Strength Revealed

Some time before Yu Jing escaped from the room, Jiang Pengyu and the other three had been waiting outside the corridor door for Yu Jing and Hu Zhi to search the room. Through the gap in the door, they watched the old woman's body lying on the bed like a corpse. The moment anything moved, Yu Xiaoxiao and Jiang Pengyu would attack.

Just as Yu Jing lowered his head to search beneath the bed, the old woman's body twitched. At the same time, the door suddenly slammed shut without warning.

Without a word, Yu Xiaoxiao swept her dagger across the lock and forcibly cut open the wooden door.

But when the door was broken open, the room had become completely empty. The four of them entered and searched everywhere, but found no trace of anything. Jiang Pengyu soon realized what was wrong and stood by the window with a startled expression.

"How... How are we on the second floor?"

The four of them left the room and discovered that the number on the door was "210," not "110," the room where the old woman had been.

"There really did seem to be a faint neural interference just now. Sorry, I thought it was a mistaken perception caused by lack of sleep, so I didn't warn everyone."

Zhang Xingyue apologized of her own accord, but Yu Xiaoxiao did not allow herself even a moment to stop and think. She broke away from the team at top speed and ran toward the first floor.

"Follow her!" Jiang Pengyu led the other three after Yu Xiaoxiao.

By the time they reached the door of the room in the corner of the first floor, the heavy stench of blood had already spread through the corridor. A body lay outside the dormitory room. Judging from the victim's skin tone and clothing, the dead man was the soldier Hu Zhi.

Yu Jing and the old woman had vanished from the room. From the window shattered outward, along with the bloody handprints and footprints, they could easily deduce that the old woman had chased Yu Jing into the mountain forest.

Yu Xiaoxiao did not hesitate. She left the inn through the broken window and plunged into the forest beneath the pouring rain.

"As expected of someone from the Yu family. Her physical mobility is incredible. Even I can barely keep up with that speed... It's too easy to get separated and picked off one by one in the forest, so the three of us will stay here for now. No matter what, Yu Jing has a Cultivated Physique and the terrain advantage in the woods. With help from an assassin of the Yu family, he should be able to survive this crisis."

Jiang Pengyu could not chase after them with the two teammates who were not good at physical exertion. Trusting that Yu Jing could survive, he continued searching this unusual dormitory room.

"Phew!"

After sprinting six hundred meters along the uneven mountain path, Yu Jing was beginning to run out of strength, but the feeling of being followed from behind remained crystal clear.

"If I keep running, I'll die from exhaustion!"

Yu Jing stopped beside a large tree, then quickly turned around to prepare for the old woman pursuing him.

Yet apart from the dense forest and raindrops falling through the air, he saw none of the terrifying crawling form he had expected from the old woman.

Yu Jing pressed his right palm against the large tree beside him. The plant body within his arm connected with the tree. As he absorbed its nutrients, he sensed something landing on the upper branches.

"Does it possess a certain level of intelligence?"

Yu Jing lunged forward. At his former position, a figure dropped down, and the old woman's clawed hands plunged into the muddy ground. If he had been one second slower, his head would have been torn off.

Unlike at the research institute, Yu Jing had grown every day through his trials on the brink of life and death.

Maintaining a crouched posture after lunging forward, Yu Jing knew the old woman would land where he had been, so he had set a trap in advance. The tree beside him, which had originally stood dozens of meters tall, had now completely withered. Clearly, Yu Jing had absorbed all its nutrients while leaning against it moments ago.

The fingertips of Yu Jing's five fingers on his right hand were connected to five vines buried underground. They spread from beneath the muddy ground to the spot where the old woman had landed.

"Get caught!"

As Yu Jing yanked hard with his right arm, a thick net of vines burst from the ground and wrapped around the old woman, trapping her within it. Only one rotten, blackened arm remained exposed.

"A slight miscalculation?"

Yu Jing's expression changed. He had already witnessed the old woman's strength. That exposed arm could very well tear apart the tough vine net, and it also made it difficult for Yu Jing to approach her for the moment.

At that moment, a petite figure flashed past Yu Jing's side. Perhaps because her attention had been fixed on the old woman, the figure moved so quickly that even Yu Jing barely saw her clearly.

A streak of silver light flashed over the old woman's outstretched arm.

"Swish!"

The arm, trailing viscous corpse fluid, landed right in front of Yu Jing.

"Yu Xiaoxiao, don't kill her!"

Yu Jing recognized the black shadow as Yu Xiaoxiao. After cutting off the old woman's arm with her dagger, Yu Xiaoxiao prepared to drive the blade down through the top of her head. But Yu Jing immediately stopped her.

"Why? This is worth ten points." Yu Xiaoxiao's dagger remained poised above the old woman's head, with no sign that she intended to withdraw it.

"There are no ten points... If my guess is right, this old woman is merely a creation of this inn. She isn't an independent ghost! If we want to uncover the truth behind the inn, the information in this old woman's mouth is extremely important. Otherwise, if we kill her and cut off the clues, we'll have no way to proceed. Listen to me, all right?"

After Yu Jing said this, Yu Xiaoxiao remained motionless for three seconds before finally withdrawing the dagger into her sleeve.

"All right." Yu Xiaoxiao turned around, and her previously cold and imposing assassin-like appearance instantly became petite and adorable.

Yu Jing extended a thick vine from his palm and connected it to the net binding the old woman. He draped the vines over his shoulders with both hands and dragged the one-armed old woman back toward the inn through the heavy rain like a boat hauler.

In his first battle against a nonhuman ghost after obtaining his ability, Yu Jing had emerged victorious.

On the way back to the inn, perhaps Yu Jing felt guilty after once again witnessing the death of someone he was not very familiar with but who could barely be considered a teammate; perhaps he was still shaken by his first independent and perilous victory against a ghost; or perhaps he had been struck by Yu Xiaoxiao's strength and coldness. Whatever the reason, Yu Jing and Yu Xiaoxiao remained silent throughout.

Yu Jing carefully tucked the special bell into his pocket...

This scene was reflected in the surveillance footage at the Dihua Ability Institute monitoring the current rookie physical training exercise.

Regarding Yu Jing's actions in handling the emergency alone and capturing the ghost alive, the various examining commissioners each awarded him an exceptionally high score. Commissioner Lu Chuan, the person in charge of this physical training exercise, gave Yu Jing an excellent rating in particular for his calm analytical ability in the face of danger.

"As expected of Commissioner Liang's student. It seems that after experiencing the brink of life and death, he has become remarkably calm and far beyond ordinary people in the way he handles matters... But for now, he has only subdued a minor corpse puppet. Can he really survive against such an evil spirit? It has only been a day, yet the situation has already worsened. I hope you can transform yourselves in this desperate situation."