The bonfire in front of them had extinguished, and light filtered through the dense branches and leaves, scattering onto the ground.
Amon stood in front of Chen Bugu, its icy spikes bristling on its back, its vigilant emotions constantly feeding back into Chen Bugu's mind.
Chen Bugu looked forward, and just like in his dream, a group of people stood not far away, watching him.
"Mr. Chen!"
Chen Bugu looked in the direction of the voice; the face was somewhat familiar.
Wei Lai!
Chen Bugu remembered.
He was the leader of the Guan Zhou group and also a colleague of Han Badou's uncle.
"Mr. Wei?" Chen Bugu asked tentatively.
Wei Lai's current state looked very disheveled; his clothes were tattered, his face was sallow and emaciated, his hair was messy, and even his physique had thinned considerably.
Of course, Chen Bugu forgot that he himself was covered in blood at the moment and didn't look much better than Wei Lai.
"Yes, it's me, I'm Wei Lai."
Wei Lai saw that Chen Bugu recognized him and was about to walk forward.
Seeing this, Amon opened its mouth wide at Wei Lai.
"Amon, it's fine, let him come over."
Chen Bugu soothed Amon's emotions, telling it to step aside.
"Mr. Chen, are you alright? You seem to be badly injured," Wei Lai walked over and said to Chen Bugu.
"I'm fine, but you don't seem to be in a good state."
Chen Bugu's impression of Wei Lai wasn't bad.
The night before Han Badou left with Chen Bugu, Wei Lai had specifically sought him out and asked him to take good care of Han Badou.
To go to such lengths for a colleague's nephew showed that this person was inherently kind.
"Sigh, just being alive is already a blessing. Oh, by the way, where are Ba Dou and your companions? Didn't they escape with you?"
Wei Lai looked around but didn't see anyone else.
"Escape?"
Chen Bugu was a little puzzled; he had indeed escaped from Obsidian Town, but he felt that what Wei Lai was referring to wasn't the same thing.
"Wei Lai! Are you ready? Hurry up, those monsters will catch up soon."
Before Wei Lai could continue speaking, he heard someone from the group not far behind him shout at him.
"Alright, alright, we're leaving now."
"Mr. Chen, why don't you come with us? It's not safe here yet," Wei Lai turned around and continued to say to Chen Bugu.
Although he wasn't quite clear about what had happened, Chen Bugu could roughly infer one or two things from their conversation.
This group of people seemed to be pursued by some powerful demonic beasts.
And it was highly likely to be intelligent demonic beasts like Goblins, after all, Wei Lai mentioned the word "escape," indicating that those demonic beasts seemed to be raising humans.
If that were truly the case, Chen Bugu wouldn't mind helping Wei Lai, as he also urgently needed to plunder energy for his breakthrough now.
"Okay, let's go."
Chen Bugu placed the shrunken Amon on his shoulder and followed Wei Lai towards the crowd.
Among this group, there were men, women, old, and young, and their common characteristic was that they all looked sallow and emaciated, as if from long-term malnutrition.
"An acquaintance?"
An Aunt looked at Chen Bugu and asked Wei Lai.
"Yes, a friend of mine."
"It seems he's also suffered a lot, but as long as he's alive, it's fine. Let's go quickly."
That Aunt's cheeks were sunken, and her complexion was sallow, indicating that her condition was also very poor.
The others didn't ask further upon seeing this, and the group set off again, moving in a certain direction.
"Oh, right, Mr. Chen, I didn't finish earlier, where are Ba Dou and the others? Didn't they escape?"
"What did you say? Ba Dou was also captured?"
Before Chen Bugu could answer, a bespectacled man next to Wei Lai stepped forward, grabbed Chen Bugu's shoulder, and a trace of emotion suddenly appeared on his originally listless face.
Chen Bugu was about to push the man away when he noticed that his thumbs and index fingers had been cleanly severed.
Wei Lai quickly stepped forward and pulled the man away.
"Han Fuyu, don't get agitated. We all escaped, Ba Dou might be fine."
Chen Bugu looked at the man and suddenly realized that his eyebrows bore some resemblance to Han Badou's.
"You are Han Fuyu?"
Chen Bugu remembered Ba Dou saying that after his sister died, his uncle Han Fuyu had confronted Ding Wenli, and as a result, Ding Wenli had cut off his fingers to make an example of him.
The night he lost his fingers, Han Fuyu disappeared. Ba Dou always thought he was ashamed to face his family, so he fled then.
This also aligned with Han Fuyu's long-standing image in Ba Dou's mind—cowardly, timid, and prone to evasion.
After Ba Dou's sister died, Han Fuyu abandoned him again, which made him utterly disappointed in his uncle.
"Yes, I am. Where is Ba Dou now?"
Han Fuyu's dispirited expression only showed a slight difference when Ba Dou was mentioned.
"Don't worry, Ba Dou is very safe now."
Chen Bugu controlled his volume and took the opportunity to explain Ba Dou and the others' situation, as well as why he appeared there.
When they heard Chen Bugu describe Obsidian Town, both of them showed expressions of longing in their eyes.
However, as Chen Bugu mentioned that he had killed the Shizi Jie's deputy leader and was forced to use a teleportation crystal to escape back to this forest, both of them were too surprised to speak.
Wei Lai had previously mistakenly thought that Chen Bugu had also fallen into trouble like them, never expecting that he was so wildly mistaken.
"Mr. Chen, do you mean you can leave here at any time?" Han Fuyu suddenly asked.
"You could say that. I just need to activate the teleportation crystal, and I can leave this forest and return to Obsidian Town."
"Then can you take us with you?"
Han Fuyu looked at Chen Bugu, and his eyes suddenly filled with anticipation.
"Sorry, no. The teleportation crystal can only teleport one person, and even if I could take you back, Shizi Jie would surely have set up a net, and the situation there might not be safer than here."
Chen Bugu shook his head, then continued.
"But if you just keep walking towards that big tree, you can leave this forest just like me."
"Mr. Wei, I told you the way to leave the forest back then, but it seems you haven't been successful."
"And, you seem to have been separated from the Guan Zhou group..."
Of the people from Guan Zhou, only Wei Lai was present; the others were not there.
"Yes, the Guan Zhou team no longer exists."
"Some of those who are still alive have also escaped, but they are not in this group."
"As for those who didn't escape, they are still under the control of those monsters, slowly waiting for death."
As Wei Lai spoke, it seemed to stir up some bad memories, and his expression showed a hint of fear.
"What kind of demonic beasts did you encounter? Perhaps I can help you solve them?"
Chen Bugu was also a little curious; he chose to go with Wei Lai and his group precisely because he wanted to see if he could kill these demonic beasts after his strength recovered.
From Wei Lai's words, these demonic beasts seemed to be raising humans in large numbers, implying a large population, and possibly even the existence of high-level demonic beasts.
Attacking their gathering place might be dangerous, but if there were a continuous stream of pursuers, that could instead become a stepping stone for Chen Bugu's breakthrough.
With Dongcheng Xiuwu's beast crystal, breaking through to eight-star was a matter of course, but if he could break through to Nine Star, he could return to Obsidian Town with peace of mind.
But Wei Lai's answer was beyond Chen Bugu's expectation.
"What we encountered wasn't demonic beasts, it was humans..."