When Xie Xishu heard Xiao Tianming’s blood-curdling scream, he almost thought the man had actually been caught by the pursuing monsters.
But in the next second, he understood the true source of Xiao Tianming’s terror… it wasn’t the few ordinary low-level monsters chasing them, the kind that Qi Wu could easily kill in one strike.
It was a familiar woman.
The woman with the severed head.
Xie Xishu had never imagined he would encounter her again, and even less that when they met for a second time, the creature that had once cast such a deep psychological shadow over him could become even more terrifying and horrifying than before.
At this moment, they had already left the outskirts and were about to enter the main city of A City. According to the original plan, they only needed to cross the overpass marked on the map and drive for another twenty minutes to reach the government-designated safe zone.
However, the overpass now stretched across the road, its original appearance completely unrecognizable.
The woman with the severed head had entwined her long, slender body around the metal bridge, occupying almost the entire bridge surface. Countless slender arms had merged to form her elongated body, making her resemble a grotesquely enlarged albino centipede from a distance. These slender arms had no joints, their skin deathly pale, but in each palm, she held one or more heads.
Some of the heads had decayed so much that the scalp had turned to mush, with strands of black, tangled hair clinging to half-exposed skulls. The monster’s long fingers had to dig deep into the eye sockets, overflowing with putrid fluid, just to keep a grip on them. Others, however, were so fresh they seemed to have just been torn from the bodies of the living, their only sign of death being the pale, stiffened skin from blood loss. Even the faces, contorted with fear, remained disturbingly lifelike.
Among all the heads, two stood out as particularly unique—they were embedded in the woman’s chest, where her breasts would have been. One was the head of the young man who had once, in terror, exchanged a glance with them. The other was the head of a little girl.
Their presence gave the woman with the severed head the eerie appearance of having “eyes.”
In fact, it was exactly so.
The moment Xie Xishu and the others came into view, all of the heads’ eyes snapped open at the same time.
“Sh*t—”
Qi Wu cursed, and the speeding motorcycle almost made a U-turn on the spot, screeching to a halt amidst rising smoke and the stench of burning rubber.
Xiao Tianming wasn’t so lucky, almost crashing straight into a pile of wrecked cars stacked into a mountain.
Yes, that’s right—the area beneath the overpass was now filled with haphazardly piled cars. The bodies of the vehicles were twisted, and from the gaps of the deformed doors, fresh blood dripped. What terrified Xie Xishu even more was that he saw several military-green vehicles in the pile, distinctly different from civilian cars.
The once spacious intersection was now completely blocked.
Xie Xishu’s throat felt like it had been stuffed with invisible stones, making it hard for him to breathe.
Even though he hadn’t mutated, he could clearly sense that the headless woman had become far more troublesome than before… several times more troublesome.
“Holy sh*t! What the hell is that?! You guys didn’t tell me the monsters had turned into this!”
Xiao Tianming barely managed to turn in time, narrowly escaping death, but when he looked back to check the situation and saw the headless woman, he was scared out of his wits, screaming non-stop.
“Ahhh, what the hell is this?! Oh my god—”
…
No one paid attention to him.
The air was thick with the stench of blood from the headless woman, the sweet, metallic smell of human blood, the gas leaking from the wrecked cars, and the unmistakable odor of rotting corpses.
Just looking at the woman’s massive form, which seemed to make the entire metal bridge creak and sway, it was clear that while Xie Xishu and Qi Wu had been leisurely dealing with the occasional monsters in the suburbs, the headless woman had been gorging herself in the densely populated A City.
She must have devoured many monsters and undergone numerous transformations.
Now, even for someone as powerful as Qi Wu, she was extremely dangerous.
But what was even more terrifying than her grotesquely expanded body was the expression on her face.
Gone was the dull, mindless look she had before. The two heads embedded in her chest gazed at Qi Wu and Xie Xishu with an eerie, malevolent intelligence.
She stared at them with countless dead eyes, her gaze filled with greed.
“Long time no see…”
She opened her mouth and spoke in a hoarse voice.
The deep voice of a man layered with the childish tone of a young girl, creating an unsettling effect.
Then, the headless woman waved her numerous arms, slowly lowering them from the bridge to the ground.
“Today… my luck is perfect…”
She swayed her body slowly as she continued speaking.
“I finally get to meet you… again… Ahhh, since we last parted… I’ve regretted it so, so, so much.”
“Such delicious… delicious food… and I let it slip away… Since then, I haven’t smelled anything so… fragrant… It must taste so good, it must taste so good, I really want to eat it, I really want to eat it, I really want to eat it…”
“I like you so much…”
The headless woman murmured, her voice thick with strange, sticky affection.
Just hearing those words made Xie Xishu’s skin crawl.
“I like you so much, I want to eat you, let me eat you… I’ll fulfill… your wishes… I can satisfy… anything you want… just let me eat you, hehehe, if I eat something so tasty, I can do anything…”
As the headless woman slowly advanced, Qi Wu instinctively shielded Xie Xishu, retreating step by step.
The young man’s face was ashen.
He certainly didn’t think that the headless woman’s slow, deliberate movements meant she was planning to let them go. In fact, the bloodthirsty hunger he sensed from this other high-level monster was so intense it made him feel nauseated.
The instincts of a fellow monster made every muscle in his body tremble, and under his clothes, countless cracks had silently opened on his skin. Hidden within were tiny, tooth-filled, bloodthirsty “mouths,” which were writhing and boiling, eager to burst forth.
Qi Wu’s Adam’s apple bobbed.
He wanted to kill.
He wanted to bite.
He wanted to completely tear apart the monster before him, grind its insides into a pulp, and rip its soft, decaying skin right off its bones…
Even if it was stronger than him.
The intense bloodlust surged through every cell in Qi Wu’s body, so strong it felt like it might boil his brain.
But just as that madness was about to consume all his reason, Qi Wu forcefully swallowed a mouthful of blood, forcing himself to maintain the last shred of clarity.
He quickly turned, pushing Xie Xishu, who had been clinging to him, toward Xiao Tianming.
“Take… him… take him and go!”
Qi Wu stared intently at Xiao Tianming’s terrified, pale face, speaking each word slowly and deliberately.
The engine of Xiao Tianming’s motorcycle was still roaring, and with his skill, if he could buy enough time, there was indeed a chance they could escape. Qi Wu didn’t trust Xiao Tianming, but at this moment, he had a strong intuition—if Xie Xishu fell into the hands of the headless woman, an irreversible disaster would follow.
However, upon hearing Qi Wu’s instruction, Xiao Tianming shook his head frantically, his eyes brimming with tears: “No, I can’t, I can’t!”
Though he was the oldest of the three, Xiao Tianming looked like he wanted nothing more than to hide under someone’s protection. When Qi Wu spoke, he seemed on the verge of breaking down in tears.
“Qi Wu?!”
At that moment, Xie Xishu stared intensely at the boy beside him.
Qi Wu’s chest heaved violently.
His tolerance had nearly reached its limit, and as he spoke again, countless crimson mouths appeared, tearing open across his face—
“I’ll hold this thing off! You take Xiao Shu and go! Hurry!”
…
The instant Xie Xishu heard Qi Wu’s shout, his eyes burned with sudden emotion.
“But—”
Before he could finish his sentence, someone screamed and yanked him forcefully toward the motorcycle behind him.
Xiao Tianming’s eyes were wide open. Just a second ago, when he saw the headless woman, he had been completely resigned to his fate.
But now, facing Qi Wu’s uncontrollable monstrous form, his spirit suddenly rallied, and he leaped up, nearly breaking down as he screamed, “Run! Run! This guy is a f*cking monster too! Ahhh!!!”
Xie Xishu stumbled a few steps from being pulled, fully aware that at a moment like this, hesitation was dangerous. Besides, in his current condition, staying would only drag Qi Wu down.
But he still couldn’t just leave Qi Wu behind.
“Qi Wu—”
He broke free from Xiao Tianming, rushed forward, and hugged Qi Wu tightly around the waist.
“I promise you.”
Xie Xishu spoke quickly, his face pressed against Qi Wu’s broad back.
Qi Wu’s muscles were already tensed to an extreme degree, but at that moment, Xie Xishu could clearly feel his body tightening even further, like his flesh and skin had turned into hard stone.
“…What?” The boy’s voice sounded a bit muffled in that instant.
“I promise to date you, to be your boyfriend… so, don’t you dare die.”
Xie Xishu didn’t know if he choked up while saying that.
He didn’t turn back to see Qi Wu’s reaction either.
After throwing out those words, he bit his lip and dashed toward the motorcycle.
He had never run this fast before.
Xiao Tianming had already jumped onto the motorcycle, looking like he was about to leave without waiting for Xie Xishu. But at the last moment, his collar was suddenly yanked, and as he revved the engine and shot forward, someone lightly hopped onto the seat behind him.
At the same moment, a sharp, monstrous howl rang out from behind them.
Along with the sickening sound of something tearing through flesh, which made one’s teeth ache involuntarily.
__
Author’s note:
Let’s congratulate Qi on getting a “wife” today.
