"God, I've finally found you!"
The dark figure approached rapidly, shouting towards us. I shone my flashlight, and it turned out to be Hathaway!
I was instantly startled and became alert. Professor Guggev was walking back, so how could he have reached here faster than us?
"You stay right there and don't move. I'll ask you, where is Professor Guggev?"
I cautiously held my revolver at my waist, ready to shoot if Hathaway did anything suspicious.
After all, we were in the Night of the Returning Souls, and Hathaway's sudden appearance made my skin crawl.
Hathaway looked utterly pathetic now, her clothes torn and tattered, nothing like the pristine attire she wore when we first met.
Her face bore several bloody gashes, and her once beautiful silver hair was now matted with blood.
Hearing my question, Hathaway lowered her head, her expression filled with sadness. After a moment of silence, she slowly said, "Professor Guggev, he's dead."
Professor Guggev was dead. I was momentarily stunned.
Although Professor Guggev was a perverted old man with a suspected necrophilia, he was the one who spoke to me the most besides Qu Xiangyun since I was coerced into this team. A wave of sadness washed over me.
Xivier, who had been behind me, was also momentarily lost in thought upon hearing this, but quickly regained her composure and calmly asked Hathaway about their encounters after getting separated from us.
It turned out that after Hathaway and Professor Guggev parted ways with us, they ran back the way they came, intending to return to the previous square. However, due to the spiders' incredible speed, they had no choice but to venture down a path we hadn't explored before.
The path was extremely narrow, barely wide enough for one person.
Before long, Hathaway and Professor Guggev managed to escape the spiders. But the path back was blocked by the spiders' venom, so they had no choice but to press onward.
"Later, as we walked, we actually entered a grand, magnificent hall. In the center of the hall was a coffin made of glazed tile.
That coffin was filled with gold and jewels, and in the very middle lay a beauty of unparalleled loveliness!
The beauty wore a crown, indicating her noble status in life. I wanted to drag Professor Guggev away from there, but he wouldn't listen. He insisted on opening the glazed coffin to examine the female corpse.
The result..."
Hathaway's eyes were already reddening as she spoke. Looking at her now, Professor Guggev's fate was self-evident.
It was surely fate that this old man with his perverted inclinations met his end because of this.
I calmed myself and suddenly became curious about the female corpse in the glazed coffin that Hathaway mentioned.
The girls we had seen frozen in the square before didn't receive such treatment. This suggested that the female corpse in the glazed coffin must have been of extremely high status.
"Professor Guggev is dead, so do you have the data he was carrying?"
Xivier's face was calm, as if Professor Guggev's demise was of no consequence to her.
Upon hearing this, Hathaway quickly handed her backpack to Xivier. Xivier opened it and rummaged through it before showing a look of relief.
"Alright, this trip was always a matter of life and death. Professor Guggev's sacrifice is regrettable, but we must press on."
This crazy woman Xivier, beneath her beautiful exterior, truly possessed a cold heart. Professor Guggev's death seemed like a minor inconvenience to her.
If we encountered danger later, she would likely abandon us without hesitation to achieve her ultimate goal.
While my mind raced with thoughts, I still had to outwardly comply with Xivier's commands. So, I could only help Hathaway and start moving.
This woman Hathaway was cunning. Although she was covered in blood, most of it wasn't hers.
After I kindly came over to help her, she practically clung to me, relying on me entirely to move forward.
It saved her effort, but it made me extremely uncomfortable.
We had now passed through the waterfall and arrived in a courtyard.
Perhaps we had left the range of the Night of the Returning Souls, as we hadn't encountered any dark figures since.
"Let's rest here for a moment. A lot has happened today. Let's adjust our state; we're almost there."
Xivier, this woman, wasn't entirely unfeeling. Seeing our dejected spirits, she suggested we rest nearby.
Our current situation was indeed dire. After facing several dangers in succession, even someone with my unusual physique couldn't help but feel tired, let alone the others.
The place we were currently in was a wide-open courtyard with nothing around. If any danger approached, we could spot it in advance, making it a suitable resting place.
We quickly ate some instant food, pitched a few tents, and began to rest.