Free Web NovelDu Sixian held the edge of the white porcelain plate, fine beads of sweat seeping into her palms, her heart engaged in a heavenly battle.
On one side was the Expert who had saved her life, and on the other was An Qing, who had led her down the path of a Psychic and meticulously taught her. Both were people she didn't want to hurt; it was too difficult to choose.
How about...
...just destroy this damned plate?
No, no, wouldn't that be a bit too obvious? Besides, even if it's broken, it doesn't mean it can't be used for whatever that spirit channeling is, right?
After all, I don't even know what that spirit channeling thing is like.
Du Sixian thought, lingering in front of that desk for a while, until the badges of the barn owls of mourning on A Hua and An Qing's chests suddenly vibrated.
After lightly touching the badge with her fingertip, Jiang Li's indifferent voice rang out in the classroom, instantly attracting everyone's attention except for Du Sixian.
"Have you found anything on your side? If not, hurry over to the auditorium? I have a major discovery here."
As her voice fell, everyone's expressions subtly changed, and the atmosphere became somewhat heavy.
Jiang Li was never one to make a fuss; if she said she had a major discovery, she must have found a very useful clue.
Du Sixian covertly glanced at everyone out of the corner of her eye. Seeing them all looking at A Hua and An Qing, her gaze slightly hardened. She grabbed the white porcelain plate, which was only slightly larger than her palm, and quickly stuffed it into her clothes.
The white porcelain plate against her skin sent a chill. Du Sixian's heart pounded wildly for a moment. While covertly observing everyone out of the corner of her eye, she adjusted the plate's position, tightened her belt, and only after confirming it wouldn't slip did she secretly breathe a sigh of relief.
Just hide it on me for now, and after leaving this cursed place, find somewhere to throw it away. Du Sixian thought.
At the same time, the others had also finished listening to Jiang Li's brief description and began to discuss.
"Jiang Li must have found some important clues over there. There are priorities, so shouldn't we hurry over?" An Qing said. "It doesn't look like anything unusual here for now. It won't be too late to come back and search after things are finished over there."
"Okay! Let's do that then?"
A Hua knew her Miss's temperament best. Hearing An Qing say this, she also felt it made sense. She responded, nodded, and then led the members of the Special Operations Team out of the classroom.
The moment she stepped out of the main classroom door, she paused slightly, her gaze sweeping over Du Sixian.
Was it my imagination? Did she stay in front of that table a bit too long just now?
Why does it feel like something isn't quite right? A Hua pondered for a few seconds and gently shook her head.
Never mind, I might be overthinking it.
...
Deep within Shihekou Middle School, there was a building significantly lower than the others. With an arched dome mimicking the National Centre for the Performing Arts and some Roman columns, it could be said to ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) have some grandeur, but more than that, it felt out of place.
This was the main auditorium of Shihekou Middle School, with a total of two floors.
A few minutes ago.
The members of Group A, where Jiang Li was located, had traced their way here. Before even entering, they felt a strange fluctuation of Spiritual Energy.
The floor-to-ceiling glass doors at the front of the auditorium were all locked and covered in thick dust, making it impossible to see inside.
Jiang Li stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling glass doors, considering whether to find the Special Operations Team members with the keys to open the door or save time and break in. Just then, she heard a shout from a Special Operations Team member who had split off nearby.
"Agent Two, there's a safety exit here we can use!"
Following the direction of the sound, she found the safety passage discovered by the Special Operations Team member. Jiang Li's brow furrowed slightly. She saw that the heavy iron door of the safety exit looked as if it had been violently smashed by something, twisted and deformed, bulging inwards, revealing a gap large enough for one person to pass through.
Seeing this, Jiang Li turned and instructed the three Special Operations Team members behind her, "I'll go in first. Once I confirm there's no danger inside, you can come in."
"Yes!"
Hearing the Special Operations Team members respond, Jiang Li took a step forward, and a silver light emerged from beneath her feet, climbing up along her slender legs.
The moment her feet fully entered the auditorium area, she had already entered the Spirit Mark Stage One Liberation state. Her lower body was encased in silver-white armor glowing with a faint blue light, and her staff had transformed into a long, narrow, sharp saber.
Standing in the corridor behind the safety exit, stale air mixed with a faint, elusive strange smell assailed her. Jiang Li extended her spiritual sense detection range to its maximum. After confirming there were no urban legend hidden nearby, she lightly called out to the outside, "Come in?"
Three Special Operations Team members squeezed through the narrow gap into the corridor one after another, then simultaneously turned on their powerful flashlights, illuminating the dark corridor.
This was a corridor wide enough for perhaps four or five people to walk side by side. It extended forward about four or five meters before turning right, leading directly towards the interior of the auditorium.
The surrounding walls were yellowed, with patches of mold growing in the corners. A lot of trash was scattered on the floor, making it look like a scene after a movie ended, before it had been cleaned up.
Jiang Li walked two steps forward and suddenly stepped on something, making a soft sound. She frowned slightly, fumbled in the shadows for a moment, and picked up the dried corpse of a mouse, which was just an empty shell.
"Crack—!" She applied slight pressure with her fingertips, crushing the object in her hand. Jiang Li walked forward without a word.
After walking a distance and turning the corner at the end of the corridor, another large iron door appeared not far ahead. ƒгeewёbnovel.com
Jiang Li walked up and gently pushed the iron door. Accompanied by a soft, whimpering sound, the door had just opened a crack when a strange smell wafted out from inside.
Jiang Li was all too familiar with that strange smell. She had smelled it more than once at the scenes of various urban legend attack incidents; it was the smell of decaying bodies in a confined space.
Without lingering, she forcefully pushed open the door, stepped into the auditorium area in a couple of strides, and her expression darkened when she saw the scene inside.
The three Special Operations Team members followed closely behind Jiang Li. Logically, this wasn't their first mission, and their psychological fortitude was much stronger than ordinary people's. However, when they saw the scene in the auditorium hall, they were still startled. One of them even trembled and dropped his flashlight.
As a private aristocratic middle school, the auditorium of Shihekou Middle School was built to resemble major theaters. The hall space was very high and wide, fanning out to nearly a thousand seats.
At this moment, within this auditorium that had been abandoned for many years, turbid air mixed with eerie, cold wind lingered. Following the beams of the powerful flashlights, a glance revealed that the nearly thousand seats were densely packed with figures.
"They" sat quietly in this dimly lit hall, like a group of audience members with deep-seated obsessions, still gazing at the stage long after the performance had ended, unwilling to leave.
At the front of the hall, the stage curtain was tightly closed, its color dull and faded, covered in dust.
Facing such a bizarre scene, Jiang Li glanced at the three Special Operations Team members behind her who were startled. She calmly walked forward, grabbed the head of the figure closest to her, lifted it with one hand, turned around, and threw it in front of the three of them.
"Take a look, there's no Spiritual Energy fluctuation, it's not a Strange Tale."
Hearing Jiang Li's voice, the three Special Operations Team members composed themselves and directed the beams of their flashlights onto the figure on the ground.
It was a dummy made from bedsheets and pillows.
Judging by the style of the sheets and duvet covers, they must have been the bedding uniformly issued by Shihekou Middle School.
Since the students at that time were either rich or noble, hardly anyone used the uniform bedding. When the Night Watch first searched, they found a large accumulation of that bedding in the storage room.
This point was recorded in the archives concerning Shihekou Middle School.
These dummies were crudely made, barely showing the shape of a person.
What was rather terrifying was that a human face was drawn on the pillow with colored pens. The eyes, nose, and mouth were drawn with a single stroke and were exceptionally delicate. The class and name were also written on the back.
"Grandma's, which grandson brought all that stockpiled bedding here to pull this kind of stunt? Scared Grandpa to death!"
Perhaps feeling that a dignified Night Watch member had been scared by pillows and quilts, the Special Operations Team member who had dropped his flashlight swore loudly as he kicked the dummy. The next moment, however, he cried out in surprise.
"Holy crap, holy crap... It moved, it moved!"
It was unclear if it was a coincidence or if there was something fishy about the dummy, but when he kicked it, the metal buckle on his combat boot hooked onto a rope on the dummy's chest. The moment he withdrew his foot, the dummy was pulled by the rope, suddenly sat up, and lunged at him.
After realizing the dummy only moved because it was hooked by the boot, another Special Operations Team member helped him untangle the rope while teasing him.
"Little Dong, were you scared stiff? Even though this is only your third mission, you shouldn't be this timid, right? Honestly, you're so jumpy!"
"Damn it! How would I know? If it were you, wouldn't you be scared?"
...
Jiang Li listened to the three Special Operations Team members behind her mocking each other, gently shook her head, held her saber horizontally, and walked forward, following the strange smell wafting through the air.
Walking along the aisle, Jiang Li gradually approached the direction the strange smell was coming from. Unknowingly, she reached the front of the stage.
Just then, a grating sound of metal breaking suddenly came from above the stage.
"Screech—!"
"Snap—!" Something broke in the darkness. The stage curtain "whooshed" down, hitting the stage with a heavy thud and kicking up a cloud of choking dust.
When the dust settled, more than a dozen figures wearing performance costumes were revealed standing on the stage, hidden in the darkness, posing in various ways, and seemingly still gently twisting their bodies...
(Emmm, there was a sudden downpour and the power went out for a while, so the second update is a bit late...)
