Chapter 122 Now, let's begin, the ghost is grabbing people.
Below appears to be an old archive room, with dusty filing cabinets leaning precariously.
Zhou Wei and Director Wang were standing back to back, their faces pale.
On Director Wang's neck, the dark bluish-black ligature mark had turned deep purple. His mouth was open, but he could only make hoarse gasps, clearly on the verge of suffocation.
What made them feel like they were facing a formidable enemy was the center of the archives.
There was a circle of broken, stained desks and chairs, arranged in a strange way.
On each chair sat a wet, head-down "student" from behind.
They remained motionless, with only water droplets dripping from their hair and clothes, accumulating into a small puddle on the ground.
In the center of the circle, a crooked pattern was drawn on the ground with chalk—it looked like a simple lantern.
Lin Huairou and Liu Xiuyuan were nowhere to be found.
"Are they... having class?" Fu Qinghuai leaned closer and whispered.
Xie Xun shook his head and pointed to the drooping hands of the "students".
The index fingers of each hand unconsciously drew the same pattern on the ground.
lantern.
They are repeating the behavior they exhibited before they died.
"We have to go down," Xie Xun said in a low voice.
Zhou Wei and Director Wang won't last long, and once Director Wang is strangled to death, he will likely become a new "student" and join that circle.
He gently pried open the ventilation grille, preparing to jump down, when the door to the archives room suddenly creaked open.
Soaked to the bone and expressionless, "Ah-Can" stood at the doorway, the dark blue marks from the ligature on his neck spreading to his face like eerie tattoos.
He dragged a rusty, blood-stained iron chain in his hand, the other end of which made a screeching sound as it was dragged on the ground.
At the end of the chain, two figures were tethered, struggling incessantly.
It's Lin Huairou and Liu Xiuyuan!
They also had chains around their necks, and their faces were bluish-purple, clearly on the verge of suffocation.
"Ah-Can" grinned, revealing that strange smile, and said in a repeated tone:
"A new student... has arrived."
"Let's...go to class together."
In the archives, the group of "students" who had been drawing with their heads down suddenly and stiffly turned their heads away.
Xie Xun's pupils contracted.
The moment "Ah-Can" finished speaking, all the "students" in the archives room raised their heads in unison.
It's not seven faces, nor eight.
It is countless faces. Overlapping, distorting, and shifting like cheap masks.
There is the innocence of children, the resentment of young girls, the numbness of men, and the vicissitudes of the elderly... all of which are "nourishment" swallowed up by the lanterns!
Their eyes had no pupils, only two eerie green flames burning.
It was the same color as the lantern upstairs.
"Ah Can" shook his arm, and the iron chains rattled.
Lin Huairou and Liu Xiuyuan, who were tied up, were suddenly dragged into the classroom. The chains seemed to extend automatically as if they were alive, pulling them to two empty seats and pressing them down.
Lin Huairou was still struggling desperately, her fingers barely forming a hand seal, and a yellow talisman slipped out of her sleeve, just starting to spark.
"puff."
A "student" reached out a wet hand and casually patted the back of her hand.
The yellow talisman instantly went out, turning into a clump of black ash.
Liu Xiuyuan's eyes rolled back, the iron chain around his neck tightened, and he could only make dying hoarse sounds from his throat.
Upon seeing this, Zhou Wei suddenly pulled out his pistol and aimed it at "Ah Can".
But his finger, which was about to pull the trigger, froze.
In front of the gun barrel, a small boy in an old-fashioned school uniform stood with his back to him, tilting his head and "looking" at him.
"Don't fire!" Xie Xun shouted urgently from inside the ventilation duct, but it was too late.
Zhou Wei's fingers, due to excessive force, still managed to clench down.
“哢”.
The firing pin made a hollow sound. The bullet hadn't been fired at all.
The barrel of the gun was somehow filled with dark red, semi-congealed blood, which was slowly dripping from the muzzle.
The little boy with his back to Zhou Wei began to shrug slightly, as if he were smiling.
He slowly turned around.
His face had no features. Only a flat, wet, deathly pale skin. In the very center, the eerie green light of a lantern was slowly rotating.
"rule……"
The faceless boy spoke softly in Liu Xiaoyue's voice, "No noise is allowed in class."
As soon as he finished speaking, the gun in Zhou Wei's hand suddenly became scorching hot. He screamed and let go. The pistol fell to the ground and instantly melted into a pool of molten iron, mixed with blood, sizzling loudly.
Director Wang had collapsed to the ground, his hands futilely scratching at the marks on his neck, his legs twitching.
"This 'ritual' must be interrupted!"
Xie Xun whispered to Fu Qinghuai, "They want to turn everyone into 'students' and solidify this space!"
Fu Qinghuai nodded, his peach blossom eyes flashing with malice: "I'll force my way in, you find a chance to save them!"
"No."
Xie Xun held him down, "The lantern is absorbing emotions of fear and resistance. The more forcefully you attack, the faster it absorbs them."
His gaze swept across the archives room, finally settling on the lantern pattern drawn in chalk in the center.
The design is simple, but the positions of the lamp base, lamp body, and tassel subtly correspond to the most sinister "students" in the room.
"Give me ten seconds."
Xie Xun quickly took out three specially made copper coins from his backpack, bit his fingertip, and smeared the blood on the coins. "I'm going to set up a 'Deception-Breaking Array' to pin down the 'eye' of that pattern."
Fu Qinghuai grinned: "Ten seconds? You underestimate me."
He no longer suppressed his aura, and the black energy around him suddenly erupted!
This time, the black mist was no longer violent; instead, it became viscous and cold, pouring down from the ventilation vents like ink, instantly enveloping most of the archives!
Darkness descends.
Even the eerie green light of the lanterns in the eyes of those "students" was briefly suppressed and swallowed up.
"Now!" Fu Qinghuai shouted.
Xie Xun leaped from the ventilation duct like a cheetah, landing silently.
He moved swiftly, and under the cover of the thick black mist, he accurately shot three blood-stained copper coins at the base, body, and tassel of the chalk lantern pattern!
"bite!"
"bite!"
"bite!"
The copper coin struck the ground with a clear, resonant sound, like the tolling of a death knell.
The chalk pattern in the center jolted violently!
Immediately afterwards, all the "students" who were drawing with their heads down froze at the same time and let out a painful, sharp scream!
The water on their bodies evaporated rapidly, billowing white smoke, and their overlapping faces flickered wildly, like a television screen with a poor signal.
The chains binding Lin Huairou and Liu Xiuyuan loosened instantly!
"Ah Can" let out a roar that sounded inhuman, and the dark blue marks on his neck bulged out as if countless venomous snakes were about to crawl out from under his skin!
He threw off the chains and pounced on Xie Xun with incredible speed!
But he was stopped by a figure halfway there.
Fu Qinghuai stood in front of Xie Xun and grabbed "A-Can" by the neck with one hand.
His eyes were icy cold, and his voice carried the cruelty unique to a thousand-year-old demon:
"You dare touch my things?"
The black energy surged up his arm and poured into "Ah Chan's" body!
"Aaaaaah—!!!"
"Ah Can" let out a shrill, mixed scream, and thick black gas gushed from his seven orifices!
The dark blue marks on his body writhed wildly, trying to resist, but they melted away quickly, like snow meeting boiling oil.
Bang!
"Ah Can" collapsed to the ground, with only a faint red mark around his neck.
The thing that possessed him was forcibly forced out by Fu Qinghuai, turning into a wisp of black smoke that screamed as it shrank back to the ground and fled into the depths through the cracks in the floor.
In the center of the archives, the lantern pattern drawn in chalk was cracking inch by inch under the suppression of the three blood-red copper coins.
Xie Xun quickly helped Lin Huairou and Liu Xiuyuan up, and then went to check on Zhou Wei and Director Wang.
But he felt no relief whatsoever.
The Breaking Illusion Formation only temporarily pinned down the nodes of this "classroom" space.
The real, enormous lantern underwater, and Liu Xiaoyue, who was merged with the child's soul...
They were simply disturbed.
At that moment, the countdown above, after a long silence, suddenly began again in an unprecedentedly joyful yet venomous children's voice:
"Fifty--"
"Forty-nine—"
"The game... is now in its second half."
"Hide and seek... over."
"Now, let's begin... ghost tag."
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