Energetisch

Kapitel 8

"This is absolutely outrageous!"

"It was you who requested this exchange, so I am speaking to you frankly and honestly. If from the beginning you only wanted me to be subservient, then I might as well pretend to be a good child now. In the end, I am just fulfilling my duty to respect teachers and value education."

Shen Fengxi's counterattack was fiery and fierce. Having been bedridden for days, he was already seething with anger. He was usually the one causing trouble; he'd never been so humiliated before. Teacher Zhao was utterly defeated by Shen Fengxi's sharp tongue, unable to mount a proper retaliation. His anger, unable to be vented through words, raged through his entire body, quickly transforming his face into the image of someone "enraged and ashamed," transitioning from warm to purple.

Shen Fengxi stared at the homeroom teacher without any sympathy. He changed his posture from crossing his arms to letting them hang naturally, a wisp of green smoke appearing in his palms. Teacher Zhao was furious. He had only wanted to talk to this student, but the guy was acting like he'd swallowed a dynamite, showing no respect whatsoever, as if he had some deep-seated grudge.

Teacher Zhao swallowed hard, then roared, "Shen Fengxi, you better think about the consequences!"

"Consequences?" Shen Fengxi sneered, "You won't remember any consequences, you won't remember..."

Teacher Zhao felt as if he were enveloped in a wisp of smoke. Shen Fengxi's words, sharp as a knife, now seemed ethereal and indistinct, like a whisper in a dream. Strangely enough, listening to Shen Fengxi's words, Teacher Zhao suddenly felt his eyelids grow heavy, a sudden and intense drowsiness washing over him, almost making him unable to stand. After struggling for a moment, Teacher Zhao finally couldn't resist, and slumped his eyes shut, instantly falling into a sweet well of sleep. He didn't know how much time had passed when he suddenly awoke, finding someone standing in front of him.

Shen Fengxi

Shen Fengxi nodded, maintaining a mysterious smile.

Teacher Zhao realized she was also standing, and found it strange. She subconsciously touched her chin: "I...I fell asleep."

"No, teacher, you just called me out to talk to me."

"Oh..." Teacher Zhao scratched his head, his mind still a bit foggy. He couldn't remember why he had called this student out for a talk. Finally, he gave up, waved his hand, and said, "Never mind, we'll talk about it next time. Go back to class now."

Shen Fengxi followed Teacher Zhao back to the classroom unharmed, finally venting the anger he had been holding in. Teacher Zhao, walking ahead of him, was completely unaware, only vaguely sensing that something unpleasant had happened, but couldn't quite recall what it was...

"Hey, really, you'll have to attend classes at this school from now on."

Why deliberately provoke the homeroom teacher?

After Ma Ming finished speaking, he picked up a piece of dried bean curd and put it in his mouth, chewing it with a crunching sound.

It was dinner time, so Ma Ming called Shen Fengxi to a small restaurant near the school, ordered a few delicious dishes, and they ate and chatted.

"Who told him to cross his own boundaries?" Shen Fengxi waved his chopsticks in front of the dish, looking rather unappetizing. Although he was a Taoist priest, he preferred KFC, McDonald's, Pizza Hut, and the like to these bland side dishes.

“Hey, hey, this is a human high school, not the African savanna, and you’re not hyenas or jackals.” He tapped the rim of his bowl with his chopsticks. “Also, don’t be picky about food; the vegetables are all bought with money.”

"I don't care... Hmph, anyway, anyone who messes with me will die." Shen Fengxi suddenly poked a piece of fish with his chopsticks. "Besides, he won't remember what I said... Ugh, they even added cilantro, how awful."

Ma Ming shook his head helplessly and continued eating his dried bean curd. Neither of them spoke, each burying their heads in their food. No matter what, filling their stomachs was the first priority—this was their master's teaching. They devoured the food in a flash, and in no time, the table was completely cleaned. Ma Ming asked for a toothpick, broke it in two, gave one end to Feng Xi, and used the other to pick his teeth.

Shen Fengxi picked up the toothpick with two fingers, secretly used a fire spell, and the toothpick was ignited with a "snap" and began to burn. Ma Ming was startled and quickly looked around. Fortunately, the waiters and other diners were busy and no one noticed.

"Let's get down to business." Shen Fengxi flicked the toothpick to extinguish the flame, then slammed it down into the rice bowl, his tone somewhat impatient.

Knowing that his proud junior brother was still upset about being defeated last time, Ma Ming stopped talking and took out a few pages of paper from his pocket.

Do you remember that missing girl?

"Jiang Ye"

"Yes, it's her. I think she's the key to the whole thing. I went to the academic affairs office to investigate, and it turns out she didn't actually disappear, but took leave to go home and asked her family to apply for a leave of absence."

"So, that corpse wasn't her?"

"Hard to say, anyway, that guy has disappeared." Ma Ming shrugged. "By the way, I paid special attention during PE class. The three girls who shared a dorm with Jiang Ye seemed dazed, like they hadn't woken up yet. I tapped their shoulders, and they seemed very weak and slow to react. No wonder the three idiots were so worried."

The "Three Fools"—that's how Ma Ming and Shen Fengxi defined Wu Bing and his group.

“I also noticed a detail. When we were running together, I shouted ‘Don’t look back,’ intending to warn those naughty girls. But the three girls immediately started shaking and could barely stand, as if they had been struck by some kind of spell. It was really strange.”

"Maybe he's just in a bad mood because he's been bothered by the trio of idiots," Shen Fengxi said, looking uninterested.

"There have been too many strange things lately. The school should be shrouded in eerie atmosphere, but it's perfectly fine. Four girls in the dormitory have been mysteriously killed. You've also been attacked twice by unknown sources. If these things were to leak out, they could probably make several ghost story writers famous."

Ma Ming picked up his glass and gulped down a bunch of beer. He waved his hand and said in a mysterious low voice, "And all of this started with the arrival of a certain transfer student."

Upon hearing this, Shen Fengxi's expression immediately turned both embarrassed and annoyed: "Don't be silly, it has nothing to do with me."

"I'm talking about Xiao Gu."

"Well……"

Ma Ming gave Shen Fengxi a knowing look, while the latter picked up his rice bowl and began shoveling rice into his mouth until he couldn't eat anymore. Ma Ming rolled his eyes, deciding he didn't want to see his junior brother die from overeating, so he didn't press the matter further. Once they were both full, Ma Ming patted his stomach, let out a satisfied burp, and his eyes behind his glasses narrowed into slits.

Shen Fengxi hesitated for a moment before asking, "Do we need to meddle in these things? Master's business isn't finished yet, and besides, the school hasn't paid us. Exorcising demons isn't free."

"Hey, you can't say that. Everything is a matter of chance, and these things may not be unrelated to our mission. Besides, subduing demons is the duty of our Taoist sect." Ma Ming routinely shouted out a righteous slogan.

"Senior brother, you are truly a living Lei Feng among Taoists. Come, sign your name here."

"What"

"Remember to list my name as the beneficiary for your accidental death insurance," Shen Fengxi said calmly.

After the two left the restaurant, Ma Ming noticed it was getting late and urged Shen Fengxi to return to the dormitory so he could attend evening self-study. The area around the dormitory was now covered by a hidden but dense network of talismans set up by Ma Ming and Shen Fengxi, preventing low-level spirits like those from last time from getting even a step closer. This was less about protecting the roommates and more about protecting those spirits; if they encountered Shen Fengxi now, they would surely be utterly annihilated by this healthy and vengeful fellow.

As they entered the campus, both of them could clearly feel a gloomy atmosphere hanging over the entire school. Dark clouds rolled in directly above the administration building, as if they might press down and engulf the building at any moment. Only a damaged weathervane still stood upright, its slender support appearing fragile in the face of the dark clouds. It truly lived up to the ancient saying, "Dark clouds press down on the city, threatening to crush it."

"I'm afraid it won't last more than a few days."

"We can hold on for a few more days."

A pessimist and an optimist simultaneously expressed their sentiments.

Ma Ming looked up at the sky for a while, then slowly said, "Tomorrow night, I will organize the girls in the class to go stargazing as an extracurricular activity. All the girls will attend."

"What do you want to say?" Shen Fengxi asked inexplicably.

Ma Ming adjusted his glasses, smiled, and patted Shen Fengxi's shoulder: "And you, junior brother, will have the opportunity to fulfill a lifelong wish of every boy."

"Confessing to a girl you like under the stars? I'm not interested in playing out classic dating sim scenes!"

"No, it was sneaking into the girls' dormitory at night."

A crow cawed as it flew across the sky...

A handsome young man is petrified...

Chapter Five

"Astronomy is the oldest discipline in human history, and its origins can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, more than two thousand years ago. The reason I called you all out so late tonight is because I want to teach you some basic knowledge about observing the night sky."

Physical education teacher Ma Ming smiled and introduced the astronomical telescopes behind him to the girls gathered in front of him. There were only a few faint stars in the dark sky above them. After all, the city is not like the suburbs or mountains, where both light pollution and air pollution are very serious.

The girls huddled together, none of them looking very willing. This time of day should have been their prime time in the dorm—washing clothes, doing homework, chatting, and gossiping—but now it was being taken over by this strange PE teacher. Fortunately, the "teacher's authority" still had some effect, so so far no one had aimed their binoculars at Ma Ming's head or done anything that they all secretly wanted to do. The girls stared blankly at the starry sky, silently praying that this inexplicable activity would end quickly.

"Please follow my gaze. In ancient my country, the ecliptic was divided into twenty-eight constellations, called the 'Twenty-Eight Mansions.' These twenty-eight constellations are further divided into four palaces, called the 'Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise.' You see, the seven mansions of the Eastern Palace are the Azure Dragon. Every year in the second month of the lunar calendar, the Horn Mansion, which is located at the head of the dragon, will appear on the eastern horizon, which is commonly known as 'Dragon Raising its Head'..." The erudite PE teacher enthusiastically pointed to the dark sky and talked on paper, while the girls whispered among themselves: "What Horn Mansion? The name is so corny!" "I thought he was going to talk about the twelve constellations!" "Hey, I heard that Libra's luck is bad this week."

"Let's start our story with the Azure Dragon from among the Twenty-Eight Mansions..."

The girls let out a soft groan, and some of them started to seriously consider whether something intimate should happen between the "heavy astronomical telescope" and "Teacher Ma's back of the head".

At the same time, a boy suddenly appeared in the corridor of the girls' dormitory, several hundred meters away from the playground.

The boy didn't seem to be there to steal anything. He ignored the short, narrow clothes hanging on the clotheslines on both sides, and walked straight ahead with his head down. His handsome face clearly showed his dissatisfaction and reluctance.

At the entrance on the first floor, the dormitory supervisor was fast asleep on the floor. If the yellow talisman on her face wasn't peeled off, she could sleep until the end of the semester.

At this moment, Shen Fengxi was the lonely king of the girls' dormitory.

"He's chatting with a bunch of girls on the playground, while I have to do this tedious work. How awful!"

He muttered to himself as he meticulously examined the room numbers of each dormitory. According to the plan they'd "discussed" yesterday—actually, it was Ma Ming's own initiative—he was to sneak into Jiang Ye's dormitory to see if he could find any clues. Ma Ming believed that the sudden change in the four girls in her dormitory might be the key to resolving this campus crisis.

The girls' dormitory has a simple structure: a staircase in the center, from which two corridors extend to either side. All the rooms are located on the inner side of these corridors, each containing four beds. Jiang Ye's room number is 416, located at the end of the right-hand corridor on the fourth floor. Half of the view from there is blocked by the outer concrete wall, making it appear somewhat dark. A large watermark, its paint peeling off the gray-white wall, spreads out in a peculiar shape.

Shen Fengxi walked to the dormitory door and looked inside through the window. The curtains weren't drawn, and the room was empty. He reached out and pushed the door, only to find it locked. He then took out his necklace from his pocket, skillfully inserted it into the crack in the door, and with a quick flick of his right hand along the chain, the lock clicked open with a snap.

"This is a necessary survival skill, and it has nothing to do with Taoist arts."

Shen Fengxi explained to his heartbroken and wailing master with a blank expression back then.

Shen Fengxi turned on the room light, and the dim yellow light immediately filled the entire room. This girls' dormitory was extremely tidy; the blankets on all four beds were folded meticulously, the sheets were as smooth as new, the desks were empty, and even the cement floor was spotless. However, for some reason, Shen Fengxi felt that something was amiss in the scene before him. He slowly squatted down, frowned, and scanned the surroundings with his sharp eyes. Ten seconds later, he finally discovered the problem—

Generally, even the cleanest bedrooms will leave some traces of daily life. However, this place was too tidy; it didn't look like anyone had ever lived there. The last class in the afternoon ended at 5 p.m., and Ma Ming called them to observe the starry sky at 8 p.m., leaving a three-hour gap. Students usually use this time to eat, do laundry, tidy their rooms, etc. No matter what they do, it's impossible for them to leave no trace, let alone tidy up their rooms again before participating in extracurricular activities.

This can only mean one thing—they never slept in those four beds.

However, according to Ma Ming, they did return to their dormitory on time every day and didn't go anywhere else. Therefore, only one possibility remains—

They slept under the bed every day, like corpses.

Shen Fengxi took a deep breath and bent down. Just thinking about the scene was enough to send chills down his spine. The room was already poorly lit, and the darkness under the beds made them look like four shadowy coffins, appearing particularly eerie in the quiet dormitory building. He channeled some energy into the necklace, and using the faint light emitted by the necklace from his spiritual power, he laboriously crawled onto the floor towards under one of the beds. Fortunately, the floor was clean, so he didn't have to worry about getting his clothes dirty.

There was nothing under the bed except a plastic basin. Shen Fengxi touched it; the bottom was covered in dust, indicating it hadn't been used for some time. He crawled out from under the bed, sighed, and then crawled under another bed, feeling like a weary spider. While desperately suppressing the thought of "I might as well jump up and burn this place down," for some reason, he suddenly remembered the famous quote—"While one person is gazing at the stars, another is slumping in a mud pit."

Under the third bed, Shen Fengxi finally made a discovery: he found a burnt-out candle. It was an ordinary white candle, burned down to just a few centimeters in length. He held the candle close to his flashlight and examined it closely, noticing that the solidified wax was all crooked to one side, forming numerous small bulges, making it look deformed.

This indicates that there was wind in the room, and the wind was strong and lasted long enough to blow the candle into that shape. The question is: where did such a strong wind come from in this room?

Just as Shen Fengxi was about to move his arm to crawl out, suddenly, with a creak, the door was pushed open...

Then came the sound of footsteps entering the room. Shen Fengxi immediately stiffened. He silently extinguished the necklace's light, gripped the candle tightly, and held his breath.

From this angle under the bed, only the person's feet are visible. It's clearly a girl, wearing light green women's sandals and white socks. She walks with her legs stiff and unbent, her feet lightly touching the ground, as if she's putting no effort at all.

Shen Fengxi felt as if his heart was about to burst out of his chest; only one person could walk like this.

Gu Fuchen!

What is she doing here so late? Is she looking for these four girls, or is she deliberately looking for something while they're not around?

Cold sweat began to seep down Shen Fengxi's back. Countless questions swirled in his mind, but none could be answered. He was unsure whether he should immediately crawl out from under the bed or patiently observe how things would unfold. After weighing the options for two seconds, the latter prevailed.

Xiao Gu paced back and forth in the room twice, seemingly searching for something. Finally, her foot stopped in front of the bed where Shen Fengxi was hiding. Shen Fengxi was hunched over under the bed, not daring to move. If something really happened, he wouldn't even be able to defend himself properly.

Just then, he heard a faint "swish" sound, sparse and like fine sand flowing. Shen Fengxi cautiously stretched his neck out a little and saw a few small things fall from the bed onto the floor, emitting a faint glow. In an instant, Shen Fengxi's blood froze, as if he had been doused with a large bottle of liquid nitrogen.

These little things—are grains of rice, five-colored grains of rice, five-colored rice used to summon the Yin Corpse.

That night, in the botanical garden, Ma Ming also found the same thing. At the time, they deduced that it was left behind by the person who summoned the corpse, but they never expected that person to be Xiao Gu, who was attacked.

"hateful……"

Shen Fengxi gritted his teeth, furious. The thought of being completely fooled filled him with extreme displeasure. If it weren't for the last shred of reason holding him back, he would have jumped out of bed and confronted this mysterious woman.

At this moment, Xiao Gu moved to another bed and scattered some five-colored rice on it as usual. After scattering rice on all four beds, she walked to the center of the room. Shen Fengxi could only see her feet and couldn't tell what her upper body was doing.

Suddenly, a low, mournful whistling sound filled the entire room, like a desperate cry thrown from the deepest recesses of the underworld, distant, sharp, and chilling. This sound was no ordinary noise; it was a high-frequency noise that no ordinary human could produce or hear. Had Shen Fengxi not cleansed his ears with talismanic water, he would never have been able to detect it. There were two whistles in total, one high-pitched and intense, the other low-key and steady yet sharp.

Xiao Gu's legs tensed instantly, the lights in the room flickered, and the temperature plummeted. Shen Fengxi clearly saw several blue veins and bloodstains, like wildly growing vines, gradually spiraling upwards from her ankles along her calves. Soon, the girl's fair and translucent legs turned a shocking blackish-red, even emitting a faint stench of decay. The two whistling sounds grew louder, colliding with each other as if engaged in a fierce debate, the enormous noises piercing through Shen Fengxi's eardrums and directly striking his brain nerves.