I hid behind the large rock, and heard the clinking sound behind me, knowing for sure that someone was approaching. After a moment, the sound gradually approached me, becoming clearer, accompanied by the sound of low footsteps and dragging noises.
I tried to breathe as quietly as possible, and after a while, I cautiously peeked out and saw a white figure passing by from behind the large rock, apparently dragging someone.
First, I saw that white figure, clearly a pale-faced creature, with a relatively sturdy build, and holding a chain in its hands, walking with a slightly stooped posture that seemed tired. And behind it, it was dragging what seemed to be a person, but I couldn't see their face.
Just then, the pale-faced creature suddenly stopped, looked around, and sniffed slightly, as if searching for something. Then it looked around even more strangely. I immediately pulled my head back and slowly drew out a triangular dagger.
If it noticed me, it would definitely attack. Then it would be "blood on the dagger"!
The pale-faced creature slowly approached me while dragging the person. I bent down slightly, ready to deliver a lethal blow at any moment. It got closer and closer to me, so I circled around to its back from the other side of the rock. Just as it came close, I suddenly pulled out the triangular dagger and fiercely stabbed at the throat of the pale-faced creature, splattering myself with blood. The pale-faced creature tried to scream, but its throat was blocked by the dagger and it couldn't make a sound!
This was intentional; there were definitely more than one pale-faced creature near the underground palace. If it let out a howl and attracted other pale-faced creatures, I might not be able to save my life. So, I first pierced its throat, depriving it of the chance to call for help!
The pale-faced creature couldn’t make a sound, and it tried to pull out the triangular dagger from its throat. I rushed up from behind and kicked it to the ground. I was about to rush forward and stab it a few more times, but just then, the pale-faced creature suddenly turned around and punched me hard in the abdomen, causing excruciating pain and a tremendous impact that sent me flying out.
"Oof!"
I cried out in pain as I fell to the ground, spitting out saliva that flowed from my throat. My chest felt tight, and I was in immense pain all over!
"Damn, it's damn strong!"
I cursed, and when I looked up, I saw the pale-faced creature slowly pulling the triangular dagger out of its throat, and instead of throwing it away, it held onto it as its weapon. This fellow was truly ruthless. Blood was flowing from its throat, but its appearance was different from that of a normal person; it didn't struggle to survive, but rather seemed ready to die with me.
"Damn it, it's not a normal person after all! I'm not going to die with you!"
I cursed loudly, stood up straight, and the pale-faced creature let out a hoarse roar, gripping the triangular dagger, and charged straight at me. I quickly leaped to the left, avoiding its charge, and then picked up a stone from the ground and fiercely struck its head from behind!
When we were fighting, we often used two common tools one was the iron lunchbox, which was very fierce to fight with because it was made of iron. We would even sharpen the edges of the lunchbox lid and use it as a knife. The other was a brick. When using a brick, we also had to be careful. It was similar to a beer bottle; when fighting with someone, you couldn't hit the back of their head, because if they were hit there, it would definitely cause major harm, either death or serious injury, and you would be responsible. But when fighting the pale-faced creature, I didn't have so many concerns.
The stone I found was even harder than a brick. After smashing its head, the pale-faced creature immediately became dizzy, unable to stand steadily, constantly spitting blood, and dropping the triangular dagger, still swinging its claws trying to kill me.
I took a few steps back, and eventually, the pale-faced creature staggered and fell to the ground, seemingly devoid of fighting ability. But I didn't dare to be careless, who knows how strong the vitality of this kind of monster was. So, I hurriedly picked up the triangular dagger and continuously stabbed the pale-faced creature's heart several times. Blood spurted out, flesh was mangled, and eventually I stopped, wiped my face, and almost fainted. I sat down by the rock, holding the dagger, feeling utterly drained.
This was the first time I had killed such a terrifying creature on my own. It was only a fight of about a dozen seconds, but I was already feeling physically drained; it was really dangerous. If I hadn't acted first and been in the dark while it was in plain sight, I might have been the one who ended up dead.
After catching my breath, I stood up after a while and found the man who was bound with an iron chain. Upon closer inspection, I was shocked to find that the man bound with the iron chain was actually Lou Yong! He lay on the ground, silent, with his eyes closed and no reaction whatsoever.
"Luoqiong, Xiaozai Luo, hey..."
My heart trembled. He didn't respond even after I called out several times. I hurried over to listen to his heartbeat and thankfully, his heart was still beating. This meant he wasn't dead. Then I raised my hand and slapped his face hard, making his face turn red, but he still didn't wake up. Finally, I had no choice but to press on his acupoint, and after a while, he finally reacted. The guy shook his head slightly and opened his eyes as if waking up from a deep sleep.
"Damn, turns out waking up a faint person is so tiring. Oh my goodness..."
I grumbled to myself. Luoqiong looked at me strangely, and after staring at me for a few seconds, suddenly shouted, "Shange! It's you, Shange!"
Then, he excitedly grabbed my hand and shook it. I hurriedly waved my hand and said, "Stop shaking, you're going to dislocate my bones. What are you doing here?"
"I don't know either. I stepped on a mechanism inside and saw the earth wall closing, so I hurried to try and break out. But just as I took a step, a hand suddenly reached out from behind and grabbed me. I tried to shout, but only managed a sound before the person struck me and knocked me out. I don't know what happened after that."
According to reason, Shen Mengtian had been lying in the stone coffin this whole time. She only saw a pale-faced monster in the coffin, the same one that was killed by Guyu and the others earlier. Luoqiong was also knocked out by the pale-faced monster, but apparently did not leave the stone coffin. From this, it can be inferred that first, there was more than one pale-faced monster in the secret room at the time; second, there must be another way to leave the secret room, which neither I nor Fatty had discovered.
"Hmm? Why can't this be unlocked?"
Luoqiong handled the chain on his hand strangely, furrowing his brow. I turned around to look and found that the chain was actually locked. I ran over to the pale-faced monster and discovered that there was a key hanging around its neck. The key was an old-fashioned bolt shape. I tried to unlock it, and at that moment, Luoqiong asked, "Shange, where are we?"
"We are deep in the underground river, and specifically, I don't know where. Open, and get up."
I tossed the chain aside, and Luoqiong stood up and shook his wrists.
"Let's go. First, we'll regroup with Fatty, and then figure out a way to leave from here."
I pulled Luoqiong back, and about ten minutes later, we returned. Fatty and Shen Mengtian seemed to have become more familiar with each other, appearing quite close. Upon seeing such a large underground palace, they both marveled, while Luoqiong surveyed the surroundings, as he was better at this.
I walked at the end and looked around, suddenly feeling that something was not right. I turned around and shouted, "What's wrong?"
"What's wrong?"
Fatty looked at me strangely.
"Something's not right, something's wrong!"
I shook my head repeatedly.
"What's wrong? What's not right?"
Fatty asked me more puzzled.
"The pale-faced monster I killed just disappeared! It was clearly here before, how could it suddenly be gone!"
I pointed to the ground in surprise. Fatty looked momentarily stunned and searched around, but the corpse of the pale-faced monster was nowhere to be seen.
"It's gone, how could it be gone! Could it be that during the time we left, something came here again?"
I only saw a pool of blood on the ground, and the body had vanished. At that moment, Luoqiong suddenly turned around and ran over, saying, "Something seems wrong, something's coming."
As soon as he finished speaking, the surrounding darkness suddenly became chaotic, and there were numerous footsteps coming towards our direction from the darkness.
"Aow!"
A long roar, like that of a wild wolf, and I turned my head to see a dark mass of figures emerging from the underground palace!