Chapter 531: Secret Base

After physical education class ended.

Wu Xian returned to the teaching building alone.

He couldn’t waste his lunch break—he planned to use this time for something.

Most students avoided the teaching building, so it might be empty except for Wu Xian.

The narrow corridor was deserted, the floor spotless, tiles gleaming from recent polishing; the small windows let in dim light, yet the place still felt dark.

During class, with so many people, it felt normal—but now, with only Wu Xian, it seemed eerie.

Wu Xian walked up to the second floor.

Suddenly, he spun around to look behind him.

A moment ago, something had brushed past him—but when he turned to look closely, he saw nothing.

“Was it an illusion?”

“I’ve eaten nothing but vegetarian meals for two days straight; my vision’s already dimmed. Those strange ingredients might contain hallucinogens.”

Wu Xian shook his head and kept walking, stopping at the second-floor restroom, his hands and feet slightly chilled.

“Looks like it wasn’t an illusion…”

The white tiles of the second-floor restroom floor were pristine, the water stains still wet…

Water stains meant the floor had just been cleaned! But the restroom and stairs were on opposite sides of the floor—he’d walked from the other end, so if a cleaner had passed through, he would’ve seen them! Considering how long it took for water to dry, Wu Xian concluded the thing that brushed past him was the cleaner who’d just finished cleaning the second-floor restroom! In other words:

The cleaning staff in the teaching building were invisible! If students couldn’t see the cleaners, they might also not see the security guards, students from other grades, the principal, or the teachers…

This empty teaching building might be far more crowded than he imagined. Wu Xian swallowed.

He shook his head, setting aside his doubts for now.

He hadn’t come here to investigate these invisible things—he was here for what was inside the restroom. As long as those invisible things didn’t interfere, he had no intention of wasting time investigating them.

The student rules contained no regulations about restrooms.

But both natives and newcomers all believed the farthest stall, tightly shut, was problematic.

The reason was simple.

Whether in the real world or this blessed land, horror stories about restroom stalls were countless.

So after learning the training center was haunted, everyone assumed the farthest stall must be haunted too—and so far, not a single farthest stall had ever been opened.

Therefore:

Wu Xian planned to use his lunch break to disturb the nap of whatever lay inside the stall.

He stood at the door, thought for a moment, then acted.

First, he wrapped Blood Needle Silk around his fist, walked to the sink, and punched the mirror in front of it.

Crack!

The mirror shattered; Wu Xian pried off three long shards, one still clinging with adhesive on its back.

After securing the mirror shards, Wu Xian observed briefly, confirmed no unusual sounds came from the restroom, then proceeded.

He hurried to the farthest stall, slipped a playing card into the crack of its door, and fled like a shadow.

After these actions:

Wu Xian sensed the restroom’s atmosphere had turned strange—the air now carried a faint scent of blood.

A little while later:

Wu Xian hid behind the door, observing through the mirror shard, and activated Ghost Touch.

A pale ghostly hand extended from the stall’s crack, gripping the doorknob—the stall was only closed, not locked, so a slight tug would open the door.

Creak…

The restroom door opened; the scent of blood surged violently.

“Hate… I hate…” A woman’s voice, thick with resentment, echoed from within—a woman with disheveled hair, clad in red, her limbs drenched in blood, crawled out from the farthest stall.

Wherever she touched, crimson threads spread outward.

But though the door was open,

no one was inside the restroom.

The red-clad ghost lay on the floor, lifted her head, revealing a cold face streaked with dried blood, her eyes twisting unnaturally—then fixed on the restroom entrance.

From beside the entrance, a shard of mirror suddenly protruded! Someone outside was spying through the mirror—the one who opened the door! Spotting her target, the ghost crouched low, crawled on all fours, and just as she began to move outward, her form vanished in a flash of blood, reappearing in the corridor.

One hand gripped the mirror shard, the other pressed against the wall beside the restroom door.

But the red-clad ghost grabbed nothing.

There was no one beside the restroom door—the mirror shard was merely stuck together and barely clinging to the wall.

The red-clad ghost spun in place, her eyes darting everywhere, yet found no trace of anyone—so she crawled back, dripping blood, into her stall, and shut the door.

…

At the end of the second-floor corridor:

Wu Xian retrieved the mirror shards.

He’d taken three shards: one to observe, the other two to lure the restroom’s evil into the corridor, so he could see its true form from the safest, farthest position.

All his effort was just to see her.

Before he could reliably worship the gods, Wu Xian didn’t want to waste his trump cards on evils.

“Hmm…”

“Found quite a bit.”

“The evil in the restroom is a red-clad ghost—she looks exactly like the red-clad ghost trapped yesterday in Blood Needle Silk by the Character ‘Chang’.”

“That means every restroom probably has an identical red-clad ghost.”

“Opening the final door triggers an attack; lingering too long in the restroom likely triggers one too—the increasingly thick blood smell proves it.”

“I wasn’t attacked in the third-floor restroom because the red-clad ghost there was already dealt with by Ghost-‘Chang’—she’s now inside my Blood Needle Silk…”

“Also, one more thing is certain: minor damage to the training center’s facilities won’t provoke attacks from evils and cause unnecessary trouble.”

Realizing this,

Wu Xian went to the third-floor restroom, entered the language classroom, found the best-looking desk, and carried it to the third-floor restroom.

Creak!

Wu Xian pulled open the farthest stall’s door—it was indeed empty, but the toilet bowl, walls, and tiles were covered in deep scratches and black-red bloodstains, radiating a thick stench of blood.

It was easy to imagine the horrific events that had occurred here.

Wu Xian thought for a moment, then tore a curtain from the language classroom, dipped it in water at the sink, and wiped the bloodstains from the farthest stall—just enough to make it passable.

After wiping, he didn’t wash the curtain or return it—he hung the blood-soaked curtain over the restroom window, making the place even more sinister.

Then he moved the desk into the stall, secured it, climbed onto it, shut the door, assumed the Five Points Facing Heaven posture, and began meditating.

Human students, affected by two straight days of cold air, believed this restroom concealed danger.

The evil within had already been dealt with by Ghost Mastery—this place was, in truth, perfectly safe.

In other words:

Whether from evils or humans, the chance of anyone coming here was minimal—Wu Xian could meditate here freely, without fear of disturbance.

From now on:

This would be Wu Xian’s secret base in the teaching building! (End of Chapter)