"Help!"
In the dense fog, the young man in the plaid shirt who had been dragged away by the dirty things let out a shrill, miserable scream.
Everyone fell silent, terrified.
"Shaowei, did you notice anything?"
Feng Xiu trembled, leaning close to Xu Shaowei's ear and muttering softly.
Xu Shaowei shook her head.
I’m too busy running for my life—where would I find the time to observe those dirty things?
"When we ran under this lantern, the number of dirty things increased, chasing us like mad dogs, and even snatched away an unlucky guy. But once we got here, didn’t you see that they suddenly stopped attacking?"
Lu Jiuling explained.
Just now, the dense fog coupled with the wandering ghostly shadows had pushed the terrifying atmosphere to its limit.
"It really is!"
Ke Xinyi was overjoyed: "If we stay under this lantern, we should be safe, right?"
"690, you're amazing!"
Li Yinuo gave Lu Jiuling a thumbs-up.
Because the suggestion to run under the lanterns had come from Lu Jiuling.
"Naive, these lanterns will probably go out!"
Xu Shuo felt upset seeing Li Yinuo praise Lu Jiuling: "We still need to escape as soon as possible!"
The girls had thought they were safe; their hearts, which had just settled, rose again because of Xu Shuo's words.
"Between each lantern, it's roughly twenty meters. While running over, there's a good chance we'll be attacked by those dirty things, so our movement speed has to be fast!"
Now that he knew the weakness of the dirty things, Xu Shuo gained confidence and began to voice his opinions without modesty.
"There's one problem. How can you guarantee that if we keep running along the red lanterns, we'll definitely escape this ancient manor?"
Jiang Shan didn't speak much, but when she did, she struck right at the crux.
"Uh…"
Xu Shuo was dumbfounded, subconsciously looking toward Lu Jiuling.
"Classmate Lu, what do you think?"
Li Jiayao's eyes sparkled, full of expectation, hoping Lu Jiuling would give a correct answer.
"Staying here is definitely the worst choice. We'll take it one step at a time!"
After speaking, Lu Jiuling glanced at the place where the young man in the plaid shirt had been dragged away, then turned and charged toward the next red lantern.
Everyone hurriedly followed.
Footsteps were chaotic when suddenly, a large tongue shot out from the dense fog, coiling around Xu Shaowei's neck, violently pulling her down and dragging her into the fog.
"Shaowei!"
Feng Xiu's face changed drastically in alarm, and then she ran even faster.
Asking her to save someone—she didn't dare.
"Fuck!"
Xu Shuo and Jia Mingqiao also had no intention of saving anyone.
If it were robbers, the two of them felt they might have acted righteously, but this was dirty things—who could fight them?
Xu Shaowei, you're on your own!
Lu Jiuling was charging at the very front. Hearing Feng Xiu's shout, he immediately turned back and saw Xu Shaowei collapsed on the ground, being dragged into the dense fog.
Big Bear Girl was struggling, but like a grass carp hooked and pulled onto shore, it was useless.
Lu Jiuling recalled Xu Shaowei's confession to him, recalled how that morning on the bus when he had clashed with Zhang Shuai, Xu Shaowei had stood up to stop Zhang Shuai, and at lunch, how Xu Shaowei's words had shown concern for him…
Lu Jiuling pressed his lips together, turned around, and charged toward Xu Shaowei.
In the original owner's three years of high school, he had only made two friends; Xu Shaowei counted as one. He couldn't watch Xu Shaowei die, and besides, she liked him and had confessed.
Moreover, there was one more important point: Lu Jiuling wanted to get close to those dirty things and see what they were. Also, since they feared lanterns, was there a possibility of burning them to death with torches?
It killed two birds with one stone.
Besides, if he couldn't save Xu Shaowei, he could still run.
"Brother 69!"
Tang Lei was startled.
"Classmate Lu!"
Li Jiayao's baby face was full of panic.
Jiang Shan's eyes lit up. She hadn't expected that Lu Jiuling would actually go save Xu Shaowei.
This absolutely wasn't because of Xu Shaowei's looks, because Jiang Shan knew that Lu Jiuling had rejected Xu Shaowei's confession.
"Holy shit!"
Xu Shuo hadn't expected Lu Jiuling to be so brave.
"Idiot!"
Jia Mingqiao felt Lu Jiuling was incredibly stupid. She wasn't even his girlfriend; why take such a risk?
That dirty thing's large tongue was wrapped around her neck, very tight, so much that Xu Shaowei couldn't breathe. Also, this dragging caused her arms and legs to constantly rub against the ground, burning with pain.
A dozen or so seconds later, she was dragged in front of that dirty thing.
*Wuwuwu, I don't want to die!*
Xu Shaowei trembled violently, tears gushing forth.
She saw the dirty thing. It was a woman wearing a red qipao, with withered yellow long hair hanging down, covering her entire face.
It was barefoot, floating a foot above the ground.
This woman seemed pregnant, her belly somewhat large, with bloodstains on the hem of her qipao. Then, fresh blood flowed down her thighs all the way down, dripping from her bare feet onto the floor.
Drip! Drip!
One drop of blood, one mass of resentment!
The qipao woman rapidly floated over, kneeling atop Xu Shaowei's body while pressing down on her, reaching out to gouge her eyes.
"Save… me…"
Xu Shaowei struggled with all her might.
The qipao woman's nails were over an inch long; if she was pierced by them, she would definitely go blind.
But the qipao woman's strength was too great; Xu Shaowei couldn't break free at all. Just as she was in despair, a bamboo torch shot forth like a spear, fiercely thrusting into the qipao woman's face.
Bang!
The qipao woman leaned back, and the burning torch even ignited a strand of her hair.
Lu Jiuling's attack succeeded, and immediately following, he swung the torch in a full circle, striking toward the qipao woman's head.
Bang!
The tremendous striking force caused the qipao woman's upper body to tilt.
Lu Jiuling held the Buddha Intestine Short Sword in his left hand, originally planning to cut the large tongue coiled around Xu Shaowei's neck, but the qipao woman vengeful spirit retracted the large tongue herself and spat it toward him again.
It obviously felt Lu Jiuling was more dangerous and prepared to kill him.
Lu Jiuling swung the short sword, chopping down on the large tongue.
As expected of a Forbidden Item; it was incredibly sharp, directly cutting off a section of the qipao woman's large tongue.
"Ah!"
The qipao woman screamed shrilly.
That severed section of tongue fell to the ground, still twisting and squirming like a leech, looking disgusting and horrifying.
"Quick, run under the lanterns!"
Lu Jiuling urged, waving the torch in his right hand, trying to ignite the qipao woman.
Xu Shaowei staggered to her feet.
She hadn't expected Lu Jiuling to actually come save her!
I really didn't misjudge him!
My confession was right!
If I had been shamelessly persistent back then, I might have already won him over.
Xu Shaowei suddenly felt intense regret. If only she hadn't been so concerned with face back then and had continued to pursue him!
"Can you still run?"
Lu Jiuling saw other qipao women surrounding them.
They needed to get under the red lanterns quickly.
"Yes!"
Xu Shaowei was very decisive, knowing that every second of delay increased the risk of death for both of them, so she clenched her teeth, endured the pain and fear, and desperately ran toward the red lanterns.
Bang!
Lu Jiuling used the torch to knock away the qipao woman's large tongue, followed by a large stride forward, fiercely thrusting the torch into her face.
The qipao woman staggered, unable to stand steady.
Lu Jiuling immediately seized the opportunity, mustering all his strength and gripping the torch, raining down blows on her head like a storm.
Pak! Pak! Pak!
Bamboo striking flesh produced crisp sounds.
"Holy shit, this fierce?"
Jia Mingqiao, who had already run under the red lanterns, was directly dumbfounded.
He subconsciously glanced at Xu Shuo.
If you clash with him in the future, I'm not backing you up.
"…"
Xu Shuo was dumbstruck.
No way,
This fierce?
That was a dirty thing. According to common sense, humans should be afraid, right?
But this scene before their eyes—if someone didn't know better, they'd think Lu Jiuling was domestically abusing that female ghost.
"Ah?"
Jiang Shan was usually reserved, but now her mouth hung open in shock, her little tongue even showing.
This…
Jiang Shan detested barbaric and violent behavior, but at this moment, she felt this male classmate was very charismatic!
Why hadn't she discovered it before?
What a pity!
Thinking that she only had three months of school life left with Lu Jiuling, School Beauty Jiang suddenly felt very regretful that she hadn't become friends with him.
"Isn't this too violent?"
Li Yinuo was shocked.
Hearing this, Ke Xinyi glanced at her best friend, thinking to herself that even if Lu Jiuling beat her, she wouldn't blame him, and then the next moment, she heard her best friend's next sentence.
"But I like it!"
Li Yinuo's eyes sparkled, wishing she could rush up and do a mixed doubles with Lu Jiuling.
"The other dirty things are going over!"
Li Jiayao shouted to remind Lu Jiuling.
Lu Jiuling had no idea what Jiang Shan and the others were thinking. While he was beating the qipao woman, he discovered that this female ghost was dodging.
He didn't know whether she feared pain or feared fire, but in any case, fire attacks were effective.
After taking a dozen or so hits, the torch completely ignited the qipao woman vengeful spirit's hair. She couldn't bother attacking Lu Jiuling anymore, instead screaming and rolling on the ground, trying to extinguish the flames.
But it was useless!
The flames rapidly burned up, even igniting the qipao on her body.
This scene likely intimidated the other female vengeful spirits; they floated on the periphery and did not come attack Lu Jiuling.
Roughly a dozen or so seconds later, the female vengeful spirit's entire body was burning, flames shooting skyward like a human-shaped giant torch. Then amid this burning, her body visibly turned to ashes, scattering into the air.
Plop!
A palm-sized small thing fell to the ground.
Lu Jiuling bent down and quickly picked it up, then hurriedly ran back.
His judgment hadn't been wrong. These female vengeful spirits weren't afraid of red lanterns; they were afraid of fire.
This round was a sure win!
Lu Jiuling returned to the small group. The red lantern under the eaves bathed the surroundings in a shade of dark red, like the bloodstain left behind after swatting a mosquito dead.
"Brother 69, let me hold that for you?"
Jia Mingqiao reached out to take the torch.
He had also realized that those female ghosts feared fire; holding a torch could save his life.
Smack!
Lu Jiuling slapped away Jia Mingqiao's hand: "If you want a torch, go find your own bamboo!"
Jia Mingqiao looked at the bamboo grove over twenty meters away; he simply didn't dare go over to collect bamboo.
"690, those female ghosts should be afraid of fire. Let's go over together to collect bamboo and make torches, so everyone has one. Then the female ghosts definitely won't dare attack us!"
Xu Shuo wanted Lu Jiuling to escort everyone to the bamboo grove.
This would be safer.
"Xu Shuo, before you ask 690 for help, shouldn't you first apologize for offending him this morning?"
Li Yinuo was declaring her stance.
690,
from now on, I'm on your side!
"…"
Xu Shuo's face immediately darkened.
Are you kidding me, asking me to apologize?
Lu Jiuling didn't take Xu Shuo seriously. He had just wanted to see what he had picked up when a soft, warm, and fragrant body threw itself over, embracing his waist.
"Lu Jiuling, thank you!"
Xu Shaowei had survived a disaster and was extremely emotional, so she hugged him very tightly. Moreover, it was spring now, and everyone was wearing light clothing, so Lu Jiuling clearly felt two soft mounds pressing against him.
The sensation was oddly comfortable!