The silent and dark corridor, submerged in the night, stretched forward endlessly.
Yan Jingxing ran at the front, and what echoed in his ears was the echo of three pairs of shoes hitting the ground, as well as his own intense breathing and heartbeat.
He couldn't remember how long the chase lasted - maybe it wasn't too long, but the process was too torturous and long.
There wasn't much energy left in his mind to think, so he just followed Ji Chunzao's instructions and ran around after the target.
Sometimes he ran to the top floor, sometimes he ran to the bottom of the building, and sometimes he had to weave through the crowds of dancing patients, but he missed every time.
The closest they got to their target was when they chased them all the way to a corner that seemed to be a dead end. Yan Jingxing had an idea and opened a nearby window, and then he saw a dark shadow flashing quickly in front of them. , jumped from one wall of the outer floor to the other, "Ceng Ceng Ceng" quickly disappeared from the field of vision, and the flexibility was not decent.
It is too difficult to catch up with a beast that can fly over walls and fly over walls. After activating his "combat instinct", he felt confident to act like a professional parkour master, but it was still not easy to catch up with the running speed of the beast between the eaves and rooftops.
Moreover, as their physical strength declined after intense exercise, their running speed also slowed down, and the distance between them and the monster became farther and farther every time.
Next time...if it doesn't succeed next time, there may be no hope of catching up again.
"Which side is next?"
Run to the bottom of the stairs again, up or down?
Yan Jingxing turned his gaze to Ji Chunzao behind him.
The curly-haired girl was panting and sweating from running, and was currently bending over to rest on the handrail of the stairs. After hearing the question, she squinted her eyes and looked upward, covered by beads of sweat.
"Up, up... it's about two floors up."
"That's the fifth floor. Okay, let's continue."
Yan Jingxing held his knees and climbed up the stairs with some difficulty.
At this moment, he heard Xie Yuzhi behind him calling him to stop.
"Wait, stop chasing. This can't continue. Looking at the current situation, we are just wasting our energy in vain."
He turned his head and saw the eldest lady caressing her slightly bulging chest, trying to calm her breathing.
"I feel like that guy is probably playing a trick on us. Because so far, none of us can even see what it looks like."
Xie Yuzhi said that her long, smooth and straight hair, which was originally neatly combed, was now completely loose, but under the sweat-soaked bangs, the girl's eyes remained calm.
"If you think about it carefully, there was something unnatural about this matter from the very beginning. When did this chasing process begin?"
"Well……"
Ji Chunzao tapped his chin with his finger and began to remember.
As a priest, she is the only one among the three who can confirm the target's movement trajectory. She has been giving directions during the previous chase.
"I remember, right from the beginning?"
"oh?"
"Didn't Jing Xing knock down the patient all at once? Then almost at the same time, I suddenly 'felt' a strange and strong electric wave. Although it was far inferior to the predator king, it was compared to the hairless ones. Or, its presence is very strong.”
"That's the black dog with two mouths that the doctor said. From this point of view, it is indeed another alien creature that invaded the earth."
"I also speculated like this, so after I noticed that it appeared one floor above us, I thought that I might be able to catch it; but when I ran to almost directly below it, the guy suddenly started to change its position. It happened, and it was very fast. As soon as I became anxious, I said I would catch up quickly..."
Ji Chunzao held his chin with his hand.
"But every time, when we are about to catch up, it will immediately change its direction. ... Now when I calm down and think about it, I feel like I have been tricked."
"I see."
Xie Yuzhi said thoughtfully.
"Judging from this series of reactions, it shows that the black dog may have the ability to detect us in turn, or it may be able to detect the approach of a threat."
"I think that's for sure."
Yan Jingxing sighed.
"You know, ever since Chun Zao found its traces, we have been following closely behind it, but in the end we haven't even seen its face once. If the black dog does not have strong anti-detection capabilities, It’s impossible to escape so fast and still keep us all spinning around.”
"Well. It seems that what we have to deal with is not an ordinary beast. It has the ability to resist detection and confuse people, and it has a considerable degree of intelligence. It is far more cunning than ordinary beasts. It can be considered to be a beast that is better than what we have dealt with. The Hairless Ones are more advanced creatures.”
The three of them looked at each other.
"Then what to do next?"
"...Since it wants to play tricks on us and make us run around behind it to exhaust our energy, then we shouldn't follow its ideas. So give up, let's not chase it at all."
Xie Yuzhi leaned against the wall, as if she really wanted to stop, her tone became relaxed.
"If you don't chase...then let it escape?"
Ji Chunzao was still confused, but Yan Jingxing already understood what the eldest lady meant.
"By the way, there is really no need to run around after it. The fact that we appear here is an accident. We know this best, don't we? But the black dog is different, it will appear Being in a hospital only means it has another purpose.”
"Purpose, purpose...purpose, right?"
Ji Chunzao lowered his head and thought thoughtfully, chewing the word repeatedly.
"The doctor mentioned it. He thought it was strange why it took ten years for the 'barking dog' to appear again in this hospital..."
Yes, why exactly?
"If we can get more information from the person involved, we might be able to detect the similarities between the hospital situation ten years ago and the current situation; as long as we can understand 'what' made it appear, or led it to It comes to this hospital and we can figure out how to deal with it."
But with the current chaotic situation in the hospital, it is obvious that this cannot be done.
Perhaps the reason why the black dog, who has made a comeback after ten years, wants to interfere with the mental state of the patients and cause this chaos is to confuse the public.
…
The boys and girls rested in the stairwell for a while, not discussing any good ideas to solve the dilemma.
However, after they stopped blindly chasing monsters, their mentality did calm down.
"Chun Zao, can you still feel its presence now?"
The little girl closed her eyes, focused on using her ability, and answered after a moment:
"The radio signal has become very weak, but it is still there. The signal source is a little higher than before. Maybe it has reached the rooftop?"
"After we stopped chasing, it did not choose to leave the hospital building. In other words..."
"The 'thing' it wants is in this building."
Yan Jingxing took over her words.
The question is, what can be contained in a mental hospital building? All they can think of are the mentally ill people living here; but there has been no shortage of patients in the past ten years, so why did the black dog choose to appear at this time? What makes this moment in time special?
The problem seems to be back to its original point——
"——Wait, I suddenly had an idea."
Yan Jingxing had a flash of inspiration.
"Perhaps, our appearance in this place and the appearance of the black dog are not purely accidental."
"……What's the meaning?"
"We came here to visit Teacher Gao, who had his brain damaged by the Hairless Man, right? In fact, at that time, we had already noticed that something was wrong."
"...Are you talking about the matter of 'there is only one hairless person left who lives in Teacher Gao'?"
"That's right. The key to this question is where the remaining hairless ones went. If they are still in this mental hospital and were not discovered by Chun Zao in time, there is only one reason -"
"——They are hosting other people again." Xie Yuzhi replied, "This kind of monster lurking in the body will cause great interference to the priest's perception. Even if it is spring algae, it can only be done face to face." Be aware of their presence.”
"...Jing Xing means those patients who are imprisoned in the North District?"
Ji Chunzao's eyes widened, and she obviously came back to her senses.
"Yeah. After they saw us, they all ran away, leaving only one patient with a mutilated brain."
Yan Jingxing nodded.
"If this group of people are actually the hosts of the Hairless Ones, it is easy to guess why the Black Dog appears. It is just for this group of Hairless People. It is very likely that there are differences between alien creatures from different groups. It has the same food chain as the ecosystem on the earth. According to my speculation, since the black dog is a more advanced creature than the hairless man, the relationship between the two is probably that of hunter and prey."
"How about it?"
Yan Jingxing smiled. He did some stretching exercises and felt that his physical strength was almost restored and it was time to move.
"If we agree with this guess, we will go find those patients in the North District now. If the target of the black dogs is really the hairless ones on their bodies, there is a high probability that they will appear in front of us on their own initiative; of course, what I have said so far These are just baseless conjectures, and I have no objection if you disagree."
"I have no opinion."
"I think that's the best way to go right now."
Xie Yuzhi and Ji Chunzao shook their heads at the same time. The eldest lady also added:
"Even if we can't catch the black dog, if those patients are actually boarded by the hairless people brought here by Teacher Gao, they are still a threat. Solving their problems is better than wasting efforts and achieving nothing."
"Very good. Then there is only one question left. Yuzhi, can you control so many hairless people?"
"No problem, I have my own way."
Miss Xie showed a confident smile.
*
Since changing their goals, their operations have become smoother.
Although the patients in the North District seemed to be deliberately avoiding the young people, after all, there were more than a dozen people there. With Chunzao's sacrificial ability, and Yuzhi borrowing the hairless person under her control to expand the search area, they quickly One target after another was discovered.
The dense darkness of the night is enough to block the sight of the naked eye, but it cannot block the detection of super powers.
"Corner of the front corridor!"
The girl's reminder came from behind.
Yan Jingxing held a small knife in each hand and ran forward, his eyes staring at the darkness in front of him suddenly becoming calm.
The man wearing a hospital gown who was lurking in the corner rushed over with a grin on his face, holding a stent for hanging needles. But before he could get close to the boy, the insteps of his feet were pierced by knives, and he fell heavily to the ground and slipped. After walking a few meters, Yan Jingxing stepped on his back.
"There's another one running down the stairs!"
Before Ji Chunzao finished speaking, Yan Jingxing didn't even raise his head. He quickly took out the third flying knife from his waist with his left hand and threw it towards the stairs without looking.
"Whoosh——"
A ray of cold light cut through the night, like a white rainbow penetrating the sun, and penetrated the palm of another patient who was trying to escape by grabbing the railing.
Blood spattered, and the force of the flying knife was still there, and it actually nailed the hand to the wooden guardrail next to it.
The patient screamed in pain. After being stunned for a moment, he subconsciously wanted to reach out and pull out the knife, but he only heard a burst of rapid footsteps approaching from far away. When he turned his head, he saw the young man running quickly towards him, head bowed. He took action and hit his chin hard with a push.
The man's vision went dark, he fell unconscious for an instant, and his body fell limply.
…
"This is the third one."
Yan Jingxing grabbed the patient's collar, dragged his head down the stairs, and threw him together with the second host.
"How about it?"
"Yeah! There are indeed signs of being lodged by the Hairless Ones on them."
"It seems that my suspicion has been confirmed in the direction."
Yan Jingxing breathed a sigh of relief.
The boys and girls had a tacit understanding and perfect cooperation. With the joint efforts of the three of them, they had controlled several patients in less than five minutes.
It seems that the hosts don't intend to escape from here for some reason, so there are too many things that can be done.
What's more, if the black dog that's running around in the hospital building is really aiming for the hairless one, the host's range of activities will only be narrowed even more.
Beside, Xie Yuzhi had closed her eyes and began to use the king's power.
The hairless beings invaded by consciousness were controlled by her, and slowly crawled out of the patients' mouths as their hosts' bodies trembled violently.
"It's now!"
Xie Yuzhi opened her eyes and finished using her ability.
Without saying a word, Yan Jingxing shot two more flying knives directly into the vital points of the leech monster, killing them.
The monsters controlled by the king can be regarded as fixed targets, so there is no pressure on him.
Yes, this is Xie Yuzhi's method: Since she cannot control a large number of monsters at the same time with her current strength of consciousness, she can only do temporary manipulation, just let them crawl out of the human body.
"call……"
Having said that, Xie Yuzhi still didn't look too relaxed. Every time she used her ability, sweat would break out on her forehead. Ji Chunzao on the side asked worriedly:
"Are you okay? Can you still hold on?"
"...At this level, it won't be a problem if we do it twenty times again."
Miss Xie's tone was still calm, and it didn't sound like the tone of a pushy person.
Yan Jingxing nodded, and when he was about to say something, suddenly——
"Ouch!"
The dog barked again, this time more clearly than before, and it seemed to contain the anger of having the prey taken away.
"It seems that I can't sit still."
Yan Jingxing laughed and began to slowly wipe the blood on the recovered knife.
The young men stared into the darkness of the corridor.
"This time, I can finally see your 'true face' in Lushan... Come on, don't let us down too much."
