To make matters worse, his explanation sounded like he was trying to cover up the truth. This made them seem even more conspicuous, further raising suspicions about a possible secret motive behind the three men’s intentions.
"Hand it over!" Miao Yi angrily snapped once more. Without warning, he lifted his butcher knife and immediately rushed out towards the three men.
He had only dealt with killing pigs before and had never killed a man, but now he was overcome with a strong urge to murder these three people.
Because of Huang Cheng’s reminder, he knew that the moment he allowed them to leave, his brother and sister would be in danger if he didn’t manage to return home from the ordeal. These three sons of b*tches dared to commit murder, what else wouldn’t they do? Today, he must rid the world of these three future menaces.
The three men panicked, turned on their heels and ran away. However, it was out of their expectations that the commotion would cause many spectators to step in, thus blocking their path of escape.
Their situation was extremely unfortunate. Not only were they chased by a Miao Yi with murderous intentions, around seven to eight people had decided to join the chase as well. Eventually, they were surrounded by the crowd in its pursuit to intercept them.
Unable to escape using the path they had originally entered from, the trio immediately rushed out without caution. Panicking, they fled in a state of disarray while repeatedly screaming, "We don’t have the immortal herb!"
Raising his knife while in hot pursuit, Miao Yi’s face remained stone cold, a crowd of people following directly behind him.
It wasn’t long before the entire group ran astray from the safe path, without even realizing what had happened.
Before arriving here, everyone collected a free map of the area from the Ancient City. Plotted on the map were markers indicating all the safe paths, a result from the amount of deaths that occurred during the last time the Boundless Secular World had opened.
In the end, Huang Cheng and his lackeys were eventually stopped by the group of strong men.
"What do you all want?" Terrified, Huang Cheng could only sputter. He raised his blade and started hacking away madly, not wanting to let the men move closer to him.
The big, sturdy man was obviously well-trained; he approached Huang Cheng in a flash, moving sideways to avoid the hacking blade. He captured Huang Cheng’s wrist in a one-handed grip and twisted it on the spot, causing him to cry out in pain, and dropping the blade held in his hand to the ground with a loud clang.
The Zhao brothers were also extremely anxious. With daggers, they threatened the others not to come near them. When it came down to it, maybe they had the capability to bully those of the same age, like Miao Yi, or anyone younger. But running into these strong, young men made them feel as if they were dealing with adults instead, and so subconsciously they became a little timid.
The big, sturdy man didn’t bother with Huang Cheng’s explanations and was already searching his body with his hands. In the end, he couldn’t find any trace of the immortal herb on him.
He glanced at the Zhao brothers and then turned his head to look at the quickly approaching Miao Yi. He pushed Huang Cheng away and was preparing to search the Zhao brothers when suddenly,the unexpected happened. Who would have expected Miao Yi to rush out at that moment, swinging his butcher knife and stabbing it straight into the stumbling Huang Cheng’s chest.
Huang Cheng’s eyes widened as he stared at Miao Yi in disbelief and shock. The big, sturdy man, the Zhao brothers and all the others were also appalled by Miao Yi’s actions.
Puff!The fierce-looking Miao Yi hardened his heart, pulling out the knife only to thrust it back in again. He then stabbed Huang Cheng’s body twice more, before raising his hand to hack at his neck with the knife.
Fresh blood splashed out onto Miao Yi’s body. Huang Cheng covered his neck with his hands, twitching as he fell to the ground, unable to mask the terror and alarm in his eyes.
Miao Yi couldn’t have cared less, baring his teeth despite feeling terrified inside. Yet he still gripped the blood-stained knife, rushing once more towards the Zhao brothers.
The two brothers were so frightened by this, that they decided to throw all caution to the wind, frantically waving their long blades to fight their way out of their entrapment.
Taking advantage of them being caught off-guard, Miao Yi quickly approached and plunged his knife into the back of Zhao Xingkui’s waist. Removing the knife, he stabbed him a few more times, letting Zhao Xingkui fall onto a pool of his own blood.
The vicious appearance of Miao Yi stunned the others, as they never expected this young man to be this ruthless.
While everyone was distracted, they accidentally let Zhao Xingwu, who was frantically swinging his blade in a desperate fight for his life, escape the circle.
The group of people watched on emotionlessly as Miao Yi once again, raised his knife, chasing after Zhao Xingwu.
"Nice going, kid! How incredibly ruthless. Such a young age and already killing without blinking an eye!" The big, sturdy man chuckled. The gang of people had also quickly run after them.
Glancing behind him, Zhao Xingwu was seized by terror when he saw Miao Yi viciously hot on his trail, looking fiendish and completely drenched in blood. It seemed that Miao Yi had no intention of letting him escape, which frightened him to the point that he madly ran for his life, crying as he screamed.
It was unclear whether his scream had alarmed something or it was because they had barged into the dangerous zone, but from mid-air a swooshing sound could be heard, as if something was flying towards their location.
Swish! An enormous black figure descended from the sky, landing in the middle of the few people pursuing each other all around.
The black figure made no large movements as it landed. It nearly collided with Miao Yi, who was in the middle of running, causing him to stumble to the ground and roll over several times.
The seven or eight people who managed to catch up came to an immediate halt, their faces terrified as they slowly raised their head to look. It was unknown as to what they saw, but it made them gradually back away.
As Miao Yi stood up and raised his head, he was shocked as well. A mantis?
He took another glance before confirming his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him. It really was a mantis, and a huge one at that.
The length of the body exceeded two zhang, its entire form a shiny black color, with sharp barbs growing on its four feet. Its forelimbs carried what looked like a pair of sickles, akin to a scythe-wielding grim reaper. It exuded the terrifyingly cold atmosphere of the underworld, and was constantly twisting its large head around, the indistinct green eyes flickering as if it were closely studying its prey.
This creature was the monster described on the map, known as the Hell Mantis. No one expected they would actually get to see the real deal.
A cold sweat broke out on Miao Yi’s forehead, and his legs turned to jelly. He was standing to the right side of the Hell Mantis, not daring to be rash in his movements.
The big, sturdy man and the others also broke into a cold sweat, since they were directly at the forefront, facing the Hell Mantis itself. They didn’t dare make any large movements, as they continued to slowly back away from it.
Suddenly, the two ‘sickles’ of the Hell Mantis scratched against each other in a demonic manner, popping out and withdrawing back again.
No one clearly saw what it did, but suddenly, the two men standing beside the big, sturdy man disappeared from sight, only to find them hanging with their chests impaled. They were hooked onto the Hell Mantis’s sickles, fresh blood trickling down their bodies as they screamed in pain and agony.
"We’re dead no matter which way we go…" the big, sturdy man warned the others, immediately shouting, "Everyone, split up and run!"
The panic-stricken men immediately turned their heads and ran off in different directions.
But the man who told everyone to disperse and run away, stayed behind by himself instead of escaping with the others.
The Hell Mantis’s eyes blinked as it chewed, feasting the head that it held with its sickles. Suddenly, it flapped its wings and hovered above the ground, causing a gust of wind to appear, floating sand and stones into mid-air. Its mouth still chewed onto its ‘food’ as it flew, chasing towards the running men.
Miao Yi, who at this point was already scared out of his wits, turned to look back and vaguely saw the Hell Mantis playing a game of cat and mouse. It hovered from one side to another, above the people who were in the midst of escaping, still chewing on the food it caught with its sickles.It gave people the impression that it was eating from its bowl, while keeping an eye on the pot, as if it wanted second helpings after finishing its portion. Shrill screams could be constantly heard from afar.
When the scene of cat and mouse disappeared from his sight, Miao Yi let out a sigh of relief. He reckoned if it weren’t for those people escaping and subsequently attracting the monster’s attention, he would not have been able to avoid a similar fate.
"I’m saved." The big, sturdy man patted his chest, feeling relieved. Noticing Miao Yi hadn’t moved yet, he felt it was strange. He concluded that this kid was quite smart and had actually seen through his scheme.
However, he did not realize that Miao Yi couldn’t even run because his legs had given out from terror.
"Kid, we have strayed away from the safe zone. It’s not wise to stay here for a long period of time. Hurry and leave!"
The big, sturdy man warned him solely out of goodwill, then turned and ran off.
After watching the man disappear into the dense mist, Miao Yi calmed his shocked state of mind, proceeding to head back to look for Zhao Xingwu, only to discover that he had no idea where that guy had even gone to, due to the Hell Mantis’ previous interruption. It was extremely foggy all around, so even if he wanted to find Zhao Xingwu, he was unable to do so anymore.
He slightly admired Zhao Xingwu. He himself was too scared of the Hell Mantis to move, and that guy had dared to run away.
But a depressing thought quickly formed in his mind; since Zhao Xingwu had only cared about escaping, he might not even have noticed the appearance of the Hell Mantis behind him...