Chapter 1 A Glimpse into the Darkness

Pitch black, so dark you couldn't see your own hand in front of your face. The thick, viscous restraint all around him was so clear, making Zhou Ze unable to discern whether this was an illusion or reality.

This could be considered a high-level reception, meaning this ghost's depth and cultivation had reached a certain realm, not the usual sort that would wander into his bookstore.

Zhou Ze remembered when Madam Bai had hosted him and Xu Qinglang for a banquet, she had used a similar ability, blurring the line between illusion and reality. Xu Qinglang had even eaten dishes made of flies and earthworms back then.

Wang Baogang might not be the one behind everything; he wasn't qualified. He hadn't been dead long enough to become this powerful. That meant the one who killed Sun Qiu and prevented her soul from being complete was also someone else.

Zhou Ze slowly stretched out his arms. The swaying sensation all around him gave him the illusion of walking in outer space, as if gravity had been completely removed.

But as Zhou Ze extended his fingernails, black mist scattered wildly, and the thick black blood around him rapidly receded, as if encountering a natural enemy.

Step by step, Zhou Ze had reached this point today, and he was no longer the nobody he once was. Even in this situation, he still exuded a sense of composure and confidence.

"Clang!"

A crisp sound.

A broom fell to the ground.

The blood color completely disappeared.

The dormitory room was empty.

Zhou Ze turned his head to look behind him. The dormitory door was open, and outside, a pair of black leather shoes were placed there quietly.

As if a person was standing right in front of him.

A moment later,

the shoes moved on their own, starting to walk outwards, no, running outwards.

Zhou Ze rushed out, chasing the shoes down the stairs. The shoes ran faster and faster, but Zhou Ze's speed was not slow either. In fact, Zhou Ze deliberately slowed down his pace, just waiting to see where these shoes would lead him.

He was only one wandering soul away from becoming a full-fledged employee, but the problem was that this one percent quota had given him a gigantic existence. Zhou Ze even suspected that the one manipulating everything behind the scenes, even if not as good as the former Madam Bai, wouldn't be too far off.

After all, the image and feeling of the surging blood earlier weren't too different in quality and resonance from when Madam Bai held her banquet that day.

"Drip… drip… drip…"

This was the sound of the shoes walking. Zhou Ze hadn't noticed it before, but now he did. Why did the shoes make a "drip, drip" sound when walking?

As he walked, Zhou Ze suddenly realized that after going around in a circle, going up one floor and then another, he had followed the shoes back to the outside of the dormitory room that was being used as a storage room.

The shoes walked in, and Zhou Ze followed again.

But,

this time,

the appearance of this dormitory room was no longer a storage room, nor was it a sea of blood. Everything, everything, had become very ordinary. There were neat and tidy quilts on the beds, washbasins and plastic cabinets under the beds, and toothbrushes and towels neatly placed by the washbasin.

This was a dormitory room where students lived.

Zhou Ze looked at the changes around him, a smile appearing on the corner of his mouth. He didn't know what the other party's purpose was, but the other party was just using a single dormitory room to create a Dao field in a snail shell.

Zhou Ze waited for a while. This time there was no sea of blood, nor the "glug, glug" sound. Everything seemed very peaceful, as if he had entered an ordinary dormitory room.

But anyone with a little bit of brains could see the unusualness here. Not to mention why this dormitory room was empty at lights out, just the fact that it was early morning, yet outside the window,

why was there still sunlight shining in?

"Scrape… scrape… scrape…"

The sound of friction came from the tiles, on the balcony.

Zhou Ze was just about to walk towards the balcony to take a look, but he stopped directly, because the thing making the noise on the balcony had already crawled in.

Yes,

it was crawling.

This was a boy,

his lower body was completely severed at the waist, leaving only his upper body. He used his hands to crawl on the ground constantly. His body was covered in blood and filth, especially the places he crawled through, leaving behind a dense bloodstain that made one's scalp tingle.

The boy tilted his head, looking at Zhou Ze as he crawled.

He seemed to be sizing up Zhou Ze, full of curiosity about Zhou Ze, but he didn't stop his movement towards Zhou Ze.

Zhou Ze slowly squatted down, looking at the boy in front of him at eye level.

"I…"

The boy opened his mouth, but when he was about to speak, fresh blood started to pour out of his mouth non-stop, unable to stop at all. He looked at Zhou Ze, his mouth constantly opening and closing, but he couldn't make any clear syllables.

He seemed a little anxious, but the more anxious he was, the less sound he could make. In the end, it even turned into a sound similar to a dog barking!

His half of the body was trembling, his whole body was furious,

he wanted to speak, he wanted to tell Zhou Ze something, but he couldn't do it!

He was extremely manic, half of his body rolling on the ground, constantly hitting the tiled floor with his fists.

Zhou Ze reached out, touched the bloodstains on the ground with his finger, and then gently drew on the tile.

Meaning,

if you can't speak,

you can write.

The boy was stunned for a moment, seemingly realizing that there was this method. He immediately nodded, dipped his finger in his own blood, and prepared to write on the ground.

But as soon as he wrote a horizontal stroke,

"Crack!"

The boy's index finger broke off directly.

The boy was stunned,

Zhou Ze's eyes also narrowed,

but the boy was not convinced. He continued to write with his ring finger, but this time he didn't even write a stroke. The moment his ring finger touched the tile, it also broke off directly.

The boy used his thumb, the thumb broke,

the boy used his little finger, the little finger broke,

in the end,

the boy despaired. He raised his arm,

holding up his only middle finger,

roaring non-stop.

This middle finger was his, but it was a kind of mockery from another existence towards him.

The boy looked at Zhou Ze, and then looked at a cabinet on the side.

It was an iron cabinet, divided into eight compartments, meaning each of the eight people in the dormitory could use a cabinet to store their things.

The boy's eyes stared fixedly at the bottom cabinet. Zhou Ze walked over and opened it.

"Creak… creak…"

What was revealed was a leg, and then there were other things inside, like a piece of clothing that had been neatly folded and placed here.

But in reality,

this was a person's,

lower body!

The boy desperately crawled towards the cabinet, and the two legs in the cabinet were also moving non-stop, as if they were responding, but this entire lower body was folded too neatly. In this narrow space, it couldn't move at all, nor could it walk out on its own. It could only anxiously kick and squirm non-stop.

This was a very strange scene, enough to make one's scalp tingle.

Just as the boy was about to touch his foot,

suddenly,

it was as if something was holding the boy back from behind. The boy was pulled back towards the balcony non-stop. The boy kept struggling, roaring, and roaring, his body rolling up and down on the tiles non-stop.

But he was like a fish on a chopping board, all the struggles seemed so pale and weak.

Zhou Ze stood up and chased after him, but as soon as he took a step, the perspective in front of him began to retreat desperately.

The next moment,

Zhou Ze found himself standing at the dormitory door,

and the dormitory,

had returned to its original appearance.

No bloodstains, no boy, and no exasperated roars.

What exactly does this mean?

Zhou Ze found it a little difficult to understand. This dormitory room was like walking into a movie theater that played ghost movies late at night. Every time he came in, he could always get a new experience.

"Drip… drip…"

The familiar sound rang again,

turned around,

sure enough,

those leather shoes appeared again in the corridor behind the door.

Zhou Ze finally understood why the footprints of the shoes were so dense outside this dormitory room. He seemed to be doing the same thing over and over again.

Taking people away,

then bringing people back,

and then waiting here to lure people away again,

and then bringing them back.

Like a waiter in a restaurant,

Welcome, sir?

Oh, take care, sir.

The shoes seemed to be waiting for Zhou Ze to turn around and look at them before they started to leave.

It was the sound of "drip, drip" again. Zhou Ze walked over, but this time, Zhou Ze's doubts couldn't be resolved. The first thing was, why did these shoes make the sound of "drip, drip" when walking?

Shouldn't it be "pat, pat"

or "scrape, scrape"?

Zhou Ze stretched out his hand, and the black mist from his fingertips began to release, directly wrapping the black leather shoes.

Like a net cast down, finally catching the fish.

Slowly,

the owner of the shoes began to reveal his true face. He was still continuing to walk forward, continuing to make the sound of "drip, drip";

with his stubbornness,

with his persistence,

continuing to walk forward.

"Drip… drip…"

His head,

was half-rotten,

upside down,

half of his head hitting the tiled floor again and again;

"Drip… drip…"

He was jumping non-stop, and every time he landed, it was his head hitting the ground,

his hands, reaching into the shoes, moving back and forth non-stop.

He was actually walking with his head,

but his two hands were holding up the shoes, pretending to be the shoes moving forward step by step.

Xiao Pingtou had said that Wang Baogang liked to wear leather shoes and a suit every time he went to check the rooms. He regarded himself as a teacher, not a so-called dormitory manager or thug.

So,

even after he died,

he would maintain his decency,

even if,

he had to walk with his hands in the shoes.

"Drip… drip…"

Sun Qiu said that he saw Wang Baogang's head slowly sliding down from the wall on the balcony,

including Wang Baogang walking on his head in front of him,

there was also a reason for it,

because Xiao Pingtou also said that when Wang Baogang jumped off the building,

it was his head,

that hit the ground first.