damage; it inevitably produces various aftereffects, with pain merely being incidental.

But… that was the consequence of frequent use within a short time; An Shenyi believed his dosage was still within safe limits.

Still, his eyes had genuinely felt uncomfortable; for safety's sake, he had temporarily stopped using 【Vision-Seeing Juice】.

"I'll take it—Ye Ge, you lead the front; I'll cover the rear; An Shenyi, hold the center and report any trouble immediately."

Taking An Shenyi's 【Vision-Seeing Juice】, the Blood Hunter dripped a few drops into his eyes like eye drops, then moved to the rear of the team.

"An Shenyi… be careful!"

Seeing this, Fang Yue gave the order to carry Ma Ling'er'er onto the cart and went ahead to take up vigilance.

Once Fang Yue left, the others stopped paying attention to him; An Shenyi's expression gradually darkened.

While no one was looking, he frowned, secretly lifted his right hand, and sniffed it.

Was it his imagination, or did his right hand still faintly carry a trace of blood?

In the first hour after Ma Ling'er'er's incident, everyone was on edge, jumping at shadows.

Even the slightest sound could make someone scream.

Fortunately, the entire journey turned out to be false alarms.

The strange entity that injured Ma Ling'er'er seemed to have left.

Fang Yue told the team not to lower their guard, but their vigilance inevitably slackened somewhat.

Not just them—even after half a day passed with no further incidents, Fang Yue himself began to accept the guess that the strange entity might have departed.

Perhaps due to the tension from the strange entity's 'attack,' the team's pace had become noticeably faster than usual.

They had expected to need to travel a bit into the night to reach Luoye Cun, yet they arrived before dusk.

"Phew… we should be safe now."

The Blood Hunter approached.

"Don't let your guard down."

Fang Yue gave a warning, then went to greet the people of Luoye Cun.

Luoye Cun was a large village, similar to Man Shui Cun, with fairly complete personnel arrangements.

"Greetings, travelers from Gu Yue Cun. In accordance with ancient agreements, Luoye Cun welcomes you to spend the night and guarantees your safety."

The escort team was held outside the village for a while.

The three Captains of Luoye Cun arrived with their entire Guard Team, all present.

Standing in the center was a woman with a barrel-shaped, well-proportioned figure; she smiled at Fang Yue and said:

"You're quite a new face—what's your position in Gu Yue Cun?"

"Lin Duoduo, Chief Captain, this is our newly appointed Deputy Captain Ye Ge—he's currently going through the Captain's process and will become one of Gu Yue Cun's Captains in just a few days."

A Deputy Captain who had traveled outside the village several times introduced him warmly.

"Oh? So you're Deputy Captain Ye Ge—remarkably young and talented." The barrel-shaped woman nodded, her tone slightly less warm; she studied Fang Yue's team for a moment, then abruptly changed the subject.

"Why isn't this team led by my foolish younger brother? Has he lost out to Deputy Captain Ye Ge?"

You stupid brother?

Fang Yue was momentarily bewildered.

He looked helplessly at the Deputy Captains beside him; one hurried over to whisper an explanation, but the bucket-woman interrupted.

"Lin Ling, that idiot, is my cousin. Whenever he goes out from Gu Yue Cun and passes through Luoye Cun, he always leads the team out himself. Why didn't he come this time?"

Uh…

Lin Ling's cousin?

Fang Yue quickly shed his habit of judging by appearance.

"So you're Brother Lin's cousin!"

"I'm Lin Duoduo, Chief Captain of Luoye Cun. Tell me—what happened to him?"

One more chapter coming soon. Lately I've been guaranteeing two chapters daily; updates will return to previous levels on the 7th.

(End of Chapter)