One person: Starting with the Snow Drinking Blade

Nie Lingfeng leaned against the cold wooden wall, looking at the sleeping girl beside him with a complex expression. Moonlight filtered through the dilapidated roof, casting dappled shadows on her peaceful sleeping face. She slept soundly, but her brows were still slightly furrowed, as if she were still fighting against something unpleasant in her dreams.

He reached out and gently smoothed her slightly furrowed brow, the soft touch of her skin on his fingertips. His resolve to protect her grew even stronger.

Whether it's the shadow of the "Parliament," the evil of "Nammu Cave," or the schemes of local bullies like Yan Ben... he must break through them all and protect the hard-won peace and warmth around him.

He closed his eyes, seemingly to rest, but his senses remained alert, covering a radius of several dozen meters around the cabin, watching for any disturbance.

The night is still long.

I don't know how much time passed, maybe an hour, maybe two hours.

Nie Lingfeng, who was originally immersed in a shallow meditation, suddenly twitched his ears slightly.

He heard... a sound.

It wasn't the chirping of insects, the sound of the wind, or the hustle and bustle of a distant town.

Rather, it was... an extremely faint, ethereal song, seemingly coming from the depths of the earth, yet also echoing directly at the level of the soul?

The singing was neither male nor female; its melody was ancient, eerie, carrying an indescribable sorrow, allure, and… blasphemy. It was intermittent, sometimes present, sometimes absent, as if telling a forgotten, ancient story filled with pain and longing. Interspersed within the singing seemed to be faint, suppressed weeping and groans, like countless people overlapping.

"Hmm..." Chen Duo beside her stirred restlessly in her sleep, her brows furrowing again, a look of pain on her small face, as if she too was disturbed by the eerie singing.

Nie Lingfeng suddenly opened his eyes, a flash of dark golden light disappearing from them! He instantly raised his senses to the limit, trying to capture the source and nature of the song.

Is it something singing in the "Nammu Cave"? Or is it the sound made unconsciously by the townspeople who have been "contaminated" and are suffering from "hysteria"? Or perhaps... some kind of more bizarre mental attack or summoning?

The singing grew clearer and clearer, and the unsettling, soul-crushing feeling intensified! The evil "field" that had been present in the air beforehand, originating from underground, seemed to be stirred by the singing, suddenly becoming denser and more active!

Nie Lingfeng could even feel that the ground beneath his feet seemed to be vibrating very faintly, like a heartbeat, under the resonance of the song and the "field"!

Oh no! There's something wrong with this singing! And it seems to have an even greater effect on someone like Chen Duo, who has keen senses and a special bloodline!

He immediately reached out and gently covered Chen Duo's ears, while simultaneously channeling a purer internal force, imbued with the majesty of a Qilin and the power to calm the mind, into her body.

"Duoduo, wake up! Don't listen to that voice!" he whispered in her ear.

Chen Duo suddenly opened her eyes, her emerald green pupils still lingering with the terror and confusion of the nightmare. She heard Nie Lingfeng's voice and felt the warm power flowing into her body, but the eerie singing voice lingered in her mind like a leech, making her feel dizzy and nauseous.

"Nie Lingfeng... there's... someone singing... it's so uncomfortable..." She covered her head, her face pale.

Nie Lingfeng's eyes narrowed, and he made a decisive decision! He could no longer allow Chen Duo to be exposed to this strange singing and mental influence!

"Let's go! Let's get out of here!"

He scooped Chen Duo up in his arms (along with her panda doll) and dashed out of the dilapidated wooden house at top speed. Without looking back, he sped away into the deeper, darker rainforest, far from the town and far from the direction from which the song came!

We must get out of the area affected by this singing as soon as possible! As for the source and secret of this singing... we can only discuss it further after dawn!

The night was as dark as ink, quickly swallowing up the two figures.

Only that eerie, ancient song, seemingly from the depths of the earth, still echoes faintly and continuously above Mengla Town, among the mountains, and on the edge of the dreams and reality of countless people (or non-humans)...

Deep within the rainforest west of Mengla Town lies a forbidden zone, one that even the town's most experienced hunters and herb gatherers rarely venture into. Towering Hopea trees, like silent giants, their canopies intertwining dozens of meters into a dense, dark green dome, almost completely blocking out the already faint starlight. The air is humid, stifling, and sticky, as if you could wring water from it, a mixture of the pungent smell of humus, the overly sweet fragrance of unknown wildflowers, and a more primal, slightly fishy odor—a blend of soil, fungi, and countless microscopic metabolic wastes. Beneath your feet lies a foot-thick layer of fallen leaves, accumulated over countless years, soft and slippery underfoot, as if you might sink into a bottomless swamp at any moment. Ubiquitous vines, aerial roots, and epiphytes twist and weave together various grotesque and bizarre shapes in the darkness, like countless frozen tentacles lurking in the shadows.

Holding Chen Duo, Nie Lingfeng pushed his "Wind God Movement" lightness skill to its limit. His figure blurred into a blurry blue afterimage in the almost completely dark, tangled rainforest, moving at astonishing speed. He dared not walk in a straight line, constantly changing direction, using the thick tree trunks and dense bushes to conceal his movements. At the same time, he extended his senses like the most sensitive radar, vigilantly watching for any possible pursuit from behind or around him, and carefully discerning the firmness of the soil beneath his feet to avoid falling into deadly swamps or hidden pits.

Chen Duo was held tightly in his arms, her face buried in his chest, her arms wrapped tightly around his neck, the panda plush toy squeezed between them. She could feel the steady, powerful heartbeat from Nie Lingfeng's chest, and the gentle yet resilient protective aura around him, shielding her from most of the damp, cold air and the occasional spiky blades that swept past. The eerie, nauseating singing gradually faded and disappeared as the distance increased and Nie Lingfeng's internal energy provided some protection, leaving only the whistling wind and Nie Lingfeng's steady breathing.

After running through the dark rainforest for an unknown amount of time, Nie Lingfeng finally slowed down when the first extremely weak, grayish-white ray of sunlight on the horizon struggled to penetrate the gaps between the overlapping tree canopies, sprinkling sparsely on the wet leaves and the ground like stingy gold dust.

Ahead, a small, natural gap appeared in the dense rainforest. It seemed a giant tree had once fallen there, carving out a relatively open clearing about ten meters in diameter through the lush vegetation. In the center of the clearing lay the decaying remains of the enormous tree trunk, overgrown with fungi and moss, like the skeleton of a stranded prehistoric beast. At the edge of the clearing, a crystal-clear stream meandered, its babbling sound particularly soothing in the tranquil morning air.

This place is quite far from Mengla Town and is in a secluded location, so it should be safe for now.

Nie Lingfeng stopped and gently put Chen Duo down. Chen Duo swayed slightly as soon as her feet touched the ground, but Nie Lingfeng caught her in time. Her face was still a little pale, but her eyes had regained their clarity. Her emerald green eyes looked around at the unfamiliar rainforest environment, then looked up at Nie Lingfeng and asked softly, "Did we... escape? The singer... is gone."

"Yes, we're safe for now." Nie Lingfeng nodded, pulling her to the huge, decaying tree trunk and finding a relatively dry, flat spot to sit down. "Let's rest for a bit. It'll be dawn soon."

Chen Duo obediently sat down, hugging her doll, and curiously looked around at the completely unfamiliar environment. Tall trees, hanging vines, clear streams, and the air filled with an unfamiliar, rich, and almost overwhelming scent of vegetation, belonging to a primeval forest. She saw a bird with long, brightly colored tail feathers flit past the branches of a large tree nearby, and couldn't help but let out a soft "Ah!" Her eyes lit up for a moment, but then she seemed to remember something, and a worried look appeared on her face as she looked at Nie Lingfeng, who was cautiously observing his surroundings while taking out a water bottle and food from his backpack.

"Nie Lingfeng, are we... not going back? That fat boss..." She was referring to Yan Ben.

Nie Lingfeng unscrewed the water bottle and handed it to her, taking a sip himself. Then he took out some compressed biscuits, broke one in half, and gave it to her. "Let's not go back for now. Yan Ben definitely knows what happened last night. If we go back, we'll either be controlled by him or he'll silence us. Besides..." His eyes narrowed slightly, "that singing thing, and those monsters, are very likely connected to him. Staying in town puts us in a very passive position."

Chen Duo took a small bite of the compressed biscuit, thought for a moment, and nodded: "Hmm, that fat boss also has a strange smell. It's kind of like the singing stuff." Her intuition is always very accurate.

"We're probably still in the rainforest west of Mengla Town, but we're quite far from the town now," Nie Lingfeng said, eating as he quickly thought. "Azanji mentioned a very dangerous abandoned mine road leading deep into 'Nammu Cave,' in the mountains west of the town. The place where we encountered the monster and heard the singing last night was also to the west. I suspect that road, or even one of the entrances to 'Nammu Cave,' might be nearby."

He stood up and walked to the edge of the clearing, carefully sensing the surrounding earth's energy and flow. Sure enough, the closer he got to the depths of the rainforest and towards the distant mountains to the west, the more pronounced the faint, unsettling, evil "field" in the air became. Although much weaker than it had been the night before at the cabin and the edge of town, it was like an omnipresent background radiation, silently permeating every corner of this land. And the clear stream seemed to originate from the depths of the western mountains.