Calling the Soul

Crawled out of the coffin.

Xiao Ran took out his phone, opened the camera, turned off beauty mode, and took a beautiful selfie.

His face was skeletal, with only a thin layer of skin stretched over his body. His eyeballs flickered with faint blue flames. If he were to summon the Red Skeleton now, the two of them standing together would look like brothers.

Not bad, he looked pretty cool.

"Warning! Your identity has been temporarily changed to Night Ghost!"

"Hint 1: You will be temporarily deprived of the ability to speak, but you will develop a special connection with Night Ghosts."

"Hint 2: You can use the Campus Badge to strengthen yourself."

"Hint 3: Do not reveal your identity, or all Night Ghosts will hunt you."

"Hint 4: You must return to your Spirit Coffin before dawn, or face the consequences."

A series of prompts appeared before Xiao Ran. Simultaneously, just like in his dorm, a table appeared before his eyes.

Normal Abilities: Claws, Speed, Physique, Ghost Sense.

These four abilities were like the normal upgrades in the dorm, all requiring Campus Badges. The number of badges needed for each upgrade doubled.

Xiao Ran wasn't too concerned about these. His gaze was fixed on the four special exchange options below.

[Ghost Language] (LV1)

Requires Campus Badge · Pain

Upon awakening, you can use Ghost Language to control students in their dorm rooms through closed doors.

[Evil Curse] (LV1)

Requires Campus Badge · Despair

Upon awakening, you can corrode an area. Within the corroded area, your all-attribute stats increase by 30%, and you gain a strengthened corrosive effect on door and window defenses.

[Spirit Walk] (LV1)

Requires Campus Badge · Cruelty

Upon awakening, you can enter a state where you cannot be physically attacked, and your movement speed increases by 300%.

[Evil Ghost Treasure Vault] LV1; Requires Special Badge · Hatred + Cruelty + Pain + Despair

Summon the treasure vault once to randomly obtain three special items.

"I see!"

Xiao Ran took out the remaining Campus Badges and upgraded Speed, Claws, Defense, and Ghost Sense to level 3. Then, he took out the two special badges he had, Pain and Cruelty.

He activated the two special skills, [Ghost Language] and [Spirit Walk].

After this round of strengthening, Xiao Ran felt that his previously gaunt body seemed a little fuller than before.

At the same time, a dark red ghost mist appeared around him.

The ghost mist enveloped his body, like a mysterious veil adding to his presence.

Xiao Ran climbed out of the coffin and tried activating the [Black Swan Brooch] to confirm he had become a Night Ghost. His original abilities were unaffected, so he dared to walk towards the door.

The moment Xiao Ran stepped out of the dorm, various negative emotions began to surge towards him.

These negative emotions didn't affect him much. They were more like wireless waves transmitted between ghosts. By reading the emotions, he could understand the information they conveyed.

Xiao Ran felt them carefully and couldn't help but feel helpless. They were all about eating, eating, eating, killing, killing, killing, and other negative emotions.

However, these emotions also became a way for him to quickly pinpoint the locations of other Night Ghosts.

The place with the most intense emotional fluctuations was also the direction of the loudest screams.

"Let's go take a look."

He had to admit, walking as a ghost felt so light and airy. A gentle tap of his toes sent him three meters forward. If he activated [Spirit Walk] and his speed increased by another 300%, no one would be able to catch him.

Upon reaching the third floor, Xiao Ran stopped after only a few steps. He looked back at the dorm on the side with a puzzled expression.

Yang Kai's large shoe print was still on the dorm door. From inside, the creaking sounds of the bed could be heard intermittently.

"Good heavens, it's this bad outside, and you guys are still having fun inside. Since we've run into each other, we can't just ignore the rules, right?"

He checked the door. It was quite high-level, even higher than his dorm room door. However, it looked like only one or two levels higher. Xiao Ran didn't have time to play rough here.

This was the perfect opportunity to test the special ability he had activated, [Ghost Language].

As a thought crossed Xiao Ran's mind, a series of low, fragmented words were uttered from his mouth. There was no sound, yet he could clearly feel a sonic wave vibrating through the air, constantly drilling through the door cracks.

The next moment, the scene inside the room appeared in Xiao Ran's mind.

There were three beds in the room, but currently, there were four people: three males and one female.

Two boys were lying on the lower bunks. One had his head covered with a blanket, and it could be seen that the blanket was occasionally bulging and retracting, as if he were cleaning his glasses.

The other boy lay on the bed with a look of utter despair, staring at the swaying bed frame above, lost in thought.

After Xiao Ran's consciousness explored the situation in the room through Ghost Language, his focus immediately shifted. He concentrated all his attention on the classmate who was diligently practicing his "craft" under the covers.

The reason he chose this particular person was definitely not due to any perverted curiosity.

It is said that a person's spirit is the soul, and their physical form is the魄. When the vital energy scatters, the soul cannot gather, the yang energy wanes, and the spirit cannot concentrate.

These people have the worst spirits, making them the easiest to control.

At this point, some might ask why not choose the two on the bed.

That's a different concept. They say it's like dry wood and raging fire; at this moment, lust burns like a furnace, yin and yang intertwine, and their energy is actually at its peak.

Xiao Ran feared that if his consciousness clashed with theirs, he would be interfered with instead.

Why challenge a difficult target when a simple one is available?

Of course, there was also a small reason: Xiao Ran couldn't accept it psychologically. He didn't want to suddenly control someone's consciousness and then experience the pleasure of them "plowing the fields."

The young man on the bed, who was diligently practicing his craft, suddenly felt a chill on the back of his neck. Immediately afterward, his vision spun, and his mind became hazy. In a daze, he found himself sitting up from the covers.

"Huh? Third brother, you finished that quickly??"

Seeing their third brother suddenly sit up in bed, another male roommate in the dorm looked at him strangely.

However, the third brother, still naked from the waist down, jumped off the bed. His eyeballs rolled upwards, and his body twitched involuntarily.

"Third brother!"

This bizarre behavior sent a tremor through the boy beside him, a feeling of impending disaster washing over him. The next moment, the third brother suddenly rushed towards the room door.

"Don't!"

The boy panicked, screamed, and rushed forward to stop him, but the third brother, as if prepared, kicked him away.

"CRASH!!"

Tables and chairs overturned, creating a clatter.

"What the hell are you guys doing??"

The roommates in the upper bunks poked their heads out of their blankets. Seeing the mess on the floor, the boy whose "spell" had been interrupted couldn't help but curse.

The dorm was dark, and he couldn't see what was happening, but seeing the third brother standing naked at the door, he looked even more astonished: "Are you f***ing crazy??"

However, the third brother's ashen face twitched involuntarily a few times. A smile spread across his lips, and he pulled open the door latch.

"CLICK!!"

The moment the thumb-thick latch was pulled open, the dormitory fell into a dead silence.

"Buzzzzzz..."

As the door was pulled open, a withered hand reached out from the gap behind the door and landed on the third brother's neck. A skull-like head slowly emerged from behind the third brother, flames flickering in its eye sockets. Sharp claws tore open the third brother's throat.

"BANG!!"

The dormitory door slammed shut, and a woman's scream echoed from within.

Soon, when the screaming quieted down, blood began to seep from the doorframe.

With four badges in hand, Xiao Ran rummaged through the dorm. Unfortunately, he found nothing of value, so he immediately left the dorm to search for other prey.

At this moment, a strong negative emotion surged like a tide from the other end of the corridor.

"The negative emotions are strongest over there. There might be a powerful Night Ghost!"

Xiao Ran was very interested in Night Ghosts, or rather, their corpses. After some thought, he deactivated the Black Swan and combined the Trainee with the Ghost Cloak instead.

As the two combined, the Ghost Cloak's privileges began to take effect.

Privilege 1: Night Walk At night, one can enter a semi-stealth state. When stationary, one enters full stealth, but it cannot block factors like breathing, scent, or sound.

After all, his identity had changed, and the Black Swan's early warning ability could not be fully utilized.

After transforming into a Night Ghost, he had no breath, no heartbeat, essentially no different from a dead person. However, he wasn't a true Night Ghost; he could only receive the negative emotions spreading through the air, but he didn't possess them himself.

This loophole, now amplified by the Ghost Cloak, became perfect.

A shadow enveloped Xiao Ran's body, and he entered a semi-stealth state, his figure rapidly heading towards the source of the negative emotions.

Not long after, in another part of the corridor, he saw an old beggar standing outside a dorm room, holding a white banner. Human faces writhed on the banner, occasionally letting out shrill screams.

With each scream, another soul flew out from the room and landed within the old beggar's white banner.

"Soul summoning?"

Xiao Ran looked at the white banner in the old beggar's hand: "They really have this kind of thing."

He remembered his grandfather telling him when he was a child about a group of beggars who appeared during times of war and chaos.

These beggars had a name in the martial world: the Doll Masters.

They would beg on the streets during the day, actually scouting the areas around wealthy households, inquiring about whether they had children, how much money they had, how much land they owned, and so on.

At night, they would go to the doorstep, erect a white banner, call out the child's name a few times, and then summon the child's soul away.

The next day, they would send a messenger with a letter, extorting money. If they didn't bankrupt the family, they would still demand a hefty sum.

However, some stingy landlords were unwilling to pay, or perhaps they didn't believe in such superstitions. As a result, their children lost their souls and became dull-witted.

That's why people often say "the landlord's foolish son"; that foolish son came about in this way.

Later, this person vanished. Some said he offended someone he shouldn't have, and his whole family was wiped out.

Some said the beggar made enough money and decided to quit.

However, most people believed the beggar had committed too many sins and was too wicked, thus facing retribution.

Xiao Ran hadn't expected that, besides rare things like Malevolent Objects, this school even harbored such wicked paths.

At this moment, the beggar seemed to sense something. He turned his head, and in his hollow eye sockets, filled with skull fragments the size of fingernails, his fly-like eyes scanned the surroundings. After a moment, he turned his head back with a dejected expression and continued towards the next dormitory.

"This thing is much harder to deal with than the embroidered shoes!"

A moment later, Xiao Ran emerged from the shadows. Watching the beggar's retreating figure, he felt uncertain. He could sense a heavy death aura around the beggar, and he feared that rushing in recklessly might not make him his opponent.

As he was thinking, Xiao Ran's gaze suddenly shifted. He noticed the beggar's bare feet, and an idea immediately formed in his mind