Chapter 48: The Girls' Dormitory

"You! Which class are you from?! Where's the original flag-bearer?!"

As soon as the flag-raising ceremony ended, the teacher in charge rushed up to Lin QiYe, shouting furiously.

Lin QiYe, however, didn't have the time to deal with him. He simply dodged to the side and walked off.

The teacher's eyes widened. After teaching for so many years, he had never encountered such an outrageous student!

"Stop right there! Don't you dare ignore me! What kind of attitude is that? Do you believe I can drag you to the principal's office right now and announce your punishment to the whole school?!"

He grabbed Lin QiYe's shoulder and shouted.

Ahead, Lin QiYe stopped, slowly turned around, and in his eyes...

Two golden flames instantly ignited!

At that moment, an overwhelming pressure descended on the teacher's heart!

Under the gaze of those eyes, he felt as if he was staring into the vast universe, insignificant like a grain of sand in the endless dark and unknown void.

Pressure!

This was pressure that transcended the level of life itself!

In just an instant, the teacher's back was drenched in cold sweat, and his whole body seemed to collapse.

The flames in Lin QiYe's eyes flashed and disappeared, leaving nothing but an unfathomable depth in his dark gaze.

"I made a mistake earlier," Lin QiYe said calmly, looking at the teacher, who was still gasping for air. "You can announce it to the whole school, or even file a complaint at the office."

He paused and added, "But... you'll have to wait until I'm done with my work."

With that, Lin QiYe turned and, under the terrified gaze of the teacher, ran off.

"Captain."

"QiYe, report your status."

"I've checked everyone in the school... the situation is dire. I think solving this quietly will be next to impossible."

"Go on."

"In the three grades, the infections in the first and third years are relatively few—only about ten people combined. But the second year is the most serious. There are thirty-six infected students, and in one class, half the students are infected!"

Lin QiYe continued, "And that's just the students. Among the teachers and leadership, there are nearly twenty infected individuals!"

"So, I can deduce that, in this entire school, at least sixty teachers and students have been turned into monsters!"

There was a long silence on the other end of the earpiece.

"Captain, over sixty infected! Even if each infected person is just a Zhanjing (illusionary form), that means there are over sixty Zhanjing monsters in this school! If we find the mythological creature's real body, these sixty-plus infected will surely go into a frenzy and attack the surrounding teachers and students indiscriminately!"

Lin QiYe remained calm as he continued, "And there are too many of them. If any of them manage to escape the school, it will turn into a disaster that will spread throughout Cangnan City!"

"QiYe, it's not just a matter of them escaping the school..." The sound of chopping came from the other side of the earpiece as Chen MuYe spoke slowly. "They've already begun to spread outside."

Meanwhile, several kilometers away from the school, in a rented room.

Chen MuYe carried a knife, stepping through the blood-soaked remnants of bodies. Beside him, Wu XiangNan had a grave look on his face.

"We've investigated Liu XiaoYan, Han RuoRuo, and the head of the academic affairs office's family. We found that their families were also infected. We've just cleaned them up."

"The situation is more serious than we imagined."

"What...?"

"We need to go to the homes of each of the infected as quickly as possible to cut off their spread. We can't spare time to assist you, but such a tricky mythological creature, its battle power can't be too high. I believe the three of you should be able to clean it up."

"But that will cause a disturbance at the school, and it might expose our connection to the mythological creature."

"Don't worry about that. We have a forbidden object called 'Dream Whisper.' It can create a dreamscape within a certain range and erase people's memories."

He continued, "Also, I'll have Leng Xuan temporarily take over as the Nightwatcher and set up the 'Zone of No Fear' around the school. No one will be able to enter or leave. In the coming time, the school will become an isolated island, cut off from the outside world."

Chen MuYe walked to the window, his eyes scanning the direction where Lin QiYe and the others were.

"In this battle, our enemy is quite formidable. Don't hold back. Don't hide anything. You need to find its real body and kill it in the shortest time possible... At the same time, protect the teachers and students. We can't afford more casualties."

"This time... you can fight with everything you've got!"

Lin QiYe stayed silent for a moment before nodding solemnly.

"I understand."

Lin QiYe cut off the earpiece, and Wu XiangNan, who stood beside Chen MuYe, furrowed his brow and asked, "Isn't this a bit too much for him? For his first mission to encounter something so serious..."

"XiangNan, this kid is different from you and me." Chen MuYe shook his head slightly. "He has potential, temperament, and resilience. All we need to do is give him a clear path and a wide stage."

He added, "He will rise on his own."

In the Girls' Dormitory at the School.

Hong Ying cautiously peered out from the window, scanning the surroundings. She then waved her hand behind her.

"Come on, the dormitory auntie's not here!"

Si XiaoNan quickly ran in and nimbly jumped over the dormitory gate, slipping behind the duty room.

Hong Ying followed suit. The two of them sneaked past the duty room and made their way upstairs, climbing three steps at a time with great agility!

In no time, they arrived on the fifth floor.

After the flag-raising ceremony, all the students had gone back to their classrooms for the next period. The dormitory building was eerily quiet. The doors on both sides were locked, the narrow corridor dimly lit by a beam of sunlight from the front terrace.

Hong Ying cautiously pressed against the wall, using the faint light to survey the floor.

"Lin QiYe said which room those infected girls were in?" Hong Ying whispered.

"The second-to-last one on the north side," Si XiaoNan replied.

Hong Ying looked toward the northern dormitory and silently moved in that direction. Si XiaoNan tightly held onto her shirt, fear flickering in her eyes.

"Hong Ying, slow down a little."

"I know, I know. You're not afraid of monsters but you're scared of the dark?" Hong Ying replied helplessly.

The two of them slowly approached the dormitory door. Hong Ying used a fine needle to pick the lock, and the door creaked open...

Just as Hong Ying had expected, the dormitory was empty.

The two of them entered and quickly began searching.

"Eh, the school's dorms are pretty nice... this balcony is quite big." Hong Ying walked out onto the balcony, marveling.

Suddenly, her eyes widened, and her pupils contracted sharply.

On the drying rack in the dormitory, besides the pink clothes and underwear hanging in the wind...

There were four thin human skins...

Swaying in the breeze.