At this moment, Liu Qiao and Lao Mo are facing the predicament of running out of Marble Bricks.
Li Qingzhao's skill is to pull all teammates to the "marked point from 5 minutes ago". This means that the skill cannot be used immediately, but the mark must be placed first, and then the team can be pulled after 5 minutes.
Marble Bricks are almost used up; they won't last more than 5 minutes.
Old Mo had no choice but to take out the solid wood flooring and said in a low voice, "Xiao Liu, I'll give you the plank. You break it into several pieces and throw them out as landing points to keep flying in the air. I'll go to the ground to place markers."
Currently, all four Hunters ' attention is focused on Liu Qiao. Old Mo has shrunk to the size of a thumb and is hiding in Liu Qiao's pocket, making it difficult for them to spot him. Seeing that the Hunters are about to catch up, Liu Qiao nodded and said, "Okay, Uncle Mo, be careful."
She handed [ Li Qingzhao ] to Lao Mo, and then took Lao Mo's [solid wood floor], broke the plank into several pieces and threw them into the air. Liu Qiao's feet nimbly stepped over the wooden blocks like a dragonfly skimming the water, and continued to use the Lightness Skill Card to accelerate forward.
But Old Mo used the [Space Rotation] card to instantly flip back to the ground from high altitude and place a marker in a hidden corner.
It will take another 5 minutes to teleport to his teammates. Can Xiao Liu hold on?
Old Mo anxiously looked up at the sky.
The bright moon hung high in the sky, and in its soft light, Lao Mo clearly saw several dark figures flashing across the heavens on kites. Immediately afterward, a gust of wind blew, tearing the Marble Bricks he had placed in the air, as well as the wooden plank Liu Qiao had just lowered, to shreds in an instant.
Broken bricks and wood chips fell from the sky like snowflakes, and if Liu Qiao lost her footing, falling from such a height would surely result in her being smashed to pieces. What's more, there were four Hunters chasing closely behind her.
Old Mo's heart was pounding with anxiety. He hurriedly pressed the microphone button and called out to Xiao Lou for help: " Professor Xiao, I've already placed the marker, but Xiao Liu is in danger! Four Hunters are about to catch up with her. If her Lightness Skill Card is interrupted, she's doomed!"
Xiao Lou calmly said, "Don't worry, Hunter has already lost 5 people, so the current situation is in our favor. Besides, in a night battle scenario, we have many cards that can be surprisingly effective."
Old Mo paused, then suddenly remembered some cards: "You mean Nightmare, Butterfly, Witch?"
These were all from the Blood Night Witch In the werewolf kill room, after clearing the room, they chose four cards as rewards: Dream Catcher, Witch, Butterfly, and Nightmare. Except for Dream Catcher, which was in Shao Qingge's hand, the remaining three were: Butterfly in Qu Wanyue's hand, Nightmare in Lao Mo's hand, and Liu Qiao holding the Witch card.
What these cards have in common is that they can only be used at night.
Isn't this scene set at night?
After figuring this out, Old Mo finally breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Little Liu still has the witch's card. In any case, she can at least protect herself. She has a life-saving antidote."
Xiao Lou nodded: "That's why I sent her to distract Hunter."
Although Liu Qiao was always clever and resourceful, Xiao Lou would never let this 18-year-old girl risk her life. The reason he dared to let Liu Qiao lead Lao Mo away from Hunter's pursuit was that Liu Qiao's witch's antidote had not been used yet—meaning that Liu Qiao had two lives at this moment.
**
High in the air, with the Marble Bricks and planks destroyed by the hurricane, Liu Qiao had no foothold. Her Lightness Skill was no longer as flexible as before, and if this continued, she would eventually fall to her death.
With only one plank left from Lao Mo's gift, Liu Qiao decisively stopped using the Lightness Skill Card, causing herself to fall from the sky!
Without the protection of the Lightness Skill Card, the feeling of weightlessness almost stopped Liu Qiao's heart. Her body plummeted rapidly from thousands of meters in the air. As she got closer and closer to the ground, Liu Qiao held her breath, concentrated, and when she was less than 10 meters from the ground, she immediately threw out the last plank. She gently stepped on the plank with both feet, restarted the Lightness Skill Card, and landed safely on the ground!
She was sweating profusely—if she had been a second or two slower, she would have been killed by the fall.
Four hunters were chasing her on kites when she suddenly fell. They were stunned for a moment, then quickly landed on the ground. The middle-aged man controlling the tornado raised his right hand, and his familiar net instantly bound Liu Qiao like a dumpling, rendering her unable to move her hands or feet.
Liu Qiao struggled for a moment, but found that the more she struggled, the tighter the net became. She simply stopped moving and looked up at the four people.
Among the four men chasing her, two were familiar faces: the middle-aged Scarface who had previously controlled the tornado and the giant net, and a young man in a black cloak.
Scarface sneered, "Last time I wasn't careful enough and you got teleported away. Let's see where you can run this time."
The young man in the cloak said, "This time, you won't get your teammates' support."
Liu Qiao turned her head to look at him. The man's thin body was completely covered by a large cloak, revealing only half of his face. His skin was so pale that it looked like a corpse that had crawled out of a morgue. He held a black crystal ball in his hand. When he met Liu Qiao's gaze, the man smiled slightly and floated the crystal ball into the air.
Suddenly, a cloud of black mist burst forth from the crystal ball, rushing fiercely towards Liu Qiao like a beast unleashed from its cage!
Liu Qiao closed her eyes.
The moment the black mist enveloped her body, Liu Qiao's consciousness rapidly faded, but a second before she lost consciousness, she swallowed the witch's antidote that she had been holding under her tongue.
***
Five minutes later, Lao Mo marked the teleportation point, and Xiao Lou and the other three immediately appeared before them.
Lao Mo was not far from where Liu Qiao was surrounded, and Xiao Lou quickly spotted the four Hunters. As soon as the two sides met, Lao Mo and Qu Wanyue acted almost without hesitation, each targeting a specific enemy.
Old Mo used a black nightmare mark to mark the middle-aged man who was controlling the tornado, preventing him from using any skills tonight.
Qu Wanyue caused a swarm of colorful butterflies to surround the young man holding the kite. The person being held by the butterflies was still unable to use any skills at night.
It was already a 5v4 situation, but with the two opponents' skills rendered useless, Xiao Lou and his team instantly gained the upper hand.
Immediately afterwards, Xiao Lou summoned the Character Card— "Holding hands, gazing at each other with tearful eyes, speechless and choked with emotion."
The character card, with the lyrics "Rainy Night Bell - The Cicadas' Lament," allows two people to shake hands, stand still, and gaze at each other with tears in their eyes, unable to move or attack for 30 seconds.
Lao Mo and Qu Wanyue each disabled one Hunter's skill.
Two other Hunters, designated by Xiao Lou's Character Card, held hands and gazed at each other with tears in their eyes.
The expressions on the four Hunters ' faces were increasingly grim.
The way they looked at Xiao Lou was as if they wanted to devour him alive.
Xiao Lou calmly said, "After you fail your mission, you should have another chance, right? So you're not afraid of death."
Yu Hanjiang narrowed his eyes, his sharp gaze sweeping over the four people in front of him.
Except for one person who covered half of his face with a large cloak, the other three wore familiar silver masks, which the Hunters they had encountered before often wore, seemingly a symbol of the Hunter Organization.
Now, two of the four are looking at each other with tears in their eyes, while the other two are unable to use their skills. If Yu Hanjiang wants to take them down, it will be as easy as shooting at stationary targets, one shot at a time.
However, just as Yu Hanjiang drew his gun, a soft, silvery-white light suddenly appeared in the sky.
The light cleaved through the night sky, gently showering the earth and illuminating an area of several hundred meters around it, as holy as divine light. The instant the light enveloped the four Hunters, they vanished without a trace, as if summoned from another dimension.
Immediately afterwards, the silvery-white light disappeared as well.
Xiao Lou paused, looked around at the darkness that had returned, and frowned, asking, "Were they rescued by their teammates?"
Yu Hanjiang said, "This light is likely a team teleportation skill, and it can purify all negative statuses. Our control skills are ineffective in the face of this divine light."
The two exchanged a glance. Hunter's strength was like a bottomless pit, completely unfathomable. They had thought that Xiao Lou had established a numerical advantage through teleportation, and that they were guaranteed to win. However, at the last moment, these Hunters managed to escape.
Xiao Lou was silent for a moment, then said, "Let's go see Xiao Liu first."
The four people quickly stepped forward and soon found Liu Qiao lying on the ground.
Xiao Lou bent down and checked her breath.
Liu Qiao had stopped breathing and looked like a dead person. Her body was surrounded by a thick black mist, which turned her face blue, and a strange black flame-shaped mark appeared on her forehead.
Xiao Lou's heart tightened, and he hurriedly took out the team's contract book.
Liu Qiao's name is still on the contract book.
Xiao Lou breathed a slight sigh of relief and said, "Xiao Liu must have taken the witch's antidote at the last moment and saved his life."
Qu Wanyue picked up Liu Qiao from the ground and said, "That crystal ball in that man's hand seems very powerful. Is the black mark on Liu Qiao's forehead left after being attacked by the crystal ball?"
Xiao Lou touched the black mark with his fingertip and found that it could not be erased. He frowned and analyzed, "The black crystal ball should be a killing move. Anyone hit by it will die immediately. Fortunately, Xiao Liu reacted quickly enough. The witch's antidote has already taken effect. She will wake up after dawn."
Looking at Liu Qiao with her eyes closed, her teammates felt conflicted and didn't know what to say.
This escape room was fraught with danger, especially the Ghost City maze at night. One wrong step could mean total annihilation. Fortunately, Liu Qiao had the witch's antidote under her tongue beforehand; otherwise, she wouldn't have had time to swallow it when trapped in the inescapable net.
Just as everyone was frowning in thought, Old Mo suddenly pointed to the moon and said, "Look, the maze seems to be rotating again."
Xiao Lou paused for a moment, then looked up at the sky.
Tonight's moon isn't a full moon; the crescent moon should be pointing east, but it's pointing west. This means the maze's rotation pattern is different tonight than last night. Old Mo excitedly said, "The previous maze rotated 30 degrees every 2 hours and returned to its original position after 24 hours. But today, we've only been in the maze for 4 hours, and it has already rotated 180 degrees."
He paused, then added, "In other words, tonight, the flow of time in Ghost City has sped up!"
After careful consideration, Xiao Lou's eyes suddenly lit up: "The flow of time is accelerating, and the rotation pattern is changing. If we ignore this detail, we'll still not find the exit even after waiting in the maze for 24 hours. In fact, the maze will return to its original position in 8 hours tonight?"
Old Mo said, "That's right. In four hours, when the crescent moon faces due east, the maze will return to its original position, and we will be able to get out."
This good news made everyone extremely excited.
Xiao Lou quickly made a decision: "Four hours is enough. Those hunters probably won't give up chasing us. The danger is still not over, but we can go to Peach Blossom Spring to take refuge."
"
Peach Blossom Spring has already been used, but Xiao Lou still has Historical Figure Summon. Historical Figure Summon's ultimate skill can refresh the cooldown of all character cards' skills, so Xiao Lou decisively summons Historical Figure Summon and activates the "Eternal Hero" skill, resetting the skills of all character cards.
Following that, Xiao Lou set up the entrance to Peach Blossom Spring in a hidden corner, and everyone went inside to hide for 3 hours.
Three hours later, after leaving Peach Blossom Spring, Xiao Lou had Qu Wanyue and Long Sen quickly blend into the floor in the chameleon card, while Lao Mo shrank to the size of a thumb and hid in Long Sen's pocket, leading them to the exit of the maze.
Yu Hanjiang and Xiao Lou, along with Liu Qiao, hid in a secluded corner to wait.
After a moment, Xiao Lou heard Lao Mo's voice: " Professor Xiao, the exit has been found, prepare to teleport!"
Five minutes later, Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang received a teleportation invitation and were teleported together to Lao Mo's side.
Not far ahead was the familiar town gate and the stone tablet with the words " Qingfeng Town " written on it. Xiao Lou finally felt relieved and let out a long sigh of relief, saying, "Finally, we can get out."
Yu Hanjiang nodded: "Let's go, let's get out of here as soon as possible."
The group walked forward together, with Old Mo leading the way.
However, after taking only two steps, Old Mo suddenly lost his footing and fell straight into a bottomless pit! Xiao Lou's heart nearly stopped, and he hurriedly shouted, "Old Mo, watch out!"
Yu Hanjiang, quick-witted and agile, immediately took out the white silk card. The white cloth in his hand shot out like a nimble snake, swiftly wrapping around Lao Mo's waist and forcefully pulling Lao Mo back from the trap!
Old Mo, who had been forcibly pulled back, was unsteady on his feet. Yu Hanjiang supported him with one hand and asked, "Are you alright?"
Old Mo's face was as pale as paper, and he said in a trembling voice, " Hunter dug a trap here. I just saw that the pit was full of sharp knives. If Captain Yu hadn't reacted quickly enough, I might have been stabbed into a hedgehog by those knives!"
Yu Hanjiang, with a stern face, spread his arms to protect his teammates and signaled everyone to step back.
Qu Wanyue asked nervously, " Is Hunter lying in wait at the exit of the maze?"
As soon as she finished speaking, a gentle male voice rang in her ears: "That's right. It's too difficult to catch you by teleporting around everywhere. I've already lost five of my companions, and we can't afford to sacrifice any more. The exit of the maze is your only way out. We'll wait for you here. You'll eventually come to us, won't you?"
He waved his hand lightly, and seven Hunters immediately appeared around him.
These seven people were all familiar faces who had been seen before, including the four who chased Liu Qiao and the three who survived in the dark alley.
Xiao Lou had assumed there would be 12 Hunters, the same as the Challengers. Yu Hanjiang had already taken down 5, leaving 7. But now, the unfamiliar face standing in the middle might actually be the strongest of the Hunters—
Xiao Lou didn't expect it; the thirteenth person.
******