030
Jiang Huali stayed in her dormitory.
Until Qi Man sent her a message: 【Come to my place.】
The sounds outside gradually faded, as if we had returned to the calm and uneventful days of the previous nights.
Jiang Huali got out of bed and walked towards the door.
Zhao Yu's voice came from behind: "Don't forget our promise."
Jiang Huali turned around, "I won't forget."
Upon arriving at Qi Man's dormitory and opening the door, several pairs of eyes immediately turned to look at her.
Jiang Huali paused for a moment.
She closed the door and sat down next to Qi Man again.
Qi Man was holding a handkerchief and wiping the blood off the dagger.
Less than two minutes later, there was another knock on the door.
This time, it was Xin Mingqing who came in.
His scars were still as noticeable as ever. When he saw Jiang Huali next to Qi Man, he frowned as if he was dissatisfied with something, but in the end he didn't say anything and found a place to sit down.
When Jiang Huali first entered the room, there were a few more people besides the main characters.
He looked familiar, and only now did she realize that he was Xin Mingqing's teammate.
No one spoke. Jiang Huali then asked Qi Man about what had just happened.
Qi Man: "We injured him and were almost caught when he suddenly disappeared."
Qi Man frowned, recalling the scene at that time.
They had the upper hand, but then the principal seemed to suddenly realize something, his face turned extremely ugly, and he escaped using some unknown means.
Xin Mingqing's expression was clearly not good either. He was also present at the time. To be precise, it was their two teams that attacked that ghost, but who knew that he would still get away.
They are all quite capable.
Jiang Huali asked, "How did you escape?"
Qi Man stretched out her hand, and in her palm was a piece of paper with some black dust on it.
"It's possible that something was used; the dream book says it's imbued with a strong sense of malice."
Looking at the black fragments, Jiang Huali suddenly thought of the black stone that Zhao Yu had taken out.
core?
“It’s the ‘core’,” Xin Mingqing said from the side.
The others all looked at him.
Xin Mingqing gave a slightly mocking smile. His teammate took out a shielding device, placed it, and nodded to Jiang Huali and the others, "Walls have ears."
Xin Mingqing then spoke, his gaze falling on Qi Man's face, "I told you this before."
"The way out of this game lies in the 'core'."
Qi Man's expression remained unchanged. "Continue."
Xin Mingqing seemed to be choked by her self-righteous tone, and paused for a moment before saying, "We learned by chance during the last instance that something is providing a continuous source of energy for the game to function."
"With life and death, blood and sacrifice."
That thing is called the 'core'.
Xin Mingqing took out a small box, which was engraved with ancient and mysterious patterns and locked with a small lock. It exuded an unsettling aura.
"I have a core fragment here."
"The only way we know to get out of here is to destroy the core. However, the core itself is stored in an unknown place. The person who gave me this core fragment said that to destroy the core, we must use the core's own power."
Yin Mengshu raised her eyes, "How many core fragments would be enough?"
Xin Mingqing smirked and said to Qi Man, "I was wrong before. Not all of your teammates are idiots."
Qi Feng retorted angrily, "How dare you speak like that!"
Xin Mingqing: "Oh, this is a real idiot."
Qi Man frowned: "Let's get down to business."
Xin Mingqing said seriously, "At least four pieces."
"If I'm not mistaken, this copy should also have one."
Their gazes fell on the black fragments on the paper. Qi Feng said, "Could it be in the principal's hands?"
Jiang Huali frowned.
Qi Man looked at Xin Mingqing, "I will reconsider what you mentioned before."
Xin Mingqing smiled, and the scar on his jaw trembled slightly with his smile.
He said, "That's more like it."
Qi Man didn't respond to him.
She and Xin Mingqing met by chance in a dungeon.
She had just entered the instance and found Qi Feng there, but by the time she met him, he was already in danger.
At that time, Qi Man happened to meet Xin Mingqing.
The man looked fierce and menacing. After killing the ghost in front of her, he didn't even glance to the side before stopping and preparing to leave. She stopped him and begged him to lend her some medicine to treat Qi Feng's wounds.
Qi Feng was scratched by a ghost and lost too much blood, falling into a coma.
Medicines were scarce in the game, and Qi Man was a newbie at the time, so she didn't have enough points to exchange for medicines.
To her surprise and relief, Xin Mingqing lent it to her.
It is rare for someone to lend precious medicine to a complete stranger.
Later, as Qi Man grew stronger in the game, she returned double the amount of medicine she had borrowed when she met Xin Mingqing again.
He happened to meet Xin Mingqing in a dungeon last time, and he proposed to her that they cooperate.
The collaboration involves escaping this place filled with bloodshed and decay.
Qi Man's teammates are not capable enough, and she will not consider this almost fantastical collaboration for the time being. Once she agrees, what she will face will be something that they will not be able to easily resist.
So she rejected Xin Mingqing.
Xin Mingqing was absolutely right. No one wants to spend their whole life in such a dark and hopeless place, surrounded by death and fear every day, and moving forward on the edge of blood.
The room fell silent for a moment.
A voice, neither too loud nor too soft, came from the side.
"I have a way to get the core from this instance."
Xin Mingqing shifted his gaze. He didn't recognize Jiang Huali, only knowing that she had recently joined Qi Man's team. He had initially thought that she was just like that kid who only knew how to play with fire—simple-minded.
It seems he may have misjudged again.
Qi Feng seemed somewhat incredulous, "You can?"
All eyes in the room immediately fell on Jiang Huali.
She blinked. "Of course."
-
Jiang Huali left the dormitory, leaving only the words, "Wait for me in the office building."
Jiang Huali walked to the stairwell by the light of the moon shining through.
She stood in the stairwell and softly called out to the air, "Mo Ci?"
It was so quiet that there wasn't even a breeze.
There was no response.
Jiang Huali wasn't sure if Mo Ci would appear, and she didn't have any way to contact him.
After a while, there was still no movement, so Jiang Huali decided to try somewhere else.
Just as I turned around, a familiar voice came from behind me.
Where are you going?
Jiang Huali turned around and saw Mo Ci sitting on a worn-out chair, looking at her with an inscrutable expression.
Jiang Huali approached him, "I'm coming to find you."
She said, "Why didn't you show up just now? I thought you weren't here."
As the distance closed, the difference in height forced Mo Ci to look up at the person in front of him.
As the familiar, comforting aura of his soul wafted over, a sense of longing unconsciously arose in Mo Ci.
He seemed to be complaining: "Why did you only call my name once?"
Jiang Huali looked down at him, "Mo Ci."
"Um?"
"Now it's been twice."
Mo Ci: "..."
He looked away. "What do you want?"
Jiang Huali considered for a moment and said, "Would you like two more gifts?"
After saying that, Mo Ci appeared to be thinking, "Three?"
Jiang Huali paused for a moment, then said, "Okay."
At this moment, Jiang Huali was already pondering how many parts a person's soul could be divided into.
Unexpectedly, Mo Ci's next words were: "You can think of these three gifts."
Jiang Huali was stunned for a moment. Letting her choose a gift... that's wonderful!
Jiang Huali nodded: "No problem. But aren't you going to ask what it is?"
Mo Ci was satisfied; he didn't care about such a trivial matter. "Anything is fine."
Jiang Huali stared at him for a while and said, "Can you also help me get rid of the principal and vice-principal?"
Mo Ci nodded indifferently.
"certainly."
-
The corridor was eerily quiet and completely dark.
A figure slowly emerged at the top of the stairs. The person's suit was wrinkled and stained with blood.
The principal wiped the wound on his chest, a sinister glint flashing in his eyes.
He opened his hand, and a black stone lay quietly in his palm, with some black dust falling from its edge.
The principal carefully placed the black stone he was holding close to his body and walked towards his office.
If Jiang Huali were here, she would find that the office is slightly different from the daytime if she opened the door.
The principal walked to the money tree, fumbled around on the wall for a while, and then pressed something down.
The moment the button was pressed, a small door slowly opened in the wall.
He took out the core, held it in his hands, and went inside.
Inside was a human-shaped statue, its body shrouded in wisps of black mist.
The principal placed the core on the altar.
He began to chant: "My beloved God, Almighty Lord, I swear in the name of darkness and death, I will always believe in you, and I beg you to grant me supreme power..."
Wisps of black energy emanated from the statue and drifted into the black stone.
When the principal came out again, it was more than half an hour later.
He carefully stored the energy-filled black stone and closed the secret passage.
The principal's already deathly pale face turned even more ashen, like the bark of a decaying old tree, as if he had aged several times in an instant.
He slowly walked towards the desk.
Feeling a slight discomfort still lingering in his body, he felt a surge of anger, but then smiled again.
He will kill those little devils he met today sooner or later, and then offer their souls to his revered Lord... so that their souls may become nourishment for this darkness.
The principal took something out of his desk drawer, but suddenly heard a slight strange noise from the side.
His cloudy eyes narrowed, and his voice was aged: "Who?"
There was no sound.
The principal stood up again, a smile appearing on his face, which should have been kind but instead somehow conveyed a sense of dread. "Which little mouse has sneaked in this time?"
"Come out quickly, don't force me to take action."
No one showed up.
But there were footsteps.
Very slight, very slow.
Or rather, very composed.
The principal suddenly heard a voice behind him.
"Can't you find me?"
Startled, the principal turned around and saw a boy standing in the spot that had been behind him.
I couldn't smell anything. This boy is probably a ghost too. Ha, the ghostly aura on him is so faint that it's almost nonexistent.
He felt a little relieved and smiled.
But the next second, he was unable to utter a single word.
The principal fell to the ground, his eyes wide with resentment, his body gradually withering away like a dead tree trunk, and large wisps of black smoke emanated from his corpse.
Then they flocked to the Ink Shrine.
Mo Ci frowned, raised his hand, and a black stone flew out from the withered corpse on the ground and was held in his hand.
As if guided by something, the black energy no longer surged wildly towards the Ink Shrine, but instead seeped into the black stone in wisps.
Once all the black energy was absorbed, the principal's corpse collapsed in an instant, turning into powder and then disappearing.
Mo Ci held the energy-filled core in his hand, stepped forward, and opened the office door.
The office door slammed shut with a bang, as if blown by the wind.
In the empty office, a piece of paper that had been on the desk spontaneously combusted without fire or wind.
The flames grew stronger and stronger, gradually engulfing the entire office.
The corridor remained quiet and dark.
Mo Ci walked to the left and saw Jiang Huali sitting on the ground with her legs bent and her head nodding at the corner.
She seemed extremely sleepy, with her arms crossed and resting on her knees, and her head resting on them.
Walking in Moci is almost silent.
He walked up to Jiang Huali and squatted down.
Quietly observe the person in front of you.
Your eyes look a bit dark and bluish; is it because you didn't sleep well?
So quiet and cute when they're asleep.
Mo Ci's gaze swept over Jiang Huali's eyebrows, eyes, and nose, finally settling on her lips.
The color was somewhat pale.
Ink Temple Thoughts.
He suddenly felt a slight itch in his hand, and as if possessed, he slowly raised his hand.
It was about to land on Jiang Huali's lips.
She suddenly woke up.
Jiang Huali was dreaming. In her dream, it seemed hot, and she smelled something burning.
Is there a fire somewhere?
She opened her eyes and saw a hand with distinct knuckles standing in front of her.
Through this pale, delicate hand is an equally pale, delicate face.
Looking further back... it seems there's a faint glimmer of light?
"...Mo Ci?" Jiang Huali was a little taken aback.
When Mo Ci saw that she had woken up, he naturally withdrew his hand from mid-air.
He grunted in agreement and handed the core from his other hand to Jiang Huali.
Jiang Huali asked with some surprise, "The core?"
So it turns out the principal really does have some key information.
Mo Ci's expression was indifferent. "Hmm."
Jiang Huali reached out to take the core, but the other party suddenly remembered something and withdrew his hand.
Jiang Huali: ?
Jiang Huali thought he was going to back out, but to her surprise, he raised his hand, added a transparent membrane to the black stone, and then handed it to her.
Mo Ci: "Go back and get your things stored properly. Don't touch it directly."
Jiang Huali took the core. The transparent membrane seemed to have sealed away the uncomfortable aura inside the core, and now it felt like an ordinary stone in her hand.
Jiang Huali nodded: "Thank you, but... can you smell anything burning?"
Mo Ci stood up and replied, "The principal's office is on fire."
Jiang Huali stood up and vaguely saw a glimmer of light coming from around the corner. She asked, puzzled, "Then shouldn't we hurry up and leave? What were you doing squatting in front of me just now?"
Mo Ci paused, then remained silent.
Just then, a voice seemed to call out from not far away: "Jiang Huali? Where are you?"
"Jiang Huali?"
...
Jiang Huali froze.
Oh no! She told Qi Man and the others to wait downstairs. They probably saw that the principal's office was on fire, but she didn't show up, so they came up to find her.
Jiang Huali stared at the Ink Shrine.
Her tone was hesitant: "Why don't you hide first?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com