Li Yi didn't yet know that Yang Yilong and his team had already successfully killed an extraordinary creature. At the moment, he, Brother Tao, and Zhang Gao were still faithfully staying at their surveillance point as planned, vigilantly monitoring the surroundings.
"It's been two hours, and there's been no activity at all. This is really boring," Zhang Gao said, yawning, feeling sleepy.
After all, being highly alert can easily wear one out.
"If you guys are tired, take a break. I'll keep watch for the next few hours; if anything unusual happens, I'll call you," Brother Tao said as he smoked.
Li Yi replied, "I'll stay up with you, Brother Tao. I'm very awake and not tired at all."
"There's no need to be so serious. I've checked several times; it's very safe here. The only thing that concerns me is the spider-like monster I chased away earlier. Not being able to kill it might leave us some trouble," Brother Tao frowned.
"Wait, listen. What's that sound?"
As he spoke, Brother Tao suddenly became alert and listened intently ahead.
Distant roars and growls of beasts could be faintly heard from the dark-enshrouded city area, along with other abnormal noises echoing, and these sounds were rapidly approaching.
Beep beep!
At the same time, Brother Tao's phone rang. It was an extremely important message: Mission complete, immediately evacuate the danger zone.
Upon seeing this message, Brother Tao's face suddenly changed. He threw his cigarette butt away and urgently said, "Yang Yilong might have finished hunting. Quick, we need to leave here fast. I have a feeling that we're going to encounter danger this time."
"What?" Zhang Gao was suddenly startled.
"What are we waiting for? Let's go," Li Yi said.
Without any hesitation, Brother Tao turned and quickly evacuated along the route they had come.
Seeing him so anxious, Li Yi and Zhang Gao didn't dare to take any chances and immediately followed behind him.
The three of them hurried downstairs and could hear noises from outside the building growing louder, as something was rapidly moving their way.
"Nothing that survives in the danger zone is simple. No matter what we encounter later, just run, and follow the original path back. As long as we exit the lockdown area, we'll be safe. Those beasts generally don't cling to us." Brother Tao was still righteous enough to give a warning to the two newcomers at this time.
But he had just finished speaking.
His figure abruptly halted, stopping dead in the corridor.
At that moment, all three of them tensed, their eyes suddenly narrowing, and shivers ran down their spines.
Strange shadows had inexplicably appeared on the walls of the corridor. The creatures had grey-black skin that blended into their surroundings, and they had several slender, withered arms growing from their bodies. They appeared on the floor, ceiling, and walls like spiders, crawling quietly. If they hadn't run into them at this moment, these monsters might have reached the top floor undetected.
"We only managed to drive away one earlier, and now there are so many here," Brother Tao felt a chill in his heart.
Such numbers unexpectedly gave rise to a sense of despair.
Being surrounded would definitely mean certain death.
However, before the three had a chance to act, the spider-like humanoid creatures in the corridor ahead accelerated their movements incredibly fast upon spotting them, rapidly closing in.
"Run!"
At that moment, the only thought in their minds was to flee.
Brother Tao took the lead, turning around explosively. His body burst with tremendous power, trying to create as much distance as possible as quickly as he could.
However, as soon as he turned around, the wall beside him suddenly exploded, and a gaunt, bizarre arm reached straight for his head.
"What?"
Brother Tao was both shocked and frightened; he never expected such creatures to be not just in the hallways, but also on the floor separated only by a wall.
It was too late!
At that moment, the only thought in Brother Tao's mind was this.
"Bang!"
The next moment, Brother Tao's head was struck hard, his body immediately losing balance. He slammed into the steps beside him, blood spurting out instantly, his vision turning dark followed by a perception of nothing but scarlet.
Buzzing!
Brother Tao's body swayed, his ears ringing.
But driven by the instinct to survive, he hastily groped for the black machete and started hacking wildly.
However, he didn't hit anything, and what greeted him instead were countless terrifying palms descending from above his head.
Screams echoed.
Li Yi saw Brother Tao being engulfed by the shadow of the grey-black creature, his body torn into a mess, blood painting the entire hallway red.
"A Cultivator of the Spirit Medium Realm just died like this?"
His heart thumped wildly in fear, but he dared not hesitate and immediately ran, though he didn't choose to retreat upstairs but dived into the floor behind him instead.
"Li Yi." Zhang Gao's gaze was filled with terror, but his path was to retreat the way they came, and the two were separated in the hallway.
He wanted to change paths and escape with Li Yi, but it was too late now.
The creature was already catching up from behind, any delay now would only lead to a more gruesome death.
As Li Yi's figure disappeared, Zhang Gao clenched his teeth and ran madly.
Whether the two could survive now was entirely up to their own abilities.
Although the two had fled in dispersed directions, the creatures didn't ease up at all and also split into two groups to pursue them.
"Going to the top floor is certain death, this building is the tallest here; going up would mean being trapped, so the only choice is to take a different path to escape."
Li Yi's body was tense, moving through this floor of the building agilely like a spry cheetah.
The haunting sounds of crawling continued incessantly behind him.
Li Yi dared not stop for even a moment, his current strength hadn't even reached the Spirit Medium level, and he didn't have any decent weapons, not even capable of dealing with a single creature. His only reliance was on his agile body.
He bypassed obstacles, smashed through the tempered glass doors, and tried to speed up his escape as much as possible.
Luckily, Li Yi was capable of night vision now; otherwise, he wouldn't even have the right to flee.
Under his desperate running, the creature began to fall slightly behind, but he still didn't dare to catch his breath.
"I must leave this building, otherwise I will die here," Li Yi panted heavily, yet his mind remained clear.
"Where can I escape to? The hallways are already sealed off, and the elevator shaft is not on this side, otherwise, I could use the elevator shaft to go straight to the ground floor... There's no time left; I'm about to reach the end of this floor."
"The window."
All of a sudden, Li Yi clenched his teeth and dashed straight for that window.
Without even hesitating a moment, he grabbed the windowsill and leapt over in one swift move.
But this was the twenty-something floor.
From this height, if he fell, Li Yi would surely die.
In fact, Li Yi understood this, but he had no choice, it was his only way out.
The roaring wind besieged his ears as he swiftly plummeted down the building.
However, just as Li Yi had fallen three or four floors, he suddenly stretched out his arm to grab onto a nearby windowsill.
The physical abilities of a Cultivator were displayed at this moment.
The impact of the fall was forcefully resisted by his arms, allowing Li Yi to hang safely from the windowsill.
But he had no time to catch his breath, as above him, the sound of shattering glass rang out, and several gray-black arms reached out from the window he had just flipped through.
The monsters were after him again, and these creatures could climb walls.
"Again."
Li Yi bit down on his teeth, then let go once more.
His body plummeted downwards again.
After three or four floors, he grabbed the windowsill once more, stabilizing himself, then he let go again.
With each fall, he hovered on the edge of death.
One should know, if he missed just once, he would be finished.
But this desperate tactic proved very effective, the distance between him and the creatures increased, and Li Yi also got closer to the ground.
In just a matter of seconds, Li Yi descended more than ten floors.
Yet above him, a swarm of monsters was scuttling down the wall at a startling speed, and because there were no obstacles outside, their pace was even faster than inside.
The gap between them was quickly closing.
"I don't want to die here." Li Yi's eyes shone brightly, in the face of life and death, his body seemed to accelerate its evolution and transformation, his eyes seemingly beginning to activate the Spirit Medium.
But what good would that do?
The previous Cultivator at the Spirit Medium Realm, Brother Tao, had already been torn to shreds. Even if Li Yi activated the Spirit Medium, he could not escape the danger.
He fell once more.
This dire survival situation unleashed tremendous potential in him, gradually mastering the sensation of weightlessness in freefall, becoming adept at each encounter with the windowsill to decelerate.
It didn't require deliberate preparation, just a release of his grip, and as his body fell, he knew what to do.
Quickly.
From the twenty-something floor, Li Yi had now successfully plummeted to the height of the fifth or sixth floor.
At this height, he wouldn't die from a fall.
One last time, he let go.
Accompanied by a dull thud, he successfully landed.
But the monsters behind him were still in pursuit, and along the wall, they also reached the ground, so for Li Yi at this moment, the danger was not yet over.
He ran again, retracing the route he had memorized on his way there.
In the danger zone, he dared not wander aimlessly, lest he encounter other perils.
"Li Yi."
Just then, a shout came from the top of the building behind him.
It was Zhang Gao's voice.
Zhang Gao had now reached the rooftop platform, standing on the edge of the fence. He saw Li Yi's figure, but he had no way out, no path to follow, except to jump.
Because several monsters were rapidly crawling toward him on the rooftop.
In his flight, Li Yi's silhouette hesitated slightly; he glanced back but then sped up once more.
"Li Yi, I can't get away, help me out, give my money to my family." Zhang Gao's cry echoed through the dark city, reaching Li Yi's ears.
Li Yi didn't respond, but clenched his fist and raised his arm.
To respond was to accept.
Zhang Gao, seeing this from afar, now smiled, ready to die there.
However, just as he prepared to face the terrifying Spider Monsters, an unbelievable thing happened.
Suddenly, a thin mist enveloped the surroundings of the rooftop, turning into a pale green hue that thickened upwards until it merged with the night, obscuring everything.
The humanoid Spider Monsters, as if smelling some horrific danger, momentarily abandoned their nearly captured prey and frenziedly scrambled back into the building, their rapid climbing echoing ceaselessly.
"Could a miracle have happened?" Zhang Gao wondered incredulously.
But quickly, his pupils sharply constricted as he saw something truly terrifying.
Above the building, a gigantic eyeball suddenly emerged in the depths of the thick fog, an eye that seemed to belong to some Extraordinary Creature, because within the fog's depths an enormous creature's silhouette was faintly outlined. However, at that moment, the huge pupil slightly shifted, its gaze turning towards them.
"What, what is that thing?"
Zhang Gao felt locked in its gaze, a massive terror struck him, flooding his entire body and numbing it, as if melting.
No.
This was not an illusion.
Zhang Gao's body was truly melting.
In just a few seconds, Zhang Gao's body had melted into a puddle of pale green liquid, leaving only his clothes behind, unaffected.
The fog gradually dissipated.
A sinister figure hidden within left, heading towards the depths of the danger zone, moving precisely away from the direction Li Yi was escaping.