In the night, a slender figure walked unhurriedly into the building, which was completely shrouded in darkness.
"My Lady, I have already checked the entire first floor. I didn't find anything suspicious."
The Ghost Shadow was exceptionally active tonight; such an environment made it feel incredibly comfortable.
Su Yan walked through every room with great patience. In the deathly silent corridor, even her footsteps were exceptionally clear.
After walking through more than half of the floor, she stopped and reached out to touch the wall, which had long since lost its original appearance.
"My Lady, what is it?" The Ghost Shadow followed her movement, but couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.
At this moment, a trace of dampness appeared on the fingers Su Yan had brushed across the wall.
"The malevolent energy is too heavy; it has even permeated the walls."
"My Lady, do you mean there really is a big one here?"
The Ghost Shadow was so excited that its body twisted. The more malevolent energy the Lady absorbed, the sooner she would be able to control the power of her eyes.
Su Yan smiled. "If I'm not mistaken, that fenced-off wasteland to the southeast of the school must have been a graveyard, or perhaps a mass grave."
Even the Ghost Shadow gasped. "But I didn't feel the presence of any soul bodies there at all. And if it really were a mass grave, how could the people around it be completely unaffected? Why would incidents only happen in this building?"
"That is because the entire Xinghua High School, and this abandoned building in particular, is a very powerful sealing formation."
Su Yan's eyes were glowing; it was truly worth all the effort she had put in.
Clang!
A sound suddenly came from upstairs.
Although it wasn't loud, it sounded exceptionally harsh in such a quiet space.
"Is someone there?"
As soon as the Ghost Shadow finished speaking, it zipped upstairs.
Su Yan raised her eyebrows. It wouldn't be strange to find ghosts here, but it would be strange to find people.
In a room at the corner of the third floor, several men were cursing loudly.
"Where is the treasure? It's all just damn junk!"
Sun Mang huddled in the corner, shivering, wishing he could leave immediately.
"Brother Wang, I told you long ago there was no treasure here..."
Brother Wang was his neighbor, ten years his senior and unemployed. He spent his days idling about and no one knew where he’d heard that there was treasure in this building.
That day in the alley outside the school, Sun Mang had specifically told them there were ghosts in this building to stop them from coming, but he hadn't expected them to become even more excited upon hearing it.
They were convinced the rumors were just to keep people from treasure hunting. In his desperation, he had blurted out that he wasn't an ordinary person, and they had insisted he come along.
They had already searched most of the building, and apart from some dilapidated tables and chairs, there was no treasure to be found.
Under the candlelight, Wang Song's face was full of unwillingness; there must be a place they hadn't found yet.
"Shut your mouth! I don't believe a building this big doesn't have its secrets!"
They were the type to drink, gamble, and whore; they didn't believe a single word of the rumors about the building.
Before his voice had even faded, the candlelight suddenly flickered in the windless room.
Sun Mang's face turned deathly pale, and his whole body shook like a sieve.
Even as bold as Wang Song and his friends were, they couldn't remain calm when faced with such a thing.
"Who's playing tricks on me?!"
A roar gave everyone a boost of courage.
The candle flame went "puff" and extinguished.
The room plunged into darkness.
"Ghost..." Sun Mang stared in horror at the tops of Wang Song and the others' heads, his hair standing on end.
"Stop your damn screaming, where would there be a ghost?!"
Wang Song cursed, but even so, he couldn't control the fear spreading rapidly through him.
A resentful sigh seemed to echo in everyone's ears.
A chill shot from the soles of Wang Song's feet through his entire body. His teeth chattered, and his pupils contracted violently.
He still couldn't see anything, but he clearly felt the presence of that thing.
His body felt as if it had been frozen in place, unable to move an inch.
A gloomy, terrifying voice sounded again: "Give me your face."
Then, something began to slowly stroke the skin on his face.
"Help, help, help me!"
He screamed at the top of his lungs.
The others were the same.
Sun Mang had long since collapsed into a heap, clutching a jade pendant hanging around his neck.
He knew the female ghost was right behind him, having already reached out toward him.
But the moment the ghost was about to touch him, the jade pendant suddenly emitted a faint light, and his whole body felt relieved.
He knew the pendant had protected him once again, but that was all it could do; he had neither the ability nor the courage to save Wang Song and the others.
He hugged his head tightly, tears and snot streaming down his face.
Just then, a sound seemed to come from outside.
Click.
Click.
One step after another, getting closer and closer.
The hideous female ghost seemed to have discovered something terrifying, and she vanished without a trace.
The suffocating gloom suddenly dissipated, leaving only Wang Song and the others wailing for help.
A bright light appeared at the doorway.
"Hey, are you done screaming? It's noisy."
The girl's soft, sweet voice carried a strange power that could soothe the heart.
She held a kerosene lamp in her left hand and a white cane in her right.
The "click" sound from earlier had been the cane tapping on the floor.
Sun Mang gasped for air, first feeling that the voice sounded familiar. When he looked up and recognized that the person was Su Yan, he almost suffocated again.
It's her!!!
Wang Song and the others were all sprawled on the ground. The feeling of impending death from just a moment ago had been too real; even now, they couldn't stop trembling.
They couldn't even muster the strength to be wary of this blind girl who had suddenly appeared.
Su Yan scanned the group and noticed one of them had even wet his pants, her face showing a hint of disgust.
They really had a death wish, coming here to court disaster.
"Su Yan, it really is you! You came to save us, I knew you were like me!"
Sun Mang was incredibly excited. While shouting at the top of his lungs, he scrambled up from the ground and stumbled toward her.
Su Yan immediately took a step back, putting distance between them.
"May I ask who you are?"
"I... I'm Sun Mang. Can't you recognize my voice?"
Sun Mang was already incoherent.
Su Yan looked at Sun Mang, whose face was covered in dirt, snot, and tears. She really couldn't recognize him by "looking."
"What are you doing here? Exploring?"
Thinking about how this kid wasn't quite right in the head, the appearance of these people wasn't so strange after all.
"No, Brother Wang and the others heard from somewhere that there was treasure in this building."
Although it was embarrassing, Su Yan was already a god-like figure in Sun Mang's heart, so he naturally didn't hide anything.
"Pfft!"
Su Yan couldn't help but laugh out loud.
"And did you find the treasure?"