White Night’s smile quickly froze on her face as the compass on the car suddenly jolted.
It wasn’t the slight deflection from before.
The entire needle snapped upward, clack, swung violently in another direction, and then began to spin frantically.
The needle spun into a phantom blur.
The silver-white tip turned completely deep red as it rotated madly, swaying back and forth, unable to settle on a direction.
The edge of the compass base flickered with a dark red light, as if an alarm had been triggered.
White Night’s heart sank.
“Auntie Frost! Auntie Ying!”
Her voice went up an octave.
“The compass — the compass is spinning wildly!”
Su Frost and Mu Yingying turned their heads at the same time.
Mu Yingying’s Anal Levator Exercise came to a screeching halt.
The playful grin on her face vanished instantly. Her expression shifted, and her temperament transformed into that of a different person.
Su Frost rushed to the front of the car in a few strides and looked down at the compass.
The needle was still spinning out of control, with flashes of red light darting outward.
Her expression turned solemn in an instant.
“Last time it only deviated a few degrees, and it detected a single Hemorrhoid Anomaly.”
Su Frost’s voice was low.
“Now that it’s spinning like this…”
She didn’t finish the sentence, but Mu Yingying had already grabbed her Tang Dao, not even botherng to unfasten the sheath yet.
Her sharp gaze scanned the surroundings. The cynicism in her peach-blossom eyes had faded, replaced by the alertness of a wild beast.
“Are we surrounded by Weirdness?”
Mu Yingying speculated.
White Night followed her gaze.
In the distance, strands of black smoke began to rise from the ground.
The black smoke rose from all directions, spreading silently.
The mist expanded rapidly, soon covering their ankles, submerging their knees, and climbing toward their waists.
The light of the Red Moon was swallowed by the mist, and their field of vision shrank drastically.
Shouts erupted from the convoy.
“What’s going on!?”
“My God, why is there so much Eerie Black Fog!?”
A cold wind blew, making those covered in cold sweat shiver.
Then, the sound of the wind was drowned out by a blood-curdling scream.
“Don’t blow on me — the wind hurts — saw off my legs! Please saw them off — “
The voice came from deep within the Black Mist, sharp and miserable.
The hair on White Night’s body stood on end.
Outlines began to appear in the Black Mist — more than one.
One, two, three…
Dense shadows emerged in the fog, their forms distorted and inhuman.
The first thing to crawl out of the mist was a creature with deformed limbs.
Every joint on its body bulged with yellow-white lumps, looking like rotten grapes strung onto bone.
Its fingers, toes, knees, and elbow joints were all swollen and deformed.
The skin was stretched incredibly thin, revealing white crystals embedded in the gaps of its bones.
It didn’t dare to walk, or even let its feet touch the ground.
It used its twisted palms and knees to shuffle along the ground. Every inch it moved, a creak echoed from its bone joints.
Saliva mixed with streaks of blood dripped from its mouth, which could not close, as its jaw joint was also forced to one side by a lump.
“Don’t touch me — the wind hurts — “
It wailed while crawling, its entire body twitching violently.
Its hands hung in the air, wanting to cover its swollen knees but not daring to touch them.
“This is likely gout…” Mu Yingying’s voice was tight. “Is that a Gout Anomaly!?”
Before White Night could respond, a second one crawled out of the mist.
This one was even harder to look at.
It didn’t have an intact skull.
Above its neck was a massive, rolling mass of dark red tumors.
Several giant teeth covered in black and yellow plaques were stuck upside down inside the tumor.
At the broken roots of the teeth, thick, bright red nerves were exposed, constantly writhing and convulsing.
Its body was stiff and twitching.
Its hands were pressed tightly against both sides of the tumor, its nails digging deep and carving out ten bloody grooves.
It couldn’t make a coherent sound, only a continuous intake of cold air and intermittent shrill shrieks.
Then it began to slam its head against the ground and the abandoned car frames.
It struck with solid, heavy blows, thud, splashing dark red debris. It seemed that only the dizziness of a concussion could suppress the intense pain at the root of its nerves.
“Pain, pain, pain! My teeth! My teeth!”
White Night felt her soul turning cold.
“Is this a toothache!? Another kind of disease?”
Mu Yingying frowned.
A third one emerged from the Black Mist directly in front of them, an extremely hunched humanoid.
Both sides of its abdomen were glowing red, as if it were carrying red-hot branding irons.
The skin was stretched so tight it shone, thin enough to see the gray-white stones embedded beneath.
Those stones had sharp edges, like broken glass stuck in rotten meat.
Its spine was severely curved, every vertebra trembling.
Its toes dug fiercely into the ground, oblivious even as its nails cracked and tore.
“It hurts, break them for me… break them all…”
As it roared, it picked up a piece of rubble from the ground and smashed it hard against its own abdomen.
With one strike, stones mixed with shredded meat splashed from a hole in its waist.
With another, black-red pus and blood splattered across the ground.
It wasn’t attacking anyone else; it was smashing itself.
It seemed to want to smash out the stones embedded in its flesh along with its internal organs.
But within seconds, the smashed area bulged again, and new stones condensed and grew within the festering meat.
A new round of colic dragged it back. Its roars turned into broken whimpers as it curled up on the ground, twitching.
“What are these things…”
White Night’s voice was dry. The twisted and painful expressions of these anomalies were terrifying.
“Kidney stones.”
Mu Yingying spoke through gritted teeth, her face ashen.
“That’s a Kidney Stone Anomaly — they’re all diseases!”
The entities emerging from the Black Mist were indeed the personification of illnesses.
Gout, toothache, kidney stones… more shadows lurked deep within the mist.
And they were no longer just torturing themselves.
From the convoy’s side, screams erupted.
The Gout Anomaly pounced toward the nearest van.
Its movements were clumsy as it crawled on its deformed palms and knees.
But as it reached the car door, the metal handle suddenly began to discolor.
A layer of yellow-white crystals grew from within, spreading rapidly and covering the entire door.
The metal expanded and distorted under the erosion of the crystals, making a piercing screech.
Before the people inside could react, the door exploded from the outside.
Deformed metal fragments, mixed with yellow-white crystals, flew into the cabin.
Screams immediately rang out from inside the van.
White Night didn’t dare listen any longer.
“Go!”
Su Frost had already straddled the seat.
Mu Yingying rushed into the driver’s seat with her Tang Dao, and the engine roared to life.
But before she could shift into gear, the Toothache Anomaly had already found their direction.
It crawled toward them at a moderate pace.
However, the giant, exposed tooth nerve extended and swayed toward the car, and blood-colored mucus flew over.
The mucus looked like phlegm, but it was actually highly corrosive. A dull thwack sounded against the hood.
White Night looked down and saw small bubbles bulging on the painted surface of the hood, as if the metal were being eaten away.
“It’s coming.”
White Night blurted out.
Su Frost had already moved.
She grabbed a spare steel pipe, twisted her waist, and swung her arm, using her shoulder to propel it forward.
A whoosh cut through the air.
The steel pipe hit the Toothache Anomaly squarely in the body.
The massive impact flipped it onto the ground, and a large section of the rolling tumor caved in.
But it didn’t die.
It struggled for 2 seconds and began to crawl back up.
the exposed nerve convulsed even more violently, and its shrill shrieks became even more piercing.
“It’s not dead!”
Mu Yingying shouted.
White Night stared fixedly at the anomaly, not missing any detail.
Its entire head had been hit directly, yet it was still moving.
But at the moment of impact, one of its exposed tooth nerves had snapped.
The tumor around the broken nerve had also visibly shriveled.
The tooth nerve.
That was its Disease Focus, and its fatal weakness.
“Auntie Frost! Hit its nerve!”
White Night urgently reminded her.
Su Frost didn’t hesitate for a second.
She grabbed a second steel pipe and aimed for the massive, writhing, bright red tooth nerve.
She struck.
The steel pipe, carrying a fierce wind, pierced through the very center of the tumor.
The tooth nerve inside was severed at the root.
After a scream so sharp it changed pitch, the Toothache Anomaly exploded.
There were no fragments of meat or bone.
The Anomaly turned into a cloud of blood mist and dissipated completely into the air, leaving no trace behind.
Its death was identical to the Hemorrhoid Anomaly from before.
“Hitting the Disease Focus kills them!”
White Night shouted.
Mu Yingying floored the accelerator, and the car surged forward.
Before they could breathe a sigh of relief, White Night saw more shadows emerging from the Black Mist.
Gout, stones — all kinds of anomalies arrived one after another.
A Migraine Anomaly approached from the side, its head bulging like a balloon on one side.
The veins protruding on its scalp expanded rhythmically, and black tears flowed down the paralyzed half of its face.
“It’s going to explode… my brain is going to explode… it’s about to burst…”
It howled at the headlights, its hands frantically gouging at its own eyeballs.
Then it lunged at the headlights.
“Turn left!”
Su Frost shouted.
Mu Yingying yanked the steering wheel.
The car tires rolled over rubble, and the body tilted sharply, narrowly avoiding the pounce.
White Night looked back at the compass; it was still spinning frantically.
The red light flashed, and the needle swung wildly from side to side, unable to point in any direction at all.
“The compass is useless!”
White Night’s voice carried a hint of panic.
“It can’t fix a direction! There are anomalies everywhere; it can’t keep track!”
Su Frost bit her lip.
“Just charge toward the area with fewer anomalies for now.”
Mu Yingying floored the gas pedal, and the car sped through the Black Mist.
The headlights could only illuminate 10 meters ahead; beyond was an impenetrable darkness.
The convoy was in utter chaos.
The roar of engines, horns, and screams blended into a cacophony.
Some cars were breaking through, while others were spinning in place.
White Night saw a sedan surrounded by three anomalies.
The windows were covered in crystals, eroding from the outside in.
The people inside were smashing the glass, but they couldn’t break through.
Then the crystals spread to the door frame. The entire door expanded and deformed before bursting open.
The screams from inside the cabin stopped abruptly.
White Night pulled her gaze back.
She couldn’t look anymore.
She looked toward Wang Ziming’s convoy.
The modified off-road vehicle was 200 meters away, also steering wildly in the Black Mist.
Two unsteady beams of light swung through the fog, obviously indicating the driver was also lost.
Through the Black Mist, White Night caught a glimpse of Wang Ziming leaning halfway out of the vehicle, looking toward them.
Their eyes met.
Both sides had the same look of confusion on their faces.
‘You don’t know where to run either.’
‘Neither do I.’
After less than half a second of eye contact, Wang Ziming retreated back into his car.
The off-road vehicle turned sharply and sped off in another direction.
It was every person for themselves.
Another anomaly blocked the road ahead.
“Hold on tight!”
Mu Yingying roared.
Mu Yingying floored the accelerator and charged forward.
The roar of the Kidney Stone Anomaly came from behind. It didn’t give chase, still smashing its own waist with a stone.
In front of the headlights, a hole opened up in the Black Mist.
The fog thinned slightly.
In the darkness ahead, an empty clearing was vaguely visible, with no shadows of anomalies.
Mu Yingying didn’t slow down, and the car plunged straight in.
They had finally found a temporarily safe place, and the red light on the compass finally weakened a bit.
However, the needle’s rotation didn’t stop; it only slowed down.
Mu Yingying gripped the steering wheel tight.
Su Frost stood by the car door, the steel pipe still clutched in her hand.
For the moment, no anomalies were approaching them, but not far away, the Black Mist could still be seen churning, and the roars of those anomalies could still be heard.
“These are all diseases,” White Night said solemnly.
“Hemorrhoids, gout, toothaches, kidney stones, migraines… they are all anomalies transformed from illnesses.”
She paused for a moment.
“The weakness of these anomalies is their Disease Focus.”
“If you hit the Disease Focus, they explode into blood mist. If you don’t, they can’t be killed.”
Su Frost nodded and added, “But even knowing the weakness won’t make this easy.”
Her tone was heavy.
But White Night noticed that the hand gripping the steel pipe hadn’t loosened.
“It’s definitely not easy. There are too many of them.”
Mu Yingying finally spoke, her voice recovering some strength.
“There were at least dozens of them in that mist just now, and more are still appearing. We have to find a way to escape…”
In the distant Black Mist, the sound of engines became sparse.
The screams were also fewer.
The crisis had not been resolved; there were simply fewer and fewer people left alive.