Chapter Fifty-Four: Pakha's Death

  All I could hear was a huge noise, the entire stone room shattered with a loud crash, and the stones on my head fell down one after another. In that instant, I couldn't react at all, and my whole body was crushed by the stones. A wave of scorching pain spread out, and my whole body felt like it had been broken in two, the pain was so intense that I couldn't help but gasp for air. At that time, I didn't have time to care about the pain, the stones on the left side of the stone room had already been smashed by the prehistoric giant crocodile and were falling to one side.

  The prehistoric giant crocodile's impact was extremely large, and it smashed one side of the stone room into that shape. It seems that this giant crocodile must eat us.

  "It's coming in, I don't want to die yet......" Pakahai wailed with a gloomy face, trembling and crying out.

  Damn it, nobody wants to die.

  Only saw that giant alligator proudly swinging its short legs, and directly squeezed in from the destroyed side.

  As soon as we saw the prehistoric giant crocodile, our two feet had already stepped inside. Everyone was in a panic and retreated backward, losing all ability to think, only able to retreat backward. In an instant, we retreated to the stone wall, backed up against it, with no way out at all.

  "What should we do?" Yu Gang asked calmly.

  "Teacher, if you hesitate for one more second, I'll kill you right away." Xiao Bo's gun was pointed at the old professor's heart, his face ashen, clearly not having expected that prehistoric giant crocodile to burst in.

  The old professor merely turned his head to glance at the prehistoric giant crocodile that had crawled in, then, with a hand feeling along the wall, he suddenly exerted force downward, and with a loud rumbling sound, the stone wall in front of him was pushed open like a door. This "door" was circular in shape, just large enough for one person to crawl through. From my vantage point, I could see that inside it was pitch black, and nothing was visible.

  Everyone who saw this circular 'door' immediately let out a sigh of relief, Huang 'Mao' was so excited that he wanted to rush in directly, but was loudly scolded by Xiao Bo: "Who allowed you to enter, no respect for elders."

  Then she said to the old professor: "Teacher, please come in."

  "Escaping with one's life also has its own size." Huang 'Mao' muttered a sentence, his voice very small, but he didn't dare to rush in, so he could only stand at the entrance of the circular "door", waiting for Xiao Bo's command.

  All of us squeezed our necks and wanted to go in, but unfortunately there were still people in front.

  The old professor took a look at the prehistoric giant crocodile, then drilled into the circular 'door', and the lotus followed him in. Then, our group of people drilled in one after another.

  I was the last one in line, and after everyone else went in, that prehistoric giant crocodile opened its mouth, with a bloody big maw, scaring me so much my heart was racing, I rushed in hastily.

  That prehistoric giant crocodile saw us all crawling in from the 'door' and got angry, using its head to violently collide with the circular 'door', due to the amplitude of the vibration directly knocking me into the interior, colliding onto Pakha's body.

  Damn it, that prehistoric giant crocodile's strength has increased greatly. Just the residual 'waves' from the impact can send people flying.

  "What's wrong?" Pakha asked with a quivering voice, as if on the verge of tears.

  I rubbed my nose and hastily said: "Nothing, hurry up and follow them."

  After walking a short distance, they finally came out and saw them holding flashlights as if looking for something.

  This is a more spacious stone room than before, the only difference being that there is a wooden table in the middle of the ceiling. On it are placed some things: a black bowl, a pair of black chopsticks, which are laid horizontally on the bowl, and next to them is a lamp with a thick layer of dust on its surface, apparently no one has been here for a long time.

  "What's that?" Yu Gang shouted loudly, his voice filled with a few parts of fear.

  We all looked back and our eyes widened one by one, taking a step backward.

  "What's with this old hag again." Huang 'Mao' cursed.

  Yes, standing not far from us is a person, she wears a 'flower' 'colored' skirt, her face still has a hint of a strange smile.

  This is the third time we've met.

  I still couldn't help but tremble, the feeling of being peeped at never disappeared. I've seen this old woman for the third time now, and my heart already knows she's just an illusion, yet the fear in my heart has never dissipated.

  Imagine if someone who died a long time ago suddenly appeared in front of you, how would you feel? Afraid, terrified, want to run away? I'm telling you, that's exactly how I feel right now.

  I wanted to run away, but I suppressed the thought. After all, there were so many people around, and I didn't believe that old hag's illusion could suddenly jump out again.

  As I was thinking this way, I only heard Pakha's mouth chattering and shouting, and when I heard that tone, my expression tightened.

  This tone, this voice, I've heard many times before recently.

  This must be what I misheard, so I turned my head and looked in the direction of Paca Hai, only to see him smiling on his face, holding a dagger in his hand and slashing it towards his own face, not feeling any pain at all, but instead looking like he was having a great time.

  We all stood there motionless, staring at the bizarre scene in front of us, forgetting to react.

  Bazaar was the first to react, he shouted a curse and was about to rush over when Yu Gang and Professor Lao immediately stopped him, not letting him pass. The three of us knew what this represented.

  Baza burst into tears and shouted: "You damned bear, I won't bully you again, stop it...!"

  However, Pakha Hai couldn't hear Baza's voice at all. His face was covered with a strange smile, the knife in his hand was stuck to his cheek, and with one forceful motion, fresh blood slowly flowed from his cheek to his mouth, neck, looking extremely bloody and terrifying.

  One knife after another, a total of six knives.

  It scared me to the point where my heart was racing, it felt like someone was cutting my flesh with a knife, that kind of pain made me feel like my whole body was cramping up.

  The dead word on Pakha's face was completed under our eyelids.

  The first time I saw Xiao Lai Bu's face with a dead word, I felt pain. What kind of person can be so ruthless as to carve a one-inch deep dead word on their own face?

  Now, I have witnessed this process with my own eyes. I don't know how to describe the feeling at this moment. The shocking feeling has penetrated deep into my bones.

  "You will all die..." He threw down the knife in his hand and chuckled at us.

  He immediately started dancing wildly with his hands and feet, looking like a madman, shouting those words I couldn't understand, but I roughly knew what he meant - you're all going to die.

  This sentence has been echoing in my mind since I first stepped into the desert.

  "How could this be?" Xiao Bo's face turned somewhat pale, she turned her head towards the old professor.

  Bazaar was already sitting on the ground, looking like he had been greatly shocked by this matter. The old professor, seeing that Bazaar didn't have any suspicious movements, began to explain: "This situation is very strange, no one knows why he wanted to carve those words onto his face, nor do we know what caused him to do so? We've encountered many individuals like this who are already dead, they're impervious to blades and guns, incredibly powerful, and will only attack living things, including us."

  The bloodstains on Pakha's face hadn't dried yet, a blurry mess of blood and flesh, I reckon he'd still be somewhat conscious now. I wanted to rush up and calm him down, but I didn't dare - I had witnessed with my own eyes how he could kill in an instant, and even eat people.

  "Then kill him." Xiao Bo said directly without even frowning.

  Hearing this, I was still shocked. Looking at Xiaobo, I secretly thought to myself that this woman was really ruthless and cruel. To her, killing people seemed like a trivial matter, just like eating a regular meal.

  That's not a stray cat or dog, it's a human being, a life, how can you just say kill and then kill?

  Before we could even react, Xiao Bo had already pulled out a gun and aimed it directly at Pakha's temple. With a loud bang, Pakha fell to the ground, convulsed a few times, his mouth and throat making gurgling noises as if trying to say something, then stopped moving altogether.

  Bazaar's speed was much faster than mine, he knelt on the ground, his eyes were red as he stared at Paca Sea, I walked over and patted his shoulder, comforting him to say: "Mourn, we still have to continue moving forward, find a way out, he doesn't want to see you sad either."

  I have never comforted anyone before. Generally, when someone dies on TV, they say something like "accept the sorrow and move forward".

  Bazaar obviously didn't have the same open-mindedness as me, I guess it was his first time seeing someone die, and Pakka Hai had grown up with him too, so it's inevitable that he would feel sad.

  I remember when I first saw a dead person, that person died in my hands, at that time, I was completely stunned and didn't know how to react.

  On this road, I've seen so many people die that my nerves have become numb and I don't feel much anymore.

  I didn't know what I was starting to become, and I wasn't rejecting this new self either. However, it allowed me to make clearer choices, especially in times of danger, knowing what would benefit myself.

  That is to say, survival is the most important thing.

  From leaving home until now, I haven't earned anything, but I've learned the most important thing, which is how to survive, and everything else doesn't matter.

  Bazaar seemed to understand what I said. He wiped away his tears, slowly lifted his head and asked in a hoarse voice: "Do you really still want to find that place?"

  "We can't possibly risk being eaten by crocodiles to return the way we came, and even if we escape from the crocodiles, do we have to emerge covered in a pile of mud? Whether or not we can make it to Iron Plate River depends on our luck."

  I don't like it when people refer to Tieban River as a "yin" place. It's clearly just a location, I have no idea why they call it a "yin" place?

  "I promised Tiege that I would go back no matter what the situation is." Baza said with a firm face, his eyes showing an unusual emotion.