32: Chapter 32 The Mob

"First of all, Sister Qing found me first. I was the one who secretly brought her into the dormitory at night and hid her on the eighth floor. That's why you guys are still alive! Otherwise, look for yourselves; how many people are left alive after Chu Xuan and the others came all the way up from below?"

Lin Tong sneered. "Secondly, she was only willing to lend me this piece of black jade because I helped her. Since she let me keep it for now, I will be responsible for it until the end. It has nothing to do with you, understand?"

Seeing that the crowd was still unwilling, the butterfly knife in Lin Tong's hand suddenly began to dance as nimbly as a butterfly flitting through flowers. He said coldly, "If anyone dares to try and snatch it, then go ahead and try!"

"You're going to get us killed, you know that?" a Horse-faced Youth shouted indignantly.

"We only listened to you because you have the black jade, but now you want to take it and leave, completely disregarding our lives. Who do you think you are?" A youth with long hair tied in a ponytail held a water pipe, his face full of gloom.

By then, Tang Zheng and Chen Yinghao had finished their search and quickly squeezed out of the crowd. Both shook their heads, indicating they had found nothing.

Chu Xuan didn't linger any longer and waved his hand. "Let's go!"

After saying that, seeing the crowd on the eighth floor looking like they were about to make a move, his expression immediately turned cold.

"Tang Zheng, Chen Yinghao, you two bring up the rear. Don't worry about those willing to follow us, but if anyone tries to cause trouble, hack them to death!"

Chu Xuan made no attempt to hide the killing intent in his voice. Combined with his current appearance and the dripping blood on his eight-sided han sword, he was more terrifying than a serial killer in a movie, exuding an inexplicable aura of authority.

The crowd on the eighth floor dared not say another word, only able to watch helplessly as Lin Tong followed Chu Xuan away.

"If anyone's not convinced, come and try!" Tang Zheng's gaze was sharp, holding a flashlight in one hand and his unsheathed Tang Dao in his right.

Chen Yinghao held a long-handled fluorescent lamp in one hand and a Xiuchun saber in the other.

Like two door gods, the two slowly retreated into the corridor. Seeing no movement from the crowd, they turned and headed up the stairs.

"We're just going to watch Lin Tong leave?" The Horse-faced Youth was still somewhat unwilling.

"What else can we do? They have blades. Do you want to go up there and get hacked?" the Long-haired youth said coldly.

The Horse-faced Youth said uneasily, "But we don't have the black jade. What if someone gets parasitized? What do we do then?"

"Actually... it's not like we can't go up together."

The Long-haired youth's eyes darted around, and he finally came up with a clever plan. "Chu Xuan and those guys can go up because they have flashlights. We can also turn on our phone lights. Since they're clearing the way ahead anyway, it would be best if we could leave with them. Even if we run into danger, they'll be the ones at the front."

"This..." The Horse-faced Youth was still a bit hesitant.

"What's there to think about? Without the black jade, can you guarantee you'll survive until the next night?" The Long-haired youth widened his eyes. "We can wait a bit and follow them once we're sure they haven't run into any danger."

"Fine!" The Horse-faced Youth stomped his foot hard.

Within those few words, the Horse-faced Youth and the Long-haired youth had made their decision. They called over a dozen others, turned on their phone lights, and swarmed into the corridor together.

As a result, the remaining people couldn't sit still either. A commotion broke out as they followed upstairs one after another.

Some followed suit and used their phones for light.

Others had lost their phones long ago. Seeing fewer and fewer people around them, they were too panicked to look for their phones elsewhere and hurriedly followed the crowd upstairs.

On the other side, after Chu Xuan reached the ninth floor, his expression immediately turned grave.

Where his vision was unobstructed, most of the dormitory doors he could see were intact.

There were only three possibilities.

First, students heard a noise and opened the door themselves, like the Dormitory Manager on the first floor.

Second, the door was knocked open during the day by a monster in human form, like Ma Tao before.

Third, someone inside the room was parasitized by a monster, and after eating everyone else inside, they opened the door from within and walked out.

"Aside from the eighth floor, it seems the higher we go, the more people are parasitized..."

Xu Zhiyou said thoughtfully, "We didn't search the fourth floor just now, and we didn't look closely at the seventh floor after the lights went out, but it seemed like that on the fifth and sixth floors. There were far more intact doors there than on the third and second floors."

Lin Tong added, "Sister Qing said that parasitization doesn't happen all at once; it's a gradual process. Because the more people the Specter eats, the more... energy it gains—I didn't hear that part very clearly, but anyway, once the main body of the Specter receives some kind of energy feedback, it can split off more Clones to parasitize humans!"

Chu Xuan's heart stirred, and he immediately guessed that this "certain energy" might be spirituality!

In [Future Tang Zheng]'s last words before death, he had explicitly told him that this was a "struggle for spirituality."

And coincidentally, every time Chu Xuan killed a monster, he would gain a corresponding spirituality value. Thinking about it from another angle, could the reason monsters ate people also involve spirituality?

Chu Xuan didn't dwell on it too much. Noticing that Tang Zheng and Chen Yinghao had already followed him in with their blades drawn, he immediately cast aside his stray thoughts.

"Let's keep searching!"

Just as he was about to start the search, the lights on the ceiling suddenly went out. The entire ninth floor was plunged into darkness, with light only remaining where the crowd stood by the fire door.

"Everyone, be careful! The main switch might have been turned off!"

Chu Xuan gripped the hilt of his sword tightly.

No one was seen at the power distribution box on the ninth floor, so the problem could only be with the main switch on the first floor.

"That's not right. Monsters shouldn't be able to interfere with lights or the power supply, right?" Chen Yinghao said in shock.

"Monsters can't interfere themselves, but that doesn't mean they won't trick humans or even force them..." Chu Xuan said in a low voice. "Don't panic. Proceed according to the original plan. Keep all lights held high and don't block them!"

"Could... could there be danger?"

Xu Zhiyou said worriedly, "We fought our way up from the first floor and confirmed there were no monsters left, yet now the main switch has been turned off. Obviously, monsters have returned to the first floor, possibly targeting us specifically. I'm worried..."

Before he could finish, the sound of a door being opened came from the distance. Immediately after, amidst low growls and extremely fast footsteps, a monster with greenish-black rotting skin leaped toward them.

It was so fast that by the time Chu Xuan's high-power flashlight shone on it, it was less than ten meters away from them.

In an instant, the monster turned into an afterimage, retreating rapidly to the right side of the corridor within the light, vanishing into a blind spot in the blink of an eye.

But the lingering roar, like a tiger's howl shaking the forest, still echoed in everyone's ears. Everyone was stunned by that ferocious scene.

"What should we do next?" Lin Tong swallowed and asked. "Are we really going to keep searching? I think Xu Zhiyou has a point..."

"The arrow is on the string; it must be fired!"

Chu Xuan's tone was firm. "Qin Qing might be in one of the rooms. We've already come this far; there's no turning back now!"