Chapter 12 – Encounter

“Aaaah!!!”

Just as Su Lifeng felt they were drawing closer to the Nest, a sudden chorus of blood-curdling screams erupted from ahead.

“Help! Save me!”

It was the tourists! How had they ended up here too?

Su Lifeng quickly turned back and signaled to Jiang Yushi and the others to stay low, then cautiously crept toward the source of the noise.

In a dense thicket shrouded in mist, the tourists who had just narrowly escaped death were once again plunged into despair. Many were fleeing in every direction out of pure instinct, but figures would periodically lunge out from the shadows behind them, tackling them to the ground.

Su Lifeng hid behind a large tree, watching the scene with a racing heart.

Right then, a tourist running in blind desperation charged toward the very tree Su Lifeng was using for cover. However, when the man was still several meters away, a figure suddenly pounced from the side, slamming him into the dirt.

“No, no!”

The tourist had just begun to struggle when the Xenospecies grabbed his calf and gave it a twist that seemed almost effortless.

“Crack.”

With a crisp snap, the tourist’s screams cut off instantly. Su Lifeng, who had been about to rush out, froze in his tracks, forcing himself to stay still. “What’s going on? Isn’t it supposed to be absorption and transformation?”

After knocking the tourist unconscious, the Xenospecies grabbed the man’s mangled leg and began dragging him toward another part of the forest.

Their combat effectiveness seemed to be growing stronger and stronger.

They looked identical to humans, yet their eyes were devoid of any humanity-a gaze that immediately brought the word “monster” to mind.

“I need to follow them and see where they’re going.” Su Lifeng frowned as the thought took hold.

Without much hesitation, he turned to Jiang Yushi and the others. “Hide nearby. I’m going to check things out.”

“I’m going with you,” Jiang Yushi said immediately.

Su Lifeng wanted to refuse, but seeing the determination in her eyes, he thought for a moment and nodded. “Fine. The rest of you, be careful-especially if anything unusual happens. I’ll be back as soon as possible.”

“Su…” Cheng Xiaomei wanted to follow as well, but as she stood up, she felt a searing, burning pain in her hand.

“Ah…” She clutched her hand tightly. By the time she looked up, Su Lifeng and Jiang Yushi were already gone.

Cheng Xiaomei slowly loosened her grip to look at her hand, only to see her finger bones seemingly twitching on their own, as if they possessed a life of their own… Her eyes widened in shock. “What is happening?!” But when she looked again, the change seemed to have vanished.

“Isn’t that Leader Zhang? What’s he doing here?” a boy’s surprised voice suddenly whispered.

Cheng Xiaomei quickly lowered her hand and turned with Han Fei and the others to look.

Sure enough, in a patch of tall grass diagonally across from them, a familiar figure was crouching.

Zhang Hai had his back to them, seemingly unaware of their presence nearby. If the boy hadn’t been so sharp-eyed, they would have had a hard time spotting him.

“Zhang-“

Feng Shen was about to call out when Cheng Xiaomei interrupted, “Didn’t you hear what Su said? We have to be careful if anything unusual happens…”

“How is this unusual? Isn’t it a good thing to find another classmate alive? He doesn’t look like one of those Xenospecies,” another boy snapped, cutting her off with a frown.

Cheng Xiaomei waved her hands, trying to explain. “That’s not what I meant. I just think we should be cautious…”

She soon realized her words were falling on deaf ears, as the group began moving toward Zhang Hai.

“Zhang Hai?” one of the boys called out eagerly when they were only a few paces away.

They had assumed all their classmates were dead; they hadn’t expected to find another survivor.

However, before Zhang Hai could even turn around, the boy’s expression shifted.

Lying in the grass right in front of Zhang Hai was a corpse!

Hearing the shout, Zhang Hai’s body stiffened for a moment before he immediately turned his head.

Only then did the boy see that Zhang Hai was holding a rock. Both the rock and his hands were covered in a thick, bloody Gelatinous Substance.

It was obvious that the corpse belonged to a Xenospecies…

The boy glanced past him and nearly threw up on the spot.

This Xenospecies had been smashed almost to a pulp…

“Zhang Hai, you…”

Zhang Hai stared at his classmates for a moment, then suddenly grinned and dropped the rock. “Don’t get me wrong, I was just… I was just protecting myself. This Xenospecies was injured during a fight with some other tourists, and then it came to attack me. I had no choice but to keep smashing it… smashing it as hard as I could! Then, it ended up like this. Did you know? It can completely absorb a human’s internal organs into itself. The entire human body is actually just left as a layer of skin. What I killed wasn’t even human anymore, really.”

As he said this, there wasn’t much fear on Zhang Hai’s face. Instead, it was the others who were shocked by his incessant and detailed narration.

Seeing everyone dumbfounded, he smiled again and suddenly asked, “Forget it, I can tell from your faces that you don’t understand yet. I remember, aren’t you supposed to be with Su Lifeng? Where is he now?”

“We don’t kn-“

Cheng Xiaomei rushed to answer first. However, at that moment, Han Fei suddenly interrupted her: “Su Lifeng might know how we can leave!”

“What?” Zhang Hai froze for a second, then a look of wild ecstasy crossed his face.

Cheng Xiaomei’s eyes widened in disbelief as she looked at Han Fei. “What nonsense are you talking about?”

“Nonsense? Ever since we were on the boat, Su Lifeng has always known things ahead of time that we didn’t. To be honest, I’m starting to wonder if he’s actually a Xenospecies in disguise!” Han Fei countered.

“How can you say that! If it weren’t for Su, you’d all be dead by now!” Cheng Xiaomei trembled with rage. What made her even more furious was that when she looked at Feng Shen and the others, they actually stood silently by Han Fei’s side!

“You guys…”

“You’re saying he’s a Xenospecies?” Zhang Hai took a sudden step forward, staring intently at Han Fei.

Seeing Zhang Hai’s fanatical expression, a flicker of guilt flashed through Han Fei’s previously righteous gaze. “I… I was just saying… but it’s very likely he knows the way out! I noticed that he seems to understand everything happening on this island. If we work together to catch him, as long as he’s willing to lead us out, then everyone will be happy.”

“It’s all the same, all the same…” Zhang Hai smiled strangely and then asked, “Where is he?”

Han Fei pointed in the direction where Su Lifeng and Jiang Yushi had left. “That way…”

However, as soon as he finished speaking, a figure flashed past them. It was Cheng Xiaomei, who had taken the lead and started sprinting in that direction.

Han Fei’s expression changed instantly. “She’s going to warn him!”

Another figure gave chase. Feng Shen ran a few steps and grabbed for Cheng Xiaomei’s arm. “Xiaomei, don’t be like this. What we’re doing is for everyone’s benefit, and it won’t cause any harm to Su…”

His speed was much faster than a frail girl like Cheng Xiaomei. However, just as he was about to touch her arm, Cheng Xiaomei suddenly swung her hand back… To be precise, only her hand swung back.

As if her wrist had no joint, her palm flipped over at a startling angle, and her five fingers slashed across Feng Shen’s arm like blades.

“Get away from me!” Cheng Xiaomei cursed with a mix of fear and disgust. After making that single move, she continued sprinting forward without looking back.

Feng Shen stood frozen on the spot. A second or two later, he watched helplessly as a bloody line split down the middle of his arm. Then, the part connected to his palm fell to the ground by his feet with a wet thud.

“Aaaah!”