Yu Rong’s group had suffered heavy casualties as well. After escaping, when she gathered those around her, besides Sun Zhou, only two others had made it out. Worse still, the one who knew how to read the map was gone.
Now, a few of them were completely lost like headless flies. Though they wanted to fire signal flares to contact their companions, they feared attracting the White-Eyed Ghosts. They could only wander, leaving things to fate. When they heard gunshots, they were overjoyed—although gunfire meant danger at their destination, joining up with companions was better than being isolated and helpless.
When the two groups merged, Yu Rong thought the battle here had already ended and felt quite relaxed. “Your gunfire was coming in bursts earlier—did you encounter those white-eyed things? Have you driven them off already?”
Xing Shen gave a bitter smile. “They’re still nearby, might come back any time.”
While arranging for the newcomers to join the defense, he hurriedly explained the situation to Yu Rong as concisely as possible.
Yu Rong was completely stunned. She scratched her head repeatedly before finally asking, “So… I understand why the White-Eyed Ghosts would catch Ground Owls, but why are they after us?”
This question hit the mark, and several people simultaneously looked toward Lin Xirou.
Lin Xirou kept her head half-lowered but vaguely sensed these gazes. “Don’t ask me, go ask the White-Eyed Ghosts. How would I know what they want to do?”
Yu Rong didn’t bother pursuing that point further. She examined the beacon tower up and down, her brows furrowing high. “This place… won’t work. These earthen walls will collapse with another hit.”
Moreover, there were breaches at the top and sides, offering little protection. She instinctively felt that hiding in the beacon tower was no different from being outside.
So she couldn’t help adding, “We’d be better off running.”
Xing Shen sighed. “Run where?”
This reminded Yan Tuo, who crouched down in front of Lin Xirou. “Earlier I heard you talking with Feng Mi. Feng Mi was worried about not getting out, but you said it was possible, and mentioned trying to circle to the ravine. What did you mean by that? Why did you think it would be safe there?”
Lin Xirou hadn’t expected Yan Tuo to have overheard this and hesitated without responding. Feng Mi softly persuaded her, “Aunt Lin, at a time like this, let’s set aside our grudges. Living together is better than dying together, right?”
Seeing that Lin Xirou didn’t object, Feng Mi went ahead and explained to her: “The White-Eyed Ghosts live underground and rarely come to the surface. They psychologically despise the surface world and are physiologically unsuited to it. Their current location is already their limit—like humans in extreme environments, their bodies become very uncomfortable. They’ll have to retreat soon.”
“So, our initial plan was to find a secure place to hide and wait for them to leave.”
Yan Tuo understood. “The ravine is the secure place you had in mind?”
Feng Mi continued, “The ravine area is damp, and the water carries an earthy smell. The White-Eyed Ghosts’ sense of smell won’t work there. Moreover…”
Before she could finish, that eerie wave of sound came again.
This was probably like a prelude to a charge. Xing Shen’s heart tightened as he shouted, “Everyone is alert!”
Just as he spoke, he saw several black figures rapidly approaching through the observation hole on his side.
It wasn’t just Xing Shen’s side—Nie Jiuluo also saw them from the direction of the doorway.
This time, there were no white eyeballs—the attackers should be Owl Ghosts. They were about the same size as humans, with distorted, ugly faces. Their most distinctive feature was their skin, which looked as if it had been oiled and waxed, showing a sickly yellow like someone with a serious illness, resembling poorly made figures from a wax museum come to life.
To be honest, at first glance, they were even more terrifying than the Ground Owls—after all, Ground Owls looked more like beasts, so the “uncanny valley” effect wasn’t as strong.
In just this moment of thought, these Owl Ghosts had reached the front. However, they didn’t seem to want to charge into the beacon tower. Instead, without stopping, they gathered momentum and violently rammed into the earthen wall before them.
The wave of sound continued unabated as shocking crash sounds came from all four sides of the beacon tower. In an instant, the earthen walls shook as if about to collapse, dust billowing everywhere, creating what seemed like a small sandstorm inside the structure.
This was terrible—with all the dust, even with flashlights, people were only visible as dim shadows. What if the Owl Ghosts took advantage of the chaos to slip in?
Xing Shen roared, “Open fire! Fire now! Don’t let these things in!”
Amidst the gunfire, Lin Xirou was overjoyed and quietly instructed Feng Mi, “Quick, roll to the wall’s edge and let it bury you when it collapses! There’s no other way out now.”
Feng Mi’s heart raced. “Aunt Lin, you should do it instead. My wounds are worse than yours—the success rate would be higher with you.”
Lin Xirou froze for a moment, instantly understanding Feng Mi’s meaning.
Feng Mi had a gunshot wound in her side that was already affecting her movement, and she was carrying the smell of blood. Lin Xirou was different—she only had a broken rib, and if she gritted her teeth through the pain, it wouldn’t affect her speed.
Without a moment’s hesitation, she said “Good girl” before nimbly rolling toward the wall’s base.
Perhaps heaven truly was helping her—almost immediately after, that earthen wall collapsed with a thunderous crash, thoroughly burying Lin Xirou.
Feng Mi let out a long breath and closed her eyes, feeling surprisingly peaceful inside. The fighting around her seemed completely irrelevant.
It was settled—as long as Aunt Lin could escape, everything could start anew.
The next instant, her eyes suddenly flew open as she screamed shrilly, “Aunt Lin! Aunt Lin’s been dragged away!”
The beacon tower was already in chaos, with everyone coughing in the dust, their eyes barely able to open. They kept their fingers on their triggers, afraid of friendly fire yet also afraid that what seemed like a companion beside them might be an Owl Ghost. Feng Mi’s outcry made them even more panicked—those with weaker constitutions were almost ready to collapse and accept their fate.
When Yan Tuo suddenly heard that Lin Xirou had been dragged away, his scalp tingled violently. When he tried to look in the direction of the sound, the flying dust made it impossible to see clearly.
Was this how things would end between him and Lin Xirou?
Nie Jiuluo, who wasn’t carrying a gun, was being protected in the middle, with the frantically jumping Mantis and Sun Zhou crowded at her feet during the reign of hot weapons.
She gripped her knife in one hand while desperately fanning dust away from her nose and mouth with the other. Suddenly inspired, she shouted, “Yu Rong, these are Owl Ghosts—can you tame them like you do?”
Yu Rong had just emptied a magazine and heard her. “They weren’t tamed by me—how would they listen to me!”
What a blockhead, Nie Jiuluo shouted in her direction, “The Whip Family’s important techniques haven’t changed—maybe it would work…”
Before she could finish speaking, she suddenly felt intense pain at the back of her head—something had grabbed her hair, and she was forcibly pulled backward.
She couldn’t help crying out in pain.
Yan Tuo was standing right beside Nie Jiuluo when he suddenly heard something wrong in her voice. His spine went cold as he reached out to grab her, but he was too late—Nie Jiuluo had already been dragged out through the breach by an Owl Ghost pulling her by her hair.
She had never experienced anything like this in her life. Strangely, apart from the excruciating pain in her scalp, she didn’t feel much else. As her back scraped along the ground, the first thought that flashed through her mind was: No wonder Yu Rong had shaved her head bald—if it were Yu Rong, this wouldn’t have been a problem.
Her second thought was: If you’re going to drag me away like this, you might as well give up!
She clenched her teeth, suddenly using her right hand to push off the ground for leverage. As her body rose, she swung her knife, stabbing it into the knee joint of the Owl Ghost dragging her. The Owl Ghost’s leg buckled in pain, naturally releasing its grip. Nie Jiuluo felt her scalp immediately loosen, the pain subsiding. As she was about to get up and give it another slash, she heard gunfire behind her. The Owl Ghost’s shoulder and neck took several hits in succession. With a strange cry, it tumbled away into the darkness.
So that’s why there weren’t many bodies on the ground despite all those bullets fired—the wounded had retreated from the battle line.
Yan Tuo rushed up to support her, his voice trembling, “A’Luo.”
Nie Jiuluo held onto Yan Tuo’s hand and stood up, her hair disheveled. Just as she was about to say “I’m fine,” three whip cracks suddenly sounded from inside the beacon tower. The whip’s tail flashed like an extremely thin silver snake, followed by low, then urgent whistle signals.
Was Yu Rong trying something? Nie Jiuluo held her breath, feeling somewhat tense.
As she had just mentioned, the Whip Family’s important techniques had been passed down, and the techniques that had been passed down through this lineage had remained unchanged. In other words, Yu Rong’s operating method was largely consistent with that of the Whip Family members who had entered Black and White Ravine years ago.
And the Owl Ghosts, as long as they had been tamed by the Whip Family, even if they had lost their human consciousness, their body memory would likely remain.
Moreover, while modern standard Chinese might not be mutually intelligible with ancient dialects, whistle signals were different.
Something unexpected happened—the Owl Ghosts surrounding the beacon tower’s exterior, as well as those who had already entered during the chaos, suddenly stopped their attacks simultaneously, then slowly retreated on all fours.
Was it working? Yu Rong’s spirits lifted as she changed the position of the finger joint at her mouth, altering the tone.
The previous one was the “retreat” tone; now, she wanted to try could convert these Owl Ghosts to their side and make them work for them.
The new tone was a “defend” signal—if it worked, the Owl Ghosts should uniformly turn to face outward.
The Owl Ghosts seemed somewhat agitated, some looking around, others scratching the ground with their claws, clearly not following the whistle signals.
Yan Tuo quietly said to Nie Jiuluo, “I don’t think it’s working. Even if these Owl Ghosts were once tamed by the Whip Family, they’ve been under the White-Eyed Ghosts’ control ever since. Similar whistle signals might only confuse them briefly—it’s impossible to reverse their loyalty this way.”
Inside the beacon tower, Xing Shen had also “seen” what was happening: “It’s not working, not much use.”
By now, the dust and haze had long since cleared. Da Tou glanced around and noticed they’d lost two or three more companions, with two others wounded and bleeding from head to face.
Thinking of Shan Qiang made him even more furious. When he heard Xing Shen say “not working,” a thought suddenly occurred to him: if it wasn’t working, these Owl Ghosts would eventually become a threat again—why not take advantage of them standing still like targets and take out one or two?
No sooner thought than done—he raised his gun and pulled the trigger.
No sound, no bullets.
Da Tou was shocked and immediately reached for the gun of the person next to him. That person guessed his intention and whispered, “Mine’s empty too.”
Just then, probably because the White-Eyed Ghosts had noticed the unusual situation here, that weird sound started again. This time it wasn’t a wave of sound, but rather like twisting, winding sound lines. When those Owl Ghosts heard this sound, they all suddenly straightened up, and before long, they were rushing back into the darkness one after another.
Yan Tuo quickly pulled Nie Jiuluo back into the beacon tower, though it could hardly be called a “tower” anymore—the earthen walls had mostly collapsed or were half-fallen, and the flashlights that had been mounted on them were half-buried in the soil and sand, their beams pointing in all directions.
Da Tou swallowed and asked those around him, “Quick check—anyone still have bullets?”
The responses were very bad, mostly “I’m out” or “almost out.” Even Yan Tuo’s gun was empty now; he tossed it aside and took out Nie Jiuluo’s—at this point, he probably had the most ammunition of anyone in the group.
Xing Shen looked around. He remembered during the chaos, Feng Mi had screamed that Lin Xirou had been dragged away. Besides Lin Xirou, they’d lost several others—only about ten people remained now.
Da Tou was anxious: “Brother Shen, what do we do now? They’ll come back, and there’s still the White-Eyed Ghosts to deal with. Never mind that Yu Rong can’t control the Owl Ghosts—even if she could, what about the White-Eyed Ghosts? They won’t fall for her tricks!”
Brother Shen, Brother Shen—they were looking to him for solutions again.
Xing Shen’s temples throbbed. He was the leader; he had to make quick decisions.
He licked his lips and looked down at Feng Mi, who was leaning against the side. She was truly lucky—during the chaos, she had just stayed there motionless and somehow hadn’t been dragged away.
Xing Shen asked her, “To the ravine—do you know the way?”
Feng Mi was startled, then quickly realized what he meant and instinctively nodded. “I know the way. As long as I can see, I’ll recognize it. Once we get there, you’ll understand—the terrain at the ravine is good for hiding.”
Xing Shen nodded and mumbled, “Good, then let’s go. Everyone to the ravine.”
Having received this response, Da Tou was instead confused: “The ravine—how far is it?”
Feng Mi thought for a moment. “We tried to go there earlier but encountered White-Eyed Ghosts and were forced back. From here, it’s probably a bit more than half an hour’s journey.”
Half an hour?
Da Tou could barely contain his anger. In normal times, walking mountain paths, he wouldn’t mind three or five hours, let alone half an hour. But here, in this pitch-black place, walking for more than half an hour while constantly watching out for Owl Ghosts and White-Eyed Ghosts…
He said, “This is a fucking death march! We won’t make it!”
Xing Shen’s response was unusually firm: “We will make it.”
After saying this, he looked up at Nie Jiuluo.
When Nie Jiuluo heard him say “We will make it,” she felt somewhat annoyed, thinking he must be hiding some other secret at this moment.
When she saw him looking at her, she felt even more puzzled: “Why are you looking at me?”
Xing Shen spoke with difficulty: “A’Luo, with you here, we can make it.”
Nie Jiuluo was stunned for two seconds, suddenly feeling an ominous premonition rise in her heart.
She said, “What nonsense are you talking about?”