A person indeed emerged from the darkness, but their movement could hardly be called walking. It was more akin to leaping.
Their footfalls landed with the cadence of someone strolling, yet each step covered thrice the distance of an ordinary person. This meant they weren't stepping, but rather bounding.
Their body was as light as an Olympic gymnast performing floor exercises, leaping high and far, yet landing with astonishing softness. The sound of their feet hitting the ground was no different from normal walking.
There was no trace of the heavy thud that usually accompanied a jump landing.
This was precisely what Li Mohan had failed to comprehend earlier: how could someone walk slowly yet move so fast?
In the blink of an eye, the person was before Li Mohan.
Li Mohan finally saw the person's appearance clearly. Had he not possessed considerable courage, in the deep silence of the woods at this late hour, that single glance could have sent him into a dead faint.
The individual could scarcely be described as human; they were a dried-up frame of bones.
Their face was almost devoid of flesh, with a layer of sallow skin stretched taut over a skull. Their eyelids seemed to have shrunk, unable to close completely even when blinking. Their eyeballs were jaundiced and cloudy, the entire being radiating an aura of death.
In stark contrast to their appearance was their attire. No wonder Li Mohan had mistaken them for someone of wealth and status. This person was adorned in head-to-toe haute couture: their tuxedo, tie, and even their soft leather shoes were all of the finest make.
Yet, these expensive clothes failed to convey an impression of opulence. Instead, they evoked a sense of reanimation, as if the person had crawled out of a coffin, dressed in funeral attire. The occupant within was a corpse rapidly decaying into bone.
This was precisely how Li Mohan felt. He could not bring himself to regard this being as human. Despite his bravery, he involuntarily took half a step back.
He could only retreat half a step; any further and he would enter the illuminated circle where Ye Huohuo was.
The skeletal figure turned its cloudy eyes towards Li Mohan and actually grinned, revealing bone-white teeth that gleamed in the moonlight, sending a chill deep into one's heart.
"Who are you?" Li Mohan's voice boomed, particularly resonant in the stillness of the woods. He spoke loudly intentionally, partly to bolster his own courage, and partly to alert Ye Huohuo to an intruder.
However, Ye Huohuo remained as still as a meditating monk, utterly unfazed. The blood dripped from her dagger at a steady rhythm, unchanged.
Her left hand continued to channel the light from the circle onto the protective barrier of the Big Dipper formation, holding that gateway of light open.
Li Mohan gritted his teeth and, instead of retreating further, took a step forward. "If you have no other business, please pass by!"
Upon hearing Li Mohan's words, the figure tilted its head back and opened its mouth as if to laugh towards the sky, yet no sound emerged. It looked even more bizarre, possessing a touch of the comical amidst its strangeness.
However, in this atmosphere, no one would find it amusing; it only inspired dread.
"You..." Li Mohan's fist clenched at his side. At this moment, he wished he had a knife or some other tool for self-defense.
Before Li Mohan could finish speaking, the skeleton-like man suddenly raised his arm, swung it, and sent Li Mohan flying.
Li Mohan, nearly six feet three inches tall, was not a frail individual. On the contrary, his regular fitness routine gave him a lean physique that looked good in clothes and revealed muscle beneath. He was not a light man.
Yet, this strapping man was flung over three feet away by the single arm of that figure, nearly crashing to the ground.
Fortunately, Li Mohan reacted swiftly, bracing himself against a nearby tree trunk to steady himself.
When he looked up again, his heart nearly leaped into his throat.
He saw the man raising both arms, swinging them down towards Ye Huohuo's head.
This man possessed incredible strength; a mere shove had sent Li Mohan flying. If those arms struck Ye Huohuo's head, they could shatter it.
Li Mohan did not dare to hesitate. With a tiger's leap, he lunged at the man, using his own momentum to forcibly shove the figure aside.
He tightly grasped the man's waist, tumbling down the hillside with him.
The man had clearly not anticipated Li Mohan's maneuver. As he recovered, he raised both arms and swung them down towards Li Mohan's back.
Simultaneously, though his mouth remained closed, a guttural croak, like that of a toad, emanated from his belly, "Get away, I'm going to kill that woman!"
Li Mohan felt his hair stand on end upon hearing this sound, but he tightened his grip even further, his teeth clenched, refusing to let go.
The skeleton man's arms, like iron rods, slammed ferociously into Li Mohan's back, instantly dazing him. His back felt as if it had been run over by a vehicle, his chest constricted, and with every breath, his back and entire chest cavity burned as if on fire, his vision blurring.
Li Mohan gritted his teeth, refusing to pass out. He knew that if he fainted, given Ye Huohuo's nature, to buy more time for A Cheng and the others, she would endure being struck to death by this man rather than leave the circle.
However, his resolve did not alter the course of events. Seeing that his initial blows had not forced Li Mohan to release him, the skeleton man quickly swung his arms down again with even greater force.
This time, Li Mohan could bear it no longer. He spat out a mouthful of blood, his vision went black, and despite his unwillingness, he succumbed to unconsciousness.
The skeleton man struggled to break free from Li Mohan's firm embrace. He hadn't expected the head of the prestigious Li Corporation to go to such lengths for a young girl. Even unconscious, Li Mohan's hands still gripped him tightly.
Finally, after tearing off two strips of fabric from his jacket, the skeleton man stood up and, with his characteristic bounding gait, reached Ye Huohuo's front in mere steps.
That frog-like croaking sound once again emanated from his abdomen, "Dead girl, who can save you this time? Die!"
Ye Huohuo had heard everything that had just transpired but had endured it, fearing it would disrupt the formation.
At this moment, she opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was not the man about to kill her, but Li Mohan, who had collapsed nearby, unconscious.
His face was down, and a pool of blood beneath him had splattered outwards, clearly from his recent hemorrhage. His hands still clutched tightly at two pieces of the skeleton man's clothing.
Seeing Li Mohan, usually as aloof as a high mountain bloom, now lying on the ground, dishevelled and pathetic, Ye Huohuo's eyes reddened. Her eyes immediately filled with incandescent rage, her hair visibly lengthening, her shoulder-length bob quickly growing down to her waist.
Her tightly pursed lips slowly curved upwards, revealing a bloodthirsty, cold smile. This smile was filled with malevolence and a potent killing intent.
"You dare hurt him? Die!"
The skeleton man let out a series of dry, guttural chuckles from his abdomen. "With you! My master has evolved my body. I am now impervious to blades and spears!"
Ye Huohuo's fiery red eyes shifted slightly, focusing on the man's hands. She discovered that he possessed no hands; only two empty wrists were visible within his neat cuffs.
The smile on her lips widened. "So it's you. You escaped last time, and you dare show your face again, having turned into this ghastly appearance! Your shadow is still with me. Do you want it?"
Ye Huohuo's body remained still, but her eyeballs moved slightly. Suddenly, a dark shadow began to emerge from beneath her feet. A bizarre phenomenon then occurred. In the moonlight, Ye Huohuo had her own shadow, which also appeared as a long-haired woman.
But beside it, another shadow materialized – the shadow of a man, a man without hands.
Seeing that shadow, the skeleton man froze for a moment, then lunged at the shadow. "Give it back to me! Give it back to me!"
This skeleton man was the same shadow-controlling master who had nearly been killed by Ye Huohuo in a frenzy before. He had escaped by severing his own hands, and now he had appeared at this critical juncture.
Ye Huohuo let out a cold laugh. "Truly pathetic. A master shadow-controller, unable to cast spells with his hands, and he has even lost his own shadow. How disgraceful.
And now you've become this neither-human-nor-ghost appearance. If your master saw you like this, even in the netherworld, he wouldn't want to see you! Perhaps I can help you!"
As Ye Huohuo spoke, her body remained stationary, but the tips of her hair suddenly scattered outwards. In the next instant, the man's shadow on the ground abruptly stood up and transformed into a sharp, black blade in a flash, piercing through the man's body.