Hurry...
Hurry faster!
Qin Kai roared inwardly, biting down hard on his teeth, terrified that he would speak a fraction of a second too late and be beaten to death by that ghostly "thing".
At such close range, what a terrifying face it was!
The corners of its mouth were split wide, tearing all the way to the base of its ears, sharp teeth mixed with blood dripping steadily down its lips.
Though its eyes still lacked whites, the sockets were entirely surrounded by rotting, fragmented flesh.
Distinct veins bulged across its arms as it raised a claw hammer high into the air.
"The second clue..."
"The third clue..."
Trembling all over, Qin Kai stared at the ghostly "thing" as its cold, pale hand halted with the claw hammer poised right before the tip of his nose.
"Aah!"
The angry voice of the ghostly "thing" rang out close to his ear.
"I... will be back!"
With lingering resentment, the terrifying form of the ghostly "thing" dissolved like scattered sparks, fading away bit by bit.
Huff, huff...
He was... still alive.
Qin Kai felt ice-cold all over, his strength draining away at a visible rate before he collapsed helplessly to the ground.
"We won? We won! Hahaha..."
While Qin Kai was still dazed, a heavy slap landed unceremoniously on his shoulder, making him sink down.
Zhou Yue's legs were shaking like a sifter, yet his face radiated excitement.
"It's gone."
Han Cheng's stagnant breathing finally smoothed out again, and tears rolled down the corners of his eyes like scalding pearls.
"Thank you."
Gulping in air greedily, Qin Kai pulled himself into a sitting position, braced a hand against his knee, and looked gratefully at Liang Fei.
"If it weren't for you, I'd have been eaten by it today."
With trembling lips, Liang Fei shook his head and said,
"Don't thank me. You're the one who saved yourself."
With that, Liang Fei broke into a smile—the uncontainable joy of escaping death.
After all, none of them had been certain about these deductions.
Fortunately... he had guessed correctly.
After a long while, he finally calmed down.
"Brother... what do we do tomorrow?"
Following the brief surge of excitement, Zhou Yue grew sober once more.
Tomorrow... it was his turn to provide a clue.
Since Qin Kai had managed to survive, why couldn't he?
"Tomorrow? Get some good rest first, we'll talk about tomorrow when it comes..."
Liang Fei's gaze flickered slightly, weariness written across his face.
Before he could finish, however, Zhou Yue panicked.
Springing to his feet, he blurted out anxiously,
"Brother, does that mean there are no clues for tomorrow?"
"Don't get so worked up."
Liang Fei shook his head, letting out a helpless sigh.
Recovering from his fright, Lu Ming glared at Zhou Yue.
"What are you panicking for? The little brother must have his reasons."
Anyway, it wasn't him who had to submit a clue tomorrow; even if the sky fell, Liang Fei would be there to hold it up.
Brilliant!
The only thing that still terrified him was that ghostly "thing"—both sickening and horrifying.
Liang Fei shifted his gaze to Han Cheng.
"Tomorrow, keep watching Huang Xu."
"That little devil never tells the truth. What's the use of constantly staring at him?"
"What the hell do you know?"
Lu Ming still couldn't stand Zhou Yue and always jumped at the chance to snap at him.
Fury burned in Zhou Yue's chest, but he knew this wasn't the time to argue with Lu Ming.
Seeing him back down, Lu Ming turned a smug look on Liang Fei instead.
"Brother, I have a question."
"Speak."
"The reason you've been keeping your eye on Huang Xu all this time—is it because of that slip of paper?"
At the mention of the note, Liang Fei fell silent for a long moment. He pulled the paper from his pocket and slowly unfolded it.
"Even though the words on here are somehow incomplete and impossible to read in full..."
"However..."
He paused,
"I'm certain it has something to do with Huang Xu."
At these words, the others cast their gazes upon the weathered note, which seemed corroded by time.
It appeared to contain a complete line of text, but only four characters remained legible: "thousand", "believe", "man".
"Why is there such a big gap between 'thousand' and 'believe', and what's with the space before 'man'?"
"There are characters before 'believe'. Judging by the size of the handwriting, shouldn't there be three more characters between it and 'thousand'?"
"Who does 'man' refer to? The Little Boy?"
"What on earth does this mean, and where did it come from?"
"..."
The others were stunned. Only Liang Fei looked somewhat bewildered by their questions.
"To be honest, I have no idea where this came from."
"Ever since I was inexplicably dragged here, this note has been on me."
"Combining the clues from the past two days, I suspect... there aren't just three missing characters between 'thousand' and 'believe', but four."
Liang Fei spoke calmly and steadily, yet his words sent a chill through everyone's hearts.
The mission was too bizarre, and everything here flew in the face of everything they had ever known.
Why was it that out of seven people participating in the mission, only he held the crucial clue?
Was it favoritism from the mission itself, or was someone pulling strings from the shadows?
Either way, to Liang Fei, it was a terrifying prospect.
It felt as though... someone was watching him closely from some unseen place.
Exhaling a breath, Liang Fei continued:
"Those four characters are most likely 'don't completely'."
Hearing those four words, Lu Ming dropped his jaw in utter disbelief,
"Holy shit, you mean... 'Never completely believe' the Little Boy's words?"
"Brother, is this a hint given to you alone by the mission?"
Liang Fei glanced at him sideways.
"I'm not sure myself right now. But... your guess is probably right."
Straightening his posture, Liang Fei cast a glance toward the mineral water in the corner.
Recovering from his shock, Zhou Yue trotted over immediately, filled a cup of water, and handed it to Liang Fei.
"Brother, wet your throat first. Take your time."
Taking the cup, Liang Fei took a sip. As the cool water slid down his chest, he said quietly,
"Judging by the current situation, because of his head injury, the clues Huang Xu gave us were all false."
"And since the note says not to completely believe him, there must still be words we can trust. Perhaps..."
Before Liang Fei could finish, Zhou Yue jumped in to answer first, saying excitedly:
"Perhaps what he says tomorrow will be the truth?"
Yet his excitement didn't last long before Liang Fei's words poured down like a basin of cold water over his head.
Not only did it extinguish the fire in his heart, but it also sent a chill straight to the soles of his feet.
"I... can't guarantee that. It's also possible I guessed wrong, and the note is simply warning us never to believe a word Huang Xu says..."
"If that's the case, Brother... you won't just stand by and watch me get eaten, right?"
Zhou Yue was on the verge of tears, wishing he could cling tightly to Liang Fei's leg at every moment.
While Liang Fei wasn't some kind of saint, he wouldn't sit by and let someone die either.
"Saving you also means saving ourselves... It's getting late, let's get some rest!"
The rest of the night passed in silence.
None of them had slept well over the past two days. Now, with a crucial clue in hand and a slight easing of tension, exhaustion washed over them like a tide.
Until the arrival of the following dawn, when a piercing scream shattered the hard-earned peace.