Chapter 92: Asking the Bixian Again

The rare smile that appeared on Senior Sister Mo’s face was so beautiful and alluring.
Her usual serious and cold demeanor made her smile all the more precious.

“Bring Yi Zhiqiu the information he needs?”
“But what he wants to know is mainly the whereabouts of the Safety Consultant from four years ago.”
“You just said that no one knows,” I said.

“Correct, no person should know now.”
“But something that isn’t a person might not be so ignorant,” Mo Qingyan said.

“Senior Sister Mo, are you saying… we have to ask the Bixian again?” Xiao Qing reacted faster than I did.
In this school, the only ones who would have witnessed the events of four years ago were those resentful spirits.

“The Department Head is as direct as ever.”
“If you don’t know something, just ask the Bixian,” Xu Shan laughed.

“Right now, only those resentful spirits might know.”
“Xia Yubing, you come with me to summon the Bixian.”
“The rest of you stay here,” Mo Qingyan said, standing up.

“Wait a minute, Senior Sister Mo, why does Sister Xia have to go with you again?”
“I can also participate in summoning the Bixian,” Xiao Qing asked.
It seemed that before I came, she and Mo Qingyan often summoned the Bixian together.

“This time, Xia Yubing needs to ask the questions.”
“And her physique is more suitable for summoning the Bixian,” Mo Qingyan replied.
Without a doubt, she already knew that my physique was the Hidden Yin Physique, which attracted spirits and ghosts, which was why she specifically asked me to summon the Bixian with her.

Xiao Qing had no choice but to stay behind.
Mo Qingyan and I went to that secluded corridor in the club building.
Previously, when Xiao Qing and I came here, we needed to use the funeral couplet to open the door.
But Mo Qingyan didn’t need such a troublesome procedure.
She simply took out her red pencil, drew a simple, graffiti-like doorframe, pushed the door open, and went in.

We were back in the true Supernatural Events Department, in front of that table for summoning spirits.
I had never thought that I would come to voluntarily summon the Bixian when I wasn’t under any threat.

Just like before, there was a white piece of paper with “Yes,” “No,” and the numbers zero to nine written on it.
Mo Qingyan and I sat opposite each other, both holding the red pencil.
Then, she began to silently chant the previous incantation, “Bixian, Bixian, I am your present life, you are my past life.”
“If our connection is to be renewed, please appear quickly.”

A sinister wind blew again.
I saw a female ghost, hanging in mid-air, appear behind Mo Qingyan.
It was the same girl who had been bullied by her classmates and had hanged herself six years ago.
But now, this female ghost was covered in bloodstains and had even lost an arm.
She looked even more wretched than after her fight with the Painted Skin Ghost.

I was so surprised that I wanted to ask her what had happened, but then I remembered the taboo Mo Qingyan had warned me about: do not ask about the Bixian’s private affairs.
So, I refrained from asking.

At the same time, I remembered that Yi Zhiqiu was investigating the hanging ghost, and his words about this school’s “deep waters” and the strength of the hanging ghost.
Coupled with Yi Zhiqiu’s pale and haggard appearance this morning, could it be that they had fought last night?

However, I knew the level of that hanging ghost.
She, the human-pillar man, and the Yellow Great Immortal combined couldn’t defeat the Painted Skin Ghost.
And the Painted Skin Ghost was effortlessly killed by Yi Zhiqiu.
The Painted Skin Ghost was at a level where Yi Zhiqiu could kill it with ease.

How could a resentful spirit, at the level of a Jibakurei,¹ fight Yi Zhiqiu to a standstill?
Although it seemed she had suffered more, Yi Zhiqiu had also said that the hanging ghost was very strong.
To earn such a comment from him must mean she wasn’t simple.

At this moment, another translucent shadow appeared beside her.
It was also a girl with a familiar figure, but her head was broken and bleeding, her face covered in blood.
Brain matter was even seeping out of her cracked skull, and her limbs were twisted at unnatural angles, as if they were broken.

This was a new Bixian, but it should also be a ghost I had seen before, perhaps even the very first one I saw.
The girl who committed suicide by jumping off the building because of a broken heart.
It’s just that when I saw her that night, her appearance was nowhere near as terrifying as it was now.

Both Bixian had arrived.
Mo Qingyan nodded and began to ask, “Bixian, Bixian, the inner world of the school building has been severely damaged.”
“Did someone break into the ghostly domain last night and a battle occurred?”

I had thought Mo Qingyan only wanted to help me find out what happened to the Safety Consultant from years ago, and that’s why she came to summon the Bixian.
It seems that wasn’t the case.
She had her own questions to ask and had just brought me along.

And Mo Qingyan had also deduced from other clues that a battle might have occurred within the school last night.

The blood-covered hanging ghost stretched out her only remaining hand, pulled the red pencil, and drew it towards “Yes.”

It was my turn to ask.
Mo Qingyan looked at me and said, “Help me confirm who did it.”

I already had half an answer in my mind, so I asked, “Was it the new Safety Consultant?”

The cold fingers dragged the pencil again, moving it one more space towards “Yes.”

“He fought with you?” Mo Qingyan asked.
She had also seen the wounds on the hanging ghost.
Naturally, the pencil still moved towards “Yes.”

“What was the result?” This time it was my turn to ask.
The hanging ghost was silent for a moment, while the female ghost who had jumped to her death reached out her hand for the first time and placed it on mine.

Her hand was equally cold, and it felt like it was covered in fine sand, as if it had been smeared with dirt.
There was also sticky, wet blood.
The feeling on the back of my hand was extremely uncomfortable.
She wrote in neat handwriting, “We forced him to retreat.”

Retreated.
Yi Zhiqiu was actually forced to retreat by the ghosts in this school.
Although the hanging ghost looked seriously injured, and according to Senior Sister Mo, a large part of the inner world had been destroyed.

Thinking back to the first night I saw a ghost, I had struggled to even walk in the school’s ghostly domain.
I was scared to death just seeing one ghost, and I almost couldn’t get out of a ghost wall.
Yi Zhiqiu had dared to break into the inner world and wreak havoc on his very first day.
He was truly a ruthless person.

Looking at the hanging ghost’s injuries, it was clear she was not lightly wounded.
And since it was a group of ghosts attacking together, the injured ghosts were definitely not limited to just this one.
It was even possible that other ghosts had already had their souls scattered.

Mo Qingyan’s questions had been answered for the time being.
Next were the questions I needed to ask.
It was Mo Qingyan’s turn to ask, “Four years ago, there was a Safety Consultant at the school, do you know of him?”

The pencil circled “Yes.”
As expected, for these female ghosts who had died at least six years ago, they had seen the former Safety Consultant.

“He mysteriously disappeared in the school.”
“Did something happen?” I asked.
The red pencil slowly wrote a shocking word: “Dead.”

He was already dead.
This did not surprise me.
After all, he had been missing for four years.
I was more interested in knowing the cause of his death, or how he had disappeared.

“Was he murdered by someone?” Mo Qingyan asked, getting straight to the point.
But next, the two female ghosts started pulling the pencil against each other, one pulling towards “Yes,” and the other towards “No.”

Why did the two female ghosts have different opinions?
Who was telling the truth?
While I was still hesitating, Mo Qingyan said to me, “Ask them if he was killed by a person and a ghost together.”

Footnotes:
¹ Jibakurei : A Japanese term for a ghost that is bound to a specific location, often the place of its death. The term is sometimes used in Chinese contexts that borrow from Japanese pop culture.