Chapter Nine: This is All a Calamity’s Conspiracy!
Accompanied by the sound of explosions, the entire school was shaking violently. The teaching building, already deemed unsafe, had walls cracking, stones falling, and dust rising, as if it could collapse at any moment.
Did the alchemical dirty bomb buried at the school entrance explode?
The sudden turn of events left Luxianbei no time to pick up the photo that had fallen to the ground. Instead, she quickly moved to a corner of the classroom, leaning against the wall, with Ling Tai Purification protecting her in front.
After a moment, the tremors subsided. Amidst the thick smoke, the entire campus fell into a dead silence.
Then…
This eerily strange school shed its disguise.
As if something terrible had suddenly descended, a weak, hidden but expansive spirit energy fluctuation spread out, enveloping the entire Banshan Primary School, and extending further out, beyond Luxianbei’s perception range.
This spirit energy fluctuation…
Is it intentionally spreading to the maximum range to prevent me from pinpointing the exact location?
Luxianbei thought, quietly waiting in place for a moment before cautiously moving to the window to look towards the school gate.
Just as she suspected, the loud bang and the screams were caused by the explosion of the alchemical dirty bomb.
To prevent possible enemies who might be following her from being able to avoid the explosion of a single alchemical dirty bomb, she had intentionally linked all the triggering spell formulas set on those bombs when she arranged them. It was truly a case where pulling one thread could affect the whole.
As long as one was triggered, more than forty others would explode together, covering a radius of about fifty meters around Banshan Primary School’s entrance and effectively delivering a powerful strike against any potential enemies.
Now, someone really had followed her and infiltrated Banshan Primary School, which caused those alchemical dirty bombs to be detonated.
The ground near the school gate tore apart, sinking into hidden mining pits below, with flames raging.
From a distance, it inevitably reminded one of the famous attraction in Turkmenistan— the Gate to Hell, burning for nearly fifty years, still not extinguished.
But… where is the enemy?
Luxianbei gazed at the raging flames in front of the school gate, frowning.
The loud bang from the explosion and the spirit energy fluctuation arrived almost simultaneously.
According to Luxianbei’s deduction, it was highly likely that one or more powerful enemies had followed her, unwittingly triggering the alchemical dirty bomb set at the school gate.
Now, the spirit energy fluctuation that enveloped the entire campus had not yet dissipated, which proved that the enemy had not sustained fatal injuries in the explosion. At the same time, the enemy had vanished, suggesting they might have hidden themselves rapidly after the explosion.
Thinking this through, Luxianbei’s mood turned somewhat grave.
Although she knew someone had followed her into the school and that she could prepare in advance to avoid being taken unawares during a confrontation, the fact that the other party could hide so quickly after dozens of alchemical dirty bombs exploded was a level of power that had exceeded her expectations.
“…”
Should I… just retreat?
I’m not a righteous person, there’s no need to stick to chivalry. This is Huacheng, where group fights are common, why should I go one-on-one?
Once I get out, I can go to Happy Neighborhood or report the strange spirit energy fluctuations to the Siye Society. It’s not too late to return with help!
Tsk, this time was really a miscalculation. I should have brought along seventy or eighty urban legends to come over together, directly turning this cursed place upside down.
With that in mind, Luxianbei mentally reviewed the evacuation route she had initially planned.
However…
Just as she was about to put away the commemorative booklet she had found and the half a photo, preparing to leave Banshan Primary School for the time being, she found that only the commemorative booklet had fallen to the ground, face down, quietly lying there.
The torn photo had disappeared without a trace.
What’s going on? Where’s the photo? Did it get blown away by the blast?
Could it have been covered by the commemorative booklet?
Luxianbei thought, scanning the classroom filled with broken desks and chairs but unable to find the two photos. Her gaze landed on the commemorative booklet.
After a brief pause, she cautiously leaned closer, using Ling Tai Purification to lift a corner of the commemorative booklet and flipped it over, then…
“Whoosh—!”
Accompanied by a soft rustling of scattered sheets, a massive amount of photos suddenly poured out of the commemorative booklet, flooding the floor like a burst dam.
Some of those photos were already yellowed, while others were brand new, documenting various bizarre moments, whether it was from a trip, a birthday party, or simply capturing a moment in a corner of the school.
However, upon seeing the content of the photos, Luxianbei’s heartbeat slowed for a moment, her eyes wide as she jumped back several steps.
More than half of those photos contained her figure.
From the moment she was born to about eighteen or nineteen years old, there were pictures from nearly every stage of her life, all in a non-urban legend state.
Someone has been watching my life for a long time and took these photos without me even noticing?
Could it be Qin Nanzhu’s doing?
You even took pictures of me eating and sleeping, why not during bathing? Are you a pervert!?
Suddenly, a terrifying thought drilled into Luxianbei’s mind.
That person who was secretly watching her, if they could take these photos, they probably knew long ago that she would come to Banshan Primary School.
After she arrived at Banshan Primary School, she hadn’t seen that person. Perhaps they had just left or were about to arrive, or maybe they hadn’t left at all, secretly observing everything from some corner of this abandoned school.
The explosion at the school gate was perhaps triggered by them.
Thinking of this, Luxianbei tensed up, feeling the environment around her suddenly turn cold, a chilling sensation like a swarm of ants slowly creeping up from her ankles to the top of her head.
This chaotic classroom became increasingly eerie.
The photos that continued to pour out made Luxianbei’s scalp tingle, and she couldn’t help but curse fiercely, “d*mn it, forget it! I absolutely cannot stay in this cursed place any longer!”
As she spoke, she shifted her gaze away from those photos, preparing to turn and leave.
Suddenly, as if a slight ringing in her ears had emerged, subtle noises surged into her ears.
Luxianbei instinctively turned back, only to see the photos on the ground gently vibrating, emitting strange, faint sounds that intertwined, resembling gravel continuously scrubbing against each other, rustling.
Looking at the photos on the ground, Luxianbei felt that among those “rustling” sounds, there seemed to be some vague whispers, exuding an eerie allure, drawing her closer.
Just as her eyes became increasingly dazed and she slowly moved toward those photos, a heart-wrenching scream suddenly echoed in the corridor outside the classroom.
“They’re… they’re eating people! This school is eating people! Who, who can save me—!”
Startled by the scream, Luxianbei immediately snapped back to her senses, looking at the photos that were so close, her body shook, and she jumped back a distance, squinting her eyes toward the corridor, taking a deep breath and stealthily walking out.
Just as she was leaving the classroom, a brand-new photo flew out from the commemorative booklet, gently landing on the ground.
The photo depicted a scene during the evening near Mudan Street, where a handsome young man with headphones waited at a traffic light among a crowded throng, while a somewhat disheveled girl with chestnut hair and a round face looked at him, tears of excitement welling up…
————
On the other side.
The corridor seemed distorted by some force, with walls strangely growing various protrusions, some resembling geometric shapes of buildings’ corners, while others took the shape of humans or animals, still emitting faint warmth and pulsing.
It felt like this school had suddenly come to life.
In the twisting corridor, two men and a woman from Beres’s subordinates in Team A felt that today was truly unlucky.
The three gathered together, hurriedly fleeing down the maze-like distorted corridor while constantly arguing.
“I *** told you long ago that the explosion at the entrance meant Calamity had discovered us. We should have evacuated immediately and reported the situation to Lord Beres. Why did we have to take the risk? Why?” The woman shouted with a hint of tears.
“This is all a conspiracy by Calamity; she knew long ago and deliberately lured us here. We’ve fallen into Calamity’s trap!”
Watching a teammate turn to dust from the alchemical dirty bomb explosion, another teammate swallowed by the wall, fate uncertain, combined with the unbreakable, infinitely long corridor, made her emotions verge on collapse.
The long-haired man accompanying them said solemnly, “Stop whining! Our actions have been exposed; we must forcefully capture Calamity. That was the captain’s decision. Now that the captain is dead, what good does it do to shout at me?!”
“Shut up!” The short, stocky man shouted, “Instead of arguing, why not think of a way to get out!”
“It’s no use; we can’t get out.” The woman shook her head, muttering, “Don’t you see? We’ve been going around in circles; the scenery around us is just changing. I’ve already seen my mark from earlier.”
“Calamity definitely wants to trap us here and slowly torture us to d*ath!”
The two men turned to look in the direction she pointed at, their faces turning pale.
Not far ahead, on a curved hollow wall, a glowing mark left by her spell was half sunk into the wall, disappearing without a trace.
But…
She had clearly left the mark on a tree-like protrusion earlier, why would it…?
Could it be that the scenery around us has indeed been changing and we’ve really been going in circles?
The two men thought, beads of sweat forming on their brows, a heavy sense of despair slowly rising in their hearts.
————
The moment Luxianbei stepped out of the eerie classroom at the end of the second floor, she saw a bizarre scene in the corridor.
The dark corridor looked as if it had been gripped by invisible hands, twisted several times, and then stretched out forcefully, becoming exceedingly contorted.
Not far from the classroom door on the wall, there was a body, seemingly swallowed by the wall or growing from it, half of the body hanging on the wall with legs dangling down.
Was this the person who had screamed earlier?
Why do they look like… some sort of peculiar plot from an adult comic? But those comics don’t even have a male protagonist, do they?
No, no, it must be my interpretation that’s flawed!
Luxianbei quipped several times, silently retreated back into the classroom, waited a few seconds, and then carefully stepped back out.
Upon entering the corridor again, that half body hanging on the wall had disappeared without a trace, and in the darkness, wisps of white mist swirled and slowly rose.
A faint laugh came from behind her.
Turning back, the corridor that should have reached the end continued to extend infinitely.
In the swirling mist, the shapes of cities and streets vaguely emerged.
In the distance, illuminated by warm light, indistinct figures waved at her, beckoning her to come closer.
In a place like this, warmth meant danger; it could very well be a strange trap, Luxianbei thought.
At that moment, the light suddenly dimmed, and danger revealed its claws, as if exposed after being discovered.
On both sides of the corridor, the distorted walls had human shapes with twisted features and malformed protrusions that seemed to awaken from slumber, slowly appearing.
They ran, played, whispered… doing everything that could be done in everyday life, like projections from another world.
Then…
The moment Luxianbei appeared in the corridor, all the human shapes froze, twisting and elongating their necks to look at her.
In an instant, the entire corridor came alive; the walls seemed to crawl, with countless arms stretching toward the center of the corridor, trying to burst through the wall, faces displaying myriad expressions, as if cheering for something.
“…”
d*mn! This is even worse than before!
In that last situation, if she tried to cross the corridor to leave, one misstep and she’d probably never return!
Luxianbei cursed inwardly, silently retreating back into the classroom behind her, carefully avoiding the photos that were nearly filling the floor. She made her way to the window, looking outside.
In stark contrast to the lively and eerie scene in the corridor, the view of the campus outside the window remained tranquil and just like before.
Seeing this, Luxianbei silently let out a sigh of relief.
If I can’t leave through the corridor, jumping out the window should be fine, right?
Is there any other choice?
After all, I have to leave, but certainly not through the corridor.
Thinking this, she opened the window, and with a gust of icy wind, she leaped out into the air.
However…
The anticipated sound of the wind and the sensation of falling didn’t occur.
As she jumped out of the window, she felt like her body had suddenly entered a weightless environment, becoming surprisingly light, floating in mid-air.
Uh-oh, this is also a trap!
Luxianbei was alarmed, suddenly realizing, and hurriedly turned to look back, only to find a sea of white mist. The teaching building had vanished without a trace.
Before her, droplets of water mixed with mud and stones floated upward as if drawn by some force…
