Chapter 913: The Bitter Battle with the Children
In the moment when Lin Sanjiu helplessly watched her shadow being devoured, she felt as if she had fallen into an icy cave. Her heart seemed to disappear suddenly, leaving her chest empty, and her mind empty as well. Even after experiencing countless life and death situations, the fear that emerged from deep within her still paralyzed her.
However, wait a minute.
If her head was gone, how could she still feel fear and paralysis?
At the same instant this thought floated up, Lin Sanjiu suddenly regained her senses as if she had thawed. Once she calmed down, her decision-making became lightning-fast and decisive. Before she realized what she was doing, her body had already moved ahead—her consciousness forcefully collided with the searchlights in several places, causing the white light to extinguish with a crisp shattering sound, and darkness reclaimed dominance over the night.
After the light dimmed for a moment, it felt as if all sounds had disappeared along with her shadow. Lin Sanjiu was surrounded by pitch-black darkness, as if even her breath was trapped in her chest. It wasn't until her vision gradually adapted to the darkness that she suddenly heard her own intense and strong heartbeat once again.
She was still alive!
The seemingly lengthy moment just now had actually only passed in a matter of seconds. Even she couldn't believe that she had managed to react in such a short amount of time and narrowly saved her own life.
The "choking" sound continued in the night from Naga-ashi's throat. Lin Sanjiu leaped in the direction she remembered it to be, flipping through the air and drawing a long arc of silver cold light. The arc flashed past Naga-ashi, and immediately, a low, human-like cry of pain came from another direction in the dark.
Having regained its freedom, Naga-ashi took a sharp breath and stumbled backward a few steps, nearly falling to the ground.
"What just happened?" Lin Sanjiu landed and asked in a low voice.
The entity that could devour human shadows had no place in complete darkness. Naga-ashi stood up in the dark, not saying thank you but panting as it replied, "H-How did you cut it off just now? The thing that hooked onto my eyeball... it wasn't... a physical object."
"I know." Lin Sanjiu waved her wolf tooth-like blade, and its tip trembled slightly, emitting a faint buzzing sound. This weapon, which appeared to be a knife, far exceeded the performance of a conventional cold weapon. "Did you see what hooked onto your eyeball?"
Naga-ashi lowered its head to adjust its askew mask and covered its face again before answering, "Yes, I saw."
"What was it?"
"Its gaze."
Lin Sanjiu was taken aback, about to ask "Whose gaze?" when suddenly the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. Before she could react, the Defense Forcefield on her body trembled and rippled—something was biting into her forcefield, and the two forces were entangled in a tug-of-war, rapidly depleting her consciousness.
Her heart tightened as she tried to twist and leap away, but she realized that something was sticking to her back, making her unable to move an inch. And that wasn't the worst part—out of the corner of her eye, she felt something approaching her step by step from the darkness beside her.
"Naga-ashi!" Lin Sanjiu shouted, unwilling to divert her gaze from that darkness. She needed to know what was behind her, and Duoluozhong happened to be facing her back.
However, Naga-ashi seemed unaware of her peculiar situation. As it turned to her voice, before Lin Sanjiu could speak, she suddenly heard a familiar voice next to her ear, calling out "Naga-ashi!" in the exact same tone.
It was her own voice.
The thing that produced her voice was right next to her ear, and she could almost feel the faint breath of laughter. When she swiftly thrust the sharp wolf tooth in her hand towards the air beside her ear, the thing had already darted away from her shoulder, giggling and disappearing.
"I heard you the first time. What do you want?" Duoluozhong shouted, swinging its arm bone and creating a whistle in the dark.
Lin Sanjiu's heart sank.
How many "rare creatures" were hidden in this dark night? One that devoured shadows, one that ensnared the eyes with its gaze, one that stuck to her back, one that slowly approached from the darkness, and now one that was lurking by her ear, calling out Naga-ashi with her voice... It was too late to warn Duoluozhong now, but she couldn't help but shout, "I didn't call just now!"
Naga-ashi clenched its teeth and lunged forward, abruptly opening its metallic umbrella. What it hit or blocked from view, Lin Sanjiu couldn't see because it was beyond her peripheral vision.
"What do you want me to do?" Naga-ashi, catching its breath, called out not far behind her back. "Say something!"
"Look behind me!" Lin Sanjiu had already launched several psychic attacks behind her, but they all seemed to vanish into thin air. She had just managed to recover half of her psychic power, but it was rapidly depleting again. However, her shouts echoed and dissipated in the darkness, while Naga-ashi was too preoccupied fighting with something, not bothering to answer her.
It seemed like it couldn't hear her.
That thought crossed Lin Sanjiu's mind.
She couldn't afford to delay any longer. While thinking this, she quickly switched to another small Special Item in her hand.
"I don't know whether to say it's a pity, but not all the children we nurture are primarily focused on combat ability."
Just as the Retractable Teacher Pointer slipped into the darkness from her hand, that unfamiliar voice came from behind the gate once again. It seemed that person had been spying on the situation outside through some means, and now chuckled softly, saying, "...After all, how these children are born, in what form and with what characteristics, is entirely random. It's a gift from the Creator."
The enormous shadow finally approached Lin Sanjiu. It was clearly one of the creatures not skilled in combat since its speed was quite slow, taking about seven or eight seconds to traverse this short distance. As it slowly bent down toward Lin Sanjiu, her heart raced uncontrollably.
"But we don't necessarily require them to possess extraordinary combat abilities." The voice gradually grew more excited. "As long as their abilities are outstanding, they can be useful in any way. Like this one, oh, I really didn't expect that a posthuman would appear here tonight...
It's like a pillow falling from the sky when I'm feeling drowsy. My most precious child can finally be put to use."
Silently, Lin Sanjiu retracted the Retractable Teacher Pointer and summoned another small Special Item in her hand.
She had great confidence that the person behind the gate couldn't see the small object in her hand amidst the darkness. However, she had no certainty about its effectiveness against the monster.
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