Chapter Thirty-Four: Festering Wounds

During the brief moment when Liu Chang was observing the massive hound, another wolfdog emerged from the thicket. As soon as it burst out, it barked incessantly at Liu Chang, its voice urgent and short, drawing the giant hound’s entire attention toward it.

“So that’s why it came—seeking revenge.” With a glance at the “little dog,” Liu Chang abruptly recognized it as the one that had previously fled. It hadn’t truly escaped; it had gone to fetch reinforcements.

“You head to Teacher Li. This dog came for me.” Gently bending down, he let the little girl jump off his back. Liu Chang gripped the iron spear tightly—that was his last lifeline.

The girl was obedient; she knew she would only be a burden at Liu Chang’s side. She hopped off his back and ran straight to Li Qingshui. Throughout the entire process, the giant hound paid no attention to her; it had focused all its spirit on Liu Chang, completely ignoring Li Qingshui and the little girl.

“You two should go. Even if all three of us joined forces, we wouldn’t survive a single blow from this dog.” Holding the iron spear, Liu Chang felt a surge of desolation. Knowing death was near, the sadness gradually transformed into a tragic resolve. Thus, he performed the first heroic deed of his ordinary life.

“You two go first. I’ll cover the rear,” Liu Chang sighed deeply.

“All right.” Li Qingshui’s reply, simple to a fault, shattered the heroic mood Liu Chang had painstakingly built. Without another glance, Li Qingshui picked up the little girl and ran off into the dense fog, disappearing among the tall grass. She paid no heed to Liu Chang’s tragic stance or the little girl crying in her arms, vanishing in a flash.

“Ah, that unyielding rational resolve—both admirable and terrifying!” Watching Li Qingshui’s silhouette fade into the mist, Liu Chang sighed inwardly. Suddenly, the bloody hue of the world seemed to intensify around him.

“Is this the end?” Liu Chang eyed the two wolfdogs, one large and one small, baring their teeth at him. Clutching his iron spear, he wasn’t sure whether to flee or fight—run, and he’d never outrun that monster that covered a hundred meters in five or six seconds; fight, and he’d never defeat the beast whose size rivaled a bear.

At the brink of death, he was faced with a choice, and neither option appealed to him.

Fortunately, fate didn’t torment him further with this decision. The enemy answered before he could.

The wolfdog charged!

Abandoning all thought of whether to attack or escape, Liu Chang faced the rushing shadow and raised his iron spear across his chest.

Clang!

The iron spear blocked the giant hound’s first leap, but its massive forelimbs bent the spear into a “V” shape, and Liu Chang’s arms went numb from the force, causing him to drop the weapon. The tremendous impact sent him flying three or four meters, tumbling into the grass.

He barely landed before the smaller wolfdog pounced, clamping its jaws onto his calf. Its sharp teeth tore through his trousers and skin, digging deep into his muscle.

“Damn!” The ferocious pain made Liu Chang instinctively fight back. With a powerful kick, he sent the small wolfdog flying, only to see the giant beast break through the grass and lunge at him a second time.

“Damn you!” As the monstrous creature attacked again, Liu Chang rolled aside, pulling out a scalpel and slashing at its forepaw. Though it didn’t cause much harm, it enraged the beast further.

Howling, the monster snapped its gaping maw at Liu Chang. As he watched those jaws approach, Liu Chang knew that, unlike movie heroes who survive being tossed about by monsters, if he were bitten, it would be fatal—his bones would shatter, tendons snap, organs rupture. Death would be absolute.

Like a mouse facing a cat, he darted through the grass, his physical prowess not weak, and the monster’s size and the grass hindered its sight. For a moment, it couldn’t catch him—but given their absolute difference in strength, capture was only a matter of time.

Struggling on the edge of death is an exhausting ordeal—constantly mindful of death, never knowing when it will come. Weariness sets in, but not struggling is impossible, bringing both physical and mental fatigue.

Yet, just as Liu Chang was scrambling through the grass, desperate beyond measure, fate again lent him a hand—he suddenly spotted a manhole cover in the road. It wasn’t round; the middle bulged upward, clearly broken from within.

Where there’s a manhole cover, there’s a sewer. In his panic, Liu Chang looked around and found, beside the iron cover in the tangled grass, a shadowy opening.

That black beacon shone so brightly in his mind, he was desperate to throw himself into its embrace! Risking another bite from the little wolfdog, he scrambled and rolled headlong into the sewer, plunging into a world of stench.

He dove in, and the giant hound immediately tried to follow, jamming its head into the opening—but its enormous body couldn’t fit and it could only howl angrily above. The small wolfdog beside it barked as well, but it clearly lacked the courage to jump down, and even if it did, it posed no threat to Liu Chang. For now, he was safe.

Knowing he was safe, Liu Chang climbed out of the foul water, his first sensation was darkness.

Utter darkness.

Outside, the red mist had already reduced visibility to almost nothing. Inside the sewer, darkness was even deeper. Even with Liu Chang’s vision, he could barely see his own hand in front of his face.

The only light came from the faint halo around the sewer entrance overhead, but that weak glow couldn’t illuminate this world. Standing beneath it, Liu Chang listened to the barking dogs above and the trickle of water, absorbing everything around him.

People are always prone to fear in the dark. After standing up, Liu Chang’s first thought was of the monsters lurking in the sewer.

After that, his mind flashed to maggots, to flies, to all sorts of parasites. He noticed blood oozing from his wounds.

Then, he pieced all these together—he was bleeding, the scent was strong, and in this dark sewer, that rich scent was like a blazing beacon for the monsters. Next, he imagined being attacked, his body torn apart and devoured, the remains left here to breed maggots after being bitten by mutant flies, turning into a pool of pus.

As these thoughts merged, Liu Chang shivered deeply. The more he considered it, the more convinced he became that his reasoning was sound.