Reverted

He Lingchuan fired his sleeve arrow. It punched straight through the wound in the creature's belly, blossoming its barbed tip out its back to take firm purchase. Then he leapt onto a high rock, using a sharp protruding ledge to suspend it in midair. With the monster hoisted clear of the ground, unable to touch the stone walls with any part of its body—not even the soles of its feet—its thawing and recovery would certainly take longer. Everyone slumped to the ground at once, panting heavily. Skinny raised his waterskin to drink, coughing several times in his haste. Duan Xinyu sealed several of his acupoints to stem his bleeding, gasping out, "How... how much longer can we stall?" He Lingchuan suddenly tossed a piece of candy to each of them. It was malt candy bought from a small shop outside Mother Mitian's temple; Sun Fuling seemed quite fond of it, and these were leftovers from that purchase. Tearing away the small scrap of oiled paper, the sweet fragrance of honey instantly washed over the bitterness and coppery taste of blood in their mouths. In their desperate straits, this single taste of sweetness was unimaginably precious. They savored it in silence, none of them willing to waste breath speaking. He Lingchuan glanced around at them all and suddenly grinned. "Not much longer. Our reinforcements have already arrived!" The others snapped their heads up in disbelief. Skinny croaked, "Really?" "Really!" One of He Lingchuan's eyes was ruined and he was covered in grime and blood, looking thoroughly battered. Yet his words rang with absolute conviction, carrying infectious strength even at a time like this. "When have I ever lied to you? Haven't you noticed how this whelp has been attacking like a rabid tiger, frantic and desperate?" *Bah, how could that be good news?* Duan Xinyu asked sourly, "Its attacks growing fiercer is a good thing?" "It is!" He Lingchuan wiped away the sweat dripping from his brow to keep it from stinging his good eye. "It can't even afford to heal its wounds anymore. Before this, the thing was cautious to a fault—any minor scratch and it would heal before returning to the fight. That means it can't afford to stall either." Ferry whelps were remarkably clever, and clever creatures usually valued their lives. Having fought alongside him for so long, Skinny and the others trusted He Lingchuan deeply, willing to follow his line of thought. "It controls the entire underground palace. Something must have happened inside or outside to make it this desperate for a quick kill." Prompted by He Lingchuan's reminder, the patrolmen realized the ferry whelp was indeed riddled with wounds. Healing via the underground palace took time—a dozen breaths for minor injuries, several dozen for severe ones. Could it not even spare that little bit of time? In other words, it was in a panic too. "Ninety li is only half of a hundred-li journey. We must not fall right before dawn!" He Lingchuan knew well that the only thing keeping them swinging their blades was hope, even if only a sliver. "The more desperate the beast, the more frantic it becomes. I'm certain a turning point is coming. As long as we endure this wave, we will be the ones who survive!" Whatever the news, bad for the enemy meant good for them. The group's spirits rallied. Without another word needed from him, everyone focused on evening out their breathing and recovering their strength. They had to believe. They had no choice but to believe. The dead end was narrow, and with the man-eating vines blocking the path, only a few bone puppets managed to break through at a time; He Lingchuan cut them down as they came. He needed to buy his teammates more time to recover. In this battle, he was the least afraid. At worst, he would die, and the next time he entered the dream realm he would revive in full health anyway. Yet if he abruptly logged off, what would become of the people before him? Except for him, none of the others would likely return from the dead. A dozen breaths later, a few sharp cracks snapped from the frozen monster. The ice was breaking. He Lingchuan could see its eyeballs twitching. Cracks spread across the ice sculpture, multiplying and deepening until the monster heaved with sudden violence, shattering the ice into falling shards with a loud clatter. Even without the underground palace's healing empowerment, the creature's innate strength was formidable. It thrashed twice and found the sleeve arrow's barbed head hooked deep in its back, impossible to dislodge. It simply seized the grappling cord, climbed upward, and leaped straight down from the jagged rock. Ignoring Duan Xinyu this time, it pounced through the air straight toward He Lingchuan, its small eyes burning with deep-seated hatred. These prey were clearly broken and maimed, yet they refused to die; the monster had finally realized this leader was the reason. It should have killed him first; without him, the group would have fallen apart in an instant. He Lingchuan had mostly adapted to his one-eyed vision. He had also seized the brief respite to steady his internal breath and get his qi flowing again. With that bit of gathered strength, he swung his saber in another Wave Slash. *Clang! Clang!* Three exchanges clashed in rapid succession. The first two were hard parries of sharp blades; on the third, He Lingchuan followed his blade's momentum, cold light flashing as he sheared away half its shoulder. Bone pauldron hitting the ground, acidic blood spurting, the monster roared in agony. Right then, the mine tunnel shook violently, as though struck by a magnitude-seven earthquake. The passage even rotated a full ninety degrees: rock walls became the floor, while the floor became the walls. Every object—humans and monsters alike—went tumbling together. Only the man-eating vines, rooted firmly within the rock face, kept their orientation and used their tremendous constricting power to haul the bone puppets up onto the wall with them. Now, they had become monsters hanging on the sidewall. Then, everyone heard a long, drawn-out shriek. The cry was deafeningly vast, yet sounded very much like a woman's voice, fraught with endless terror and agony. Hearing a woman's voice here could only mean— "Its 'mother' has been hit!" He Lingchuan reacted instantly. "Quick, bring this monster down!" Hadn't they held out through bitter torment just for a turning point? Now, it was here! Wild with joy, the patrolmen combined their strikes against the ferry whelp. But with a sudden screech, the creature ignored the fresh wounds opening across its body and tried to plunge headfirst into the rock wall. How could He Lingchuan let it escape? He grabbed the grappling cord and yanked it back with all his might. Right at that moment, another tremor hit, fiercer than the last. Everyone could feel a tear-everything-apart force bursting from the depths beneath their feet, followed by the rock wall behind them shearing forward in a rapid shove. "Run! Get moving!" No one cared about fighting anymore; all bolted forward at full tilt. Fortunately, the passage had flipped once, leaving the bone puppets pinned to the wall, so nothing blocked their escape route. Bursting out of the dead end, they found the outside world undergoing a violent transformation as well. Boulders emerged out of nowhere, grinding several bone puppets into powder. Had Willow not been quick-witted and shoved Door Plank aside, he too would have been crushed by a suddenly toppling boulder. After just a dozen breaths, the upheaval stopped. Barely catching their breath, everyone looked back to find the entire passage gone, as if wiped flat by magic. Moreover, the path ahead had split into two, narrower than before, but wooden framing and timber props—the hallmarks of an actual mine tunnel—had reappeared. "It changed back!" Duan Xinyu rasped. "It reverted to a mine tunnel! The underground palace is gone!" Door Plank gripped his shield tight, looking left and right. "Where's the monster?" With the underground palace reverting to a regular mine tunnel, the monster had lost its home-field advantage. Severely wounded as it was, there was a limit to what it could do. Thinking of this, their wounds seemed less painful, and their strength surged back out of thin air. "It ran," Duan Xinyu panted, pointing toward the left passage. "I saw it head this way." What were they waiting for? "After it!" Let's see how they took their revenge this time! *** The patrolmen pursued for over a dozen zhang, with even the blinded comrade being supported along by Willow. Suddenly, Door Plank spoke up, "Wait, aren't we short one person?" He Lingchuan was running at the head of the group; hearing this, he glanced back and counted heads. Door Plank, Willow, the blind man, Skinny, Xu Chun's teammate, and himself—six in total. "Duan Xinyu is missing." Everyone froze, looking at one another in shock. Willow's brows shot up in fury. "Damn it, that was the monster!" The youngest ferry ghost could take human form; it had initially disguised itself as Duan Xinyu's vice squad leader, Wang Xu, to get close to them. How had they forgotten that trick after such a brutal battle? The dead end had been too cramped, with everyone watching each other's backs, making it hard to shift shapes. But during that earth-shattering chaos, no one had been able to pay attention to anyone else, and the beast had slipped right through the crack! Caught in the sudden upheaval, with poor lighting in the tunnel and everyone drenched in blood, no one had noticed where he was wounded. The group turned and dashed back. Since the monster had pointed them down the left path, it had surely taken the right. Rushing past the spot from earlier, He Lingchuan assigned roles: "Willow, Door Plank, follow me! The rest of you stay and search for Duan Xinyu!" No one objected. Since the monster had disguised itself as Duan Xinyu, the real one had likely met with misfortune. With his legs badly injured, he might not have escaped the mine's collapse. He Lingchuan led his group of three in hot pursuit. With the mine back to normal, there weren't as many branching paths. The tunnel they took ran almost straight ahead, turning only occasionally, though it remained cramped and narrow. Moreover, by the glow of the fluorescent grass bundles, they could track the trail of green blood the monster dripped across the ground. Seeing this, He Lingchuan felt completely reassured. He was now certain the monster could no longer melt into the underground palace at will. Just as He Lingchuan had deduced, after "Duan Xinyu" pointed out the way and feigned running alongside them for a couple of steps, it had turned and darted into the west passage. Shedding its disguise, it bolted like lightning. Knowing the mine tunnels like the back of its hand, it didn't take a single wrong turn and sprinted back to the stone chamber in thirty to fifty breaths. Inside the stone chamber, the woman had torn free of all the "sinews" and was staggering toward the exit. After the initial terror, agonizing pain surged through her whole being. She felt as though her body was riddled with holes inside and out, each gushing blood. In truth, it was very nearly so. The monster burst in without warning. Before the woman could even scream, it tackled her to the ground and began tearing into her with its jaws! "Don't eat me! Don't eat me, I'm your mother!" she shrieked in agony, raising an arm to fend it off, only for the beast to bite clean through her arm, crunching down with sickening crunches. The woman passed out once more. At the same time, the creature's wounds healed at a visible speed, and even the half-severed paw regenerated. The ferry whelp drew nourishment from its mother, and when its own injuries were severe, its feeding grew all the more hysterical. Soon, its bone armor had fully reformed, sharp spikes even sprouting from its shoulders and elbows. The ferry whelp hoisted the woman onto its shoulders and turned toward the exit. It could no longer stay here; it had to find another place to nest. Yet before taking more than two steps, it halted, staring intently into the darkness of the opposite passage and slowly retreating two paces. Only a few breaths later, He Lingchuan and his companions appeared in the other passage. Following the blood trail, they had rounded a bend only to see the ferry whelp crouched in a battle stance, snarling low at the path ahead.