Lu Liangting stepped back, his hand slipping into his jacket pocket and clutching the bloodstained pen. He stared at Li Nan with extreme vigilance. The moment the other made any suspicious move, he would hurl the pen from his pocket.
He wasn’t stupid, nor was he blind. He could see the monster on Li Nan’s back with perfect clarity.
He had crossed paths with this monster once before. That time, he had almost died. If that woman hadn’t appeared to save him, he wouldn’t be standing here today.
Seeing this monster again, now on a classmate’s back, weighed heavily on Lu Liangting’s heart.
It seemed those things had already begun to encroach upon the outside world.
“Lu Liangting!”
With bloodshot eyes, Li Nan tore off the blood-stained mask from his face.
His face was covered in blood, his nose caved in, a mess of flesh and gore. This made his face look twisted and somewhat terrifying, especially his eyes, which burned like those of an evil ghost.
When enemies meet, their eyes blaze with hatred. To Li Nan, Lu Liangting was his mortal enemy.
“Kill him!”
Li Nan pointed at Lu Liangting blocking the path ahead, his voice hoarse.
Taking a direct hammer blow to the head from Zhao Mingyue, combined with the Black Shadow’s influence, Li Nan’s mind wasn’t very clear at the moment. The instant he saw Lu Liangting, he wanted to kill him, completely throwing Teacher Chen’s words to the back of his mind.
Seeing that the person ahead wasn’t Bai Yu, the Black Shadow’s bloodlust also surged.
Having an arm torn off by Bai Yu, it was seriously injured and desperately needed life force to recover.
“Roar!” The Black Shadow let out a howl. Its scrawny body erupted with immense power, launching its upper body off Li Nan’s back, though its feet remained attached.
The Black Shadow’s body stretched grotesquely. Its mouth split all the way to its ears, and it lunged, gaping maw aimed directly at Lu Liangting’s head.
“Zhang Lin!”
Lu Liangting took another step back, flinging the pen from his pocket simultaneously.
The school-uniform boy ghost materialized out of thin air. His eyes were hollow, his figure translucent. His presence was far weaker, a significant gap compared to the Black Shadow’s strength.
Yet even so, he lunged forward without regard for his own safety.
With an expressionless face, Zhang Lin grabbed the Black Shadow’s body tightly. Countless fine blood threads emerged from his fingertips and began slowly, steadily devouring the Black Shadow’s form.
Having just been brutalized by Bai Yu, the Black Shadow instinctively hesitated upon seeing Lu Liangting summon a ghost as well.
Once Zhang Lin grabbed it, its eyes instantly turned vicious.
Such a weak ghost dared to obstruct it?
Its remaining single hand swiped, swatting Zhang Lin away. Its five fingers stretched like noodles, binding Zhang Lin tightly before dragging him back swiftly, its gaping blood-filled maw opening wide.
Zhang Lin was indeed weak, but his fighting style was reckless. When the elongated fingers bound his body, he opened his mouth and bit down on one finger. Sharp teeth formed from blood threads severed the digit with all his might.
The Black Shadow winced in pain, its gaze towards Zhang Lin growing even more venomous.
By now, Zhang Lin was already dragged close. The Black Shadow simply retracted its hand. The remaining four noodle-like fingers withdrew, and its hand formed a blade, plunging through Zhang Lin’s abdomen with a sickening squelch before smashing him into the wall again.
It all happened very fast. This brief clash between the two ghostly monsters revealed the disparity in their strength.
Lu Liangting wasn’t just standing around waiting to die. In the time Zhang Lin was desperately stalling the Black Shadow, he rapidly charged at Li Nan. Without a word, he threw a punch, hitting Li Nan right on his already-caved-in nose.
Tears flew from Li Nan’s eyes. Perhaps due to sheer hatred, he didn’t fall under this intense pain but instead swung a punch back, which Lu Liangting easily dodged.
Both men kicked simultaneously. Lu Liangting didn’t budge; Li Nan stumbled back three steps. This caused the Black Shadow’s bite, meant to tear off Zhang Lin’s head, to miss its mark.
Zhang Lin had a moment to breathe. His body was pierced through, turning terrifyingly translucent, visibly weak. Yet this seemed not to affect him at all. Just like before, knowing full well he was no match for the Black Shadow, he lunged again, locked in mutual devouring.
“I want you dead!!”
Li Nan’s teeth were stained red with blood. Compared to the Black Shadow on his back, he looked even more like an evil ghost.
Lu Liangting’s fist slammed solidly into Li Nan’s face. Li Nan wrapped his arms around Lu Liangting’s arm in return and kicked him in the stomach.
“Mingyue, run!”
Amidst the brawl, Lu Liangting finally noticed Zhao Mingyue standing dumbfounded behind him, holding a magic staff.
At this moment, Lu Liangting realized with absolute certainty that Li Nan was here to target Mingyue, even to kill her!
Anxiety surged in his heart. If he couldn’t deal with Li Nan quickly, not only would Zhang Lin be in danger, but Zhao Mingyue would be too.
He had to win, and win in the shortest time possible.
For some reason, her graceful figure surfaced in his mind again. If she were here, there wouldn’t be any danger, would there?
Zhao Mingyue gripped the solid magic staff, momentarily at a loss for what to do.
Should she go help? But the two of them were tangled in a brawl. What if she accidentally hit the wrong person? And without Bai Yu here, she was a little afraid of the ghost shadow on Li Nan’s back.
“Don’t go over there. Slowly back away. Listen to me.”
Suddenly, a cool, clear voice resonated in her heart, and Zhao Mingyue immediately perked up.
She retreated step by step. After a few steps, she inadvertently looked up and saw something in her peripheral vision that made her pupils constrict.
At the corner of the stairwell, the Red-Clothed Female Ghost from the Fifth Floor had silently appeared. She had come down the stairs and was now standing just a short distance behind Lu Liangting. Her long, dark red nails, nearly black, reached down to her knees. Her skin was a deep blue, with swollen black veins writhing like earthworms.
Head bowed, black hair obscuring her face, her pair of eyes could faintly be seen through the tangled locks.
The Female Ghost surveyed her surroundings, as if searching for someone.
The moment the Female Ghost appeared, the entire situation changed. The temperature in the corridor seemed to drop ten degrees in a single second. A chilling wind blew straight through the soul, bone-piercingly cold.
A thick stench of decay mixed with a strong burnt odor formed an overwhelmingly nauseating smell, making one almost nostalgic for the disinfectant smell of the corridor.
“The Female Ghost’s corpse was moved. Her power has increased slightly.” Bai Yu’s voice sounded by Zhao Mingyue’s ear.
“Can you deal with her?”
“I can. I’d originally planned to let her be for a while. She’s already eaten ‘food,’ so she shouldn’t have come out this quickly. I think she sensed my presence and came looking for me.”
Bai Yu’s heart was solemn. If she let this thing devour Li Nan’s Black Shadow and Lu Liangting’s boy ghost, then dealing with her would become difficult.
Lu Liangting could naturally sense the shift in atmosphere. He kicked Li Nan away and stood his ground, not daring to look back. His throat bobbed, cold sweat soaking his back.
He was on the fifth floor; he knew that Female Ghost was somewhat frenzied.
But he truly hadn’t expected this ghost to come downstairs.
Facing the Fifth Floor Female Ghost, Zhang Lin and the Black Shadow also ceased their fight. The Black Shadow wasn’t seriously injured, but Zhang Lin’s body was terrifyingly translucent.
The pen automatically flew back into his pocket. Zhang Lin vanished.
Facing the aggressively menacing Red-Clothed Female Ghost, even the Black Shadow didn’t dare act wildly. It controlled Li Nan’s body to step back as well, wanting to create distance.
Unable to find Bai Yu, the Red-Clothed Female Ghost truly seemed to be going berserk.
She let out a silent roar and locked onto the Black Shadow on Li Nan’s body, charging straight for it with incredible speed.
Since Li Nan was behind him, Lu Liangting instinctively assumed the Red-Clothed Female Ghost’s target was him. But all he could do at that moment was raise an arm to shield himself.
The Female Ghost lunged with her putrid stench, a foul odor assaulting his nostrils.
Lu Liangting couldn’t help but close his eyes, waiting for death’s arrival in what felt like dramatically slowed time.
But right then, a force of wind brushed his face. The Female Ghost’s foul smell receded even faster than it had come.
The anticipated pain didn’t arrive. Lu Liangting frowned and opened his eyes.
The Red-Clothed Female Ghost was nowhere to be seen. Instead, a delicate figure in a white dress stood before him.
“It’s you…”
Seeing Bai Yu, Lu Liangting didn’t even notice the subtle curve his own lips took involuntarily.
His heart, for reasons unknown, was filled with a sense of security, along with a complex, indescribable emotion.
“I’ve been trying to find you these past few days…”
Before he could finish, the graceful figure before him suddenly turned. Without a word, she pivoted and delivered a perfect, beautiful side kick.
Lu Liangting practically spiraled through the air as he flew backward. His body was tougher than an average person’s, so this kick didn’t kill him or cause serious physical harm.
But the psychological damage… was a direct critical hit.
