Chapter 322: Senior, Save Me!

As Du Sixian drove back to the town, night had completely fallen before she had gone far.

The route from Baiyan Village to the town was about five miles, and she had memorized it on her way there, confidently thinking she could retrace her steps on the way back.

However, once darkness fully enveloped the landscape, everything she had noted for navigation seemed to vanish into thin air.

In this relatively remote area, there were no streetlights lining the road. The entire highway was tightly wrapped in darkness, and the car’s headlights could only illuminate a limited distance ahead.

A crescent moon hung in the sky, silently trailing the moving vehicle. Though it was just a crescent, missing half its form, it shone with an unusual brightness, casting a pale light over the small rivers and woods along the way, creating a landscape of stark white shadows.

The stars, flickering in and out of view, traced short paths across her vision as the car moved slowly forward, like tiny insects crawling across the dim sky.

There wasn’t a single pedestrian or vehicle in sight.

The longer she drove, the more Du Sixian felt isolated from the world, a creeping sensation of being abandoned by the known world quietly rose within her, making her inexplicably anxious and uneasy.

She gripped the steering wheel tightly, her eyes nervously scanning the scenery beyond the windshield.

Fog had begun to blanket the road, though she couldn’t pinpoint when it had started. The further she drove, the denser the fog became, and her visibility grew increasingly blurred.

The eerie white mist seemed to harbor some ominous force, blocking out the light, so that the car’s headlights could only pierce a mere two meters ahead.

Du Sixian had no idea when the graveyard had appeared in front of her.

“Bang-!”

A sudden dull thud echoed as the car struck a mound, jolting Du Sixian violently.

Strangely enough, at that very moment, the thick fog surrounding her seemed to part like a curtain being gently drawn aside, and the moon reemerged, casting a ghostly pallor over the scattered desolate tombs ahead.

Du Sixian was certain she hadn’t veered off the main road. In fact, the road continued to stretch forward, disappearing into the darkness.

Yet, the desolate tombs seemed to have “migrated” to the middle of the road, as if lying in wait to ambush.

The tomb she had collided with appeared aged, covered in withered yellow grass.

But it was an empty tomb, its dark entrance facing the windshield, as if waiting for its owner. Beside it stood a soul-calling banner, with yellowed paper money fluttering in the breeze.

“Rustle-rustle-!”

As if disturbed by the rustling of the soul-calling banner, countless ghostly green flames, carrying faint psychic energy fluctuations, emerged from between the tombs. They swarmed around Du Sixian’s car, as if welcoming their guest.

Seeing this, Du Sixian’s pupils contracted slightly, a chill shot up her spine to her head, and then exploded with a “buzz.”

“Gulp-” She swallowed hard, her throat tightening as she tried several times to start the car, only to fail. Silently, she reached for the handgun, gripping it firmly in her hand, and loaded it.

An Qing’s training regimen had emphasized shooting as a critical component.

Though Du Sixian had mastered a number of spell formations that ordinary psychics couldn’t even dream of, her Class B psychic energy fluctuation level severely restricted her casting speed.

A solid marksmanship paired with potent alchemical bullets could buy her the precious time needed to complete her spells.

Just then, a haunting melody floated through the air outside the car window.

“One, cursed are the parents too cruel… Two, cursed is Shanxi’s Shen Yanlin… Three, cursed…”

The voice was ethereal and mournful, as if it came from an old-fashioned radio somewhere, drifting through the desolate valley and lingering in the night.

Sweat began to bead on Du Sixian’s forehead. She pulled out her phone, intending to search for the source of the eerie tune, only to find that her phone had lost all signal.

After sitting uneasily in the car for a few more minutes, she furrowed her brows, clenched her teeth, and rolled down the window. Without hesitation, she fired three shots into the night.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

The three alchemical bullets streaked through the darkness, trailing faint silver flames before exploding mid-air into dazzling bursts of light. The haunting melody vanished instantly.

Her phone signal returned to full bars at that very moment.

Du Sixian exhaled in relief, wiping the cold sweat from her palms with a handkerchief. After reversing the car a short distance, she parked it by the roadside.

It was already late, and the darkness made it hard to discern the road ahead. Coupled with the unsettling events she’d just experienced, she dared not continue her journey.

She had no idea where the other roads branching off the main route might lead. Venturing forward recklessly could mean encountering even more terrifying phenomena.

Sitting in the car for a while, her nerves gradually calmed. Suddenly, her eyes lit up as if she’d remembered something. She gently touched the Death Owl Emblem pinned to her chest and sent a distress message to Lu Yibei.

Meanwhile.

Under the deep veil of night in Hua City New District.

Lu Yibei leaped from the rooftop of an apartment building, a swarm of nearly a hundred hauntings trailing behind her. They formed a long, grotesque procession, their monstrous forms writhing and twisting as they followed her descent under the moonlight.

After gliding through the air for a short distance, she twisted her body and landed steadily on the balcony of a residential unit. Pulling open the glass door, she glanced around stealthily like a thief before tiptoeing inside. She crept through the living room and headed toward the bedroom.

The bedroom was roughly twenty square meters. Posters of various themes adorned the walls: “Gundam: The Origin V,” “Love and Magic Girls: Rise of the Sea Tribe,” “Beautiful Girl Kaleidoscope 5″…

In one corner of the room, a floor-to-ceiling display case showcased an array of figurines. A slightly chubby man lay on a single bed, dressed in a Pikachu onesie, clutching a cushion featuring a swimsuit-clad beauty, fast asleep.

As Lu Yibei entered the room, everything changed. The entire space was filled with invisible, twisted flesh and an ominous gray-white aura floated about.

She stared at the slightly overweight man, smirked, and leaned in to whisper in his ear, “Tonight you settle your game, tomorrow you pay the final amount, some brat is messing with your figurines, your goddess has asked you out for dinner, but your boss wants you to work overtime…”

As her whispers seeped into the ears of the sleeping man, his brow furrowed, and he began to toss and turn in bed, on the verge of waking up.

Sensing the perfect timing, Lu Yibei gestured to the gathered haunters and quickly exited the bedroom. Just as she reached the balcony, a scream erupted from within the room.

“Ah! No! Please no-!”

Then a thud followed as a heavy body fell off the bed.

“!!!”

Lady Calamity is incredible!

Just a few whispers in that guy’s ear and he was terrified to this extent.

But what exactly did Lady Witch say to him? The haunters wondered.

Feeling a slight surge of psychic energy within her, Lu Yibei’s eyebrows arched slightly as she led the haunters in a swift leap from the balcony back up to the rooftop.

Moments later.

Dressed in a dark blue tailored suit, Lu Yibei stood on the empty rooftop, her fiery red hair tied up into a bun at the back of her head, holding a teaching stick of unknown origin. She looked both fierce and adorable.

Before her, an ominous gray mist drifted and spread.

A group of frightful haunters, some twisted into knots with seven or eight limbs, some piled up into a small hill with a dozen heads, others carefully holding their decaying organs from falling onto the clean floor, looked as obedient as schoolchildren waiting for a homeroom teacher’s lecture.

“See? The most important aspect of scaring is understanding the human heart. Tailoring your strategy to different individuals is the key!” Lu Yibei exclaimed, clearly exasperated.

She couldn’t understand why scaring people, which seemed such a simple task, was something these haunters couldn’t get right.

Not only were they failing, but they were also causing her all sorts of trouble.

So, in a fit of frustration, she had organized tonight’s teaching session.

“Look at your methods! Hiding behind someone as they look in the mirror, grinning with your decaying mouth, suspending a bloodied head above someone washing their hair, suddenly sticking a pale face out from under a table when someone bends to pick something up…”

“I won’t list all your errors, but what I’m saying is, this brute force approach simply won’t do!”

“At first, the strong visual shock might trigger an instinctual fear, but what happens when they realize you aren’t really going to hurt them?”

“Report to Lady Witch! Then we should find a few criminals and kill them in the most cruel and evil way possible, to serve as a warning to others!” a haunter with the body of a dog and a human face shouted, shaking off a shower of ticks.

Lu Yibei’s brow furrowed as she released a fluctuation of psychic energy, causing the temperature around them to soar instantly. The ticks on the ground fell dead, quickly followed by the smell of burning.

“You’ve got a point, but it’s not the best approach!” Lu Yibei waved her teaching stick emphatically. “Humans are defined not by instinct alone, but by their hearts and minds!”

“The best way to scare them is to understand their thoughts, find their deepest fears, and bring those fears to life right before their eyes.”

“But, Lady Calamity…” a haunting, round and creamy like a blob of whipped cream, timidly asked, “What exactly is the deepest fear within humans?”

“Is it like this?”

As it spoke, it stood upright, showcasing its towering two-meter frame, bulging muscles, and a face reminiscent of a bio-engineered monster.

Did I just waste my breath? Lu Yibei sighed, rubbing her forehead, words failing her.

At that moment, the Death Owl Emblem on her chest quivered slightly, and Du Sixian’s voice echoed in her ears.

After listening to Du Sixian recount the incident and request assistance, Lu Yibei furrowed her brows.

What on earth?

A stretch of desolate tombs suddenly appeared on the highway, causing a car crash?

These days, even tombs are pulling scams?

As she pondered, Lu Yibei lowered her voice, attempting to mimic a male tone, and replied to Du Sixian, “Alright, I’ll be there soon.”

With that, she straightened her posture, focused her mind, and with a gentle wave of her hand, summoned the Ley Line Energy of Hua City.

Ten minutes later.

Invisible golden threads, like countless rivers hidden in the void, suddenly emerged, flying from the city’s dark corners beneath the night sky, encircling her petite frame.

The girl hovered in mid-air, her brow furrowed, eyes closed, as waves of heat radiated from her body.

Then.

She opened her eyes, her golden irises flickering with fiery red light, her gaze lowered, her pupils cold and inhuman.

Suddenly, the golden threads surrounding her shattered inch by inch, transforming into golden dust that scattered like a falling star river, disappearing before touching the ground.

After confirming Du Sixian’s exact location through the familiars’ mark, Lu Yibei immediately used the Ley Line Energy to search for nearby hauntings. Upon verifying the positions of the hauntings near Baiyan Village, her expression turned grave.

There were no Hua City hauntings around Du Sixian.

“That’s odd! How could this be?”

Lu Yibei had intended to locate the haunting troubling Du Sixian and have them cooperate quickly to “perform” and resolve the matter.

In her current state, it was inconvenient to meet Du Sixian, and even using the Death Owl Emblem to communicate with her was cumbersome.

To support her, the most prudent course of action would be to wait until dawn, when she could return to her original form under the morning sun.

However, upon double-checking, she found that all the hauntings were staying within their territorial boundaries, none venturing to assist Du Sixian in her “act.”

The situation suddenly became intricate and puzzling.

Could it be hauntings not from Hua City?

But if that’s the case, how did they enter Hua City? Lu Yibei wondered.

Logically speaking, Lu Yibei had already completed the Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts, and with the barrier of Hua City in place, the entire city seemed protected by a fortress of psychic energy.

Any haunting that dared to intrude into Hua City would find it nearly impossible to evade detection, as the changes in the Ley Line Energy would not escape Lu Yibei’s notice.

From Du Sixian’s description, it seemed she had encountered more than one haunting. If these were indeed outsiders, how had they managed to infiltrate?

These foreign hauntings needed to be rooted out! Otherwise, if they caused trouble, she’d be the one taking the blame. That wouldn’t do at all, Lu Yibei thought.

As she pondered, about to reach for the Death Owl Emblem to inquire about the specifics from Du Sixian, the emblem flashed with a silver light and vibrated softly. Du Sixian’s voice came through.

She uttered just a few words, “Senior, help me!”

Damn, something’s happened? Lu Yibei’s expression changed abruptly. She hadn’t expected Du Sixian, with her level of skill, to encounter danger so quickly. In her urgency, she instinctively wanted to leap into action and rush to the rescue, but halted after taking just one step.

Rushing over might not be fast enough. While on the way, someone needed to keep an eye on the situation and provide covert support as needed.

With this in mind, Lu Yibei reached out into the air, using the Ley Line Energy to notify the hauntings around Baiyan Village. Only then did she push off the ground, soaring into the air, weaving through the moonlit skyscrapers towards Baiyan Village.

These weren’t hauntings from Hua City. To endanger a Class B Psychic of superior skill and dare to attack a member of The Midnight Watchers Society-this was serious!

However…

Sending hauntings to support a trainee operator of The Midnight Watchers Society was just too bizarre! Lu Yibei thought, her emotions a tangled mess.