Chapter Fifty-Nine: Misunderstandings and Great Terror

Deep within the forest, after the colossal stag turned back, leaving behind a trail of devastation and isolation, the three men, paralyzed with terror, remained sprawled on the ground, clutching their heads, motionless for a long time.

They stayed like this for more than ten minutes.

"Zhang—Zhang, I think that monster is gone," Xu Hui whispered, his voice trembling.

"Gone?" Zhang Shuping was still shaken, not quite believing it.

He opened his eyes, glanced sideways at Xu Hui, then looked to his right at Li Dong.

"It—it should be gone," Li Dong replied, yet even so, he didn't dare turn his head to look behind him.

After all, Li Dong had already suffered the consequences of looking directly at the stag. Even the slightest chance was enough for him to refuse to look back.

"Then—shouldn't we leave too?"

"Of course! Let’s go, run!" Zhang Shuping wasn't sure how he had regained consciousness, but it didn't stop the fear in his heart from mounting ever higher.

The agony he'd endured before fainting had been worse than death itself.

It might have been just a few dozen seconds, but in that brief span, for the first time in his life, Zhang Shuping understood what it meant to wish for death rather than endure living.

To have survived at all was already a stroke of luck.

As for the greed that brought them here in the first place?

To hell with it—it was all worthless!

With those words, Zhang Shuping was the first to scramble to his feet. Without a backward glance or a word more, he sprinted toward the edge of the forest.

Li Dong and Xu Hui were both stunned.

Damn, he's running fast—what just happened?

But Zhang Shuping paid no mind, running with every ounce of strength he had, shouting as he went, "What are you two waiting for, death? Run!"

Hearing Zhang Shuping's cries from ahead, Li Dong and Xu Hui could hardly remain where they were. Without hesitation, they leapt up and raced after him.

The three men rushed headlong, the undergrowth crackling and snapping beneath their feet.

But as they ran, Li Dong, the most perceptive of the three, was the first to sense something was wrong.

What’s going on? Why are we running so fast all of a sudden?

Not out of breath—not even tired—leaping over bramble patches five or six meters wide in a single bound!

Something’s not right. Not right at all!

Li Dong was both terrified and exhilarated.

What terrified him was remembering how that monstrous stag, with hooves as thick as stone pillars, had tapped him as if in passing.

And though his face had been pressed into the dirt, out of the corner of his eye, he’d seen a glimmer of light—and at that moment, he’d felt something enter his body.

At first, he’d been too frightened to think about it, but now, recalling it made him shudder.

Yet beneath the terror, the strength coursing through his body brought him a strange sense of delight.

The wind roared past his ears, his legs flew over the ground; this unprecedented power left Li Dong almost intoxicated.

But the intoxication lasted only a moment before he sobered.

The stag’s presence had been deeply disturbing—just a glance could cause headaches, panic, even unconsciousness, like something out of a nightmare.

And now, they had inherited the power of a demon.

Would a demon’s power come without a price?

The more he thought about it, the more Li Dong’s fear of the stag grew.

Why did it spare us?

What does it want?

If we return to the human world, will we bring disaster with us?

The more these thoughts raced through his mind, the more his pace slackened. Eventually, he stopped running entirely, sitting on the ground in terror.

"What the hell, Li Dong! What are you doing? Get up, run! If you stop, that thing might come back for us!" Xu Hui was the first to notice, stopping anxiously to shout at him.

But—

"We can't go back. We can't go back!" Li Dong was frantic, his face twisted with fear, tears streaming down his cheeks.

"We mustn’t return! If we do, we could doom everyone around us!"

Li Dong’s panic was so intense it startled Xu Hui.

His mind racing with Li Dong’s words and their inexplicable release, Xu Hui’s face suddenly drained of color, terror twisting his features as well.

"Li Dong! Did you find something? Tell me! Why can’t we return?" Xu Hui grabbed Li Dong by the shoulders, shouting desperately.

"We can’t go back." Li Dong looked up at Xu Hui, utterly dejected, tears slipping down his face in dread.

"We've been cursed!"

"Cursed? What curse?" Xu Hui’s expression darkened.

"Ha—haven’t you noticed anything strange about yourself?"

"Strange?"

Xu Hui was confused but paused to check his own condition.

"Nothing seems wrong. I feel fine—better than fine, actually. Are you sure you’re not mistaken?"

Now it was Xu Hui’s turn to be perplexed; he felt no discomfort, only an unusual vitality.

"No change? That’s precisely it." Li Dong shook his head, a note of hopelessness creeping in.

"Speed. Strength. Haven’t you noticed? Look how far we’ve run. At least three, maybe five kilometers. Are you tired? Out of breath?"

"Did you ever have this kind of power before? Did I? Did Zhang? Think about it—why did it let us go? Do you think it was out of kindness? Or did you see something holy in that thing’s eyes?"

Li Dong’s voice rose to a shout.

And in that instant, Xu Hui understood. There was no need for Li Dong to say more; he sat down heavily, his face ashen.

Memories flooded back.

Xu Hui had passed out almost immediately, but during his unconsciousness, he’d dreamed an unimaginably horrific nightmare.

In the dream, the stag’s body reeked of rot, shrouded in black smoke, with countless howling, struggling faces writhing within the miasma, desperate to escape.

But in the end, none of those faces broke free, and soon enough, Xu Hui himself had become one of them.

That was the whole dream, but its terror was seared into his soul.

Neither Li Dong, nor Xu Hui, nor Zhang Shuping had ever seen another side of the stag.

Gripped by fear, even as they were carried out of the forest corridor, they never once looked back.

All they knew was that after being tossed to the ground, a few young stags had pinned their heads down with their hooves, forcing them to stay prone.

Behind them came terrifying crashes and tremors, and the sound of earth churning as tree roots burst from the ground, altering the very landscape.

Their impression of the stag was frozen in horror—nothing more.

And so, in that moment, Li Dong and Xu Hui gave up all hope, sitting on the ground as if reliving their whole lives in a fever dream.

If only I hadn’t accepted Zhang Shuping’s invitation.

If only I hadn’t entered this forest.

If only I hadn’t followed the herd.

If only…