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墨書 Inktalez
In a Narrow Path, the Brave Prevail
Yes! In a Narrow Path, the Brave Prevail!
Ziche stared rigidly at the three monsters in front of him, with another one crawling on top.
He struggled to calm himself down, trying to steady his heartbeat. He glanced around and slowly moved, wedging himself into a crevice in the stone wall.
It must be said that being a child has its advantages; they adapt quickly, and their small size makes it easier to hide.
He stood quietly there, his eyes following the movements of the monsters. One of them brushed past his shoulder, and due to the friction of the fabric, it felt slightly itchy. It turned its head to glance in Ziche's direction, touched the stone wall, found nothing unusual, and then scratched its shoulder before leaving with its companions.
Ziche couldn't even count how many times he had encountered such life-and-death situations along the way. He felt like he was going insane, running around underground looking for a Little Monster amidst all these large monsters.
He wanted to return to wait for Liu You'er, but he couldn't put his mind at ease. The previous dangerous encounters had even pushed him to evolve to level two, which could be considered a blessing in disguise.
"Aw~"
The sudden sound made his ears perk up, and a flicker of joy crossed his mind.
"Isn't that the voice of Little Monster! It's okay!"
Twisting his body out from the crevice in the stone wall, he quickly ran in that direction. He had already taken off his shoes and left them at the cave entrance; one reason was that they made too much noise, and the other was that if Liu You'er came looking for him, she would know where he had gone.
"Aw~"
Little Monster was eating with the "family" in the dining hall (the one filled with animal corpses), gnawing on two pieces of meat. When a figure suddenly appeared, Little Monster was taken aback and was about to call the family to catch it, but then realized something was off.
"Isn't that the prey from earlier?!"
"What's wrong?"
A nearby monster, with a few strands of white hair and a full chest, appeared to be female. Upon hearing Little Monster stop chewing, she looked puzzled and sensed something was wrong. With a growl, all the monsters ceased eating and became alert.
"…"
Ziche did not expect this little one to live so harmoniously with the monsters. At least twenty were gathered around, which left him feeling somewhat disoriented. Turning his head, he noticed a few more monsters approaching.
"Sigh."
Little Monster moved its eyes, unwrapped a piece of candy, and placed it in "Mother's" mouth. After a couple of growls, all the monsters resumed eating. "Mother" smiled, clearly pleased with the candy.
Then, Little Monster set down the meat in its hands and crawled towards Ziche, bumping into his leg before heading in another direction.
Ziche pondered its meaning. When he saw it glance back at him, he finally understood and hurried to follow.
With Little Monster leading the way, things went smoothly. There was no threat from the monsters, and he had Buddy's company—well, for now, let's consider it Buddy.
Ziche felt much better and grew bolder. Seeing Little Monster crawling like an animal, he thought for a moment and grabbed its shoulder to encourage it to stand up and walk.
Little Monster was not pleased. It stood up but stumbled three times before crawling back down, pulling Ziche down with it as if to say that his way of walking was wrong.
Ziche was taken aback for a moment, then smiled, his eyes shining brightly, which surprised Little Monster. Not knowing why, Little Monster felt a warmth on her face and dared not look at him again.
Fortunately, her face was very dirty, so nothing could be seen.
After a while, they passed by a pond. Little Monster walked over to scoop some water with her hands. Just as she was about to bring the water to her mouth, she was stopped.
"Hey, your hands are too dirty! You can't do that; you'll get sick!"
As Ziche spoke, he submerged Little Monster's dirty hands in the water and rubbed them until a pair of white, soft hands emerged, though they were covered in tiny wounds and calluses.
"Indeed, you are human."
Little Monster was unhappy that he wouldn't let her drink water. Who would have thought that he would pull out something to dab in the water and wipe his face? It was truly amusing; she was dying of thirst!
Finally, Ziche managed to wipe Little Monster's face half clean amidst her struggles (it was just too dirty; the handkerchief was filthy).
He stared blankly at Little Monster's damp face and her dissatisfied expression, feeling a bit flustered as he said, "You... you can drink now."
Saying this, he turned his head away and no longer looked at her.
"How cute..."
Seeing that she could finally drink water, Little Monster was extremely thirsty and buried her face in the water. Suddenly, something fell into the water beside her. She looked up and found that the Strange Creature had disappeared.
"Plop."
She looked towards the source of the sound, where a "family member" was holding down the Strange Creature by its head, pushing it into the water. The Strange Creature struggled, splashing water everywhere, but was bitten on the shoulder, blood flowing into the pool and quickly disappearing.
The Little Monster anxiously turned in circles, wanting to jump into the water to save it, but suddenly got caught. Turning around, it realized it was its mother.
The mother grabbed its arm and once again smeared its clean face and hands with dirt after sniffing them. She swiftly dragged it away. It struggled in vain, helplessly watching as the commotion in the pool grew smaller and smaller...
Then, around a bend, its line of sight was blocked by a stone wall, and it could no longer hear any sounds.
The monster had followed Ziche all the way. It had evolved to Sixth Level, being the only one able to smell the scent of Ziche Core. That unique sweetness lingered in its mind, and for the first time, it had thoughts of exclusivity. Unfortunately, there was always a "family member" by its side.
Finally, taking advantage of "family member" drinking water, it quickly attacked. Seeing its prey near death made it happy at first, but suddenly something wrapped around its leg and pulled it down to the bottom of the pool.
It struggled violently, instinctively loosening its grip. Taking this opportunity, Ziche hurriedly swam towards the shore while covering its wound and gasping for fresh air. It manipulated the underwater plants to pull that monster down.
However, no matter how many plants there were, they needed to be strong enough; after all, it was only at Level Two and couldn't withstand much. The monster saw the plants losing their strength and quickly swam out from the bottom of the pool, angrily heading towards Ziche.
At this moment, Ziche's face was pale, feeling dizzy and disoriented but still forcing itself to run forward. Suddenly, it collided with a wall of flesh and bounced back to the ground. Looking up, it realized it was a familiar face.
"Hey? Why are you alone?"
Ziche felt anxious and had no time to explain. It hurriedly hugged Yue Xingze's leg and said, "Run fast! The monster is coming!"
After pulling for a while, Yue Xingze didn't move at all; he just looked at that monster and comforted Ziche: "It's okay, it's nothing serious."
Looking at this confident man made Ziche feel strange. In the next second, the man picked him up and covered his back head to prevent him from turning around. Therefore, he didn't see a mass of black water enveloping that monster as if it were alive. In less than three seconds, bubbles erupted from the monster's body as it painfully disappeared into the Black Water.
When he was finally set down, the area behind him was completely empty.
"Alright, let's go find Liu You'er," said Yue Xingze.
Ziche felt an even stronger sense of unease in his heart, but he said nothing and played the role of a well-behaved child. Looking at Yue Xingze, it seemed he had no intention of bandaging himself, so Ziche had to take matters into his own hands. Fortunately, there were some emergency supplies in his bag, including gauze and Yunnan Baiyao.
But where did that Little Monster go?
As he thought about this, he frowned. Just as he was about to ask, he saw Yue Xingze crouching down, carefully tending to his wound, as if just realizing something. He gently asked, "Does it hurt?"
"What’s going on?"
He felt a bit disoriented at that moment. In less than five minutes, the wound was treated, and they began to walk again. Suddenly, he heard someone calling him and happily ran over.
"Sister, you finally found me!"
Yue Xingze looked at Liu You'er being hugged by Ziche and lightly clenched his fist, but still smiled happily and said, "Great! How did you find us?"
Liu You'er glanced at him and replied, "More importantly, I want to know how you escaped."
Yue Xingze shyly smiled and said, "I got lucky; they suddenly went after other prey! I even found the exit."
"Is that so? Then let's go."
Seeing Liu You'er’s cold tone, Yue Xingze didn’t think much of it; he was used to it. But the next sentence successfully interrupted his steps.
"Who are you?"
********
"Tick-tock."
The monsters had already scattered, and there was no trace of Ziche. Looking at the watch, it had been nearly six hours since they got separated. She thought for a moment and felt she should return to the original spot to wait; perhaps...
As she stepped out of the cave, she noticed a small sneaker at the entrance. Frowning, she approached to take a closer look—it was Ziche's. Her expression darkened as she walked in that direction, thinking about many things along the way: the past and the present.
Suddenly, her steps faltered as a strange phrase popped into her mind.
"I hate myself! I always drag others down—my parents too, and my brother. If one day I get caught again, I definitely won't even be able to call for help. Don't come to save me either, so you won't be dragged down..."
Her brow furrowed; that made sense. But then she thought, wait a minute—if her mind was being controlled, being so close to herself, she would definitely feel two brainwaves. But if they only looked similar, why would their scents be the same?
Could it be...
Before she could think further, a strong metallic scent of blood wafted through the air, causing her eyes to flash red as she quickly ran in that direction. Upon arriving, she saw Yue Xingze looking at her with a cheerful expression; everything seemed normal as Ziche happily ran toward her.
But in Liu You'er's eyes, this smiling Yue Xingze was completely another person.
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