Soul Calling, Back Off!

Fang Xiaoxia's eyes were wide. She darted glances at Bai Zhou one moment and cautiously observed the witch the next, completely baffled by what she was hearing. Something about a Picasso from the Fine Arts Society, something about the Special Control Bureau and the Investigation Bureau, something about a Black Warrior Major Luo, not to mention evidence and allies... They seemed to leap from warriors to students, from financial conglomerates to government agencies, and even from graphic design to sunshine dolls. She didn't really understand, but it felt overwhelmingly impressive! Even though she and Bai Zhou had just survived a grand escape together—comrades who had shared life and death on a paper airplane—now she felt like an outsider. This suspected cosplayer had gone from drawing swords at their throats to exchanging solemn promises, turning into Bai Zhou's steadfast ally in the blink of an eye, as if the two of them were about to stand shoulder to shoulder against the whole world. It was thrilling. Fang Xiaoxia vaguely wanted to say, "Count me in," but felt that on such a serious occasion she had no right to butt in, so in the end she could only blink a couple of times. "The storm before clear skies is always clamorous, but only through it can there later be a boundless clear expanse." Bai Zhou's gaze likewise fell upon the torrential rain. Something occurred to him, and crossing his arms in the dark corner, he remarked with feeling: "Back where I come from, when crashing someone's wedding banquet, every table has an incense burner with sticks of incense stuck in it like chopsticks." The rain reminded Bai Zhou of Sister Li, and of her wedding. "Everyone is very warmhearted, so they bring incense along, burning it to congratulate the bride as their gift money." Gem Witch: "?" Fang Xiaoxia: "?" What is this guy talking about? That place of yours... isn't among the living, is it? The eerie chill made both girls' hair stand on end. And how on earth did you connect rain to burning incense? "Incense drifts upward, while rain falls downward. The two are quite alike, aren't they?" "I think human life is very similar too." Bai Zhou said with a solemn face, "When burning incense, because a person's soul is heavier than incense ash, the incense floats up while the person sinks down... Bone ash, after all, isn't as free and untethered as incense ash." Gem Witch: "..." Fang Xiaoxia: "..." This was getting creepier by the second. Can this guy really see rain and immediately think of cremated ashes? The Gem Witch shivered. Others advocate looking at the world with an eye for beauty, finding joy in blooming flowers and lush greenery... In this guy's eyes, how does he normally view the world? Yet as she listened, the Gem Witch strangely felt that this wasn't entirely nonsense either. It even held a trace of profound philosophy, leaving her lost in thought. Could it be... this KFC weirdo is also a philosopher? Come to think of it, philosophers were always fairly mystical and unhinged. Navigating an esoteric realm where everyone was practically a mathematician, philosopher, or historian, one should probably get used to such things... roughly. Usually, the more eccentric and unhinged an Extraordinary was, the more unfathomable their depth. With symptoms like Bai Zhou's, who knew what he might figure out on any given day, casually gaining epiphanies out of nowhere... Their talent as Extraordinaries was often terrifyingly high. "So in truth, death is like incense ash, and life is just like rain." The rain murmured, the runoff on the ground converging into rivulets. Bai Zhou continued, "From birth in the sky to burial in the earth, the life in between falls ceaselessly... Some make a big fuss, crashing with a loud roar; others die without a sound, slapping the earth with a dull thud. "Yet even the smallest raindrop can stir the dust on the ground and wash clean the murk of the rivers." Bai Zhou's eyes reflected the lines of rain, his expression calm. "So, I think this rain has arrived at just the right time." Now is the time— Bai Zhou said, "Let's burn some incense for the Major, and let rain fall over Tinghai." The Gem Witch raised an eyebrow. At this moment, she suddenly felt... No matter how morbid and esoteric his earlier words had been... —at least that last line was pretty cool. The rain fell harder and harder. Spray splashed high, soaking Fang Xiaoxia's ankles. Carefully pinching the hem of her white dress with both hands, Fang Xiaoxia leaned a little closer to Bai Zhou. Even with the torrential storm enveloping the entire world, the girl standing under Bai Zhou's umbrella remained safe and sound, as though she had escaped outside reality itself. The small space beneath the umbrella felt like a world of its own, holding only security and warmth. Patter sounded against the black umbrella above. Sheltering from the rain under the canopy, the girl caught the pleasant scent drifting from the youth. Her nervous tension gradually eased, yet her heart began to beat uncontrollably faster. Catching the girl's movement from the corner of his eye, Bai Zhou tilted the black umbrella in his hand a little more toward her. At an angle of roughly forty-five degrees. "Where should we go next?" The Gem Witch turned her gaze toward them. "Are we parting ways here? I'll look for help, while the two of you..." Her question cut off abruptly halfway through. Because in her line of sight, Fang Xiaoxia's behavior suddenly turned peculiar. Peculiar to the point of being eerie. Fang Xiaoxia's expression seemed to freeze all at once, hollow and dazed. She tilted her head slightly, as if straining to hear a ballad floating from some distant place. "Bai Zhou..." Fang Xiaoxia's voice drifted with uncertain faintness and a frightened unease. "Did... did you hear..." Before she could finish, the girl's entire body shuddered violently! As though a crowbar had pierced straight through her temple to churn her brain, she let out a muffled groan of agony and clutched her head tightly with both hands. Countless phantom fragments exploded deep within her mind—gentle smiling faces, the laughter and chatter of classmates, flowing tears... Innumerable bizarre, incomprehensible images flashed past at a dizzying pace, yet vanished in a blink, impossible to grasp or remember. "It hurts—!" She managed only that single cry of pain. After that brief whimper, Fang Xiaoxia curled involuntarily onto the ground, her fingers clutching her head in agony. "Fang Xiaoxia?" Bai Zhou's gaze sharpened, and he turned to catch her. Yet just as Bai Zhou's fingers were about to reach her, Fang Xiaoxia's curled, trembling body suddenly stopped moving. Instead, she rose with a rigid posture, standing upright like a marionette. The pain and struggle on her face receded in an instant like an ebb tide, leaving behind only a vacant emptiness. Her gaze pierced through the storm outside the umbrella and through the narrow alley, looking toward some far-off distance. In her eyes lingered an eerie, pilgrimage-like yearning that sent a chill down both Bai Zhou's and the Gem Witch's spines. Then, Fang Xiaoxia began to walk. One step, two steps, like claws of a devil crawling from an abyss. As if answering a call, the girl followed along mechanically like a living corpse. Though her stiff gait looked bizarre, it carried a purposeful resolve. She stepped out from under Bai Zhou's black umbrella, heedless of the freezing rain, walking sleepwalker-like directly into the tempestuous night. A waking sleepwalk. Just like the sleepwalking children in Wancheng legends who ate the witch's candy on Christmas Eve and were carted off by the terrifying Pumpkin Witch. The rain quickly soaked Fang Xiaoxia through, the white dress clinging to the girl's slender, budding curves, yet she remained utterly indifferent as the water drenched her clothes. "What... what suddenly happened to her?" The Gem Witch was at a total loss. She had thought she hadn't said anything out of line, so why had Fang Xiaoxia reacted so dramatically...? "Stop!" Bai Zhou called out under his breath. Carefully reaching out, he tried to grab Fang Xiaoxia's wrist. Yet the moment his hand made contact, Bai Zhou's expression changed drastically. The pulse at Fang Xiaoxia's wrist was spiking and plummeting at an unbelievable rate, and her surface temperature fluctuated wildly between burning hot and icy cold. Looking closely, faint dark-blue veins could be seen bulging and subsiding along the girl's neck, as if some force were rampaging through her fragile body. Chaos. From the functioning of her internal organs to her immune system, it was utter, unmitigated chaos! Bai Zhou attempted to sense the dormant spirituality inside her... "Her spiritual reaction is so faint!" Bai Zhou furrowed his brow, pressing his lips together. All things have spirit. Even ordinary mortals possessed spirituality, dormant and unawakened, which directly reflected a person's vital state. Yet according to Bai Zhou's current perception, the spirituality inside Fang Xiaoxia was like a frail candle flame about to gutter out in a violent gale, surging one second and dwindling the next, reminding him of a terminally ill patient experiencing the final rally before death. "What is going on...?!" As if realizing something, Bai Zhou immediately let go, his eyes fixed on Fang Xiaoxia with a startled, uncertain expression. The sleepwalking girl continued forward in a daze. Sure enough, once freed from physical restraint, the violent internal conflict inside Fang Xiaoxia subsided slightly, and her spiritual reaction grew much calmer. It was as though as long as she proceeded toward that specific direction, her body could maintain itself at the brink of collapse, achieving a delicate self-balance. "She was fine just a moment ago. How did she suddenly..." Bai Zhou and the Gem Witch exchanged looks, both reading shock and bewilderment in the other's eyes. The two hurried to match Fang Xiaoxia's pace. Bai Zhou held the umbrella over her head, shielding her from the rain. Before long, Bai Zhou made a new discovery. "Fang Xiaoxia seems to have answered some kind of summons, walking forward on her own toward a specific direction. "If forcibly stopped, her life plunges into critical condition. But the closer she gets to that location, the healthier and more normal her vital state becomes—and conversely, moving away endangers her life." Bai Zhou looked up, staring into the far distance in that direction, a cold glint suddenly surfacing in his eyes: "That direction... is where Longluo Private High School is!" "Longluo Private High School?" The Gem Witch's brow lifted. "The place where you said Major Luo set up his underground base?" "Yes." Bai Zhou nodded, his eyes lowering slightly. "Evidently, this Major Luo has made his move!" Unsurprisingly, Major Luo couldn't hold back any longer; news from the elevated highway must have reached him. He truly had planted some hidden means of control on Fang Xiaoxia, so secretive that it had eluded even Crow's eyes. It was certain that this method had nothing to do with spirituality, nor with rituals, magic runes, or secret techniques; it was an unfamiliar method Bai Zhou had never encountered before. "I was originally thinking of sending Fang Xiaoxia out of Tinghai... Now it seems that's impossible." Bai Zhou frowned. Judging by the present situation, the further she was from Longluo Private High School, the more dangerous it became. If they actually sent her out of Tinghai, she would likely bleed from every orifice and drop dead on the spot. "But what on earth did he do to Fang Xiaoxia?" Bai Zhou cautiously scanned their surroundings. Aside from the howling wind and rain, there was no other sound. He carefully sensed the area, yet found nothing. "It's sound," Crow suddenly spoke up from the side. The raven perched on her shoulder widened its crimson eyes and cawed along, the harsh screech shattering the silence of the rainy night. Crow said, "That Luo fellow activated his contingency on Fang Xiaoxia through sound." Sound? Bai Zhou turned to look at her. "Remember that radio broadcast from last time? The recruitment broadcast from FZDC to subjugate Yuanmeng Middle School." Crow cocked her head and listened intently, her brow knit as if discerning a particular sound from amidst the cacophony of noise. Listening closely, she said, "Many 'inaudible' sounds are hidden within these invisible signals." "So that's it..." Bai Zhou recalled the scene from back then and understood at once. Without another word, he immediately pulled out the divination crystal ball he had used before from his breast and snapped a twig off a roadside bush. Swaying with fresh green leaves, the rain-tossed branch acted like an antenna, clicking neatly into the slot on the side of the crystal ball. "What are you... doing?" The Gem Witch watched Bai Zhou's bafflingly esoteric behavior in amazement. Sticking a branch into a crystal ball? This looked even more occult than stuffing glass marbles into her own belt! Bai Zhou didn't answer. He simply kept at it, his fingers tracing something across the crystal ball. "Use the ritual to adjust the crystal ball's frequency to FM 66.6 MHz," Crow instructed. Then, shortly after, both the Gem Witch and Bai Zhou heard a deep, murmuring voice slowly emerge from the divination crystal ball: "Good child, good child..." "...Soul... return..." "...Soul... return..." The voice looped endlessly in an eerie cadence and monotonous rhythm, like an austere middle-aged man reciting a terrifying bedtime story to a child before a fireplace, yet carrying a strange power that struck straight to the depths of the soul. Both Bai Zhou and the Gem Witch turned grim. "This is it!" It was this very voice controlling Fang Xiaoxia's actions right now, summoning her toward Longluo Private High School. Caged Bird, Caged Bird—beyond the tangible cage, there were invisible reins! "All previous examinations showed everything normal, meaning Fang Xiaoxia's current state has nothing to do with rituals or spirituality—" Crow scrutinized Fang Xiaoxia's silhouette, her sharp gaze seeming to pierce through the girl's surface straight into her essence. "Could it be... a method of alteration that penetrates directly into the soul?" "The Major definitely doesn't have that kind of ability." Miss Crow narrowed her eyes to a perilous slit. "In all of Tinghai, how many could possibly do this? Who was it?" "We have to interrupt this summons!" Bai Zhou's low voice came. His half-lidded eyes looked at Fang Xiaoxia's hollow, obstinate back, then into the depths of the rainy night—the origin of that audio signal. "Of course, the prerequisite is that interrupting the summons cannot disrupt Fang Xiaoxia's vital balance and plunge her into a near-death state..." Without question, intervening was extraordinarily difficult. At this moment, whether Bai Zhou or the Gem Witch, looking at Fang Xiaoxia's frail figure plodding forward through the streets, their hearts felt immensely heavy. No one knew how long Major Luo had prepared for today. Perhaps three years, perhaps even longer. Painstaking preparations, meticulous observation—he would never allow it all to come to naught in a single day! It seemed that no matter what, he had to see Fang Xiaoxia before midnight... "Good child! Good child!" Held in Bai Zhou's hands, the crystal ball with its leafy twig antenna kept looping the sound without pause. Like a soul-summoning chant, or a death-knell murmur, it grated on the nerves. "...Soul... return..." "...Soul... return..." And yet. Right at that moment! Inside Bai Zhou's robes, something seemed to hear these summons as well, vibrating on its own and growing scalding hot. "This is..." Bai Zhou's heart jumped. Reaching into his breast, under the Gem Witch's astonished gaze, he pulled out a notebook that was trembling all by itself. Flutter! The notebook flipped open against the wind, impervious to the rain, a soft glow blooming from its pages. Hum! The faint light leaped in an instant. A shimmering phantom cascaded over Fang Xiaoxia's frail silhouette, descending like a rainbow before dissolving into rippling layers of brilliant color. Tap! Fang Xiaoxia, like a waking corpse until now, suddenly froze in her tracks. And there was no pain, no life-threatening collapse. Instead, her face grew peaceful, her eyelids fluttering as if about to open at any moment. In a daze, Bai Zhou heard someone speaking, seemingly in response to the broadcast's "Good child, soul return." She said: "Piss off! Stay the hell away from me!" "Who the fuck is your good child?!" This voice bore some resemblance to Fang Xiaoxia's, yet differed in subtle ways. Bursting with vitality, bold and decisive, brimming with youthful spirit, and carrying a resolute, fiery defiance. Bai Zhou's eyes widened slowly, his heart thumping wildly. Because this voice distinctly belonged to... someone who should have been dead, someone who shouldn't even exist. The arch-nemesis of the Exam King, Fang Xiaoxia's dead childhood dream— Class Monitor Fang! Fang Xiaoyan!