Blood Water

A blood-red room, blood-red lights, a blood-red bath.

"That old bitch actually died so quickly. Looks like this time, something big has been drawn here. Haha, there's hope, there's hope. Who knows what the outside world has become? They must have nearly forgotten me by now."

The voice slowly rose from the bathtub filled with blood, echoing throughout the room.

It was the handsome foreign man from before. This time, not only was his head exposed, but his body was gradually floating up from the bloody water as well. However, it was still continuously forming—his heart, stomach, and intestines slowly piecing themselves together from threads of blood.

Before long, the foreign man had a body too, though his limbs had yet to form. Still, judging by his expression, he seemed quite satisfied already.

"Even though I've waited so long, I really don't want to wait another day. Just thinking about those children outside—their soft skin, their sweet blood. Haha, hurry, I need to hurry."

The man lay in the bath, laughing wildly without restraint. Then, part of the blood on his body slowly flowed down along the bathtub and seeped into the floor.

Zhang Chen had originally thought that dealing with whatever was inside this villa might be troublesome, but with Jia Xin as a helper, it should not have been much of a problem.

But now, it seemed the two of them might have trouble even protecting themselves. Zhang Chen began planning how to leave this place, though he would have to wait until Jia Xin recovered before discussing it.

After going upstairs, Jia Xin asked Zhang Chen to visit Shen Qiutian's room. The door was not closed. Shen Qiutian lay quietly on the bed, and nothing seemed unusual about her.

"Zhang Chen, put me beside her."

Zhang Chen placed Jia Xin beside Shen Qiutian's bed. Jia Xin pressed two fingers against the pulse on her left wrist, then directly pulled a silver needle from the back of her neck.

"This is..." Zhang Chen was about to speak.

"I'll explain later." Jia Xin cut him off at once. The two of them then left the room, shut the door, and returned to Jia Xin's room.

Jia Xin's injuries were severe. The wounds that had been repaired by the medicine's effects seemed to have worsened again due to the earlier tearing. After returning to his room, Jia Xin sat down directly on the floor and took out silver needles to seal several acupoints on the front of his body.

"Help me with something. Insert a few thin needles into my back." After saying that, Jia Xin somehow produced several silver needles and handed them to Zhang Chen.

"This... I've never learned acupuncture." Zhang Chen was stunned.

"I'll tell you where. The first needle: beneath the spinous process of the fifth thoracic vertebra, two finger-widths to either side. Insert it one-third of the way."

Holding the silver needle, Zhang Chen searched around awkwardly. Under Jia Xin's careful instructions, he finally inserted the first needle.

"Good. The second needle: between the first and second thoracic vertebrae, four finger-widths to either side. Insert it halfway."

With the experience from the first needle, Zhang Chen quickly inserted the second.

Like that, under Jia Xin's guidance, Zhang Chen inserted a total of thirty-one needles into his back. He had practically gotten the hang of acupuncture by the end.

"Thanks, Zhang Chen. Go back and rest. Once today is over, my injuries will recover. We'll discuss the house tomorrow." Jia Xin seemed to need to do something others could not witness, so he gave Zhang Chen a clear dismissal.

Zhang Chen nodded and returned to his room. He thought of the silver needle in Shen Qiutian's neck.

When I first entered the Mirror World, Jia Xin went out first to look for ghosts. Could he have gone to Shen Qiutian's room? Could the world inside the mirror directly affect the real world?

Zhang Chen felt fortunate that he had decisively killed that ballet ghost. If his deduction was correct, Wang Yizhi and the others might have been in danger.

Sitting alone in his room, Jia Xin recalled acting alone in the Mirror World and still felt lingering fear.

At the time, Shen Qiutian had held him tightly, and he had completely fallen into the trap of the ballet ghost behind him. He had nearly been trapped in a hopeless situation.

But with the mindset of giving it a try, he had shouted at Shen Qiutian, "Qiutian!" He remembered his master once teaching him that although humans were fragile, they possessed powerful obsessions and would not be completely controlled by ghosts. As long as one could stir the obsession in a person's heart, they could be awakened.

And Jia Xin, who had been Shen Qiutian's classmate for three years, knew very well that the obsession in this girl's heart was Jia Xin himself.

After that shout, Shen Qiutian's originally white eyes slowly revealed pupils. Her hands, which had been gripping Jia Xin tightly, gradually loosened, but the attack from behind had already arrived.

His normally cold self had actually thrown Shen Qiutian aside, leaving himself unable to dodge. His waist was pierced, even injuring his kidney. That was also the main reason he had been unable to fight the female ghost afterward.

Not wanting Qiutian to see any of it or suffer further harm, he flicked a finger, and a silver needle shot directly into the neck of Shen Qiutian, who had been thrown onto the bed, causing her to lose consciousness.

Only after desperately enduring several attacks that were impossible to detect did he escape Shen Qiutian's bedroom. The silver needles in his hand passed straight through the female ghost and could not harm her at all.

"This time, I still have Yufang Middle School's Zhang Chen to thank. I don't know how he could see those invisible attacks, much less block them continuously. Looks like I really overestimated myself. Master was right after all."

"And that girl Qiutian... we'll talk if she can safely survive this trial."

Jia Xin sighed and stopped thinking about it. Then, his hands continuously formed seals, while the silver needles in his body began to slowly force themselves out one by one. His wounds also began healing at an inhuman speed.

Night fell.

Wang Yizhi and Dai Xu had long since fallen asleep, but from the corner of the dark room came the sound of dripping water.

Red blood first slowly seeped from cracks in the ceiling, drop by drop, falling onto the floor. Gradually, a pool of bright red bloody water formed.

The bloody water seemed alive as it slowly wriggled toward the bed where the two were sleeping. Just as it was about to reach the edge of the bed, the wardrobe opened, and a small red insect flew toward the blood at incredible speed, seemingly overcome with excitement.

The bloody water seemed to sense the approaching Blood Beetle and actually began wriggling toward the corner in panic. But how could it possibly be faster than the flying Blood Beetle?

Inside Zhang Chen's room.

While Zhang Chen slept, the Blood Beetle inside his left arm suddenly became excited, darting back and forth within his arm and waking him up.

"Yi Zhi!" The moment Zhang Chen noticed the Blood Beetle's agitation, Wang Yizhi was the first person he thought of. He casually pulled on a pair of shorts and rushed toward Wang Yizhi's bedroom. Using Telekinesis, he directly opened the locked door and charged inside without giving it much thought.

Using the faint moonlight in the room, Zhang Chen first used Telekinesis to sense Wang Yizhi and Dai Xu's physical conditions. Once he found that they were merely sleeping normally, he felt greatly relieved.

Then he saw a large pool of motionless blood in the corner. From that blood, Zhang Chen sensed the same feeling the house had given him when he first entered the villa. Moreover, the other Blood Beetle Zhang Chen had left in Wang Yizhi's bedroom was now inside that blood.

But something Zhang Chen had not expected happened. The Blood Beetle in his arm actually flew out on its own. It was the first time this had ever occurred.

The Blood Beetle plunged straight into the blood. Before long, the large pool of blood had been completely drained. Five Blood Beetles were left on the ground, and the red shells on their backs seemed even more vivid than before.

All five Blood Beetles could establish a connection with Zhang Chen. Three immediately flew into his left arm, while he left the remaining two in the room in case of emergencies.

Seeing that Wang Yizhi and Dai Xu had not been awakened, Zhang Chen felt somewhat fortunate. It spared him plenty of pointless explanations.

After returning to his room, Zhang Chen could clearly sense that the Blood Beetles had not only reproduced three more, but had also become much stronger. Yet he could not feel happy at all.

The pool of blood in Wang Yizhi's bedroom seemed to have been only a very small part separated from the main body, yet it had allowed the Blood Beetles to reproduce and grow so much stronger after consuming it. Last time, after a low-level resentful ghost had been devoured by the Blood Beetle, it had only reproduced one more, and its abilities had not changed. This time, merely a tiny portion of the main body had caused this much change. What exactly was the main body of this thing?

Tomorrow, I have to discuss this properly with Jia Xin. We can't stay in this place for long. That terrifying thing must be under some sort of restriction, or none of us would likely still be safe.

Could all of this have been planned a year ago? Are we being used as bait to bring that huge thing back into the world? But why us? And where is the breakthrough point?

"Not good." Zhang Chen suddenly cut off his thoughts and immediately sent out three Blood Beetles to inspect every room on the second floor.

I wonder if it's too late. I was so worried about Wang Yizhi just now that I actually forgot everyone else.

Inside Gong Yuanwu's room on the right side of the second floor.

While Zhang Chen was dealing with the strange blood in Wang Yizhi's bedroom, a large mass of blood also gathered in the corner of Gong Yuanwu's room. However, he was not so fortunate.

The blood wriggled slowly up the side of the bed and crawled onto Gong Yuanwu's body, then gradually made its way toward his head.

However, this muscular student from No. 1 High School seemed to sense the foreign presence on his body and suddenly opened his eyes, staring at the large mass of red blood before him.

"Mmph! Mmph!" The young man was about to scream when the blood suddenly sealed his mouth like slime. Then, the living mass of blood split into two thin strands that crawled along Gong Yuanwu's cheeks and drilled into his ear canals.

Gong Yuanwu's eyes were wide open and bloodshot as he stared fixedly at the mass of blood before him. He seemed to be enduring immense pain, his entire body twitching without stop.

Before long, a yellow liquid flowed from Gong Yuanwu's nostrils, while a transparent, viscous fluid overflowed from his eyes. His entire body suddenly went limp as though he were dead.

Ten minutes later, all the red blood had entered Gong Yuanwu's head. The originally dead Gong Yuanwu suddenly sat up from the bed and went to the bathroom to wash the foreign matter from his face.

"Gong Yuanwu" returned to the bed with a faint smile on his lips, then sat motionless at the bedside as though plotting something.

At that moment, Zhang Chen's Blood Beetle flew to Gong Yuanwu's room. It lingered outside for a while, seemingly finding nothing, then left...

Author's note: Today is a very important day for this book, and also a very important day for me, A Fei.

First, this book will receive a featured recommendation on the category channel this afternoon, and it will be crucial to the book's success or failure. Second, today is my grandmother's eightieth birthday, so the family will be going out early. No matter what, there will still be two updates every day, each with over 3,000 characters. A Fei hopes that anyone with recommendation votes will cast them for me. Please give A Fei whatever support you can. I will keep writing this book well, so everyone can read it comfortably and enjoy it to the fullest.