She went to the bedside. Xiao Ling’s eyes were tightly shut, brows furrowed, murmuring something unintelligible even up close.
“Xiao Ling, wake up.” Seeing no response, Zhou Tiantian shook her gently. “Time to get up.”
The girl on the bed jolted her eyes open, lingering terror in them.
Xiao Ling instinctively reached out her hand, the phantom pain of it being brutally torn off still echoing in her mind. In disbelief, she touched herself.
It was intact.
“What happened?” Zhou Tiantian asked worriedly.
Drenched in cold sweat, Xiao Ling let out a long breath. “Nothing. Just had a really terrifying nightmare. Good thing you woke me, or I would’ve thought I was dying in there.”
Painfully killed, or devoured whole in despair.
Luckily.
Just a dream.
Everything that happened in the dream felt too real. Her whole body seemed to ache as if it had been beaten. Xiao Ling clutched her pounding heart. Fortunately, it was just a nightmare.
“What nonsense,” Zhou Tiantian lightly scolded her. “Hurry up and ‘pah pah pah’.”
Looking at her worried friend, Xiao Ling said, “Pah pah pah.”
The two girls exchanged a glance and laughed together.
Xiao Ling went to wash up. A moment later, Zhou Tiantian heard Xiao Ling’s terrified voice.
“Why are all my clothes soaked?!”
Torn clothes could still be salvaged, but completely soaked ones—how could she wear them?
Zhou Tiantian rushed in and saw the sopping pile of clothes. She touched them. “How did this happen?”
The others who heard the news hurried over. They were shocked by the sight. “When I came to get clothes just now, they weren’t wet.”
“Me too.”
Clothes couldn’t be damaged or soaked for no reason. Each person’s suitcase was separate and locked. The outsides of the suitcases were dry. It was impossible for anyone to cut or wet the clothes from a distance.
Xiao Ling held the wet clothes, a chill creeping up from the soles of her feet. She forced a smile. “Forget it. Maybe it’s heaven not letting me cosplay him. Time’s almost up. Let’s head over first.”
In the end, Xiao Ling entered the exhibition hall in her everyday clothes.
Zhou Tiantian was worried about her, but they had some activities and couldn’t keep an eye on her the whole time.
Xiao Ling made the excuse that her clothes were ruined and she was in a bad mood, so she didn’t want to join the activities. She’d wait for them outside.
Zhou Tiantian and the others understood completely. If it had been them, they wouldn’t have felt like participating either.
“How about I stay outside with you?” Zhou Tiantian still felt like her friend wasn’t quite right today.
Xiao Ling mustered her spirits. “I’m fine. I’ll just sit for a bit. Go on in and take lots of photos. I want to see them.”
Seeing her insistence, Zhou Tiantian had no choice but to head to the activities first.
Once her companions had all left, Xiao Ling sat alone on the ground by the wall, hugging her knees tightly.
It was scorching hot weather, yet she felt chilled to the bone.
The temperature around her grew colder and colder. The voices gradually faded into the distance. She seemed to be back in that vast expanse of white space.
She was trapped there. Grotesque monsters crawled out from all directions, their drooling gazes fixed on her.
Her intact body transmitted the excruciating pain of being torn apart.
Why here again?!
Despair welled up in Xiao Ling’s heart.
The monsters swarmed her. Xiao Ling collapsed to the ground. In the final moment before they bit into her, she thought: Would someone wake me from this nightmare this time?
Halfway through the activities, Zhou Tiantian heard startled cries from outside. Her heart skipped a beat, and she bolted toward the exit.
“Tiantian, where are you going!”
“I just remembered something. I’ll head out—you guys don’t worry about me.”
The crowd had gathered together. Zhou Tiantian heard someone shout, “Someone fainted!” She yelled Xiao Ling’s name several times but got no response. Her bad premonition reached its peak.
“Sorry, the person who fainted inside might be my friend. I need to go check on her.”
Zhou Tiantian forced her way through the crowd. She saw the familiar figure collapsed on the ground and shouted anxiously, “Xiao Ling!”
Medics arrived with a stretcher. As her friend, Zhou Tiantian couldn’t bear to leave her alone and followed along.
She gripped her unconscious friend’s hand and called her name over and over.
Finally, the person being called reacted.
Her fingers twitched first, then she slowly opened her eyes.
“Tiantian?”
“It’s me, it’s me. Are you okay? Why did you suddenly faint?”
“I don’t know.” Xiao Ling’s mind was a chaotic blur. She remembered that something terrible had happened to her. Faint pains came from all over her body. But no matter how hard she tried to recall, she couldn’t remember what exactly had occurred.
Once awake, Xiao Ling acted completely normal. She refused the suggestion to go to the hospital and returned to the exhibition hall with Zhou Tiantian.
Zhou Tiantian refused to leave Xiao Ling alone and insisted on bringing her to the activity area. Unable to refuse, Xiao Ling followed along.
The activity area was still lively. Zhou Tiantian led her around, and they made quite a few new friends.
Xiao Ling kept feeling like her body ached terribly. Just as she was about to touch her arm, Zhou Tiantian noticed and pulled up her sleeve. “Xiao Ling, what’s going on with your arm?!”
The girl’s arm was covered in winding, dark red lines like bloodstains, nearly blanketing the entire limb.
Xiao Ling stared at her arm in a daze for a moment.
These marks… they looked just like places that had been torn open…
As she thought that, the dark red lines gradually turned bright red. Blood beads seeped out from them.
Zhou Tiantian watched wide-eyed as Xiao Ling’s arm was torn open by some invisible force. Shreds of flesh scattered across the ground.
“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!”
Caught off guard, Zhou Tiantian let out a terrified scream.
Xiao Ling raised her arm. The flesh on it exploded outward, blood splattering everywhere. The pale white bone was visible beneath. Yet Xiao Ling seemed utterly oblivious to the pain, staring blankly with a foolish smile.
The scream drew even more attention. Those who saw the horrifying scene couldn’t help but scream as well.
“My arm!!!”
“Your neck!!!!”
Amid the chorus of screams, someone noticed that the same thing was happening to themselves or others.
“Rip—”
The sound of something being torn rang out. The crowd watched in horror as rips appeared in the empty void. Sharp claws probed out from the openings, slowly tearing them wider.
A claw with razor-sharp nails stretched out from the rift.
The rift tore open even further.
Without thinking, Zhou Tiantian grabbed Xiao Ling’s other arm and ran desperately in the opposite direction.
She didn’t get far before screeching to a halt.
Because not far ahead of her, identical rifts were beginning to appear bit by bit.
“This is the ‘Wenjian’ monster from Reverse Time!”
The words jolted everyone awake. Everyone in this activity area was a diehard fan of Reverse Time and very familiar with the monsters from the book. They’d simply never thought in that direction before. Now reminded, they all realized that what was crawling out of the void was none other than the book’s monster, Wenjian!
Wenjian lived in space-time rifts. They came without a trace and vanished without a shadow, able to appear anywhere at will. They were one of the hardest monsters to deal with in the book.
There were vast numbers of them. Whenever they appeared, they came in swarms. They wouldn’t vanish back into the time rifts until they’d devoured every living thing in the area.
Now that they knew what kind of monsters they were facing, despair bloomed in everyone’s hearts.
Wenjian loved to toy with their food. They wouldn’t kill people outright. Instead, after tormenting them, they’d let their prey suffer the utmost agony and die in utter despair.
That was because in addition to devouring human flesh and blood, they could also feast on the various emotions born from extreme terror.
The latter was a rare delicacy for them.
Would they suffer through all sorts of torment before dying in despair too?
Just thinking of the scenes described in the book filled them with dread—even though nothing had happened yet. Those with weaker nerves couldn’t take it.
The book’s depictions of Wenjian hunting scenes were far too vivid. Just reading the words could send chills down one’s spine. Forget trying to lighten the mood—now it was all about to happen in reality.
Perhaps it was their imagination, but the monsters seemed to be crawling out faster.
The first monster emerged.
Wenjian resembled a crocodile, but with a sharper snout. Its body was covered in scales, and its claws bore even longer, sharper nails—like honed bayonets that could easily slice through flesh.
Lu Mingxuan was in this area too.
The monster was right upon him. Lu Mingxuan yanked the person beside him down to the ground, dodging the monster’s sharp claws.
The Comic Expo, once filled with laughter and joy, had instantly turned into a hellish scene of screams and frantic flight.
The monsters crawling out of the void were enormous. Even the smallest stood half as tall as a person. Their small size didn’t hinder their hunting speed at all—in fact, it made them faster and more agile.
Lu Mingxuan dodged left and right, but no matter how fast humans were, they couldn’t outpace the monsters. His arm and back were deeply slashed several times. Blackish-red blood flowed down his clothes, and his vision blurred again and again.
According to the book’s lore, Wenjian claws were highly toxic.
Am I going to die here?
It looked like the saying was true: “Ignore the elders’ words and suffer right away.” He should have listened to his grandfather and stayed at Lu Garden without going anywhere.
The monster opened its gaping maw. Its razor-sharp teeth gleamed coldly as it lunged to bite him.
There was nowhere left to dodge.
Lu Mingxuan gritted his teeth. Being bitten to death wouldn’t be a good way to go.
No—he couldn’t give up!
Lu Mingxuan focused his attention intensely and secretly gathered his strength. He hadn’t slacked on his physical training lately. He’d even kicked away a small monster earlier, saving a fellow fan.
This monster was much larger than that one—fully two meters tall. Lu Mingxuan knew his odds weren’t great, but he wouldn’t go down without a fight.
If only he had a weapon…
If only he had a weapon!!!
A brilliant light erupted from his body. The monster that had been about to bite him was flung away. As the glow faded, Lu Mingxuan found himself holding a wooden giant scythe.
Strength seemed infinite. Lu Mingxuan leaped up from the ground and swung the giant scythe, cleaving toward the monster ahead.
The monster was sliced in half at the waist and crashed to the ground, shaking the floor.
In that instant, Lu Mingxuan’s mind went blank except for one thought: Kill these monsters!
After finishing off the one in front of him, he charged toward the others.
Zhou Tiantian had fallen to the ground, unable to evade any longer. In her despair as death loomed, a giant scythe descended from above, slaying the monster before her.
She gasped for breath. Before she could even give thanks, that figure had already rushed off elsewhere, killing monsters and pulling one fellow survivor after another back from the brink of death.
As if sensing the threat he posed, fewer monsters appeared in other areas as more and more swarmed toward him. Lu Mingxuan was already injured. Having just awakened his supernatural ability, he overused it. With both his stamina and ability depleted, he slipped up and was smacked down by a powerful swipe of a sharp claw. He crashed heavily to the ground.
The people he’d saved earlier rushed over to help him.
“Don’t come over!!!” Lu Mingxuan shouted. He mustered all his remaining strength to prop himself up.
He knew he was at the end of his rope. He’d already sent a message to Little Uncle. It wouldn’t be long before Little Uncle arrived. And right now—even if it meant his death—he’d take these monsters down with him!
Lu Mingxuan had thought he’d be afraid, that he’d feel terror. But no. Battle intent surged within him. His gaze was resolute. In the instant his supernatural ability awakened, he understood the responsibility of an ability user.
He would hold out until the very last moment!
No matter the cost!
His supernatural ability erupted. Lu Mingxuan charged forward with everything he had.
Then, someone snatched him out of midair.
“Boom!!!”
Several monsters were sent flying by one that had been hurled sideways.
The monsters besieging Lu Mingxuan were dispatched by the sudden arrival of a long-haired young man with a single kick.
“You did well,” Lin Juan set him down on the ground. “Leave the rest to me.”
