Chapter 16
Chapter 16
The teaching complex consisted of eastern and western buildings connected by an open-air corridor.
The first two floors of the east building contained classrooms for theory courses, while the third and fourth held laboratories for anatomy, human biology, and similar subjects.
The first two floors of the west building contained the faculty administration office, staff offices, and multimedia conference rooms. The third and fourth held the specimen rooms and the laboratory animal remains disposal center.
After attending classes here for four years, Xie Qingling knew the building’s layout by heart, including the function of every classroom inside.
Classes were currently in session, so most people in the complex were concentrated in the classrooms and laboratories of the east building.
Some people were probably on duty in the faculty administration office in the west building, and professors without classes should also be in their offices, but the total number wouldn’t be large.
The laboratory animal remains disposal center was generally empty at this hour. The faculty normally contacted employees at the incineration plant on Tuesday afternoons to dispose of the animal carcasses together.
On her very first assignment, Xie Qingling had to take point alone. She couldn’t help drawing a deep breath.
She wasn’t particularly nervous. She had carefully memorized the procedures and cautions Ye Anran had given her.
Following Ling Fang’s instructions, Xie Qingling methodically planned her next moves.
She charged into the west building with a clear objective, heading straight for the laboratory animal remains disposal center.
The center was locked, but that was hardly an obstacle for Xie Qingling.
She loosened her legs, then raised one foot. With a deafening boom, she kicked a hole straight through the formerly sturdy door.
Xie Qingling flexed her foot. It didn’t hurt. She kicked several more times, forcibly opening a passage large enough for her to enter.
A Spirit Wielder’s physical strength was impressive.
No one was inside the laboratory animal remains disposal center. After crawling in, Xie Qingling saw only several enormous chest freezers.
Inside, animals that had died during experiments were sealed in individual plastic bags and arranged neatly. Every bag was marked with the experiment’s purpose, date of death, and cause of death.
Xie Qingling carefully avoided the animal remains bearing yellow labels. Yellow meant the carcasses carried hereditary pathogens and were infectious. Releasing them without sterilization and disinfection would be dangerous.
She found three white rabbits that had been placed inside recently enough that their bodies remained soft. Xie Qingling took them out, stroked their heads, and said softly, “Thank you for doing this.”
Then she set their fur alight.
The smell of scorched fur immediately spread through the room.
The dead white rabbits felt no pain. They no longer had any sensation at all.
Ignoring the flames gradually rising over their bodies, they instinctively obeyed Xie Qingling’s orders, avoiding flammable and explosive objects as they scattered in different directions.
They raced wildly through the corridors on every floor. In the blink of an eye, they had spread the smell of burning fur everywhere.
The rabbits didn’t contain enough energy. After running around briefly, they collapsed.
But even though they created only a momentary disturbance, they had completed their mission.
The professors and students in class had no idea what was happening. They could only smell something acrid while thick smoke spread through the teaching complex.
Was it…
A fire!
At that very moment, the fire alarm sounded.
Its wailing seemed like a death knell to everyone who heard it.
The students and professors in classes on the first and second floors reacted first and immediately fled the building.
To make sure no one was overlooked, Xie Qingling went to the west building.
The west building had a broadcasting room connected to the speakers in every classroom, allowing announcements to be delivered throughout the complex at once.
When Xie Qingling opened the broadcasting room door, she found a male student on duty inside.
Hearing the noise, the student turned and frowned when he saw Xie Qingling. “You can’t come in here.”
“I’m just taking a look.” Xie Qingling smiled and walked toward him. Before he could say anything else, she raised one hand and knocked him unconscious.
The male student: “…”
He had never encountered anything so outrageous in his life!
Fine, take a look – but why hit him?!
And how could such a delicate-looking girl knock out the power forward of the university basketball team with a single chop?
Before he could puzzle out an answer, his thoughts cut off.
Xie Qingling moved him aside, turned on the microphone, imitated a broadcaster’s voice, then began making a solemn announcement.
“Emergency notice, emergency notice! Attention, students, professors, and all personnel inside this teaching complex! A fire has broken out in the building, and safety hazards are being investigated. All students, professors, and other personnel currently attending class must evacuate the complex within five minutes. Do not push while leaving, to avoid a stampede. Emergency notice, emergency notice…”
She repeated the broadcast three times.
People began running out of the building one group after another.
Some ran while protecting their heads, while others found time amid the chaos to wet their clothes and cover their mouths and noses.
It looked like the students had taken part in plenty of disaster drills.
The professors and students in laboratories on the third and fourth floors were delayed because removing and disinfecting their protective clothing took longer. Everyone on the other floors evacuated quickly.
After about three minutes, no one else emerged from the building.
Xie Qingling had a clear sense of the situation now.
She activated her earpiece and told Ling Fang, “Director, everyone has been cleared from the teaching complex.”
“Good work.”
Ling Fang didn’t know how Xie Qingling had managed it, but this wasn’t the time to discuss the details.
He said, “Deploy the Killing Field now and trap the ghosts inside. Wait until we arrive before making a move.”
“Understood.”
Elsewhere…
Ling Fang was dispatching the department’s other personnel.
“Dai Xingyu, contact the Logistics Department. Clear the area, then provide support.”
Dai Xingyu: “Received.”
“Ye Anran, you’re closest to Xie Qingling’s school. Go support her first.”
Ye Anran: “Received.”
Ling Fang paused. “Shen Huaizhou, you’re responsible for containing the scene this time. Don’t let so much as half a ghost escape the Killing Field.”
Shen Huaizhou: “Received.”
“Old Yu, come with me and support the operation.”
Yu Wei: “Received.”
“All right,” Ling Fang said. “Move out.”
Scattered across different corners of Future City, several people heard those words. As one, they turned and set out in the same direction.
–
Xie Qingling hoisted the unconscious male student onto her shoulder. After a moment’s thought, she opened the window and climbed straight out through it.
She ran a considerable distance. Once she judged he would be beyond the affected area, Xie Qingling set him down beside a flower bed and arranged him properly. Then she turned and charged back into the teaching complex.
About five minutes had passed.
Xie Qingling took out the clay idol.
“With your eyes, see what I see.”
The Ksitigarbha Statue instantly emitted a faint, lustrous glow. Flowing light washed over everything it touched as the Killing Field unfurled.
This place was now the Carrion Ghosts’ cage.
Xie Qingling didn’t act on her own. Following Ling Fang’s instructions, she obediently stood at the entrance and waited.
The procedures stated that obedience was an important standard for judging an excellent employee.
Ling Fang’s excessively cautious personality might strike Xie Qingling as troublesome, but she had always pursued perfection. She therefore demanded that she perform her internship duties as well as possible.
After a while, Xie Qingling’s communicator sounded. Ye Anran contacted her. “Don’t be scared, cutie. Big sister’s coming to support you right now. Six minutes. Wait six more minutes. I’ll be there soon.”
Xie Qingling had killed a Rakshasa alone, but this time there was more than one ghost.
An unknown number was a major risk in itself.
An inexperienced newcomer could easily find herself in danger.
Ghosts would go mad when faced with the flesh and blood of an Innate Spirit.
Xie Qingling was somewhat touched by how protective everyone was of the newcomer.
But…
She truly wasn’t very afraid.
Since she had entered this world, the Shanxiao and Rakshasa had already frightened every last shred of timidity out of her.
Compared with the beginning, Xie Qingling had far more weapons and resources to rely on.
She had already returned to the iron-nerved girl who hadn’t batted an eye the first time she entered an anatomy laboratory.
“All right,” Xie Qingling said. “I’ll wait at the entrance to the teaching complex.”
Ye Anran accelerated. In stark contrast to her gentle voice over the earpiece, her face was grim as she rode her heavy motorcycle at breakneck speed toward Xie Qingling’s school.
The traffic department had received notice and coordinated throughout her route. Every light turned green as everyone cleared a path for Ye Anran.
Xie Qingling stood at the entrance, keeping track of the time, when a tremendous crash of shattering glass suddenly rang out overhead.
The sound had come from the fourth floor of the west building. If she remembered correctly, that direction was…
The specimen room.
The specimen room held experimental samples preserved in glass jars filled with formalin.
One of the specimens had been smashed.
Xie Qingling’s heart lurched. A terrible premonition seized her.
After a moment’s hesitation, she tightened her grip on the handgun, then raced into the complex and headed straight for the fourth floor of the west building.
Before she came close, she heard chewing from afar – crunch, crunch – accompanied by sharp cracking sounds as though animal bones were being bitten through.
The uncanny sound chilled the blood. Even someone as fearless as Xie Qingling couldn’t keep her face from darkening.
With a grim expression, she pushed open the specimen room door…
The room was a disaster.
Five specimen jars had been shattered, their formalin spilling across the floor.
The ghosts held the specimens from the jars in their hands and gnawed on them.
The scene was ghastly, all mangled flesh and blood.
One, two, three, four…
There were four ghosts in the specimen room. Only half a person’s height, they had blue-black skin with a rotten texture and gave off a powerful stench.
They appeared headless. A mass of flesh fused together atop each neck, with no visible features except a single mouth that was currently “eating.”
Xie Qingling’s scalp prickled. Her grip tightened around the handgun, then a tremendous wave of rage rushed straight to her head.
[The newly awakened Carrion Ghosts have suffered terribly from hunger. They search everywhere, yet cannot find the delicacies that belong to them. In this turbid mortal realm, this unfamiliar mortal realm, the dead are no longer buried. The Carrion Ghosts cannot wrest food from the furnaces spitting tongues of flame, so they turn their gazes toward these humans who died long ago yet remain perfectly preserved.]
[Feast. Gnaw. This is a sumptuous meal meant for the Carrion Ghosts.]
“Director.” Xie Qingling activated her earpiece. “I’m afraid I have to engage early.”
“The Carrion Ghosts aren’t after living humans.”
“They’re after the body donors – our silent teachers.”