Chapter Ninety-Nine: So That’s Really Cowardly
When Luxianbei stepped into the hallway on the fourth floor of the experimental building, she was indeed startled by the sight before her.
The walls, the floor, and even the ceiling were smeared with bloody handprints and footprints; those prints were still fresh, carrying a strong smell of bl**d, trailing wet and sticky paths.
A faint, familiar stench lingered in the air, making Luxianbei feel uneasy.
A thin layer of gray-white mist hung in the hallway, just like what she had seen in the Bamboo Slips Illusion.
A cold breeze blew in from the window at the end of the hallway, silently swirling the gray-white mist, as if it had granted them life, changing shape continuously in the pale light.
The doors to the various laboratories on either side were tightly shut, but it always felt like something was hiding behind those doors, ready to reach out with pale, bloodied hands to pull someone inside at any moment.
At a glance, the corridor ahead, not more than ten meters long, felt like two different worlds compared to where she stood.
Luxianbei looked at the scene before her, her eyes slightly stinging, as if it was warning her of the threats that lay ahead.
It seemed the professor was indeed in the laboratory; otherwise, such a scene wouldn’t have appeared.
It was as if the power hidden within the bamboo slips had leaked out, Luxianbei thought.
Thinking of that thing she had seen hidden beneath the giant sinkhole in the Bamboo Slips Illusion, a wave of anxiety washed over her.
That could very well be a semi-dying deity. Even if all the members of the Huacheng Siye Society teamed up, it would likely be a tricky situation.
What if I just sneak away…
No, no! d*mn it, Luxianbei, this is not the time to be cowardly!
The professor’s current situation is very dangerous; you need to find a way to get into the laboratory and save him quickly!
Although Luxianbei was timid and afraid of dying, she was not an ungrateful person. After some self-hypnosis, she finally gathered a bit of courage and her gaze sharpened slightly.
She picked up the initial scenery spring wind spell that had fallen on the ground and recalled the casting method of the two spell formulas with the red flames in her mind. She then tightly gripped the spring wind spell in one hand and held a kitchen kn*fe firmly in the other, moving forward.
As she approached the laboratory, the silence around her deepened, as if brewing a fierce and bloody attack.
The warmth in her eyes was rising, almost as if they were about to burn; behind her, her pale pink hair quietly took on a hint of red.
Fear and excitement were two very similar emotions. As a slight chill spread through her chest, an inexplicable exhilaration filled Luxianbei.
Unconsciously, she entered a state of instinctive preparedness.
While moving closer to the laboratory, Luxianbei focused all her attention on the possibility of monsters bursting out from behind the doors on either side, but nothing happened along the way.
The monsters that had left bloody handprints seemed to have hidden away after she had thrown those two initial scenery spring wind spells before she ascended the stairs.
But…
Where did they hide?
Just as such a thought flashed through Luxianbei’s mind, a writhing figure bizarrely appeared in the dark corner ahead.
The shadow, with emaciated limbs yet a swollen abdomen, sneaked like a thief, moving extremely quickly. Before she could assess its form, it darted into the laboratory.
Those things were still nearby, hiding in a strange manner, watching her from the shadows!
Thinking of this, Luxianbei felt her nerves twitch as if whipped, and the hairs on her arms stood on end.
Knowing that an urban legend was lurking nearby, yet not knowing where it was hiding and watching her, made her feel more uncomfortable and afraid than facing a direct confrontation.
After calming her emotions a little, she cautiously looked toward the laboratory, inching closer.
Perhaps because Professor Ma was still in the laboratory, the door was not locked.
Reaching the door of the laboratory, Luxianbei gently turned the doorknob and, realizing it was unlocked, didn’t rush in. Instead, she cautiously opened the door a crack, slipping two initial scenery spring wind spells inside through the gap.
She had just witnessed something drill inside; she had to guard against that ambush.
“Bang—!”
The soft sound of the wooden talismans hitting the ground echoed in the darkness. After confirming there was no response, she pushed the door open and stepped inside.
The laboratory was unlit, shrouded in strange darkness, as if some force had affected it, preventing any light from the outside from coming through.
Luxianbei felt around until she found the light switch. After pressing it twice with no response, she silently sighed and continued deeper into the laboratory.
The surrounding darkness was oppressive, and even with her superior eyesight after transforming into an urban legend, everything appeared veiled in thick shadows.
“Professor? Are you in there?” Luxianbei called softly.
Although she felt that making sound in such a situation was an extremely irrational act, equivalent to exposing her position to the hidden urban legend, she had no other way to confirm where Professor Ma was.
After calling twice without receiving a response from Professor Ma, Luxianbei hesitated for a few seconds and gathered her courage to go deeper. Just then, her gaze swept toward the storage room, and her eyes suddenly burned with intense pain.
Frowning at the direction of the storage room, she turned her gaze elsewhere, and the burning sensation abruptly lessened.
She froze for a second, immediately realizing something.
There was something there! Hidden!
Was it that thing from before?
Could the professor be there too?
Luxianbei thought, stepping forward toward the storage room. She placed a talisman on the ground with every step, guarding against an attack from the unseen places behind her.
At that moment, everything turned eerily silent.
But the quieter it got, the more afraid she became, and she seemed to hear faint rustling sounds from the direction of the storage room, as if something was agitated.
In front of the storage room in the special text content laboratory, there were several bookshelves displaying various references and materials often used in research, making it look like she had mistakenly wandered into a secondhand bookstore.
Such a layout allowed Professor Ma and his students to conveniently and efficiently find the materials they wanted.
Yet it was this layout that made Luxianbei feel uneasy.
Those shadows behind the bookshelves, the corners, and the invisible depths might be hiding something terrifying.
When she approached those bookshelves, she could no longer go forward; in the darkness, there seemed to be a maddeningly strange force pressing on her nerves.
Her chest heaved as she took a few deep breaths. Gritting her teeth, she reached into her pocket and pulled out all the spring wind spells, throwing them into the air like a rain of flowers.
Two talismans fell with slight sounds, and in an instant, a brilliant azure light broke through the darkness, illuminating the entire front of the storage room.
Indeed, something was hiding among those bookshelves, and its spirit energy fluctuation triggered a reaction from the initial scenery spring wind spells.
The dazzling blue light was so bright that Luxianbei couldn’t open her eyes, and within that blue light, she heard a heart-wrenching scream.
Numerous bloodied hands, feet, or other organs appeared out of nowhere in the darkness, like a disturbed swarm of cockroaches, frantically screaming as they scurried away, but their forms were quickly engulfed by the blue light, turning into a foul-smelling cloud of smoke that vanished without a trace.
As the blue light faded a bit, Luxianbei looked toward the storage room and immediately staggered back a step in fright.
Between the gaps of two bookshelves, she clearly saw a bloodshot eye.
That sickly, malicious non-human vertical pupil stared at her motionless, exuding strong negative emotion.
Locking eyes with that eye, Luxianbei felt her mind buzz, as if a nightmare had crawled out from the dark corners of her memory, laughing maniacally and swirling through her nerves.
This sensation reminded her of the monster that had flown out of the sinkhole in the Bamboo Slips Illusion.
Although the discomfort was somewhat weaker, her intuition kept telling her that it was exactly the same feeling.
In a daze, she heard strange low growls in her ear, and amidst the growls, she once again heard a cry for help.
“Save me, please, save me…”
Who is it? Who is asking for help?
Luxianbei thought, as the azure light emitted by the spring wind spell suddenly dimmed, a strong stench wafted forth, and the urban legend hidden in the gap between the bookshelves rotated its eye unnaturally before suddenly moving.
It slowly squeezed out from the gap in the bookshelf, its body twisted into a strange shape as if it had no bones, reminding Luxianbei of her former figurine that had accidentally melted in high temperatures, an extreme sense of disgust washed over her, causing her stomach to convulse uncontrollably.
A foul wind swept through the darkness, snapping her back to reality, and she saw a bizarre figure pouncing toward her.
In an instant, that figure drew closer, and she recognized a face, a familiar face.
It was an ugly, blasphemous human face, twisted like a skull and covered in disgusting scales.
Yet from its features and that bl**d-red lantern that seemed to have grown from within its body, Luxianbei could still identify it as Luxu.
The sudden attack brought Luxu closer, leaving Luxianbei without a chance to resist; she could only retreat repeatedly.
At that moment, Luxu touched the talismans Luxianbei had previously set up when she got closer, and the talismans were triggered in succession, instantly flooding the entire laboratory with gripping azure light.
Struggling to endure the blinding azure light, Luxianbei stared fixedly at Luxu, who screamed in agony in the blue light, writhing in pain like a serpentine monster.
Take advantage of this opportunity to finish it off! Now’s the time, take it down! Luxianbei shouted in her heart.
In the next moment, she felt something ignite within her, as her bl**d surged through her body like lava, brilliant red coursing upward from her hair tips.
At the same time, Luxu broke free from the talismans’ influence and lunged again. The fierce light in his eyes was even stronger.
However, this time, Luxianbei did not dodge; an extraordinary calm flickered in her eyes, and the speed of the monster rushing toward her seemed to slow down exponentially.
Then…
She silently raised one hand to cover her eyes, blocking the influence of that strange eye, while her other hand raised the bl**d-red kitchen kn*fe that had turned scorching hot from her body’s demonic heat.
She stepped forward, facing the monster that had transformed from Luxu. Just as Luxu was about to pounce on her, she lowered her body, raising the kn*fe that glinted with coldness. The blade sliced cleanly from top to bottom across Luxu’s chest, leaving a gruesome gash.
At that moment, it was unclear whether the kn*fe’s temperature held back the bl**d from evaporating or if Luxu had already run dry of bl**d; or perhaps that kn*fe was eagerly drinking the monster’s bl**d, but for a moment, not a single drop of bl**d spilled.
…
“Wait!” Professor Ma pulled out a handkerchief to wipe the sweat from his forehead, glancing at Luxianbei before weakly asking, “So, you just killed Luxu with one kn*fe?”
Actually, it wasn’t one kn*fe, but four or five dozen. Luxianbei silently thought to herself.
She didn’t even know why she struck so many blows. She had felt quite normal when she delivered the first cut.
However, at the moment the first cut fell, and Luxu screamed, it felt as if something strange awakened within her, compelling her, as if she had gone mad, to uncontrollably keep striking.
Even when her opponent had no means of resistance left, she continued to inflict violent and vicious harm.
Once again, Luxianbei felt fear towards the power within her.
Professor Ma looked at Luxianbei again, his lips trembling, hesitating to say anything.
Thinking of his former beloved disciple having turned into a monster, possibly beyond any redemption, he felt a sharp pang of sorrow in his heart.
Noticing the pained expression on Professor Ma’s face, Luxianbei’s hand subconsciously lingered for a moment on her pocket.
There, resting quietly, was the urban legend’s core.
After hesitating for a few seconds, Luxianbei decided to tell Professor Ma a lie.
“I didn’t k*ll him; he ran away. And at the last moment of his attack on me, he hesitated. Maybe there’s still a bit of humanity left? That’s how I got the chance to fight back.”
It was a decent lie, one that would ease Professor Ma’s concern a little, while also giving her a reason to explain her ability without revealing it. Luxianbei thought.
“Is that so? That’s good, that’s good…” Professor Ma murmured, turning to Luxianbei, “I understand now; when you rushed into the bathroom, you covered your eyes because you were afraid of looking at the monster, right?”
“I knew it! You scared me just now.”
“Uh…” Luxianbei froze for a moment, thinking, Professor, you’re overthinking it. I was also scared when I calmed down! So yes, I’m really cowardly, worried and afraid of seeing something terrifying.
However, she still expressionlessly nodded at Professor Ma and said, “Yes, that’s right.”
How could someone with a poker face feel embarrassed? Even if they could, no one could tell, and if no one could tell, then they wouldn’t feel embarrassed!
