After their last afternoon class, the three left school without a hitch, wielding their leave slips like imperial warrants.
The Red King saw it all.
"Leaving the female ghost behind while Calamity takes the other two out-what are they up to?" The Red King couldn't quite make sense of the relationship between Zhou You and the two girls.
"Pack up. Follow Calamity," the Red King ordered the Mind Master and the Mighty Warrior. They could ignore the female ghost for now. She didn't look like anyone important anyway.
Rather than taking a taxi, Zhou You and the girls walked straight into the Lanzhou Beef Noodles shop across from the school gates.
The Red King didn't dare go inside for fear of running into them face-to-face. He waited until the three finished eating before entering the noodle shop to gather intelligence.
The Mind Master hypnotized the cook, found out what the three had eaten, and ordered three bowls of the same noodles to go.
"Write this down: Calamity ate a bowl of Lanzhou Beef Noodles," the Red King told the Mighty Warrior.
If finding out what Chu Xiaoyao ate in the cafeteria hadn't been so difficult, he would have investigated that too.
If Calamity ever discovered him, perhaps an offer to "treat you and Zhou You to a bowl of noodles" would get his life spared.
This was vital, life-saving intelligence. Even the professor didn't know it.
"Are we taking the bus?" Zhou You asked. With a beautiful girl on either side, he drew plenty of second glances from passersby.
Chu Xiaoyao had originally planned to take the bus, but with Su Tingxue here, she couldn't afford to lose face.
She waved a hand with extravagant confidence. "We'll take a taxi. My treat!"
Su Tingxue tilted her head to look around Zhou You at Chu Xiaoyao, puzzled. It was only a taxi ride. Why announce it with such grand bravado?
Perhaps this was simply how an expert carried herself.
Chu Xiaoyao shelled out fifteen yuan, and they arrived at Wanhe Residential Community.
Just as the post had described, Wanhe Residential Community was very old, with six-story buildings and no elevators. The tiled exterior walls were mottled with age, and only a handful of apartments in each building had their lights on.
Half the streetlights were out, and the few that worked were dim. Unidentified little insects swarmed around them as though attending a grand banquet.
Zhou You wasn't afraid, though. His family lived in an old residential community like this too, in housing allocated by his parents' workplace.
At the community entrance, a man of about thirty stood beneath a streetlight with a black dog on a leash, anxiously waiting for something.
"Do You Swim This Week?"
"Bamboo Shoots with Pork?"
They confirmed each other's identities as though exchanging passwords. Zhou You thought the man stood out, while the man thought Zhou You stood out even more.
It wasn't because Chu Xiaoyao and Su Tingxue were beside him. It was because all three wore school uniforms.
He really was a student.
The little black dog barked twice at Zhou You as though greeting him. It did seem rather perceptive.
"I'm Ji Sen of the Green Bamboo Sect. And you three fellow cultivators are?"
"Zhou You of the Carefree Sect."
"Chu Xiaoyao of the Carefree Sect."
"Su Tingxue of Dragon-Tiger Mountain."
Ji Sen had never heard of the first two and remained unmoved. But the moment he heard Su Tingxue's name, his doubts vanished, replaced by solemn respect.
It was actually Su Tingxue, Dragon-Tiger Mountain's young Celestial Master. She was a cultivator with quite a reputation in their circles.
"So you're fellow cultivators from Dragon-Tiger Mountain and the Carefree Sect. I've long admired your reputations," Ji Sen said politely. Whether he had heard of them or not, he could start with that.
"This way, please."
"You're finally here. I barely slept last night." Ji Sen poured out his troubles to the three, recounting the events in his post again, only in greater and more frightening detail.
Last night, whenever he closed his eyes, he felt something watching him. Even wrapped in his blankets, he felt unsafe. He had left his bedroom door open and all the lights on, opened every wardrobe and drawer, and clutched his Spirit Sword, jumping at shadows.
Throughout the walk, Ji Sen watched their expressions. Finding no fear on any of their faces reassured him considerably.
All three were exceptionally bold.
Su Tingxue went without saying. She often watched horror films to relax and wouldn't even flinch with a vengeful ghost right in her face.
Chu Xiaoyao feared nothing and no one.
Years of running wild with Chu Xiaoyao had toughened Zhou You's nerves.
Ji Sen lived on the sixth and top floor. The stairwell lights were dim, and whenever they climbed to the next floor, the lights below went out, leaving pitch darkness. Their footsteps echoed through the stairwell as though something were following close behind.
"This is a place I rented. Since I live alone, I don't have much stuff. Most of what's inside was left by the previous owner, so the decor is a little dated," Ji Sen explained before opening the door.
The door opened onto a living room decorated in turn-of-the-millennium style.
Pale yellow wood paneling dominated the room. The wooden sofa and stools looked painfully hard, and a floral tablecloth covered the coffee table beneath a clear protective mat. An assortment of trinkets cluttered a rounded corner cabinet, while a bulky television hissed with static, its white noise grating on their nerves.
The sight instantly pulled Zhou You back into hazy childhood memories.
"How is this television on?!" Disbelief filled Ji Sen's eyes as he hurried over to inspect it.
"Did you forget to turn it off when you left?" Zhou You asked, studying the television.
He hadn't seen an old television like this in ages. It was almost a cube, the sort he habitually called a big-backed TV. He had only seen them as a child; by now, they had all but disappeared.
"Th-this is impossible! When the old landlord handed the place over, he told me the television was broken, so I unplugged the power cord!" Ji Sen looked panicked. Nothing like this had ever happened before.
Then he froze.
The television wasn't connected to a power cord at all.
"You leave the windows open with the air conditioner running?" Chu Xiaoyao pointed at the balcony window. The freestanding air conditioner in the living room was blasting cold air, while hot air gusted through the wide-open balcony window.
"No! I definitely closed the window before I left!" Chilled to the bone, Ji Sen gripped the window frame and peered outside. The community was pitch-black.
"Who opened the window?!"
This was the sixth floor, and there were no security bars. It was almost as though something had opened the window and crawled inside.
If something had climbed in, its only route would have been down from the roof, right?
Clinging to the window frame, Ji Sen swallowed, hesitating over whether to look up. Could something be clinging right above his head...?
In the end, he didn't dare look up and pulled his head back inside.
Zhou You frowned. An indescribable strangeness pervaded the place. Was it a ghost?
Zhou You used Soul Projection to investigate, hoping to find where the ghost was hiding.
This was Su Tingxue's first encounter with such a situation. Considering what kind of vengeful ghost might cause it, she opened her Yin-Yang Heavenly Eye and scanned the entire apartment.
Strangely, although the apartment held no secrets before her Heavenly Eye, she found nothing.
Aside from a barely effective Peace Talisman that Ji Sen had obtained somewhere, there were no traces of magic.
"Did you find anything?" Zhou You asked. He had come up empty. Everything in the apartment appeared normal.
Yet all the signs made it impossible for this place to be normal.
Su Tingxue shook her head. Her Yin-Yang Heavenly Eye couldn't detect anything either.
"Could that thing have climbed out through the window rather than in, and already left?" Zhou You's brow furrowed. The problem was more complicated than he had imagined.
After all, if something were in the apartment, the little black dog should have barked.
"Wait, where's the little black dog?" Zhou You suddenly noticed that the dog at his feet had disappeared at some unknown point!
"Coalball's gone?!" Ji Sen broke into a cold sweat. Coalball was the little black dog's name.
How could Coalball suddenly vanish under everyone's noses without making a sound?!
Badly frightened, Ji Sen picked up the Spirit Sword and brass handbell from the sofa, scanning his surroundings warily.
"Coalball, are you there?" Weapons in hand, Ji Sen searched every room, calling repeatedly for the little black dog, hoping to hear even one more bark.
But even after he searched the entire apartment, not a single bark sounded.
The little black dog had vanished without a trace or a sound.
"Could he have been locked outside?" Puzzled, Zhou You decided to check outside. The little black dog was quite perceptive and could be a great help in finding that invisible thing-the key to breaking this deadlock.
The little black dog wasn't outside the door either.
"Coalball's gone." Ji Sen emerged from the master bedroom, looking dejected. He had few friends, and the little black dog had kept him company. With the dog gone, he felt as though a piece of his heart were missing.
"I really can't find Coalball." Another Ji Sen emerged from the second bedroom, looking equally dejected. The dog had been his companion.
The two Ji Sens drew their swords on each other and shouted in unison.
"Who are you?!"
Before you continue