Zhang Xianyu didn’t enter immediately.
The red moss gave him a very bad feeling.
For someone to suddenly appear in such a dangerous place—it was hard not to be suspicious.
But there’s always a chance—what if the missing student had really been lured in by some ghost?
He couldn’t just ignore it.
“Are you a student from Jiangcheng University?”
Zhang Xianyu thought for a moment and decided to probe first.
The girl inside was startled by his voice.
She shrank her shoulders and looked up.
Her eyes still held residual fear.
“Are you…human or ghost?”
“I’m a freshman. Which college are you from?”
Zhang Xianyu replied.
“College of Literature,” the girl looked at him warily, weighing whether he was telling the truth.
“Is Dean Zhang Meng still there at the Literature College?” he asked casually.
“It’s Zhao Meng,” her eyes lit up a little, as if she saw some hope.
“You’re really from our school? Were you also dragged in by those…things?”
Zhang Xianyu shook his head gently.
“Come out first. I’ll take you back.”
The girl hesitated for a moment, then slowly crawled out.
Zhang Xianyu noticed her right ankle was badly swollen.
She could barely walk—running was out of the question.
No wonder she could only hide here and cry.
“My name is Wang Yi,” she said, glancing fearfully around.
“Didn’t you run into those…monsters? It’s not safe here.”
“No, I didn’t.”
Zhang Xianyu looked at her gently.
“Can you walk? Do you want me to carry you?”
Wang Yi looked embarrassed.
“Just help me. I can still walk.”
“Alright.”
Zhang Xianyu helped her, and the two of them started retracing his steps back.
Behind them, faint rustling sounds and water droplets echoed.
Zhang Xianyu didn’t look back.
He kept speaking gently to calm her down.
“How did you end up here alone? It’s really dangerous.”
“I don’t know. I just woke up here.”
Wang Yi’s body trembled as if recalling something terrifying.
“I woke up in a red pool…surrounded by monsters…I was so scared I pretended to be asleep, then ran off through a side tunnel when they left.”
Woke up in an air-raid shelter…
Zhang Xianyu recalled Zheng Pang’s sleepwalking symptoms.
So these ghost shadows weren’t targeting just one person.
“Do you remember where the red pool was?” he asked.
Wang Yi shook her head, not wanting to talk about it.
Her voice choked with tears.
“It was in a big cave…red moss everywhere…I was too scared…that’s all I remember…”
Seeing he couldn’t get more, Zhang Xianyu changed the subject.
Looking at her pale face, he said blandly,
“Your eyesight’s pretty good.”
Wang Yi froze.
Her tear-filled eyes looked confused.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean…”
Zhang Xianyu’s hand gently moved to the back of her neck,
“Your acting is terrible.”
Wang Yi’s expression changed, trying to pull away.
But Zhang Xianyu was faster, grabbing her neck and releasing a thunder charm.
A jolt of electricity surged through her, and she collapsed limply to the ground.
The sweet facade dropped.
Wang Yi’s face twisted with rage.
“How did you know?”
Zhang Xianyu shook his head but didn’t answer.
The air-raid shelter was pitch-black—normal humans couldn’t see a thing.
How did a “regular student” manage just fine?
“Where’s that red pool?” he asked again, lifting her off the ground.
Clearly, some spirit had possessed Wang Yi.
The soul fused so seamlessly with the body that there were no visible signs—only that it stayed too long and revealed a flaw.
Otherwise, it’d be nearly impossible to detect.
But where was the real Wang Yi’s soul?
There were rumors that a couple on campus had also started acting strangely—
Zhang Xianyu suspected they too were possessed after entering the shelter.
Wang Yi, now exposed, said nothing.
She had only just merged with the body and was still weak.
She was hoping to stall—he probably wouldn’t hurt the host body, right?
But Zhang Xianyu didn’t have her patience.
“Where’s the pool?”
She was about to retort when a jolt of electricity surged through her again, pain searing even her spirit.
Zhang Xianyu’s voice turned cold: “No more tricks, or I’ll fry you.”
Wang Yi’s body stiffened.
At the same time, the sound of rustling approached.
She shouted with hatred,
“Kill him!”
In the passage behind them, humanoid monsters gathered.
Their eyes glowed green, and yellow liquid dripped from their mouths.
“So you’re some kind of middle-manager?”
Zhang Xianyu noted the creatures obeying her.
He calmly pulled out a stack of talismans and shoved two into her mouth.
“These are golden-light talismans. They purify all evil. Won’t hurt Wang Yi’s body, but for you… well, who knows. I haven’t tested them. But they should work well.”
Wang Yi’s face turned green as the talismans were swallowed.
Her insides ignited with burning pain.
She screamed and writhed on the ground, forgetting all about the monsters.
Too many monsters were coming.
Zhang Xianyu tossed a handful of Five Thunder Talismans, picked Wang Yi up, and bolted the other way.
The explosion sent red moss flying and blew a hole in the tunnel wall.
“Good thing it didn’t collapse,” he muttered.
Underground fights were tricky—too much noise, and you risk a cave-in.
Wang Yi watched helplessly as her summoned monsters were annihilated.
“Who are you?” she hissed.
“Prisoners don’t get to ask questions,”
Zhang Xianyu replied,
“Now—where’s the pool?”
Wang Yi’s face twisted.
After a long pause, she finally gave in and pointed left.
“That way.”
“Much better,”
Zhang Xianyu nodded, stuffing two more golden talismans into her mouth.
Wang Yi: …
Zhang Xianyu followed her directions.
Wang Yi wasn’t easy to deal with and tried to attack him along the way.
Her status seemed higher than he expected—most monsters listened to her.
But Zhang Xianyu was prepared.
He killed everything that came.
Wang Yi paid the price—he stuffed her with nearly all the talismans he had.
If the real Wang Yi ever regained control, she’d probably suffer stomach issues for days.
Now near death, Wang Yi stared at Zhang Xianyu in shock.
His pouch seemed endless—more talismans than she had ever seen.
Her original plan was solid—just entered the body, was weak, but with enough monster waves, she could wear him down.
Then once out, she’d feed on yin energy and regain her full strength—nothing could stop her.
But plans don’t survive reality.
She meant to catch an intruder for a snack, but instead ran into a deadly trap.
After seeing all his tricks, she didn’t dare act up anymore.
She only hoped that someone stronger in the center of the shelter could deal with him.
Zhang Xianyu continued observing.
The red moss here was thicker but lacked the gooey secretion of earlier sections.
It felt more like walking on a carpet—actually not unpleasant once you got used to it.
As they reached the innermost part, no more monsters were in sight, but the ghostly energy was thicker.
This was no place for low-level minions.
Just then, a loud explosion came from another tunnel.
The ground trembled.
Clumps of moss fell from the ceiling.
Wang Yi’s face changed, then returned to calm.
But Zhang Xianyu noticed her flicker of fear.
“Infighting?” he asked.
“Or someone else came in?”
“I don’t know,” she said, but looked uneasy.
Amid the expanding ghostly aura, a foreign presence stirred.
It didn’t belong to any of her allies.
The aura was still immature—but it was domineering and powerful.
Of course, if there was only this one person, she wouldn’t be afraid.
At worst, it would be a mutual-destruction situation—both sides perishing together.
But she covertly glanced at Zhang Xianyu.
If the two people currently here joined forces, her odds of winning would be slim.
“The corpse-breeding pool is that way,”
Wang Yi said expressionlessly, pointing in the opposite direction.
“You’re not going to help them?”
hang Xianyu rubbed his chin, looking at her with probing eyes.
Whoever was in conflict now must be her ally.
Whether it was internal strife or an external enemy, she shouldn’t be this indifferent.
It almost seemed like…she didn’t want him to go there.
“Let’s go take a look then. Maybe we can lend a hand.”
Since she didn’t want him going, he became even more determined to do so.
With an easy expression, Zhang Xianyu grabbed her by the collar and headed toward the source of the noise.
Wang Yi: …
The battle on this side was intense.
Zhang Xianyu walked only a short distance before noticing traces of fierce combat everywhere.
The narrow tunnel was filled with monster corpses.
He even spotted a soul-summoning banner, the kind used by Taoist priests.
Raising an eyebrow, Zhang Xianyu smiled.
“So it’s not infighting.”
The banner still held spiritual energy.
He bent down to pick it up, planning to use it himself.
But as he lifted it, he noticed that it had been covering a face—a very handsome face that gave him a faint sense of familiarity.
“The monsters in the central zone are this good-looking?”
Zhang Xianyu muttered in confusion.
He had seen so many grotesque monsters that this sudden appearance of a handsome one threw him off.
He pushed aside the moss around the man.
As he did, a white shirt came into view.
“Not a monster?”
Zhang Xianyu quickened his pace and unearthed the man, who was completely buried under red moss.
His eyes were closed, and he was motionless.
Zhang Xianyu reached under his nose—no breath.
Seeing the soul-summoning banner here, he guessed that this man had come with the banner’s owner and something must have gone wrong.
He propped the man against the wall and used the banner to re-establish a protective barrier.
Then he crouched and examined the man’s face closely—and finally remembered where he’d seen him before.
When Zhang Xianyu had first arrived in Jiangcheng, he had captured a Wutong spirit, and back then, a yellow-robed Taoist had brought this man along with a young Taoist.
So that’s it.
This man was probably a cultivator too, who had entered with that young Taoist to deal with the monsters here.
Zhang Xianyu tilted his head, listening for the sounds of battle in the distance.
He was ready to go help.
He had taken a few steps when he suddenly stopped and turned back, staring at that handsome face again.
The more he looked, the more he thought…
“Why does he look so much like Wu Shui?”