tw: gore, just thought I’d let you guys know beforehand. I’ll try to do content warnings for chapters that have excessive blood/gore in the future. But honestly, if you’re not good with violence, this novel probably isn’t for you.
Before the end, Meng Rongxuan was just an ordinary division manager. Because it was a business branch, most of those under his leadership were young salespeople, the majority of them women.
Then that enormous celestial body had suddenly appeared in the sky, and before long their company building had been overrun by horrible monsters. Meng Rongxuan had barely managed to acquire a company vehicle and, along with several of his young subordinates, escaped to Hua City with difficulty.
At present he was being held down by the monster’s enormous strength. The monster’s smooth, bare head had no eyes or nose. Its bloody mouth, wide open like a basin, was firmly pressed against the handle of his axe.
Meng Rongxuan had a clear view of those jagged, razor sharp teeth, and he was even able to see bloody, mangled flesh caught in the gaps between them.
This monster was extremely formidable, much more difficult to deal with than the monster he’d hacked to death in the company parking lot.
Not only was it strong and fast, it was also quite intelligent. It had actually used several cars to block the highway. When they stopped to check, it had suddenly sprung out from the darkness and attacked, killing one of Meng Rongxuan’s coworkers in one bite.
Just now it had cleverly evaded his attack and firmly suppressed him. Meng Rongxuan sensed he could no longer hold the monster back and turned toward his companions in the vehicle beside him, crying out for help.
The windows and doors were tightly shut. His colleagues were pressed against the glass, all of their faces pale and frightened, but not one of them intended to get out of the car and help.
The monster’s mouth was getting closer and closer. Blood dripped from its teeth onto Meng Rongxuan’s face, sticky and stinking.
As his life flashed before his eyes, a young girl flew into vision. From his line of sight next to the car’s underbelly, he witnessed her dashing towards him while carrying a pocket knife, rapidly closing the distance between them.
Her figure was lithe and agile. She stepped onto the car’s hood with one foot and leapt high into the air, hardly touching the ground, and yelled out in a clear voice: “Watch out!”
As Meng Rongxuan instinctively dodged to the side, the girl was already wielding her sharp blade and hurtling down from the air. With a fierce jab, she accurately pushed her knife into the back of the monster’s head all the way to the hilt. There was a wet scraping noise as the blade penetrated through the monster’s wide bloody mouth, and fresh blood sprayed forth upon Meng Rongxuan’s face.
The monster suffered great pain and stood up on its hind legs with a long hiss, desperately trying to shake off the woman on its back.
The girl grasped the handle of her knife and planted her feet on the monster’s back, unwilling to budge, twisting the knife in a semicircle before the monster was finally able to shake her off.
She slid about ten meters backwards before steadying herself. The knife was still embedded in the monster’s head.
Undaunted, the girl smoothly dropped to one knee and raised a gun with both hands, firing several shots at the monster’s head. The monster stretched its neck and struggled, but it was unable to free itself from the knife lodged in its skull. With no other options, it changed its mind, using all four legs to flee in the opposite direction.
Meng Rongxuan stood up and wiped the blood from his face. Before he could say anything, the girl snatched the axe out of his hand and flitted away.
Her figure was extremely fast, moving at near inhuman speeds as she chased the monster.
“Oh no, oh no, the monster is coming this way!” Gan Xiaodan nervously cried out from inside the car. The monster, knife still stuck in its head, turned and rushed towards them.
“I-I’ll drive. We need to move, quick.” Gao Yan hurriedly crawled from the back into the driver’s seat.
“Jiejie, it’s Qianxun jiejie,” Feng Qianqian cried, pointing out of the car window.
Everyone in the car scrambled to watch the lone person chasing the monster from behind. That incredibly fast figure, hot on the monster’s heels, unexpectedly turned out to be Chu Qianxun.
Chu Qianxun threw the axe from her hand and it whistled through the air before smashing into the blasphemer’s back. Its flesh-colored body tumbled to the floor and Chu Qianxun caught up to it at last.
Chu Qianxun unsheathed a dagger from her hip, held it against the blasphemer’s sharp claws, and rolled the monster over. She put her foot on the axe handle protruding from its back and stomped down, then tugged the knife out of the blasphemer’s skull.
The blasphemer spread its blood red hands and seized Chu Qianxun’s leg, throwing her to the ground. Chu Qianxun reacted swiftly, rolling away and lifting her weapons to catch the sharp claws from the air. The ear-piercing sound of blades clashing rang out.
Gan Xiaodan, Gao Yan and the rest hid in the car’s interior, watching through the glass window as their small companion fought the huge monster with exceptional skill and agility.
“Qianqian, wait for Dad. Dad will go help Qianxun jiejie.” Feng Junlei patted his daughter’s head then handed her to Gan Xiaodan. He looked around the car and found a large steel wrench, holding it as he opened the door.
“Dad.” Feng Qianqian’s little hand pressed against the car window as she anxiously watched her father getting out.
Feng Junlei stepped out and approached the monster from behind.
The monster looked even more terrifying up close. Its bulky, misshapen limbs, its hairless body and yellowish pink flesh, all of these were nightmare fuel. There was a hole in the back of its head from which yellow blood flowed out in a steady stream.
Feng Junlei didn’t know how Chu Qianxun, this young girl, had the courage to confront this terrifying monster.
At the moment, Chu Qianxun was facing the monster, holding the knife in her hand firmly against its claws. Her eyes were lit up with excitement, and she didn’t have even the slightest inclination to retreat.
Feng Junlei raised the steel wrench and slammed it into the gaping hole on the back of the blasphemer’s head. The monster tossed its head in fury and slapped Feng Junlei aside.
“Dad!” Feng Qianqian screamed from inside the car.
The axe lodged between the blasphemer’s shoulders suddenly swayed and dislodged from its back into the open air. It hovered in the sky for a moment before dropping with a clatter, squarely hitting the wound on the back of the monster’s smooth head and cleaving it open.
The blasphemer stretched its neck and hands towards the sky and tried to cry out, but it couldn’t make a sound. Its tongue stiffened and trembled in its mouth until at long last, it toppled to the ground with a crash.
Chu Qianxun eagerly slotted her dagger into the blasphemer’s split head, digging around before prying out some sort of glittering object. It flashed in the air for a moment before Chu Qianxun put it in her pocket.
Chu Qianxun smiled as if she’d gained a treasure. She came to Feng Junlei’s side and held out a hand: “Are you alright? Thank you so much.”
His heart still pounding, Feng Junlei got up with Chu Qianxun’s help, legs feeling like jelly.
This girl is really too amazing.
He watched Chu Qianxun from behind as she skillfully cleaned and put away her weapons.
In such a cruel environment, this girl was instead managing with ease, happy and content as if she’d lived this kind of life since childhood.
The two returned to the car, and Feng Qianqian threw herself into her father’s arms. Feng Junlei stroked his daughter’s head then firmly kissed it.
Chu Qianxun slumped into the passenger’s seat, “Yan jie come drive, I’m tired and need to rest.”
“Okay, okay, I’ll drive, I’ll drive.” Gao Yan sat in the driver’s seat, started the engine and stole a glance at Chu Qianxun by her side.
This young girl is using her slender white arms to prop up her chin, watching the scenery outside the window.
If she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, Gao Yan would hardly believe those thin arms had the strength to compete with that hideous monster.
Gao Yan decided that her next mission would be to wheedle her way in with this girl. As long as Qianxun was on her side, she had one more guarantee of survival in this world where monsters run amok.
The people in the van ahead of them had already pushed the cars in the traffic jam to the side, clearing the way. Now they were getting in the vehicle one by one, preparing to set off.
The man who’d just fought the blasphemer caught sight of Chu Qianxun’s car passing by, and from where he stood by the roadside, tried his very hardest in waving his hands to express his gratitude.
As the car passed by, Chu Qianxun glanced at him and realized his face seemed vaguely familiar. Chu Qianxun thought for a while, but nothing came to mind.
Her memories from ten years ago were already blurred, so it’s unsurprising that she cannot recognize this person. She left this matter in the back of her mind and stopped thinking about it.
At sunset rain gradually began to fall– soft and gentle at first, then violently pouring down.
The Hummer carrying several people arrived at a gas station on the side of the highway.
There are many cars parked here.
Next to the gas station is a small convenience store. The shelves had long been cleared out, but a crowd had gathered inside, seeking shelter from the rain.
Chu Qianxun and the others stopped out front, locked the car before they left, then went inside the store.
There were all kinds of people in every corner of the store; men, women, and children alike all huddled together in small groups.
They raised their eyelids to glance at the newcomers and found that other than the man with a child, the rest were all women, so they quickly lost interest.
Gao Yan found an empty spot and called Chu Qianxun and the others over. They had already eaten dinner in the car and only wanted to stay in this place that would shelter them from the wind and rain for a night.
Chu Qianxun handed Feng Qianqian a thin blanket that she’d brought from the car. Holding her knife, she wrapped herself up in another thin blanket pulled from her backpack. She leaned against the wall as she slept, ignoring the surrounding people.
Gao Yan and Gan Xiaodan were forced to snuggle together to keep warm as they slept.
Gan Xiaodan was a little better off, wearing a jacket with good insulation. Gao Yan, however, is the type of woman that disregards temperature. In spring, she wears thin short-shorts that display her long, smooth legs all the way to her thighs. But here in the countryside, the nights are freezing cold.
The sky is getting more and more dark. Outside is the pitter-patter of heavy rain, which interweaves with the interior sounds of low conversations, snoring, and singing.
From outside the room, the twin beams of a car’s headlights shine through the curtain of rain.
The car made a noise as it parked. A group of people, raising their flashlights, rushed through the convenience store entrance.
These people are all young men and women. Supporting an unconscious man, they talked over one another in their rush to speak.
“Quick, quick, help Meng ge lie down, his fever is getting worse.”
“It’s all because he fought that monster and was injured.”
Chu Qianxun opened her eyes to glance over and discovered that they were the people from the van she’d met at noon.
“Wait a moment, what’s wrong with this man?” Several burly men stood up from a corner of the store. The leader’s hair was very short, he wore only a thin black vest, and there was a half-smoked cigarette in his mouth.
He led his men to stand in front of the group of youths, taking a drag from his cigarette before tucking it between his fingers.
“This person can’t enter.” The man in the vest exhaled smoke and pointed at the unconscious man with the fingers holding the cigarette.
“Why! Why won’t you let our Meng ge come in?”
“Right, why not? Our Meng ge has a high fever, do you have a conscience?”
“Conscience, now you want to speak to me about conscience?” The man scoffed, “Isn’t this man’s injury caused by a monster? He also has a fever. Haven’t you watched apocalypse movies? How do you know he won’t turn into a monster? Anyway, he can’t come in. If he turns into a monster in the middle of the night, you don’t want him to kill me as well!”
The men behind him all jeered: “Yes! Throw him out, or else you guys also can’t enter.”
The other people in the room couldn’t help but whisper to each other as they heard this.
“Right, he cannot come in. What’ll we do when he turns into a monster? I have children, you know.”
“Yes, yes, you should throw him out.”
Several of the youths glanced at each other, showing hesitant expressions. After a while, two of the men silently carried their department manager who had a high fever, went outside in the middle of the rain, and walked across the road until they reached the opposite end.
The few young women who remained inside glanced at each other with pale faces and didn’t speak. They found a corner and sat down in silence.
After a while, the two men returned empty-handed.
“Y-you really left Meng ge outside? It’s still raining so hard out there, he…” a girl finally couldn’t help but speak.
“Then what should I do? Meng ge suddenly developed a high fever, which is really very strange. Who can guarantee that he won’t turn into a monster?”
“Right, don’t worry, you should just go out and take care of him. After all, Meng Rongxuan got out and was scratched by the monster in order to save you.”
The girl who had spoken up shrank back and fell silent.
TL notes: Personally, I think the descriptions of violence in this novel are pretty minor, but I wanted to be careful anyway. I’d be happy to write PG chapter summaries if anyone wants them