Chapter 45: Calling for Backup
After Elsa used her ability to kill “Old Man Huang,” she discovered something alarming.
“Old Man Huang” didn’t have a soul. What she had done was merely sever the connection between “Old Man Huang” and some other entity.
This meant… there was still a Grotesquery lurking in Baiyan Village, controlling everything from the shadows, like a shepherd and their flock.
Although the loss of one sheep might not necessarily attract attention, their current location was extremely dangerous. If they were exposed, all three of them would likely be trapped.
The conditions for Elsa to use her ability were quite specific. Without it, she was no different from a frail, ordinary girl.
However, the good news was that Elsa had recovered. Her earlier distress had been caused by a premonition of danger, but she hadn’t known where the danger came from or if it was even a real threat, leading to an inexplicable anxiety.
Now that she understood, Elsa felt relieved, a weight lifted from her heart.
Bella, the teddy bear, still hadn’t spoken, lying quietly in Elsa’s lap like an ordinary stuffed toy. But this had happened before; its personality occasionally malfunctioned, which wasn’t unusual.
“Right, call for backup…”
An Yu calmed herself, forcing herself not to think about the terrifying implications.
She took out her phone, preparing to call for help through the group chat.
But then, things took a turn for the worse.
“No signal?” An Yu looked at her phone, which showed almost no signal, and the message that wouldn’t send. Panic flashed through her eyes. “That’s not right, I had signal when I came back before…”
“It’s not your phone, it’s this place,” Luo Ling said, her expression grim.
She had tried to use the Spores she had planted outside to call for help. This wasn’t the time to hide her long-range communication ability, but unfortunately… it also failed. She couldn’t sense the outside Spores at all.
Something seemed to be enveloping Baiyan Village, isolating them from the outside world.
“We have to leave this place,” Luo Ling exhaled, turning to An Yu. “Take us to the nearest town, quickly. If we’re exposed… we’ll be in even more trouble.”
“Mm…”
An Yu quickly put away her phone and slung her backpack over her shoulder.
She resisted the urge to look back at the cellar and led Luo Ling and Elsa towards the village entrance.
As they passed “Old Man Huang’s” body, she couldn’t help but glance at it.
A puddle of viscous white threads writhed on the ground, covered by a tattered layer of skin, opening and closing as if trying to mimic speech, but only a muffled whimper escaped.
“Don’t look, you won’t be able to handle it,” Luo Ling’s voice echoed from behind.
“I know…”
An Yu lowered her head, quickening her pace.
Xiao Bai was the “newbie” on this mission, yet for some reason, in this critical moment, she and Xiao Qian were following her lead.
What kind of person was Xiao Bai…?
An Yu suddenly realized that she knew very little about the White Witch, only her strikingly beautiful face and her aloof demeanor.
She didn’t even know much about her abilities…
She glanced back. Xiao Bai’s silver hair shimmered in the sunlight, casting an unreadable shadow over her face, like a mysterious veil.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing… it’s nothing…”
Hearing Luo Ling’s usual calm tone, An Yu felt inexplicably reassured.
She was so small and young, about the same age as Elsa, yet she seemed like a reliable older sister… strange.
After walking for a while, An Yu estimated they were close to the village entrance, but looking around, they were near the forest again.
“What’s going on?”
An Yu looked around in confusion, wondering if her memory was failing her.
Impossible, she had grown up in Baiyan Village. Even though she hadn’t run through the mountains and fields like the other village children, she at least knew the way around.
“Are… we… lost…?”
Even Elsa couldn’t help but ask.
“…Maybe.”
An Yu fought back the dizziness and examined her surroundings again.
She knew exactly how to get to the village entrance from their current location, but after turning a corner, they ended up somewhere else entirely.
This was just like…
“A ghost wall?”
An Yu’s face paled.
She hadn’t expected things to get even worse…
Seeing the change in An Yu’s expression, Luo Ling guessed what was happening.
While An Yu was leading the way, Luo Ling had also been using her Spores to scout the area, but she didn’t dare get too close to the village, afraid of being detected by the “villagers.”
She confirmed that Baiyan Village was enveloped by some kind of barrier, and with their current strength, they couldn’t break through.
“Don’t worry, there’s still a chance.”
Luo Ling reassured the increasingly anxious An Yu while thinking of a solution.
She looked up at the sky, which was also blocked by the invisible barrier. That was why the phone signal couldn’t get through, and her Spores were blocked as well.
However… living creatures, or rather, physical objects, weren’t affected.
Luo Ling watched as several birds flew in and out of the forest, passing through the barrier without any problems.
The sky seemed like a good escape route.
The only problem was, none of them could fly…
Wait, fly?
A thought struck Luo Ling, and her eyes narrowed.
If they couldn’t fly, it didn’t mean their phones couldn’t.
She immediately took out her phone, typed a message for help, took a deep breath, and threw it upwards with all her might.
“Eh?”
An Yu and Elsa stared at Luo Ling in bewilderment, unsure what she was doing.
Was she trying to activate airplane mode on her phone?
Luo Ling’s phone barely managed to pass through the barrier before falling back down.
At the same time, Luo Ling used Proliferation to make the surrounding weeds grow rapidly, forming a cushion to catch the falling phone.
She quickly picked up the phone and checked it, whispering,
“…It worked.”
After the phone had been thrown outside the barrier, the brief connection had allowed the message to be sent.
Unfortunately, the connection was too short. She had only managed to send the message but couldn’t receive any replies. The group chat was still stuck at the messages from before they entered Baiyan Village.
“You sent the message? Good, good…”
An Yu immediately understood what Luo Ling had done and breathed a sigh of relief, a rare smile appearing on her lips.
“Now we just need to hide and wait for the others to arrive after receiving the message… As long as Brother Liu and the others are here, everything will be alright.”
Just as she finished speaking, a familiar, elderly voice echoed from behind them, laced with confusion.
“Xiao Yu? And two other little girls… what are you doing here at this hour?”
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