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Join the ServerBuilding 13 was located at the deepest part of the campus.
Jiang Xiaoyu followed Xiaoqi past two pitch-black teaching buildings and across a weed-infested wasteland, finally stopping in front of a dingy, seven-story, old-fashioned tube-shaped building.
Even before entering the doors, Jiang Xiaoyu caught a whiff of a certain smell.
It wasn’t the smell of mildew, nor was it the smell of disinfectant; it was the smell of rust—a very, very thick stench of rust, as if something had been soaking in this building for many years, seeping deep into the peeling walls and floorboards.
“This dorm building… has quite a heavy smell,” he said, sniffing the air.
Xiaoqi didn’t reply and simply pushed open the building’s front door.
The lobby was quite small and faced directly toward the stairwell.
The paint on the walls was mottled, and the floor was paved with old-fashioned patterned tiles, their designs long trampled into shattered unrecognizability.
Inside the lobby sat an old desk with an open registry book spread across it, and resting next to it was an enamel teacup filled to the brim with an unknown crimson liquid.
Behind the desk sat a man.
No, it couldn’t be called “sitting”; it should be called “stuffed”—an overly massive body had been forcefully stuffed into a wooden chair.
He was at least three heads taller than a normal person and entirely composed of muscle, the bulging mounds of flesh stretching his tattered gray-blue uniform until it looked ready to burst.
He had his head down, appearing to be dozing off.
His right hand gripped a massive machete, its blade resting on the tabletop.
The flat of the blade was stained with a dark red liquid that was currently dripping down the edge, drop by drop.
Jiang Xiaoyu squinted to get a look. “Cousin, is this guy the dorm manager?”
Xiaoqi gave a soft “Mhm.”
“Hello there, sir, I’m a new student—Jiang Xiaoyu.”
Before he could finish his sentence, the man violently jerked his head up.
His eyes bulged like brass bells, his pupils a muddy, dark yellow.
The skin on his face was as coarse as sandpaper, and when the corners of his mouth stretched open, they revealed two rows of crooked teeth.
His nostrils flared wildly as he sniffed at something in the air.
Then, he locked his gaze onto Jiang Xiaoyu.
That gaze didn’t belong to a human; it was the look of a ferocious beast spotting its prey.
“A living… human…”
A low growl rumbled from his throat as he grabbed the massive machete on the desk, his knuckles popping loudly.
The chair flipped backward onto the ground as his towering frame stood up like a solid wall.
The blood on the machete dripped even faster—drip, drop, drip, drop—pooling into a small puddle of dark red liquid on the floor.
Every muscle in his body was trembling, not out of fear, but from sheer excitement.
He took a step toward Jiang Xiaoyu, then another, the corners of his mouth stretching wider and wider to expose his back molars—teeth that had been ground down into sharp points, resembling a row of jagged sawblades.
Squinting his eyes, Jiang Xiaoyu merely saw a tall security guard standing up, seemingly to welcome him.
Just as he was about to reach out his hand in greeting, Xiaoqi took a step forward.
Just one step.
The dorm manager’s body immediately froze stiff; his muddy yellow eyes snapped toward Xiaoqi, his pupils contracting violently.
He recognized her.
There wasn’t a single soul in all of Huangquan Vocational Institute who didn’t recognize that face.
Just last month, an ignorant A-rank aberration had merely taken one too many glances at Jiang Xiaoqi in the cafeteria, only to be beaten by her until its soul scattered and perished.
The muscular dorm manager let out an unintelligible sound from his mouth, as if he were forcefully swallowing his roar back down his throat.
He took a half-step back, and the machete in his hand unconsciously slid off the desk, its tip plunging into the floorboards.
Yet, his muscles were still trembling—his innate killing instinct toward living humans was currently at war with his terror.
Right at that moment, Jiang Xiaoyu pulled out that glittering golden key and placed it on the desk.
“Sir, the principal sent me here to report in. He said it was the top floor of Building 13. Here is the key.”
The dorm manager’s yellow eyes locked onto the key.
The top floor?
A golden key?
Handed out personally by the principal?
He remembered this key.
In the entirety of Building 13, there was only one room on the top floor, typically reserved for visiting high-tier aberrations.
The last entity to stay there had been an old monster with eight hundred years of cultivation.
And now, this key was actually in the hands of a living human.
His killing intent was extinguished as if a basin of ice water had been dumped over him from head to toe.
His yellow eyes shifted from the key to Jiang Xiaoyu’s face, and then from Jiang Xiaoyu’s face to Jiang Xiaoqi’s.
Then, his body began to shrink at a visible rate—not literally shrinking, but rather him curling into himself, hunching his shoulders inward and tucking his neck away, looking much like a frightened fierce dog wedging itself back into its kennel.
“S-So it’s Young Master Jiang…” His voice had completely transformed, shifting from a low growl to a high-pitched, sycophantic squeak. “The principal… the principal told me you were coming… I just didn’t expect you to arrive so quickly… Please, come in, come right in! I… I… I’ll help you with your luggage—”
“No need, no need. I’ll carry it myself.” Jiang Xiaoyu hoisted his backpack, secretly thinking to himself that the service attitude of the school’s security guards was exceptionally good.
Xiaoqi had already bypassed the dorm manager and was heading toward the stairwell.
Jiang Xiaoyu followed behind her, but as he passed the dorm manager, he suddenly stopped and leaned in to get a closer look at the massive machete still embedded in the floor.
“Sir, using a big machete to guard the door is a little bit creepy. I recommend sticking to a police baton.”
The dorm manager’s mouth twitched.
He opened his mouth, ultimately forcing out a smile that looked uglier than crying.
“Young Master Jiang is absolutely right. I’ll change it right away, heh heh…”
The stairwell was even darker than the corridor, and Jiang Xiaoyu climbed up with unsteady steps, counting the floors as he went.
First floor, second floor, third floor.
At the corner of the third floor, a dormitory door was left ajar. As Jiang Xiaoyu passed by, the door slid open without a sound.
Behind the door stood a shadowy figure whose face was obscured, revealing only a pair of glowing green eyes staring dead straight at him through the crack.
“A living human…” a raspy voice squeezed out from behind the door.
Immediately after, the doors on both sides of the corridor swung open one after another. Behind every door stood silhouettes—some tall, some short, and some as thin as bamboo poles. Their eyes gleamed with various colors in the darkness: green, yellow, dark red, like an eerie row of holiday lights suddenly turning on down the hallway.
Some aberrations swallowed their saliva, some licked their lips, and some let out low guttural rumbles from their throats. A damp, ravenous aura permeated the air, resembling a pack of starving wolves closing in around a lamb.
Jiang Xiaoyu squinted and surveyed his surroundings. What he saw was a bunch of blurry figures poking their heads out of the dorms to look at him, flailing their arms around as if raising their hands to greet him.
“This school is way too hospitable, even coming out specially to welcome new students in the middle of the night.”
He grinned and raised his right hand to wave.
“Hello, classmates! Thank you for your hard work, classmates! It’s so late, yet you made a special trip out of bed to welcome me—you’re far too polite!”
The green and yellow eyes in the corridor froze in unison.
They glanced at one another, the sounds of swallowing saliva pausing for a heartbeat. What was with this living human? Wasn’t he afraid? He was even waving?
“No! No! Something is very wrong! This living human has issues!”
“Are you blind? Look who’s following behind him!”
“Ah, Xiaoqi?!”
“Quick, hide! Don’t look at that death god, two more glances and we’re dead!”
“I’ve just arrived, please take good care of me!” Jiang Xiaoyu shouted, completely unaware of the reality, waving in all directions as he climbed the stairs. “My name is Jiang Xiaoyu, I’m new here. We’ll be classmates from now on. Everyone, hurry back to sleep—don’t stay up late, it’s bad for your health.”
All the aberrations fell dead silent. They watched this squinting boy wave his hand while walking upstairs, with Xiaoqi following behind him expressionlessly, her white dress swaying in the dim stairwell.
She carried no weapons, but on every floor she passed, the temperature in the corridor dropped by several degrees. A few lower-tier vengeful spirits even retreated behind their doors, slamming them shut tightly.
Fourth floor, fifth floor, sixth floor.
At the corner of the sixth floor stood three figures.
No, they weren’t human; they were three aberrations clad in black school uniforms, appearing noticeably taller and more solidified than the other aberrations.
Their eyes were neither green nor yellow, but a deep, dark red. The murderous malice radiating from their bodies was distinctively a whole tier above those downstairs. The leader leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, an ill-intentioned smile playing on his lips.
“Yo, isn’t this Xiaoqi?” His voice carried a mocking tone. “What wind blew you over to our boys’ dorm?”
Xiaoqi did not slow her pace.
The man took a step forward, blocking the stairwell entrance. “Hold up! Xiaoqi, this isn’t your turf, right, boys?”
The other two laughed at the same time, jointly sealing off the stairwell.
Xiaoqi spoke coldly: “Out of the way!”
The leading aberration sneered: “Jiang Xiaoqi, we all know you’re formidable, but no matter how strong you are, you’re just one person. Over here, we have the entire Building 13.”
As the words fell, several doors in the hallway behind him slid open silently, and numerous figures emerged in murky silhouettes.
Hearing this, Jiang Xiaoyu thought things looked bad and immediately stepped forward to shield Xiaoqi.
“Upperclassmen, my cousin is just walking me to my dorm and will leave shortly. For a large group of boys to gang up on a girl isn’t quite proper, is it?”
The three senior aberrations froze in unison. The leader blinked his dark-red eyes and pointed at Xiaoqi: “A girl? You’re calling her a girl?”
Jiang Xiaoyu nodded. “If you have a problem, take it out on me. Don’t make things difficult for my cousin, or don’t blame me for being impolite.”
The air froze solid.
Xiaoqi tilted her head slightly and looked at Jiang Xiaoyu, her eyes brightening in the darkness. It was not the cold glint of a vengeful spirit, but a far more complex, indescribable emotion.
“You’re courting death.” The leading aberration smiled, revealing a mouthful of pointed teeth.
“I—” Before Jiang Xiaoyu could finish his sentence, a chill suddenly surged behind him—not the cold blown from an air conditioner, but a biting freeze that seeped outward from the depths of his marrow, as if he had been abruptly submerged at the bottom of a frozen lake.
Black flames erupted from Xiaoqi’s body, her face flickering between light and shadow under the dark fire. The corners of her mouth curled slightly into a smile.
It was identical to the smile at the school gates, yet entirely different. The smile at the gates was out of curiosity; this smile was that of a predator gazing upon its prey.
The expressions of the three senior aberrations changed simultaneously. The leader took a step back, his back hitting the wall. The other two dodged to the sides, any trace of mockery vanishing from their eyes, replaced by naked terror.
“Jiang Xiaoqi… this is the boys’ dorm!” The leader’s voice pitched wildly out of tune. “You can’t—we have so many people—” He roared down the corridor, “Come out, all of you!”
The corridor was deathly quiet. Those green and yellow eyes that had been stirring with restless hunger moments ago had all retracted back behind the door cracks.
Xiaoqi tilted her head, looking at the leading aberration.
“Where are your people?”
The man’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. He opened his mouth, but before a single syllable could escape, Xiaoqi’s figure vanished from in front of him. When she reappeared, she was already standing behind the three of them.
The three figures dissolved into three wisps of black smoke, without even having the time to let out a shriek.
Silence returned to the corridor, so quiet it was as if nothing had ever happened.
Jiang Xiaoyu had squinted his eyes the entire time, only seeing Xiaoqi take a step forward and then walk back.
“Ah, looks like my cousin was reasoning with those three, and they left. Guess they were persuaded by her. My cousin has such great eloquence.”
“Is it settled?” he asked.
Xiaoqi gave an “Mhm.”
“That’s good then.” Jiang Xiaoyu waved toward the empty corridor, “Take care, upperclassmen! Good night!”
He turned to his cousin and said, “Xiaoqi, walking me to here is enough. It’s not appropriate for a girl to stay in the boys’ dorm for too long; hurry back and rest.”
Xiaoqi did not move.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m staying with you,” she said.
Jiang Xiaoyu was taken aback: “Huh? That’s not appropriate, is it? You’re a girl after all… besides, the dorm manager wouldn’t agree.”
Xiaoqi turned her head, fixing her gaze onto a dark corner beneath the stairs.
“Do you agree?”
Jiang Xiaoyu: “Cousin, who are you talking to?”
The dorm manager revealed his frame from below the stairs, his forehead drenched in cold sweat. His yellow eyes looked at Xiaoqi, then shifted to the key in Jiang Xiaoyu’s hand. He swallowed hard, then straightened his posture, tidied the collar of his uniform, and spoke in an extremely formal tone:
“As the dorm manager, I have always advocated for dormitory reform. After all, co-ed housing is an inevitable trend that helps cultivate a civilized and orderly atmosphere. Furthermore… Building 13 is the most outstanding dorm building in the entire school and ought to take the lead in shouldering the responsibility of being a pilot program. Therefore, I personally fully agree with student Xiaoqi moving into Building 13. Should there be any issues, I will bear full responsibility.”
Having finished this speech, he bowed slightly to the two of them.
After listening, Jiang Xiaoyu scratched his head: “This school’s system is quite progressive; they even have pilot programs for co-ed living.”
Xiaoqi retracted her gaze, and the longsword vanished into her palm. She turned and headed upstairs.
“Let’s go, cousin.”
“I wonder if the dorm is spacious?” Jiang Xiaoyu followed behind. “It’d be inconvenient if it’s too cramped. I’m your cousin, but I’m a guy too; we should avoid improper suspicion when needed.”
“Three bedrooms, one living room.”
“That good? That works then, the largest room goes to you.”
Watching the two disappear around the corner of the stairs one after another, the dorm manager wiped away his sweat and squeezed a sentence out from between his teeth.
“Do I agree… How would I dare disagree…”
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