Chapter 8

Chapter 8

A heavy weight pressed against her back. Though she couldn’t see the Four-Way Crossroads Ghost, its presence burdened Xie Qingling with a very real sense of weight.

Xie Qingling ignored the voice muttering endlessly behind her.

The Rakshasa had unquestionably come with hostile intentions, but at a life-or-death moment like this, she didn’t dare trust the Four-Way Crossroads Ghost so easily either.

Even if the way it called “big sister, big sister” sounded full of temptation, who knew whether it was harboring malicious intentions?

Unless she had absolutely no other choice, Xie Qingling intended to keep the last shred of initiative firmly in her own hands.

“Get the hell off me!” Xie Qingling reached behind herself and grabbed, but caught nothing. The weight on her suddenly vanished, however – the Four-Way Crossroads Ghost had left.

Still running, Xie Qingling pressed the red button on her silver bracelet.

Her contact list appeared.

Xie Qingling sent Ling Fang a message – the only message she had time to send:

There’s a Rakshasa in the University Student Activity Center. It eats people.

At the same time…

Screeech…

Screeech…

The sound drew closer and closer.

With it came enormous, ponderous footsteps.

Boom. Boom. Boom…

The entire building seemed to tremble with them.

Dust that had lain undisturbed on the ceiling for years sifted down. White plaster flaked from the walls, exposing the mottled surface beneath. Cobwebs came loose in the corners, and spiders fell to the floor.

Xie Qingling glanced back from the corner of her eye. In the thin layer of salt covering the floor, she saw an enormous pair of footprints. They resembled human feet, but ended in sharp claws!

The prints were three times the size of a human’s. Accompanied by thunderous booms, they advanced on Xie Qingling one step at a time.

It wasn’t hard to imagine that the Rakshasa behind her was no weakling, whether in strength or size.

Soon, the Rakshasa reached a section of floor without salt, and the footprints vanished again.

But one thing was certain: it was still following her!

Xie Qingling ran for her life, wanting only to put some distance between them and buy herself a little more time to survive.

With the deafening screech of the Rakshasa Blade dragging across the floor, Xie Qingling’s heart pounded wildly, nearly leaping out of her throat.

Whenever she saw stairs, she ran for them. Whenever she saw a fire door, she shoved it open. She used the layout of the corridors and classrooms to place as many obstacles in the Rakshasa’s way as possible.

If she could just hold on a little longer…

Until the relevant department arrived, she had to do everything she could to delay the Rakshasa and make sure she stayed alive.

Xie Qingling slipped into a multimedia classroom whose door was still open.

At that moment, the unbroken screeching behind her abruptly ceased.

Had it…

Left?

No.

It had swung its blade!

Xie Qingling’s gaze fixed for an instant. Her survival instincts made her immediately throw herself sideways and duck –

Her instincts proved exceptionally sharp.

The very next instant, the desks and chairs in front of her split in half as if cut by an invisible force!

The wind raised by the sweeping blade howled beside Xie Qingling’s ears.

It was right there.

The blade had passed almost flush against her body.

If she hadn’t managed to dodge just now…

[The Rakshasa raised its butcher’s blade. Its prey has not yet awakened and is utterly helpless. With just one easy swing, it can enjoy a hearty meal. Yet that hateful Four-Way Crossroads Ghost – it has actually betrayed one of its own kind.]

[Because the Four-Way Crossroads Ghost intervened, the Rakshasa’s strike failed to harm the Spirit Wielder at all. It should have claimed at least one of her hands.]

[Starving, the Rakshasa cannot swing its blade a second time yet. Furious and humiliated, it grabs the Four-Way Crossroads Ghost by the throat, slams it into the ground, and beats it viciously.]

[The frail Four-Way Crossroads Ghost cannot fight back.]

[It left home with its mother as a child, only to die at a bustling four-way intersection. Still young, it feels an instinctive fondness for older women and cannot help lending them a hand when it meets those beset by calamity.]

[Today, ah, today – today is a special day. The Rakshasa and the Four-Way Crossroads Ghost, both numbered among the Thirty-Six Ghosts, meet here. The enraged Rakshasa will defend the honor of the Thirty-Six Ghosts and purge the traitor from their ranks. The Thirty-Six Ghosts have no need for such an unweaned little wretch. Before eating the Spirit Wielder, it can start with an appetizer.]

The Four-Way Crossroads Ghost… was helping her? And the Rakshasa didn’t just eat people – it ate ghosts too?

Stunned by these two sudden revelations, Xie Qingling froze.

Should she take advantage of the ghosts turning on each other and run?

But what happened after she escaped?

Once the Rakshasa finished its “appetizer,” would it simply stop coming after her?

What a joke.

The Rakshasa’s target had always been her, not anyone else!

– She has only just broken free of the Four-Way Crossroads Ghost’s illusion. Her eyes still retain a trace of the boundary between reality and illusion, allowing her to catch a glimpse of an existence that does not belong to this mortal realm.

The words about Dong Jia suddenly surfaced in Xie Qingling’s mind, and a possibility occurred to her at once.

Without the slightest hesitation, she threw away the Migu branch in her hand.

In an instant, the world before Xie Qingling’s eyes twisted into something else.

Near the lectern stood a monster with a black face, tusks, scarlet hair, and blue-green eyes.

It stood a full three meters tall, its skull nearly touching the ceiling.

This was the Rakshasa.

Just as she had guessed.

Entering a ghost’s illusion allowed a person to see ghosts.

This was the ghosts’ domain. Through a ghost’s perspective, she could see ghosts.

The sudden sight of such a monster made Xie Qingling’s heart seem to stop for a moment. Her lips parted, and she drew several deep breaths, quickly suppressing the emotions surging inside her.

This wasn’t the time for fear or terror. She had no time for either.

She looked down. Beneath the Rakshasa’s right foot was a little ghost no taller than a person’s thigh.
The little ghost did have a human face, but that face bore four pitch-black eyes.

Its body was skin and bones. Its limbs and torso looked like dead wood, making it appear terribly frail.

Compared with the towering Rakshasa, the Four-Way Crossroads Ghost looked pitifully small and weak.

And in truth, it was.

The Rakshasa had it pinned beneath one foot and was grinding it viciously into the floor. It thrashed wildly and let out agonized wails.

Xie Qingling drew her fruit knife.

Intent on dealing with the troublesome Four-Way Crossroads Ghost, the Rakshasa had its back to Xie Qingling. It had not noticed that Xie Qingling had entered the illusion, seen its true form, and pinpointed its position.

Was she confident she could hurt it?

Xie Qingling wasn’t sure.

But she was certain of one thing: this was her only chance, the only moment when victory was possible.

Moving soundlessly, Xie Qingling climbed onto a desk. She took aim at the Rakshasa’s back, pushed off with her toes, and leaped with all her strength!

The Four-Way Crossroads Ghost had never expected Xie Qingling to stay instead of seizing this chance to escape, much less to jump onto the Rakshasa’s back.

It let out a shrill howl.

Realizing what had happened, the Rakshasa was overjoyed.

It reached out one enormous hand to seize the Spirit Wielder who had delivered herself straight into its grasp.

Foolish. How utterly foolish! It had chased her for so long, and now she had offered herself up to it.

But then, in the next instant…

Xie Qingling clamped her bloodied hand over its eyes.

“Aaaagh – !”

Waves of blue smoke rose into the air, filling it with a scorched odor unlike anything produced by burning firewood in the human world.

Agonizing pain engulfed the Rakshasa’s eyes, face, and nose…

The Spirit Wielder’s palm had been viciously slashed, and an unending stream of blood dripped onto the Rakshasa.

Her blood corroded its eyes, burned through its ears, and charred its skin.

The Spirit Wielder clinging to its back was no longer a frail human incapable of fighting back. She had become a blood leech that could drain a person dry!

Xie Qingling tried to stab it with the fruit knife, but the blade snapped yet again!

[Quick-witted Spirit Wielder, once again you have fought for a slim chance of survival. Your blood has corroded the Rakshasa’s eyes and robbed it of sight. But Spirit Wielder, do not be greedy. Weapons of the mortal realm cannot harm the Rakshasa in the slightest, and your blood is not enough to kill it. Perhaps the wise choice would be to select a graceful pose and flee while it is blind.]

The Rakshasa, maddened by pain, flung Xie Qingling away. She landed on a desk, bounced across it, and then crashed to the floor.

It hurt badly, but she had suffered no real injury.

Compared with her, half of the Rakshasa’s face had been destroyed. Granted, a vicious and hideous Rakshasa could hardly be said to have a face worth disfiguring. Still, blinding it and hampering its movements had unquestionably given Xie Qingling a much better chance of winning and made her considerably safer.

No matter how ferocious a monster might be, losing its eyes would drastically reduce its combat strength.

Xie Qingling couldn’t help smiling. Then she immediately turned and ran.

The Four-Way Crossroads Ghost had already fled.

It ran even faster than Xie Qingling.

However, since Xie Qingling could still see the Rakshasa’s true form, she inferred that the Four-Way Crossroads Ghost couldn’t have gone far. Its illusion had not yet dissolved.

It was probably hiding in some corner of the University Student Activity Center right now, too frightened to show itself.

Clatters and crashes rang out behind her. She didn’t need to look back to know that the now-blind, clumsy Rakshasa was laboriously chasing her.

Without its sight, the Rakshasa could only use its nose to locate the Spirit Wielder.

Had this been ancient times, with open wilderness all around or nothing but low mud-brick and tile-roofed houses, this Spirit Wielder could never have escaped its grasp even if it relied on smell alone.

But…

But why did this chaotic mortal realm, this unfamiliar mortal realm, have to build such towering structures? Why were there so many strange, unnatural materials? They all smelled far too peculiar…

The Rakshasa was no longer able to use its sense of smell with any skill.

In the end, its haphazard pursuit allowed Xie Qingling to open up a full floor’s distance between them.

The Rakshasa could no longer stay at her heels, bearing down on her with overwhelming pressure, nor could it strike a fatal blow at any moment.

All Xie Qingling needed to do now was wait here – wait for Ling Fang and the relevant department to arrive.

Her face pale, she used the knife to cut strips from her clothes, then wrapped her palm in a makeshift bandage to stop the bleeding.

The wound on her hand wasn’t fatal, but if she kept losing blood, she was genuinely afraid she might go into shock.

[The Rakshasa stops its pursuit. It has not only lost its prey, but also misplaced its Rakshasa Blade.]

[With help from the traitor, the already incomparably cunning Spirit Wielder gained enough ability to escape. Disgusting traitor. Shameless Spirit Wielder. The Rakshasa finally understands that this mortal realm has long since become utterly unrecognizable. Against weak humans, it no longer possesses an absolutely crushing advantage.]

[…But so what? It may have lost one big fish, but many little fish remain. Even if it cannot deal with the shameless Spirit Wielder, it can still easily harvest the flesh and blood of other humans to nourish its recovery.]

[The night wind carries the fragrance of food. This place is filled with young, vigorous bodies, all packed inside little boxes arranged in orderly rows.]

[The Rakshasa decides to give up on the troublesome Spirit Wielder for now, find those little boxes, and feast.]

[Tonight belongs to the Rakshasa – a gluttonous banquet, an all-you-can-eat celebration.]

At those words, the color abruptly drained from Xie Qingling’s face.