Chapter 53

Chapter 53: Doubts Part One

The yang fire burned throughout the night without ceasing.

This night.

Centered around the Shui Ximen Station, within a one-kilometer radius, five neighborhoods and two subway stations all saw the soaring golden light.

The flames that formed a fiery tide surged into the high sky, transforming into the most breathtaking fireworks of the night.

The students working on the ground stopped in unison, staring blankly at the sight.

Everyone was bewildered.

The wisps and strands of yang energy were familiar to the students of the Spirit Academy.

But the flames formed by the flooding yang energy, no one had witnessed such a disaster firsthand.

Most people, upon their first glance, could not immediately recognize this as a catastrophe and not a firework display.

"……"

This was not the usual orange-red fire of ordinary people.

This was yang fire.

Yan Jun stared at the golden flames in the sky, his heart trembling.

He and Qin Lin had been bystanders in last week's subway yang fire incident.

Everything before him now was strikingly similar to what had happened back then.

Jun Weiran's expression was equally grave.

His body was extremely yin, and standing so close to the yang fire now, he felt uncomfortable all over, as if he were a fish stranded on land—

"These flames are all yang energy."

"Something must have happened underground."

Jun Weiran furrowed his brows and said.

Beside him, Jin Yuanbao looked around. There were at least a dozen scattered tea tree groves around Shui Ximen Station, each one made up of two or three or even four or five trees. They were thick and sturdy. At night, they had an eerie, magical outline.The "Ghost Slaying History" course explained it clearly—

In a balanced environment of yin and yang, there will be no outbreaks of yang fire.

Yang fire only occurs in places with intense yin energy.

So, that means—

Jin Yuanbao looked at the surrounding tea tree groves, thick and lush, but something didn’t feel right.

Could it be that under the grove that was on fire… a vengeful ghost had appeared?

If that’s the case, what about the other groves?

While Jin Yuanbao was still thinking, Yan Jun had already taken out the yin and yang positioning map of Shui Ximen Station and started examining it. Usually calm and composed, he now seemed somewhat flustered.

Jin Yuanbao asked with concern: "Boss, are you okay?"

"Don’t panic."

"Why does your face look so bad?"

"……"

Yan Jun didn't respond.

He focused on the broken, dense purple patches on the positioning map, representing areas of extremely high yin energy, and compared them with the positions of the tea groves in the physical environment—

It turned out that about seventy percent of the patches coincided.

This discovery left Yan Jun stunned.

The radio receiver was still hanging on his ear.

At this moment, communication was cut off by the flood of yin energy.

Combining what he had briefly heard on the public frequency earlier—fragments of bodies, evil spirits, Tomie—

Yan Jun could hardly imagine what was buried under these tea groves.

What lay before him was a fire triggered by the yang fire talisman, the flames reaching high into the sky, far beyond what a second-year or first-year student could control.Who drew the Yang Fire Talisman?

The moment Yan Jun thought about the answer to this question, a sharp pain gripped his heart.

Why didn’t he think of comparing the positioning map with the tea groves sooner?

Why did it take until they were in danger in the cave for him to realize that his information collection was inadequate?

Could the seniors handle this?

Is Ming Yue okay? Has she encountered danger?

Regret surged up Yan Jun’s neck like cold water, drowning his throat.

The Yang Fire Talisman that erupted underground must have been drawn by Ming Yue.

She wasn’t just a student he managed and cared for; she was also the person he liked.

Time flows like water, and life slips by just as swiftly.

The starry sky above seemed like an endless net, bringing an overwhelming sense of dread.

Are you awake now?

Do you understand?

Have you entered the cold and cruel world of Yin and Yang, leaving behind the bustling and illusory life of the big city?

The business of ghost slaying has always been one where you wave goodbye today and face life-and-death separation tomorrow. Yan Jun, is this the first time you’re realizing this?

The questions in his heart roared like thunder, and Yan Jun’s eyes reddened.

I...

I still haven’t said anything to her.

Beside him, Jin Yuanbao saw his usually composed roommate, the class president, suddenly crouch down and hold his head, as though unable to bear the pain. Before Jin Yuanbao could ask anything, Yan Jun quickly stood up again, took out his phone, and started dialing. His face was pale, but his voice was steady and calm.

“Hello, Teacher Chen.”

“Yes, I am the class president of 18th class, Yan Jun.”

“I’m sorry to disturb you at this hour. We’ve made a reckless mistake, and we can’t clean it up…”By now, at 6:30 AM, already lying in the infirmary for examination, Qin Lin felt that what happened last night was like a dream.

The moment he realized the Yang Fire disaster was out of control, Qin Lin had already ordered everyone below the cave to retreat immediately and return to the surface.

Liu Tianran refused to leave.

Qin Lin wouldn’t leave either.

After all, this exploration was Qin Lin’s idea, and as the primary responsible person, he couldn’t escape the consequences.

Looking back, in the raging fire beneath the tea tree cave, the souls' desperate cries and the countless severed limbs moving in the flames were scenes that seemed like something only found in the hell of Avīci.

Even during the Zhongyuan Festival when the Yin-Yang Dao is filled with countless ghostly figures, it couldn’t compare to witnessing the moment when so many vengeful souls were scattered, their spirits lost.

The fire lasted for over four hours.

From just past midnight, it continued until the first light of dawn.

Qin Lin was a responsible class president. He tried countless methods, draped in the Yin Qi talisman like a damp towel, and repeatedly plunged into the sea of fire to pull his junior out.

But the fire was too intense.

Qin Lin’s Yin Eye could no longer see, and he couldn’t make out Ming Yue’s figure in the inferno.

Liu Tianran had placed the Land God talisman Ming Yue gave her on the outer edge of the Yang Fire, and miraculously, the fire didn’t spread further.

After that, Liu Tianran and Qin Lin took turns, entering the fire every fifteen minutes, guarding through the night until 4 AM, without sleep.

As dawn broke,

Qin Lin was almost in despair.

His heart was full of regret.

The arrogance and ignorance of the past exploded before him, as he realized his junior might be lost in the flames. Qin Lin even once thought about cutting out his Yin Eye with a knife and charging into the Yang Fire again.

Just as he was about to pull out the knife, Liu Tianran stopped him, and a figure appeared in the golden sea of flames in front of him.

This person was carrying a medium-sized bag and slowly walked out.The moment she stepped out of the sea of fire, she threw the bag on her back to the ground, disdainfully saying, "That's enough."

"Heavy like a fat pig."

Ming Yue had a face covered in black ash, with half a black talisman on her left eye—despite being one of the Eight God Talisman, the Land God Talisman was reduced to ashes in the overwhelming Yang Fire.

The bag she threw on the ground spread open, revealing a pile of white bones.

The vengeful bones of the dozens of lives lost under the tea tree were ultimately picked up by Ming Yue’s older brother, who always left a thread of hope.

Qin Lin: "..."

Liu Tianran: "..."

The two senior students, caught in the middle, were dumbfounded.

"You, you... Junior, junior..."

Liu Tianran stared blankly at Ming Yue, then suddenly threw herself at her and started crying.

"You didn’t die!"

"..."

Ming Yue touched her long hair, which had been burned to the point of looking like it had been chewed by a dog, feeling a little regretful. She comforted her senior sister: "Don’t worry, senior sister."

"You already called me a living yang-being, how could I have been burned to death by Yang Fire, right?"

"I have great fortune and luck."

After saying this, she peeled off the talisman dust from her left eye and tossed it away.

"..."

Qin Lin looked at Ming Yue in disbelief.

Insane. This is insane.

Unbelievable!How could someone be burned by Yang Fire for several hours without any problems?

Is she, is she made of iron? Or is she tempered like steel?

Qin Lin’s worldview was shaken to its core, and he was completely awake now.

Liu Tianran also found it unbelievable, but with her emotional nature, she grabbed Ming Yue, checking her from top to bottom to see if she was injured. Ming Yue was always very patient with those who cared for her, as gentle as a well-fed golden retriever:

"Mm, my Yin-eye was covered with the Land God Talisman at that time..."

"...It was indeed a bit uncomfortable, I couldn't see anything, but as they say, 'Surviving a great disaster means there’s good fortune ahead!' So, don’t worry!"

"My hair? It’s really a shame. I thought my pure Yang physique could shield me from all the troubles of the world..."

"I’ll go to Tony teacher later and get a new hairstyle!"

"Right? I also think I stayed in there too long! But there was really no way around it. I could have let the vengeful souls kill me, but I still had to pick up the bones..."

"It was too fragmented, that female ghost was killed in ten minutes, and for the rest of the hours, I was just picking up bones."

"Sigh, still pitiful, though..."

"Huh? Senior sister, do you think I’m fickle?"

Ming Yue was very surprised.

Liu Tianran: "..."

Liu Tianran was speechless.

Is there anyone more changeable than this junior?

Wasn’t it you, Ming Yue, who chopped up corpses like a murderer in the tea tree cave earlier?

No one is more changeable than this.

Liu Tianran had never seen anything like it.

Anyway.

At this moment, the Yin energy dissipated, and the signal improved. Qin Lin reported everything was safe to Chen Wuqi, who had arrived from the surface, and then took the two girls back to the school.At this moment, in the school hospital, the doctors who had been woken up in the middle of the night were checking the two second-year students' bodies, while Ming Yue was bouncing around like someone with ADHD.

"Senior, are you thirsty?"

"Senior, let me pull your blanket for you."

"Hey, teacher, sorry to bother you in the middle of the night to see us, I really feel bad about it..."

Doctor: "..."

The doctor looked at the medical history he had just gathered and then glanced at the three students: "Which one of you was burned by fire?"

"Not these two second-year students, right?"

Ming Yue immediately raised her hand: "It's me."

Doctor: "..."

The doctor sighed and started flipping through his phone book, searching for the contact of the professor from the Spirit Institute.

Let’s not get into details.

Spirit Institute students are always very active in buying the campus health insurance every year, because they always find a way to turn the money they paid into reimbursements.

In other words, the students most familiar to the school hospital, apart from the medical students, are these Spirit Institute students who keep finding ways to get themselves hospitalized every few days.

Oh, right. There’s no injury they can’t endure, no matter how crazy the method is.

So early in the morning, the doctor finds a student who survived being burned by fire for a whole night, still alive and kicking.

What can the doctor say?

Li Xianzhou quickly arrived.

Before seven in the morning, in the quiet school hospital, Li Xianzhou gave the three of them a furious lecture.

"Didn’t Chen Wuqi tell you to be cautious?"

"Did you dare to stay underground and not return?! Are you trying to commit suicide?!"

"You break one, and now you want to break two or three more?!"

"Qin Lin! Do you still want to be class president or not?!""Li Tianran! Ming Yue jumps off the building, are you going to jump off with her?"

"Ming Yue! Dare to violate the rules by using cursed symbols? Do you want to call your parents?"

The three students were left speechless, their faces ashen.

Afterward, Li Xianzhou left like a gust of wind, rushing to deal with the follow-up of the Shui Ximen incident. Li Tianran comforted Ming Yue, who was looking down:

"Be content, junior."

"You only have to do three months of labor service."

"We both have to write a ten-thousand-character report and organize the Shui Ximen incident report."

"Good heavens, this report has to be submitted to the Ghost Slaying Association!"

Ming Yue sat on the chair, peeling apples for the two second-year students: "That's a good thing! Once the report is out, we’ll be famous."

Qin Lin frowned and shook his head. "It’s not that simple."

"Just now, Yan Jun and I exchanged messages. After confirming everything was safe, he also told me something."

"The tea tree grove—where you and Li Tianran encountered the corpse transformation—there are more than a dozen other tea groves like that."

The words scared both Ming Yue and Li Tianran, making them jump up.

Li Tianran: "What the hell!"

Ming Yue: "Heaven help us!"

Qin Lin nodded. "The situation is serious."

"Yan Jun also stayed on the surface all night, immediately reporting to the Shui Ximen police station, and informed Teacher Chen Wuqi of the situation on-site."

"Within the next two days, the police will likely go to dig up the tea tree roots to investigate the situation."

"Ming Yue, remember to hand in the remaining bones."

Ming Yue nodded enthusiastically.

Li Tianran lay back down on the bed. "This junior is not bad, very thoughtful.""However, it looks like we’ll still have a lot to do after we leave the hospital—there are so many tea tree pits left."

Ming Yue didn't speak. Slowly, she took out her phone and found that Yan Jun had sent her a message at around 5 AM:

【@Class Leader Yan Jun: As long as you're safe, that's all that matters.】

5 AM? Isn't that the time the three of them were supposed to return to school?

He sure is well-informed.

Ming Yue: "..."

She felt a little awkward and replied:

【@Ming Yue: Sorry, Class Leader, I’m replying so late.】

【@Ming Yue: Thanks to you, everything went smoothly!】

Yan Jun responded quickly, as if he had been waiting by his phone:

【@Yan Jun: Rest well.】

【@Yan Jun: The Yuehai Yuting domestic violence case has been filed. Don’t worry, justice will be served.】

【@Yan Jun: Please tell Qin Lin Senior that the third and fourth-year students are tied up, and the academy has decided to put the Feng Shui calculation project for Shui Ximen Station up for bid, to be handled by the second-year students of Feng Ling Academy and Jiang Da’s second-year students.】

Ming Yue: "..."

Jiang Da?

Isn't that the rival school?

【@Ming Yue: This is truly bad news.】

Yan Jun didn’t reply.

Ming Yue had no choice but to pass the message to Qin Lin, and as expected, both second-year students rolled their eyes.

Li Tianran: "Tch, collaborating with Jiang Da is worse than collaborating with Di Da."

Qin Lin shook his head: "This way, the report will be hard to write."Ming Yue tried to smooth things over: "After all, Di Da is just too far away."

There was a long silence.

Qin Lin flipped through the message history, suddenly sitting up straight on the bed: "Ming Yue."

"Hey."

Ming Yue bit into an apple.

"The senior students just messaged me privately."

"Senior Lü Xingru from the fourth year wants to collect your related information and compile it into a case."

"He said it's for his graduation thesis."

"He wants to ask for your opinion."

"..." Ming Yue was a bit confused. "If he wants to ask, then let him ask."

Qin Lin realized he hadn't explained clearly, "You might not know, but..."

"Lü Xingru's thesis topic is quite famous. I heard from the upperclassmen that if it goes well, he'll definitely win the award for the best graduation thesis this year—his paper might even be submitted to top journals like A-journal or even SCI journals in the medium category. Do you understand? The exposure could be either a blessing or a curse."

Ming Yue scratched her face. "Is that considered a good thing?"

"..."

Qin Lin was very cautious and didn’t immediately comment.

Li Tianran repeated Ming Yue’s earlier words, patting her on the shoulder: "It's a good thing! Once the thesis is out, you'll become famous!"