"Are you rested?" Lin Yi asked as he fussed with the blanket beside her, then helped her to her feet under her puzzled gaze.

Then Lin Yi squatted down in front of her, motioning for her to get on his back, "Get on, I'll carry you!"

"Ah? Ah... ow ow!" Li Huiyuan hadn't come to her senses yet, and without having time to wipe away her tears, she quickly climbed onto him.

One of her feet was weak, and she mounted somewhat awkwardly. Lin Yi had to support her buttocks several times before she settled down.

The Qing dynasty had fallen, and now at a life-and-death moment, no one cared about proprieties like not touching between men and women.

Once she was settled, Lin Yi secured both of them tightly together with the blanket.

"This is the only thing among daily necessities that can be somewhat stabilizing; just bear with it," he said.

Lin Yi grabbed the outsides of Li Huiyuan's thighs with both hands, his body slightly arched like he was possessed by the spirit of the peak-condition Camel Xiangzi, radiating the aura of the strongest cart-puller.

"Hold tight, I'm going to start running," he warned.

Li Huiyuan hummed in agreement and wrapped her arms tightly around Lin Yi's neck.

Lin Yi clenched the blanket's knot between his teeth, then took a deep breath and, having eyed a direction, suddenly pushed off the ground and dashed forward like a bullet.

Lin Yi's speed was extremely fast and his inertia was powerful. Li Huiyuan found that even with her arms tightly wound she almost fell off, but the knotted blanket secured her firmly to Lin Yi's back.

There was no way around it, Lin Yi holding one of her legs couldn't spare a third hand to stabilize her body.

As for carrying her in his arms like a princess?

In terms of a grand escape, it certainly wasn't as energy-saving as carrying her on his back.

Li Huiyuan then understood the purpose of the blanket, but at the same time, she realized something—Lin Yi had never considered abandoning her from the start.

The dramatic ups and downs of life had cascaded onto her in less than a minute, overwhelming her, but one feeling was unbearably real.

Warmth.

A warmth she had never experienced before.

Her emotions in place, she wanted to say something but suddenly noticed the light around them dimming, and a shadow, like a venomous snake, seemed to be swallowing them from behind.

At the same time, she heard Lin Yi mumbling something, "This is fucking ridiculous, we have to turn at the worst possible moment!"

It was this curve that changed their straight escape into a diagonal one, and the darkness and mist that had been directly behind them were now coming from their right rear!

Lin Yi's face was stern as he bit down on the blanket's knot, his body getting lower and lower as he sprinted madly with Li Huiyuan on his back.

He felt the wind whistling past his ears, the light around them getting darker and darker. Darkness enveloped by thick mist closed in around him, with dust and smoke swirling endlessly, giving off the sensation of madly fleeing through apocalyptic sands.

The ground of the Convenience Store kept trembling, the hanging incandescent lights shook continuously, and the whole store felt disorientingly on the verge of shattering, making the already murky air turn dirtier.

"Shasha shasha..."

"Shasha shasha..."

Lin Yi's ears keenly caught some movement. As he glanced back during his run, he saw an incandescent bulb not far from him flicker a few times under the mist before extinguishing rapidly. Then, a green Pocket Chef with the form of a human spider agilely appeared, clinging to the domed ceiling.

In the darkness, they moved with an eerie speed beyond the ordinary!

The Pocket Chef's head rotated 180 degrees, grinning and hissing at them with cold eyes that didn't hide the intense killing intent.

"I am Li Huiyuan... my student number is X0230507046..."

"I am Li Huiyuan..."

"Hehehe..."

It kept chanting this phrase, aiming to disturb Li Huiyuan's mind.

And beside the Pocket Chef, there was a swarm of figures like a swarm of insects.

On the ceiling, the ground, deep within the shelves...

Countless Nocturnal species surged towards them like monsters unleashed, some that were slower got pushed to the ground by those behind and trampled into a puddle of Nocturnal muck.

More like a mudslide than a tidal wave, they thundered forward, with countless "own kind" trampled underfoot.

This sense of complete destruction, where even companions were treated as stepping stones, suddenly increased Lin Yi's pressure, prompting him to grip Li Huiyuan's leg tighter and continue the sprint.

There was another corner ahead. After running past it, Lin Yi looked in the direction of the sign and saw a pure white light.

As the distance closed, the light became clearer, revealing a gateway at the point of light, and beside the portal, there were devices resembling shopping terminals for scanning and payment.

"We're here! The exit is right ahead!" Lin Yi's heart leapt with joy as he put all his energy into a final sprint.

The green Pocket Chefs behind them seemed to sense something as well and started growling incessantly.

"Lin... Yi... (Li... Huiyuan...)"

As Lin Yi was about to sprint to the finish, an unexpected call from the darkness echoed in his ears.

For an instant, Lin Yi thought he saw a humanoid outline in the darkness, a figure seemingly calling out while emerging from the shadows...

"Lin Yi... (Li Huiyuan...)"

The voice grew clearer, and the silhouette became more distinct.

As if about to step out from the darkness, just as he was about to cross the boundary between light and dark, an unprecedented sense of crisis surged from the abyss like a black tide, turning into countless waves that engulfed Lin Yi!

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