Epoch of Twilight

“It was me! I’m the murderer! I killed him!” Jin Meili gushed frantically in a state of panic. She would have collapsed to the ground, if not for Huang Jiahui’s firm grip onto her. Luo Yuan turned around and said to Jin Meili, “My deepest condolences.”

Jin Meili shook her head slowly with regret. In despair, Luo Yuan came to realize how fragile a life could be, that even a tiny creature could rob the life of a human being.

Luo Yuan and the rest decided to check on all the foods and drinks in the underground chamber for fear of any imminent danger. They were shocked as some of their provisions were torn, with worms squirming amongst their instant noodles and rice. Luo Yuan even found a few colorful worms, which were about half a meter long.

All those resources were collected from the wasteland, which they have brought to the chamber without so much as a thorough check. He was grateful it wasn’t too late. Most importantly, only one person drank the water and none of them had consumed the contaminated food. Otherwise, he would not have survived this at all, even with his 13-point physical condition. Luo Yuan and his people discarded all the infected food from the chamber and burned it in front of the villa.

Only a third of the food in the chamber was burned, as Luo Yuan did not want to take the risk. Of course, he could very well identify how safe the food was with the power he had, but it drained a significant amount of energy, and a very bad headache could very well follow, should he exert his mind too often.

Jin Meili locked herself in the room the whole day, refusing to even come out even when it was already time for dinner. Huang Jiahui knocked on her door but there was no response. Suddenly, Luo Yuan caught a whiff of the smell of blood in the house and instantly knew something was amiss. He quickly turned the doorknob but realized it was locked from the inside.

“Is she...?” Huang Jiahui said worryingly. She kept knocking the door, “Jin Meili, open the door! Open the door, please!”

“Stop knocking. Give me some space.” He knew the stench of the blood came from the room.

Everyone else at the dinner table also had an uncanny feeling about the situation at present. Luo Yuan kicked the door open, to be greeted by the pungent stench of blood. Huang Jiahui quickly ran into the room. She did not see anyone inside and immediately ran into the bathroom to have a look. She saw Jin Meili motionless in the bathtub with a pale face; her shirt soaked with blood.

Huang Jiahui touched her forehead and realized her body was cold and stiff. She shook her head and said, “She passed away two hours ago. Sigh...”

That was the second time Luo Yuan witnessed a suicide. The first one was the middle-aged man who had lost their son to the deadly tramples of a giant beast. He had seen many people losing their lives in different ways, but a suicide was the worst one of all. Everyone looked around for her will; it was wet and crumpled. In the will, Jin Meili apologized sincerely for her rudeness and requested them to sprinkle her ashes with Zhao Gang’s.

Everyone was consumed with sorrow; Ning Xiaoran and Wang Shishi had also burst into tears. A few of the ladies wept in unison, as they did not expect such a tragedy to happen. None of them had any appetite left for dinner. A few of them moved her corpse to the empty space and lit up the fire again. None of them could have imagined that they would lose two members in just a short span of a day.

During bedtime, Wang Shishi asked to return to her room. Huang Jiahui was surprised, while Luo Yuan understood. Luo Yuan felt relieved and Huang Jiahui was elated.

“What do you think of her decision? Did you tell her anything?” Huang Jiahui recalled Wang Shishi’s odd actions and asked, in doubt.

“I didn’t say much; she is a smart girl. I simply explained it to her and she understood well.” Luo Yuan replied.

Huang Jiahui hit him; her face flushed with anger, “How could you say such things to her? She’s still young!”

“Young? Kids nowadays are much smarter than we are,” Luo Yuan said.

“Regardless, you shouldn’t have even said that! How am I going to face her now?” said Huang Jiahui furiously, while throwing a punch at him.

“Just forget it. It will pass” Luo Yuan replied.

“Fine, I’m not going to talk about it anymore.” She was still fuming with anger. At that very moment, she suddenly thought of Zhao Gang and Jin Meili, and sighed, “Life is too fragile, you would never know what lies ahead of us. I really didn’t expect her to take her own life”.

“It might be a relief for all the pain she was going through. Let’s sleep, shall we?” Luo Yuan said.

Luo Yuan opened his eyes in the dark and listened to the roars outside. Thoughts ran through his mind, “I must stay alive!”.

The chameleon’s recovery progressed impressively after consuming the meat of the dark blue level mutated beast. Half of his injuries recovered overnight. Luo Yuan had stopped abusing the chameleon, and trained it every day instead. The second day, the injured leg of the chameleon had fully recovered and it became more energetic as the days went by. They had won a few battles, but those were the ones that mattered the most. The chameleon had been upgraded by two more levels but Luo Yuan was only at the brink of being upgraded. He added the extra two points to its dexterity to become 14 points.

Although only two points were added, it gave the chameleon double the power. Luo Yuan assigned the 10 technique points to its tail and bite, to a now 19-point biting and a tail attack that was upgraded from 15 points to ‘Tail Attack Expertise: 0!’.

His assignment strategy had turned the chameleon a very powerful, deadly creature. Its tail could slice a human or animal into two! They had encountered a dark blue level mutated beast before and it was slashed into two pieces even before it managed to struggle away. If Luo Yuan ran into a chameleon like this a while ago, he knew in a second that he would have not come out alive. Luo Yuan had been on a killing streak of all the giant and powerful beasts nearby, and there were only a few super powerful beasts left, that he was hesitant to strike.

The battles over the last few days had brought them to the point of exhaustion. The chameleon sustained some injuries and needed more time to recover in order to take on another good fight. He realized both of them were depressed and frustrated for a few days now. They could hear the vicious growls from the dark blue level mutated beasts in the near distance and at that very moment, he could foresee a stronger beast from the city, coming their way. It was too late!