A narrow, long corridor led to the temple, wide enough for only one boat to pass through at a time.
Two living souls blended into the fleet of black-awning boats, surrounded by spirits on all sides. Most of them were students; not a single adult was in sight. Lu Xincheng recognized several of them as Wen Yaozhi’s classmates.
Lu Xincheng rubbed the base of his finger, lost in thought. Perhaps because Lu Xincheng was too quiet, Wen Yaozhi cleared his throat and asked, “What are you thinking about?”
“The evil spirit is using these boats to conduct a screening. I am wondering what its selection criteria are.”
Most of the spirits on the boats were students, making age seem like the primary standard. However, there were adults who had boarded as well. Although Lu Xincheng and his companion had essentially forced their way on, the fact that Lin Dusheng had failed to do the same suggested the boat possessed a specific selection mechanism.
Lu Xincheng had actually considered other possibilities, but for certain reasons, he did not feel like sharing them. Just then, the clear yet steady voice of the junior high student reached his ears. “The Children of the Underwater must be young boys and girls. Once a certain number is gathered, the evil spirit can cultivate itself into an evil god.”
Lu Xincheng was silent.
Seeing that he did not respond, Wen Yaozhi offered a rare, enthusiastic explanation. “Theoretically, ‘young boys and girls’ has nothing to do with age.”
Lu Xincheng remained quiet.
Noticing the faint flush creeping up the back of Lu Xincheng’s neck, the boy suppressed the upward curve of his lips.
In an instant, they arrived at the temple entrance. The faint smile on the boy’s face vanished immediately. He turned to confirm with his companion once more, “The evil spirit is inside. This time, we might be facing its true form. Are you sure you want to go in?”
“Yes,” Lu Xincheng replied. “Teacher will accompany you.”
The two locked eyes. Neither said another word.
The interior of the temple was radiant with golden light, appearing as if it were built from solid gold, opulent and magnificent to the extreme. A shrine stood in the center, housing a statue with wide eyes and a broad mouth. Its eyeballs were so lifelike they looked as if they might pop out of their sockets at any moment.
A crowd was already kneeling on the floor. Leading them was a middle-aged man with thinning hair; his beer belly made the act of kneeling look quite strenuous. He stood up, faced the crowd, and delivered a passionate speech.
“Children, you are saved now that you are here! You are all chosen by the River God, excellent students with good character and academic standing. The River God sent boats to bring you here. It is warm, safe, and sheltered. You no longer need to be afraid; you no longer need to fear.”
Wen Yaozhi and Lu Xincheng blended in with the newly arrived group, keeping a low profile at the very back. The middle-aged man was the Principal. Lu Xincheng had seen his photo on the walls of the teaching building earlier.
“Is the evil spirit possessing the Principal?”
“It is likely just an illusion,” Wen Yaozhi replied. Seeing Lu Xincheng’s certainty, he did not say more. The evil spirit was not actually there.
The Principal continued his fervent speech, “The River God has saved us!”
“Grateful to the River God!” the students who were already kneeling chanted in unison.
Principal: “I am willing to repay the River God with the faith of my remaining years.”
“I am willing to repay the River God with the faith of my remaining years.”
Around them, one person after another dropped to their knees with a series of thuds. Lu Xincheng followed the crowd and lowered his body, not forgetting to pull Wen Yaozhi down beside him.
“It seems even evil spirits love running pyramid schemes,” Lu Xincheng whispered.
Wen Yaozhi, caught off guard, was pulled down by Lu Xincheng. His body stiffened the moment his knees touched the ground. He was about to question how his companion could kneel to an evil spirit when he glanced sideways and froze. Lu Xincheng was not kneeling at all.
The grey-haired young man was sitting cross-legged on the floor. Leaning close to the boy’s ear, he whispered, “Since we have entered someone else’s temple, we should show a little respect.”
Wen Yaozhi twitched the corner of his mouth but did not argue.
Once Lu Xincheng saw that Wen Yaozhi had adjusted his seating position, he felt relieved enough to continue his observations. Every person who entered the temple became a loyal believer of the River God. Through his ring, Lu Xincheng could clearly sense the power of faith gathering within the hall.
Countless rays of light converged toward the statue. The evil spirit was absorbing soul power through the faith of these souls. If it truly managed to absorb all the soul power here, it might actually become a god.
Suddenly, a voice rang out abruptly from the crowd. “Principal Zhu, I have finally found you.”
This sudden disturbance broke the collective consciousness of the spirits. The grey-haired young man gazed at the Principal with enthusiasm. The middle-aged man standing in the center, however, acted as if he had not seen him, continuing to chant, “Grateful to the River God.”
Lu Xincheng stepped forward. “Principal Zhu.”
The Principal did not react.
“Principal Zhu, if you have been kidnapped, do not blink.”
The kneeling students looked on with doubt. Even the slowest among them could now see that something was wrong with the Principal.
Principal Zhu, with his protruding belly, continued passionately, “I am willing to repay the River God with the faith of my remaining years.”
The students below were silent.
“I recall our Principal is not an AI,” Lu Xincheng said with a kind smile. “Everyone should distinguish carefully.”
All eyes fixed on the greasy, middle-aged Principal. A sudden bang echoed as the shirt and trousers clinging tightly to his skin exploded. A brown-spotted toad, its limbs stretched wide, lunged directly at Lu Xincheng’s face in mid-air.
Lu Xincheng retreated urgently. At the same time, a small, pitch-black peach-wood blade streaked past his eyes, hitting the toad squarely in the forehead and pinning it to the divine statue. The toad’s legs kicked once, and it died instantly.
Wen Yaozhi stepped forward to pull out the dagger. A sharp pshhh sounded as a crack split across the statue.
For a moment, the air was silent. Lu Xincheng moved his pinky finger and looked at Wen Yaozhi. Their eyes met, sharing a sense of tacit understanding. It was coming.
A massive external force pressed against every brick and tile outside the temple, producing a suppressed, heavy grinding sound. When one of the stone pillars supporting the temple snapped, the spirits inside screamed and fled in all directions.
Amidst the chaotic temple, only two figures stood calm and still. Wen Yaozhi’s gaze was locked onto the statue in the center, waiting for the evil spirit to reveal itself. Lu Xincheng, however, saw a completely different scene. The space was filled with the soul power of fear. Though it was a low-level grey gas, the sheer quantity was not to be underestimated.
He raised his hand. As if answering a call, all the soul power gathered rapidly and surged into his ring. Once he had collected all the leaking soul power, a low, indignant roar echoed from the distance.
A flash flood swept through the entire temple, and a massive toad leapt out from the muddy, filthy water. Bumpy skin covered its body and face. Its bulging, pitch-black bulbous eyes blinked twice. A massive sound like a burp echoed from its gaping mouth, and a thick smell of mud and fish filled the hall.
The temple had turned into a water curtain cave, with sewage constantly pouring in from the breaches. Lu Xincheng covered his nose and climbed onto the stone statue. Some soul power still lingered around it, and true to his principle of not wasting a single drop, he intended to collect it all.
Wen Yaozhi drew his short peach-wood blade to face the physical form of the evil spirit. The giant toad had the advantage in size but was far less agile than its opponent. In close combat, its massive body gained no ground; its tough skin emitted scorching white smoke wherever the blade grazed it. Peach wood was the ultimate bane of evil.
A frustrated croak rumbled from deep within its throat. The water flow began to accelerate. The toad spirit was an aquatic evil spirit; Wen Yaozhi would be at a disadvantage in the water. Wen Yaozhi was clearly growing anxious as well. The water had already risen above his knees, severely limiting his movement speed.
Standing by the statue, Lu Xincheng finished absorbing the soul power and immediately returned his attention to the battlefield. The toad spirit had stopped attacking and was retreating to dodge, its bulging eyes darting around.
“The eyes!” Almost at the same moment Lu Xincheng shouted, Wen Yaozhi’s blade decisively and forcefully pierced the giant toad’s left eye.
“Gwah!” The sharp, angry roar proved the worth of that strike.
The giant toad crashed heavily into the water, submerged by the turbid mud.
“Quick, come up!” Standing on the shrine, Lu Xincheng reached out his hand to Wen Yaozhi. Just as his hand touched the cool skin, a massive pulling force came from behind.
“Wen Yaozhi!”
A dark-red tongue sliced through the water like a pair of scissors. It hooked around Wen Yaozhi’s waist, wrapping around him several times like a ribbon, and dragged him into the water. In a strange moment of instinct, Lu Xincheng did not let go. Instead, he gripped Wen Yaozhi’s hand tightly and was dragged into the water with him.
Under the pitch-black water, Lu Xincheng fought the pressure and forced his eyes open. He and Wen Yaozhi were still holding hands. Wen Yaozhi held his short blade; the tongue that had been around his waist was gone, either cut off or retracted.
The water was the evil spirit’s domain; they could not stay long. Lu Xincheng poked his index finger upward, signaling for them to swim up together. Wen Yaozhi nodded silently.
Just as Lu Xincheng was about to let go of Wen Yaozhi’s hand, he was suddenly pulled back by the boy. At the same time, his body narrowly missed the giant toad’s projectile tongue. Wen Yaozhi delivered a flying kick to the evil spirit’s ugly head.
The giant toad had no intention of letting them up. On land, Wen Yaozhi had many ways to hunt it, but in the water, his movements were restricted, and he could not hold his breath for long. Wen Yaozhi was not a strong swimmer.
The evil spirit had drawn much soul power from Wen Yaozhi’s dream, putting it just one step away from godhood. It only needed one more person. Its long tongue wrapped around Wen Yaozhi’s neck. If the Ghost Hunter woke up from the dream now, the spirit’s efforts would be in vain. Faced with a life-or-death situation in a dream, human instinct usually triggers a wake-up. But Wen Yaozhi did not wake up even as he lost consciousness.
The giant toad released the unconscious Wen Yaozhi and turned its final target toward Lu Xincheng. It intended to forcibly extract this human’s soul power. It plunged its spiritual sense into the man’s consciousness, only to be enveloped by a bone-chilling cold.
His consciousness was pitch black. It was like a small dark room with the lights switched off. The evil spirit froze. Just as the thought “What on earth is this?” crossed its mind, an enthusiastic voice whispered in its ear, “It is nothing, really. I just wanted to give you some goodies.”
Immediately, piercing screams that went straight to the soul exploded in its mind. “Aaaaaah! I do not want to! I do not want to die! Save me, I do not want to die yet!”
Fear surged in like a tide. The Children of the Underwater, whose souls it had drained, stared at it with sharp, resentful eyes. For the first time, it felt that emotion: fear. The fear of every person’s death stacked together, creating a Shura Hell. The giant toad felt as if its neck were being throttled. It had been the overlord of the water, its confident and powerful domain. But in this moment, it was stripped of its right to breathe.
Its pupils shrank to the size of pinpoints within its bulging eyes. Its limbs convulsed violently, and its huge mouth opened and closed, gasping for air.
Lu Xincheng dragged the unconscious Wen Yaozhi to the surface. After getting him onto the bank, he climbed onto the shrine himself. The water receded rapidly. The giant toad’s corpse floated on the surface, belly up. A layer of black soul power seeped from its body. Guided by a call, the black mist dispersed from the giant corpse and converged into a single stream, entering the black ring on Lu Xincheng’s left index finger.
That was the power of the fear experienced by the deceased in their final moments. The toad spirit was originally an underwater evil spirit that strengthened its soul power by tricking drowning children into offering their faith. The Ghost Hunter’s dream had created countless sources of power for it, allowing it to nearly ascend to heaven, only to be consumed by fear in the end.
Lu Xincheng touched his finger. The ring was slender yet hard, with a cold texture; it did not seem to be made of any material he knew. The water had completely drained away, and the toad spirit’s corpse turned into grey ash, dissipating into the air.
Lu Xincheng raised his foot and kicked the cracked statue off the shrine. With a thud, the stone statue broke into two pieces on the floor. The shrine was suddenly empty. Before the scattered incense and offerings lay the still-unconscious boy.
With his sharp eyes closed, his face was porcelain white and delicate, making him look like a beautiful, exquisite doll. Lu Xincheng’s long fingers brushed back the damp black hair. The boy was completely senseless, at the mercy of others. His bangs were smoothed back to reveal a handsome, harmless face. Droplets of water hung from his eyelashes as if he had just been crying.
Lu Xincheng could not help but stare at those lips; their shape was cold, but because they were soaked in water, the color was exceptionally vivid, like a newly bloomed rose. His Adam’s apple bobbed uncontrollably as he slowly leaned down. But just before he touched that softness, he paused. Ultimately, he merely used his index finger to lightly flick the edge of the long lashes, scattering the tiny water droplets. After his cool finger left, the eyelashes trembled imperceptibly for a few heartbeats.
Coincidentally, the sound of the door opening came from outside. Lu Xincheng turned his head. Du Ye and Feng Yu walked in.
“Is it over?” Du Ye asked, looking at the wrecked temple and finally resting his gaze on the fallen statue.
Lu Xincheng nodded. Feng Yu looked at Lu Xincheng with hope.
“I am sorry,” Lu Xincheng said, his eyes lowering. Although the evil spirit had vanished, the souls it had killed could not be brought back to life.
Feng Yu’s red-rimmed eyes welled up again. “So Zhenzhen is really… I will never see her again?”
Lu Xincheng glanced at the still-unconscious Wen Yaozhi and did not answer the girl’s question.
The water outside the temple had also dried up, leaving only some silt on the ground. The campus, having been baptized, was filled with an aura of gloom and desolation. Corpses were everywhere. As they walked, Feng Yu slowly accepted the cruel reality, covering the bodies of classmates she knew and those she did not.
In the center of the campus stood an old locust tree. It was said to be a hundred years old, existing even before the school was built. From the thickest branch of that tree hung a corpse. Everyone’s footsteps stopped when they passed it. Lu Xincheng recognized the person hanging there at a glance. Feng Yu saw him too; her gaze was cold as she stared at the corpse, which looked like a piece of salted fish swaying in the wind.
“It is Lin Dusheng. Who hung him there?” Du Ye was shocked.
No one answered. Lu Xincheng looked up and admired the sight for a while before saying calmly, “There are probably many people who wanted to do this.”
The corpse’s head was bowed, facing one of the teaching buildings. Lu Xincheng glanced in that direction.
“Let us meet in the classroom.” After parting with Feng Yu and Du Ye, Lu Xincheng searched several places and finally found Wang Dimeng in the girls’ restroom on the same floor. He also found Lin Dusheng, who had one hand bitten off. The mangled spirit wailed weakly.
Li Shuya leaned in the corner of a toilet stall, fragments of the spirit still lingering around her mouth. Because she had consumed the spirit, her pupils had turned white, the first sign of becoming an evil spirit. Upon being discovered, Li Shuya frantically wiped her mouth. She pointed at the mangled spirit and said with a sob, “It is him. It is him. He is the one who killed everyone.”
As she met Lu Xincheng’s gaze, she struggled to keep her mind clear. But her vision was becoming blurred, as if smeared with blood. She felt someone place a hand on her shoulder, and in the next moment, the terrifying, uncontrollable emotions were rapidly drained from her body.
Li Shuya snapped back to her senses instantly. “How did you do that?” The girl’s eyes were full of surprise.
“I am borrowing him,” Lu Xincheng said without further explanation, picking up Lin Dusheng’s spirit and carrying him out.
In the classroom of Class 3-10, the room was full, yet abnormally quiet. Zhang Zhenzhen and Zhang Chao were sitting in front and behind each other. Zhang Chao poked Zhang Zhenzhen’s back, and she turned around.
“What is it?”
“Where are your glasses? Why are you not wearing them?” Zhang Zhenzhen looked at the empty space beside her, her eyes dimming for a few seconds.
Lin Dusheng was propped up in front of the podium by Lu Xincheng. Looking at the students below, the once-pure eyes of the teenagers now seemed clouded with gloom, anger, disgust, and disappointment. Every emotion struck his soul like a sharp blade.
A hand patted his shoulder heavily twice. “Teacher Lin, continue to fulfill your duties as a teacher here.”
The school bell rang. Lu Xincheng sat down in Wen Yaozhi’s seat at the back right of the classroom. The bell for the end of class rang. Watching Lin Dusheng being surrounded by the crowd, Lu Xincheng silently exited the classroom and closed the door, sealing the raging fury inside.
Junior High Year 3, Class 10.
Feng Yu looked up at the faded door sign and walked into the messy, empty classroom. She sat in Zhang Zhenzhen’s seat, wiped the glasses clean, and placed them on the desk. She slumped over the table, her fingers tracing the boundary line they had carved with a photo when they were fighting. Tears fell from the crook of her arm, wetting the tabletop. Everything felt like a dream; if only it were a dream.
Suddenly, she felt a shadow loom over her. She looked up to see a handsome, cold face.
“Wen Yaozhi, you are alive?”
Wen Yaozhi did not answer her, only glancing at the faded half of the sticker photo in her hand. Two girls were pressed cheek-to-cheek in the photo, their smiles radiant.
“She is dead. Do not think about her anymore.” Wen Yaozhi withdrew his gaze and walked toward his seat.
Feng Yu was incensed, shouting louder than usual, “None of your business!”
Her anger was like a leaf falling into water; Wen Yaozhi acted as if he had not heard and walked steadily to his seat. But the moment he sat down, his body jerked. On the desk, two large words were written in blood, covering the entire surface, startling and shocking.
He lifted the hand he was about to set down. The veins on his lean forearm bulged, trembling almost imperceptibly.
“Du Ye.”
Wen Yaozhi stared at the two words for a few seconds. In the next second, he was plunged into darkness.