Revisiting the Old Dormitory Building

Zhou You's heart gave a fierce wrench. Aching for her, he embraced Nuomi and comforted her, "There, there. Don't be sad, Nuomi. It's okay." In Zhou You's impression, Nuomi was an easygoing, good-natured ghost who at most threw a little tantrum now and then; she had never worn such a heartbreaking expression before. It dawned on Zhou You that Nuomi's constant optimism had caused him to overlook the reality of her amnesia. Suffering from amnesia was painful for anyone, even someone as carefree as Nuomi. Zhou You held Nuomi close and gently patted her back. "The two of us are right here. We'll definitely help you find your memories." With Zhou You's promise, Nuomi felt a little better. Unable to bear seeing Nuomi like this, Chu Xiaoyao came up with an idea: "How about this? You said your earliest memories began in the old dormitory building, and you lived there for two years. Maybe there are clues in the old dormitory building. Shall we head over again tonight?" "Mm," Nuomi squeaked in a small voice, trying hard to blink back her tears. ... Come nightfall, Nuomi was back to her usual self, as if that morning's sorrow had never happened. "Grand Elder, Sect Master, let's go! Off to the old dormitory building!" Nuomi called out to them in high spirits. To be precise, Nuomi had already regained her good mood by the first class of the morning. Her sudden distress that morning was simply because her amnesia had been bottled up inside her for too long. Nuomi had always longed to recover her wish, but she felt this was her own problem and was too embarrassed to trouble Chu Xiaoyao and Zhou You, so she could only bottle it up. Nuomi hadn't even had anyone to confide in, and over time, melancholy had accumulated in her heart. After being comforted that morning and gaining Zhou You and Chu Xiaoyao as confidants, there was really nothing bothering Nuomi anymore. Still, since they had agreed on going to the old dormitory building, there was no harm in visiting; besides, she hadn't returned in a long time. This was Zhou You's second time visiting the old dormitory building. The first time, he had felt the place was eerie, terrifying, and ominous; seeing it now, it was just an ordinary dormitory building, and the frightening atmosphere had all been products of imagination. Nuomi, on the other hand, knew the old dormitory building like the back of her hand. Treating it entirely as her turf, she took them on a tour. "I usually stayed on the first floor. That way, if anyone came by, I could scare them right away." The first-floor hallway was pitch-black, stretching endlessly into the dark. The small transoms above the dorm room doors on both sides were pasted over with newspaper, as if sealing terrifying vengeful ghosts inside. At this thought, Chu Xiaoyao suddenly yanked open a dorm room door. "Boo!" If there was a ghost inside, it would scare the living daylights out of it. Yet after swinging several doors open in a row, she found nothing. "Tch, boring." "Sometimes I ran upstairs too." "My earliest memories are on the second floor. That's where I ran into an unreasonable fellow calling himself Zhenyue Ghost King or something. He had quite a grandiose title that sounded intimidating, and his entrance was really flashy." Nuomi curled her lip. When she first crossed paths with Zhenyue Ghost King, a forest of a thousand corpses had risen amid the wails of a hundred ghosts, which had genuinely terrified her. Only after fighting him did she realize his skills were mediocre at best. "Whenever he shows up, a bunch of hands sprout out of the ground. He's not that capable, but he sure knows how to gross people out." "That ghost king title of his is probably self-proclaimed. I could proclaim myself one too—Nuomi Ghost King!" Nuomi said disdainfully. Zhou You: "...At least Zhenyue Ghost King sounds imposing. Your self-proclaimed title has zero deterrent value." Nuomi wrung her hands and sighed in regret; she hadn't picked a good name for herself back then. It was all the damn rice-thrower's fault. Another strike against her! "Sometimes I read novels in this room." Nuomi pushed open a dormitory room door. Piled on the bed were many thick tomes, all pirated books. "I scavenged the entire building, and all the books are here. Horror novels are my favorite," Nuomi said, showing off her collection. Zhou You was taken aback. "All the books are here? That can't be right. I saw lots of textbooks sitting in other rooms." Earlier, while Chu Xiaoyao was flinging open doors to scare ghosts, he had poked his head inside and looked around, occasionally spotting textbooks in the closets. Nuomi disagreed with Zhou You's phrasing. "Can you even call textbooks books?" "Well said," Chu Xiaoyao agreed wholeheartedly. Zhou You: "..." Come the college entrance exam, you two are definitely going to drag down the sect's average score. Look at Su Tingxue—so hardworking, still studying after going home in the evening, studying math even! And look at you two. As sect master, Zhou You felt deep sorrow and regret over the willful ignorance of these two slackers. "These are my favorite horror novels." Nuomi floated up to the top bunk and brought over two novels. Zhou You read the titles aloud: "*Catching Monsters on Mount Mao*, *Memoirs of a Daoist Leaving the Mountain*?" "These two books are so scary! They exterminate us ghosts completely without mercy. So heartless!" Nuomi led the two around for a tour, but they found nothing useful. "If only we could find a shriveled corpse hidden in a closet or something," Chu Xiaoyao said with evident regret; she had initially suspected Nuomi was an upperclassman who had met a tragic end at school. "Forget it. If we didn't find anything, we didn't find anything. We can just treat it as a tour of the old dormitory building," Nuomi said, quite open-minded about it. On the way back, Nuomi kept giggling silently to herself, but her suppressed laughter was so obvious that both Zhou You and Chu Xiaoyao could tell. When they asked what she was laughing about, she refused to tell. In truth, Nuomi couldn't explain why she was laughing either, so naturally she had no answer. Perhaps it was showing them where she used to live, or perhaps having confided in them meant she no longer cared as much about her past memories. "They're finally gone." Hiding in the shadows, Zhenyue Ghost King wiped a forehead drenched in cold sweat. Ever since Nuomi moved to Class Three, he had moved back into the old dormitory building. The vantage point here allowed him to monitor Big Stone Lake, which was the very reason he had chosen to reside here in the first place. He had been staying here peacefully these past few days, constantly agonizing over whether to take the risk of stealing back the jade seal. Who would have thought Nuomi would suddenly pull a sneak return, bringing Zhou You and the girl back to revisit the place? It had terrified Zhenyue Ghost King into thinking Nuomi had caught wind of his thoughts and come to settle scores with him. Fortunately, she hadn't. Nuomi had wandered casually through the building with the two without a care in the world, while Zhenyue Ghost King had suffered terribly, playing hide-and-seek with Nuomi on tenterhooks the entire time. Especially that Chu Xiaoyao—she kept pushing dorm doors open for no reason! At one point, he had been just one wall away from the room she swung open. "I was almost discovered." Zhenyue Ghost King let out a long breath. If he weren't already dead, his heart would have been thumping wildly out of his chest. Outside the old dormitory building, Lian Yi hid in the bushes, watching the two humans and one ghost enter and exit. "That vengeful ghost called Nuomi lost her memories, so they went to the old dormitory building to look for clues?" When the three had discussed it between classes, her sharp hearing had caught every word clearly, so as soon as evening self-study ended, she had shadowed them all the way to the old dormitory building. Once the two humans and one ghost departed, Lian Yi pondered, *Why don't I go inside and take a look too? Maybe I can find some clues.* Since Zhou You was tough to make a breakthrough with, perhaps she could start by breaking through Nuomi's identity? With that thought, Lian Yi strode straight into the old dormitory building. The old dormitory building was eerie and frightening, easily leading one to imagine some terrifying entity lurking within—which was why students came here to explore as a thrilling test of courage. Lian Yi, however, felt no such dread. As an ever-shifting Foundation Establishment cultivator whom even an expert like Red King couldn't hold back, catching demons and capturing ghosts were old hat to her. She could spend the night in mass graves or ancient tombs without batting an eye, so entering an old dormitory building was hardly frightening. "It looks pretty ordinary. Nothing special about it." She arrived on the first floor and spread out her divine sense to quickly grasp the surrounding situation. Yet the moment she unfurled her divine sense, she felt a bone-chilling, icy aura coiled overhead—an aura potent enough to freeze the soul itself. "Wh-what kind of aura is this?!" Lian Yi blanched in terror. "Where did this junior come from, daring to step into my domain?" A chilling voice echoed through the hallway, seeming to originate from the legendary Nine Serenities of the Netherworld, dripping with the stench of death. Countless hands burst forth from the ground, wailing in agony as they clawed ceaselessly at Lian Yi's ankles and arms, intent on dragging her down into hell with them. Lian Yi's legs shook violently. She did not dare resist, letting the hundred ghosts seize her and leave bruises upon her flesh—bruises tainted with extreme yin poison, where even a slight touch meant certain death. Yet far more terrifying than the lethal poison was the being who had spoken. *How is this possible? It's just an ordinary dormitory building—why on earth does such a horrifying entity reside here?* "This avatar will remain behind," the terrifying entity casually decreed Lian Yi's fate. Before Lian Yi could resist, the corridor warped and twisted, turning into an enclosed cage that crushed inward. *Snap.* The corridor reverted to its original form, as if nothing had ever taken place. "*Cough—*" With her avatar destroyed, her foundation was wounded. Hiding far away, Lian Yi violently spat out a mouthful of blood; her aura plummeted rapidly, and her face turned as pale as gold foil. This injury was even more severe than the one from her battle with Red King. Wiping the blood from the corner of her mouth, Lian Yi felt no anger—only the sheer relief of having survived a catastrophe. *It's enough that I'm alive. Thank goodness I was cautious and sent an avatar to scout the way.* "Just what sacred being was that?" Recalling her avatar's ordeal, Lian Yi shuddered with lingering fear. The hand she used to take out medicinal pills trembled so badly that a pill slipped through her shaking fingers and fell to the ground. Lian Yi had frequented corpse grounds and ancient tombs, witnessing many corpse kings and ghost kings, all incomparably mighty entities; yet none possessed an aura that could rival this being. Earlier, she had seen the two humans and one ghost enter and exit the dormitory at their leisure, completely relaxed the entire time, looking nothing like people who had encountered this terrifying presence. Why hadn't this horrifying entity shown itself just now?