Chapter 41: Silent World

Su Weiyu climbed onto Xia Shou's back, biting her lip as her face flushed from her neck all the way to the tips of her ears.

She held her breath, adjusted the position of her legs, and interlocked her feet tightly at a certain point in front to secure her body.

Xia Shou only felt as though both sides of his waist were being firmly constricted by a strong, coiled python, creating a very subtle and indescribably peculiar sensation in his heart.

"This should be fairly stable, right? It won't affect your movement, will it?" Su Weiyu asked.

Her warm, damp breath brushed against the outer curve of Xia Shou's ear, making the atmosphere even more bizarre.

He almost forgot that the creature clinging to his back was a genuine, beautiful young woman!

"Hoo..." Xia Shou took a slow, deep breath, forcing his focus entirely onto the tactical arrangement.

This was no time for wild imagination; all his mental capacity had to be dedicated to executing the tactics!

Xia Shou reached back, cupped her exceptionally elastic thighs, and pinched her right thigh. "If I sense the enemy attacking from the right, I'll pinch this leg. If it's the other side, I'll pinch the other leg."

"Got it, understood!"

"Let's test it first. Can you feel this?"

"I can... but you might need to run later. While running, you might exert force subconsciously, which could lead to signaling errors. So, let's switch to pinching instead. Harder is fine, don't worry about hurting me," Su Weiyu rigorously revised the tactic.

"Like this?" Xia Shou gave a firm pinch, and the "python" tightened its grip even further.

"Good. That makes the sensation much clearer." Su Weiyu expressed satisfaction and approval.

After a few more detailed adjustments to ensure their movement and counterattack would flow smoothly without a hitch, Xia Shou finally pushed open the door to the second floor.

Beyond the door lay absolute darkness.

The daylight from behind failed to illuminate even an inch inside the threshold, as if it were abruptly severed the moment they crossed it.

Xia Shou took a deep breath and stepped into the dark room. Of course, he could not see anything to begin with, and vision would be entirely useless in this fight anyway. Yet, the instant he stepped inside, he felt as though his already darkened field of vision grew a shade darker still.

"Click!"

The door behind them closed by itself. Xia Shou did not press forward; instead, he took a step back, pressing his spine firmly against the wall beside the door to guard against any attacks from behind. Dealing with an injury on Su Weiyu would be far more troublesome than on himself.

Deathly silence surrounded them. Xia Shou could only hear the sound of his own cautiously shifting footsteps and his heavy panting.

He intentionally made his breathing sound this heavy—both to mask Su Weiyu's breathing on his back and to allow the Ear Doctor to easily lock onto his position and deliver the most precise attack.

However, as the seconds ticked away, the attack failed to materialize. The arms with which Xia Shou cupped her thighs were beginning to ache slightly, but he dared not make any large movements to adjust his posture, because the sound of clothing friction might alert the opponent that he was carrying someone.

Xia Shou moved slowly along the wall, not daring to lift his feet at all, instead sliding the soles of his shoes inch by inch across the floor to test whether the ground ahead was even and free of dangerous traps.

Once vision is lost, the other senses become infinitely magnified. After the initial disorientation, around the five or ten-minute mark, his hearing and sense of touch grew vastly sharper.

Through the soles of his shoes, he could feel the tiny gaps between the floor tiles. Su Weiyu's breathing, which had previously been almost imperceptible, became excessively clear right beside his ear; even her heartbeat was transmitted through their pressed clothing onto his back, audible through the vibrations—it felt almost like auditory hallucinations.

Where was the attack? Why hadn't the enemy struck yet?

An absolute, silent darkness is a profound form of torture. The passage of time felt simultaneously rapid and sluggish; more accurately, his brain could no longer clearly judge how much time had actually passed. His taut nerves began to intermittently relax, and his mind even started to wander.

He could not sustain his concentration solely on his five senses and found himself inevitably imagining the enemy's current state.

Perhaps, while they were trembling and moving with extreme caution, the Ear Doctor was sitting not far away, drinking cola and eating a hamburger, resting at ease while waiting for their sanity to gradually crumble.

Or perhaps the Ear Doctor was within half a meter in front of them, walking in absolute synchronization, except that his movements were entirely muted, making not a single sound.

Did this opponent truly possess superhuman hearing?

In the enemy's eyes, did the two of them look as comical as a circus act right now?

The very moment his mind drifted, a sharp, searing pain suddenly pierced Xia Shou's throat!

It felt like something sharp and keen had stabbed right into his neck!

Instantly, both of Xia Shou's hands clamped down hard onto the thighs on either side of his waist. Right after, he heard the sound of rushing wind slicing through the air ahead of him.

That was the sound of Su Weiyu swinging her blade!

But she struck empty air...

There was no movement whatsoever from Su Weiyu on his back, proving that this counterattack had failed to connect.

And Xia Shou knew the reason why.

If the opponent had assaulted him hand-to-hand with a weapon, the sensation of being attacked should have been accompanied by a persistent pulling and tearing feeling at the wound.

Yet the force behind the strike that had just pierced his neck went from strong to weak instantly, with no sustained pressure applied at all.

There was only one explanation for this: the assailant had used a ranged weapon, throwing a blade.

If they were using thrown weapons, their previous tactic was useless; the opponent would not approach him, but would instead slowly wear him down to death through such long-range attrition!

Furthermore, being able to pinpoint his throat with absolute precision from a distance merely by listening to sounds proved that the enemy's hearing vastly surpassed that of ordinary people. The tactic of him and Su Weiyu operating as one was mere child's play to this adversary and had long since been seen through.

This bastard... had known from the very beginning that there were two of them.

That being the case, he had no choice but to deploy the alternative tactic.

Xia Shou activated Blood Riot, manipulating the blood flowing from his own wound to draw razor-thin lines of blood in the air, then spreading these lines outward in all directions, weaving them across the entire space like a spider spinning a hunting web.

In this way, just like a spider sensing the vibrations of its web, he would be able to perceive the moving doctor.

This was a backup strategy he had considered before entering, though it came with severe limitations.

After all, he was not a real spider; even if the blood lines transmitted tremors when touched, this vibrational data required cerebral processing to determine the exact coordinates of the opponent. Therefore, if the Ear Doctor moved quickly, it would be difficult for Xia Shou to pinpoint his exact location precisely.

Even if he did lock onto a position, by the time they rushed over, the enemy would surely have dodged away, because the Ear Doctor could easily hear the sound of their running footsteps.

Xia Shou's hands left Su Weiyu's thighs as his blood condensed into needlepoints at his fingertips. He then shoved his fingers into his own ears, puncturing his eardrums and voluntarily turning himself completely deaf.

Since he could no longer hear anything anyway, he might as well further sharpen his remaining senses to the absolute limit.

He only needed to touch the target once... just a single touch would be enough.