The thought raced through her mind, and she immediately made a decision.
Of all the thirty-six stratagems, fleeing is the best!
She had appeared as if she would rather die than surrender just moments ago, but in the next second, she turned and ran, umbrella in hand.
Although she was wearing a spaghetti-strap dress and high heels, her speed was astonishingly fast, quickly leaving the creature behind her.
But after running for dozens of meters, she realized something was wrong.
The surrounding scenery began to blur and distort.
The halos of the streetlights stretched into flowing bands of light.
The darkness ahead seemed endless, like a giant maw ready to devour.
It felt as though she was isolated in an alternate space surrounded by a curtain of water, completely losing her sense of direction, unable to find a way out.
Normally, she should have already run out of this path by now.
A wave of intense dizziness swept over her.
Cheng Leyi felt dizzy, and involuntarily raised her hand to cover her forehead.
Could it be... I’ve been hit with a hallucinogen?
But... what about the other team members?
It’s been several minutes since the incident; they should have already realized something is wrong.
The air rippled with a slight water motion.
A transparent humanoid silhouette appeared silently behind her.
A plume of pink mist emanated from it, engulfing Cheng Leyi.
It looked at the swaying prey, its gaze greedy and excited.
"Be good, don’t resist..."
Its voice was hypnotic, whispering in Cheng Leyi’s ear.
Cheng Leyi furrowed her brow tightly. Her senses were severely disrupted, aware of the approaching danger, yet her nerves became numb, rendering her body unable to mount effective resistance.
Just as the transparent hand was about to grasp her neck.
A sturdy figure broke through the dark water curtain, barging in.
"Damn, got you, you monster!"
Lin Xuhao roared like a raging bull, directly colliding with the transparent water person.
Then he tightly wrapped his arms around it, both rolling to the ground in the accumulated water.
Cheng Leyi instantly snapped back to reality.
"How did you find me? Where are the others?"
Lin Xuhao barely began to speak when Cheng Leyi seemed to realize something, her face changing drastically as she shouted urgently:
"Be careful, let go quickly! This thing’s body is very strange!"
A sinister laugh echoed.
The transparent water person’s body suddenly inflated, wrapping around Lin Xuhao completely.
Eventually forming a giant water sphere.
Lin Xuhao struggled frantically inside the sphere, his face turning red from lack of oxygen.
"You’re just wasting your energy."
A blurry human face slowly emerged on the water sphere.
"You’ve experienced the toxins of the Special Search Team; now, see if my poison is potent enough!"
As it spoke, streams of black liquid began to ooze from the sphere’s interior, rapidly dyeing the entire sphere black.
"I’ll kill him first, then have fun with you."
"Kneel down and beg for mercy, and maybe I’ll let you live a little longer."
Cheng Leyi’s eyes turned red, as she frantically kicked the water sphere with her high heel, all to no avail.
She pulled out her earpiece and called desperately, but there was only dead silence.
Lin Xuhao seemed on the brink of death.
The wriggling black water sphere stopped without warning.
It seemed to freeze in place.
The face made of water abruptly turned toward the deep darkness at the alley’s entrance.
Cheng Leyi’s heart skipped a beat, and she looked in the same direction.
The darkness at the alley’s entrance was deeper and thicker than anywhere else.
An indescribable, suffocating sense of oppression spread from that patch of darkness.
It felt as if an ancient beast lay dormant there, ready to devour, watching them silently with cold, merciless eyes.