Chapter 60: The “It” Behind Her is Slowly Approaching.

Chapter 60: The "It" Behind Her Is Slowly Approaching.

In the evening, third-year student Xiao Luo was walking home.

The lingering glow of the setting sun enveloped the earth, casting a dim yellow light from behind her, stretching her shadow long and thin.

Gripping the straps of her backpack tightly, Xiao Luo’s palms were drenched in sticky sweat, the red straps twisted and damp, but she had no time to care about such things at the moment.

Xiao Luo’s gaze fell to the ground, fixated on the shadow beside her toes, her lower lip trembling as she bit down hard, her heart pounding like a drum, her breathing growing increasingly rapid.

At her feet, a vague black shadow overlapped with hers.

No matter whether Xiao Luo walked fast or slow, the shadow never strayed far, the two shadows clinging together intimately, just like the dark cloud of fear that lingered in her mind, refusing to dissipate.

—There was a stranger, closely following her!

At first, Xiao Luo tried to reassure herself, perhaps it was just someone coincidentally heading the same way;

But after walking for so long, one after the other, the figure behind her remained silently in pursuit—this instantly sparked countless terrifying thoughts, swirling uncontrollably in Xiao Luo’s mind.

Moreover, whether it was her imagination or not, she felt that as the unease in her heart grew heavier and spread, the footsteps behind her seemed to become clearer and clearer…

Even the outline of the unfamiliar black shadow at her feet, which had been indistinct, was becoming more defined.

It was as if… the "it" behind her was slowly getting closer.

"Sss… sss…"

She could almost hear the sound of the person behind her, their feet scraping against the ground, and the rustling of their clothes brushing against each other.

Xiao Luo had felt this impulse countless times: just one glance, should she turn back and take a look?

To see who was following her from behind?

Or perhaps, to confirm if it was even a person at all?

Cold gusts of wind blew against the back of Xiao Luo’s neck, as if the person behind her was breathing on her.

It also felt like a cold hand, its fingertips gently tapping against her skin, once, twice, again and again...

The chill quickly spread throughout her body, making her limbs feel cold. She could only stiffen her neck, dragging her increasingly heavy limbs forward in a mechanical manner.

After all, she was still a primary school student around ten years old. Xiao Luo instantly lost her composure, her thoughts tangling into a chaotic mess.

Biting her lower lip until it turned white, she thought with unease: what should she do?

Should she really turn back?

—What if, after seeing her face, the bad person decided to harm her? And in horror stories, there were often similar instances of deadly glances backward.

Or should she suddenly run forward?

That would inevitably reveal that she had already noticed the stalker... Could she outrun a bad person who looked like an adult man, possibly twice her height?

As she hesitated, Xiao Luo suddenly noticed that the shadow behind her moved, bending sideways in an unnatural way, like a spoon bent at the waist.

Xiao Luo froze in shock for a moment before realizing: the tall figure must have bent down, the dense black shadow almost enveloping her from behind.

And its head hung above her, looking down at her from a height...

A nervous, cackling laugh escaped "it," and a low, raspy voice whispered in Xiao Luo's ear, brimming with intense excitement: 'Have you... found me?'

'You seem scared... You’ve already found me, haven’t you?'

'You keep looking down at your feet. Did you see my shadow?'

Xiao Luo’s pupils constricted. Her rational mind told her not to look down again! The other party was about to notice her abnormal behavior!

But her body seemed to have a momentum of its own, and she couldn't help but lower her head slightly once more. Her eyeballs trembled in their sockets as she saw the shadow that didn’t belong to her becoming increasingly solid.

It was as if a deep, dark ink stain was seeping out from under her feet, marking the approaching danger.

'Hehehe, you’ve found me— you must have found me!'

'Now that you’ve found me, it’s my turn to catch you...'

Xiao Luo couldn’t stop shivering. She could only move forward like a puppet, stiffly taking each step.

Faster, walk faster...

She could already see the residential building where she lived!

Yet, the mere dozens of steps ahead seemed endless, trapping her like an ant inside a glass dome, frantically circling around, unable to reach the outside.

Cold sweat had soaked through her school uniform, sticking uncomfortably to her back.

Her steps grew heavier.

Her limbs became increasingly stiff and cold.

The shadow behind her was drawing ever closer...

Finally, Xiao Luo felt a gust of wind at her back; the withered fingers of "it" were about to grab her collar—

Xiao Luo closed her eyes in near despair, and for a moment, all she could hear was the pounding of her heart, throbbing painfully in her ears.

After half a minute with her eyes shut, nothing happened.

"...Huh?"

Uttering a puzzled syllable, Xiao Luo took a few deep breaths, mustered her courage, and opened her eyes, immediately looking down at the shadow by her feet.

The strange and eerie figure had vanished; her own shadow lay quietly on the ground, normal and reassuring.

So, what just happened?

Xiao Luo blinked in confusion, suddenly feeling something foreign in her eye, like a thin, cool object pressed against her eyeball.

She reached out and gently plucked it out, the foreign object landing in her palm.

"Is this... a scale?"

Xiao Luo examined the object closely; it was a beautiful, cold silver-white, glossy as if sprinkled with fine pearl powder, as thin as cicada wings but abnormally hard, with edges sharp as blades.

So sharp, yet it hadn't cut her eye—truly a miraculous stroke of luck.

"I've seen the fish Mom bought for cooking; their scales aren't like this, and they always smell fishy..."

A cartoon snake from her textbook flashed before her eyes, and Xiao Luo speculated, "Could this be a snake's scale?"

"But how could there be a snake around here..." She glanced around, muttering in confusion.

Xiao Luo vaguely remembered that this snake scale had appeared in her eye without warning, right after the shadowy figure suddenly vanished.

Could it be that this snake scale had protected her, she wondered?

Xiao Luo often heard her mother say that the Gods would shelter obedient, good children—could this be the protection of a Snake God?

Thinking this, she instinctively clenched the snake scale tightly in her palm and whispered gratefully, "Snake God, Snake God, thank you for your protection!"

The moment she gripped the scale, it was as if some immense presence briefly connected with her.

"Pray to me... zzz... summon me."

A strange, layered voice echoed in Xiao Luo’s mind, yet she didn’t feel afraid—instead, there was a strange déjà vu.

The voice was broken up, accompanied by staticky interference, but Xiao Luo focused intently and managed to decipher its meaning.

"How should I pray to you?"

"In the past you’ve forgotten... recover your name zzz..."

"Offer me... zzz, a freshly dead body."

Then, the voice vanished completely. No matter how tightly Luo Shengle clutched the scale and called out, there was no further response.

Leaving only the third-grader, Xiao Luo, standing dazed in place.

This mysterious being of unknown origin seemed to have made a demand that sounded utterly horrifying...

Also, it told her to recover her name?

How strange—wasn’t her name just Xiao Luo? She had never lost it, so why "recover"?

Frowning in thought, Xiao Luo still couldn’t make sense of it. Clutching the scale, she headed toward the residential building.

...

In another world, inside an apartment.

Yi Fengchu said flatly to his phone, "The moment I demanded an elementary schooler offer me a corpse as sacrifice, who could possibly be more sinister and insane than me?"

"Can’t your signal improve even a little? If only I could speak a few more words, make things clearer..."

"What else can I do?" The phone snapped back irritably. "That’s a realm carefully constructed and controlled by the Father of Curses. At best, I can only find tiny gaps to squeeze through the tiniest cracks."

"Right now, I can barely manage a few seconds of contact—nothing more!"

So, to infiltrate more power, Luo Shengle, trapped inside that realm, would have to actively perform a ritual to strengthen their connection and open a door for Yi Fengchu.

If not for the fact that a thin snake had once slithered into Luo Shengle’s eyes and left behind a single scale, even those brief moments of contact would have been impossible.

Yi Fengchu baited the phone for more information. "You’re not scared of alerting the Father of Curses, are you?"

"Hah? Scared?"

As expected, the phone took offense, its voice rising sharply. "How could I possibly fear a pathetic rodent like Him?"

"I’m not avoiding alerting Him because I’m afraid—it’s because I don’t want to scare Him off. Have you ever seen a predator send a warning before hunting its prey?"

Yi Fengchu looked thoughtful. Lounging on the sofa, he rested his chin on his hand. "I see. So, in your eyes, He’s still alive and well now, but already a gutted carcass..."

"Are we and the Father of Curses enemies? Do you plan to devour the 'curse,' or cut a deal with that alleged Goddess of Misfortune, the original master of the Curse Domain?"

Realizing it had been tricked, the phone went quiet for a moment before sighing. "If you could remember even a fragment of your past, you’d understand—we are destined to be irreconcilable with the Father of Curses."

"Oh? Unfortunately, I still can’t remember." Yi Fengchu smiled.

He had a feeling that once he truly remembered his own nature, his current quiet life would end.

"Care to elaborate a bit more?"

The phone spoke slowly. "After feeding on the incomplete Curse Domain, the Father of Curses faces threats from all sides. That’s why He’s desperate to become a complete, true God."

"Starting from the Curse Domain, He hopes to claim another scepter that complements curses well."

[But the closest one, "misfortune," is already wary of Him and filled with hatred, making it impossible to usurp. So, the domain He ultimately fixed His sights on—]

"—is fate."

Yi Fengchu was silent for a few seconds before replying, "That thing?"

"Exactly. That pretender."

The phone seemed to share his disdain, mocking, ["Fate" has been inactive for too long. Even a rat hiding in the shadows dares to dream of snatching Its crown and scepter.]

"It makes no difference," Yi Fengchu said calmly. "I’ll show Him exactly who the real hunter is."