—

Three hours left before the Competition ends, but Jiang Luo isn't in any rush to submit his answer.

He let the post-victory high of having tricked the evil ghost settle, then walked over to Ye Xun's side. Together they watched Little Pink being fished out of the pool.

Little Pink's stuffing was showing. The cotton had soaked through with water, and the torn seams looked as though they'd been sliced clean by a blade. A pitiful sight.

Jiang Luo had fought The Human-Faced Guest shoulder to shoulder with Little Pink, and he could vaguely sense how much the doll meant to Ye Xun. He was silent for a moment, then asked with clumsy concern, 'Is Little Pink okay?'

Ye Xun stared silently at the rabbit doll split in two, his eyes slowly reddening. Kuang Zheng had just leapt into the water to pull Little Pink out and was now wringing himself dry. Wenren Lian handed him a long towel from the pool facility, his brow creased with worry. 'Can it be repaired?'

Kuang Zheng didn't bother drying himself off. He hurried to Little Pink's side and crouched down. A refiner has a unique resonance with the artifacts he forges. After a quick inspection, his expression eased slightly. 'It can be repaired.'

Ye Xun's head snapped up. He said nothing, but the tension was plain on his face.

'But it needs a special material,' Kuang Zheng said, a little stiff under everyone's gaze. 'A vengeful spirit willing to be absorbed into the doll. A vengeful spirit's resentment is dense enough to replenish the doll's energy.'

Ge Zhu sighed. 'A vengeful spirit willing to be absorbed? Where would we ever find one of those...'

Jiang Luo pressed his lips together, then suddenly stood. 'Aren't there two vengeful spirits right here in this School?'

Zhuo Zhongqiu asked, surprised. 'You mean those two female ghosts?'

Ye Xun looked up at Jiang Luo, hope in his eyes. Jiang Luo raised an eyebrow back at him. 'If we agree to fulfill their wishes, those two vengeful spirits should be willing.'

Kuang Zheng said quietly, 'Actually, one is enough.'

Lu You and Sailor stayed behind to keep Ye Xun company. The rest followed Jiang Luo to Search for Vengeful Spirit. Jiang Luo sounded confident enough, but he wasn't really sure he could convince a vengeful ghost to willingly become part of a vengeful spirit doll.

But maybe it was Ye Xun's grief, or maybe the high of having dealt the evil ghost a serious blow — either way, Jiang Luo found himself volunteering for something he had no certainty of pulling off.

Something he would never have done before.

Wang Xin Hui's vengeful spirit was on the Sixth Floor of the boys' dormitory. Jiang Luo walked at the back of the group, his mind elsewhere. But the moment he stepped into the Sixth Floor Corridor, his companions ahead of him vanished.

Jiang Luo frowned, focusing on the long hallway.

The lights flickered — old-model bulbs from years ago. The walls had yellowed. The whole view looked as if it were filtered through a layer of age.

The concrete floor was damp. The far end of the corridor was pitch black, as if it led into the mouth of some great beast.

Once was chance, twice was familiar. Jiang Luo knew he'd been pulled into the Livid Ghost's memories again.

His constitution was admittedly 'lucky.' But after facing Chi You — the worst evil ghost in the whole story — every other ghost was small potatoes in Jiang Luo's eyes. He walked forward calmly and made straight for the Toilet.

A girl covered in blood stumbled out of the Toilet.

It was Wang Xin Hui. Most of her clothes had been torn off. There were several filthy boot prints on her body. Her face was swollen. She glanced back in terror while dragging her twisted left calf forward.

Behind her, three men came out of the Toilet. Like cats with a mouse, they weren't in any hurry to catch her — they just trailed along slowly.

Jiang Luo watched Wang Xin Hui run into a familiar dormitory room. A neat coincidence — it was the very room they'd been staying in for the past three days.

Jiang Luo's brow twitched. He walked into the room.

Wang Xin Hui threw herself against the door in panic, but three burly workers broke through. What followed was too bloody and brutal to dwell on. Wang Xin Hui thrashed violently, slammed into the dormitory's iron bedpost, her face streaming with blood, and breathed her last.

The workers cursed her as a 'cheap whore.' The rage of men who hadn't had their fun yet burned away whatever reason they had left. They killed Wang Xin Hui right there in the room, dismembered her, and carried the pieces out one trip at a time to flush down the Toilet.

This scene connected to what he'd seen earlier with Bai Ye Feng in the Toilet. Jiang Luo had always assumed Wang Xin Hui died in the Toilet — he hadn't expected her to die in the dormitory.

The bed she'd slammed into was even the one Jiang Luo had slept on.

For a moment he had no words for his own cursed constitution. Turning his face away, he noticed a book on the floor beside the bed. He picked it up — it was Wang Xin Hui's notebook.

The workers flushed the blood into the dormitory's washroom nearby. Jiang Luo followed Jin Yuangao into the bathroom and watched his hands shake as he poured basin after basin of thick blood down the pipes.

Jiang Luo suddenly remembered the bright red liquid that had come out of the pipes the first day he'd showered in this room. With a blank expression, he thought: that water had been Wang Xin Hui's blood?

Heh. What a delightful surprise.

Jiang Luo glanced casually to the side — and froze. At some point, a blood-soaked female ghost had appeared right beside him.

The female ghost's face was deathly pale. Blood seeped continuously from her skin. Her bloody eyes bulged wide as she stared at Jin Yuangao, murmuring, 'Boyfriend, girlfriend... boyfriend, girlfriend...'

Jiang Luo recognized her as Wang Xin Hui's Ghost. He didn't know if she could hear him, but he said anyway, 'A boyfriend like that isn't worth keeping.'

Wang Xin Hui slowly turned her head, her hollow eyes fixing straight on him.

So she could hear. That made things easier.

Jiang Luo said, expression unchanged, 'Why haven't you killed Jin Yuangao? Do you still love him?'

Wang Xin Hui said, 'Boyfriend, girlfriend.'

Jiang Luo asked, 'Do you have any other wish you need fulfilled?'

Wang Xin Hui said woodenly, 'Boyfriend, girlfriend.'

Jiang Luo: '...'

Jiang Luo realized that most of these Livid Ghosts had fragmented consciousness — they might not even know what they were doing. A ghost like Chi You, who grew stronger after death, was a one-in-a-million anomaly.

He stopped wasting time. He dragged Wang Xin Hui out of the dormitory, slapped a talisman against the wall of the dormitory Corridor, and the next instant the illusion shattered. Jiang Luo saw Kuang Zheng and the others.

Kuang Zheng and the others had been searching for where he'd gone. Seeing him appear with an evil ghost, they had no time to be surprised — their eyes locked straight onto Wang Xin Hui.

Jiang Luo said, 'How do we get her to agree willingly?'

Kuang Zheng carried the barely-pieced-together Little Pink over to Wang Xin Hui. Wang Xin Hui seemed roused by the vengeful spirit doll's aura — a flicker of confusion crossed her eyes, and she was briefly lucid.

Kuang Zheng asked carefully, 'Would you be willing to become part of the vengeful spirit doll? We can fulfill your wish in return. Becoming part of the doll doesn't mean you're dead — you'll still have your own consciousness. You'll just be living in a different form.'

Wang Xin Hui's face was a swollen, blue-white. She stared at the vengeful spirit doll for a moment, then rasped, 'Find, find her...'

Jiang Luo asked, 'Fu Yuaner?'

Wang Xin Hui looked at him. 'Find, find her...'

'We've already found her,' Jiang Luo said. 'Do you have any other wish?'

Wang Xin Hui stared blankly down at the Hairpin in her palm.

She didn't seem to understand what Jiang Luo meant. Looking at the wretched state of the evil ghost, Jiang Luo sighed, head aching. 'Fine. If you want Transcendence, that works too... Just remember in your next life not to pick a scumbag like that for a boyfriend.'

Jiang Luo had already given up — but Wang Xin Hui suddenly stepped forward and crawled into the vengeful spirit doll's mouth.

The female ghost vanished. All that remained was a Hairpin on the floor.

Kuang Zheng immediately sealed the vengeful spirit doll's mouth, then wrapped the doll in the Yellow Silk Cloth he'd prepared in advance. Only then did he breathe out, 'Done.'

Jiang Luo picked up the Hairpin Wang Xin Hui had left behind, looked at it for a moment, then said, 'There's still one more vengeful spirit.'

But on the way, Zhuo Zhongqiu took a phone call and told them, 'Fu Yuaner's body is no longer in the School. Also, my dad told me something.' She paused. 'At the police station, Liu Zhi said he didn't know there were four bodies in the wall.'

Everyone froze.

What did that mean?

They still went to the Office to look for Fu Yuaner's vengeful spirit, but they couldn't find her. Fortunately, one vengeful spirit's power was enough. With the Competition deadline approaching, the group went to the staff to submit their answer.

The Competition answer had to be written on paper, listing everything the contestants knew. Jiang Luo took two sheets of A4 paper and, in a wild scrawl, wrote out the entire sequence of events.

Fu Yuaner and Wang Xin Hui were close friends. From the diary, Jiang Luo knew that all of Wang Xin Hui's jewelry had been gifts from Fu Yuaner. That was also why Liu Zhi had recognized the jewelry Wang Xin Hui had dropped — it was jewelry Liu Zhi had once given to Fu Yuaner.

Jiang Luo wrote down most of the process. But there was one thing he couldn't explain: why didn't Liu Zhi know there were four bodies in the wall behind him?

Jiang Luo tried writing down his guess.

After killing Fu Yuaner, Liu Zhi had taken advantage of School renovations to brick her into the Office wall, right under his own nose. Later, he started dating again. But afraid someone might discover Fu Yuaner's body, he never took days off to go out with his girlfriends, and even on rest days he'd come by the Office to check.

His girlfriends gradually grew suspicious of his behavior. Fearing they'd uncover his secret, Liu Zhi killed them.

Kill one, kill another. Liu Zhi used a smarter method of body disposal — not necessarily bricking them into walls.

But Fu Yuaner, buried in the white wall behind his back, had pulled those bodies to her side...

After submitting the answer, Jiang Luo walked out of the room. In his eyes, this three-day Competition was completely over. He stretched, walked out to the roadside under overcast skies, and waited.

His companions filed out one by one. The group took the staff bus back to the Hotel.

Back at the Hotel, Jiang Luo planned to pack up and spend a couple of days relaxing in Yunnan. But before the results were even out, Feng Li summoned every Feng Clan disciple among the contestants to meet him in the Hotel garden.

At a time like this, even though Jiang Luo was only a disciple under a minor registered disciple, protocol required him to go see Feng Li.

He ate lunch first, then ambled over to the garden.

The Feng Clan had a great many disciples. Of the hundred and thirty contestants, a third had some connection to the Feng Clan.

Many people, but few had ever seen Feng Li in person. So when the chance to meet Celestial Master Feng Li came up, everyone arrived extra early.

By the time Jiang Luo arrived, he was at the very back, blocked by several rows of people.

Hiding at the back suited him just fine.

Once the numbers were about right, Feng Li walked in with two direct disciples. His expression was mild. A Tang suit hung to his feet, as if he'd stepped out of a painting.

Feng Li's gaze swept through the crowd, then slowly settled on Jiang Luo.

He turned and walked toward Jiang Luo. The disciples blocking Jiang Luo's path parted one by one, revealing the black-haired youth at the very back.

The black-haired youth had already changed out of the clothes stained with Bai Ye Feng's blood. His black hair was loosely tied back with a band. His crimson lips curved in a perfunctory smirk. His eyelids drooped halfway, like a listless big cat.

Feng Li looked at him. An aura of dark malice, invisible to anyone else, wrapped around Jiang Luo — baring its claws and fangs around the black-haired youth.

He frowned and said coldly, 'There's an evil ghost beside you that wants to kill you.'

Jiang Luo's smile froze.

An evil ghost that wanted to kill him?

Besides Chi You, he couldn't think of anyone else it could be.

But Jiang Luo hadn't sensed Chi You's presence at all.

He was still too weak.

A flash of vicious anger cut through Jiang Luo. In an instant his eyes reddened and he looked around urgently. 'Master Feng, where is he?'

Feng Li reached out, trying to grab the snarling Black Mist. But the Black Mist only wrapped around Jiang Luo more tightly, as if intent on crushing him.

Feng Li paused, then looked back at Jiang Luo. Jiang Luo's listless air was gone. He said carefully, 'Chi You?'

The black-haired youth's current fragility was a world apart from the sharp edge he'd shown in the Competition livestream — yet both versions were equally captivating. Tears fell from his eyes. Feng Li, without thinking, reached out and caught one — but the next instant, the crystal tear on his fingertip turned to scarlet blood.

Feng Li's expression went cold. He pulled out a piece of paper, wiped the tear away, and looked up to face the Black Mist.

The Black Mist coalesced into an evil ghost — devastatingly handsome, like a god. He smiled, pleasantly warning Feng Li, 'Don't touch him.'

The evil ghost tilted his head to look at Jiang Luo. The gaze was the way one looks at a lover. His smile deepened, his thin lips curved — but the cold, twisted killing intent was thick enough to be tangible. 'After all, this one is the love of my life.'

He murmured, low and intimate, 'How could I let anyone else touch him?'

After seeing Jiang Luo's performance just now.

The evil ghost, blazing with fury, felt a brand-new, dense desire rise within him.

Before he killed Jiang Luo, he wanted Jiang Luo to know a despair worse than death.

He wanted that lying mouth of the black-haired youth to speak only pleas for mercy. He wanted those eyes to weep only tears of terror.

He wanted the false performance Jiang Luo was putting on now to become real fear and real regret.

These thoughts burned hotter and hotter, intertwining with the evil ghost's fury and killing intent, making his interest grow ever thicker.

He could hardly wait — he wanted Jiang Luo to show him that expression right now.

But he wasn't in a rush.

The best gift should be unwrapped with the most ceremony, shouldn't it?