Chapter 9
After the cat and fox finished their bloody meal, Ji Dongzang tried to communicate with the fox. She had a vague feeling that the fox not only understood her, but even showed a strange friendliness towards her, as if willing to accept her as a "friend."
So, Ji Dongzang decisively changed his mount from a black cat to a red-tailed fox which looked more reliable.
She motioned for the fox to take her for a walk at his leisure.
The red-tailed fox carried her on its back as it journeyed through the deep mountains and forests. Along the way, they encountered many animals that seemed to recognize the fox, and there was no conflict between the two, and they even felt a sense of familiarity.
Finally, the fox brought her to a deep cave.
The deeper we went into the cave, the colder and more stagnant the air became. The black cat that had come with us had already disappeared without a trace, its fur standing on end.
All that was left in my ears was the whistling of the wind and an intermittent, heart-pounding "snapping" sound, like a heavy whip hitting wet rocks.
The darkness enveloped him like thick ink, and a strong, pungent fishy smell hit him in the face, accompanied by a heavy and slow exhalation sound like pulling a bellows.
The fox finally stopped.
After Dongzang slid off its back, he saw an even narrower cave entrance in front of him.
She could clearly sense a giant creature lurking deep within the cave! Her intense curiosity drove her to get closer and take a closer look, but her fear of unknown dangers held her back.
In the end, she could only hold her breath and try to look inside with the faint light from the cave entrance.
Deep inside the cave, something seemed to be crawling. The sticky sound of it rubbing against the ground instantly gave her goosebumps.
At this moment, the red-tailed fox next to him seemed to be pricked by an invisible needle. It suddenly let out a suppressed low moan, then turned around and ran back the way it came without looking back!
"Hey! Wait for me!" Ji Dongzang lowered his voice and shouted anxiously at the fox's back that disappeared in the darkness in an instant.
The only response she got was the echo of the fox's paws scurrying across the slippery stone surface.
The surroundings fell into dead silence again, with only the beating of my own heartbeat like a drum and the strange gasping and throbbing sounds deep in the cave.
In this suffocating silence.
Bang!
Something tapped her waist lightly!
The extreme fear made her bounce back suddenly as if she was scalded, and her back hit the cold wall of the cave with a dull "bang" sound!
A few loose pieces of gravel fell down with a rustling sound.
"Boom boom boom boom..." The heavy footsteps instantly sounded in the cave, mixed with increasingly rapid whipping sounds and heavy breathing, as if completely enraged by the noise.
The darkness was so thick that it could not be dissolved. Ji Dongzang's vision was blurred. He could only rely on instinct, groping with his hands for the slippery rock wall behind him, trying desperately to move backwards.
Suddenly, her back hit something warm...
The moment his back hit that warmth, Ji Dongzang's nerves suddenly tensed up!
Her body's instinct was faster than her thinking. She drew out her claw knife with her backhand, and a cold light cut through the darkness, slashing fiercely at the warm object behind her!
Swish!
Almost at the same time, a blinding light suddenly erupted from the distance! The entire cave was instantly illuminated, revealing every detail.
With the sudden light, Ji Dongzang finally saw clearly what he had just bumped into and the target of the claw knife.
That was a... or rather, a person?
Black Goat!?
Its form has become very close to that of a human: an upright body covered with dark skin, a head covered with fluffy, curly white wool, and slightly curved black horns extending from both sides.
However, its eyes are unusually close to its erect ears.
The most frightening thing was those eyes - narrow, horizontal pupils, so cold that there was not a trace of the warmth of a living thing, as if they were two inorganic obsidians embedded in a sheep's head.
The edge of the claw knife was left on its neck near the shoulder blade, and a long and thin blood mark was slowly oozing out.
Ji Dongzang was caught off guard and stared straight into those horizontal pupils.
An indescribable chill instantly enveloped her.
That look... didn't seem like she was looking at a living creature, but more like she was staring at an object, or... a container? It was as if some cold, ancient, inhuman will was examining her soul through those goat eyes.
Just the sight of them making eye contact made Ji Dongzang feel frightened, and the knuckles of his fingers holding the claw knife turned slightly white.
The black goat slowly and strangely raised its "hands"—those limbs, thick-knuckled, twisted, and covered in sparse black hair, a cross between a human hand and a goat's hoof—and pressed them against the wound on its neck. Dark red blood oozed from the gaps between its stubby fingers.
Ji Dongzang pressed his back tightly against the sticky and cold stone wall behind him, with his claw knife across his body, all the muscles tensed, and every cell screaming for danger.
"twelve."
A clear, calm, almost eerie girl's voice came from the light source.
Ji Dongzang saw the black goat slowly turn its head towards the source of the sound.
She immediately distracted herself and looked away, but most of her attention was still fixed on the black goat in front of her that exuded a deadly threat.
There were two figures standing at the light source.
The person who spoke was a little girl.
At first glance, she seemed to be the only "normal" person in this strange cave.
He was wearing an ordinary shirt and pants, had a thin figure, and his face could even be described as pretty.
However, in this abyss filled with abnormalities and weirdness, this "normality" itself is the biggest anomaly!
She was like a thin layer of ice, covering unfathomable horror.
Next to the girl stood an adult man.
His "normality" is even more disgusting.
He had the basic outline of a human and wore human clothes, but that face... was like a clay doll that had been violently kneaded, with facial features distorted and misplaced, presenting an ugliness that was physically uncomfortable.
What was even more bizarre was his disproportionate body, with limbs of varying lengths and thicknesses, and a thick, scaly tail dragging heavily in the shadows behind him.
Ji Dongzang only had time to glance at it before the little girl's calm voice rang out again:
"Thirteen."
This time, the "man" whose head was originally drooping deeply to the ground, almost touching his chest and abdomen, moved extremely slowly, accompanied by a teeth-grinding sound of bones rubbing against each other.
He raised his indescribably ugly face and cast a blank gaze at the little girl.
These three... let's call them "existences" for now.
Ji Dongzang's gaze seemed to be pulled by an invisible thread, wandering back and forth among these three "monsters" with different shapes and exuding inhuman aura.
Finally, her gaze involuntarily met the gaze of the seemingly most harmless little girl.
"Fourteen?" The little girl tilted her head, and her clear voice carried a hint of...innocent doubt.
Ji Dongzang: "..."
Her throat felt like it was being clamped tightly in an icy iron clamp, and she couldn't utter a single word. That questioning look was even more terrifying than the horizontal pupils of a black goat.
In this bizarre scene that made one's scalp explode, the heart-pounding whipping sound continued deep in the cave without stopping.
When he first saw the long tail trailing behind the man, Ji Dongzang thought it was the sound of a swinging tail.
But at this moment, the man stood there like a sculpture, his empty gaze fixed on the little girl, motionless.
Could it be... that there is something else in the cave? An even colder thought flashed through Ji Dongzang's mind.
"Fool." A call from an indistinguishable source, as if it came directly from inside her skull, suddenly broke the suffocating deadlock.
Hearing the sound, the little girl finally stopped counting mechanically.
She slowly raised her head, her voice not loud, but clearly penetrating the interference of the whipping sound: "Master, I found my sister again."
Before she finished her words, the dazzling light in the little girl's hand went out instantly!
Absolute, all-consuming darkness suddenly descended!
The darkness was so thick that it seemed unnatural, as if tangible ink filled the space and deprived Ji Dongzang of all his vision.
In this deadly darkness, a new sound was infinitely amplified—da, da, da, da…da, da, da, da…
Footsteps?
The sound was eerily rhythmic, and each step carried an inhuman precision and weight.
Ji Dongzang's heart was filled with alarm: the black goat beside him was not moving, and who of the little girl and the ugly boy could escape from this... step that was like a wooden stake hitting the ground?
Sudden!
A small hand, as cold as if it had just been fished out of an ice cellar, suddenly grabbed Ji Dongzang's wrist, which was tightly gripping the claw knife!
The biting cold made her shiver all over and gasp.
She almost used up all her willpower to suppress the instinctive urge to kick him, and the hand holding the claw knife also forced herself to hold back from counterattacking.
However, the little hand did not stop. It deftly and forcefully pried open Ji Dongzang's fingers and undoubtedly pulled the claw knife out of her palm.
Ji Dongzang's body was stiff and she remained silent. Faced with such absolute power and the unknown, she chose the most cautious strategy - to wait and see.
The owner of the little hand, the strange little girl took Ji Dongzang's empty hand and began to lead her forward.
In the darkness, Ji Dongzang could clearly feel the heavy, fishy smell of the black goat not far from him.
And the ugly man followed closely.
What made her hair stand on end was that a cold, long tail covered with rough scales, like a cunning poisonous snake, began to silently move and grope on her body!
Walking among a group of inhuman monsters, every step felt like walking on the edge of a knife, and the intense fear made her scalp tingle.
Soon, she understood the tail's intention.
The other claw knife on his waist, the heavy pistol loaded with bullets, the chocolate in his pocket, the cell phone, the crumpled toilet paper, and even the thin sports watch on his wrist...
That incredibly flexible tail, like the most efficient body search tool, accurately and coldly stripped off and disarmed everything on her body that could be called "objects" or "weapons."
A nameless anger, mixed with a deeper chill, surged into his heart. Ji Dongzang calmly and fiercely kicked in the direction of the ugly man he had sensed!
All my feet touched was empty air.
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