Chapter 23: The Invisible Girl

The six of them grew instantly vigilant. In such a place and under these circumstances, the sudden sound of sobbing felt eerie and abrupt.

Jiang Jie used the tip of his long spear to gently push open the door, which was left ajar. A girl with her hair in twin buns sat in the corner, arms wrapped around her knees, her head buried between them, her shoulders trembling incessantly.

Hearing their footsteps, she seemed startled, her body shivering violently.

As if summoning her courage, she lifted her head. Her clear eyes were wet with tears, and her fair face was delicate and pretty, looking as pitiful as a pear blossom drenched in rain.

She scanned the group and finally looked at Rong Xianxian, her expression filled with sorrow. "Big sister, please save me! I'm so scared."

"Are you all alone? Those people outside, they are..." Rong Xianxian wanted to ask how those people outside had died, but seeing the girl's trembling frame, she suddenly felt it might be inappropriate. Fearing she might strike a fragile nerve, she didn't know how to continue.

"Wuwu," the young girl began to sob again, the sound heavy with suppressed grief. "They're all dead, everyone is dead. I'm the only one left."

Cui Lie frowned involuntarily. He exchanged a glance with Rong Xianxian. If her companions were all dead, how had she survived? And if she had the ability to survive, why hadn't she left? The main entrance here had been smashed open; if monsters came, there would be no way to hold them off.

Rong Xianxian felt a headache coming on. Taking her with them was clearly impossible; they were in enough danger themselves, and the situation felt strange.

Just as she was considering how to refuse without sounding too harsh, a "gurgle" sound echoed, and a head with bulging, wide-open eyes rolled to their feet.

Jiang Jie jumped back, shouting in alarm. Those eyes were staring directly at him, and even though he had seen his fair share of blood lately, the sight still made his skin crawl.

The girl jumped up abruptly, tears still clinging to her face. Now, her mouth was wide open in apparent shock. A moment later, she furrowed her brows, lowered her head, and seemed to be deep in thought.

Suddenly, a curtain hanging on the wall behind them was ripped down with great force.

"Mmph, mmph, mmph." The sound seemed to come from a person.

It wasn't that someone had pulled the curtain down; it had been knocked down by someone crashing into it. The person who fell with the curtain was dressed in rags, bound like a log. Their exposed skin was covered in bruises, their face was swollen, their hair was disheveled, and their mouth was stuffed with something, making their cheeks bulge out.

Wang Qirui, a warm-hearted young man who had just felt pity for the little girl, could no longer contain himself upon seeing the man who appeared to be bound and abused.

He strode over to the man and pulled the obstruction from his mouth. It was a tattered towel, and caught in the fabric was a blood-stained tooth.

Believing he had been rescued, the man wept and snot-nosed, his body writhing like a worm. He shouted with a sobbing voice, "Save me! Please, take me away! This woman is crazy. The people outside died because she let the monsters in!"

Rong Xianxian gestured for the others to prepare to withdraw.

Wang Qirui whispered, "Sister Rong," as if he had more to say. Wang Lin kicked him from behind, signaling him to hurry.

"Wait! You can't just leave! You can't stand by and watch me die!" The man, bound like a zongzi, screamed with a neurotic intensity as he realized they were leaving, his voice filled with terror and panic.

"Those people outside were really killed by this woman! I'm not lying to you! Mmph, mmph, mmph!" The desperate cries faded as the man's mouth was stuffed once again.

Wang Qirui struggled against the urge to look back, his steps heavy. He asked Rong Xianxian, unwilling to let it go, "Sister Rong, why didn't we save him?"

"We have no idea what happened here; why should we jump into the fray? Even if what that man said is true, why would the girl do such a thing? Could it be that those people did something unforgivable to her? We can't go around enforcing justice without knowing the facts. What if those people deserved it? We aren't law enforcement; we don't have the right to judge who is right or wrong." Rong Xianxian didn't want trouble; she had a gut feeling that something bad was about to happen. She just wanted to fill the fuel tanks and head home.

They found four empty oil drums in the tool room. The previous group had likely come for fuel as well, as the lock on the oil tank had already been pried open. Jiang Jie found a hose, inserted one end into the tank, took a deep breath to siphon it, and then placed the other end into the drum.

Rong Xianxian made an excuse to go out and keep watch. She checked the three wrecked vehicles and, sure enough, found full oil drums in their trunks. In total, she discovered six drums of oil and some snacks. She quietly stowed them into her sachet and returned to the oil tank.

Once the drums were full, Xia Kai and Wang Qirui each shouldered two, and the six of them prepared to head back.

The girl who had been crying earlier stood expressionless at the door of the small supermarket. She gave them an eerie smile and threw something she had been hiding behind her back toward them. Jiang Jie instinctively swiped at it with his spear, knocking it away.

It was an arm, still dripping with blood. After being pierced by the spear, it bled even more profusely.

Rong Xianxian gave a signal to stay alert. Xia Kai and Wang Qirui dropped the oil drums, and the six of them fell into a defensive formation.

"Awooo!" A pack of hyena-like monsters surrounded them, numbering about seven or eight.

Rong Xianxian breathed a sigh of relief. This type of agile, small-sized monster generally had low defense; as long as they weren't being ambushed, they weren't difficult to handle. It seemed the more powerful and troublesome monsters had been drawn away by the commotion at the school. A pack of twenty or more would have been a headache, but a group of only seven or eight was nothing to fear.

Jiang Jie's spear moved like a dragon, Cui Lie's weapon flashed with cold light, and Wang Lin's heavy machete swung with great force. The six of them stood back-to-back, forming a defensive circle. Suddenly, Rong Xianxian's pupils contracted. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that the girl, who had been chased by one of the monsters, had suddenly vanished.

Could that girl use invisibility? How did she suddenly disappear? No wonder she dared to lure the monsters here.

Having lost their target, the monsters turned to attack the six of them. Unfortunately for them, they were no match, and in a short while, they became eight corpses, contributing six light orbs.

Only the first batch of monsters to descend dropped rare items and top-tier techniques; later waves only dropped common items, ordinary techniques, or sometimes nothing at all.

It was all down to luck, and this time, Rong Xianxian and her group were quite fortunate.

Seeing the monsters defeated, Wang Qirui happily grabbed a light orb. Inside was a calligraphy brush. It seemed useful for Sister Rong, as he often saw her using a brush to draw those strange, talisman-like patterns.

*Puchi!* A soft sound, followed by a sharp, sudden pain in his back. He seemed to hear Sister Rong shouting, "Watch out behind you!" Her voice sounded so... distant!

The young girl, who had looked so pitiful before, now wore a face of malice. She held a blood-stained knife and stared at them. "You all deserve to die! Those men earlier watched those thugs bully me and did nothing. You all have the power, yet you stood by and watched me suffer. You all deserve to die!"

Before she finished speaking, she vanished again.

Rong Xianxian signaled for the other four to disperse. She shielded Wang Qirui behind her, activated her Soul-Suppressing Bell, and struck out toward the direction where the girl had disappeared. A mouthful of blood sprayed into the air. Rong Xianxian pointed at the puddle of blood on the ground. "Form a tight circle, slash at her!"

The four of them launched a dense barrage of attacks, covering the circle. Some strikes met empty air, while others were clearly deflected.

A moment later, with a sharp *clack*, a glass marble rolled to Rong Xianxian's feet, and the girl appeared, her face pale.