Chapter 77: Infiltration Under the Night
After Luxianbei left, Professor Ma remained in the laboratory, flipping through the bamboo slips with complex feelings.
“Why didn’t I want to show him the original bamboo slips when Luxianbei came? I should have shown them to him!”
Professor Ma supported his forehead, staring at the bamboo slips and talking to himself. It felt as if the special characters on the slips suddenly came to life, twisting like little figures dancing around something.
Their dance seemed to possess a captivating power, making it hard for Professor Ma to look away.
In a daze, the nauseating stench invaded his nostrils again. This time, the odor was very close, as if an invisible rotting corpse was placed before him.
“Ugh—!” Professor Ma covered his mouth and nose with a muffled groan, his face showing extreme disgust.
The foul smell snapped him out of the bamboo slips’ enchantment. He glanced at his watch; it was now seven-thirty at night, and it was almost completely dark outside.
“I can’t stay any longer; it’s time to go home, or my wife will start nagging again.”
Professor Ma muttered, quickly packing the bamboo slips back into the wooden box and returning it to the storage room. He then gathered his briefcase and left the laboratory.
After locking the laboratory door, he turned around and frowned. The foul smell in the hallway was much stronger than inside the lab, like an invisible stream of rot flowing slowly through the corridor. From an unseen place, low, mournful chants seemed to resonate.
Professor Ma stood in the corridor, looking around. The dimly lit hallway under the night sky, while visible to the end, gave him an uneasy feeling. His intuition told him that somewhere in a hidden corner lay something that would bring him danger.
“Mm… mm…”
After pondering for a few seconds, Professor Ma reached into his suit pocket, rummaged around, and pulled out a brass coin that had been polished shiny through friction, with “Kaiyuan Tongbao” faintly engraved on it.
This coin, dating back over a thousand three hundred years, was obtained during an excavation. Due to heavy wear, it had lost its research value, so he bought it from a villager as a collectible.
Since then, he had carried the coin with him, flipping it whenever faced with a decision.
People often hesitate when faced with choices, especially when they are closely matched.
Professor Ma didn’t view flipping a coin as superstitious; he only felt it helped him overcome his indecisiveness while also bringing good fortune.
“Cling—!”
Professor Ma flicked the coin up with his thumb and caught it with the back of his hand, muttering, “Tails go left, heads go right.” After speaking, he released the coin, glanced at it, and turned right.
Just as his figure vanished at the right hallway exit, a flicker of red appeared on the left, resembling a bl**d-red lantern.
…
As darkness fell completely, there were few people left on the campus of Huacheng University. The empty Sakura Avenue was only accompanied by the autumn wind dancing with fallen leaves.
At this moment, a girl in a black and white baseball jacket and a sunhat approached from a distance, carrying a metal bat, her legs encased in black stockings and wearing short boots, crunching on the dry yellow leaves.
The system complained about Gu Qiqi’s ostentatious appearance, “Gu Qiqi, could you tone it down a bit? We’re supposed to be infiltrating.”
“Hey?! Didn’t you say that the enemies have temporarily left, and the protagonist should be more assertive? It’s you who wanted me to be high-profile and now asking me to tone it down; I really don’t understand what you systems are thinking!” Gu Qiqi replied unhappily.
“I… I did say to be assertive, but right now we are committing theft. You love watching historical dramas; have you ever seen a thief in a historical drama running on rooftops wearing elaborate clothes?”
“Uh…” Gu Qiqi pondered for a moment and nodded, “You make a solid point.”
As she spoke, she took out a Sailor Moon plastic mask from her jacket pocket and put it on her face.
“This way, I’m covered, right?”
The system, “…”
“You wearing that cheap Sailor Moon mask makes you stand out even more! By the way, why are you carrying something like that?”
“I went to the small commodities market during the day, didn’t I? I got five hundred of them to sell at the school anniversary flea market.”
“Hey, just don’t worry about it! I’ll make money!” Gu Qiqi patted her chest.
Tsk, look at those gaudy br*asts!
Seeing the mesmerizing sight of Gu Qiqi’s body, the system spat in disdain but then saw her confident expression and couldn’t help but feel a bit unable to bear it.
Indeed, it was hard to tell her that those cheap masks she bought for fifty cents each would definitely be a loss!
Gu Qiqi kept bickering with the system, and before she knew it, she had arrived at the back door of the College of Arts and Literature Experimental Building.
She sneakily looked around, avoiding the surveillance cameras under the system’s guidance. Then, suddenly, she propelled herself using her toes and, with a slight explosive sound, leaped up, arching through the air and smoothly jumping through the fourth-floor window.
Upon landing, the first thing Gu Qiqi did was adjust the mask that had been blown askew by the wind. Then, she quickly got up, leaned against a supporting column, and peered out to observe the situation in the hallway.
Seeing that the hallway was dimly lit and devoid of any figures, Gu Qiqi furrowed her brow slightly and called softly, “System?”
“Understood! Starting to assess the spirit energy fluctuation response on this floor, progress 10%… 20%… Assessment complete!”
“Gu Qiqi…”
“Mm?” Hearing the system’s tone sounding somewhat grave, Gu Qiqi tilted her head and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“The situation is a bit dire!” said the system.
“Are there many enemies hiding in the dark?”
“Not many; there are way too many!”
Just after the system finished speaking, a faint sound resembling a suona (a traditional Chinese musical instrument) echoed in the empty corridor. As the suona took the lead, drums, flutes, pipa (Chinese lute), sheng (mouth organ), and other instruments joined in.
The melody was a celebratory sacrificial tune, but for some reason, the tone felt off; it seemed mixed with silent lamentations and ancient sorrow, sounding like a dirge.
Following that, a red glow appeared at the end of the corridor, with bl**d-red lanterns lighting up from afar. In an instant, the long, dimly lit corridor was cast in a sea of red.
A thick fog gathered in front of the doorway to the special character research room. The gray-white mist spiraled into a surging vortex, as if it were a portal to another world.
Seeing this, the system said, “This is getting troublesome. Gu Qiqi, I might as well assign you a mission.”
After all, this venture was dangerous, and it wouldn’t feel right not to give Gu Qiqi some reward.
“Mm? Didn’t you say you ran out of stock? Were you really lying to me?” Gu Qiqi squinted her eyes.
The system, “…” Can you please not focus on such strange things? You make me feel awkward!
“Just because you went to the small commodities market doesn’t mean I can’t stock up too!”
After the system grumbled, a mechanical prompt rang in Gu Qiqi’s mind.
【Mission: Under the circle of ghost lanterns, come into contact with ‘The Remaining Scroll of the Mountain Python Chronicle,’ and evacuate within five minutes! Completing the mission will reward you with one thousand cheap masks from the small commodities market.】
“One thousand? System, you’re not being honest, sneaking in that much stock behind my back?”
The system, “…” Even though I’m not very optimistic about your small business, considering the cost is so cheap, why not stock a little? Just in case it sells well?
“Setting a price of two fifty each, if I can sell eight hundred, that’s a profit of sixteen hundred, deducting labor and transport costs, that leaves a net profit of one thousand five hundred seventy-two yuan and fifty-seven cents…”
“Suddenly feeling all motivated!” Gu Qiqi quickly calculated and smiled, waving the metal bat with a whoosh.
With a commanding shout, “Power of the Earth Mother, move mountains and fill seas!” A dazzling yellow light radiated from her, and a heavy spirit energy surged forth, a giant’s illusion appearing behind her.
“Bang——!”
With a slight explosive sound, Gu Qiqi brandished the metal bat and flew forward.
Sensing the intruder’s entry, the bl**d-red lanterns trembled in unison, their red glow flashing like an alarm, the air filled with low, angry whispers.
Countless foul-smelling limbs extended from behind the lanterns, clawing and scrambling along the walls, leaving a multitude of bloody handprints on the pristine walls.
In an instant, the corridor, usually bustling with students and teachers, transformed into a hell of grotesqueness, a sanctuary for countless vengeful spirits.
Seeing such a horrifying scene, Gu Qiqi felt a chill in her heart, gulped hard, and silently pushed the mask up to cover her eyes.
Witnessing this, the system panicked and urged, “Are you silly? You covered your eyes, and still…”
“Poof! Poof! Poof——!”
Before it could finish, the sound of flesh exploding echoed through the corridor. Accompanied by the flashing red light, Gu Qiqi’s bat acted like a sharp meat grinder, shredding the limbs that attacked her, and then with a stomp, she leaped several meters forward.
In this sanctuary of vengeful spirits, Gu Qiqi seemed to be even more joyful than the ghosts.
“Well done!”
The system, initially a bit astonished, couldn’t help but praise, thinking it hadn’t misjudged her character; Gu Qiqi, although a bit simple-minded and stingy, had impressive combat talent.
Relying solely on her spirit energy fluctuations to locate her enemies, how many spiritual ability users could accomplish that?
While the system was contemplating, Gu Qiqi had already fought her way through half of the corridor, arriving before the special character research room. Stepping forward into the billowing gray-white mist, she effortlessly passed through the security door and entered the laboratory.
As soon as her feet landed on the laboratory floor, the sounds of instruments and the flickering red lights in the corridor vanished, the bl**d-red lanterns dimming one by one, and the bloody handprints on the walls seemed to vanish without a trace.
The corridor returned to silence, with night creatures making faint noises, appearing as if no one had ever been there.
Inside the laboratory, the system’s voice echoed in Gu Qiqi’s mind.
“Gu Qiqi, did you bring the kn*fe I asked you to?”
“Of course I did! It just needed to be small and easy to carry,” Gu Qiqi replied, rummaging through her things, pulling out a brand new nail clipper set.
The system, “…”
Well, I suppose a nail clipper will do! As long as it can scrape off a bit of shavings…
“Snap——!”
Just as the system was thinking, a crisp sound suddenly resonated in the laboratory. Following the sound, Gu Qiqi was holding the bamboo slip in one hand and with the other, she had already clipped off a small piece from the top…
