Bo'ai Academy 4

"Thank goodness, the door's finally open." Xiao Yi smiled in relief, moving one hand to end the call and reaching for the door with the other.

Strange. Why was it pitch-black inside? Why weren't the lights on?

The thought made her hand pause. Just then, a beep came from her phone-the call had connected.

She glanced down at her phone, only for a slick, slimy hand to suddenly seize her outstretched hand.

The next second, the corridor lights went out. In the darkness, before Xiao Yi could see what had grabbed her, a tremendous force dragged her through the doorway.

Her phone fell to the floor, casting a faint blue glow.

The screen still showed a connected call, but the contact was no longer Shen Yiwen. Instead, it was a string of garbled characters.

Xiao Yi's agonized screams came through the speaker.

A few minutes later, the screams stopped.

The call remained connected. Anyone listening closely would have heard faint, steady chewing.

Shen Yiwen happened to glance at the rules posted on the door again.

Beneath the second rule was a line of small print:

Make sure you remember your dorm room's secret knock. Otherwise, the door you knock on may not be your own.

"I don't know who wrote this. Judging by the handwriting, it was a meticulous boy. We don't know what happens if we break it yet, but we'd better not take the risk."

"Wow, you can even read someone's personality from their handwriting. That's amazing."

Shen Yiwen did not smile. She continued reviewing the next rule.

Student Dormitory Rules, rule three:

Please return to your dormitory as soon as possible after evening study hall. In particular, do not linger in Teaching Building No. 3.

There was another line of small print underneath:

The thing in the teaching building is extremely emotionally unstable late at night. If you are unfortunate enough to encounter it, please notify your family to prepare your funeral arrangements.

Shen Yiwen stared at the small print, unconsciously clutching the hem of her clothes in worry.

Inside Teaching Building No. 3, Lu Mi felt as though his feet were about to go numb from standing so long.

He gave Roman a gentle nudge. "Let's keep patrolling. The gatekeeper's watching. As for that thing you mentioned, we'll avoid it if we can. If we really have to take it head-on..."

Lu Mi rubbed his hands together.

That would suit him just fine.

Roman kept his eyes fixed on the figure behind the window and slowly took two steps back.

The instant he moved, the figure shot out of the classroom door at incredible speed-the door to Class 4, Grade 26.

Lu Mi felt the temperature around them plummet, and branches cracked in the howling wind. He immediately realized that the thing had made its move.

"Get away from me!" He yanked Roman aside, summoned a ball of flame into his palm as he turned, and hurled it toward the classroom doorway.

The firelight illuminated a charred face covered in extensive burns.

The skin around its eyes was particularly badly burned, its eyelids severely contracted. Eyes it could barely force open stared fixedly at Lu Mi.

Enveloped in flames, its face twisted in pain, but it continued lunging toward him, its movements only slightly slower.

Lu Mi dodged with a frown, feeling as though a blade had slashed past his side. He nearly got burned by his own fire, too.

It seemed fire could not stop it completely.

The ghost straightened up, then immediately lunged at Roman.

With his divine power sealed, Roman irritably tried to deal with it bare-handed, only to have a large chunk of flesh violently torn away along with his clothes.

Lu Mi's heart ached. Great. Now I'll have to spend money on medicine for the kid again.

This ghost was highly aggressive. No wonder Li Zhe had said something like that.

Just as its sharp teeth were about to reach Roman's neck, another fireball engulfed the ghost in flames.

Before it could react, Lu Mi pulled Roman away and raised a wall of fire between them and the ghost. "Run!"

This was bad. Very bad.

On the surface, his flames slowed the ghost down, but Lu Mi could sense that the fire was also enraging it, drawing out even more resentment.

Especially since this ghost seemed to have been through a fire, using flames in a moment of panic was practically guaranteed to hit its sore spot.

Sure enough, the ghost disregarded the burns, charged through the wall of fire, and quickly caught up with them.

Their flashlight beams bounced wildly through the corridor as they ran. If they slowed even a little, that icy sensation would press against their backs and spread through their entire bodies.

Every so often, Lu Mi had to divert his attention to throw another ball of flame behind them.

Meanwhile, his mind raced:

I can't keep burning it forever. If only I could make it stop. Maybe I could use wind to hold it in the air.

He could now control three elements: water, fire, and earth. So, wind...

They had already been chased to the entrance of the teaching building, where a chilling wind happened to be howling outside.

Lu Mi flexed his fingers. He had just felt tiny whirlwinds gathering at his fingertips when Yellow Talismans suddenly flew into the corridor.

"Yellow Talismans?" Where did those come from?

Startled, Lu Mi heard a mischievous laugh from the main entrance. "Well, well. Running into the big boss on your very first day!"

The wind billowed the newcomer's unbuttoned shirt behind him. As he pointed a finger upward, the Yellow Talismans stopped in midair.

The sinister pressure eased considerably. Looking back, they saw the ghost covered in Yellow Talismans, immobilized on the spot.

Yet those resentful eyes remained fixed on Lu Mi.

"Aren't you going to say thank you? Drawing those talismans is seriously hard work."

Lu Mi looked at the newcomer and thanked him between breaths.

"I told you," Cheng Cheng said, strolling over with his hands behind his back like a veteran official. "I'm a Taoist priest."

Lu Mi was silent for two seconds before saying, "Could you remove the talismans first? Including the one on his head."

"...Huh?"

Cheng Cheng was surprised. Cheng Cheng was sad. Damn it. I'm the only one who thought I looked cool.

Lu Mi patiently explained, "I have something to ask this ghost."

"All right, whatever you want." Cheng Cheng affectionately patted Lu Mi's head with his left hand, then gave a dashing sweep of his arm.

The talisman obediently flew off the ghost's head, only to plunge into Lu Mi's flames the next second and instantly burn to ash.

Lu Mi: "..."

Cheng Cheng: "..."

Lu Mi: "Sorry."

Freed from the Yellow Talisman's control, the ghost spoke hoarsely from within the flames. "Can you... see me?"

Lu Mi did not rush to answer. Instead, he circled him once.

Finally, he propped his chin on his hand, looking a little disappointed. "It seems my flames can hold ghosts back, but they can't do any real damage."

"That's normal," Cheng Cheng said. "NPCs in instances can't be killed unless you advance the plot and meet certain conditions."

"Can you... see me?" the boy asked again.

The answer to this question could very well determine whether the ghost would attack them unprovoked. They needed to consider it carefully.

If they answered yes, that seemed far too obvious. If they answered no, they had no explanation for why that would be the right answer.

What mattered was figuring out why the ghost was asking.

Lu Mi thought for a moment, then asked, "This question is very important to you, isn't it?"

The boy looked at Lu Mi and gave a chilling smile. "Can you see me?"

Lu Mi: "..." He wasn't following the script at all.

And why had he suddenly switched from asking all of us to asking just me?

He looked at the ground and realized that, at some point, the moonlight had vanished.

Beside him, Cheng Cheng and Roman were still watching him quietly, seemingly wearing the same expressions as before.

But neither of them cast a shadow.

As soon as he realized this, an eerie feeling quietly descended.