ACIFITFDB – Chapter 20

Chapter 20: The dog stared at his bleeding wound…

Seeing the Guǐyì maintaining a distance of more than two meters, Qin Xian looked up and said nonchalantly, “I’m very tired now, so…”

With that, he raised the steel rod and, in a standard athlete’s posture, threw it like a javelin.

Aunt Zhou’s eyes widened, and she nimbly dodged to the side. The steel rod clanged against the stone ground, leaving a long scratch before rolling several meters away.

Aunt Zhou looked at the mark on the ground. If it had hit, it would have pierced straight through. But before she could catch her breath, Qin Xian suddenly flicked a long black whip.

Aunt Zhou’s scalp tingled. It hadn’t forgotten how the blue flames on the whip had burned it.

It instinctively wanted to run, but the whip flew over and wrapped around its leg. The Guǐyì, which had been so arrogant moments ago, fell face-first onto the ground, looking utterly pathetic.

The Guǐyì trembled with rage. It slammed its hands on the ground, and over a dozen metal spikes emerged from beneath its palms, shooting towards Qin Xian.

Qin Xian directly pulled out his whip, swung it upwards, wrapped it around a pipe high above, and easily used it to swing past the tips of the incoming spikes.

He landed lightly on a stone five meters away.

“Damn it! Are you a monkey?!” Aunt Zhou got up and waved its hand, and a metal spike flew out from the wall beside them.

But Qin Xian remained unperturbed. He even pointed behind Aunt Zhou and said, “Aren’t you going to look behind you?”

Aunt Zhou instinctively turned its head, but saw nothing behind it.

Realizing it had been tricked, Aunt Zhou was about to attack Qin Xian again when it suddenly heard a deafening gunshot. A bullet shot down from above and to the right, directly piercing its temple, bringing out a pulpy mess of brain tissue and stray metal.

Aunt Zhou’s expression was one of shock as it swayed and then toppled face-down onto the ground.

Huang Quxie slid down from above, panting heavily. The underground battle had been too intense, and a large hole had been blown in the ceiling. Huang Quxie had fired from this spot, hitting the Guǐyì’s head squarely.

“Brother Qin, I have fulfilled my mission!” Huang Quxie landed, wiped his sweat, and gave Qin Xian a bright smile.

Qin Xian nodded and replied, “You’re very smart. I just drew a power symbol when I patted your shoulder, and you immediately understood what I meant.”

Huang Quxie scratched his head and chuckled, “Ah, we police officers often have to communicate with hand signals, so we’re quite sensitive.”

Qin Xian was about to say something more when his expression suddenly changed, and he looked at the Guǐyì lying on the ground behind them.

Seeing this, Huang Quxie also spun around abruptly, raising his gun at Aunt Zhou. Aunt Zhou did not get up but let out a few low, manic laughs.

The underground space, which had been quiet for a while, suddenly began to shake. The massive Guǐyì’s body, which had lost power and gone still, suddenly started to vibrate. Cables and metal spikes spread out from all directions, and the entire underground space began to collapse.

Huang Quxie shouted, “Didn’t you lose power!?”

Qin Xian looked at the Guǐyì’s main body, half-lying on the ground not far away. It was staring at him fiercely, a manic grin showing on its cracked lips.

“Let’s run. It’s going to fight to the death.”

With that, Qin Xian dodged the attacks and rushed out.

Huang Quxie looked at the chaotic and deadly scene and wailed, “Ahhh!! How do we run!?”

The overwhelming barrage of attacks left no room for breath or thought, only instinctual evasion. Huang Quxie didn’t know how many times he’d been hit; the adrenaline made him numb to pain.

Only when he stumbled out of the underground area did he feel pain all over his body, and he fell to the ground with a limp.

“Hoo, hoo, hoo, Mom, am I still alive? My heart is about to jump out of my throat…” Huang Quxie lay on the ground, struggling to check his injuries.

“Ha… You’re alive, I’m alive, that’s good.”

Qin Xian’s voice came. Huang Quxie looked up with effort but then weakly lowered his head, resting his chin on the ground and trying to turn his eyes to where the voice came from.

Qin Xian was leaning against the wall, his clothes tattered, with bleeding wounds on his arms and legs. He didn’t look like he was having an easy time either.

The small stones on the ground hurt his chin. Huang Quxie rolled over to face the sky. The sky was beginning to show the dawn, but the crescent moon and stars were still clear.

“Hey, it seems normal again? The sky was so dark earlier, I couldn’t see anything before the boss fight,” Huang Quxie asked.

“Yes, the domain has been lifted. That thing is most likely dead. You can get up. You still need to take the young girl and her brother to the hospital.”

Huang Quxie was stunned, “I can’t get up! What about you? No… Don’t fall asleep! Those villagers might still attack us! Hey, hey, Brother Qin? You didn’t… you didn’t die, did you!?”

Qin Xian frowned and opened his eyes, cursing, “Who are you cursing? You’re a People’s Police officer. Saving lives and helping the injured is your duty. Keep going.”

Huang Quxie struggled like a fish out of water but couldn’t get up. He gritted his teeth and tried again, but his hands trembled, unable to support his body.

Suddenly, he heard Qin Xian walking over, and then… he grabbed his collar and yanked him upwards.

“Ouch, my dear sir! Are you trying to strangle me!?”

But with Qin Xian’s pull, he managed to get up from the ground.

Qin Xian held the steel rod, using it to prop himself up, and quickly walked towards the girl’s hiding place. Huang Quxie quickly picked up a stick nearby and followed, leaning on it.

They didn’t walk far before they discovered that the surviving villagers seemed to be unconscious, lying scattered on the ground. Besides them, there were many highly decomposed corpses on the ground, likely the camera and flashlight monsters from before. They were what humans had turned into after dying here, their bodies now tattered.

Qin Xian, used to such sights, scanned them with a glance and continued forward. Huang Quxie behind him kept letting out trembling sounds.

“So many people died… I thought… we thought this wasn’t a serious place…”

Qin Xian looked calmly ahead and asked, “So what’s going on with your police station? Why did only you come?”

Huang Quxie was silent for a moment and said, “Sorry, that’s our job, and it’s not convenient to disclose. But if you come to our station, I can tell you.”

Qin Xian said “Oh” and continued, “Then never mind. I don’t want to have tea.”

Huang Quxie asked, “I’m starting to suspect you’re a fugitive. Otherwise, why would you be so resistant to going to the police station?”

“I attract trouble. Alright, I see the little girl.” Qin Xian stopped. The little girl peeking out from behind a house not far away saw them and immediately ran over with tears in her eyes, carrying her brother on her back.

“Sorry,” Qin Xian said to her, looking down. “The two of us might not have the strength to carry your brother now.”

The little girl shook her head vigorously. With practiced movements, she adjusted her unconscious brother on her back and asked, “Can we leave now? I don’t know how much longer my brother can hold on! Oh, right, I found your bags. They’re over there!”

“Hmm? That’s great. How did you know those were our bags?”

“I… I saw you come in from outside the village.”

Huang Quxie stepped forward and ruffled the little girl’s hair, praising her, “Clever little girl. I’ll notify the station immediately on my phone to send people. Let’s head out of the village now. I’ll go first, and you walk in the middle.”

The three took out some water and supplies from their bags, replenishing their strength as they walked, hurrying towards the village exit as quickly as possible. By the time they reached the outskirts, a black car had just arrived. A young man ran out and took the unconscious Lou Xingye from the little girl’s back.

The young man asked, “My goodness, what did you encounter?! How did you end up like this??”

Huang Quxie asked, “Is the station still short-handed? The problem in this village is very serious. We need to send people to handle it immediately. I’ll explain the situation to the director later.”

The young man shook his head, “Alas, everyone is swamped. So many places are having problems.”

As he spoke, he looked at Qin Xian and held back the rest of what he was going to say.

“In short, hurry up and get in the car. I’ll take you to the hospital.”

Huang Quxie opened the car door and was about to get in when he saw Qin Xian turn around and sit down at the bus stop.

“Come with us!”

Qin Xian waved his hand.

He could handle these injuries himself back home. Going to the hospital would cost hundreds or thousands, and Huang Quxie might find out his identity… although that was only a matter of time.

Huang Quxie called out a couple more times, but Qin Xian remained still. Seeing that there was still someone in critical condition nearby, he had no choice but to give up.

“Anyway, I’ll find a way to find you later. See you.” With that, he got into the car, and the black car sped away.

Qin Xian watched the car disappear from his sight, then turned to look in the direction of Fanggu Village. A golden light flickered in his eyes.

After confirming there were no lingering Guǐyì auras, he went to a nearby public restroom to clean off the bloodstains and changed into a new set of clothes from his backpack. After that, Qin Xian sat back at the stop, leisurely waiting for the first bus of the morning.

It was another half-day journey, spent in a state of half-sleep, and it wasn’t until past three in the afternoon that he wearily returned home.

As soon as he opened the door, an unfamiliar doggy smell wafted to his nose. Qin Xian paused for a moment, then remembered that there was a new animal at his place.

“Woof!”

A black dog suddenly pounced at his feet, sniffing from his toes to his calves.

“Mmm…”

Tangyuan let out a low sound from its throat, unsure if it was being cute or complaining about his two-day disappearance… Perhaps, it smelled the blood on him.

Qin Xian looked down at the dog’s belly and legs, which seemed to have no problems and were eating.

He decided not to worry about it and rest first.

Qin Xian stepped around Tangyuan and flopped onto the sofa, sinking into it.

But this was clearly a mistake. The bruises and wounds all over his body were aggravated, causing him to gasp in pain and see stars for a while before he recovered.

As soon as he recovered, he saw Tangyuan standing by the sofa, its muzzle only a centimeter away from his body, staring at the reopened wound on his hand.

Immediately after, it extended its tongue towards the dripping blood.

Qin Xian’s hand shot out, clamping down on the dog’s mouth.