Still Chasing Me

The rain was still falling.

Ye Chuan walked on the muddy road, feeling inexplicably irritable.

Not being able to fly was indeed a bit annoying.

Actually, he still had a flying hoverboard in his hand, but because of this black rain—

Warning, unable to take off.

Plus, he had this Xiaogua beside him. She was Tian Xiaotian's daughter after all, so he couldn't just leave her behind. Although the girl had a spirit sword in her hand, looking at her, she probably didn't know how to use a weapon anyway.

"Has this rain never stopped even once? Has it been raining the whole time?"

"Yeah," Xiao Tian said.

"How did you survive in the town?"

"By hiding," Xiao Tian explained softly as she followed beside Ye Chuan. "And my mother also left me a lot of things called energy supplements. Eating one piece keeps me from getting hungry for a month."

Saying that, Xiao Tian felt around in her pocket and took out a biscuit-like object to give to Ye Chuan.

Ye Chuan glanced at it—

Item: Ultra-compressed Biscuit

A prop that provides the required calories and nutrition for an adult for a month

"Looks like it's a product of the players from the eerie world." Ye Chuan swept his eyes over it and stopped paying attention to it.

"Is the kingdom called the Kingdom of Seasonal Rain because of the rain?"

Ye Chuan seemed to remember something and asked Xiaogua,

"What was the name of this dungeon before?"

Hearing this, Xiao Tian shook her head,

"I don't know, but the original name of our kingdom is the Hill Empire."

Ye Chuan's footsteps suddenly stopped, his eyes revealing a hint of astonishment.

The Hill... Empire?

"What's wrong, Brother Cai Kun?" Xiao Tian felt that Ye Chuan's gaze was a bit scary. After all, even when they encountered monsters just now, she hadn't seen Ye Chuan show such an expression.

It was as if he had encountered something unbelievable.

"This... I..." Ye Chuan pinched the bridge of his nose. "It's nothing, probably just a coincidence."

It should just be a coincidence. He couldn't possibly still be on the Aether Continent, right?

That damn continent is still haunting me.

...

The black rain fell tirelessly. An unknown amount of time passed, and the mud under their feet gradually changed from the dark brown of the mountain road to the rotten black of the fields. The originally rugged road surface finally became flat—

They had finally walked out of that exhausting mountain road.

In front of them was an abandoned farm. The fields that should have been full of crops in the past were long deserted. Yellowed and rotten crop branches soaked in the dark brown mud, emitting a nauseating, fishy stench of decay.

Farm tools by the field ridges were stuck crookedly in the mud. The iron plow was rusted into a dark red lump, and the blade of the sickle had several chipped gaps, with a few strands of dark purple sticky threads hanging from it.

"There is a cabin over there," Xiao Tian said.

The cabin in the middle of the farm was still relatively intact, but it had also been severely eroded by the black rain.

The walls were covered with dark green mildew spots, and the tiles on the roof leaked badly. Rainwater trickled down the corners of the walls, forming puddles of black water on the ground.

The wooden door of the cabin was left ajar, and a faint light shone through the gap. Sounds could vaguely be heard coming from inside.

"Brother Cai Kun, there seems to be something in the cabin," Xiao Tian hid behind Ye Chuan and reminded him softly, her eyes full of vigilance.

Having seen so many monsters along the way, she had become much more wary of everything.

Ye Chuan nodded. Carrying an iron door panel, he walked forward, stopped in front of the wooden cabin, and raised his hand to push it.

Creak— The decayed wooden door made a harsh sound. Just as it was pushed open a crack, a pitch-black gun muzzle was aimed right at them!

Immediately after, a ragged, stubble-faced middle-aged man rushed out. With a ferocious look in his eyes, he roared hoarsely:

"Get out! All of you, get out! There is no food and no water here. One more step and I'll shoot!"

The man's eye sockets were deeply sunken and bloodshot. His coat had several large holes, revealing his dark, emaciated arms inside.

The hunting rifle in his hand looked a bit old, but he gripped it tightly. The muzzle was steadily aimed at Ye Chuan's chest, clearly not a bluff.

Ye Chuan stopped in his tracks, frowned, and spoke in a calm tone:

"Don't get excited. We just came over to take shelter from the rain and ask about some things. We don't plan to rob you."

"Ask about things? Take shelter from the rain?" The man acted as if he had heard a joke, laughing madly and despairingly.

"The black rain has been falling for a year. In this godforsaken place, there is nothing but monsters and dead people. What is there to ask about? I'll say it one last time, get out! Otherwise, I really will shoot!"

Xiao Tian was so frightened that she shrank behind Ye Chuan, tightly grabbing the hem of his clothes.

Just as Ye Chuan was about to say something else, he suddenly heard a faint gurgling sound coming from inside the cabin, as if something was squirming.

He showed a thoughtful expression and, without waiting for the man to react, stepped right into the house.

"You're asking for death!" The man became completely desperate. The moment he pulled the trigger, Ye Chuan backhandedly grabbed the barrel of the hunting rifle.

With a few crisp cracks, the hard iron barrel was actually crushed into a crumpled lump of iron by Ye Chuan's bare hand. The muzzle was completely deformed, and not even a bullet could be fired.

The man's eyes widened, and the ferocity on his face instantly froze, replaced by extreme fear.

He was still gripping the body of the gun, but his whole body was trembling so much that he couldn't even speak. The way he looked at Ye Chuan was like looking at a monster from hell.

Ye Chuan ignored him and walked straight into the house.

The interior was even more dilapidated than the outside. Most of the furniture was overturned on the ground, and several legs of the tables and chairs were broken, stained with dark purple slime and dark red smudges.

The window glass was shattered, leaving only the frames. The curtains were moldy and black, hanging there motionless. A heavy stench of rotting flesh filled the air, mixed with a damp moldy smell, which was even more pungent than the fishy decay outside.

Xiao Tian followed carefully behind. After entering the room, she immediately covered her nose and scanned the surroundings with vigilant eyes.

Ye Chuan's gaze fell on the corner of the room—

There was a rusty iron cage there. The cage wasn't large, and inside were two huddled lumps of dark purple sludge, slowly squirming and occasionally emitting faint squelching sounds.

Embedded in those two lumps of sludge were torn fragments of fabric. One lump had pink floral cloth, which looked like a woman's clothes, and the other had light blue cloth, looking like children's clothing.

Their shapes could vaguely show human outlines, but they had long been completely eroded by the filth, turning into the exact same appearance as those sludge monsters outside.

"No... don't touch them..." The man stumbled into the house, knelt in front of the iron cage, and tightly gripped the bars with both hands. His shoulders trembled violently, and his voice was choked with sobs.

"They are my daughter... and my wife... They were just... just rained on by the black rain..."

"I locked them up because I was afraid they would go out and hurt people, and also afraid they would be eaten by other monsters... I thought as long as I waited for the rain to stop, they would turn back... But... but..."

Before the man could finish his words, he broke down, covered his face, and cried bitterly. His suppressed and desperate cries echoed in the silent cabin, sounding particularly piercing.

Ye Chuan and Xiao Tian exchanged a glance.

"So pitiful... but..." Xiao Tian shook her head. Obviously, she had seen similar scenes many times in the town.

Ye Chuan walked up to the iron cage and looked down at the two squirming masses of sludge inside. His eyes were calm, devoid of sympathy or any emotional ripples, as he stated flatly,

"They are no longer your wife and daughter. They are monsters."

As soon as the words left his mouth, the sludge monsters in the cage seemed to sense something. Revealing murky, grayish-white eyes, they let out a low, guttural noise at Ye Chuan.

Hearing Ye Chuan's words, the older man clutched his hair tightly in a death grip, yet he was powerless to refute them.

Deep down, he knew Ye Chuan was telling the truth. He simply refused to accept such a cruel reality.

Ye Chuan had no interest in putting the two monsters out of their misery, as this was the man's own choice.

"Let's have a chat," he said, turning back to the older man. "I can provide you with food. In exchange, all you have to do is give me some information."