Chapter 296: [Unswerving Devotion] Crimson Full Moon
Bai Cha felt the force pressing against the door from outside surge all at once.
Even straining with every ounce of strength across her body, she could barely hold the door at bay; it was being pushed inward regardless, a crack already exposed.
Peering through the gap, a person could be seen standing outside.
Their body was absolute pitch-black, virtually indistinguishable from the shadow projected onto the door.
And behind that shadow shone a blanket of crimson light, radiating from some unknown origin and projecting through the crack, coating the entire interior of the room in a bloody hue.
Seeing the situation, Xu Taotao rushed forward to help hold the door as well.
Originally, only the shadow’s mouth had been split open in a grin, revealing the red light from outside.
After Xu Taotao stepped up to help, two points of red light materialized in the position of its eyes as well.
The red light curved rapidly—it was the shadow laughing.
“Oh? Let me see… there are actually two young ladies?”
The shadow pressed flat against the door, its hands resting against the surface as if desperately trying to peer inside through a sheet of window paper.
Moreover, the shadow seemed to be melting steadily into the door, attempting to pass through and enter the room.
Evidently, if this shadow managed to get inside, it would bounds to be far harder to deal with than the Biyun from earlier.
For this shadow wasn’t necessarily a physical entity.
The shadow continued speaking in that bizarre, elongated drawl.
“Why are there two young ladies? Where did the other one come from?”
“The other young lady had better be careful not to get caught, or she’ll be killed!”
As her words fell, a portion of the shadow had already seeped inside.
Bai Cha exchanged a glance with Xu Taotao.
Xu Taotao understood Bai Cha’s intention with surprising clarity.
Then, both of them released their grip simultaneously, stepping aside to the flanks.
Pushed open by a colossal force, the door swung wide, and the shadow burst inside in an instant, while Xu Taotao and Bai Cha sprinted toward the outside of the house at top speed.
Carried into the room by momentum, the shadow should have had its back turned to the door, yet because its eyes and mouth were hollowed out to begin with, it couldn’t truly be considered turned away.
It flashed another smile at Bai Cha and Xu Taotao’s receding figures.
“You can’t run away.”
Saying this, its body—originally constructed like a shadow—began unraveling like a silk cocoon, extending black threads outward one after another.
These threads dissipated rapidly, leaving behind a single eye suspended in midair at last.
The eye spun a full circle in midair, then darted outside.
Bai Cha and Xu Taotao sprinted straight for the back door.
The red light was moonlight.
A colossal full moon hung overhead, dripping blood-red, its emitted halo enveloping the entire instance.
Tragic, sharp shrieks began echoing from the direction of Biyi Tower once more.
Deep snow carpeted the ground, making running rather arduous.
As she ran, Bai Cha recalled that dream.
That eerie dream where she was observed by countless eyes.
Yet she held zero time to ponder further, bumping face-to-front into a person.
It was likely a maid from the Xu household, and she spotted the two of them.
Thereupon, she charged straight at them in an instant.
Casually unfastening her cumbersome skirt, Bai Cha threw it directly over the maid’s head, splitting left and right with Xu Taotao to bypass her and continue sprinting toward the back door.
Yet this was merely the beginning.
The back door sat right adjacent to the rear kitchen, and a cook stepped out with a cleaver held in his hand.
They sprinted forward even faster, yet upon reaching the back door, they discovered it had been locked.
The cook behind gave chase, swinging his cleaver toward the two of them.
Dodging aside, Xu Taotao emulated Bai Cha’s earlier move, using her own skirt to block the cook’s field of vision as well.
Meanwhile, Bai Cha casually yanked at the cook’s arm.
Instinctively, the cook chopped in her direction.
The blade descended, striking the padlock squarely; the lock was severed, falling to the ground.
Xu Taotao pulled the door open with swift speed.
Their coordination was seamlessly flawless; with no need for spoken cues, they had already sprinted outside.
Yet the level of danger on the street was perhaps even greater than within the Xu Manor.
For numerous bird monsters roamed the street.
These Biyi birds were incapable of flight, able only to hop along the ground using their legs, much like sparrows.
Yet they were massive—every single bird was as large as a human being.
Originally, the texture and color of the fleshy feathers across the bird monsters’ bodies looked far from appealing, thoroughly revolting even, and bathed in the red light, they resembled creatures crawling out from the deepest pits of hell.
This scene proved far more intense than any instance Bai Cha had cleared in the past.
The bird monsters spotted them in the very first second, setting about hopping and charging toward them.
The cook behind pursued them outside as well, only to be stomped underfoot by a bird monster.
Then, the cook’s body emitted a squelching pop, crushed to splatters on the spot.
That sound and texture didn’t resemble stomping on a living, breathing human; it felt far more akin to crushing an eyeball or something similar.
While dodging, Bai Cha and Xu Taotao sensed the location of the Dodder Vine planted inside the City Lord’s wife’s body.
The other party was separated from her by a layer of something.
Much like being divided into two worlds, with the other party residing on that side.
Yet she could still draw it out.
So she did precisely that.
The Dodder Vine sat extremely far away, and although it could move toward this world at her summon, the distance remained far too vast.
Consequently, she simply let the Dodder Vine grow wildly without restraint, absorbing the female ghost’s power at all costs.
However, this provided zero immediate impact on their current predicament for the time being.
Because these bird monsters possessed a massive wing on only one side, they instinctively ran tilted toward the direction of that wing.
Upon realizing this, Bai Cha intentionally guided them to collide with one another, and seeing her actions, Xu Taotao followed suit alongside her.
The physical endurance of both girls ran limited, so they intentionally sprinted toward nearby buildings as well.
Large courtyards were unsafe to enter, yet stepping into small residential houses remained viable.
Charging into a household, they met the residents of the house, who stood up immediately and charged toward the two of them.
“Lure them outside first.”
Bai Cha uttered a brief instruction.
Understanding, Xu Taotao cooperated, and using the Biyi birds outside, the two dispatched the residents of the house before charging back inside once more.
Those bird monsters temporarily held no intention of destroying buildings, as if adhering to a tacit rule.
They wouldn’t enter to harm people, yet any human stepping outside would be stomped to death by them.
Bai Cha and Xu Taotao let out a brief breath of relief.
They sat on the threshold inside the house, sweating profusely from the intense exertion.
In the dead of a winter night, a passing gust of wind still felt frigid.
Only now did Bai Cha and her companion hold the time to observe the situation outside; the red snow drifting from the sky wasn’t snow, but rather a red, feather-like substance.
They wouldn’t settle on the ground; even if they briefly landed, they would take flight once more.
That full moon overhead was extraordinarily massive.
Bai Cha raised her head to stare at it, the sight growing stranger the longer she looked.
Numerous textures lined the full moon, appearing quite similar to the real moon at first glance, yet inspecting it closely revealed it was far from that.
Particularly in the center, a hairline crack seemed to traverse the entire surface of the full moon.
Viewed this way, it didn’t resemble a moon—it resembled an eye.
And right as this thought surfaced in her mind, that line shuddered subtly.
