Chapter 45 Part 1

For a moment, the entire washroom fell into silence. Only Zhu Ming’s steady breathing and the drip of water from the faucet could be heard.

Zhu Ming didn’t move. She didn’t know if the other party was moving or not, but she never heard that tsng sound again, meaning the entity probably hadn’t left.

This was a terribly awkward and dangerous situation. Without clothes covering her body, returning to a normal state felt like losing a layer of security.

But worse was yet to come. Zhu Ming realized a powerful sense of curiosity was rising within her heart, making her desperately want to open her eyes and see exactly what kind of ghostly, monstrous thing was standing right beside her.

The moment she realized this, the fear and the overwhelming urge to open her eyes tore at each other inside her brain, as if trying to snap every single nerve fiber.

It had remained silent and unmoving all this time. Maybe it wasn’t so dangerous after all. Maybe it was concocting some new deadly ploy. She couldn’t keep her eyes closed and wait for death. She should open her eyes quickly; perhaps she could find a chance to escape…

No!

Zhu Ming immediately raised her hands and clamped them tightly over her eyes. However, the moment she lifted her arm, she felt her elbow brush against something cold and hard.

In that instant, it dawned on Zhu Ming: the entity was truly pressed right up against her. It might be right in front of her face, examining its prey with cold, lifeless eyes, its bizarre, shapeless body poised to strike at any moment.

The terror of the unknown, fueled by her vivid imagination, made Zhu Ming feel as if her throat, her neck, her heart—every vital spot—was about to be attacked at any second. She instinctively took a step back, but the moment she did, her back also met that same cold, hard sensation.

Goosebumps erupted all over Zhu Ming’s body. Her eyes snapped open—the powerful curiosity eroding her brain had seized the high ground and taken control of her body the instant her resolve wavered, requiring only the smallest crack.

Luckily, Zhu Ming had covered her eyes tightly, so she saw nothing when they opened.

She immediately squeezed her eyes shut again, then felt the entity’s limbs moving up along her back and arm. The sensation was like stone, yet impossibly flexible, inexplicably bringing to mind images of cold-blooded reptiles.

Ugh—

Several complex perceptions and emotions churned into a mess inside her brain, making her skin crawl and triggering a wave of nausea simultaneously.

The thing, whether using hands or something else, was slowly but persistently trying to pry her hands away. Zhu Ming tilted her head up and shook it, trying to clear her chaotic mind a little.

It could invade one’s heart and shake one’s will. Truly terrifying.

But this point also suggested that as long as Zhu Ming didn’t open her eyes, what the entity could do was limited.

Using one hand to firmly cover her eyes, squeezing her eyelids shut, Zhu Ming reached out with her other hand to actively feel out the entity.

The moment she touched it, she couldn’t help but pause… she felt several stone-like, vaguely human arms. Moving upward, there were fingers, and the hands were holding some objects. A guess surfaced in her mind: this thing was the Six-Armed Goddess Statue.

Zhu Ming let out a small breath of relief. Well, at least it was female and made of stone. Had it been a very much alive male ghost, she probably wouldn’t have been able to restrain herself from punching it.

Having located the entity’s body, Zhu Ming’s expression turned a bit strange. She realized she seemed to be enclosed within the embrace of the Goddess Statue’s arms.

It wasn’t a matter of ambiguity or suggestiveness. She didn’t think a stone statue could have any strange intentions. The key problem was that it was difficult to break free.

Its arms were incredibly hard, and there were six of them. Finding a gap to slip out with her eyes closed was proving far too difficult. And the entity seemed to have locked onto her stubbornly, holding firm and refusing to switch targets.

After failing several times, Zhu Ming finally snapped, her anger boiling over. “Enough already! You’re clearly made of stone, yet here you are playing the hooligan! Why don’t you strip naked too, if you’ve got the guts?!”

The Six-Armed Goddess Statue naturally didn’t have that ability. Her clothes were carved from stone—of course, she couldn’t take them off.

Zhu Ming was just cursing a couple of times to vent her frustration. She couldn’t actually bring herself to act inappropriately toward a statue. Back to the present, she still had to honestly search for a gap to slip out of.

Although made of stone, the Six-Armed Goddess’s arms could move quite flexibly, shifting position constantly, causing Zhu Ming no end of suffering.

She felt forward again and suddenly sensed that the thing the tip of her finger had touched had shifted. Zhu Ming paused, instinctively wanting to touch it again, but found only empty space.

Tsng—

The Six-Armed Goddess had actually moved.

A strange feeling arose in Zhu Ming’s heart. The Six-Armed Goddess had finally left. It made sense to say she gave up her prey seeing Zhu Ming’s firm will, but Zhu Ming still felt something was odd.

Zhu Ming reached around. Truly empty. Zhu Ming quickly felt her way to the rack, grabbed her clothes, and put them on.

Tsng—

That sound rang out again, moving toward the dormitory interior. Zhu Ming found the washroom doorframe, squeezed her eyes tightly shut, and moved forward.

The washroom was on the east side, next to Deng Yan’s bed. When Zhu Ming felt her way over, it startled Deng Yan.

“It’s me.”

Deng Yan was lying on the bed with her eyes closed. Upon hearing this, her heart pounded. “Are you okay?”

Wenren Tu’s voice came from nearby, not tense at all. “You heard how spirited she was when she was cursing. You know she’s fine.”

Deng Yan breathed a sigh of relief. “Did you open your eyes to look?”

Zhu Ming said, “No. It might not have left yet.”

Tsng—

The sound came again. This time, the tail end of it was very faint, as if it had moved far away, but none of them could tell which direction it had gone.

Was it still inside the dormitory? Or had it left?

Zhu Ming groped her way back to her own bed and conveniently shut the door on the way.

Wenren Tu said, “Let’s just sleep. It’ll be fine once it’s daylight. Can’t do much in the pitch-black night anyway.”

Zhu Ming added a gloomy remark, “Be careful when you open your eyes in the morning. Don’t wake up too early and accidentally turn your head to see something you shouldn’t.”

Everyone: “…”

After this incident, the group no longer had the heart to chat. They all lay in bed, trying their best to fall asleep.

Zhu Ming found the heat unbearable and didn’t pull the covers over herself. As she turned on her side, her hand brushed against the trench coat piled beside her pillow. The coat smelled of earth and a faint, pleasant floral scent.

Sniffing it, Zhu Ming eventually extended a finger and flicked it onto the floor.

Annoying.

…

Early to bed, early to rise. As soon as day broke, Wenren Tu went to shake Zhu Ming awake.

But Zhu Ming was terribly sleepy because she’d suffered insomnia until the early morning hours. She turned out to be the one who’d slept the least among the four. Listlessly, her eyelids drooping, she sat on the bed, yawning incessantly.

“You can’t go on in this state,” Wenren Tu shook her head. “Don’t go down into the maze today. Just look around on the surface. The maze has treasure chests, but there should be clues up here too.”

“Alright.” Zhu Ming let out another huge yawn. Seeing that Wenren Tu and Yun Zouchuan were about to head down on empty stomachs, she suddenly remembered something and quickly told them how to stop the Stone Giant.

“Oh, and I had a bit of a run-in with Yin Yu yesterday,” Zhu Ming said, scratching her hair. “Her ability seems related to space. She can teleport objects, including herself. If you run into her, don’t engage.”

The examiner had forbidden fighting or brawling in front of the gods, but in the underground maze where abilities could be used freely, those restrictions didn’t apply.

“Don’t worry.” Wenren Tu shrugged. “I know how you feel about her…”

Zhu Ming: “?”

Wenren Tu tugged Yun Zouchuan. “Let’s go, let’s go. I’m starving.”

Those who went down into the maze could eat any food they found, but the people on the surface had to wait for them to bring some back.

Zhu Ming flopped back down for a nap, then got up to wash. The sky was bright now; it was nearly noon.

Deng Yan was still waiting at the bottom of the stairs. Zhu Ming, on the other hand, prepared to look around inside the temple or outside. Seeing that the seeds she’d planted yesterday had already sprouted, she was pleasantly surprised and decided to take the flowerpot outside to get some sun.

Zhu Ming placed the flowerpot on the steps outside the temple to soak up the sun’s warmth. When she turned around, she saw Wei Yuan quietly averting his gaze.

Zhu Ming paid him no mind. She sat at the exam table, studying the murals and pondering Question 3. As she thought, she took out the clay pot, intending to fetch water again.

Wei Yuan hesitated to speak. “Zhu Ming.”

Zhu Ming looked back. “What is it?”

Wei Yuan said, “Aren’t you going to watch your flowerpot?”

Zhu Ming suddenly realized. “Almost forgot. Thanks for the reminder. But I need to go get water. Our group only collected a little water yesterday. Can you keep an eye on it for me?”

“Alright.” Wei Yuan agreed. The previous night, back at the dormitory, the triplets had told Wei Yuan about swapping the seeds, instructing him to pay close attention during the day to make sure the Moon Group didn’t carelessly ruin their group’s vanilla plant.

…

There were three sources of water: the lake, the washroom, and the drinking water in the underground maze.

After discovering the washroom had water, everyone might choose to take water from there. But Zhu Ming already knew how to get water from the lake, and she still preferred her own method.

Soon, Zhu Ming returned with a little over half a pot of water. She noticed the soil in the flowerpot was already beginning to crack and dry; moisture was being consumed far faster than normal. So she poured all the water in.

The tiny sprout, beaded with water droplets, stood perky and vigorous—clearly growing well.

Unlike the Moon Group, the other three groups’ progress on the planting question was somewhat lagging.

The Ruler Group, where Bai Lianxue was, had been the first to plant their seed, but it still hadn’t sprouted. The Sword and Shield Group, with the triplets, knew the underground maze provided soil but had still chosen ordinary soil, planting their seed overnight—it also hadn’t sprouted.