9: Chapter 9 The Price of Saying the Wrong Thing

Thick white mist rolled through the woods, yet it seemed to be slightly diluted by the wind surging from the foot of the mountain, carrying a hint of the turbid aura of the mortal world.

Wang Yang hunched his back like a startled wild deer, staring intently at the blurry path beneath his feet.

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His lungs felt like they were on fire, and every breath he took carried the smell of blood.

He didn't dare look back, much less look up.

He could only rely on his survival instinct, using every last ounce of strength to drag the three people behind him as they sprinted downward.

The blood on Huang Guohua's face was mixed with cold sweat and mud; his eyes were numb and hollow, just mechanically following along.

Zhao Xiaoya's sobbing had long been replaced by heavy panting; every step felt like treading on cotton.

Old Zhang, on the other hand, was like a marionette, his mouth repeatedly muttering broken scriptures as he stumbled along.

"Quick! I see... I see the asphalt road!"

Wang Yang suddenly skidded to a halt.

Pointing at the dark gray road surface faintly visible in the thick fog below, which was distinctly different from the mud, his voice was hoarse yet filled with the ecstasy of finding a way out of a desperate situation.

Almost at the same time, he tremblingly pulled out his phone.

In the top left corner of the screen, a weak signal bar lit up tenaciously like a life-saving spark!

"There's a signal! There's a signal!!"

Wang Yang roared wildly, his fingers trembling as he dialed the emergency number, tears gushing out uncontrollably.

Huang Guohua and Zhao Xiaoya also woke up as if from a dream, scrambling to pull out their own phones.

Meanwhile, deep in the mountain forest.

Ding Qing was like the most agile leopard in the forest, every step exploding with astonishing power, leaving deep imprints on the slippery and rugged hillside.

Zhao Qiang, tucked under his arm, was no longer cursing and threatening as he had been moments ago.

The violent jolting and the heavy, eerie footsteps behind him—approaching like a maggot on a bone—had completely crushed his last shred of courage.

"Ding... Brother Ding! Grandpa Ding! I was wrong! I was really wrong!"

Zhao Qiang's voice carried a sob and cracked.

With tears and snot streaming down his face, he pleaded intermittently amidst the jolting.

"Put me down! Please! I'll run by myself! I'll help you deal with that thing! Don't throw me to him!"

"Shut up."

Ding Qing's voice was as cold as ice, and his speed didn't decrease in the slightest.

He even had the leisure to glance back.

Li Feng!

Or rather, that thing wearing Li Feng's skin.

It was chasing them in a stiff posture that surpassed human limits.

It ignored steep slopes and obstacles, its knees barely bending, bouncing forward as if pulled by invisible threads.

The angle at which its neck was twisted was even more horrifying, its turbid eyes locked onto them with an inhuman malice.

It was not slow.

But Ding Qing deliberately controlled the pace, always keeping it trailing behind at a distance that was neither too close nor too far.

"Ugh... Ding Qing, you're not human! You're a demon! Even as a ghost, I won't let you off!"

Realizing pleading was useless, the desperate Zhao Qiang erupted in hysterical curses once more.

His voice was distorted and deformed by fear.

Ding Qing turned a deaf ear.

His gaze pierced through the thinning mist ahead, catching the blurry outline of the highway at the foot of the mountain.

He also heard the faint commotion of voices coming from the direction of Wang Yang and the others.

Though weak, it was clearly discernible.

The time had come.

He suddenly came to a screeching halt, wedging himself into the ground like a nail.

The powerful inertia caused Zhao Qiang, tucked under his arm, to flounder violently like a dehydrated fish.

With a flick of his arm, Ding Qing slammed Zhao Qiang hard onto the damp, cold ground.

Zhao Qiang was dazed from the fall, his internal organs feeling as if they had shifted out of place.

Intense pain and extreme fear made him curl into a ball, dry-heaving and coughing violently.

Ding Qing didn't even look at the limp Zhao Qiang on the ground; his cold gaze was fixed directly on the charging Li Feng.

The thing also came to a sudden halt seven or eight meters away from them, its tilted head slowly turning with a tooth-grinding "cracking" sound.

Its lifeless eyes scanned between Ding Qing and Zhao Qiang, finally settling on the closer and seemingly more delicious Zhao Qiang.

"Heh... heh..."

A hair-raising sound, like air being squeezed out of a broken bellows, came from Li Feng's twisted throat.

Zhao Qiang was frightened to the point of Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering, scrambling backward using both his hands and feet, his face covered in tears and snot.

"Don't come over! Don't come over! Ding Qing, save me! Save me! I'll be your slave for the rest of my life! I beg you!!"

Only then did Ding Qing slowly lower his head, looking down at Zhao Qiang, who was like a pile of mud on the ground.

There was no trace of pity in his eyes, only a sense of indifference, as if he were looking at a tool that had lost its value.

"Zhao Qiang,"

Ding Qing spoke; his voice wasn't loud, but every word accurately pierced Zhao Qiang's nerves, which were on the verge of collapse.

"Originally, you could have survived."

Zhao Qiang suddenly looked up, a final glimmer of hope bursting in his eyes.

"Unfortunately,"

The corner of Ding Qing's mouth twitched downward ever so slightly, carrying a hint of cold mockery.

"You did the stupidest thing, the one thing you shouldn't have done."

The hope on Zhao Qiang's face instantly froze, turning into deeper confusion and fear.

"Wha... what?"

"You shouldn't have tried to morally kidnap me."

Ding Qing's voice was flat and emotionless, yet it pronounced a death sentence.

"In a place like that, using your pathetic and disgusting sense of justice to try and put me on the spot, using other people's lives to force me to take risks?"

"I..."

Zhao Qiang's pupils shrank suddenly; he finally understood something.

Immense regret and deeper fear instantly consumed him. He opened his mouth wide, seemingly wanting to let out a final curse or explanation.

But Ding Qing didn't give him another chance.

Just as an unintelligible roar escaped Li Feng's throat and its rigid body was about to pounce on Zhao Qiang.

Ding Qing moved!

His movements were as fast as a ghost, even leaving behind a faint afterimage.

His right arm shot out like lightning, his five fingers like eagle claws forged from tempered steel, precisely gripping the back of Zhao Qiang's neck!

*Crack!*

A crisp sound of bone snapping, enough to make one's scalp tingle, suddenly rang out, sounding exceptionally piercing in the dead silence of the mountain forest.

The expression on Zhao Qiang's face froze in a distortion of sheer terror and disbelief.

The light in his eyes instantly went out, and his body slumped to the ground like it had been drained of all its bones, making no further sound.

Ding Qing didn't even spare another glance at the corpse on the ground, as if he had merely crushed a noisy insect.

He slowly straightened up, his gaze shooting like cold lightning toward the Li Feng just a few steps away.

The thing seemed to be stimulated by the death, its movements faltering for a moment.

The roar in its throat also became sharper and more piercing.

It no longer paid attention to the fresh corpse on the ground.

Those lifeless, turbid eyes completely locked onto Ding Qing, radiating an even more intense malice.

"Heh—!"

An inhuman roar, accompanied by a foul wind.

Li Feng suddenly spread its arms at a bizarre angle that completely defied joint structure, pouncing toward Ding Qing like a predatory beast.

Its speed was more than twice as fast as before!

Ding Qing stood in place, motionless.

Facing this clearly inhuman shell that feared no pain.

Instead of showing any fear, he grinned, revealing a row of stark white teeth.

That smile held unabashed ferocity and Battle Intent!

"I even dared to throw a couple of punches at that formless, substanceless ghost thing. Why would I be afraid of you, who has a shell?!"

Before his voice had even faded, the dormant power within Ding Qing's body erupted.

Beneath his bronze skin, dark blue veins once again bulged and coiled like awakening pythons!

The astonishing defense and power of the Iron Cloth Shirt were instantly pushed to the limit.

Facing Li Feng's pouncing rigid body and its foul-smelling claws.

Ding Qing didn't dodge. He sank into a horse stance, his right fist like a heavy cannon leaving the barrel, carrying a sonic boom that tore through the air and an irresistible force as it boldly met Li Feng's reaching arm!

"Die for me!!!"