He Zhu nodded and said, “Let’s finish this quickly. The head nurse has probably woken up by now. Be careful, we’ll go out and block her.”
“Got it.”
Qi Dengzui raised his hand, grabbed the bedside table parts he had dismantled during the day, and with a swift sidestep, hurled them at the nurse.
The parts slammed into the nurse’s face, clattering against what sounded like metal. Her expression twisted in fury as green blood seeped from her mouth, glowing faintly in the darkness.
Qi Dengzui leaped into the air, kicking off the wall with force. Using the momentum of his body, he spun mid-air in a graceful, fluid arc clean, sharp, and utterly cool.
By the time anyone could react, the nurse had been kicked so hard she was embedded in the wall.
<Holy crap, that was so cool!>
<I mean, the system gave him a pretty plain face, but his vibe and moves are so alpha. I can’t take it. From today on, he’s my idol. Wuwuwu, Qi-shen, step on me.>
<Damn, that kick just went straight into my heart.>
The blow had slammed hard into the nurse’s face. She let out a shrill shriek and spat out a mouthful of cyan fangs.
But she seemed to feel no pain at all. She lunged again immediately, her claws raking across Qi Dengzui’s back, drawing blood.
Blood seeped drop by drop from his back. He stifled a soft grunt and, before the nurse could launch a second attack, grabbed a nearby vase and smashed it at her with two heavy thuds.
Like a clap of thunder, the vase exploded against her head, sending porcelain shards and dirt flying everywhere.
The nurse’s venomous expression suddenly shifted. She scrambled frantically toward the flowers, wild-eyed.
“The flowers, my flowers.”
The flowers from the vase fell to the ground. Deprived of their carefully prepared soil, their color instantly changed from bright red to black, withering and rotting in the blink of an eye.
The rich fragrance vanished without a trace.
The nurse finally stopped her frenzy. She toppled over stiffly, the mutations on her body slowly receding until she returned to her normal form. The twisted grimace on her face softened into peace.
Qi Dengzui wiped the dirt off his face and finally let out a breath of relief.
His figure was tall and lean, his brow cold and sharp. A cut from the flying vase shard marked his profile, lending him an indescribable air of authority.
Qi Dengzui could have taken down the nurse without a scratch, but her positioning just now had been too tricky she’d blocked the vase perfectly, keeping him from grabbing it right away.
The little green sprout on top of the small white orb bent back and forth, worry practically written all over it. “Qi-ge, are you okay?”
Qi Dengzui said flatly, “I’m fine. Just a scratch.”
He intended to regroup with Pei Su, but the moment he lifted one foot, his eyes suddenly shut and he collapsed, losing consciousness.
When Guan Si switched over, his eyes snapped open. He dropped to one knee, vomiting a mouthful of fresh red blood.
Guan Si: “…” Damn it.
Why did the body swap have to happen NOW?!
The viewing site went dead silent. Everyone was stunned by the blood. A full ten seconds passed before the barrage comments started scrolling wildly again, buzzing with heated discussion.
<What’s going on? He just got scratched, right? The nurse’s claws aren’t even poisoned. Qi-shen was fine a second ago. Why is he suddenly puking blood like this?>
<? This is way too fake, bro.> <No way, is he faking an injury? The little nurse got her head bashed in with a dent, and he’s over here coughing up blood like he’s critically wounded. The nurse could sue him and win.> <Little nurse: Excuse me? Are you serious? Where’s your manners?>
Guan Si’s face was pale, the corners of his mouth stained red. Darkness flickered before his eyes repeatedly. It took several minutes for the dizziness and weightlessness in his head to ease.
He took off his glasses and touched the wound on his face. Lowering his gaze, his thick lashes veiled the flicker of sorrow in his eyes.
“Qi-ge, when will you finally remember me?”
On the other side, He Zhu, who had left Room 103, was at his wit’s end. “What kind of lousy plan is this? The head nurse is practically a ghost herself, how’s she supposed to be afraid of one?”
Pei Su looked utterly unconcerned. “What’s the rush? A ghost wall and a ghost aren’t the same thing, are they? I’m a formation master. Can you at least give me a basic level of trust?”
He Zhu had once passed an exam called “The Doll” by controlling a doll to clear it, earning him the puppet arts and becoming a puppeteer who manipulates others with puppet strings.
The two had met in the lobby of the Paranormal Academy after that exam, so from the moment they laid eyes on each other in this arena, both knew the other was a “veteran examinee.” But with newcomers Qi Dengzui and Guan Si around, neither had revealed their identities.
Pei Su raised an eyebrow and said, “Brother He, it’s your time to shine. Don’t go easy on the other side. I’m counting on you to protect me, this formation master.”
“See that thing over there? That’s my formation eye. When I crack my whip on it, it’ll activate the array and trap the head nurse,” Pei Su said in a low voice. “In a moment, just use your puppet threads to control her.”
He Zhu shot him a glance. “My ability isn’t strong enough right now. The puppet threads can only control her for a limited time, and once the control ends, she’ll realize she was controlled. She’ll also have memories of everything I made her do during that period.”
Pei Su let out a “pfft.” “Small problem, small problem. By the time your control runs out, we might already be out of here. Besides, I’m here too if you can’t hold her, I can help stall her for a bit. And there’s still Qi Dengzui in the exam room, that strongest labor force of ours.”
He patted He Zhu on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, Brother He. I’m the most loyal guy around, I’d never ditch you and run off alone.”
The moment the head nurse showed her face, Pei Su straightened up, swung his whip, and cracked it down on the formation eye with a sharp smack.
Instantly, light blazed brilliantly. A massive pillar of light shot straight into the sky, and centered on that pillar, a five-pointed star array materialized.
“Now’s the time, Brother He, go!”
He Zhu thought to himself: So noisy.
From his fingertips, strands of puppet threads began to sprout, stretching and growing endlessly. In an instant, countless threads burst forth, surging toward the head nurse.
The head nurse lunged forward but slammed into the array’s barrier, and thousands of puppet threads invaded her body.
He Zhu raised his hand slightly, and the head nurse’s eyes went completely dazed. Her body moved like a marionette, no longer under her own control, following the movements of He Zhu’s fingers.
Pei Su patted his shoulder and praised, “Brother He lives up to his name you truly didn’t let me down.”
He Zhu ignored him, guiding the head nurse back to the nurse’s station, then said, “Let’s go pick up Qi Dengzui.”
By the time the two arrived, Guan Si had only just recovered. That little bit of injury had nearly cost him half his life truly a fragile, sickly beauty.
He Zhu gave him a single look and said, “Guan Si?”
Though only a few hours had passed, he could now easily tell the difference between Qi Dengzui and Guan Si.
Pei Su stared at the pool of blood on the ground and asked, “How are you doing? Why’d you vomit so much blood?”
“I’m fine,” Guan Si replied. “You two handled things?”
Pei Su said, “All done. Should hold for about an hour if nothing goes wrong. What do we do now?”
Guan Si said, “Room 103 has a secret passage. Qi-ge already went through everything in the room, so the entrance probably isn’t hidden in the furniture it’s likely in the wall or the floor.”
He let out a sigh. “Too bad Qi-ge isn’t here. Otherwise, we could’ve just tried ripping the wall and floor apart directly.”
Pei Su: “…”
Was Qi Dengzui some kind of iron-armed warrior?
“It’s fine, I’ll handle it,” Pei Su said, cracking his whip against the floor and the wall. The floorboards shuddered from the impact, and the pale wall split open with several long, clean cracks.
He Zhu followed up immediately, releasing puppet threads that burrowed into the gaps. The cracks widened, stretching from top to bottom until they formed the shape of a door.
He Zhu pushed against it, but the door didn’t budge.
“There should be a switch.”
The group began feeling around the door’s perimeter, but even after half an hour had passed, they’d found no clues at all.
There was simply too little to go on in Room 103. Guan Si closed his eyes, recalling everything that had happened since entering the exam. the plea letter, the diary entries, all of it tied to written language. No matter how complex the puzzles were, the solution always revolved around “exams,” which fit the theme.
So what kind of mechanism could this door use that would connect to the theme?
What could it be?
And how exactly had Xiao Yu managed to open the secret passage in Room 103 when she was at death’s door?
Pinyin, characters, words.
In a flash of inspiration, a thought streaked through Guan Si’s mind.
His eyes gleamed. “Voice control this door has to be opened by speaking!”
Only language could both fit the exam’s theme and match the circumstances of Xiao Yu’s time.
“This is a freshman exam. If my appearance hadn’t forcibly raised the difficulty, the exam itself should’ve been very simple.”
“The secret passage was opened by Xiao Yu, so the trigger condition must match her situation at the time. A young girl, trapped with her friend in a madhouse ward.”
“Under those conditions, the only way she could’ve accidentally opened the secret door, there’s no simpler method than voice control.”
〈Oh my god, he’s so smart. Who said he was useless?〉
〈So what? No one’s getting out of this instance unscathed with just three people.〉
〈What’s wrong with the person above? Can you stop with the snide remarks?〉
〈Just stating facts. Getting defensive already?〉
Guan Si recalled Xiao Yu’s diary and plea letter, searching his memory over and over again.
Then, under everyone’s gaze, he spoke a single sentence no one could have expected.
“I love you.”
The wall moved with a resounding rumble, the entire surface splitting down the middle and sliding apart to reveal a pitch-black, deep secret passage.
He sighed softly, “As I thought, they were lovers.”
〈??????? Huh? What the hell?〉
〈What? The lilies of home are blooming?〉
〈That’s insane, how did he guess that?〉
The barrage of question marks in the comments was going absolutely wild.