After Transmigrating as the Scumbag Alpha in an Otherworld Novel, I Ended Up with the Villain - Chapter 32

The mist had yet to fully disperse. Clouds rolled in heavy coils as light filtered down through the thick, layered atmosphere.

“Which way did An Le run?” Su Xinge asked after gently closing the door behind them.

“Toward the lake. It’s been a whole day since we were ambushed yesterday; I don’t know if she’ll be okay,” Lin Yuxuan replied, her tone laced with anxiety.

Su Xinge didn’t answer. Even if the zombies that had swarmed them before had scattered, the monsters within that lake were not to be underestimated.

The two followed the path they had taken the day before. Before long, the lake came into view in the distance.

“How are all those things gone?” From a significant distance, Lin Yuxuan carefully scanned the road on the left side of the lake.

As they drew closer, it became apparent that the road surrounding the lake bore no trace of its former state. The severed limbs and broken remains that had littered the lakeside were nowhere to be found.

Su Xinge shook her head. “I’m not sure.”

The novel didn’t describe the specific situation at the branch campus in detail; the protagonist’s party had returned to the base as soon as they picked up Xiang Tiange and the others. They hadn’t been delayed here for nearly as long as this group had.

Crossing a small trail, they reached the main road alongside the lake. Continuing forward, they arrived at the middle section where the ambush had occurred yesterday.

The two stopped, searching meticulously. Su Xinge looked everywhere, even checking the crevices of the stones they had hidden behind, but found no traces whatsoever.

“Where else could she have gone? Surely she didn’t go further ahead?” Lin Yuxuan felt a growing sense of unease.

Su Xinge was at a loss for a moment. Further ahead lay the teaching building area. The exterior was manageable, but the interiors were infested with zombies. An Le had no weapon; if she wandered into a teaching building alone, she would almost certainly be doomed.

“Let’s keep walking and see,” Su Xinge said, moving forward.

Lin Yuxuan followed, looking left and right for any possible signs. After only a few steps, Su Xinge came to a sudden halt.

“Look, what’s that?” Su Xinge pointed toward a spot behind the lake. Enclosed within a fence was a miniature red house—likely a decoration or a shelter for some kind of animal.

Lin Yuxuan looked in the direction she was pointing. It was quite far away, and she could only faintly see the corner of some orange fabric peeking from behind the structure. The silhouette on the ground also looked somewhat human.

Lin Yuxuan said in pleasant surprise, “That must be An Le! Those are the color of the clothes she’s wearing!”

Su Xinge was equally happy, but her tone turned troubled. “How do we get over there? I don’t see a path.”

The figure was on the opposite shore, yet they hadn’t found a single way to cross from start to finish. Looking ahead or behind along the bank, there appeared to be no connecting road.

“Let’s keep going forward. Maybe we missed a path that leads to the other side,” Lin Yuxuan suggested with certainty.

“Alright,” Su Xinge agreed, and they continued their trek.

Reaching the end of the lake, they stopped again. “If we go any further, we might lose our way entirely,” Su Xinge said, carefully observing the terrain.

“Look!” Lin Yuxuan pointed to a spot on the right.

Su Xinge turned. Hidden within the greenery was a faint glimmer of white. Looking closer, she could make out a winding path emerging from the vegetation.

“No wonder we didn’t see this path when we came by; it’s completely covered by these plants.” Su Xinge approached the trail and began hacking away the weeds on both sides.

The path was so overgrown that it was almost impossible to tell it was a road at all. Lin Yuxuan followed closely, adding, “It was nearly dark when we came by yesterday, so it’s normal we missed it. But it definitely wasn’t like this before—these plants have grown way too aggressively lately.”

Su Xinge cleared the way with her blade while Lin Yuxuan followed behind, occasionally dodging branches that hadn’t been fully cleared.

Clearing a path was a cathartic exercise at first, and Su Xinge hacked away happily. However, as they went deeper, the tangled branches became thicker and more numerous, appearing almost endless.

Noticing the pace slowing, Lin Yuxuan asked, “Do you want to rest for a bit? We can take turns.”

Su Xinge waved her off. “No need. Just stay close so you don’t get lost. I’m not tired, it’s just that the branches here are getting incredibly sturdy.” Some of the branches were shockingly thick; with Lin Yuxuan’s strength, she likely wouldn’t have made much progress even after a whole day of hacking.

As they went deeper, they were surrounded by nothing but dense, suffocating green. It felt as though if they weren’t careful, the greenery would drag them down and swallow them whole.

Lin Yuxuan whispered, “Slow down a bit, don’t rush.” She felt as if this vegetation was ready to spring to life at any moment. Furthermore, Su Xinge’s workload was immense—she was essentially carving a path out of sheer force.

“Strange. If that really was An Le just now, I wonder how she got to the other side of the lake,” Su Xinge said as she worked, her suspicions growing.

Lin Yuxuan, keeping pace, replied, “There must be another way we haven’t discovered yet.”

Su Xinge looked slender, but the strength radiating from beneath her clothes was impossible to ignore.

“Is that so?” Su Xinge asked, continuing to swing her heavy blade.

One had to admit, the campus landscaping was certainly well-done.

Su Xinge repeated the motions for an unknown amount of time. Sweat began to bead on her forehead, and her blade gradually grew dull. Just as a drop of sweat was about to fall into her eye, she stopped to wipe her brow with her sleeve. “If I’d known, I would have brought an extra blade. I wonder how much further it is.”

Lin Yuxuan used her hand to block a branch that had snapped back. “Based on the distance we’ve covered, we should be close.” She hadn’t exerted much energy walking behind, so she had been mentally calculating the distance; after all, the lake wasn’t that wide.

Suddenly, Su Xinge stopped. She turned to Lin Yuxuan and said, “Take a few steps back.”

Lin Yuxuan retreated, creating distance between them. Su Xinge also took a step back, gripping the hilt with both hands to dampen the recoil. Before her was a massive web of greenery, with sunlight slanting through the tiny gaps.

Su Xinge planted her feet, twisting her legs into a stable stance, then swung her blade with all her might. In just a few strokes, the thick growth was hacked to pieces. Pale green sap oozed out, looking like tears or blood. The fresh scent of vegetation filled the air as the thicket was parted, allowing the sunlight to pour down.

“There’s the path!” Lin Yuxuan exclaimed.

Su Xinge turned and smiled. “Let’s go.”

Lin Yuxuan followed her out. Emerging from the green woods, they walked across a pebble-strewn ground until they reached the other side of the lake. Su Xinge kept Lin Yuxuan on the inner side, walking closer to the water herself.

Seeing this, Lin Yuxuan moved even closer to the inner edge of the path. “This road is really narrow. Don’t get too close to the water. Maybe you should walk behind me. I don’t want you losing your life before we even find An Le.”

Su Xinge shook her head. “It’s fine. We’ll walk like this. If anything happens, I’m in a better position to react.”

The lake looked eerie. On the other side of their path was a seemingly endless, dense wall of green. Bubbles continuously broke the surface of the black water, which was too deep to see the bottom or any creatures within. The more it looked like that, the more it felt like there were predators lurking, creating a strong sense of crisis.

They quickened their pace toward the middle of the lake. Soon, they could see the small red house they had spotted from across the water. Drawing closer, they saw the house was surrounded by a fence, perched over a curved indentation of the shoreline.

“Is that An Le?” Su Xinge asked, pointing ahead.

The small figure huddled in front of the house looked like a child. Her clothes were covered in a chaotic mess of red and black, completely obscuring their original color.

Lin Yuxuan looked pleasantly surprised. “It definitely is.”

But the joy was quickly followed by trepidation. After all, what normal child would run to a place like this, covered in bloodstains?

They had initially accelerated their pace, but as they drew nearer, both instinctively slowed down. The closer they got, the more they hoped—and the more they feared facing the actual truth.

As the distance closed further, Su Xinge could faintly see an unidentified liquid dripping from the girl’s clothes and her body shivering slightly.

Across the fence, Su Xinge called out cautiously, “An Le?”

There was no reaction.

Lin Yuxuan shook her head. “She was like this before—no reaction when called.” She stepped forward to push open the gate.

Su Xinge quickly stopped her. “I’ll go. You stay here. If she makes a move, you’re the second line of defense.”

With a creak, Su Xinge opened the wooden gate and stepped inside. As she got closer, she noticed white feathers scattered around the house—likely from animals that had lived there before—but the house itself was empty.

Seeing no immediate danger, Su Xinge took two more steps forward, reaching out toward An Le’s back. Just as she was about to touch her, An Le suddenly spun around.

Blood-red eyes stared fixedly at Su Xinge.

As Su Xinge withdrew her hand, she scrambled back two steps. An Le’s hands and mouth were covered in bloody filth, as if she had just finished eating.

Seeing no movement from the two, Lin Yuxuan didn’t dare make a sound from outside.

After waiting for about a minute and seeing no intent to attack from An Le, Su Xinge called out again carefully, “An Le?”

There was still no response. After a moment’s pause, Su Xinge decided to step forward and take the girl away; this was certainly not a safe place.

But before Su Xinge could take more than two steps, An Le lunged outward with the agility of a wild beast, her speed staggeringly fast.

In a flash, Su Xinge reached out to block her, but only caught the hem of her clothes as she flew past.

At that exact moment, the lake erupted. Countless plumes of water shot into the sky as numerous bizarre, black-and-red figures began leaping through the air.