Chapter 26

Chapter 26: Baoshan 1

"According to the intern's statement just now," Chen Xiu flicked his lighter, making a clicking sound, "everything started because of that unlucky student."

Mingyue sat on the stairs, the cold stone freezing her butt. "Maybe."

"After all, Li Jiajia is also an outsider. Her account is just one-sided, we can't believe everything she says."

"But no matter what, we need to check out the seventh floor. I feel like this is a big deal—if it was just a teacher-student conflict, it shouldn't have affected the entire Baoshan district."

Chen Xiu looked at her in surprise.

"That's rare. I brought so many juniors along, and yet none of you were fooled by what was said in the witness statements. Mingyue, you're something."

"You knew her name was Li Jiajia?"

Mingyue pointed to her left chest. "She was wearing a name tag earlier. Didn't you notice, Senior?"

Chen Xiu: "..."

Chen Xiu laughed. "Not bad, not bad. For a freshman to be part of the picnic group, you are indeed different."

Mingyue: "???"

Chen Xiu put the lighter back into his shirt pocket. "What? Do you think the spiritual academy would take a freshman out for a meal like that? When we went out, were we supposed to be exorcising ghosts or protecting you guys?"

"When Guo Tianyang brought you all in, we did a proper check."

"The academy's review didn't really deem you qualified."

"Especially you," Chen Xiu said bluntly, pointing at Mingyue with his cigarette, embers falling off.

"Your theoretical grades are great, but your practical skills in class are a mess. You're just walking into danger, and you're tarnishing our reputation for sealing spirits."

This was indeed a harsh statement.

Mingyue's expression didn't change, and she even smiled.

Chen Xiu, seeing her unphased, thought it was boring. "But after your final grades came out, I thought you weren't that bad."

Mingyue: "Senior, you know our final rankings?"

Chen Xiu took a drag from his cigarette. "Of course. I entered the grades myself.""Don't ask, even if you do, I won't tell."

"But now, I think Guo Tianyang's judgment is quite good."

"Being able to lead juniors into the medical academy is no small feat." The president of the spiritual academy said calmly amidst the smoke.

Mingyue chuckled, "Thank you for the compliment, Senior."

"However, right now, let's think about how to get to the seventh floor."

She pointed upwards.

The safety passage where they were standing turned two long corners, leading directly to the escape exit of the obstetrics department on the seventh floor.

The hospital's emergency staircase had a high, white ceiling. The large floor-to-ceiling windows separated the sixth and seventh floors at the corner of the stairs. Outside, the storm raged, thunder and lightning clashing. The sky was filled with the gleeful figures of gray-headed ghosts.

Mingyue stood up, took out the fire talisman she had drawn from her backpack, and asked, "Senior, do you have any Yin Storage talismans?"

Chen Xiu glared at her. "Of course."

Mingyue: "In that case, could you please stick a Yin Storage talisman on every door in the safety passage on each floor?" She pointed to the accessible stairwell.

"I'll handle the door on the seventh floor."

Chen Xiu: "..."

Chen Xiu was aware of the Tian Jingxuan incident.

Mingyue's fire talismans, thanks to Zhou Jingren's big mouth, had become widely known among the upperclassmen. He was suspicious. "What do you want to do?"

"This is a hospital, be cautious."

Mingyue shrugged. "That's why we need your Yin talismans."

"Don't worry, I also brought some Tranquility talismans."

Chen Xiu: "..."

Chen Xiu scoffed and laughed, "Mingyue, you're a born all-rounder."

"You're a master at breaching gates and attacking doors."The obstetrics department on the seventh floor was shrouded in gloomy clouds and fog.

Xiao Lin had just stepped out of the elevator when he shivered from the cold.

The air conditioning on the wall displayed a constant temperature of 26°C.

Yet the air felt eerily cold.

A few busy medical staff were still working at the nurse's station.

They smiled politely, handling the expectant mothers who came and went.

— Clearly, there were still rooms in the corridor blocked off by black police warning tape, and the smell of blood had not yet dissipated. Yet, these expectant mothers were numb to it, and the medical staff could still smile.

Xiao Lin felt a lump in his chest.

But he was of low rank and had no right to speak.

How does a person's heart grow?

To be so indifferent.

The head nurse's office had already been sealed off.

Occasionally, the chief doctor would come by and ask a question, but the acting deputy head nurse had never shown any concern for the head nurse who had already passed away.

Occasionally, Xiao Lin overheard expectant mothers passing by the restricted area, whispering:

"Did you hear? The head nurse was hanged with the air conditioning pipe."

"How is that possible? The air conditioning pipe is so short! The part of the pipe sticking out of my ward is less than half a meter."

"Tell me about it, I heard that when they found her in the morning, she was crookedly hanging on the wall. What a difficult position!"

Two expectant mothers, dressed in pink hospital gowns, walked past.

Xiao Lin listened, his expression grim.

Maybe he hadn't been on the police force long enough, maybe his passion hadn't yet cooled.

He was foolish and naive, but he just couldn't stand this kind of indifference.

The air in this department truly made every additional second of breathing feel nauseating.He ignored the shouting of his colleagues behind him and directly opened the door to the stairwell, intending to go out for a smoke—

However, he didn’t expect to see the shadow of a man flash across the stairwell. Xiao Lin paused for a moment, then rushed out and started descending the stairs. Just as he was about to shout, “Comrade, you dropped your cigarette!” he didn’t expect to slip and step on a few pieces of paper on the ground.

With a loud thud, he stumbled.

At that very moment, a thunderclap sounded just outside the large window, illuminating the dim stairwell as bright as daylight.

The pattern on the fire talisman was marked in cinnabar red, and under the electric light, an ominous aura spread.

Xiao Lin: "……"

A surge of intense heat came from beneath his feet, so hot that Xiao Lin let out a cry, hurriedly lifting his foot. The flame from his feet, fed by his faint yang energy, instantly flared up with intense heat!

In an instant, the fire spread across the area, filling the cold air of the stairwell.

The fire quickly grew, and the heat surged upwards and downwards along the stairwell, slamming against the doors of each floor with a resounding crash.

The smoke alarm screeched loudly.

Xiao Lin: "……"

Xiao Lin opened his mouth wide, exposing his throat, and desperately shouted, “Fire!!! Someone, come put out the fire!!” He frantically rushed back towards the seventh-floor ward, calling out for his colleagues to come help put out the fire.

"……"

Ming Yue hid behind the door of the stairwell, watching Xiao Lin from less than half a meter away.

She quietly watched the fiery yang flames burn in the air, her mind calculating the effect of the senior’s yin talisman and the calming talisman she had placed on the fourth and tenth floors.

Fourth floor.

Tenth floor.

The flames would only burn for a maximum of thirty seconds. With the interaction between the yin and yang talismans, the flames would extinguish in at most ten minutes.

She had to act quickly.

Xiao Lin desperately shouted inside the seventh-floor ward.

He was so anxious that he even forgot to lock the door to the stairwell as he rushed back.With a loud bang, the door crashed open.

The yang flames rushed to the seventh-floor door in the blink of an eye, showing no recognition for Ming Yue, the one who had made the talismans.

Without hesitation, Ming Yue poured the mineral water over her head, then took out the yin talisman and pressed it to her forehead.

Yin energy is water-attracted, and it flowed with the moisture from her body, which was the simplest method to avoid the yang flames.

The yang flames had no effect on her as they met her body. Yin and yang fused together, and Ming Yue walked a few steps through the fire, opening the stairwell to the seventh floor. In the blink of an eye, she darted into the obstetrics department of the seventh floor.

At this moment, her wet appearance made her look like a drowned ghost.

The hallway on the seventh floor was in chaos, with everyone panicking due to the fire danger. The medical staff were busy calming the patients, the police were focused on putting out the fire, and the entire hallway was filled with the sounds of hurried footsteps.

Ming Yue lowered her head as she walked, took off her coat, tied up her hair, wiped her face dry, stuffed her bag into her shirt, and walked with one hand supporting her belly. She looked just like a pregnant woman who had just finished taking a bath in the restroom.

The police rushed past her with loud thuds, not even sparing her a glance.

Ming Yue let out a sigh of relief, texting Chen Xiu, who was waiting by the elevator on the sixth floor, while scanning the seventh floor.

There were a total of over twenty rooms and forty single rooms on the seventh floor.

There were three black warning zones.

The long, direct line of sight was laid bare before Ming Yue's yin-yang eyes.

The department was filled with black baby spirits.

They were everywhere: on the floor, the walls, and above her head, densely clustered in shades of gray and black.

Large patches of black sprouts, crying and laughing in high-pitched voices, as though the floor was water, and the ghosts were floating, sinking, and swimming in it.

The flames heated the floor, and the baby spirits screamed and fled in the opposite direction toward the stairwell.

Ming Yue: "……"

A chill ran through Ming Yue’s heart. She looked down and saw a small baby hand emerging from the floor, grabbing her ankle.

She crouched down, extending her finger to touch the baby’s little hand.The baby spirit's head suddenly floated up from the floor, its red eyes glaring, and it opened its mouth to bite down on Ming Yue's fingertip.

A trace of yang blood was released.

Instantly, it ignited the spirit, and the baby spirit let out a sharp, agonizing scream. Its body was engulfed in black gas and was burned to ashes in an instant.

The entire floor was filled with vengeful spirits.

Ming Yue watched as the little ghosts swam and dodged around her, and for some reason, she suddenly felt the urge to cry.

When Chen Xiu took the elevator, he happened to run into Zhou Jingren and Yan Jun, who had snuck in. After exchanging a few words, the situation was clear.

Chen Xiu asked, "Da Ren, you said the ghost messengers have blocked off Baoshan District in your call— is that true?"

Zhou Jingren opened his bag to count the talismans and weapons, rolling his eyes, "Why would I lie to you?"

"Black and White Impermanence have already set up a blockade formation around Baoshan District—"

"—any spirit crossing the boundary will be burned to death."

Chen Xiu’s heart sank. "We’ve reached the seventh floor."

As the elevator opened, there was a ring of black caution tape.

The seventh floor was chaotic, filled with the screams of pregnant women. The yang flames forcefully cleared the hospital's strange, stagnant smell and burned away the evil spirits.

The three young men, Chen Xiu and his companions, hurried toward the left corridor, following the instructions Ming Yue had left.

Ming Yue was in the blocked-off head nurse’s office, staring at the air conditioning vent.

As the three men entered, Ming Yue didn’t turn around. She stretched out her hand to Chen Xiu. "Senior, can I borrow your jacket?"

Chen Xiu raised an eyebrow. "For what?"

Yan Jun saw that Ming Yue’s hair was soaking wet and that she was holding a drenched jacket while pretending to have a belly. He took off his own and handed it to her. "You can use mine."

Ming Yue winked at the class leader. "Thanks, class leader."

"I came in disguised as a pregnant woman just now.""She's about to give birth. Isn't it strange that she doesn't have anything from the male side with her?"

Then, if she’s wearing a man’s jacket, isn’t that equivalent to silently acknowledging that they’re pretending to be a married couple?

Yan Jun instantly realized, and heat rushed to his face.

Zhou Jingren said, "I'll go outside and keep watch, you guys hurry up," then pushed the door open and left.

Chen Xiu took out the revealing powder. "Any clues?"

Ming Yue pointed to the air conditioning vent in the office. A human-shaped figure was drawn with a black marker, showing the posture of the head nurse when she hung herself. The vent, now a piece of evidence, had already been removed—

Ming Yue’s Yin-Yang eyes flashed with a faint glow, one side gray, the other yellow. "You two, can you see this ghost?"

Yan Jun and Chen Xiu focused their eyes and looked carefully.

Yan Jun squinted.

He could only see a cluster of yin energy gathering in the spot. It was faint and light, forming a pale grayish hue.

There was no ghost.

Chen Xiu spoke in a low voice. "If you want to say something, just say it."

Ming Yue stood next to Yan Jun. "Class leader knows my eyes have issues, so my ability to see ghosts’ forms is not accurate."

"But I can clearly see the causal chain."

"The causal chain can only grow with a soul that has both intelligence and spirit."

"I see one here—" Ming Yue pointed to the area where the human figure was marked by the air conditioning, "—a blood-red causal chain."

"You guys tell me, is there a soul here?"

"If so, whose soul is it?"

"Why can’t the yin energy even form a shape?"

Yan Jun: "..."

Chen Xiu: "..."

The room fell into complete silence. No one responded.The fire in the stairwell mysteriously went out.

The fire hydrant had just been opened, and the flames had barely passed the fourth floor when it seemed to hit an invisible water curtain and went whoosh, extinguishing immediately.

Xiao Lin held the foam fire extinguisher, "...".

Behind him, a police officer, covered in black ash, "...".

This whole mishap with the fire was making everyone frustrated and confused.

Something was on the ground.

Xiao Lin rummaged through the white and pink foam from the extinguisher and pulled out a piece of yellow paper, half-burnt. The fragmented pattern was unrecognizable, but it reminded him of some people.

It was a talisman.

Drawn by a ghost-slayer.

Xiao Lin was certain in his mind.

This fire.

This fire was deliberately set.

Behind him, a fellow officer suddenly had a flash of insight and smacked his head. "Crap, the seventh floor is unguarded right now!"

Xiao Lin's heart tightened, and instinctively, he blurted out:

"What’s there to fear, Li-ge? The obstetrics ward is so cursed."

"Ordinary people would avoid it, who would go into a cursed place?"

"We might as well take this opportunity to check the source of the fire." After saying that, he secretly hid the torn-up talisman.

I’ve truly gone mad.

Xiao Lin thought to himself.