"Quick, pull up! Ah—so filthy, so filthy—"
Wang Lan had just burst out of the dense forest when he suddenly heard a cry of alarm in front of him. In an instant, Wang Lan halted in his tracks.
For so reason, the girl nad Lanlan had accidentally fallen into a pool of sewage. The pool was only as deep as her chest, and a young man nad Li Jing was using a tree trunk to pull her out.
Seeing Li Jing struggling, Wang Lan flashed over to lend him a hand.
"How did you get here?" Li Jing suddenly turned his head and frowned as he asked.
"I ca running when I heard her scream."
"Heard a scream?" Li Jing turned his head to look at the distant dense forest. It must be at least one or two hundred ters away, right? How could it be, in just a few seconds?
At once, Li Jing’s gaze toward Wang Lan grew even more unfriendly.
"Don’t doubt it; Mumu can vouch for . I was with her before I heard the scream. I’m a Star Martial Warrior; this distance is nothing for ."
"You’re a Star Martial Warrior!" Li Jing’s face showed surprise, and he imdiately understood. He knew about Star Martial Warriors, so it made complete sense for him to arrive so quickly. Besides, it was very reassuring to have a Star Martial Warrior nearby in the wilderness.
"It stinks to high heaven... My skin’s going to rot... It’s over, I’m going to break out in a rash!" Lanlan wailed towards the sky after climbing ashore.
The pool of stagnant water hadn’t been changed in who knows how long; you can imagine the sll. Plus, it was early November. The temperature difference between day and night was substantial, but their attire was still quite light.
As Lanlan fell into the pool, she inadvertently gave Wang Lan a view of her drenched form. Wang Lan’s cheeks reddened, and he silently turned away.
"What is this? Algae or hair? Ah—" Lanlan had just started to complain when suddenly, an even sharper scream erupted.
Wang Lan turned back to see Lanlan had fallen to the ground, terrified, staring straight at the edge of the pool.
Wang Lan’s expression changed drastically. He flashed to the poolside, spotting a soggy skull lying there, the kind that was completely decayed. It seed to be a woman’s, as long hair was tangled around Lanlan’s ankles.
"Call the police! Damn it, why is there no signal... Hurry, let’s go, soone died in the forest park..." After regaining her composure, Lanlan frantically pulled at Li Jing, screaming.
There was only a skull, and it was uncertain how long it had been dead—perhaps there were other bones in the pool.
Wang Lan stood up. Just as he turned around, he suddenly dashed beside Lanlan with lightning speed, pinching a leech off her snow-white thigh.
Lanlan was startled by Wang Lan’s sudden move and snapped back, "What are you doing?"
"There was a leech on you from the pool; it was this big." Wang Lan dropped the leech to the ground. It wriggled like a plump earthworm; it looked to be a hefty five or six grams.
Lanlan, being a young woman, was petrified by the horrifying sight of the leech.
"Ah—" She grabbed her hair and let out a series of bloodcurdling screams.
"What do I do... Li Jing, what do I do... I was completely in the water just now! Is there still sothing on ? Is there?!"
Wang Lan calmly looked at the leech on the ground and gently raised a foot.
SQUISH! Wang Lan crushed the leech underfoot, and its bright red blood splattered out.
"You’re asking ? I don’t know either. How about we hurry ho, or maybe go to the hospital?"
"By the ti you get to the hospital, the leeches will have already burrowed into your flesh! I suggest you take off your clothes now and have your boyfriend check your entire body. Don’t worry, I’ll turn my back and won’t peek."
With that said, Wang Lan turned around. Lanlan quickly stripped off her dress, her snow-white body standing before Li Jing. "Quick, check for !"
"Oh, oh..." Li Jing suddenly ca to his senses. "There’s nothing on the front, but on the back... ah, there are three on the back!"
"Then what are you waiting for? Help pull them out—"
"But they’ve burrowed in halfway! I can’t grab them!"
"Little brother, help—" Lanlan suddenly shouted imperiously and kicked her boyfriend in front of her to the ground.
Instantly, Wang Lan turned around, his fingers pinpointing the three leeches on Lanlan’s snow-white back that were desperately burrowing in. He plucked out the three leeches and tossed them onto the ground, then decisively turned away.
"Put your clothes on slowly; check if there are any leeches inside them first."
Lanlan, about to get dressed, paused. She shook her clothes in a panic, and sure enough, three leeches fell out.
After checking several tis and being certain there were none left, she hurriedly slipped on her dress.
"Little brother, it’s good now..."
"Damn it, damn it!" Li Jing, kicked aside by his girlfriend, felt a profound sense of humiliation. But he couldn’t bring himself to bla Wang Lan, for he wasn’t the type to repay kindness with enmity. So, he could only vent by stomping on the leeches on the ground.
After much stamping, the leeches were still lively.
"Stop ssing with the bugs; let’s hurry back," Wang Lan stopped the man, who was clearly in his twenties yet still behaved so childishly. As he passed the leeches, he very carelessly—SPLAT!—crushed the three that had been pulled from Lanlan’s back until they burst.
The bright red blood made Lanlan’s face turn white as a sheet again.
In a panic, they quickly left in the direction they had co from.
But when they arrived at the spot where Mumu had been, Mumu was nowhere to be seen. From the mont Wang Lan had left until their return, barely twenty minutes had elapsed. Yet Mumu’s disappearance at this ti seed highly abnormal.
When Lanlan scread, Wang Lan had rushed over imdiately. Mumu should have also co right away. It was only a distance of a little over a hundred ters; logically, Mumu should have t them at the poolside.
But clearly, Mumu had not co.
Yet all the equipnt they carried was left intact in its place.
"Mumu—Mumu—where are you?" Lanlan called out anxiously.
"Where has that damn girl run off to? Disappearing at a ti like this, did she stumble into a ti tunnel?" Lanlan cursed, stomping her foot in frustration.
"It’s possible!" Li Jing moved to the computer, observing the fluctuations on the screen that jumped rapidly, like Mario.
"There’s a strong magnetic field anomaly here, covering a range of five hundred ters. That’s why our cell phone signals are being interfered with," Li Jing said, peering at the computer screen as he imdiately switched into scientist mode.
Wang Lan watched, taken aback by how quickly Li Jing’s deanor had changed. One mont he was all flustered, saying they needed to leave quickly, and the next he was as calm as an old dog?
Hearing Li Jing’s explanation, Wang Lan took out the cell phone issued by the Tianjian Bureau. After glancing at it, his expression changed drastically.
"Quick, let’s get out of here."
The cell phone Wang Lan carried ca with military-grade signal transmission and reception, which ant interference shouldn’t disrupt it this completely. Besides, Wang Lan had at least finished high school physics.
If it was truly a strong magnetic field disrupting the signals, then both their cell phones and the computer would have been rendered useless. But in reality, the phone was stable, and the computer was running just fine.
"Leave? No, I can’t just leave Mumu alone here. Mumu—Mumu—"
Lanlan called out in distress, even daring to walk away from Wang Lan and Li Jing towards the dense forest opposite them.
"Mumu—"
Adversity reveals true friendship; this clearly wasn’t just superficial sisterhood.
"Hey! Lanlan? I’m here—"
At that mont, Mumu’s response ca from within the woods. Soon after, Mumu, wearing a duckbill cap, erged from the forest.
"Lanlan, what’s wrong? You look like you’ve been bullied," the girl called Mumu teased with a laugh.
"Mumu, where did you run off to? I was so worried about you, and you’re making fun of ? Where have you been all this ti?"
"All this ti? It’s only been a mont. The detector sensed so magnetic field fluctuations, so I rushed over there. But after going around a bit and finding nothing, I ca back. It was three minutes at most."
"What three minutes? It’s been half an hour!"
"Really? You’re exaggerating, aren’t you?" Mumu said incredulously, lifting her wristwatch. "Look, three minutes."
"Look! Thirty minutes!"
"Hey, you two, is this really the ti to argue about three minutes versus thirty minutes? Now that we’re all here, let’s go! Get out of here!"
"Wait... does this an... we’ve found the ti tunnel?" Mumu suddenly realized, shouting with excitent.
"It could be! The laptop has been recording all along, right? Let’s go back and analyze the recorded patterns; our graduation report this year could depend on it!"
"That’s great—"
"We should still leave quickly; this place isn’t safe," Wang Lan urged, looking around warily.
"Alright, alright, let’s go, move it!" Li Jing reacted swiftly, snapped the laptop shut, grabbed the equipnt, and stood up.
"Mumu, I need to tell you, soone was killed in this forest park. Just now, in that pond, there was a skeleton..."
Suddenly, Wang Lan’s hand shot out like lightning, touching Mumu’s neck.
"What are you doing?" Mumu turned around in fright, glaring coldly at Wang Lan.
On the tip of Wang Lan’s finger, a sluggish leech squird slightly.
"There was a leech on your neck, though I’m not sure how it got there."
"Ah? Get it off, that’s disgusting!" Lanlan shrieked, her body trembling as the leech in Wang Lan’s hand seed to revive so unpleasant mories.
Wang Lan casually tossed the leech to the ground.
SPLAT!
The leech burst, and green blood splattered out.
In that instant, Wang Lan’s steps halted, and a sharp glint flashed in his eyes.
And precisely at that mont, Li Jing, who had been standing aside, caught sight of it. "Huh? Mumu, why is your blood green?"
That must be what they call a ’fool of a teammate.’ In the instant Wang Lan internally criticized, his Ghost Wail sword appeared, and his form turned into a streak of light as he thrust his sword towards Mumu.
Mumu instantly flipped backwards, spinning twice in midair before landing steadily two ters away.
This sudden change left Lanlan and Li Jing stunned. It had all happened too fast; it felt like a ridiculous dream.
"Mumu... you... since when did you learn martial arts?"
"Mumu is already dead!" Wang Lan declared, Star Power surging around him as he pointed Ghost Wail at the Mumu before him. "It’s now a Demon... Only Demon blood is green."
"I wondered why that leech was so sluggish; turns out your blood is poisonous. Besides, there’s no such thing as a ti tunnel. The process of their disappearance is the process of the Demon Clan killing them to take their place."
"Your watch’s ti... was deliberately set to show only three minutes had passed. Demon Clan... are you beginning your invasion again?"
"Hmph—" A cold snort sounded. The face of the Mumu before them suddenly began to distort. Its eyes bulged from their sockets, and its skin turned into a dark brown, keratinous texture.
Its hands suddenly grew longer, and its legs twisted grotesquely. In less than three seconds, a two-ter-tall, powerfully built Demon Clan warrior appeared before the trio.
"A mont of carelessness led to a slip... but no matter. As long as I kill you all, it still won’t affect our plans," bood the deep, layered voice from the Demon’s pincer-like jaws.
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