Chapter 519 - Many against few
At this time, Liu Qiao and Old Mo were facing the dilemma of the marble bricks running out.
Li Qingzhao’s skill was to pull all teammates to the ‘point marked five minutes ago’. This meant the skill couldn’t be used immediately. They had to set the mark up first and wait five minutes before pulling people over.
The marble bricks were about to run out and they wouldn’t last five minutes.
Old Mo had to take out the solid wood flooring. “Xiao Liu, I will give you the wooden boards. Split them into several pieces and throw them out as a foothold while continuing to fly in the air. I will go to the ground and put the mark.”
At present, the attention of the four hunters was all on Liu Qiao. Old Mo was the size of a thumb and he stayed in Liu Qiao’s pocket, so it was difficult for them to find Old Mo. Liu Qiao saw that the hunters were about to catch up so she nodded. “Okay. Uncle Mo, be careful.”
She handed the Li Qingzhao card to Old Mo. Then she took Old Mo’s Solid Wood Flooring card and divided the wooden board into several pieces before throwing them in the air. Liu Qiao stepped on the wooden pieces as flexibly as a dragonfly on water and continued to use the light footwork card to fly forward.
Meanwhile, Old Mo used the Rotate Time and s.p.a.ce card to flip from the sky to the ground in an instant before placing the mark in a hidden corner.
It took five minutes to teleport the teammates. Could Xiao Liu hold on?
Old Mo anxiously looked up at the sky.
The bright moon was hanging high in the sky. Under the soft moonlight, Old Mo clearly saw several black shadows flying on a kite in the sky. Immediately after that, a tornado blew and the marble bricks he had placed in the air and the wooden planks that Liu Qiao put down were torn to pieces in an instant by the tornado.
Broken bricks and wood chips fell from the sky like snow. The moment Liu Qiao lost her footholds, the result would be falling from the sky and shattering bones, not to mention that there were four hunters behind her.
Old Mo was so nervous that his heart was about to stop beating. He hurriedly pressed down on the earpiece to ask Xiao Lou for help. “Professor Xiao, I have put down the mark but Xiao Liu is in a lot of danger right now! The four hunters are about to catch up and it is a dead end once her light footwork card is interrupted!”
Xiao Lou calmly told him, “Don’t worry. The hunters have lost five people and the current situation is favorable to us. Besides, it is a night battle scene. We have multiple cards that can play a miraculous effect.”
Old Mo was stunned before remembering some cards. “Do you mean the Nightmare, Flower b.u.t.terfly and Witch card?”
These were ident.i.ty cards in the original b.l.o.o.d.y Night Witch secret room. After pa.s.sing the level, they chose four of them as rewards: Dreamer, Witch, Flower b.u.t.terfly and Nightmare. Apart from the Dreamer card in Shao Qingge’s hand, Flower b.u.t.terfly was in Qu Wanyue’s hand, Nightmare was in Old Mo’s hands and Liu Qiao was holding the Witch card.
The thing these cards had in common was that they must be used at night.
Wasn’t it night right now?
Old Mo sighed with relief when he remembered this. “Xiao Liu still has the Witch card. No matter what, she can protect herself since she has the antidote that can save her life.”
Xiao Lou nodded. “That’s why I sent her to lure away the hunters.”
Liu Qiao might’ve always been smart and flexible but Xiao Lou would never let this 18 year old girl risk death. He dared to let Liu Qiao take Old Mo to distract the hunters because the Witch’s antidote in Liu Qiao’s hand hadn’t been used yet. It meant that at this time, Liu Qiao had two lives.
***
High in the sky, Liu Qiao had no foothold because the marble bricks and wooden planks were destroyed by the tornado. This meant the light footwork card wasn’t as flexible as before. If she continued like this, she would fall to her death sooner or later.
There was only one last piece of wood last by Old Mo. Liu Qiao decisively terminated the light footwork card and let herself fall in the air!
She didn’t have the protection of the light footwork card and the feeling of weightlessness almost made Liu Qiao’s heart stop. Her body fell rapidly from a height of several hundred meters. Liu Qiao saw that she was getting closer and closer to the ground and held her breath while concentrating. Once she was only 10 meters away from the ground, she immediately threw the last wooden plank, stepped on the board lightly with both feet, restarted the light footwork card and landed on the ground without any risk.
She squeezed her hands which were sweating. If she had been a bit slower by a second or two, she would’ve already fallen to her death.
Four hunters were chasing her using the kite but they didn’t expect her to suddenly fall down. All four of them were stunned before hurriedly heading to the ground with the kite. The moment that the middle-aged man who controlled the tornado raised his right hand, the familiar net wrapped tightly around Liu Qiao and made her unable to move her hands and feet.
Liu Qiao struggled for a moment but found that the net just became tighter the more she struggled. She simply stopped moving and looked up at the four people.
Out of the four who chased her, two were familiar. One was the middle-aged man with a scar who had previously controlled the tornado and giant net and the other was a young man in a black cloak.
The scar-faced man sneered. “Last time, we weren’t cautious enough and allowed you to teleport away. Let’s see where you can go this time.”
The young man in the cloak said, “This time, you won’t have the support of your teammates.”
Liu Qiao looked sideways at him. The man’s thin body was tightly covered by the wide cloak and only half his face was revealed. The skin of his face was pale like he was a dead body who crawled out of a morgue. There was a black crystal ball in his hand. After looking at Liu Qiao, the man smiled slightly and floated the crystal ball in the air.
A cloud of black mist was released from the crystal ball. The black mist was like a beast released from its cage as it headed fiercely toward Liu Qiao.
Liu Qiao closed her eyes.
The moment the black mist enveloped her body, Liu Qiao’s consciousness rapidly disappeared. Yet the second before her consciousness disappeared completely, Liu Qiao swallowed the Witch’s antidote that had been kept under her tongue.
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The moment that five minutes was up, Old Mo activated the teleportation and Xiao Lou’s group of four immediately appeared in front of him.
Old Mo’s location wasn’t far from where Liu Qiao was surrounded and Xiao Lou quickly found the four hunters. The moment the two sides met, Old Mo and Qu Wanyue didn’t hesitate. They acted at the same time and set a target.
Old Mo marked the middle-aged man who controlled the tornado with the black Nightmare, so that the other person couldn’t use any more skills tonight.
Qu Wanyue had a group of colorful b.u.t.terflies surrounding the young man holding the kite. The person who was hugged by the flower b.u.t.terfly couldn’t use any skills at night.
Originally, it was a 5 against 4 situation but the skills of two people on the opposite side were abolished. Xiao Lou’s group immediately had an advantage.
Immediately after that, Xiao Lou summoned Liu Yong and used Hold Hands with Tearful Eyes, Unable to Speak a Word.
The lyrics of Liu Yong’s ‘Yulin Ling. Mournful Cicadas’ made two people hold hands and stand in place, staring at each other with tears in their eyes. They won’t be able to move and attack for 30 seconds.
Old Mo and Qu Wanyue alone removed the skills of two hunters.
The remaining two hunters received Liu Yong’s skill and stared at each other in tears while holding hands.
The expressions of the four hunters became uglier.
They glared at Xiao Lou, eager to swallow Xiao Lou alive.
Xiao Lou said calmly, “After your mission fails, you should have a chance to do it again, right? So you aren’t afraid of death.”
Yu Hanjiang’s eyes narrowed and his gaze swept sharply over the four people in front of him.
Aside from the one with the wide cloak that had half his face covered, the other three wore the familiar silver masks that the hunters they encountered often wore. This appeared to be the symbol of the Hunter’s League.
Now two of the four people were looking at each other with tears in their eyes while the other two couldn’t use any skills. If Yu Hanjiang wanted to resolve them, he just needed to shoot the still targets one at a time. It was extremely easy.
Yet the moment when Yu Hanjiang took out his gun, a soft silver-white light suddenly appeared in the sky.
The light split apart the night sky and sprinkled gently on the ground, illuminating the surrounding area for hundreds of meters, as holy as a divine light. The moment when the light enveloped the four hunters, they disappeared without a trace like they were summoned by another time and s.p.a.ce.
Immediately after that, the silver-white light disappeared.
Xiao Lou looked around at the restored darkness and frowned. “Were they rescued by their teammates?”
Yu Hanjiang said, “This light is probably also a team teleportation skill and can purify all negative states. Our control skills became invalid in front of this divine light.”
The two of them looked at each other. The strength of the hunters was like a bottomless pit and couldn’t be determined at all. Xiao Lou originally thought they established an advantage using the teleportation and were sure to win, but they let the hunters escape at the last moment.
Xiao Lou was silent for a moment before saying, “Let’s go see Xiao Liu first.”
The four of them quickly moved forward and found Liu Qiao, who had fallen to the ground.
Xiao Lou leaned over and tested her breathing.
Liu Qiao had lost her breath and looked like a dead person. Her body was surrounded by a thick black mist and her entire face had turned blue. There was a strange black flame-like mark on her forehead.
Xiao Lou’s heart tightened and he hurriedly took out the team’s contract book.
Liu Qiao’s name was still on the contract book.
Xiao Lou sighed with relief. “Xiao Liu should’ve eaten the Witch’s antidote at the last moment and saved her life.”
Qu Wanyue picked up Liu Qiao from the ground. “The crystal ball in the man’s hand seems to be very powerful. Is this black mark on Liu Qiao’s forehead left behind after being attacked by the crystal ball?”
Xiao Lou touched the black mark and found that it couldn’t be erased. He frowned and a.n.a.lyzed it. “The black crystal ball should be a must-kill skill. The person who is. .h.i.t will die immediately. Fortunately, Xiao Liu reacted quickly enough. The Witch’s antidote has taken effect so she can wake up after dawn.”
The team members looked at Liu Qiao, whose eyes were closed, with mixed emotions. They didn’t know what to say for a while.
This time, the secret room was full of dangers, especially the ghost town labyrinth at night. If they took a wrong step, they might’ve been wiped out. Fortunately, Liu Qiao had placed the Witch’s antidote under her tongue in advance or she wouldn’t have had time to take the antidote when she was trapped by the net.
Just as everyone was thinking this with a frown, Old Mo suddenly pointed to the moon. “Look, the labyrinth seems to be turning again.”
Xiao Lou froze and looked up at the sky.
Tonight’s moon wasn’t a full moon. The direction of the crescent moon was originally to the east but this time, it was to the west. This indicated that the rotation rule of tonight’s labyrinth wasn’t the same as last night. Old Mo’s voice was excited. “The previous labyrinth rotated 30 degrees every two hours and returned to its original position in 24 hours. Today, we have only been in the labyrinth for four hours and the labyrinth has turned 180 degrees.”
He paused before continuing, “In other words, the time flow of tonight’s ghost town has accelerated!”
Xiao Lou thought about it carefully before his eyes lit up. “The time flow rate has accelerated and the rule of rotation has changed. If we ignored this detail, we would’ve waited 24 hours and still been unable to find the exit. In fact, tonight’s labyrinth will return to its original position in 8 hours?”
Old Mo nodded. “That’s right. In another 4 hours when the crescent moon is facing due east, the labyrinth will return to its original position and we will be able to go out.”
This good news made everyone excited.
Xiao Lou quickly made a decision. “For 4 hours, these hunters won’t give up pursuing and killing us. The danger isn’t lifted but we can go to the Peach Blossom Spring to avoid it.”
The Peach Blossom Spring skill had been used just now but Xiao Lou still had Su Shi. Su Shi’s big skill could refresh the cooldown of all character cards. Xiao Lou decisively summoned Su Shi, used the skill Thousands of Years’ Worth of Historical Figures and reset all the character card skills.
Immediately after this, Xiao Lou set up the entrance of the Peach Blossom Spring in a hidden corner and everyone entered it to hide for three hours.
Three hours pa.s.sed. After coming out of the Peach Blossom Spring, Xiao Lou had Qu Wanyue and Long Sen quickly merged with the environment using the Chameleon card. Old Mo turned into the size of a thumb and hid in Long Sen’s pocket, taking them to find the exit of the labyrinth.
Yu Hanjiang and Xiao Lou hid in a corner with Liu Qiao and waited.
A moment later, Old Mo’s voice came from Xiao Lou’s ear. “Professor Xiao, the exit has been found. Get ready to teleport!”
Five minutes later, Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang received the teleportation invitation and the two of them were teleported to the side of Old Mo, who had returned to his original size.
Not far ahead was the familiar town gate and the stone monument with the words ‘Qingfeng Town’ written on it. Xiao Lou finally relaxed as he let out of long sigh of relief. “We can finally go out.”
Yu Hanjiang nodded. “Let’s go. We will get out of here as soon as possible.”
Everyone walked forward together with Old Mo in the front to lead the way.
Yet just two steps later, Old Mo’s feet touched nothing and his body fell straight into a deep pit! Xiao Lou’s heart almost stopped beating and he hurriedly shouted, “Old Mo, be careful!”
Yu Hanjiang was quick-witted and directly took out the white silk. The white fabric in his hand reached out like a snake and wrapped around Old Mo’s waist. It pulled Old Mo back hard from the trap.
Old Mo was forcibly pulled back and couldn’t stand upright. Yu Hanjiang supported him with one hand and asked, “Are you okay?”
Old Mo’s face was as pale as paper and he was trembling. “The hunters have dug a trap here. I just saw that the deep pit is full of sharp knives. If Group Leader Yu hadn’t reacted quickly enough, I might’ve been stabbed into a hedgehog by the knives!”
Yu Hanjiang had a serious expression as he extended his arms to protect his teammates and signaled for everyone to retreat.
Qu Wanyue wondered nervously, “Are the hunters waiting for us at the exit of the labyrinth?”
The moment she finished speaking, a gentle male voice was heard in her ears. “That’s right. It is too hard to track when you are teleporting around and we have already lost five people. We can’t sacrifice anymore. The exit of the labyrinth is your only way out. If we wait for you here, you will always come to the door, right?”
He waved his hand gently and seven hunters immediately appeared around him.
These seven people were familiar. They included the four who chased Liu Qiao and the three people who survived the dark alley.
Xiao Lou had thought that the number of hunters this time was 12, which was the exact number of challengers. Yu Hanjiang had resolved five of them so there should only be seven left. Yet now, the strange face standing in the middle of the hunters might be the strongest of the hunters.
It was the 13th person that Xiao Lou hadn’t guessed.
Partially proofread: Paranoid Kitten