Yet every time Xie Zhouxing avoided danger, he did not rely on his sight.
He relied on sound.
The direction of the wind, the vibration of the floor when the fish-headed man's claws landed, the sharp whistle of scales slicing through the air, and even the location of Cen Yao's ragged breathing.
All these sounds seemed to form a map in his mind.
He ran incredibly fast, but Cen Yao was clearly starting to fall behind.
Her physical stamina wasn't great to begin with. Having just escaped the tentacle monster earlier and now sprinting all this way, her chest was burning so much it felt like it was about to explode.
Xie Zhouxing noticed her pace slowing down.
“You can't run anymore?”
Cen Yao refused to admit defeat. “Who says I can't run?”
The next second, she tripped over a broken metal pipe lying across the floor.
Xie Zhouxing reacted quickly, immediately pulling her forward with a hard tug.
Cen Yao didn't fall, but she nearly slammed headfirst into his back.
Xie Zhouxing clicked his tongue. “Squishy little thing.”
Cen Yao was so annoyed she wanted to kick him.
But just as she raised her foot, the fish-headed man behind them lunged forward again with a roar.
Xie Zhouxing pulled her aside to dodge.
The fish-headed man's claws scraped across the wall, its black nails peeling off a massive chunk of plaster.
“Stop trying to kick me. Let's focus on staying alive first,” Xie Zhouxing said.
“If we actually make it out of here alive later, this young master will give you permission to kick me back.”
Cen Yao: “...”
Who cared about his permission? She would find her own opportunity to kick him back.
The two of them rounded another corner, but a skin-crawling squelching sound suddenly echoed from the corridor ahead.
Squelch.
Squelch.
It sounded like countless masses of wet flesh slowly squeezing against the floor.
Xie Zhouxing came to an abrupt halt, and Cen Yao nearly crashed into him.
“What is it?”
“There's something ahead,” Xie Zhouxing said, his voice unusually tense.
Cen Yao looked in the direction he was facing, and the next second, she felt utterly sick to her stomach.
Slowly crawling out directly in front of them in the corridor was a creature almost completely enveloped in tentacles.
Cen Yao searched her mind for any knowledge of animals, but she couldn't identify what species this thing belonged to.
It didn't even have a proper head.
Or rather, its head, torso, and limbs were entirely covered by a dense mass of tentacles.
The tentacles varied in thickness, and their colors were extremely bizarre.
Some were a muddy blackish-purple, some were a pale fleshy pink as if they had been soaked for too long, and a few were an unnatural dark green.
They tangled and layered over one another like a massive lump of living, rotting meat.
Along each tentacle grew a row of sharp, densely packed teeth.
The teeth were stark white, gleaming with a cold, damp light.
And squeezed into the gaps between those teeth were countless purple nodules.
The nodules bulged individually, their surfaces webbed with tiny blood vessels. Every now and then, they twitched slightly, as if breathing.
Cen Yao's face turned pale.
What kind of nodules were those?
Why were they purple?
Was this reasonable?
This wasn't reasonable at all!
Cen Yao was screaming internally; just looking at the thing made her eyes hurt.
She would just call it a tentacle monster for now.
Whatever it originally was, it was a tentacle monster now.
The tentacle monster seemed to sense living humans ahead.
Its countless tentacles stopped writhing all at once.
In the next instant, those densely packed teeth opened, letting out a scalp-prickling grinding sound.
Clack.
Clack, clack.
Cen Yao: “...”
Behind them was the fish-headed man, and in front of them was the tentacle monster.
The fish-headed man was fast and had already blocked their retreat.
The tentacle monster lay right across the corridor, its mass of tentacles blocking the path almost entirely.
It was truly a case of being caught between a rock and a hard place.
No.
This was far more disgusting than wolves and tigers.
The two monsters moved almost simultaneously.
The fish-headed man lunged from behind, its sharp black claws swiping at Cen Yao's back.
The tentacle monster in front also whipped out several tooth-filled tentacles, lunging straight at them like half-starved snakes.
Cen Yao and Xie Zhouxing were like a patty sandwiched between two slices of bread, waiting to be swallowed whole by the monsters.
“Blegh!”
Cen Yao gagged again, thoroughly disgusted by her own mental image.
Xie Zhouxing was on the verge of a breakdown.
“What kind of timing is this? How are you still throwing up?!”
“I can't help it!”
“Hold it in!”
The tentacles were already right in front of them.
Cen Yao had no time to argue with him.
Quick as lightning, she kicked the side of Xie Zhouxing's calf.
Caught off guard, Xie Zhouxing stumbled to the side.
At the same time, Cen Yao threw herself in the opposite direction.
Whoosh!
A tentacle shot right through the space where the two of them had just been standing.
The teeth on the tentacle snapped shut violently, making a grating chewing sound in the empty air.
Xie Zhouxing took a nasty spill.
Half of his shoulder slammed into the wall, causing him to hiss in pain.
“You!”
“You dared to kick me?!”
Cen Yao lay on the floor, panting.
“I was saving you!”
“Could you not have given me a heads-up first?!”
“There wouldn't have been time if I did!”
“This young master almost thought you were trying to murder your teammate!”
“You're not my teammate anyway!”
Xie Zhouxing choked on his words. Before he could argue back, the fish-headed man's sharp claws swiped down at them again.
Cen Yao's pupils contracted. She rolled on the spot to dodge the attack.
Hearing the rush of wind, Xie Zhouxing also quickly tilted his head out of the way.
The fish-headed man's claws missed, slamming heavily onto the ground and leaving several deep gouges in the concrete floor with its black nails.
At the same time, the tentacle monster's tentacles swept toward them once more.
Xie Zhouxing couldn't steady himself, but he didn't dodge in Cen Yao's direction.
Listening to the sound of the tentacles cutting through the air, he lunged violently to the right.
Meanwhile, Cen Yao happened to be forced to the right by a thinner tentacle.
Seeing that they were about to collide, Xie Zhouxing raised his leg and kicked.
Caught off guard, Cen Yao was kicked right in the side.
“Ah!”
Her body lurched to the left.
The tentacle brushed past her hospital gown, its teeth only managing to tear off a piece of her hem.
Cen Yao steadied herself and stared at Xie Zhouxing in disbelief.
“You kicked me?!”
This time, it was Xie Zhouxing's turn to act righteous. “I was saving you!”
“Could you not have given me a heads-up first?!”
“There wouldn't have been time if I did!”
Cen Yao: “...”
The very words she had just spoken had been thrown right back at her, verbatim.
The corners of Xie Zhouxing's mouth curled up slightly.
“See? This young master is a fast learner, isn't he?”
“Shut up!”
The two of them cursed at each other as they dodged.
Yet the fish-headed man and the tentacle monster couldn't care less about their bickering.
They only wanted to eat them.
The fish-headed man let out a gurgling screech, opening its mouth—which tore all the way to its ears—and snapping violently at Xie Zhouxing.
Hearing the rancid wind, Xie Zhouxing sidestepped to dodge.
But the moment he dodged, the tentacle monster behind him used two tentacles to block off his escape route.
Seeing this, Cen Yao cast her own safety aside, rushing over to grab his collar and yank him backward.
Xie Zhouxing was pulled so hard he stumbled backward, nearly losing his breath and passing out.
The fish-headed man's fangs snapped shut, just barely brushing past the tip of his nose.
Crunch!
It missed its target, biting directly into one of the tentacle monster's tentacles.
The tentacle monster let out a sharp, ear-piercing shriek.
The severed half of the tentacle fell to the floor, spraying a foul-smelling, dark purple fluid from the wound.
The liquid splashed onto the fish-headed man's face, sizzling loudly, and the fish-headed man roared in furious rage.
As the two monsters momentarily locked in conflict, Cen Yao grabbed Xie Zhouxing and ran.
“Hurry!”
Rate on N.U.
