Chapter 176 The Kitchen 1: A Change of Stance in an Instant
Monday. Evening.
The sky gradually sank from a pale orange-yellow to a bluish-purple shadow. Perhaps because you all had your own ulterior motives, the whole day passed quietly.
There were no strange occurrences, no unusual changes in the teacher, and no sudden moments of disorientation. It was as if something was being suppressed, gently covered by the night.
You are slightly uneasy, but you are prepared.
At six o'clock in the evening, you, Meiling, Huimin, and Minte returned to school together. The "master" also arrived late—wearing that serious-looking dark blue robe, carrying a small cloth bag, and humming something through his nose.
As he walked, his eyes kept scanning behind you, as if he was wary that you might stab him in the back at any moment.
They still have some self-awareness.
Minte and the others held the master in high esteem, bowing their heads and daring not to say a word. They were unaware of the situation and, still shaken by the ordeal in the library archives last Friday, were not yet fully recovered. In truth, they had only come back today to keep their promise.
Meiling, that mischievous little devil, always seemed lost in thought, her hands in her coat pockets, walking beside you with her eyes darting around furtively.
You poked her, and she grinned and returned to her normal self.
This guy is the only one who's already in cahoots with you, knows the "master's" background and your plans. You'd better put on a good show.
"Master, this is the place. Please take a good look and see how to resolve this," you said politely.
"How do we get in?" He didn't look at you, but instead stared at the iron fence on the school wall—tall and very well sealed. As for the school gate, it had long been locked.
You shrug and look at Meiling. To be honest, you yourself don't know how you got into the school "normally." You opened your eyes and found yourself in the school playing a psychic game with Meiling and a few others who initially seemed like a hot-tempered delinquent. You have absolutely no idea how you could easily sneak into a school that's already under lockdown.
Meiling winked at you and led the seven of you around to the north side of the school wall.
Pushing aside the pile of weeds, there was a brick wall that had collapsed at some point. The repairman hadn't even noticed it. There was a small dog hole in the ground—about half the size of a washbasin—with some dog hair left behind.
"Master, please go first." Meiling suddenly stopped and smiled as she gave the master a devout wai (hands clasped together in prayer).
You suppress your laughter and secretly turn your head away.
This guy.
"In broad daylight, instead of using the main entrance, you're going to crawl through a dog hole?" The master looked as if he had been insulted, his face turning ashen, his nostrils flaring. He flicked his sleeve, nearly dropping the small cloth bag in his hand, and glared at you fiercely.
"Are you sure you're not going through the main entrance?" he asked again.
He's been staring at you. You know what he's thinking; frankly, he's here to steal your soul, and up until now, he doesn't seem to have sensed anything amiss about this school.
"If you don't go in, our agreement is null and void," you replied casually.
His face twitched, and his eyes instantly darkened.
"You bunch of little brats—" he gritted his teeth, cursed angrily, and actually crawled into the dog hole while muttering "bad luck, bad luck" under his breath. His small body fit perfectly inside, but his cloth robe dragged on the ground, and he came out covered in dust.
However, the next second, when he dusted himself off and stood up, he saw you girls—climbing over the wall like monkeys, landing one after another on the ground with a thud, and standing steadily in front of him.
Not only was he covered in dust and dirt, but not a single hair on his head was out of place.
Meiling stood at the front, waving at him with a grin: "Master, welcome to our school."
"You..." The master's lips twitched, as if he wanted to explode, but he suppressed his anger because of his disheveled appearance after crawling through the dog hole. He could only forcefully flick the hem of his robe and pretend to walk forward nonchalantly, muttering, "Children don't know any manners... they don't even know the etiquette for hosting a religious ceremony..."
Minte and the others were a little confused, wondering why Meiling was so bold. They didn't dare to ask any more questions and huddled together, looking more and more like followers of the "master".
You walked over to Meiling and whispered, "You did this on purpose, didn't you?"
“Of course.” She grinned. “I discovered the dog hole by accident when I went home last year. A dog crawled out of it, and I copied it once.”
"You're even learning to crawl through dog holes?" You exclaimed dramatically, reaching out your hand for her to put her paws on.
Meiling slapped your hand a few times to vent her anger.
She then winked and covered her mouth with her hand, saying, "Let me vent your anger and make this charlatan crawl over the wall first."
You smiled helplessly. Meiling's anger towards the master only made things easier for you. When a person's emotions are unstable, that's when they're most likely to make a mistake.
The "master" is unaware that he has already been made the first appetizer by you.
The master came to his senses and was about to continue his sarcastic remarks, but suddenly, as if sensing something, his expression changed abruptly.
He suddenly stopped, squinted, first looking in the direction of the teaching building, then scanning the entire campus.
His wrinkled, withered face instantly became covered with a greasy sheen; it was the first time you'd seen him truly serious.
His nose twitched slightly, as if he had caught a strange scent like a dog. Then, a ruthless and greedy glint appeared on his already less-than-kind face—not at you, but at the entire school.
Oh, he finally found out.
Was it because he couldn't sense it before entering the campus? That makes sense, otherwise he would have calculated the danger level of the school well in advance and made more preparations.
Now, he probably finally realizes that there is indeed something supernatural here, but I bet he can't see through the fact that there is another, even more powerful force here.
Just as he can see that the core of your body has undergone some kind of change in fortune, but cannot see what force is controlling it all. He probably thinks he can "make a big score" this time.
He might even be fantasizing that by taking your soul, he can also seize this power and reclaim the pinnacle of magic.
You don't think so.
This "master's" magic is indeed effective, and he is not faking it. But clearly, all his abilities are confined to the framework of the "duplicate world".
This school is different. From the moment you enter, you feel an inexplicable sense of "solidity"—the rules here are not something that exists naturally as usual, but rather something that is anchored in so that you are made aware of them before you slowly explore them.
Even you haven't figured out what this dungeon is supposed to do.
If this master can easily take over the school, then it means this place is nothing special, and the school will no longer be your imaginary enemy. As for the master himself... you'll have your own ways to deal with him later. You've even started to consider whether you can start with the "principal"—the school's current state can't be unrelated to her. The principal is the key figure in this school, so if this master has damaged something within the school, she definitely won't let it go so easily.
And if the master were to fail, that would be even better.
This person died right here, and you'll have more freedom and safety off-campus. Plus, at least he could test the waters here for you. And you can just watch from the sidelines.
As the master pondered, you narrowed your eyes and slowly raised your hand: "We can go to the cafeteria first."
The master raised an eyebrow.
“I know you’re thinking of the teaching building, but it’s too ‘central’ and not suitable for the first step of the investigation,” you explained softly, pointing in the direction he was pointing, your tone unhurried. “Besides—” you paused, looking at Meiling, “we’ve already encountered problems in the teaching building before, haven’t we?”
Mei-ling and Hui-min both nodded vigorously, their expressions solemn.
“In my personal opinion, the cafeteria is part of the school, but it is also relatively independent in function: it is not under the scheduling of the teaching system, and the staff are not in the teaching system and are not under the jurisdiction of the teachers. However, this place is directly related to everyone’s ‘daily life’.” You looked at everyone, lowered your voice, and were even more mysterious than the master, “If something really happens here, then the poison is at its root. And… none of us want to be eating tattered bread or cold rice brought from home every day at noon.”
If we're talking about other things, these big kids might need to think about it some more, but when it comes to food, they immediately agree.
Yeah, putting aside whether it's haunted or not, it's really a headache if you can't even have a proper lunch.
The master looked at you, a hint of disdain flashing in his eyes—ha, he looks down on the oddities in this cafeteria? He didn't refute it.
After all, his main target is you. Nothing else matters; as long as you keep walking ahead, he will naturally follow.
So you turned around and headed towards the cafeteria in a corner of the campus.
The sky had completely darkened; the setting sun had long since faded, leaving only the lingering warmth of dusk, like invisible ripples around you. A sign reading "Save Food" was pasted on the cafeteria's glass window—you could at least recognize those few tadpole-like characters. But inside, it was pitch black, and you couldn't see anything at all.
The master touched the crack in the door, sensing the airflow inside.
He stopped you from moving: "Don't rush, the evil energy is surging outwards; we must first check the feng shui of the entrance."
He took out several items from his small cloth bag: a copper coin, a peach wood ruler, and a brass compass engraved with the "Seven Stars of the Big Dipper." All of them were from the Flower Kingdom! Wente and the others didn't seem to care, simply following his lead in devout prayer. It seemed that such half-Buddhist, half-Buddhist monks were quite common here, and rather convincing.
The master muttered something to himself, squatted down, made an incomprehensible hand gesture, and then drew a small circle on the cement ground beneath his feet with his middle finger—a circle formed from a clump of dust that appeared out of nowhere. He then placed a copper coin inside.
"The five elements here are disordered, and the yin and yang are out of balance, which is a sign of 'eating evil'."
As he said those words, you instinctively glanced at the tightly closed cafeteria door. It remained motionless, yet the atmosphere seemed to suddenly become tense.
The master, holding a compass, turned it three times to the left and four times to the right. Suddenly, he stepped forward, holding a peach wood ruler horizontally in front of the dining hall door, gesturing left and right. He said in a deep voice, "There is a deadly corner three inches southeast of the entrance."
"What is Deathly Fiend?" You need to ask clearly.
“A glimmer of hope lies in the deathly silence…” he muttered to himself, then raised his voice and said, “You, take three incense sticks and stick them in the soil in the left corner of the doorway.” He suddenly pointed at Wente, startling her so much that she spoke in a foreign language.
“I…I dare not…” Minte took a step back.
The master snorted coldly and turned to look at Meiling: "You."
Meiling pouted. Seeing your expression, she knew there was no need to go against him at this time. So she just muttered "What a stupid rule" indignantly, and went over to light the incense before inserting it into the soil.
Even though there was no wind, the cigarette smoke was drawn obliquely into the cafeteria, as if something was sucking air out from there.
You held your breath and waited, until all three incense sticks had burned out, but the smoke still hadn't returned to normal.
"Again!"
Meiling took it again and quickly refilled the cigarette.
This continued until the third round, when the thing in the canteen seemed to have "eaten its fill" and stopped gulping down the smoke as if it were starving.
A wisp of smoke rose straight up.
“Very good.” The master then pulled out a yellow talisman from his robes. You couldn’t recognize the characters on it no matter how you looked at them. It was only after Wen Te read it aloud that you realized it was actually a syncretic script.
The master bit his fingertip, flicked a drop of blood onto the talisman, and chanted an incantation. Even though no fire was lit, a strange burning sensation spread through the air.
"The cloth jar." After he finished speaking, he knelt down three steps away from the door and spread out the cloth bag he carried with him.
You then noticed that it was a piece of black cloth embroidered with the words "Heaven and Earth Thunder Seal," with the Bagua (Eight Trigrams) outlined in cinnabar at the four corners. However, these Bagua seemed somewhat different from what you were used to. The color—you couldn't quite put your finger on it, but you'd never seen a Bagua drawn with such a grayish-black color before. Looking closer, it seemed...
The black and white fish eyes of the Tai Chi symbol are not a centrally symmetrical pattern! No wonder you find it strange, because the eight trigrams centered on them are all crooked and misaligned.
This old man is truly beyond mortal evil...
You silently grumble to yourself, but the master has already moved on to the next step. In the center of the ground in front of him are three candles, a small incense burner, and several neatly folded talismans.
He lit incense and chanted, "The heavens are clear and the earth is sacred, the altar is set up and the formation is established, all the gods come to help, and the demons are driven away." This is what you can understand, but there are many other languages that you don't know where they come from, and they just give you a headache.
The candlelight flickered on and off.
Was he focused on dealing with the cafeteria? The next second, the air actually "moved".
Through the crack in the cafeteria door, a dark shadow seemed to float out of thin air, like something extremely thin and long, slowly twisting and turning as it rushed towards the area where the fire was.
"Step back!" the master shouted sharply, flicking three talismans with his fingers. The yellow talismans ignited with blue flames in the air, striking the doorway like meteors. A strange, foul stench filled the air, like spoiled meat mixed with the acrid smell of burnt plastic.
This smell... your house used to have this smell all the time before your father died.
The candlelight flickered violently, and one of them suddenly went out.
"It knows I'm here," the master murmured, his eyes brightening slightly. He didn't seem afraid; instead, he seemed excited as he watched the counterattacking force. "Indeed, it's a fine affliction. If I can collect this 'Eating Calamity Affliction' into a talisman, and add the strange female spirit, I'll have no worries for three years."
He got carried away with his pride and blurted it out so brazenly.
Let's give it a try.
You squinted and whispered a reminder to Meiling and the others to get ready: "Here it comes, the real test begins."
The master began to form hand seals, chanting a series of difficult incantations: "Command the Heavenly Generals to subdue demons and eliminate evil spirits; let the blazing sun shine on the stove, and the black evil spirits be swiftly destroyed!"
The yellow talisman flickered to life again, but the "qi" emanating from the crack in the door suddenly became heavy. In an instant, you felt the temperature around you plummet, as if something was crawling out of the cafeteria.
That wasn't wind—it was breath, the breath of some kind of "being".
"If we don't seal the door now, it will be too late!" the master shouted.
He was about to grab the incense ash and sprinkle it into the crack of the door.
But.
You blocked the door crack.
The master finally snapped out of his smugness, his face filled with panic: "You lot, get out of the way! There's something unclean in this cafeteria! What are you trying to do?"
And you even ask me what I want to do? How can you be sure that the sorcerer who uses evil magic might be chanting spells that are harmful to you?
"You dare to play me?!" The master's eyes widened, but the formation he had created, just as he himself had said, could not be taken back.
These things done based on evil intentions are probably irreversible.
"I'm just messing with you, what are you going to do about it?" you said.
These words left him speechless, and the master's eyes flickered violently a few times.
“You think you tricked me? Once this thing is out of my control, it will devour you and ‘Inuboni’ (the girls)!” he cursed.
You know you've pushed him to the breaking point. But you were prepared all along.
"Come on." You turned around and winked at Meiling.
Meiling immediately understood, took out a black velvet bag from her coat pocket, and poured out a whole set of glittering gold jewelry—gold rings, gold hairpins, gold chains, gold buckles, gold necklaces, gold belts, and even a traditional Thai dancer's headdress covered with gold leaves.
"So much??" You were utterly astonished. You had asked her if she had any gold jewelry or ornaments at home that might become a "shield" for you two, and she had assured you that she would take care of it, but who knew she would have so much?
This guy brought so much gold to school?!
"It's not the kind of pure gold that you Chinese like. It's neither expensive nor heavy!" Meiling said nonchalantly. "But it'll definitely come in handy!"
Regardless of whether it's real gold, fake gold, or gold dust, the waning sunset reflected off the goldware, making you all look like six gods about to dance, gleaming with golden light.
Huimin was the first to rush forward, quickly putting on the gold chain and earrings. Minte and the other two also took the accessories with a little shyness and hesitation—but they were not slow at all.
Although they respect great masters, they clearly trust a girl your age more than a middle-aged man who speaks strangely.
"Hurry," Meiling urged, "paint!"
Went and her sisters quickly pulled out several small jars from their pockets and distributed them to everyone. These were gold-lacquered makeup items used for traditional shrine maiden dances.
Without hesitation, you applied it. Random, finger-shaped gold streaks appeared on your forehead, brow bone, and cheeks.
Minte couldn't stand it anymore, so she reached out and touched you up, explaining as she did so that they were the "Guardian Spirit Patterns" from the legends of Taibei, sacred symbols used by ancient witches to communicate with the guardian spirits of the forest.
“Master, I’m ready, are you?” you asked, almost provocatively.
You stood in front of the door, adorned with gold jewelry, your expression resolute.
"What are you doing?!" the master asked in shock.
"Protection." You said, emphasizing each word. "We're using the most local and reliable methods, so you don't need to worry about it."
"Are you sure you don't need to apply some to the master too?" Mint was still a little uneasy and kept grabbing your arm as she asked.
"Never mind him. If he were truly a master, he would have survived on his own." With that, you turned around and kicked open the rusty door!
Creak, creak, creak.
Such a large glass door shouldn't be making that kind of noise, like a dilapidated iron door.
The moment the door opened, the wisps of black energy that were just before surged out like a raging flood, instantly engulfing you all!
“Master!!” Went exclaimed in surprise.
"Forget about the master!" Why is this child so stubborn!
"Form the array!! Form the array!!" the master roared, raising his hands to try to stabilize his Bagua diagram, but the edges of the array began to make a "sizzling" sound, as if being corroded by the black wind!
You didn't have time to think anymore, you just grabbed Huimin's hand, and on the other side were Meiling, Wente and the others, who ultimately stood with you.
The six of you stood in a circle, like six little golden statues, resisting the black wind summoned by the master with the most impeccable posture.
The gold lacquer emitted a glow in the darkness, and the jewelry reflected light from each other, piercing through the ominous black storm.
"Are you sure this thing can block it?" Meiling asked you in a low voice, her voice trembling.
"You only think of asking this now?" You shook your head speechlessly.
Meiling bit her lip, her eyes red-rimmed.
What? This guy was actually scared the whole time? You really didn't notice the girl's complicated thoughts.
Oh well, I'll spoil her this once.
“Gold is a sacred color.” You gripped her and Huimin’s hands, explaining this rule with even greater conviction than before. “The ghosts of Thailand fear gold, fear the golden royal gods, fear this traditional golden makeup and hairstyle. We follow the orthodox path in the truest sense, and this evil spirit… it simply cannot invade us!”
"I...I believe you!" Meiling's eyes were so swollen from the wind that she couldn't open them. "I didn't cry, I just got some in my eyes."
“I didn’t say you were crying!” you shouted back.
"I heard everything..." Huimin, who had been mostly unnoticed, whispered, "I saw it too..."
"Ahhh, stop talking!" Meiling closed her eyes, not wanting to face this scene of her pride being shattered.
"Alright, we're together, there's no need to be afraid of it. We can be gods now too."
Just as this joke was uttered, the black winds surging from all directions seemed to be blocked by your golden light, and could not advance even an inch further!
However, the master panicked completely. The center of his Bagua diagram was gradually cracking, and the serpentine patterns that greedily absorbed resentment, evil energy, and malevolent spirits began to curl back—it was devouring him!
"I won't let you get away with this!" the master roared, pointing at you. "You childish thing, do you really think you can defeat it?! You broke my formation, these things won't let you go—"
"Didn't you say they were dangerous? Didn't you really want these things?" You sneered. "Then you'll have to deal with them yourself."
The master's pupils constricted sharply as a black wind swept him deep into the dining hall. His array shattered in mid-air, turning into countless ashes.
And you, too, were knocked to the ground by the shockwave.
After coughing a few times, you find yourself in the cafeteria's kitchen.
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Author's Note: How was your National Day holiday, everyone? ^^ Tiger confesses: Tiger has been having so much fun that he's completely lost track of time...
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