Chapter 92: Darkness Before the Light

A huge disc floated in the sky, and in its center, where a dark hollow gaped, a faint blue radiance suddenly bloomed. The glow spilled downward in a ghostly sheen, and Du Yun felt as though even her heart were being pulled along with it.

“What is going on?” Du Yun felt her body go rigid all at once, and then, toward that distant blue light, an irresistible longing seemed to rise in her, even a wild urge to rush straight toward it.

“No, this feeling isn’t mine!”

Her heart hammered violently. In a sudden flash of alarm, she sucked in a sharp breath and staggered back a great step. At once, that strange attraction vanished.

“Wake up! Wake up!”

When Du Yun looked around, the others were still standing there in a daze, while the young man who had charged out first had already opened the door of the underground shelter and rushed outside. Panic surged through her. She shook Xiao Yi hard, terrified that something would happen to him.

“Wake up! Something’s wrong. Don’t look at that blue light!”

Du Yun shook him with all her strength, but no matter how hard she tried, she could not wake him. Seeing the reflection of that blue radiance grow brighter and brighter in his eyes, she was nearly frightened out of her wits and quickly lifted her hand to cover them.

Xiao Yi’s body twitched, then went stiff again.

“This won’t do! What do we do?”

Du Yun felt every muscle in her body tighten. Her hands and feet trembled slightly, and her heart pounded so hard she feared that in the next instant, Xiao Yi and the others would do the same as that man and rush out of the shelter toward the blue glow.

“What do we do? What do we do?”

She turned to look at the others. In every pair of eyes, that pure blue light was reflected, making them look like the dim eyes of wolves in the dark, chilling her to the bone.

What Du Yun did not notice was that blue patterns were already forming on their bodies, branching and spreading like climbing vines.

“Don’t let them look at the light!” Douzhi, who had been silent and searching for a way, suddenly spoke.

“Yes, turn off the monitor!”

At Douzhi’s reminder, Du Yun hurried to the monitor and snapped its power off.

Then she rushed to the shelter door. The young man was already gone, nowhere to be seen. Without hesitation, she locked the door shut.

Du Yun leaned against the heavy metal door and stared at the people standing there, frozen and expressionless. Fear clawed at her so violently she almost broke into tears, but she knew crying would do no good now.

“Now I’m the only one still awake. I have to save them.”

Her heart gradually steadied. Taking a deep breath, she walked toward the others.

If she did not know how to do it, then she would try them one by one.

Her hands were still trembling as she came to Xiao Yi’s side.

Looking at his eyes, now a deep, vivid blue, Du Yun’s heart was filled with dread. Could that shimmering blue light actually remain trapped in their eyes? Otherwise, why had his eyes still been blue even after she cut off the monitor?

On impulse, she reached out as if to close Xiao Yi’s eyes. But the moment her fingers neared his face, she noticed his pupils move slightly.

“Boss? Boss? Xiao Yi, wake up!”

Seeing this, Du Yun was overjoyed. She shook him frantically, waved a hand before his eyes, and even used the old trick of pressing the acupoint between the upper lip and nose. After quite a while, Xiao Yi finally stirred awake in a daze and looked down at her.

“Thank goodness, you’re awake!” Du Yun beamed at the return of his senses, tears spilling down her face without her knowing why. “How do you feel? Does anything hurt?”

“What... happened to me?” Xiao Yi looked at Du Yun, laughing and crying at once in his arms, and felt as if he had forgotten something. He reached out, caught the tears sliding down her cheeks, and tasted them. Salty.

“Just now, a dark spot in the sky came down. It was a disc-shaped starship. There was blue light under it, and when we looked at it, we forgot everything and couldn’t move. I finally managed to wake up, and then I woke you.” Du Yun was so agitated that her words came out in a jumble.

“Blue light?” Xiao Yi repeated softly. Memory suddenly surged back into him. He recalled that he had been checking the situation outside through the monitor when a wash of blue light had abruptly appeared before his eyes. Then his mind had gone blank, and he could remember nothing after that.

“Yes, blue light. After we saw it, one of us ran outside. No one could stop him. The others couldn’t move either, so I had no choice but to cut the monitor.”

Thinking of what had just happened, Du Yun felt as though she had been left alone in the world. The loneliness made her whole body tremble uncontrollably.

“Don’t be afraid. I’m here.”

Xiao Yi drew Du Yun into his arms to comfort her, patting her back gently.

“Mhm.”

This was no time for weakness. Du Yun knew what mattered most. She took a deep breath in Xiao Yi’s arms, felt strength gather in her, and stood up again.

“Let’s wake them quickly. That blue light was far too strange. I have no idea what it was.”

With that, she and Xiao Yi began trying to rouse the others.

Perhaps because the blue light was no longer shining on them, they did eventually wake, though at different times. Some needed only a push to come to themselves, like Da Zhuang and Skinny Monkey, while others had to be shaken for a long while before they stirred, like Red Plum.

“My heavens, what happened?”

Once everyone had awakened, they could not regain their senses for a long time. After hearing the others describe what had happened earlier, each of them felt a chill crawl down their spine and drew a sharp breath. If Du Yun had not been there, would they all have done the same as that young man who had run out?

“How is Little Third?” Dong Iron Hammer asked in a hoarse voice after a long silence. The young man who had run out was his apprentice at the smithy.

Because he was still young and not very steady, and because he was a little more timid than the others, he had been the one who ran out the last time they were surrounded by the undead as well. Though Dong Iron Hammer had not known him long enough to have deep feelings yet, he was still a living person. To have run out like that, with the outside packed full of undead...

“I don’t know. By the time I got out, I could no longer see anyone.” Du Yun pressed her lips together and said this, feeling terribly wretched as well. But even so, if this happened again, she would still shut the shelter door without hesitation. Whether one person died or everyone died with him—that was a question anyone could calculate.

What on earth had happened?

Everyone’s mind was a blur, but they knew one thing with certainty: this time, they would not be able to leave this place so easily.

Hope had been right before their eyes, only to fall into the darkness before the light.

It was truly unbearable.