72: Chapter 72 The Truth Comes to Light

At the end of the corridor, the wooden door with the "Library" sign hung on it looked like a gaping maw in the darkness, ready to devour anyone who entered.

Jiang Ning gripped the iron pipe, her palms sweating, her voice lowered until it was almost inaudible.

"Sister Qingxue and the others... they won't be in trouble, will they?"

Fang Che didn't speak. He gently set the fire axe against the wall and placed the fingers of his right hand against the door gap.

A-Rank skill [Size Manipulation] activated.

The skin and muscle fibers of his fingertips writhed and compressed in a way that defied the laws of physics, becoming as tough as steel cones. He pushed with force, and the heavy wooden door was forced inward, opening a narrow gap.

He pressed one eye to the gap.

With just one look, Fang Che felt as if his blood had run cold.

In the spacious reading hall, rows of metal bookshelves partitioned off countless aisles shrouded in shadow. On the ceiling, over a dozen monsters with torn-off upper bodies hung upside down; black articulated limbs sprouted from the ragged, broken flesh, brutally embedded into the ceiling.

His gaze locked tightly onto the deepest corner.

Su Qingxue, Xu Zhaozhao, and Chen Keke were trapped in a dead-end corner by a bookshelf.

In front of them, three identical monsters were crawling silently along the ground, their six withered arms moving in alternation. They were less than five meters away!

Su Qingxue remained relatively calm. With one hand, she shielded Chen Keke behind her, and with the other, she gripped a pair of scissors, staring intently at the approaching monsters. Chen Keke's face was already deathly pale from fright; if not for Su Qingxue supporting her, she would likely have collapsed.

Xu Zhaozhao was barely hanging on by a thread, her body swaying precariously.

Suddenly, her legs went weak, and her arm subconsciously braced against the nearby metal bookshelf.

"Clang."

The faint sound of the collision was as ear-piercing as a thunderclap in the absolute silence of the reference room.

The monster closest to them paused abruptly.

On its featureless face, dead skin suddenly split open, and a giant, death-gray pupil squeezed out, instantly locking onto the source of the sound—Xu Zhaozhao.

It's over!

Xu Zhaozhao's mind went blank.

Now is the time!

Fang Che's body shot out like an arrow from a bowstring, not even uttering a single word to Jiang Ning.

[Size Manipulation] reinforced his legs, and his figure stretched into a blurred afterimage within the shadows of the bookshelves, without stirring the slightest breeze.

The monster had just locked onto its target and hadn't even had a chance to make its next move before Fang Che had ghost-like slid along the ground to its rear.

He thrust out his hands.

His left hand, like an iron pincer, precisely locked onto the monster's mucus-covered throat, the muscles in his palm bulging, completely sealing off any potential sound it could make.

His right hand pressed heavily against the back of its head.

"Crack!"

A dull sound of bone cracking, forcefully suppressed to the lowest decibel by his palm.

He cleanly and decisively twisted the monster's neck a full circle, turning its faceless head to face its own back. Fang Che did not let go; instead, he supported its cooling body and slowly, silently laid it flat on the ground.

The other two monsters were completely unaware of their companion's death and continued to close in on Su Qingxue and the others.

Fang Che slid behind the second monster.

He noticed a protruding hard bone plate on the back of this monster's neck; twisting it forcibly would inevitably make a sound.

With a flash of thought, he had already grabbed the fire axe from his back.

Puchi.

A barely audible sound of flesh being pierced. The sharp axe blade precisely cut into the gap of the monster's cervical spine, instantly severing its central nervous system.

The monster's body stiffened, then went completely dead.

When he arrived behind the third monster, the one closest to Su Qingxue and the others, Fang Che chose the most direct and brutal method.

He spread his five fingers and violently clamped them onto the monster's skull.

The strength in his fingertips surged!

In his mind, a stream of information flashed frantically!

[Ding! Killed 'Silent Patroller' X3, triggered 'Absolute Critical Hit'!]

[Obtained Experience Points: 90 points]

[Critical Hit calculation in progress... Combined Critical Hit multiplier: 35x!]

[Final Experience Points obtained: 3150 points!]

"Puff!"

There was no sound of bone cracking, only a tooth-aching, dull thud of a ripe watermelon being crushed by brute force.

That ugly head, along with the tissue inside, was squeezed into a pulp by Fang Che's grip. The viscous liquid didn't even have time to splatter before he pressed it firmly into his palm.

The entire process was extremely fast and extremely quiet.

In the dead-end corner by the bookshelf, Su Qingxue stared blankly at everything.

Fang Che shook off the filth from his hands and walked quickly to them.

Su Qingxue snapped out of her daze and immediately handed him a heavy notebook wrapped in tin, saying urgently in a hushed voice, "I just found this, and they followed me!"

The edges of the notebook were worn, the writing on the cover was faded, and a rusty little lock hung from the side.

Su Qingxue was just about to remind him to find the key when she saw Fang Che extend two fingers and pinch the little lock directly.

"Snap."

The lock snapped off in response.

Fang Che quickly opened it and found a page of a diary in the middle that was soaked in black blood; the handwriting was distorted and filled with despair.

"He's crazy... The principal is crazy..."

"For the sake of longevity... he wants to sacrifice all of us..."

"Using our flesh and blood... to build that nonexistent Fourth Floor! That is the gate to hell..."

The clues were connected.

"Then... the other half of the key?" Su Qingxue leaned in, her face deathly pale.

Fang Che's gaze landed on the last line of the torn page, on the small words written in blood.

"The only way to survive is on the Fourth Floor... the key is hidden in the Infirmary... that place controls life and death..."

The Infirmary!

Finally, he had found the direction!

"Let's go! To the Infirmary!" Fang Che made a prompt decision, put away the torn page, grabbed the fire axe, and turned around.

He had tried his best to control his movements, but the aisles of the Library were simply too narrow. As he turned, the axe blade in his hand accidentally grazed the metal support of an old bookshelf nearby.

"Clang—!"

A crisp, ear-piercing sound of metal striking metal suddenly exploded in the deathly silent Library hall, the sound echoing frantically along the rows of bookshelves, lingering for a long time.

Fang Che's movements stiffened, and only two words remained in his mind.

Oh no.

Almost at the same time, the remaining dozen or so Silent Patrollers hanging upside down from the ceiling turned around in unison.

Their featureless, dead-skinned faces suddenly split open, and giant, death-gray pupils squeezed out, instantly locking onto the source of the sound.

The malice of the entire Library was completely ignited at this moment!