Chapter 8: Don’t See

I had no other options.
I knew nothing about ghost labyrinths, so I could only entrust it to the sole “expert” here, Xiao Qing, to solve.

She rummaged through her backpack and pulled out a bottle of eye drops.
The liquid emitted a faint spiritual glow.
Ou Zhiqin hesitated for a moment, then tilted her head back and dripped the eye drops into each of her eyes.

After applying the eye drops, both of Xiao Qing’s eyes sparkled with a pale blue spiritual light.
This scene once again shattered my worldview.
I couldn’t help but ask, “What are these eye drops you’re using?
Why are your eyes glowing?”

“Glowing?
What glowing?
These are ‘Evil-Seeing Talisman Water’ that I’m dripping.
They allow me to see things for a period that I usually can’t.
Those without Yin-Yang Eyes can only see spirits through similar methods.” Ou Zhiqin explained.

Didn’t she know her eyes were glowing?
Or perhaps it was that talisman water that glowed.
But seeing Xiao Qing intently observing the stairwell, I didn’t press further or interrupt her with more questions.

In reality, what I saw was far more than just her talisman water glowing.
The clothes Xiao Qing was wearing, and the clothes she lent me, both had faint black auras flowing on them.
Wearing them felt somewhat creepy, but I didn’t dare to ask, perhaps she couldn’t see it either.

“I think I’ve found the exit.
Hold my hand, don’t let go.
We should be able to get out this way.” Xiao Qing said, but she was pointing to the corridor on the fourth floor.

Because we were looping in the middle of the fourth floor, the only navigable path was indeed the fourth-floor corridor.
But as I approached, I saw that the corridor was also shrouded in black mist, like a foggy gate blocking us.
Only a small section of the black mist was relatively thin.
Xiao Qing was staring intently at that area, though slightly off, as if still pinpointing the exact spot.

“Is it there?” My hand pointed to the thinnest part of the black mist.
Xiao Qing followed my gaze and exclaimed in surprise, “It really is, right here!
How did you know?”

“I saw a layer of black aura shrouding this area, visible only when you get close, and this spot is where the black aura is weakest.” I answered honestly.
At a time like this, any sight must be shared as intel, otherwise, we might accidentally fall into a trap without knowing.

“You can actually see ominous aura now?
Could it be that some other dirty thing is still attached to you?” Xiao Qing looked at me warily.

A chill immediately ran down my spine.
That’s hard to say.
Putting aside everything else, Xia Yubing’s skin was still draped over me.
And so, these black mists were indeed ominous aura.
I seemed to have been able to see them ever since I woke up after being attacked and falling unconscious.

“Never mind that for now.
Whatever it is, we’ll deal with it once we’re out.
The longer we stay in school, the more dangerous it gets.
We need to hurry.” Xiao Qing pulled my hand and squeezed towards the weak point in the black mist.

Ou Zhiqin was like someone trying to push through a wall of high-density gel; the surrounding black mist constantly pressed against her.
If she couldn’t resist the black mist, she wouldn’t be harmed, but she would find that even after trying to push through the corridor, she would still return to this marked stairwell, re-entering the ghost labyrinth’s loop.

Seeing Xiao Qing struggling so hard to break through, a sudden idea came to me to help her.
So, I used my other hand to give her a hard shove from behind.
Strangely, the black mist instantly dispersed upon contact with my hand.

Losing the obstruction, Xiao Qing and I burst out, losing our balance and falling onto the landing.
I landed directly on top of Xiao Qing and felt the springy cushion from her chest.

“Ugh!
Why did you push me?
We don’t just need to get through the corridor; we need to get through the ghost labyrinth.
Doing that will only send us back to where we started…
Huh?” Xiao Qing complained unhappily while lying on the ground, but when she lifted her head, she froze.

I don’t know if she saw it clearly, but in my eyes, there was no black aura around us anymore.
The solid ominous aura was all gathered in the stairwell behind us, and we had broken through.

“I can’t believe it, you actually pushed me out.
Brother Xiao, how much longer are you going to stay on top of me?” Ou Zhiqin said with effort.

“Sorry, uh, it seems like a new body, the center of gravity is a bit high.” I struggled to get up.
It was supposed to be just a layer of skin, but I felt as if I had changed bodies, my chest heavy.

“Anyway, we’re out of the ghost labyrinth.
Let’s hurry and go down from the other stairwell.” Ou Zhiqin also got up.

To prevent fires or earthquakes, the teaching building had two stairwells on the left and right for emergency escapes.
We had to go through the fourth-floor corridor to reach the other stairwell.

What was normally a corridor that took less than half a minute to walk through, we now traversed with extreme caution, moving very slowly, and each step was very light, for fear of encountering another ghost labyrinth.

But even with such caution, I still encountered something.
As I passed a certain classroom, I looked inside and saw a girl in a school uniform.
She had her back to us, looking out the window.

“Why aren’t you moving?” Ou Zhiqin asked, puzzled, seeing me suddenly stop and look into the classroom.

“No, there’s a girl inside.
Why is she still at school so late?” Halfway through my sentence, I felt something was off.
Why would a female student be in a classroom so late, and with the lights off?

“What girl?
Why don’t I see…
Wait, could it be?” Ou Zhiqin immediately lowered her voice to a whisper.
The spiritual light in her eyes had already dimmed, leaving only a faint trace.

Sure enough, it was a ghost.
The terrifying image of being attacked by the Painted Skin Ghost came to mind, and my body involuntarily shivered.
I hadn’t expected to encounter two ghosts in a single day.

“Shh~ Remember what I just said?
Don’t make too much noise or show a surprised expression.
Don’t stare, and don’t deliberately look away.
Just pretend you don’t see her.” Xiao Qing whispered so softly that I could barely hear her unless I was very close.

I covered my mouth and nodded, indicating that I understood.
However, just then, the girl actually climbed onto the windowsill and took a step forward, jumping directly out of the window.

“Hmm?!” If I hadn’t been covering my mouth, I definitely would have screamed.
Even so, my eyes widened in shock.

“What happened?
I could only see a faint shadow just now.
What did you see?” Ou Zhiqin whispered, the spiritual light in her eyes completely gone.

“I saw her climb onto the windowsill and jump down, huh?!” It was then that I noticed that the windows in this classroom were sealed and had iron bars, making it impossible to jump out.
But the window I had seen just now was empty, allowing one to climb out without obstruction.

“That’s right, it’s said that eight years ago, a girl in this classroom jumped from a building due to a broken heart.
After that, the school installed bars on all windows above the fourth floor.
Thank goodness, she wasn’t coming for us, and with the ‘lifeless powder’ on our clothes, she probably didn’t notice us.” Ou Zhiqin said with relief.

“What’s ‘lifeless powder’?” I asked, confused.
Today was truly an eye-opener.
There were so many things Xiao Qing mentioned that I had never heard of.