What he said left me a bit stunned—I was at a loss for words. Was this really the same man who had once thrown the entire city of Qilin into chaos?
Yang Xiao took a few casual puffs before flicking the cigarette butt into the night and said, "That's enough. Let's head back—it's going to rain soon."
"Rain?" I looked up at the night sky. There were some clouds covering the stars, but not enough to suggest it was about to pour. "You think this sky says rain? Old Yang, don't tell me you summoned it yourself."
The moment the words left my mouth, a flash of lightning streaked across the sky, followed by a loud crack. Raindrops the size of soybeans began to fall.
It really did start raining. Luckily, I was standing under the eaves. As the rain came pouring down, I turned to look for Yang Xiao, but he had already melted back into the darkness. I called out in his direction, "Old Yang, enjoy the rain all you want—I'm heading back."
"Wait a moment," came Yang Xiao's voice from the shadows. He actually sounded hesitant. "When you go back… be careful of Director Wu."
His words were cryptic and made no sense. I paused, then asked, "What do you mean, Old Yang? Be careful how? What kind of warning is that?"
There was a moment of silence before Yang Xiao slowly replied, "Just remember what I said. Wu Rendi isn't the same as he used to be." With that, he vanished into the darkness for good. I called to him a few more times, but he didn't respond—he had completely blended into the night.
With no answer from him and the rain still coming down hard, there was no point in staying out. I returned to the gymnasium.
When I got back, I saw that the incense in Wu Rendi's hand had burned out. He pulled out another stick and lit it again.
Having been warned by Yang Xiao, I started watching Wu Rendi, casually but carefully. To be honest, he really did seem a little different from before, though I couldn't put my finger on it.
"Lazi, didn't get soaked, did you?" Sun Fatty greeted me with a cheerful grin.
"Nope. I came back as soon as it started," I replied.
Time ticked by slowly, and midnight was approaching. Sun Fatty and I were yawning nonstop. At the other door, Xiong Wanyi and the others had already pulled out mini compasses, flipping and checking them repeatedly. We were flying blind, but at least they had some tools to help them out.
Finally, the clock struck midnight. Over a thousand female students were already fast asleep. Suddenly, a white figure sprang up from a floor mat and bolted toward the main entrance.
She moved so fast that none of us reacted in time. By the time we registered what had happened, the figure was already at the door.
It was Shao Yiyi! Wu Rendi was close behind. What surprised me was how much slower Director Wu seemed than usual—as if he were a few beats behind. By the time he got to the entrance, Shao Yiyi had already flung the door open and dashed into the downpour.
She ran like someone possessed, tearing through the rain. Wu Rendi chased after her, but he couldn't catch up. The rest of us didn't know what was going on, but we still followed. Only Yun Feiyang stayed behind to keep watch inside.
Shao Yiyi burst out of the gymnasium, and the torrential rain had already soaked her to the bone. Wu Rendi was chasing her but falling farther behind with every step. He wiped the rain from his face and shouted into the stormy night, "Yang Xiao! Stop her!"
The moment those words left his mouth, Shao Yiyi suddenly froze, as if some invisible force had tied up her limbs. She'd stopped too abruptly, and her momentum sent her tumbling forward, rolling several meters across the wet ground.
That finally gave Wu Rendi a chance to catch up. I was right behind him and saw that Shao Yiyi's eyes were shut tight. Whether from the cold or something else, her whole body trembled uncontrollably.
Wu Rendi pried open her eyelids, and from where I stood behind him, I saw it clearly—her eyes looked like they were coated in a layer of white wax. Her eyeballs were pale and ghostly, with no trace of irises.
She was spirit-charged.
The symptoms weren't unfamiliar to me. In the Bureau of Paranormal Investigation, this was basic stuff. What was strange was how she'd taken off running like that, like she'd been pumped full of adrenaline—like an Olympic sprinter on steroids.
But her bed had been less than twenty meters from Wu Rendi. If she had been spirit-charged, there was no way Director Wu wouldn't have noticed. Not to mention the rest of us were guarding the door—and Yang Xiao was outside too.
Wu Rendi carried Shao Yiyi under the eaves, shielding her from the rain, and took her pulse. At that moment, a figure flickered in the shadows—Yang Xiao stepped out.
He glanced at Wu Rendi and hesitated before saying, "Let me do it."
Wu Rendi looked up at him, seemed about to say something, but in the end bit his lip and stayed silent. He handed Shao Yiyi over to Yang Xiao.
"Block the wind," Yang Xiao instructed. He pulled a small glass liquor cup from his pocket and pressed it over Shao Yiyi's mouth. Then, with his thumb, he firmly pressed the philtrum beneath her nose.
Shao Yiyi's eyes suddenly flew open—two large, waxy-white eyeballs stared straight at Yang Xiao like ping-pong balls.
Yang Xiao's forefinger moved up to press her brow, and she let out a guttural, animal-like moan. A stream of black vapor spewed from her mouth into the glass cup.
Yang Xiao quickly inverted the cup and slipped it into a small red pouch he carried on him.
Shao Yiyi finally came to. She looked around blankly, her eyes now clear, the whites and irises distinct. She blinked at us and asked in confusion, "How… did I end up out here?"
Yang Xiao had resolved the issue with just a few swift moves. If it had been me, I probably would've needed to douse her in virgin boy's blood or something. In the past, Wu Rendi wouldn't even have needed to lift a finger—he could've expelled the evil spirit from her body just by exhaling.
Thinking of Wu Rendi, I sneaked a glance at him. He was watching Shao Yiyi's reaction as she came to, and while her mind was still a bit muddled, he quietly slipped a jade token into the pocket of her jacket.
Wu Rendi definitely has some kind of connection with Shao Yiyi. My thoughts were wandering, and the more I looked at Director Wu, the more off he seemed. His face and forehead were crisscrossed with streaks of white, like some melted cream had seeped from his hair and was running down his skin. But that wasn't the most bizarre part—if you looked closely, his hair was getting darker by the second.
It wasn't just me. Even Sun Fatty and Xiong Wanyi noticed something was off about Wu Rendi. Xiong nudged Sun Fatty with his elbow, nodding toward Wu Rendi's head. Sun Fatty got the message, ducked his head and let out a fake cough, using the sound to mutter quietly, "Yeah... don't mess with him. Pretend you didn't see anything."
Just as we were about to head back, Yang Xiao suddenly turned beet red and shouted something in a language I didn't understand—sounded like Yunnan dialect—then bolted toward the main gate. Sun Fatty reacted first. His face turned grim. "Damn it, we've been played. Shit." As he spoke, he was already sprinting back into the gym.
Xiong Wanyi ran after him, though he still seemed unsure. "Come on, that can't be right. Feiyang's still in there. If something happened, wouldn't there be some noise?"
Sun Fatty turned back and shot him a glare. "Without the Heavenly Eye, what difference do you think Feiyang has over those girls inside?"
When we got back to the gym, we were completely stunned by the scene before us. At the center of the space, a massive pit nearly ten meters wide had opened up. It was clearly man-made—there were even stairs leading down into it.
All around, female students and faculty were sprawled across the ground like dominoes. Judging by their positions, they were definitely not asleep. A quick headcount told us something even worse—quite a few people were missing.
Yang Xiao found Yun Feiyang among the collapsed crowd. The guy was slumped on the floor, limbs limp. Yang Xiao checked him out, then let out a cold laugh. "Trying to pull this one on me?" Mi Rongheng, who was next to him, asked, "Is Feiyang alright?"
"He's not dead. It's Soul-Loss Syndrome. Someone ripped his soul out." Yang Xiao looked over another unconscious student beside Feiyang, and the diagnosis was the same—their souls had been extracted.
Soul-Loss Syndrome. Extracting souls. That was Yang Xiao's signature move. If he hadn't been right there with us the whole time, I'd have sworn this was his doing.
At the entrance, Wu Rendi came in supporting Shao Yiyi. She took one look at the scene and nearly fainted. Luckily, Wu Rendi steadied her in time.
"What... what happened to them? Lin Sihan! Lin Sihan, where are you?" Shao Yiyi shouted into the sea of bodies.
"Who's she calling for?" I asked.
Xiong Wanyi, behind me, said, "Lazi, Lin Sihan's in Class Three. She's... Yiyi's girlfriend. You get it."
As soon as he said that, the image popped back into my head—that butch girl with a buzz cut kissing Shao Yiyi. "Lin Sihan... 'Si Han'... 'thinking of manliness', huh. Her parents really nailed that name."
Shao Yiyi searched all over but found nothing. In the end, she started heading toward the pit, ready to climb down. Luckily, Yang Xiao was right there. Noticing her intent, he quickly grabbed her back.
Neither Wu Rendi nor Yang Xiao intended to go down immediately. We'd already made arrangements to report the incident to Gao Liang. He could either come himself or send someone else. The Bureau Chief told us to hold our position. Qiu Bulao and Fourth Division Chief Lin Feng were already on their way and expected to arrive around noon tomorrow.
Now Shao Yiyi was sobbing and begging to go down to find her partner. Wu Rendi looked at her, his face darkening. When it looked like she was about to hyperventilate from crying, he clenched his jaw. "Fine. Yang Xiao, you watch things up here. I'll go down and take a look."
Yang Xiao's face turned odd. "Director, given the situation, are you sure you want to go down there yourself?"
Wu Rendi shook his head. "You don't need to say it. You're in charge up here. I'm going." He glanced at Shao Yiyi, then said to Yang Xiao, "Keep an eye on this little girl. Don't let anything happen to her while I'm gone." The way he said it sounded like he was leaving a last will.
Sun Fatty and I were dumbfounded. Was this really the same petty Wu Rendi? The one who wouldn't lift a finger if he didn't feel like it—even if someone was dropping dead right in front of him? Now some girl cries a few times, and he's risking his life?
Just as Wu Rendi started heading down, Yang Xiao suddenly couldn't hold it in anymore and stepped in front of him. "Director, what about what you promised me?"
Wu Rendi glanced at him. "When I come back up... we'll talk."
I saw through it—Wu Rendi was playing Yang Xiao. And damn, for once, he wasn't trying to act cool—he was playing it smart.
Yang Xiao stared at Wu Rendi's retreating back, took a deep breath, then suddenly chuckled. "Alright then, Director. Hold on a second." He turned to us investigators. "We're all going down together."
"We're going too?" Sun Fatty's face turned pale. He'd clearly noticed something was wrong with Wu Rendi—the man wasn't quite himself.
Yang Xiao looked at him. "You don't have to go." But before Sun Fatty could cheer up, he added, "If you stay up here, be extra careful. Something this big went down without a sound? No way one person did all this. Whoever's up here needs to keep their eyes open."
Fatty's expression soured. He turned to me. "Lazi, you stay up—" but before he could finish, Yang Xiao cut him off, "Shen La is going too."
Before I could even say anything, Sun Fatty objected, "Why the hell is he going?"
Yang Xiao gave him a cold smile. "Because the only working gun we have is on Shen La. What do you think he's going down there for?"
Sun Fatty and I both froze. I'd hidden the pistol real well—only the two of us knew about it. How the hell did Yang Xiao find out?
"Lazi, I thought you said your gun was gone too?" Xiong Wanyi asked, his tone not exactly friendly.
"Enough," Yang Xiao interrupted. "Shen La is going down no matter what. Anyone want to stay up here?"
Fatty lowered his head and stayed silent.
Then he suddenly raised his head, realizing something. "Wait! If we all go down, what about Shao Yiyi? We're leaving her up here alone?"
Yang Xiao glanced at Wu Rendi. Seeing no reaction, then glancing at Shao Yiyi who looked ready to leap into the pit, he hesitated, then said, "She's coming too. As long as she stays close to us, she should be fine."
Even he didn't sound too confident saying that. We all understood—we had no clue what was waiting down that pit. And with what we'd seen so far, we'd only been on the losing end. If that fire earlier had sprayed gasoline instead of corpse oil, a single match would've turned us all into ashes.
"Alright, let's go. Maybe it's not as bad as we think down there." Yang Xiao wasn't the team lead, but right now, he was the only one fit to give orders.
Thankfully, because of tonight's "disaster preparedness drill," we were well equipped. Sun Fatty and I grabbed a few flashlights and handed them out. Then, each of us holding a light, we began our descent into the pit, using the staircase carved into its side. With our lights cutting through the dark, we didn't see anything unusual—yet. Step by step, we began to descend into the unknown.