zero o'clock

【Collector】

The last car of the subway was full of seats, and people stood next to each other, either with their heads slightly lowered, or leaning on the shoulders of others.They slept deeply, and their breathing was even and undulating. In such a comfortable atmosphere, even people with excellent mental state will inevitably be affected and have the desire to sleep.

But it was undoubtedly an extremely weird sight.

After a while, the doors were closed, the subway started to speed up, the pale light on the platform outside the window receded and disappeared, and the whole subway slid silently into the dark tunnel.

Besides the two living creatures on the train right now, there is also a demon who doesn't know where it is.Every nerve of Li Huan collapsed to the limit, and his spirit was on high alert. He walked up to a little girl with a solemn expression and stopped, then squatted down on one knee.

The child was about seven or eight years old, with a cute face, wearing a bright red children's Tang suit with a dragon and a beautiful phoenix, and his small body was leaning sideways towards the adult next to him.In her sleep, the little girl's two eyes rolled slowly under her tightly closed eyelids, apparently she was dreaming.

Li Huan opened the neckline, put his middle finger on her and tried her carotid artery, and said to Xing Yi without looking back, "I'm still alive."

Xing Yi watched Li Huan's back calmly, and said calmly, "They are just asleep."

"Sleeping in reality, or sleeping in a dream?"

"How can a person who is asleep in a dream stay awake in reality?"

Hearing this, Li Huan became silent for a moment.

After a while, he put the backpack on the floor next to the little girl's legs, opened the zipper and took out the Tang knife, then stood up and turned to look at Xing Yi, wondering, "Why do Nightmare need so many living people?"

Xing Yi looked into his eyes and didn't rush to answer the question, but asked instead: "You said you have seen a demon, so you should know what that demon is doing?"

Li Huan quickly went through the encounter with Yan Mo that day, and he was silent for a while, and said: "On the surface, he is in the pawn business, running a pawn shop that treats monsters and people, but in fact he is targeting people with profit. The target makes a deal with it, and the price is mostly the lives of those monsters who are blinded by profit."

"That's right," Xing Yi sneered, "the devil is the collector in this world, but due to the different levels of Taoism, the targets that the devil and the devil can follow are different. Since the one you have seen dared to fight under the nose of Jiuwei, The idea of ​​the demon must be extremely high."

The fingers clasped on the Tang Dao were slightly squeezed, and the joints bled and turned white. Li Huan's eyes flickered, and he met the opponent's eyes lightly: "You mean, there are items on these people that the Nightmare wants to collect?"

Xing Yi said: "Human blood, human heart, human bones, or the three souls and seven souls, everything can become the collection of Nightmare, but there are so many living people on this train, it seems that her needs are really not enough. Low."

Before he finished speaking, he shook the puppet scroll and summoned the monster Chenghuang, and with his other hand, he drew out five lead wires to bind the puppet's limbs and head respectively.Immediately afterwards, Xing Yi moved his fingers slightly and raised his long arms, and the fox-faced little monster jumped onto the seat nimbly, and sniffed the sleeping passengers very quickly.

It could be seen that the Nightmare was acting cautiously, and even rarely left a scent behind. Cheng Huang searched through most of the compartment in this way, and finally wagged his tail at a middle-aged lady's handbag.

"Wow~" Cheng Huang looked back at his master obediently, and the big fluffy tail behind him shook even harder.

Xing Yi didn't speak, just put the long lead wire, and then moved five fingers to control the puppet beast to follow the scent, "Follow it and you can find the Nightmare." Xing Yi said to Li Huan, "Don't worry, this is your dream and mine. The living things I see are just the souls of the nightmare, including the demon. So the body of the nightmare is not here. After a while, you can do anything after encountering it. As long as you can hurt her soul, this dream should wake up .”

After finishing speaking, Xing Yi walked away with long legs and followed the lead to the next carriage.

Behind him, Li Huan's original confused expression disappeared without a trace, his face was as cold as ice, and the dark red demonic light in his eyes slowly moved away, staring at the man Jian Jian without turning around. A tall and straight figure.He put his thumb against the saber block, gently pushed the extremely sharp Tang Dao a little, and then quickly followed without making a sound.

"In this world, don't believe anything you see with your naked eyes."

He recalled what the other party had said not long ago, and couldn't help but raise the corners of his mouth slightly.

The subway train galloped through the tunnel, its body shaking, but it seemed as if it had been muted, and no ordinary noise could be heard.

In this dreamland constructed by demons, the lighting in the carriage showed an indistinct orange color, and the outside of the glass windows was so dark that you could barely see your fingers, and all the advertisements on the light boxes were gone.At least ten minutes have passed since the start of operation, but there is not even a single platform passing by in the middle.The subway seems to be traveling through chaos, the tracks run over by the wheels stretching infinitely in the darkness.

Like... never ending?

This idea inexplicably broke into his mind, and Li Huan, who had just stepped into the next carriage, was stunned. He turned his head to look at the window on the right as if feeling something, and looked through the glass at Xing Yi who was a few steps away.

At that moment, the eyes of the two people who paid attention to each other unintentionally but subconsciously met.

Li Huan didn't expect this to happen to him, he was a little embarrassed, and asked for something to say: "How many carriages have we passed?"

In fact, he had a count in his heart, but it felt very strange not to say anything at this time.Probably because there were too many intimate actions in the past month, which caused the atmosphere to feel weird even if you took a second look, not to mention that this guy helped him to fly a plane earlier...

Li Huan: "..."

Why do you want to do this? !

Young Master Li, who successfully used his brain to make up for himself, was so depressed that he wanted to vomit blood. He hurriedly coughed a few times, pretending to be choking on saliva, and by the way, covering up his hot face being teased by all kinds of obscene bullet screens in his mind.

Xing Yi stared at the portrait reflected on the glass surface, as if he could see through someone's mind. There was no expression on the man's handsome face, and there was a monster light flickering in the deep pupils, with a kind of intimacy and infidelity. She smiled ambiguously, but the aura around her was as strong and brazen as ever, icy and suffocating.

The two diametrically opposed temperaments seem to have some kind of wonderful chemical reaction in him, which makes people suspicious and speculate, but also makes people unable to help trusting him.

Bloodthirsty, cruel, gentle and harmless, or treacherous and unpredictable, even if you stand in front of this person, you can only see clearly the skin, but you will never be able to see clearly the most difficult thing under the skin and deep in the soul. soul.

Which...is the real you?

Li Huan was extremely conflicted in his heart, he took a deep breath, and forcibly swallowed back the question he was about to blurt.

Xing Yi said indifferently: "The eighth section."

The number of sessions was the same, Li Huan cleared his mind and decided not to worry about his partner's ghost status until he got out of this ghost place, he subconsciously let out an "oh" and remained silent for a few seconds, then raised his head in astonishment: "Eight knots?! "

Xing Yi: "Yes."

"Most lines of the Beijing subway consist of six carriages! We actually traveled eight carriages..." Li Huan said as he hurriedly turned around to look in the direction he came from, and saw aisle doors one after another expanding endlessly backwards. Drive away, and the same scene exists at the other end of the train.

The two are like standing between two opposite mirrors, behind each other is the endless space reflected by the other mirror.

"You've already discovered it?" Li Huan turned to look at Xing Yi, "This subway ride itself is also part of a dream, it doesn't even have a physical body, can we really——?"

Before he could finish speaking, Xing Yi raised the hand that controlled the lead wire. Under the dim light, the thin thread made of spiritual power emitted a shining blue light, shaking slightly with the movement of the puppet beast that was pulled at the end. Son.

Li Huan instantly understood the meaning of the raised hand.

"Whether it's a demon or a demon, illusion can always confuse the soul under the skin. The demon subduing master is well aware of the advantages and disadvantages of this, so he created a puppet that would not be deceived by the magic by breaking up the three souls." Xing Xing Yi said, "Right now we are deluded by the nightmare fabricated by the nightmare, but Chenghuang, who has lost his three souls, is as sensitive as in reality. It hasn't stopped, which means that the nightmare is indeed nearby, but it's just hiding very deep. .”

This sounded very reasonable at first glance, Li Huan was noncommittal and chose to remain silent, but there was always something in his heart that he had to pay special attention to.

Just at this moment, the subway braked to slow down suddenly, and there was a sharp friction sound in the originally dead environment. The next moment, the train, which had always been wrapped in darkness, rushed into a blinding white light so unexpectedly.

Standing facing each other, the two were stunned at the same time, and then without any communication, the two guys with excellent mobility turned around and faced the direction where the door was about to open.

The strong inertia almost tore the person forward, Li Huan reacted very quickly, immediately retreated with his left leg, bent his knees slightly, found the center of gravity in a second, and drew out the Tang knife decisively.Beside him, a swaying lead wire was floating in the back of the waist in a protective posture. A few steps away, seeing that Li Huan was standing still, Xing Yi withdrew his gaze and looked out of the car window where the platform should have been. .

Dazzling light shot directly into the bottom of his eyes, tingling his nerves, Li Huan narrowed his eyes uncomfortably, and subconsciously tightened his fingers holding the handle of the knife.

As the train slowed to a stop, the white light gradually dissipated, the door opened, and he finally saw what was outside clearly.

It was a snow-white wall, shaped like a woman's smooth and delicate back, which tightly fit the subway shell, sealing the car door airtight.

"here it is……"

Li Huan suddenly opened his eyes wide, and shook his head in disbelief: "Could it be that we are back?!"

Xing Yi said: "If we come back, then this wall will not be a wall."

After that, he stepped forward, went straight out of the car door, and passed through the middle of the wall.Li Huan didn't dare to neglect, and hurriedly followed him out of the subway passing behind the wall.

The wall had only its shape but no substance. As soon as he left the car, he felt a cool wind blowing over the back of his neck, and the advertising cloth printed with the four characters "Stay tuned" was blown loudly, revealing the Empty shop for lease.In the front and rear corners of the passage, there were fragments of surveillance probes that had been shot through by wires, and they returned to Zhongguancun Pedestrian Square as expected.

Li Huan stood there in a daze, looking a little at a loss for a moment.

Suddenly, there was a rustling sound at the entrance of passage B. Li Huan, Xingyi and Xingyi looked towards the source of the sound, only to see the monster ride out of the wall on a yellow board, and after landing on the ground, it turned around deftly.It lowered its forelimbs towards the main entrance of the pedestrian street, bent its hind limbs with power, arched its back, and exploded all the hair on its body, making a threatening low whine.

At this moment, without any further explanation, Xing Yi decisively took out another puppet scroll and released the monster Chongming. In an instant, the sharp birdsong rang through the square, and the Chongming bird set off a strong wind. Dive out.

In the blink of an eye, Li Huan followed closely for a few steps, then jumped onto the bird's back with one foot, holding the knife in one hand, and clenched the rough back feathers with the other hand, and landed on one knee to stabilize his body.At the same time, behind one person and one bird, another lead came through the air, wrapped around Li Huan's waist very intimately, to prevent him from being thrown away by the huge inertia.

The strength bound around the waist was extremely gentle, like a firm and silent guardian.

Li Huan's heart beat a little faster for the first cooperation, and he felt an indescribable sense of steadfastness. He simply let go of his back feathers, straightened his upper body boldly, and held the Tang Dao with both hands.

A few meters away, Xing Yi gave up control of the monster Chenghuang and concentrated on controlling Chongming.

The Chongming bird screamed, and the body controlled by the wire drifted around the corner in the air.

Next, Li Huan, who was lying on the bird's back, saw a scene he would never forget——

The Nightmare that has lost its human form is wearing a black gauze, her seaweed-like thick curly hair hangs down to her ankles, and her left hand is clutching the convenience store clerk's neck, revealing that her arms are pale and smooth, with a matte plastic texture.The clerk opened her mouth in pain, her eyeballs were bloodshot and protruding.Nightmare raised his other hand, only waiting for the upper and lower jaws of the prey to open to the limit, and then inserted it straight into the mouth without hesitation, submerging the elbow into the entire forearm.

A scalp-numbing crackling sound suddenly reverberated in the air.

Li Huan couldn't imagine how the human jaw was cracked by the arm. He watched the nightmare groping in the clerk's chest for a while, and suddenly clenched it tightly in the next second. The heart was dragged out dripping with blood.

Holding the beating heart in his hands, the Nightmare lowered his head as if satisfied, greedily licking the steaming blood on it.

Li Huan: "..."

Li Huan's heart suddenly tightened uncomfortably. Even if he was a monster who had tasted all human blood, he would inevitably be so disgusted that his stomach would churn after witnessing this cruel scene of taking people's hearts out of people.

Throwing away the frustrated female shop assistant casually, Nightmare turned his head, reached out and stroked the broken hair that blocked his side face, a sinister and icy smile slowly unfolded on that extremely glamorous face.

She said, "You are finally here."

Li Huan was stunned for a moment.

Because although the demon was looking at this side, the eyes of the two did not have any focus. She seemed to cross his face, smiling slyly, and looking at the other person.

"What are you afraid of?"

Xing Yi's voice sounded behind him, and Li Huan came back to his senses instantly.

"If you hurt her, the nightmare will wake up, don't hesitate!"

Li Huan's heart trembled suddenly, and the reminder was like a bolt of lightning piercing straight into his chaotic brain. He supported the bird's back with one hand and leaped brazenly.

The Nightmare stood motionless on the spot, raised his head slightly, turned his blood-red eyes slightly, and finally met Li Huan's eyes.

In the blink of an eye, the eyes met instantly, and a huge torrent of illusion rushed towards us.The tips of his hair were raised, the hem of his windbreaker was fluttering and fluttering, Li Huan's fingers clenched Tang Dao couldn't help trembling, his pupils suddenly constricted——

He saw too many faces in that illusion!

Nightmare raised the corners of his mouth and gave a low smile, his winking eyes slanted, and he said softly, "Are you satisfied?"

"En." The man's deep voice sounded in the darkness, "You really didn't disappoint me, Li Huan."

- To Be Continued