34: Chapter 34 The Hunter in the Dark

Holding a torch aloft, Lin Ye carefully ventured deeper into the cavern.

The space here was much more open than at the entrance, with countless stalactites hanging from the ceiling.

The sound of a nearby underground river echoed through the vast cavern.

Reaching the end of this cavern, the stone walls suddenly narrowed, leaving only a single dark passage ahead.

Lin Ye stopped and glanced back at the path behind him.

He tightened his backpack straps and entered the passage without looking back.

The interior was like a natural underground labyrinth, with enough branching paths to make one walk in circles and terrain that rose and fell abruptly.

Anyone else would have gotten themselves lost before walking a hundred meters, but Lin Ye had a "human GPS."

At every fork in the road, he would scan with his Eye of Destiny.

At the edge of his left eye's vision, that pale golden speck of light constantly corrected his course.

...

Great Xia Live Stream.

Seeing this oppressive environment, the viewers' hearts were in their throats.

[Holy crap, even horror movies don't dare to use lighting like this. This is too damn creepy!]

[Brother Eye, stop going in! If you get lost, screaming for help won't do any good!]

[Is he crazy? Instead of thinking about how to get out, he's insisting on crawling into this dead end?]

[Please, just go back. My claustrophobia is about to act up just watching this!]

This eerie atmosphere made tens of millions of viewers hold their breath.

Meanwhile, inside the winding passage, Lin Ye had gone another hundred meters deep.

Just as he was about to recalibrate his direction.

In addition to the distant golden light, three dim red specks of light appeared at the edge of his vision!

Danger!

Lin Ye stopped immediately, making even his breathing shallow.

But sometimes, the thing you fear most is exactly what happens.

He discovered that one of the red dots was moving toward his position at a steady pace!

"Damn it, wouldn't it be better if we both just went our separate ways? Why come over to say hello!"

Lin Ye's brain worked rapidly.

He had come this far; he wasn't willing to go back empty-handed.

Scanning his surroundings, he saw a crack in the nearby stone wall.

He stepped forward and jammed the torch into it.

Then he retreated decisively, backing up seven or eight steps and shrinking into the shadows behind a corner.

He drew his dagger, pressed his back against the rock wall, and held his breath.

As the livestream camera moved back with him, the scene plunged into darkness.

On the screen, only that cluster of flickering firelight on the stone wall remained.

[Holy crap! Why did he suddenly hide?]

[Help! With this perspective, I'm almost wetting my pants from fear!]

[Stop talking, person above! I feel like something is about to come out...]

[I can't take this heart-pounding feeling anymore!]

...

Disaster Prevention Administration, Third Research Group.

Lu Chen was practically pressed against the monitor, his lenses reflecting that single point of firelight on the screen.

He was equally puzzled, but he knew that Lin Ye would never do something for no reason.

"That left eye must have seen some kind of threat that we can't see..."

Lu Chen pushed up his glasses, an excited light flickering behind the lenses.

...

Deep in the passage.

A rustling sound of friction approached from a distance.

It’s here!

Hiding in the darkness, Lin Ye pressed half his face against the rock wall, staring intently at the other end of the passage.

A few seconds later, a bizarre dark shadow crawled from the ceiling of the passage into the range illuminated by the firelight.

The thing was just over a meter long, with grayish-white skin and no hair on its body.

Its limbs were slender, and its joints were covered in protruding bone spurs.

The creature hung upside down from the ceiling, easily gripping the rock wall with the hooked claws at the ends of its limbs.

[Pale Species]

Information flashed across the light screen in his right eye.

In the livestream, after three seconds of stunned silence, the comments exploded.

[Holy crap! What kind of perverted monster is that! An alien xenomorph?]

[Does this thing actually exist? It scared the life out of me!]

[This appearance is a total SAN-check fail! Run, Brother Eye!]

[Bullet comments, protect me!!!]

In the laboratory, Lu Chen's eyes shone.

He grabbed a pen and recorded the morphological characteristics of this bizarre creature in his notebook.

"Limb mutation, hair loss, grayish-white leathery skin..."

"This doesn't look like a creature that evolved naturally..."

...

In the shadow of the corner.

"Holy crap! Are the aliens attacking?"

Lin Ye forcibly suppressed the horror in his heart.

Eye of Destiny, activate.

A thin layer of red light covered the Pale Species, mixed with dense gray spots.

The pollution level was extremely high; if he took even one hit...

He didn't even dare to imagine how high his pollution index would soar.

Looking at the spindle-shaped head of the Pale Species, its large mouth split almost to the back of its head.

It was filled with jagged, sharp teeth.

However, those whitish eyeballs didn't even have a focus.

In particular, when the creature crawled near the torch, it showed no fear or avoidance of the firelight.

"Blind?"

Lin Ye quietly bent down and picked up a thumb-sized pebble from the ground.

With a flick of his arm.

Clatter!

The pebble flew out and landed below the torch.

The Pale Species on the ceiling froze, its limbs detached from the rock, and it rapidly lunged toward where the pebble had landed.

It clawed frantically through the gravel, its front claws even leaving white scratches on the rock.

"It really can't see! Does it rely on hearing? Or vibration sensing?"

Lin Ye now had a plan.

Since it couldn't see, things were much easier.

He gently slid his dagger back into its sheath and pulled a short spear from his back.

Then, he picked up a larger stone and threw it hard in a direction further away from the torch!

Crack!

This noise was even louder!

The Pale Species fell for it as expected.

Without the slightest hesitation, it used all four limbs to chase after the sound.

Now!

Lin Ye lunged out from the corner.

He raised his right arm and aimed the Wind-Chasing Claw.

Thwack!

The three-pronged hook shot out with a whistle of air, biting into the Pale Species' right hind limb!

Screech—!

The monster let out a piercing shriek, knocked over by the impact of the hook before it could even react.

Lin Ye flipped his wrist and pressed the cable switch!

Whirrr—

The cable retracted.

The Pale Species struggled desperately on the ground, its front claws digging into the rocky floor as it tried to resist the pulling force.

Lin Ye dropped into a horse stance, gripped the cable with both hands, and gave it a sharp yank!

The Pale Species, which had just been trying to stand up, fell flat on the ground again.

Lin Ye continued this tug-of-war.

Every time it tried to crawl up, he would yank it back down into the dirt.

Screech screech screech!

The monster's cries grew more and more irritable, but it was dragged closer and closer by the cable.

When the distance was only about five meters, Lin Ye gave one final, powerful pull!

"Get over here!"

The moment the monster lost its balance, he released the cable and charged forward!

Four meters...

Two meters...

One meter...

He gripped the short spear with both hands, channeled power through his core, aimed at the monster's back, and stabbed it in hard!

Squelch!

The short spear pierced the grayish-white skin, pinning the creature to the ground.

Screech—!

The monster let out an even more shrill howl, its body twisting frantically.

Lin Ye didn't even look at the result; he abandoned the spear and drew his dagger with lightning speed.

He closed in and delivered three follow-up stabs directly into that spindle-shaped head!

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Every strike was lethal, executed without a hint of hesitation!

Black fluid splattered everywhere.

The Pale Species twitched a few times before going limp.

Lin Ye knelt on one knee and took a deep breath.

He pulled out the dagger and flicked the black liquid off the blade.

He looked up and activated his Eye of Destiny, scanning the depths of the passage alertly.

In his vision, the other two red specks of light didn't seem to have noticed the commotion here and remained where they were.