Chapter 82: Feigning Death to Escape

Chu Yunsheng stumbled along for not very far when he heard hurried footsteps behind him. He became alert and turned his head slightly, only to be utterly terrified!

He saw seven or eight people sprinting from the end of the street, with the flame illusion bird that had been perched on the fog source body chasing them from the air!

It seemed that the bird had already killed all the awakened warriors who hadn't managed to escape, and was now relentlessly pursuing the few who had fled westward!

Chu Yunsheng's heart pounded uncontrollably! At this moment, he couldn't even deal with a single flesh worm, let alone the far more powerful flame illusion bird.

For a moment, the usually calm and composed Chu Yunsheng could no longer maintain his forced composure, and his legs began to tremble uncontrollably!

Almost entirely driven by his survival instinct, he retrieved his motorcycle. At this point, he would have preferred to encounter a flesh worm! Although he knew that the motorcycle's speed was far inferior to the flame illusion bird, it was his last desperate effort to survive!

However, just as things couldn't get any worse, he found himself unable to start the motorcycle, no matter how much he tried. Seeing the approaching flame monster, Chu Yunsheng finally broke down. In a fit of madness, he kicked the motorcycle away, but due to his exhausted strength, he lost his balance and fell on his buttocks to the ground!

Lying on the ground, Chu Yunsheng felt a chill run through him: Was he really going to die here!?

At the same time, the words "play dead" suddenly popped into his mind.

Chu Yunsheng thought to himself, since he couldn't escape, he might as well take a gamble with fate!

He lay on the ground, completely still!

The hurried footsteps finally reached him. Two more people had died from the group behind. The fastest runner stepped directly on Chu Yunsheng's body, using him as a springboard to leap forward. His battle armor was already in tatters, and the six-jia symbols had long since broken. The energy he used to step on Chu Yunsheng almost made him spit blood!

The flame illusion bird swooped over the heads of the group and immediately pounced on the awakened warrior who had stepped on Chu Yunsheng, draining his energy and turning him to ashes in an instant.

At this moment, three more people couldn't control their momentum and leaped over Chu Yunsheng. One of them stepped on him again. He gritted his teeth and didn't move, but before he could catch his breath, the fifth person who followed closely behind stepped heavily on his hand. Chu Yunsheng was on the verge of breaking down and couldn't hold his breath, so he trembled slightly.

The person who stepped on him, seeing the flame illusion bird already ahead, stopped. When Chu Yunsheng suddenly trembled, it startled him. Seeing Chu Yunsheng lying on the ground with his eyes wide open, the person almost jumped in fright!

However, the person reacted quickly and immediately realized that Chu Yunsheng was probably feigning death. In an instant, he chose the same method, falling to the ground and pretending to be dead like Chu Yunsheng.

At this moment, the person at the back of the group, who was supposed to be dead, unexpectedly survived because the flame illusion bird had pounced on the person at the front. Truly, life and death were determined by fate!

The last person, upon seeing the others lying on the ground feigning death, hesitated for a moment. Taking advantage of the flame illusion bird's attack on the front group, he immediately lay straight on the ground and pretended to be dead as well!

Chu Yunsheng cursed these two people in his heart, thinking they were incredibly stupid. If they were going to feign death, they should have done it farther away. They were all within three to five meters of him, and if the flame illusion bird came to check, all three would be exposed! Since dealing with the red-armored insects, Chu Yunsheng had never doubted the intelligence of these monsters!

Sure enough, after killing the first four people, the flame illusion bird seemed to notice that the number of people had decreased and began to look around.

Chu Yunsheng watched its every move with extreme tension. When the flame illusion bird finally focused on the three of them feigning death, he knew it was over; they had been discovered!

The flame illusion bird flapped its wings and immediately dove down. Chu Yunsheng's mind was in chaos, but he remained determined: now it was a matter of who could feign death the longest without moving!

Chu Yunsheng remembered a movie from the Sunlight Era that depicted the gang wars in Shanghai in the 1930s. There was a game called "oil pot gamble," where each gang sent a brave member, tied by the feet, head-down, to a horizontal bar, with a pot of boiling oil on the ground below. The ropes were gradually released, inch by inch, bringing the heads of the brave members closer to the oil pot. The first to admit fear and lose the game would cause their gang to lose the bet.

Now, the three of them were like those brave members, facing the approaching flame illusion bird. The one who lost their nerve would try to run, only to be burned to death by the flame monster. The one who held out the longest might have a chance to survive.

Now was the time to test their courage. Relying on his broken battle armor for protection, Chu Yunsheng decided to feign death to the end!

The other two weren't as lucky to have something to rely on. Surprisingly, the last person remained completely still, while the middle person, unable to bear the approaching flame illusion bird, broke down and rolled away. However, he was no match for the flame monster and was quickly melted into a pile of flesh and blood.

Now, only he and the other stubborn person remained. The flame illusion bird circled and pounced again. At this moment, Chu Yunsheng knew there was no escape; the damn flame illusion bird had completely seen through them!

In that instant, Chu Yunsheng almost gave up any thought of resistance, feeling that his fate was sealed. His mind was empty, filled only with the images of his parents. He sighed softly, perhaps it was time to meet them in the afterlife.

But just then, a familiar hiss came from the sky—it was the red-armored insect, no, it should be the green-armored insect!

Chu Yunsheng looked up and saw that the flame illusion bird had abandoned them and was soaring straight up into the sky! Facing it were three majestic green-armored insects, each with four wings!

The two sides, like mortal enemies, immediately engaged in a fierce battle, completely ignoring Chu Yunsheng and the other person on the ground.

Although the flame illusion bird was incredibly powerful, the green-armored insects had the advantage of numbers. For a moment, the two sides were evenly matched, neither giving in!

Chu Yunsheng was jolted back to his senses! He thought he was doomed, but he had miraculously survived!

What he never expected was that his savior was not the ancient book he had fantasized about, but his former enemies—the green-armored insects!

Just as he had narrowly escaped death, another thought came to him: if the green-armored insects had appeared, and in such numbers, could the red-armored insect army be far behind?

He broke out in a cold sweat, not knowing where he found the strength, and sprang up from the ground. Determined to escape, he tried to start his motorcycle again. With his strength depleted, his once-prided speed was now useless, and he could only rely on the motorcycle.

But luck, it seemed, was not on his side. The motorcycle, like a zombie, refused to start, making Chu Yunsheng want to slash it with the Thousand-Cleaving Sword.

"Let me try!" a crisp and decisive voice came. Chu Yunsheng turned to see the person who had feigned death with him, the last one in the group. From the voice and appearance, he could tell it was a woman.

In this era, who had the leisure to cut their hair or wash their face? Both men and women had messy, long hair and dirty faces. Without speaking or looking closely, it was often impossible to tell the difference between them!

Some women even deliberately made themselves ugly to avoid being harmed, like the female teacher he had encountered long ago, who had painted her face and those of her female students in a way that made them look like ghosts at first glance.

Chu Yunsheng, who knew nothing about motorcycles, waved his hand and let her try, but he kept a firm grip on the back of the motorcycle, as there were instances of people stealing vehicles.

The battle in the sky between the monsters grew more intense. One green-armored insect was hit and fell to the ground, and the flame illusion bird was also severely injured, its fireballs no longer as fierce!

Time was of the essence!