"This is Chang'an No. 2 High School."
By the time the two of them reached No. 2 High, the sky was already dark. They walked a full circuit around the school and chose a spot where no one would see them to climb over the wall.
Both were as agile as apes. Neither needed the other's help; they could go straight over.
Splash.
Nianshi had not expected an artificial lake on the other side of the wall. It was too dark to see. He vaulted the wall and jumped straight into the lake. Silky smooth.
"Damn it, this school is loaded. They built a lake in a place like this." Nianshi crawled out of the water, cursing under his breath.
Splash.
Lishi jumped into the lake as well, and the spray hit Nianshi full in the face.
"Didn't you hear me say there was a lake here?" Nianshi wiped his face and snarled in a low voice.
"...I only caught the first half, you praising the school for being rich. I wanted to see how rich this school was, so I came in."
Fortunately it was summer, and the two of them were wearing little. Airing out on the bank, they would dry soon enough.
While they were at it, they looked around and found the lake enclosed by a ring of iron railings. The gate in the railing was mottled with rust and locked with an iron chain as thick as a finger.
"Why is this place chained off?" Lishi frowned.
"The school is probably afraid students will come play here and fall into the lake," Nianshi said.
"A nuisance." Lishi reached through the gate, gripped the iron chain, and yanked hard. The chain snapped.
Lishi's ability was an all-around strengthening of his physique. An iron chain as thick as a finger was no different from cotton thread to him.
Nianshi took a piece of fine silk from his backpack. Wrapped inside was a prayer-bead bracelet of seven beads carved from red sandalwood, smooth and round. One glance showed it was of the finest quality; merely touching it had the effect of calming the mind and gathering the spirit.
"This is the ancestral consecrated prayer-bead bracelet you mentioned?"
"Yes. My ancestors had ties with an eminent monk of Putuo Temple. This bracelet was a gift from that monk. When a ghost comes within a certain distance, it gives off a dark light."
Lishi was puzzled. "Why a dark light? Isn't it usually a golden light?"
"The bracelet is for hiding from vengeful ghosts, not for dealing with them. Golden light is too conspicuous. A vengeful ghost would notice it easily."
Lishi thought it over and had to agree. A vengeful ghost hunting for people, and the people hiding perfectly well—the ghost passes by and would never have found them, but then the bracelet lights up. That would be the end of them.
"Truly worthy of being an eminent monk. He really thought it through."
As they spoke, a beam of light swept over, followed by a patrol teacher's harsh shout.
"Who's there!"
At first the patrol teacher had sensed movement and thought students were trying to climb the wall and run off. Only when the flashlight fell on the two of them did he realize they were two suspicious-looking middle-aged men.
Faced with the questioning, the pair stayed unhurried. Nianshi stepped forward and fixed his eyes on the patrol teacher.
"You—what kind of people are you!"
Seeing that the other side showed no fear at all, the patrol teacher grew nervous instead. He was just about to speak when he felt an incredible power in Nianshi's eyes. Then both arms dropped, and he lost consciousness.
This was Nianshi's ability. He could control another person's consciousness for a short time.
"Tell me. Where in this school is it haunted?"
The patrol teacher answered without hesitation. "The old dormitory building."
"Take us there."
"All right."
He had not gone two steps before he pointed at a pitch-black six-story building.
"We're here."
At the same moment, the bracelet on Nianshi's wrist gave off a dark light, and both of them tensed at once.
In front of the old dormitory building was a very conspicuous sign, written in red paint: "No Entry." The patrol teacher's flashlight shone on the sign, making it all the more eerie.
Nianshi took two steps toward the old dormitory building. The bracelet's glow grew darker still, hard to make out in the dark.
When he reached the entrance, the bracelet changed. One of the wooden beads turned black as ink.
Seeing this change, Nianshi actually settled and let out a breath.
"What does that mean?" Lishi did not understand.
"A wooden bead turning black means there's a very fierce vengeful ghost nearby," Nianshi explained.
"Then why did you relax?!" Lishi grew even more tense. He was full of strength, but it was useless against a ghost he could neither see nor touch.
When the time came, he would not even know how he died.
Nianshi smiled. "Relax. If only one wooden bead has turned black, there are two possibilities. One is that the vengeful ghost in the building is fierce, but only so fierce—nowhere near the level of a ghost king. Not our target."
"And the second possibility?" Lishi pressed, unable to wait.
"The second is that a ghost king once stayed in the building for a long time, and some lingering aura was sensed by the wooden beads."
Lishi understood. "Meaning that either way, the ghost king isn't here?"
"Right."
"You scared me."
The patrol teacher groaned, "Mm." A trace of struggle showed on his face, the sign that the control was about to lift. Seeing it, Nianshi led Lishi away.
"Where am I?" The patrol teacher stood in a daze at the entrance of the old dormitory building, flashlight raised, utterly at a loss. Thinking then of the rumors about the old dormitory, he gave a violent shiver.
"There isn't something unclean here, is there?"
He hurried away and dialed his wife.
"Hey, wife, that master you mentioned, the one who can drive off evil—help me get in touch with him."
The two kept exploring the campus, from the athletic field to the cafeteria, and then to the teaching building.
"This school is really big."
"I heard it's a key high school."
"The key high school I went to wasn't even this big."
When they reached the foot of the teaching building, the bracelet reacted again. The first wooden bead lit.
Nianshi had a premonition that the ghost king was inside this teaching building.
With every floor they climbed, the bracelet lit one more bead. One, two, three...
Although the stairwell lights were on, Nianshi was even more on edge than before. Lishi, following behind, was so frightened he did not dare draw a loud breath.
Nianshi took a thermos from his schoolbag. Inside was plant-ash water. With a special method, he smeared the plant-ash water on his eyelids and on Lishi's.
This was a method passed down in his family. It was not as effective as Mount Longhu's Yin-Yang Heavenly Eye, but it could roughly make out a ghost's form and serve as a warning.
When the two reached the top floor, the wooden beads turned black. When the fourth wooden bead turned black, Nianshi's heart gave a violent jolt.
Four wooden beads. That was already enough to be called a ghost king. The fiercest vengeful ghost his ancestors had ever encountered was only of this level.
But the beads' changes went far beyond that.
Five, six...
Cold sweat soaked Nianshi's back.
This ghost king was probably even more horrifyingly fierce than he had expected!
When Nianshi watched with his own eyes as the seventh wooden bead turned black as ink, his heart nearly leapt out of his throat.
All seven wooden beads had turned black!
It brought the ancestral precept to mind. The precept said that if you met a ghost king that turned four wooden beads black, do not hesitate. Turn and run.
Of ghost kings beyond four beads, the ancestral precept said nothing. All who had seen one were dead.
Seven beads... what level was that?!
When the two drew near Class Three of the third year, they no longer needed the bracelet. Standing at the door, Nianshi could already feel the chill seeping from the door crack, thread by thread, seizing the soul and sinking into the bones.
Even Lishi, who understood nothing of feng shui arts, instinctively sensed that something was wrong here.
Nianshi steeled himself and took the first step. Through the glass of the back door he saw what was happening in Class Three of the third year and sucked in a breath of cold air.
He could not make out the ghost king's features. He could only see a mass of human-shaped black mist circling the classroom, radiating from head to toe an aura of terror and ill omen. The aura spread, enclosing the class and taking it as a domain.
The human-shaped black mist circled a little fatty, malice thick. He dared not imagine what venomous curse it was laying down.
Lishi furtively craned his neck for a look and shivered.
What a terrifying existence. It had to be that Zhenyue Ghost King, without a doubt.
They had not even faced it head-on. One look, and Lishi felt a pressure like a mountain, crushing him until he could not breathe!
"So this is the Zhenyue Ghost King? Truly worthy of being the guardian of the Human Dao supreme treasure."
Strangely, the black-mist ghost king paid particular attention to two of the students, always circling them, as if conducting some ritual.
Nianshi's ancestors had recorded similar situations.
"It seems those two have been possessed by a vengeful ghost." Nianshi gave a cold laugh. No wonder the ghost king of the old dormitory building was gone. It had possessed the students and come out.
One of them snatched a handful of shrimp sticks from the little fatty and shared them with a deskmate.
Eat up. It was their last meal anyway.
Targeted by a vengeful ghost this terrifying, they would not live many more days.
Chapter 17