They moved so fast that by the time Xia Chuan reacted, the group had already vanished without a trace.

Although Shen Lan couldn't see clearly and his hearing was disrupted by the rain amplified dozens of times, his ears throbbing with pain, he could still hear the footsteps of the group rushing past him, stomping on the wet mud amidst the chaotic downpour.

These people, whether in terms of skill or strength, were far inferior to Xia Chuan, let alone compared to Shen Lan. On a normal day, they would be the type that Xia Chuan and Shen Lan could easily save with a casual grab. But in this situation that even the two of them found somewhat troublesome to deal with, these people actually charged faster and further than them.

He and Xia Chuan were actually blocked behind by those people. Shen Lan found it a bit unbelievable.

Those footsteps falling in his ears, amplified dozens of times like the rain, the "splashing" of water sounding a bit piercing, one after another, mixed together like a concerto. There were clearly less than twenty people, not a large number, but it somehow gave him a sense of a vast momentum.

And in an instant, that vast momentum vanished from his ears, like a light extinguished, gone in a "poof" without any transition.

"They... went in?" Shen Lan, pulled by Xia Chuan, steadied himself at the edge of the darkness. He lifted the two beasts in his hand that no longer made a sound, feeling a bit unsatisfied as he loosened his fingers, letting them fall with a "splat" onto the rain-soaked muddy ground.

Xia Chuan stared blankly at the curtain-like darkness close at hand and grunted, "...Didn't manage to stop them in time."

Dennis, who was abruptly left behind by the troops that had turned back, hurriedly caught up. Just a second before following them into that darkness, he screeched to a halt. As he staggered and was about to slip, Xia Chuan grabbed his arm, steadying his posture.

"Where, where are they?" Dennis widened his eyes, looking around in all directions. "They were making quite a ruckus just now. I saw them rushing over, how did they disappear after turning a corner?!"

Shen Lan straightened up, wiped the rainwater from his face, and rubbed his temples that ached from the excessive noise. He lifted his chin towards the darkness, looking like he didn't really want to speak.

In fact, not only him, but Xia Chuan was also at a loss for words.

The two of them were used to saving others. In a group, they either walked at the very front to lead the way or at the very back to guard the rear. When encountering danger, their first reaction was to push others behind them.

Actually, to say they were kindhearted would be nonsense. Neither of these two had any relation to self-sacrifice for others. The reason for their reactions was very simple - the people they pushed behind them couldn't resolve the danger, that's all.

Rather than watching others struggle and dally, it was better to take action themselves. It was within their capabilities and didn't take much effort. Importantly, it saved time and trouble.

On such matters, Xia Chuan and Shen Lan's mentalities were surprisingly consistent. They felt that they were even quite cold-blooded. Many things they did were simply because it was convenient, without any intention of helping this or that person, so they never felt they needed to be thanked.

To the point that when those people they had helped repaid them with more, they always appeared surprised, stunned, and at a loss to react, just like this time.

Not to mention them, even Dennis was so shocked that he was speechless for a long time. He stared blankly at the darkness ahead for a good while before finding his voice, "They just... just charged in like that?"

He even carefully tilted his ear towards the darkness, holding his breath and trying hard to listen for a while, attempting to find some other sounds amidst the "swishing" of the heavy rain, like the shouts and footsteps of those tribesmen.

However, there was nothing.

Once they entered that darkness, it was as if they had evaporated from the world, completely disappearing.

"If they go in, can they come out?" Dennis looked at the darkness, then at Xia Chuan and Shen Lan, somewhat at a loss.

The downpour was so heavy that even the dense foliage in the forest couldn't block much of it. The pouring rain still fell unhindered, drenching the three of them like water ghosts.

Fortunately, Xia Chuan's rationality didn't wander for long due to his emotions. The icy cold rainwater quickly brought him back from his shock, calming him down again. So a question popped into his mind, "It seems they can't see the difference here at all."

His voice was always a bit low. At this moment, covered by the heavy rain, it didn't sound clear.

Dennis looked completely baffled. "Huh?"

But Shen Lan accurately discerned every word he said, and then looked up at Xia Chuan with a slightly puzzled expression. His eyesight wasn't good, so he didn't bother to pay attention to other people's expressions and demeanors, naturally not making any detailed observations.

But Xia Chuan was different.

"If I remember correctly--" Xia Chuan recalled, pausing for a moment before saying, "It seems they never noticed this obviously abnormal place at all. Including during the attack, they didn't seem to be shooting aimlessly. Even just now when they charged in, there wasn't the slightest hesitation. This isn't the reaction a normal person should have, no matter how fearless they are."

Fearlessness and not being able to see are two completely different mentalities, and the attitudes and actions they manifest definitely won't be the same.

Previously, in the high-intensity combat, there was no spare thought to ponder carefully. Now thinking back, the more Xia Chuan considered it, the more he felt something was off.

As listeners, the other two also felt the unusualness. Shen Lan had always been direct in speech and action, doing things more often based on his animal-like intuition, most of the time without much thought. But this also reduced his reaction time. So after hearing Xia Chuan's words, with almost no pause, he concluded based on his feeling, "Then they probably really can't see it."

"But why?" Dennis was puzzled. "What is something we can see but they can't? Sorcery? Don't joke. If there was really such advanced sorcery, why would those people need to hunt or dig traps? They could dominate the continent in a snap!"

"What if it's not sorcery..." Xia Chuan said.

"If it's not sorcery, then it makes even less sense! We're all human, eating the same things recently, using the same things, nothing special. Why are we the only ones who can see it? What are the filtering criteria?" Dennis continued with a string of questions.

But as soon as he said that, he realized a problem - they really weren't the same kind of people!

These tribespeople originally existed in this world, while the three of them had all accidentally entered from outside!

This was the biggest difference.

Xia Chuan thought for a moment and said, "In the current situation, to put it another way, we can only see a piece of darkness and not what's behind the darkness, while they can see it. Then... it's very likely that what's behind the darkness doesn't exist or shouldn't be seen by us, but exists and is visible to them."

"If what we see after mistakenly entering here is an incomplete fragment, then there's only one situation where it doesn't exist for us but exists for them!" Dennis quickly went over Xia Chuan's words in his mind, then blurted out, "That means this is the edge! This is the end point of what we can see!"

As if to confirm his guess, as soon as he finished saying this, a string of strange words emerged not far from them.

Although they couldn't understand a single word, it was more familiar than anything. They turned to look, and sure enough, they saw a somewhat familiar face more than half exposed from the curtain-like darkness, shouting something, a stone knife raised high in his hand. From his posture, it was clear he had not yet left the battle.

This precisely proved that Xia Chuan and Dennis's guesses were most likely true. For them, this place was the end, but for those tribespeople, it was just an ordinary place in the forest, with no extra impact whatsoever.

"It's good to be able to come out!" Dennis shouted somewhat excitedly. Even Xia Chuan and Shen Lan secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

However, the sound of the heavy rain was too loud, chopping up Dennis's words. The tribesman couldn't hear clearly at all. Besides, even if he could, he wouldn't understand what it meant. So the man just turned his head to look at them, waved the stone knife in his hand, his expression neither relaxed nor fearful.

As a result, in the instant when the three of them had let down their guard, two black shadows suddenly sprang out from the tall, dense grass to the side and pounced straight at Xia Chuan.

The force that erupted after being stored up for a long time was extremely great. Xia Chuan only felt the wet animal fur hit his body. Because of the inconvenient posture to exert force, he was knocked backward by the huge force.

Dennis cried out in alarm and instinctively lunged to try to block for Xia Chuan, but he was still a bit slow. Not only did he fail to block it, he also lost his balance and fell forward.

As for Shen Lan, with his vision and hearing limited, he was simply tied up and had no way to accurately judge the position to give the most correct response. Almost instinctively at that instant, he wanted to hold Xia Chuan, but unfortunately he couldn't catch him steadily. He was also tripped by Xia Chuan's foot and fell over with him.

So the three people who had momentarily lost their vigilance were carried by the two fierce beasts and fell into the darkness as thick as ink.

Xia Chuan only felt like he was standing under the feet of a helicopter that was taking off. The huge whirlwind scratched his cheeks painfully, and he couldn't open his eyes at all. The incessant buzzing sound poured into his ears all at once...

He couldn't see or hear, and even the flesh all over his body was numb and painful. His left hand was especially obvious, as if the blood flow had been cut off, and he had almost lost sensation.

This kind of feeling was not entirely unfamiliar to him. He had experienced something similar once before, not long ago, just a few days before this night.

And that time, he had passed out halfway through. When he woke up, he found that he had already changed worlds.