Hunter of Mysterious Creature-Chapter 635 - 167: The Sinister Shadow Returns (Part 2)

"It shouldn't be the temporal anomaly... at least, not the one from before."

Only Sun Hang knew that it wasn't he who truly eradicated the temporal anomaly, but the Three Apes... With all three apes taking action, the anomaly was definitely "dead" beyond revival... there was absolutely no possibility of resurrection...

No.

What if the concept of "living and dying" never applied to the "temporal anomaly"?

It was initially classified as a phenomenon-type anomaly... and certain phenomena have states of appearing, persisting, or disappearing, and cannot be defined by existence or eradication.

It's like a gust of wind; you can't kill the wind... it will stop and blow again... as long as air can still move, the wind will never vanish from this world.

The same goes for phenomenon-type anomalies.

"Abort the reconnaissance mission! Get out of there quickly!" Yang Qi urged urgently.

"What is the temporal anomaly? Is it powerful?" Shinkata Misaki asked curiously, "What happens if it touches us?"

"Don't ask questions now, just think of a way to get out! If you make it back alive, I'll show you everything we have on it in the archives!" Yang Qi said rapidly, "Whatever you want to know, I'll tell you... but not now!"

"I think I know why we're being watched." Sun Hang raised his head and pointed his phone's camera skyward.

High above the mountain peak, a giant eyeball was suspended, its massive pupil fixed on the three of them atop the mountain.

"It's the Demon Eye..." Yang Qi said through gritted teeth.

"To be precise, it's a projection of the Demon Eye," Sun Hang corrected, "This thing has no mass, no anomaly aura; apart from being visually observable, it basically has zero presence in every other aspect. For a blind person, this thing might as well not exist..."

"When were we spotted?" Shinkata Misaki asked.

"I don't know. Normally, I have a sense when I'm being watched, even when those wraiths watch me through a screen, I can feel their gaze. But the Demon Eye's projection is different... even if I look directly at it now, its eyes seem hollow, without focus..."

"So you can't sense its presence?"

"Yeah." Sun Hang nodded, "I only noticed the thing above us when I happened to look up. I've said before, in terms of information gathering, this thing is like a cheat code."

Initially, Sun Hang looked up to find the "main body" of the anomaly in the sky, but he didn't find it. Instead, he saw the Demon Eye's projection watching them.

"The shadow has already reached two-thirds of the way down the mountain... how do we get down?" Shinkata Misaki leaned out to take a look, "Uh... it seems like the spreading speed has increased!"

"I've already had the nearest military camp send a helicopter... but at this rate, it'll be too late!" Yang Qi said, "Sun Hang, you should have a plan, right?"

"A plan? Yes." Sun Hang nodded, heading to the steepest side of the cliff, "Jump down the mountain."

"But that's suicidal, right?" Shinkata Misaki glanced at him, "Are you joking?"

Though the hill wasn't tall, there was still a drop of four to five hundred meters; jumping from this height, even with a cushion below, survival seemed unlikely.

"We won't die." As he spoke, threads of mycelium enveloped Shinkata Misaki and Zhong Ling, wrapping them like dumplings.

Sun Hang glanced at the Number One Abomination standing at the cliff's edge and asked, "You can get down yourself, right?"

The Number One Abomination didn't speak; instead, it demonstrated by action—leaping off, its light form rolled twice in the air, then suddenly spread its arms, revealing membranous wings between its limbs, delicate as a cicada's wings.

Though thin, these wings were strong, catching the air and dramatically reducing the abomination's descent speed, swiftly transitioning from free-fall to a diving glide.

"Let's go too."

Sun Hang jumped out too, with mycelium erupting from his back, forming a large parachute overhead—the truth is, even without a buffer, with his physical strength, he could land directly without issue, but the two girls bound at his side couldn't.

The distance between the three and the ground closed swiftly, and Sun Hang noticed the area around the hill was already consumed by the anomaly. The car they arrived in was nowhere in sight—evidently, the car had been "transported" by the anomaly to another dimension.

Suddenly, a thought flashed in Sun Hang's mind: if he deliberately fell into the temporal anomaly now, would the Three Apes suddenly appear and destroy this anomaly, too?

He glanced at the expressions of the two women beside him. Zhong Ling remained expressionless, while Shinkata Misaki's face was a mix of excitement and fear, her mouth silently agape... Sun Hang reconsidered and dismissed the thought.

One must have morals... even in seeking thrills, it's best not to drag others along.

Sun Hang was always a "moral" person.

Adaptive morality is still morality.

Using electromagnetic acceleration to distance themselves slightly from the mountain, the trio landed less than a hundred meters from a hidden area, where field agents had rushed out from the hidden camp. Several camouflaged vehicles were started, doors opened waiting for them.

"Get in the car!" the fan-agent who swapped handguns with Sun Hang shouted urgently, "The instrument shows the anomaly is expanding; it'll reach this place in just a few minutes!"

Sun Hang threw the unwrapped Shinkata Misaki and Zhong Ling into the backseat, then climbed into the front passenger seat. Before he was fully seated, the car sank slightly—Number One Abomination landed accurately on the roof, hooking its claw-like fingers into the luggage racks on either side of the roof.

"Is there enough transportation for everyone to evacuate?" Sun Hang asked.

"Evacuating personnel won't be an issue!" the driving field agent said, "But the equipment... we probably can't take it all..."

"At least the data storage has been loaded onto the cars!" The fan-agent climbed into the backseat, pulling the door shut, "Drive! Damn it, the shadow is getting faster! It's less than a hundred meters from us now!!"

He held an instrument resembling an old-fashioned radio, topped with several metallic antennas. As the red and green LED indicators on the side flickered rapidly, the instrument emitted a rapid beeping sound, the frequency constantly increasing.

The vehicles started, forming a long serpentine queue driving out of the valley, and not long after, the sunroof of the last vehicle opened. A field agent with a rocket launcher emerged, cursing as they fired a rocket at the camp, already half "melded" into the shadow.

The expected explosion didn't occur; the rocket vanished into the shadow, as if it had vanished into thin air without a sound.

Just like the dozen missiles launched at the temporal anomaly's main body that night.

"What's your status?" Yang Qi asked over the comms channel.

"Good news, we escaped, the shadow shouldn't catch up for now," Sun Hang said, "Bad news is, Shinkata Misaki's presence... it's been exposed."

"Exposed? How?" Shinkata Misaki was puzzled, "That Demon Eye doesn't have ears, even if it did, it's so far away, how could it hear our conversation?"

"No need to hear." Sun Hang pointed to his lips, "Reading lips is enough."