Kuang Feifan also saw through the windshield where the beam of the headlights ended. Beyond the terrifying figure of the child, numerous other shadowy figures began to emerge. Soon, under the dim light of the headlights filtered by the fog, he could clearly see that what appeared were nothing more than slow-moving corpses, each with a grotesque form reminiscent of the zombies frequently seen in horror films, sending a chill down the spine. Yet, from Feng Tian’s words, it seemed he recognized these moving bodies. Kuang Feifan couldn't help but ask, "You know them?"

Feng Tian realized Kuang Feifan had misunderstood his meaning and quickly clarified, "No, it’s just that when I was underwater earlier, I saw a few of these corpses. I didn’t expect to see them again here."

Kuang Feifan took a deep breath, forcefully suppressing the terror inspired by the horrifying scene outside the car, and muttered, "What are they trying to do?"

Feng Tian gritted his teeth and shook his head, "I'm not sure. It looks like they want to stop our car, but I don't think it will do any good."

Saying this, he instinctively gripped the steering wheel tightly, looking as if he intended to drive straight through them.

Kuang Feifan thought this was a viable option too. Despite facing a throng of walking corpses, they were inside the car, and he hardly believed these rotting husks could withstand a piece of solid steel.

However, very quickly, they both noticed that led by the child, the horde of shambling figures advanced a short distance before halting. They simply stood silently before the vehicle, making it impossible to discern their next move.

"Damn it, maybe we should just punch through. How long are we supposed to wait?" Kuang Feifan narrowed his eyes and said through clenched teeth.

Feng Tian frowned, still showing some hesitation.

"What are you worried about?" Kuang Feifan inquired.

Feng Tian clicked his tongue, drawing air through his teeth, "You have to realize, if we actually hit them with the car, all that blood and gore will splash onto the vehicle. It’s a nightmare to clean off..."

Kuang Feifan was almost driven to laughter by his absurdity. He retorted irritably, "At a time like this, you’re still concerned about that?"

Feng Tian pouted, giving him a look that suggested he knew better. "If the whole car is covered in blood and flesh, and suppose we run into a police officer later, see the blood, and they start interrogating us—that's just asking for trouble, isn't it?"

Kuang Feifan rolled his eyes at him. "What's there to fear? Don't we have a traffic cop right here in the car? He can explain it for us later, right?"

As he said this, he suddenly realized that Ji Ping had been utterly silent since the beginning. He wondered what the man was thinking, or if he had been completely terrified into silence by the scene outside. Kuang Feifan mulled this over with growing concern and turned to look at Ji Ping.

Before his head had fully turned toward Ji Ping, he heard the distinct sound of a car door moving. When his gaze settled on the adjacent seat, he saw that Ji Ping had pushed open the rear door and already had half his body leaning out.

"What are you doing?" Kuang Feifan exclaimed in alarm, swiftly turning back and reaching out to grab Ji Ping, trying to pull him back inside. At this moment, leaving the car was absolutely out of the question; they had the metal shell protecting them for now. Stepping outside meant facing the reanimated corpses head-on, and Kuang Feifan certainly didn't think confronting them with flesh and blood was a good idea.

Feng Tian also noticed Ji Ping’s action at this moment and shouted, "Don't go out..."

But Kuang Feifan, having leaned halfway over toward the front seat, was a step too late in turning back to pull Ji Ping. Before his hand could even grasp the edge of Ji Ping's clothing, the man had already slipped out of the car and firmly shut the door behind him.

"Hey, Ji Ping, what do you think you're doing? You’re not planning on fighting those things alone, are you? Don't be an idiot," Kuang Feifan lunged forward to the door, shouting through the glass, preparing to reach for the handle.

To his surprise, after trying the handle twice, he discovered that the door was now impossible to open from the inside after Ji Ping had exited. This shocked him.

Just then, Ji Ping moved to the side where Feng Tian was seated, fiddled with something, and Feng Tian, who was also preparing to open his door, immediately found his handle locked as well.

He hastily rolled down his window and yelled at Ji Ping, "Are you crazy? What is this?"

Kuang Feifan turned back to open his door, but his hand met only the empty space where the interior lock handle should have been—it had been snapped off at some point. Ji Ping, meanwhile, had moved to the other side of the car and locked that door from the outside as well.

Only then did Ji Ping slowly look through the window at the two men inside and say, "They are here to pick me up."

His tone was remarkably level, and his voice wasn't particularly loud, but to Feng Tian and Kuang Feifan, it sounded like a thunderclap echoing right beside their ears.

"What do you mean?" Kuang Feifan demanded loudly while shaking his window.

Ji Ping frowned, took a few steps back, and then shook his index finger, stating calmly, "I advise you both not to even consider getting out. It’s very dangerous out there. You’ll be safer inside the car."

Admittedly, his words sounded quite reasonable. After rolling their respective windows down about halfway, Kuang Feifan and Feng Tian involuntarily paused their efforts but continued to press Ji Ping about his intentions.

Seeing that they had given up on trying to exit the vehicle, Ji Ping seemed to let out a sigh of relief. He tilted his head to look at them, then glanced back at the standing corpses not far behind him, his expression turning slightly complicated. "To be honest, I really can't be bothered to explain it to you both. Or perhaps I should say, we truly regret dragging you two into this. Mainly, you two are just too troublesome to deal with. Having such considerable skill and powerful artifacts is genuinely annoying. So, we have no choice but to leave you here. After tonight, when everything is over, if you two are still alive, then we'll talk."

With that, he turned and walked toward the spot where the corpses were standing. They watched his figure brush past them and gradually fade into the shadows beyond the reach of the headlights. As soon as his trace vanished, the corpses, led by the child, also melted back into the darkness. From start to finish, they had shown no intention of harming Feng Tian or Kuang Feifan inside the car.

But everything had happened so suddenly that Kuang Feifan and Feng Tian were left completely bewildered, staring blankly out the windows into the pitch-black night, speechless for a long moment.

Soon, however, they began to sense that hidden within the surrounding darkness were unknown entities, lurking and staring at them intently, as if ready to charge out at any second.

It was only then that the two noticed the scenery around them had fundamentally shifted after Ji Ping disappeared. Except for being inside the car and seeing the cones of light cast by the headlights, they saw nothing beyond that light but infinite darkness. Apart from the blackness, they could perceive nothing.

The side roads and towering walls that flanked them earlier had likewise been replaced by darkness, as if, while they weren't looking, everything had been swallowed by the void, leaving only the area illuminated by the headlights as a vague, grayish space.

What on earth was happening? Was this still the same road they were on moments ago?

These were questions Kuang Feifan and Feng Tian couldn't answer. They hadn't anticipated Ji Ping's bizarre behavior, nor did they expect to find themselves in such an indescribable environment. Looking out the windows, there was nothing but darkness surrounding them, so much so that they couldn't even tell if the car was resting on solid ground or suspended in the darkness mid-air.

"Should... should we try driving forward..." Kuang Feifan suggested vaguely.

Feng Tian had never experienced anything this bizarre before, and he too felt at a loss. He looked around the interior, hesitating about whether to start the car, when he saw the light visible through the window slowly dimming, eventually extinguishing completely.

He tried to start the car again, but after much effort, the engine didn't even sputter once, which made him angrily smack the steering wheel.

Seeing this, Kuang Feifan sighed, clearly understanding this was not a simple matter of running out of gas or a dead battery. He reached into his pocket, feeling around until he retrieved the familiar lighter he always carried, and with a snap, lit it. The faint glow of the flame momentarily brought a strange sense of reassurance.

The dancing flame barely illuminated a small section inside the car. Feng Tian turned and looked at Kuang Feifan with a helpless expression. "I'm sorry, I don't know what exactly happened."

Kuang Feifan managed a wry smile. The truth was, none of this was Feng Tian's fault, but his words struck a chord in Kuang Feifan’s mind. He posed the question hesitantly, "Before, did you fail to completely purge the ghost attached to Ji Ping?"

Feng Tian opened his mouth, then closed it again. He thought back carefully for a moment, then shook his head. "Probably not. It’s just that his behavior just now left me confused, so I can’t be one hundred percent certain either."

If Kuang Feifan's speculation were true, the situation would be relatively straightforward. Unfortunately, the two of them couldn't uncover the truth through mere guesswork.

Kuang Feifan was simply talking to fill the silence, as he had no idea what else they could possibly do while trapped in this environment.

Feng Tian, however, had a flash of realization sparked by the question. He said urgently, "Quick, think of a way to get my toolkit out of the trunk. We can't just stay locked in the car like this forever."

Kuang Feifan handed the lighter to Feng Tian, glanced around, and asked, "There is a way, but I wonder if you’ll agree to it?"

Feng Tian paused. "What way?"

"I have to dismantle your rear seat backrest," Kuang Feifan said, running his hand over the seat.

A look of distress immediately crossed Feng Tian's face.

But before he could decide, his peripheral vision suddenly caught sight of numerous glowing green eyes emerging from the surrounding darkness outside the window, blinking as they watched them.

PS: This chapter makes up for yesterday; I'll try to post another chapter before midnight.