Chapter 131: Meteor

Just as everyone felt relieved for escaping the Dark Pheasants and took a slight breath, a harsh chainsaw noise rang out. Along with the chainsaw noise came the sound of footsteps. These footsteps sounded extremely heavy, and with each step, the ground began to tremble.

In the blink of an eye, Lü Yang quickly raised his flashlight, shining it directly ahead of him and swiftly switching to high-beam mode… The chainsaw noise and footsteps were coming from that direction.

A huge figure appeared directly in Lü Yang’s line of sight. It was an extremely burly lumberjack, and the large chainsaw in his hand was the tool they used for cutting wood.

Unfortunately, this lumberjack was now entirely wrapped in Black Mist, clearly controlled by the darkness. Like the Dark Pheasants and Dark Kidnappers, he instinctively attacked Lü Yang’s group. Moreover, compared to the Black Fog Armor of the Dark Kidnappers, the Black Mist enveloping this Dark Lumberjack was much thicker, indicating his Black Fog Armor was also much heavier than that of the Dark Kidnappers.

Not only that, when this Dark Lumberjack, with his tank-like body, charged forward wielding the huge chainsaw, even Lü Yang’s flashlight in high-beam mode could not stop his charging force! The stun effect that the flashlight’s high beam previously had on Dark Kidnappers was no longer effective!

“Danger! Move to the side of the road!”

The Dark Lumberjack charged very quickly. At the critical moment just before the chainsaw in the Dark Lumberjack’s hand reached them, Lü Yang shouted to the team, then grabbed Liu Hui behind him and rolled aside together… If Lü Yang had only tried to dodge by himself at that moment, the chainsaw would have directly cut into Liu Hui’s body!

Lü Yang’s shout was still too late…

The charging force of this Dark Lumberjack far exceeded Lü Yang’s expectations. Although he and Liu Hui managed to roll away in time, Li Ping, who was behind Liu Hui, didn’t have time to dodge… Or perhaps, she didn’t know she needed to dodge… When the Dark Lumberjack charged straight at her, she just instinctively pointed the flashlight’s high beam towards the direction the Dark Lumberjack was coming from, based on her previous experience.

With a “Roar!”, the wildly spinning chainsaw directly plunged into Li Ping’s body. Then, the Dark Lumberjack’s arm jerked upwards diagonally, completely tearing open Li Ping’s abdomen. She went limp and fell to the ground, her internal organs spilling out.

As the Dark Lumberjack raised his chainsaw high again, preparing to completely saw Li Ping on the ground into pieces, a ‘Bang!’ sounded. One of Lü Yang’s Explosive Arrows timely hit the Dark Lumberjack’s body. Accompanied by a dazzling flash of light, the Black Fog Armor on the Dark Lumberjack’s body was instantly burned away. A large hole was blasted in his body, and the force of the explosion sent him flying to the ground, his chainsaw falling aside.

Needless to say, these Explosive Arrows found near the bonfire were specifically meant to deal with the Dark Lumberjacks.

“Ping!”

Sun Haibo, who was nearly knocked over by the blast wave and stumbled back several steps before steadying himself, roared and ran back. His eyes bloodshot, he snatched the still sizzling chainsaw from the ground and violently sawed into the Dark Lumberjack’s body over ten times, turning the lumberjack’s body into a pile of minced flesh.

After confirming the Dark Lumberjack was completely dead, Sun Haibo threw the chainsaw in his hand aside, crouched beside Li Ping, and carefully helped her up.

“It hurts so much… Am I… going to die?” Li Ping moaned painfully in Sun Haibo’s arms, looking at everyone with sorrowful eyes. Injured so severely, she could no longer stand or walk and would definitely become a burden to them. Who knew if they would abandon her here alone?

“No… You won’t die…” Sun Haibo’s lips trembled as he reached out, trying to use his shaking hands to put Li Ping’s spilled organs back into her torn abdomen. But Li Ping’s painful moans made him pull his hand back.

“You’re not dead yet. The next Safe Point isn’t far ahead. As long as we reach the next Safe Point, you’ll be fine,” Liu Hui also crouched down and comforted Li Ping a few words, then looked at Sun Haibo. She seemed to have noticed something unusual between the two of them.

Lü Yang glanced at Liu Hui and frowned deeply.

The unexpected appearance of the Dark Lumberjack and Li Ping’s severe injury made Lü Yang very worried about whether the group could safely reach the next Safe Point…

The quiver obtained near the bonfire only had ten Explosive Arrows. One was used on the Dark Pheasants, and another was just used, leaving only eight. There was still a long mountain path from here to the courtyard where the Mute Old Man was. Based on the frequency of Dark Predators appearing earlier, Lü Yang absolutely did not believe that only eight Dark Lumberjacks would appear on this journey.

The Black Fog Armor on the Dark Lumberjack was extremely thick, and the chainsaw in his hand had a long attack reach with exceptionally fierce attack power. Being grazed or touched by the chainsaw would certainly result in death or serious injury.

The only weakness of the Dark Lumberjack was that his charging force was very strong, and he basically wouldn’t change direction. If one could react in time before his attack landed and move out of his attack path, they could avoid the fatal blow.

But suddenly charging at high speed in the darkness was truly hard to guard against. Moreover, there was also Liu Hui to protect…

Li Ping was so badly injured that walking was definitely impossible. Although physical injuries would slowly recover in this game, the recovery speed in the darkness was extremely slow. At the very least, she wouldn’t be able to stand up for more than ten minutes.

If someone else had to drag her body to continue forward, the overall speed of the team would be severely reduced. According to the rules of the third round of the game and previous experience, if everyone stayed in one place for too long, several times the number of enemies would immediately appear. This was the case with the Dark Kidnappers before, and the same with the Dark Pheasants. It was unimaginable how terrifying it would be if a large number of Dark Lumberjacks appeared together.

All the torches in everyone’s hands had already gone out. After Lü Yang’s careful inspection, Li Ping not only had her abdomen torn open, but her spine was also severed by the chainsaw. Her entire waist was almost connected only by some torn flesh… Not only could she no longer walk, but even if others wanted to drag or carry her away, it would be a big problem… That would completely tear her body in two.

In reality, a person injured like this would mostly die immediately due to excessive blood loss and severe organ damage. Fortunately, this Mysterious Domain had a self-healing setting, allowing Li Ping to barely survive until now.

Hearing Lü Yang’s examination results and looking at the suffering Li Ping in his arms, Sun Haibo’s tears gushed out from his eyes like the Irrawaddy River. This reckless man who had roamed the China-Myanmar border for over a decade, who never shed a single tear even when shot multiple times or stabbed over a dozen times, lying on the brink of death, was now as fragile as the ‘woman’ he often cursed.

Love blooms more beautifully through hardship.

Although it was a chance encounter, although it was brief, although it was as fleeting as a meteor streaking across the sky, looking through the tearful eyes of the two holding hands, no more words were needed to prove everything.

“Don’t cry, you said you would take me traveling…” Li Ping tried hard to smile and reached out to wipe the tears from Sun Haibo’s face.

“You’ll be fine. I will definitely take you away from here! Then I’ll take you to Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia…” Sun Haibo tightly held Li Ping’s hand and promised her.

“Mhmm! I also want to go to Hawaii, the Maldives…” Li Ping smiled, her eyes showing infinite longing for the future.

“Wherever you go in the future, I will accompany you. To the ends of the earth, I will never let go of your hand…” Sun Haibo’s tears poured out again. Although he knew it looked ugly, he just couldn’t help it, as if he wanted to shed all the tears he hadn’t shed in the first half of his life right at this moment.

Just as Lü Yang wanted to interrupt Sun Haibo and Li Ping’s conversation to discuss with them what to do next, the ground shook violently again. The roaring sound of chainsaws and chaotic footsteps came from all directions. It felt like at least five or six Dark Lumberjacks were surrounding them this time.

Sure enough, the game rules could not be violated. Once you stayed in one place for too long, you lost any chance of leaving alive.

“You should go with them quickly. Don’t worry about me!” Li Ping said resolutely to Sun Haibo. At this moment, her will to survive wasn’t very strong anymore. More importantly, she didn’t want to implicate Sun Haibo because of herself.

“I said I would never let go of your hand!” Sun Haibo held Li Ping’s body and shouted at her.

“Don’t be foolish! You can’t save me!” Li Ping pushed Sun Haibo away.

“You go quickly! Don’t worry about us! Even if I die, I will always stay by her side!” Sun Haibo turned his head and said to Lü Yang with an equally resolute expression.

Lü Yang shook his head. He wanted to say something but nothing came out. He lit an Explosive Arrow, nocked it on his bow, and charged forward.

Two Dark Lumberjacks were charging head-on towards Lü Yang. Lü Yang drew his bowstring into a full moon. One Explosive Arrow shot head-on into the body of the Dark Lumberjack charging in front. After a dazzling white light flashed, the Dark Lumberjack charging in front was blasted squarely, stumbled back a few steps, and fell to the ground with a crash. The Dark Lumberjack behind him also had his Black Fog Armor completely destroyed by this intense light.

Although the flashlight’s high beam couldn’t stop the Dark Lumberjack’s steps, the explosive flash from the Explosive Arrow was different. The moment the Black Fog Armor was destroyed, the Dark Lumberjack behind still experienced a brief stun. Lü Yang, who had charged over with several large strides, had already drawn the Cleaver from his back and fiercely chopped it into the neck of this Dark Lumberjack.