288: Chapter 288 Su Qingxue is arrested

Lin Fan rushed to the edge of the slope in two or three strides, and his field of vision instantly widened.

The entire beach spread out beneath his feet, and the last trace of the setting sun's blood-red hue pressed against the horizon, dyeing the tide into large patches of dark red.

Two figures were running desperately on the beach.

Xu Zhixia was supporting Su Qingxue, and both of their paces were completely ruined.

Even though Su Qingxue's pregnant belly was not obvious, being pampered and delicate, her center of gravity still leaned forward, and she stumbled with every step she ran.

Xu Zhixia dragged her alone, stepping unevenly and running crookedly toward the Karst Cave.

But what sent a chill down Lin Fan's spine was the thing behind them.

At the end of the beach, at the junction of the tree line and the beach, a dark gray silhouette was approaching.

Its body shape was much leaner than a human's.

It was on all fours, with its front limbs noticeably longer than its hind limbs, and its back was arched high, bent into an extremely unnatural curve.

The short-fuzz-covered shoulder blades jutted out, resembling the silhouette of some primate magnified three times.

Within Lin Fan's cognitive range, he could not find any kind of animal that could match it.

Yang Ningcong had described this thing before.

At that time, Lin Fan thought that rich second generation was scared out of his wits and exaggerating.

Now seeing it with his own eyes, he suddenly felt that Yang Ningcong had been conservative in his description.

That thing's limbs alternately slapped the sandy surface, and the extent to which its long arms supported the ground far exceeded that of humans.

It leaped every few steps, its back suddenly arching and then springing open when it landed, and the angle of its joint movements was baffling.

Its speed was not extremely fast, but it controlled the rhythm, pressing forward unhurriedly like a cat playing with a mouse.

"Lin Fan!"

Xu Zhixia's voice came from below, her voice cracking.

Lin Fan turned his head sharply.

Song Ya was squatting on the grass, her shirt buttons haphazardly fastened by three, and her hands were still trembling.

"Are you done dressing?"

"I... I am done."

The two of them had no time to care whether the buttons were aligned correctly.

Lin Fan took a step across, bent down, and scooped the person up directly.

Supporting the bend of her knees with one hand and clasping her back with the other, he held her horizontally in his arms.

The wind blew into Song Ya's incompletely buttoned collar, startling her so that she clutched her collar with one hand and grabbed his shoulder tightly with the other.

"Lin... Lin Fan."

"Do not speak, hold me tight."

Lin Fan exerted force under his feet and rushed along the gentle slope toward the direction of the Karst Cave.

The physical functions brought by Triple Enhancement were reflected at this moment.

Even with more than forty kilograms more in his arms, his speed was still several times faster than Song Ya running at full strength.

In less than ten seconds.

The two appeared on the Karst Cave platform.

Liu Feifei stood at the cave entrance, her face pale, covering her mouth with both hands.

Zhou Kai was holding a dagger, standing in front of her, with the tip of the blade pointing toward the beach.

Lin Fan put Song Ya down on the platform.

"Go back into the cave first."

"Lin Fan..."

"Be a good girl, listen to me!"

"Zhou Kai, give me the dagger, and protect Song Ya well."

Zhou Kai handed the dagger over, and Lin Fan took it and turned his head to look at the beach.

Blood surged to his head.

He was a step too late.

That thing had already caught up with them.

Xu Zhixia was thrown aside, her whole body lying prone in the sand, half her face buried in the sand.

Su Qingxue was screaming.

The five grayish-black knuckles of that thing tightly clamped Su Qingxue's waist, its fingers a section longer than a human's, with an extra bend in the joints, and the fingertips curved like hooks, resembling the gripping structure of some primate that had been extremely mutated.

Su Qingxue was lifted off the ground entirely.

Her legs kicked wildly in mid-air, and her two hands tried to pry open those fingers, but they could not budge them a bit.

Lin Fan rushed down from the slope.

His soles pressed firmly against the beach, and his whole body catapulted forward.

The dagger spun into a flourish in his hand, the blade cutting through the sea breeze, aiming straight for the back of that thing's neck.

When he was almost there, that thing reacted absurdly fast, its whole body suddenly shrinking, and its long arms swung backward, blocking Su Qingxue behind it.

A human flesh shield.

Lin Fan abruptly reined in his knife momentum, the blade stopping less than three inches from the back of Su Qingxue's head.

A series of urgent clicking sounds were squeezed out from deep within that thing's throat, sounding like the alarm calls of a frightened troop of monkeys, or like mockery.

The next instant, its hind limbs curled to the extreme, and it kicked the ground fiercely.

The sand blasted Lin Fan's face.

Its entire body bounced toward the tree line.

Fast, it was extremely fast.

Lin Fan rubbed the sand grains on his face and took off running in pursuit.

That thing's hind limbs curled to store power and released by bouncing, every landing kicking up a cloud of dust and sand.

In terms of pure speed, this thing was almost on par with Lin Fan's body after Triple Enhancement.

But no matter what, it was carrying a person.

Su Qingxue was tucked under its ribs, a living person weighing tens of kilograms struggling constantly, which was a solid burden.

The distance between Lin Fan and it gradually closed.

He saw that thing's spine, its surface covered with a layer of grayish-black short fuzz, with the vertebrae protruding section by section, forming rugged bumps under the skin.

Every time it leaped, he could see the joints rolling and shifting beneath the skin.

It got a few steps closer.

Lin Fan thrust the dagger forward.

That thing suddenly flung Su Qingxue out.

With a rotating arc, she flew toward the bushes on the side.

Without thinking, Lin Fan pushed off the ground with his toes, catapulted horizontally, tucked the dagger at his waist with his right hand, and opened his arms.

Su Qingxue's body slammed into his arms.

The momentum was too great, and Lin Fan took several steps back to unload that force, his back crashing into a tree trunk as thick as a bowl, and his entire spine tingled with numbness.

Su Qingxue in his arms was shaking all over, her two hands clutching tightly at the clothes in front of his chest.

"Qingxue, how are you?"

Su Qingxue opened her mouth, making breathy sounds in her throat, unable to say a complete word.

The whites of her eyes were full of bloodshot veins, and her pupils were dilated to the maximum.

She was scared out of her wits.

Lin Fan raised his head, staring at the direction where that thing had disappeared.

After discarding Su Qingxue, that thing's speed instantly maxed out.

Its long arms alternately slapped the tree trunks, and its entire body swung and shuttled between trees. The gray outline flashed twice and disappeared deep into the dense forest.

It could not be caught up with.

It threw away Su Qingxue, using a living person as bait to force the pursuer to stop.

This thing possessed tactical thinking.

Using a flesh shield, controlling the rhythm, and accurately calculating the timing of escape—this set of operations was something only a human could pull off.

Lin Fan's teeth gnashed and clicked.

Su Qingxue finally let out a sob-laden gasp: "My child... My child..."

"It is fine." Lin Fan tightened his grip around her, "Your belly is not hurt."

Su Qingxue's hand felt her abdomen, touching it circle after circle.

Confirming it was intact.

Then her whole body went limp, all her weight hanging on Lin Fan, her shoulders trembling with spasms.

Lin Fan picked Su Qingxue up horizontally and walked toward the direction of the Karst Cave.

Su Qingxue curled up into a ball, her fingers clutching tightly to the fabric in front of his chest, her whole body shivering uncontrollably.

Her lips were pale, her teeth chattered, and even her breathing was fragmented.

On the beach, Xu Zhixia climbed up from the sand by herself.

Half her face was smeared with sand, her knees and forearms were scraped raw, and blood beads adhered together with fine sand.

She patted the sand off her body and followed behind Lin Fan to walk back.

Lin Fan carried Su Qingxue up to the platform and headed straight for the inner compartment inside the cave.

He put her down.

Su Qingxue would not let go.

Her fingers gripped his clothes tightly, white to the point of transparency.

"Qingxue, you are safe."

Su Qingxue did not respond.

Her pupils were scattered, and her focus could not match Lin Fan's face. Her lips parted and closed, making a weak breathy sound: "It... it grabbed me... the child..."

She repeated just these two sentences over and over again like a treadmill.

Xu Zhixia followed up from behind.

She squatted down beside Su Qingxue, and two fingers rested on Su Qingxue's wrist pulse.

Three seconds later, she withdrew them and went to touch Su Qingxue's abdomen, her technique gentle and professional.

"How is it?" Lin Fan asked.