Lin Xin’an said nothing, just clutched Jiang Jianxin’s sleeve and refused to let go.
Jiang Jianxin shot him a helpless glance and had no choice but to instruct him:
“Stay behind me.”
With that, she raised her sword and walked into the stairwell.
Jiang Jianxin’s apartment was on the sixth floor, so there was a long flight of stairs to climb.
The first three floors seemed normal, but the higher they went, the more dismembered limbs they saw, until the steps were almost completely carpeted with them.
Red blood and yellowish-white brain matter mixed together, smeared across the black steps.
Though the scene was horrifying, neither Jiang Jianxin nor Lin Xin’an showed any fear.
On the fourth-floor landing, just as Jiang Jianxin was about to head up to the fifth, Lin Xin’an suddenly grabbed her.
“I hear something.”
Jiang Jianxin gave him a baffled look.
“What do you hear?”
“Something is saying: ‘Eat… eat… eat.'”
Lin Xin’an said.
His Mind Reading Technique was area-based, allowing him to hear the inner thoughts of any living creature within a certain range.
The thoughts of different creatures sounded distinct, and this vicious, malevolent voice was clearly not coming from Jiang Jianxin.
The stairwell was empty.
If it wasn’t her, then it could only be that unknown pollutant.
Jiang Jianxin’s heart jolted, and she vigilantly scanned her surroundings.
There was nothing but a scene straight out of a slaughterhouse.
Lin Xin’an pointed to the fifth floor and whispered:
“It’s up there… I’ll wait for you here.”
Jiang Jianxin nodded, and, sword in hand, began to slowly walk upstairs.
The dim daylight filtering through a single window in the stairwell illuminated the corpses strewn across the floor and Jiang Jianxin’s tall, slender back.
Without Spiritual Power to drive it, the Tang Guang Sword was just an ordinary weapon.
Now, she had to rely on pure close-quarters combat.
The diary hadn’t mentioned much about the Sword Master’s swordsmanship, so she felt a little unsure of herself.
‘But I have to get home, and I have to find that diary… Pushing this injured guy Lin Xin’an up to fight… An interesting idea, but obviously not realistic.’
‘It was all up to her—the former child prodigy who became a Sword Master at eleven, only to grow up into a cautionary tale, a simple university student now left to bear this heavy burden.’
Jiang Jianxin took a deep breath and continued her step-by-step ascent.
PFFT—
The danger came much faster than she’d imagined.
A stream of what looked like black venom shot out from a dark corner, grazing past her face.
Jiang Jianxin quickly jerked back and changed her position, her eyes snapping upward.
A gecko-like pollutant was clinging to the wall of the fifth-floor landing.
It was about three meters long, its body oozing black fluid and impaled with human lower legs, all stained with scarlet blood.
A single black eye was set in its forehead, its pupil a vertical slit like a snake’s.
As the daylight fell upon it, the atmosphere suddenly grew heavy.
PFFT— HSSSSS—
The gecko monster swiveled its head 360 degrees, flicked its barb-covered tongue, and lunged at Jiang Jianxin.
BANG— VMMMM—
Jiang Jianxin’s reaction was incredibly fast.
She swung the Tang Guang Sword, striking the pollutant and knocking it aside.
Although she had no Spiritual Energy and couldn’t unleash any Sword Qi, the Sword Master’s physical body was exceptionally strong.
She could feel immense power flooding into the same hands that usually struggled to twist open a bottle cap.
The pollutant seemed surprised that this human possessed such strength—enough to knock its huge, heavy body aside.
After all, when it had hunted the other humans in the building, it had been able to pounce from the walls and tear its food apart, disemboweling them with ease.
BANG—
It rolled violently and scrambled back onto the wall, opening its mouth with a GAK and spitting another mouthful of venom.
Jiang Jianxin nimbly dodged and seized the opportunity to rush forward, slashing at the pollutant’s neck.
The gecko monster was quick to react as well.
It leaped onto the adjacent wall, causing Jiang Jianxin’s sword to miss its mark.
SCREEECH—
The sharp Tang Guang Sword carved a massive gash into the fifth-floor wall.
Jiang Jianxin leaped aside, her gaze locked tightly on the gecko monster.
Its last leap had taken it into the shadows, onto a wall untouched by the light from the window.
The gecko monster remained there, motionless, as if waiting for Jiang Jianxin to make the first move.
BANG—
Jiang Jianxin had no desire to play psychological games with the pollutant.
Seeing it remain still, she took the initiative, surging forward and swinging her sword.
SCREEECH—
The gecko monster leaped upward, nimbly dodging the attack and revealing its true intentions.
It shot its barb-covered tongue out from behind Jiang Jianxin, aiming directly for her heart.
An ordinary human who only knew basic combat would have been successfully ambushed by such a cunning attack, ending up skewered on its tongue like a shish kebab.