As the boundary outside the university opened once more, Ye Tiancheng and his group departed.
The seven of them went together to the small, dilapidated rental house where Ye Tiancheng and his companions were staying. Only then did they begin to discuss important matters, talking about what the little fox and Nie Chongyang’s group of five had encountered before dawn.
By nightfall, the little fox, Nie Chongyang, and the other four had all been selected.
When they discovered that Ye Tiancheng and Long Miaomiao were missing, they knew something was amiss. Nie Chongyang became much more vigilant and asked the little fox for a considerable amount of equipment.
The little fox also willingly provided it.
The outcome later proved that this decision was very correct.
It was fortunate they had done so and prepared in advance, otherwise, they would have been unable to cope with the situation when caught off guard.
This was because, while searching for the examination rooms, for some unknown reason, whether intentional or unintentional on the part of the entity behind it all, the little fox, along with Nie Chongyang and the three people Nie Chongyang had brought, a total of five people, were all scattered and dispersed into different examination rooms.
They couldn't even cooperate, and each could only try to probe on their own.
It was because they were prepared that they were not unable to cope.
The final result was with peril but also with gains. Based on the known intelligence, the little fox, Nie Chongyang, and the other five extracted more information from the students.
Most of the students they questioned could basically confirm that they encountered this situation right after enrolling. However, during the examination that night, some of them happened to encounter a graduate student who had been studying at this university for a longer time.
Through the account of this graduate student, they learned that such incidents had been happening for at least six years.
At the very least, the matter of random examinations had been occurring for a full six years.
However, upon verification, it could be ascertained that the entity lurking within the university, secretly absorbing the students' vital energy and life force, had likely been doing so for more than six years.
This was because, in the graduate student’s account, ever since he enrolled in this university, he felt that something was wrong everywhere. He could never sleep well and had frequent nightmares. Upon waking, he often forgot what he had experienced in his dreams.
Even when he moved out of the school dormitory to live elsewhere, this situation did not improve.
Although this graduate student could not fully connect this point with his current experiences and did not realize that there might be a connection between the two, the little fox and Nie Chongyang were more perceptive and easily sensed something.
They leaned more towards the idea that there was a connection between the two.
From the previous examinations Ye Tiancheng and his group had participated in, the people who were pulled in as background characters, according to Long Miaomiao, were likely implicated through methods like dream manipulation. This was a clear indication.
Perhaps the entity behind it all possessed strong talent and abilities in dream manipulation and control.
They were very skilled in this regard.
In that case, it was not impossible for them to heavily utilize this ability to gain benefits and acquire what they desired.
Although the subsequent random examinations occurred, and they didn’t understand why the other party suddenly changed their method of absorbing vital energy and life force, the essence of it all remained the same. The objective had been consistent from the beginning, without the slightest change.
Changing the format did not represent anything significant.
Or perhaps it could be said that this only represented the other party absorbing some of the current external cultural trends, developing a twisted sense of amusement, and deliberately tormenting these students.
However, the reason why the entity behind it all appeared in this university and targeted these students remained a mystery, and their initial motive was unknown.
It was also true that in the early stages, the authorities had very little understanding of this matter and were unaware that such a serious situation had occurred. They also did not know if the students who had already graduated would still be affected by what happened in the school.
Ye Tiancheng and Nie Chongyang were currently unable to verify this.
This was because they had not yet encountered students who were knowledgeable about this matter or paid attention to these issues.
In university life, let alone students in the same grade, many students in the same class were strangers. They couldn't even recall the people in their own class, let alone the entire school. Moreover, due to the numerous incidents encountered during the random examinations, they were resistant to interacting with others.
It was also difficult to coincidentally meet acquaintances or be assigned to the same examination room. With less interaction between them, the information these students possessed was rather weak.
Naturally, they were unwilling to interact with others, making it difficult to determine if the people they encountered were still studying at the school.
They couldn't even distinguish whether the candidates in the same examination room were students from their own school, otherwise, Ye Tiancheng and his group wouldn't have been able to blend in so smoothly at the very beginning.
In any case, one thing was certain: after participating in the examination, the students in this school, even if they left the school, could not escape the fate of being taken for examinations.
They couldn't even leave any reminders for their daytime selves. After all, the exit still involved a form of dream manipulation. How could the marks left by oneself in a dream be seen after waking up?
This was their helplessness.
The next step was to decide whether or not to break the boundary that enveloped this university.
Simply continuing to probe within the school and participate in examinations held little meaning; it only allowed for the acquisition of partial intelligence. Moreover, if they alerted the entity and acted more brazenly, it might provoke a strong backlash and lead to severe consequences.
Breaking the boundary surrounding the university, as Long Miaomiao had said, was not an overly difficult task. The only thing that made Ye Tiancheng and his group hesitant was the potential consequences of doing so.
These consequences were difficult for them to predict.
They could not completely disregard Long Miaomiao's premonition.
For cultivators like them, premonitions arising from certain events were usually not without basis, and they might even be realized in an unexpected form.
This was their ability to foresee potential crises and a major basis for making choices to avoid misfortune and seek good fortune.
The more common manifestation was that after foreseeing that doing something might lead to severe consequences, they would choose not to do it, to avoid certain immeasurable outcomes.
These consequences would be something they could not bear.
If they had such a premonition under normal circumstances, most cultivators would simply avoid it. However, given the current situation, even with a bad premonition, they couldn't escape. Ye Tiancheng and his group wouldn't be so conflicted.
After all, if something was not good to do, then they simply wouldn't do it.
But now, they had no choice but to proceed.
Ye Tiancheng and his group had to consider whether to proceed directly and, if so, whether they could bear the consequences.
They couldn't let these students continue to be troubled like this.
Because no matter which choice they made, the consequences might be very severe, leaving them in a dilemma.
After a thorough discussion between Ye Tiancheng and Nie Chongyang, they finally decided to conduct further investigations. They planned to arrange for more people to enter the university to take the examinations and to extract more information from the students.
Then, Ye Tiancheng and Nie Chongyang would conduct investigations from other angles simultaneously, perform a risk assessment, and finally decide on the ultimate course of action.
This was the only way for now, as no one had a better solution.
If even Long Miaomiao felt the risk was high when she had her premonition, and considering Ye Tiancheng and Nie Chongyang had a dragon by their side, they would have had far fewer concerns.
After making the decision, they separated and began making arrangements.
Nie Chongyang selected a few more people, explained the situation to them, and provided them with sufficient self-protection items to avoid losses. He then sent them into the school to participate in more examinations.
It was best for several people to go each time.
This was to avoid a situation where not enough people went and none of them were selected.
However, they didn't need to worry about not being selected at all. Through the previous two examinations, they had already understood and confirmed some aspects of the situation.
The entity behind it all was likely somewhat greedy. As long as there was a possibility of gaining benefits from intruders, providing them with vital energy and life force, the entity couldn't help but be unable to control itself and would still absorb these intruders with unclear intentions into the examination rooms.
Arranging this was not particularly difficult.
As for Nie Chongyang, he and his assistant, Liang Ping, went to investigate case files and examine the status of the university's graduated students, to see if they had been affected by these matters or were still troubled by them.
Meanwhile, Ye Tiancheng and the other two planned to thoroughly study the boundary surrounding the university, make judgments and assessments, and then combine all the information to determine the best course of action.
Nie Chongyang's investigation of various case files and materials revealed that the university's reputation in recent years had significantly deteriorated.
The media had exposed issues such as academic fraud among students, instances of students committing wrongdoings in society, and even some university supervisors with extremely poor reputations and well-known problems.
These incidents had mostly occurred in recent years, whereas in the past, this university had actually been a highly reputable and authoritative institution.
It was unclear whether these issues were influenced by the current events.
Furthermore, it was during this investigation that Nie Chongyang discovered another aspect of the problem.
That is, in these past years, had the impact of this incident truly only affected the students of this university?
Were the university supervisors, professors, and the principal truly unaffected, with only students being randomly selected for examinations, while these figures of authority remained completely unharmed?
Nie Chongyang speculated that this was unlikely.
If these individuals were truly unaffected, then Nie Chongyang believed there were only two most likely possibilities.
The first was that these individuals might also be troubled, but they hadn't discovered in what form it presented itself. However, the absence of evidence did not mean the absence of existence; further investigation was needed to ascertain the truth.
As for the second possibility, there was only one remaining.
If these individuals were truly unaffected, then they were likely not innocent. They might even be privy to the situation and potentially profiting from it.
The possibility of these individuals being completely innocent and unaffected was infinitely low.