Luo Xun flung her hand off almost instinctively.
An electric shock?
That was a description reserved for civilized people.
At this moment, his sensation felt as though someone had jammed an icy straw directly into the seams of his bones and taken a deep, sucking gulp of his marrow.
Inside his body, an indescribable substance rushed along his meridians, surging out through the point where they touched.
That bone-deep feeling of being plundered made every hair on his body stand on end.
Only one thought flashed through his mind—*someone just took a bite out of my damn life.* “You motherf—!” Luo Xun barked, even though he knew she probably couldn’t understand him.
He had already retreated two paces, raising his bow once more, the arrowhead locking onto the pointy-eared girl still kneeling on the ground.
The sympathy from moments ago was instantly replaced by a chilling vigilance.
The very first lesson he had learned to survive in this hellhole was: anything beyond comprehension could easily cost you your life.
The pointy-eared girl was startled by his reaction, a flicker of apology passing through her golden eyes.
She spoke hurriedly, her voice melodic and tinged with an explanatory tone.
But Luo Xun couldn’t hear any of it right now.
What he cared about was the halo in his field of vision.
The golden light representing the creature before him was expanding and contracting in pulses, like someone who had been starving for days ravenously inhaling the surrounding air.
As for himself…
He quickly glanced at his arms and felt his chest.
He found nothing—no wounds, no glowing light, nothing missing.
Yet a bone-deep exhaustion was welling up from within his skeletal frame.
His head grew heavy, and his temples throbbed as if someone were pinching them with fingernails.
*Damn it, is this thing sucking my life force?* Once the thought surfaced, he couldn’t push it down.
Granted, her appearance belonged to an entirely different aesthetic than the seductive female ghosts in *Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio*.
She had pointed ears, and her demeanor was dignified enough to cast her straight into an epic film.
But this feeling of being “drained” was way too fucking similar.
Luo Xun’s gaze grew increasingly fierce.
He lowered the tip of his arrow by half an inch, aiming it right between its eyes.
Without him realizing it, he had already switched his mental pronoun for her from “she” to “it.” Before he could draw the bowstring to its limit, the pointy-eared creature suddenly turned her back to him.
Luo Xun’s arrow hand twitched, nearly releasing the shot.
In the next second, he saw the other party lift the hem of her long robe, revealing a dazzlingly fair waist and several small leather pouches tied around her hips.
…What was she doing?
Paying for her life?
The pointy-eared girl pinched a pale purple, semi-transparent crystal out of one of the pouches, carefully placed it on the ground, and then stepped back two paces, raising both hands high.
The sequence of actions was as practiced as a hostage exchange.
Luo Xun’s eye twitched.
The crystal lay on the stone floor, emitting a faint purple glow, with tiny flecks of light slowly swirling inside.
Even from a few paces away, he could tell this was no ordinary object.
Was it really a payment to buy her life?
They remained frozen like this for a few breaths.
From below the tower came the sound of scraping bones.
More than one source.
Judging by the noise, at least several skeletons were climbing the stairs.
Luo Xun glanced at the arrow still pointing at her, then at the stairwell, and finally let his gaze fall back onto the crystal.
“Shit.” He muttered a curse and made a quick decision.
He didn’t lower his arrow, but he used his foot to hook the crystal closer.
Squatting down, he picked it up with his left hand.
It felt ice-cold to the touch, like jade, but its weight was incredibly light, as if he were holding a clump of light compressed into solid form.
Seeing him pick up the crystal, the pointy-eared girl clearly breathed a sigh of relief.
She pointed toward the stairwell, then toward the other side of the terrace, where a broken section of railing led out to a sloping roof.
Luo Xun pocketed the crystal, his arrow still trained on her.
He pointed toward the roof with his other hand and gestured for her to move.
The pointy-eared girl nodded immediately.
She pushed herself up, but her legs buckled halfway.
Although the wound on her left shoulder had stopped bleeding, she was still as weak as a sheet of paper, looking as though a gust of wind could knock her over.
Luo Xun hesitated for a fraction of a second.
Reason told him he should run first, leaving this creature behind to distract the undead.
But some deeper impulse held his feet in place.
Perhaps it was a “morbid attachment” born from not seeing another living soul for over a month, or perhaps those golden eyes still held something that prevented him from treating her purely as an “it.” He stowed his bow, took a few quick steps forward, and slung her right arm over his shoulder to support her.
His movements were rough, driven entirely by a pulling force.
The pointy-eared girl let out a muffled groan from the rough handling, but she didn’t resist.
The two scrambled toward the edge of the terrace.
Beyond the broken railing, the roof sloped at an angle of about forty degrees, covered in broken tiles and moss.
Luo Xun climbed over first.
The moment his foot touched the tiles, they groaned with a loud creak, sounding as if they were about to shatter.
Fortunately, they held.
But he had more pressing matters to worry about.
He turned back and reached out.
The moment the pointy-eared girl grabbed his palm, that bizarre draining sensation returned.
It was like an invisible syringe had been plunged into the point of contact, starting to suck him dry bit by bit.
Luo Xun gritted his teeth but didn’t let go, pulling her onto the roof with all his might.
Under their combined weight, the roof tiles clattered loudly.
Several broken shards rolled down the slope, clattering onto the terrace below.
The skeleton soldiers below looked up in unison.
*Shit.* He cursed under his breath, making an instant decision.
Luo Xun gave the pointy-eared girl a push.
“Climb!” On all fours, they scrambled toward the roof ridge like two battered dogs.
From behind them came the sound of scraping bones.
The skeletons had scaled the railing and were now climbing onto the roof.
They reached the ridge.
Three meters ahead lay the canopy of a massive tree.
Luo Xun glanced down.
*Holy shit.* Falling from this height would be enough to write a will.
He looked back again.
The leading skeleton had already made it onto the roof, charging toward them over the shattered tiles.
“Jump!” The pointy-eared girl threw herself forward.
Her landing was off, but her hands managed to catch two thick branches.
Her body swung back and forth in midair like a ragdoll caught in a tree.
Luo Xun jumped right after her.
The moment he took flight, his outstretched hand precisely caught the branch he had targeted beforehand.
Then, with a loud snap, the branch broke.
“Fuck!” As he cursed and plummeted, a thought flashed through his mind: *What the hell was I even going to write in that will?* Fortunately, his other hand managed to grab a lower branch just in time.
The web between his thumb and index finger burned from the rough bark, and his body slammed against the trunk, nearly making him lose his grip.
Once he stabilized himself, Luo Xun looked up at the tower’s terrace.
The fastest-pursuing skeleton was standing at the edge of the roof, the blue flames in its eye sockets flickering as if hesitating whether to jump.
*Go on, jump.
I dare you,* he muttered.
The undead crowded around the railing, with no intention of leaping down.
It seemed they either didn’t know how to climb trees, or simply lacked the brains to do so.
*Well, having no brains has its perks.* Luo Xun took a few deep breaths and began to climb down.
The pointy-eared girl was already waiting at the base of the tree, sitting with her back against the trunk.
Her breathing beneath the white veil was still rapid, but she looked much better than before.
Luo Xun slid down the final stretch of the trunk, planting his feet firmly on the ground as he caught his breath.
The two locked eyes once again.
No arrow was pointed this time.
Yet the atmosphere grew even stranger.
He hadn’t had the luxury to dwell on it while running for his life, but now that they were safe, that lingering sensation of being “drained” bubbled up again.
Luo Xun stared into those golden eyes and noticed she was staring back.
Along with the caution in her gaze, there was something else.
Like…
curiosity?
No, not just curiosity.
Luo Xun couldn’t quite put his finger on it.
It was like the look a butcher gives you at a market, sizing you up, evaluating you.
*Damn it, is this pointy-eared girl still thinking about draining me?* He instinctively took half a step back.
The pointy-eared girl suddenly raised her hand, gesturing for him to stay still.
Then, pointing a finger at her own chest, she slowly and clearly pronounced a word: “Alice.” The pronunciation rolled off her tongue, carrying a kind of ancient, elegant cadence.
It sounded more like chanting poetry than speaking.
Having spoken, she pointed at Luo Xun and tilted her head.
Her golden eyes reflected the moonlight, carrying a question that couldn’t be any clearer.
Luo Xun froze for a moment.
In his twenty-odd years of life, this was the first time he had been asked “What’s your name?” by someone who had just literally drained him.
This wasn’t how the script was supposed to go, was it?