Chapter 158

Yang Yixie's mood was not good; even discovering a purple-quality plot item only lifted his spirits for a moment.

Real-world worries constantly plagued him, so he could only force himself to focus more on the game, briefly escaping reality.

As soon as his stamina fully recovered, he immediately had Ying Duo get out of bed.

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Before the first ray of dawn even arrived, Ying Duo's all stats had already fully recovered.

He slowly opened his eyes; his golden eyes in the dim dormitory resembled two faint will-o'-the-wisps, showing no trace of post-sleep daze.

Accompanied by a standard sit-up, Ying Duo rose to his feet.

On the beds to his left and right, Qi Hengyu and Shen Zexi remained immersed in sleep.

Shen Zexi lay on his side, breathing evenly, but Qi Hengyu slept restlessly, brows furrowed, forehead even beading with cold sweat, as if tormented by a nightmare.

It even triggered a plot event?

Ying Duo's goal has always been clear.

He drifted like a weightless wraith, silently hovering beside Qi Hengyu's bed.

Then he stood upright there, head bowed, looking down at the figure on the bed, reaching out to try to shake Qi Hengyu awake.

In Qi Hengyu's chaotic dream, he seemed to return to that long-blurred childhood.

His gentle, kind mother and upright, brave father made the Qi family at that time a true Ancient Martial Family; although the rise of Special Ability Practitioners caused the ancient martial arts to decline, they still had a place to settle in Tianmian City.

Sometime ago, his father came home less and less, and his mother's face grew ever more filled with worry.

One day, they sent him to the Martial Arts Hall, and he never returned.

Then the man who claimed to be his brother drove him out, inheriting the family yet shutting down its sole Martial Arts Hall.

After that, Qi Hengyu drifted for a long time, wandering into the Slum, where an elder of the Fourth District took him in.

It seemed that from then on, his life finally had a glimmer of hope......

Is that really the case?

The Slum was dim and oppressive, but the most terrifying thing was a faceless monster emitting an eerie Ying Guang Lu glow, relentlessly hunting him.

No matter how fast he ran, that green hue clung like a shadow, drawing ever closer......

Ever closer......

That icy hand full of malice seemed about to rest on his shoulder......

Qi Hengyu shuddered violently, snapping his eyes open; before his vision could adjust, his peripheral vision caught the Ying Guang Lu nearby and an icy hand reaching from the netherworld, landing on his shoulder.

"Ghost!!!!!!"

A blood‑curdling scream rang out, slightly cracked, echoing in the cramped dormitory with great effect.

Qi Hengyu almost reflexively sprang up like a startled giant shrimp; Ying Duo's hand instinctively withdrew, and then he saw Qi Hengyu "whoosh"—he flung himself entirely, head and feet, tightly into the blanket.

All that remained was a Quilt Roll trembling on the bed.

On the opposite bed, Shen Zexi was jolted awake by that blood‑curdling scream, his heart stopping for an instant.

He sprang up to survey the surroundings, instantly spotting Ying Duo standing by Qi Hengyu's bed with his hand frozen mid‑air, and the Quilt Roll curled up on the bed, still trembling.

Combined with that earlier scream that had shattered vocal limits.

In a flash, countless images flickered through Shen Zexi's mind; normally Qi Hengyu was obsessed with Old World martial‑arts novels and comics, yet whenever topics of gods and ghosts arose, he would quietly avoid them......

He seemed to have understood something.

Qi Hengyu fears ghosts!

This discovery did not stir any "roommate camaraderie" in Shen Zexi; instead of immediately comforting or blaming Ying Duo, he curled his finger, fingertips cracking with a soft "zi‑pa" as a tiny but highly visible blue electric spark leapt in the dim light.

Yellow Lightning Chains were too familiar to Qi Hengyu, likely unable to frighten him, so Shen Zexi thought he'd better change the effect.

However, Shen Zexi underestimated just how terrified Qi Hengyu was at that moment.

Inside the blanket, Qi Hengyu's mind was completely overwritten by the notion "there's a ghost beside the bed"; then he felt a dampness and heard faint Lightning Chains crackle near his ear.

That sound was no longer Lightning Chains; it was the snapping of the string named "reason" in his brain, breaking completely at this moment.

"Damn it! I'm going all‑out against you!"

All that could be heard was a muffled roar from within the blanket; the next second, the tightly wrapped blanket exploded outward.

Qi Hengyu didn't even look; with eyes shut tight, he relied purely on sensation and brute force, throwing a punch at the most conspicuous Ying Guang Lu mass beside the bed.

"Bang!"

This punch landed solidly; in his extreme terror, Qi Hengyu unleashed strength far beyond his usual level, and because he was so close that Yang Yixie had no time to react, it struck Ying Duo squarely in the chest.

Yang Yixie never expected this; Qi Hengyu's Blood Bar hadn't even lit up, yet Ying Duo was blown away by the tremendous force, flying straight to the opposite side of the room.

Fortunately, Shen Zexi sensed the danger the instant Qi Hengyu exploded; though he couldn't stop it, since Ying Duo was flying toward him, he managed to barely catch him before he slammed hard into the wall.

"Ying Duo!"

Shen Zexi's voice carried a rare tension.

He lowered his gaze to Ying Duo, only to see him spit a mouthful of bright red blood onto Shen Zexi's bed, which looked especially glaring against the Ying Guang Lu glow.

The culprit, Qi Hengyu, after throwing that punch, didn't even glance at the result; he leapt barefoot from the bed, not bothering to put on his shoes, and with a "clang" flung open the dorm door, sprinting down the hallway and vanishing in an instant.

Ah, this familiar scene.

The Ying Duo caught by Shen Zexi wiped the blood from his lips with an expressionless hand; his visible Blood Bar dropped noticeably by about one‑third.

He appeared unfazed, yet he began to think about something else.

Do all the NPCs in here like to flee at crucial moments—Shen Zexi does, Qi Hengyu does—is this the NPCs' underlying code?

Is he really that unwilling to go for a morning run with him?

Otherwise, next time he could place a mine at the doorway ahead of time to intercept him.

Otherwise, each time he looks for an NPC he wastes a lot of time.

"Ying Duo, how are you? I'll take you to the infirmary!"

Shen Zexi looked at the blood at Ying Duo's mouth corner, feeling full of guilt; if it hadn't been him adding fuel to the fire just now, Qi Hengyu's reaction might not have been so intense.