Chapter 55: Falling into Despair

  They were indeed hunting because they heard the sound of each other tearing apart.

  Having seen what just happened, several people lost their sleepiness and sat together to discuss countermeasures. First of all, they had to determine what the two black shadows were.

  Yingying thought that Qiu Shen was right. The one in front looked like a spider, and the one behind really did look like a person, but ordinary people couldn't run that fast.

  Fatso insisted it wasn't him.

  "Actually, have you ever thought about it, if ordinary old fish in this river can mutate, what about other animals?"

  "If we had all mutated, would we still be alive and well here talking? We would have been eaten by spiders or ants long ago."

  "Maybe they can only come out at night, and the reason why there are so few of them is that there may be more powerful beings," said Qiu Shen.

  Everyone knows what Qiu Shen said was the most terrifying existence, it's that thing in the back of the two black shadows that looks like a human.

  Several people discussed for half a day and didn't come up with any results. They decided to wait until dawn and go out together again to see if there were any new discoveries.

  Although it's still unclear what's going on, at least an abnormal phenomenon has been discovered.

  However, for the next two days, Tian Qi and his friends still had nothing to show for it. During the day, this place was like a beautiful Shangri-La, with no strange phenomena occurring at all. At night, although they didn't see that scene again, Qiu Shen insisted on not letting everyone go out, his intuition told him it wasn't safe.

  By the third day, Tian Qi and his team expanded their search scope and found that in the valley surrounded by vegetation, there were many large and small 'holes'.

  "Want to go in and take a look?" The fat man shone his flashlight into the entrance of a 'cave', but it was very deep, with a bend in the middle, making it impossible to see what's inside. The 'cave' wasn't small either, Tianqi had to slightly crouch down to enter.

  Tian Qi certainly couldn't just rashly go in like this, as the 'cave' wasn't small, which meant that the animals inside definitely weren't small either.

  Found some withered branches and dry grass, first try smoking them.

  "Will this be effective? I think we can try using water to flush it out." The fat man had also lived in the countryside when he was young and had caught snakes and field mice by flushing them out with water.

  "Listen!" said Yingying.

  A rustling sound came from inside the cave.

  Tian Qi let everyone move away from the 'cave' entrance a bit, listening to the sound it should be a reptile.

  "What is this? Ants?"

  That's right, it turned out to be ants, but these ants were many times larger than normal ants.

  "What else are you thinking about? Run quickly! A few big ants like these can gnaw us to the bone!" Fatso shouted.

  "Wait a minute, it seems like the ants don't dare come out of their 'cave'," Qiu Shen said.

  Three ants gathered at the entrance of the hole, looking very crowded. They seemed to have noticed the smoke at the entrance and the four people standing not far away, but they never stepped out of the entrance from start to finish. Until the smoke disappeared completely, the ants returned to the hole again.

  Several people looked at some other 'holes', some of which had no smoke coming out and no animals came out, while others had centipedes and scorpions coming out, but without exception, they all refused to step out of the 'hole' by half a step.

  "Let me calm down for a bit, I'm too shocked. Luckily they don't come out during the day, or we would have been done for." Back in the ancestral hall, Fatty plopped himself on the ground, he had seen centipedes and scorpions before, just not ones as big as these.

  At night, Tianqi, who had not yet come up with a good solution, decided to observe again whether those mutated animals could come out at night, because they had seen the two black shadows just one night before and had no other discoveries.

  But just that night, things took a turn for the worse, and Chou Shen suddenly vanished!

  It was unclear whether it was because he slept too soundly or if there had been no noise to begin with, but Qi Shen was the first one on night watch. When Tian Qi's alarm clock went off at the set time and woke him up, however, he discovered that Qi Shen was nowhere to be found in the ancestral hall.

  This is no small matter, Tian Qi immediately woke up Pangzi and Yingying.

  "Will Qiu Sheng be taken away by some ants or something?" said Fatso.

  "Little fatty, don't talk nonsense. With Qiu Shen's skills and the black stick in his hand, how could he possibly get hurt easily?" Although Yingying said this with her mouth, she was still very worried in her heart. She had seen those animals before, and one-on-one combat here, no one was a match for them.

  Tian Qi also hesitated for a moment, now it's at least five hours before dawn, the ancestral hall has been searched all around, but Qiu Shen was not found, nor did he leave any message.

  Yingying checked Qiu Shen's things and found that except for the black stick given by Tian Qi, he only brought his mobile phone with him, nothing else was taken away.

  Their phones have had no signal since they entered here, and it's unclear whether it's due to the environment or other factors.

  "I'll go take a look, you guys wait here." Tian Qi made the decision, he couldn't just stay here doing nothing, if Ou Shen really got into some kind of trouble and needed someone to help him.

  Yingying disagreed for the first time, "If we're going, let's go together, more people will also have someone to take care of each other."

  "Yes, if we're going, let's go together!" Fatso said he wasn't afraid, but at the critical moment, he still had a strong sense of justice.

  Seeing Yan Yan and Pao Zi's resolute attitude, Tian Qi also gave up. The three of them took out their flashlights, Yan Yan wore her Buddhist beads, Pao Zi wore the "Yu" pendant for raising corpses around his neck, and he also had a rubber stick that he originally bought to hit wild game, but unexpectedly it came in handy this time.

  "Deep hatred!"

  "Hey! You stinky little brat, where are you making a peep!"

  "Qiu Shengxue Chang, if you can hear our voices, give us some response!"

  Three people got down from the temple, walking and shouting along the way, but their voices were all suppressed very low. Tian Qi was afraid that a loud shout would attract those mutated animals or something.

  Three people started walking around the village, and later gradually expanded their range. What they didn't notice was that behind them, a black shadow began to follow, one, two, and gradually more appeared.

  When they finally found the place, there were more than a dozen dark shadows gathered behind them. Under the moonlight, it turned out to be those animals they saw in the cave during the day!

  "I'm going, we're surrounded!" Fatso shouted out. At this time, the three people were back to back together, and around them were different kinds of animals, including scorpions, spiders, ants, and terrifyingly, a snake.

  Every animal here makes a sound when moving forward, Tian Qi is also very careful and cautious, he doesn't know why he hasn't discovered it yet, could it be because his attention is too focused on finding Ao Xue?

  Tian Qi took out the 'Yin' Yang mirror to reflect the surroundings, but the animals that were directly reflected only retreated a bit and didn't disappear or run away like those ghostly objects. They just had some apprehension and a certain degree of intimidation.

  Tian Qi also understood that these animals should have been affected by the black air here for many years and undergone mutations, with evil spirits on their bodies. However, they were still animals after all, so the 'Yin' Yang mirror could only restrain them but not drive them away or kill them.

  "What to do, Tian Qi Da Shen, you'd better think of a way quickly, I don't want to be eaten alive by the animals here!" The animals gathering outside were getting more and more numerous, and Fatso was getting anxious.

  What to do, what to do, Tian Qi is now also at a loss for ideas. The things they carry on their bodies that can be used as weapons are just these, but they can only restrain and not drive away. Pangzi's rubber stick can be useful, but facing so many is also useless.

  Three people slowly moved towards the temple, and the gathered animals also followed, but at a very slow pace. Tian Qi didn't dare to get too close to them, if that big scorpion stung him, even if he didn't die, he would lose half his life.

  While moving, Tian Qi's heart was also thinking about Chou Shen, where he is now, and whether he would fall into the same desperate situation as them.

  Just at this time, those animals surrounding Tian Qi seemed to have seen something terrifying and scattered in all directions in a very short period of time.

  "What's going on?" The fat man was stunned by the sudden turn of events and didn't expect to be rescued so quickly.

  Tian Qi looked at this scene, but didn't feel happy about it, because he saw a black shadow walking towards them, very similar to the human-like black shadow they saw that night. Were these animals hiding so quickly because they were afraid of him?