Gao Shan Ghost School

Shuffling sounds…

The quiet sound of movement echoed through the corridors, yet there was no conversation. Nearly every student held a book, their eyes glued to the pages as they walked.

Occasionally, a student who wasn't watching their path would trip and fall, but no one around them paid any mind. Even the student who fell would simply scramble back to their feet and retrieve their dropped book.

It was now lunchtime.

Throngs of students crowded the corridors, hallways, and the plaza leading to the cafeteria. The atmosphere remained as oppressive as ever, making it hard to breathe.

Tuxing Sun leaned close to Baili Dao, whispering.

"Are we sure we won't get depression after five days of this? I'm already getting antsy."

They no longer dared to speak too loudly.

Although the surrounding students completely ignored them, the two of them could no longer treat these seemingly harmless people as normal. Not after what had happened to Qinghe Yikan.

Some kind of strange tale was at play here.

Any student brushing past them could suddenly erupt in violence and devour them whole. Worst of all, they didn't even know what triggered it.

Baili Dao sighed.

"Did you think the generous rewards for this Instance were a free lunch? The difficulty naturally rises to match."

The base reward was one piece of Common-grade equipment.

The rarity of equipment was inherently higher than that of ordinary items. More importantly, the rewards could be stacked, and there was no upper limit. In other words, they could theoretically obtain Epic or even Legendary-grade equipment.

In the outside world, even the worst piece of Common-grade equipment would fetch at least a hundred thousand at auction. A slightly better one could go for a million. For an ordinary player, getting a single piece meant being set for a long time.

It all came down to a simple truth. The Calamity of Spirits game was fair. The difficulty of an Instance was always proportional to the generosity of its rewards.

Baili Dao's thoughts turned to their other teammate.

"How's Shi Gandang doing? Will he really not violate school rules by staying in the infirmary to look after Qinghe Yikan?"

They bought their food and sat at a table. Looking up, they saw the cafeteria walls were covered with clocks, each one contributing to a cacophony of ticking with every passing second.

They had made no progress.

Shoveling food into his mouth, Tuxing Sun answered indistinctly.

"What else can we do? You want to drag him away? Come on, let the two lovebirds have their moment. The right thing for us to do is find clues quickly."

The food at this ghost school, he had to admit, was surprisingly good.

Considering their life-threatening study methods, it made a certain kind of sense. If their nutrition didn't keep up, many students would probably drop dead from anemia, not to mention the constant mental strain.

This wasn't an act of mercy from the school. It was simply that the ghost school couldn't allow something like poor nutrition to interfere with studying.

"That's the problem," Baili Dao said, his expression turning odd. "We can't get to the Little Black Room, we can't find the Art Building, and as for the homeroom teacher's secret…"

He thought of some unpleasant things, then sighed.

"Didn't Shi Gandang say the principal only trusts the homeroom teachers of Class Seven and Class One? He's stuck in the infirmary, so it has to be me. Since I'm in Class One, I'm the one who has to get close to homeroom teacher Yao Qing."

"But the moment he got back, he was like a walking powder keg. I hadn't even said a word before he pointed at me, still a mess from Li Yang's explosion, and chewed me out. He ordered me to the washroom to get spotless before I could even enter the classroom."

Baili Dao stretched, feeling utterly helpless.

"Dude, it feels like I'm cursed. I haven't done anything, and all the NPCs are targeting me."

God knows what got into Teacher Yao, he thought. His temper turned so foul after just one trip out.

And Li Yang, too, just exploding on the spot without a peep. I had to spend ages washing up in the bathroom.

Clang!

As the two were talking, they failed to notice a student walking past with an empty tray. Baili Dao's stretching motion bumped right into him.

The tray clattered to the floor.

"Oh, sorry, let me help you with that."

Baili Dao offered a quick apology and bent down to help pick up the tray and utensils.

But the instant he bent over, a chill shot up his spine and straight to his brain.

As a Lv. 6 veteran who had survived several Instances, Baili Dao knew exactly what this intuition meant. He subconsciously dodged to the side.

Swish!

His reaction was lightning fast.

Even Tuxing Sun, sitting right across from him, didn't see what happened before Baili Dao had already scrambled three meters away.

And yet, he was still clutching his lower back, his face a ghastly white, his lips pale.

A large hole was torn in his school uniform. Blood poured from the wound, the vivid red drops glaringly conspicuous on the spotless white floor.

He had almost been sliced in two at the waist.

Tuxing Sun quickly moved closer to provide cover.

"What the hell is this thing? Is it the strange tale ghost Qinghe Yikan mentioned?"

The student whose tray they had knocked over had transformed. In the blink of an eye, his skin split open, sprouting several blue tentacles. A ghostly hand clutching a craft knife extended from his chest cavity. He was the very picture of a terrifying Fierce Ghost.

It was that craft knife that had so easily pierced Baili Dao's lower back.

Bizarrely, none of the students eating around them lifted their heads. They didn't even glance at the horrifying monster. They just continued to chew their food, their eyes fixed on the exercise books in their hands.

"Color… You have his color… Where did you… take him…" the Fierce Ghost muttered, its words incomprehensible.

Before the two could figure out what it meant, it suddenly roared and charged at them, tentacles flailing.

Gritting his teeth, Baili Dao pulled a bandage from his pocket and slapped it onto the gruesome wound on his lower back.

The wound, which was nearly three fingers wide, began to heal at a rate visible to the naked eye. It was clearly an item.

"Run! Head for the Teaching Building! To the homeroom teacher's office!" Baili Dao decided instantly.

A head-on confrontation was clearly foolish. They had all seen what became of Qinghe Yikan.

The best solution was to find their homeroom teacher. There was no way he would let this strange tale kill them with impunity. After all, their current identities were students, and students who hadn't broken any school rules and had decent grades at that.

The ghost school, in its own way, was quite partial to students with excellent grades. Baili Dao had deduced this from Teacher Yao's attitude toward Pending Death. Despite his verbal threats and apparent disgust, he had still allowed the class's top student to go to the restroom, even giving him plenty of time to wander and explore.

The reason was simple. He was first in the class.

Crash! Crash!

Tables and chairs were overturned as the tentacled Fierce Ghost chased them. Soup and drinks spilled across the floor. In its rampage, the ghost hand slashed the necks of a few innocent students with its craft knife.

Tuxing Sun cursed, glancing back as he fled.

"Shit! This thing is contagious!"

He saw the students who had been slashed, the ones who should have been dead, staggering back to their feet.

Their skin began to tear.

Then, multi-colored tentacles burst from their bodies, a sickening rainbow of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

The calm, oppressive atmosphere of the cafeteria vanished completely, replaced by a horrifying hellscape of frenzied demons.

Now this was a real Gao Shan Ghost School.