Chapter 46
Chapter 46
A blinding beam of white light illuminated the thick tree trunk, then slowly crept upward, sweeping across the lowest branch.
There was… no one there.
Only a few wet leaves that had been knocked loose drifted helplessly to the ground.
“Hee-hee… Where are you… bastards?”
The lunatic holding the flashlight muttered under its breath, its voice brimming with mounting excitement for the hunt. It waved the flashlight around at random while several other crimson figures moved at the edge of the beam, letting out the same low chuckles.
Higher up the tree, Lin Hao, An Xiaolin, and the others scarcely dared to breathe. They could sense the light sweeping below them and hear breathing so close it made their skin crawl.
Qingshui lay flat against a thick branch even higher up, her body almost blending into the trunk. Eyes narrowed, she calmly observed the scene below through gaps in the foliage.
The flashlight moved erratically, and the lunatics’ search was completely disorganized. But they showed no signs of leaving. Instead, losing their quarry had made them restless, and they were gathering nearby. There were roughly seven or eight of them.
This couldn’t go on. Sooner or later, the flashlight would sweep over the upper branches.
She had to take them out first.
A clear plan of action instantly formed in her mind. She steadied her breathing and fixed her gaze on the two figures closest to the tree. Their backs were turned to the trunk as they indulged in some cheerful “game.”
Now.
Like a weightless shadow, Qingshui slipped from the branch above and landed soundlessly on the ground.
The nearest two lunatics were less than ten feet away.
They seemed to sense the faintest disturbance. One of them had just started to turn around when Qingshui was already upon it.
Her combat knife plunged precisely into the spot behind its ear. With a twist of her wrist, she shredded its brainstem. The entire process took less than a second. The lunatic stiffened, then went limp.
Only then did the other lunatic finish turning around. Its scarlet eyes widened, and its mouth opened as if to sound the alarm.
“Ghk…”
Qingshui gave it no chance. As she pulled her knife free, she drove it cleanly through its temple.
With two down, Qingshui kept moving. She darted through the shadows beneath the trees. A third lunatic trailed behind the rest of the group, holding a round, ball-shaped object.
Qingshui approached from behind and to the side. One hand seized its hair while the other drove her combat knife through its temple and straight into its brain.
She released it, and the body crumpled to the ground.
The remaining lunatics were clustered more closely together. Qingshui picked up a stone and hurled it hard into the distance.
“Over there!” Two lunatics immediately took the bait.
The instant they turned, she charged. She snapped one lunatic’s neck, then used the momentum to kick down the other as it lunged at her.
“Aaaahhh! There’s a little piggy…”
The lunatic screamed, only for Qingshui to run it through the next second.
The mountainside erupted into chaos. The few remaining lunatics instantly broke into hideous grins and charged toward the source of the noise, shrieking with laughter.
“Here I come, you little bitch! Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee…!”
“Heh-heh-heh! Kill you! Kill you all…”
Qingshui didn’t panic. Hidden behind a large tree, she pulled out her phone, set an alarm for ten seconds, and hurled it hard in another direction.
Then she crouched low and silently circled around behind another tree.
“Ring, ring…”
The alarm went off.
A jumble of footsteps thundered toward it.
Qingshui remained behind the tree, breathing hard. Killing took a great deal of stamina, and killing these lunatics took even more. Fortunately, the forest was dark enough that they couldn’t see. That was the only reason she’d been able to exploit an opening!
She closed her eyes for a moment. If she’d had a gun, she could have dealt with them in under thirty seconds. She never would have ended up in such a sorry state.
“Haa…”
There were still two lunatics behind her. They seemed to have realized that the ringing had been nothing but a diversion, and they began giggling as they made their way over.
Qingshui stayed perfectly still and held her breath, watching as one of the lunatics staggered past her.
The instant it turned around, Qingshui pounced like a cheetah. Her fingers locked around the back of its neck, and with a violent twist of her wrist, there was a sharp crack. The lunatic collapsed without a sound.
Now only the last lunatic, the one carrying the flashlight, remained. She was about to head back when her gaze landed on a patch of overgrown weeds.
The lunatic holding the phone finally seemed to notice that its companions were gone. The beam from its phone’s flashlight began sweeping frantically back and forth as an agitated sound escaped its throat. “…Hm?”
It instinctively raised the light, and the bright beam illuminated three terror-stricken faces!
“Oh… Ohoho…”
“So this is where the little piglets were hiding… Found you!”
A savage grin of ecstasy erupted across the lunatic’s face. It lunged forward and, in an instant, scrambled onto the branch directly below An Xiaolin and the others!
“Get off!” An Xiaolin screamed, kicking wildly at its face in an attempt to knock it down. But the lunatic clung tightly to the cuff of her pants, refusing to let go no matter how hard she kicked.
“That little bitch! I want that little bitch! Aaargh!” Its crazed gaze was fixed on Zhou Yaping in Lin Hao’s arms.
“You bastard! Get down here!” The lunatic grabbed An Xiaolin and Lin Hao by the ankles and yanked with all its strength, sending all three of them tumbling from the tree!
“Aaaaaah!”
An Xiaolin and the others flailed helplessly in the darkness as despair swallowed them whole.
“Hey.”
The calm greeting made the lunatic freeze for an instant. Behind it stood a girl drenched in blood, an axe raised in her hands.
Squelch!
The razor-sharp blade split its skull wide open.
As blood sprayed through the air, Qingshui wrenched her wrist sideways, brutally cleaving the grotesque head into two halves!
She flicked the droplets of blood from the axe handle, then looked at the three people sprawled on the ground, still shaken with terror. Her voice was hoarse. “Turn on your phone.”
With trembling hands, Lin Hao pulled his phone from his pocket and lit the screen. Its faint glow illuminated several exhausted, frightened faces, along with Qingshui’s blood-soaked figure.
Qingshui tossed him the axe she had picked up from one of the lunatics. “Hold on to this. Follow me.”
The others cautiously followed her to a patch of dense weeds.
Qingshui pulled the weeds aside, revealing the dark mouth of a cave behind them. “Get in.”
Gritting her teeth, An Xiaolin went first, crawling inside on all fours. Lin Hao followed close behind. He carefully passed Pingping into the cave, then climbed in himself.
Qingshui entered last and reached back to pull the weeds into place, restoring them as closely as possible to their original state. Only then did she turn around, lean against the cold cave wall, and slowly slide to the ground, releasing a silent breath.
The cave was small, barely large enough for four or five people to stand inside. The ground was relatively dry and covered with dead grass and fallen leaves, likely left behind by animals that had once sheltered there.
The phone’s light could illuminate only a small area, but even so, it gave everyone an immense sense of security.
They were safe for now.
“We’ll rest here for the night.”
Everyone leaned against the cold stone walls without saying a word. The only sounds left in the cave were their heavy breaths.