Vol 1 Chapter 2.2 (2/2)

Lu Yang looked at the lamp, frowning. His expression seemed to have turned a little darker. However, when he turned to face the others, his expression was calm as he said, “It looks like it’s broken. When we go back, we should report this to the school. The sound we heard just now wasn’t quite right, and if the light bulb were to explode and hurt someone, that would be terrible. Ziya, help me remember this.”

Jiang Ziya agreed casually, but he didn’t remember what Lu Yang had said at all. He only noticed that the wall lamp’s flickering had become more obvious, unlike before when it was very difficult to notice due to the bright daylight.

His surroundings seemed to have suddenly turned much darker. However, what was strange was that the sun still continued to s.h.i.+ne brightly outside the window. It seemed as though the sunlight could not s.h.i.+ne into the corridor, but transparent gla.s.s should not be able to block out the sun.

Jiang Ziya looked at the scenes outside and inside the window. The two scenes were of completely different brightness.

“It’s so quiet. Has cla.s.s started?” Li Yao asked in doubt. “I don’t think I heard the bell ring though?”

Jiang Ziya’s heart clenched. He was very certain that the bell had not rung. This was a lively university campus, and even until ten o’clock at night, there would still be club activities going on. Moreover, it was currently afternoon break time. It would be amazing if the noise didn’t shoot through the roof, so how could it possibly be silent?

Although the situation seemed a little strange, Jiang Ziya still wondered if he was being overly conscious about it. His left eye had always seen some strange and mysterious stuff. If he were to rate this on a scale of one to five stars, this kind of situation where it was only a little darker and quieter would at most rate only two stars, and even that was pus.h.i.+ng it. However, this time it felt like something was a little different. He kept feeling that something was not quite right. So what exactly–

“Let’s go quickly.” Lu Yang abruptly opened his mouth to say, “My arms are tired.”

Jiang Ziya felt a little astonished, but he still volunteered. “Then, should I take over?”

Lu Yang shook his head, and his tone was little hasty as he said, “There’s no need. Let’s just hurry and go.”

Hearing this reply, Jiang Ziya felt that Lu Yang’s behavior today was really not quite right. He couldn’t help but furrow his brows and observe Lu Yang’s expression. Although Lu Yang had said that his arms were tired, judging from his expression, he didn’t seem in the least bit like he was pus.h.i.+ng himself. He even turned back to peek at the window from time to time. Rather than his hands being tired, it seemed more like he was worried that a man-eating monster would jump through the window—could it be that Lu Yang could also see?

He just knew that there had to be something off about Lu Yang. How could a normal person accept his words about those kinds of things so easily? Since childhood until now, only Lu Yang was willing to believe him. He must also be able to see—

“Why is it a little dark? Is it because the light is broken?” Li Yao’s voice held traces of fear. Her intuition told her that something was wrong, but she could not tell the reason why. She merely felt that it was dark and cold, and a chill kept running down her spine.

Jiang Ziya frowned. Li Yao can see it too?

Looking at the window once again, he finally realized what was off about the situation. Because only his left eye was abnormal, when he saw peculiar things, his vision would always be a little blurry, and it was hard to gauge distance due to having his left and right eye perceiving different things. However, this time he was able to see it as clear as day. On top of that, both Lu Yang and Li Yao seemed to have seen it…. What kind of situation is this now?

“Let’s hurry!” Lu Yang anxiously urged. He turned to leave, but a quick look backwards told him that Jiang Ziya was still staring at the window blankly. “Ziya? Why aren’t you coming—?”

He abruptly stopped in the middle of his question because Jiang Ziya’s expression looked off. Remembering that left eye of his, no further words were needed. Ziya must have seen something!

At this moment, Jiang Ziya was currently staring with wide eyes at the shadow steadily covering the window. He wanted to follow Lu Yang’s advice to turn and immediately leave this strange place. However, his body felt as though it had entered an icehouse, and his legs were like two ice pillars frozen to the ground—they couldn’t move at all!

He could only look on as the darkness covered the entire window, and then a long tendril of shadow extended outward. Like a hand, it tried pressing against the gla.s.s window, as though it was testing the waters. Upon discovering that it could not go through, it still did not give up, but merely continued to use more strength. A faint crackling sound came from the gla.s.s, like it was under excessive pressure.

Not good! Jiang Ziya instantly shouted, “Get down!”

As he shouted, he pounced toward Li Yao, and without any hesitation, Lu Yang got down while hugging the girl in his arms. The four of them had not even touched the ground when the gla.s.s window exploded. The fragments flew in all directions, and as luck would have it, the notice board on the wall also had a gla.s.s frame. After the gla.s.s fragments. .h.i.t it, it actually exploded into pieces too.

The sound of the explosion was mixed with screams from Li Yao. The three of them stuck closely to the wall. Their surroundings were a complete mess. Even the picture frame hanging on the wall had around ten sharp gla.s.s fragments sticking through it. It definitely wasn’t a simple matter of a window breaking. Saying that it exploded was more like it!

Gla.s.s shards were scattered all over the floor. Although the explosion had already ended, Jiang Ziya continued to hug Li Yao while keeping a tenacious grip on Lu Yang, not allowing him to get up. Lu Yang’s reaction was at first doubtful, but following that, his expression changed. He followed suit. Each of them hugged the girl in their arms tightly and kept their bodies pressed to the wall.

Above their heads, a black shadow crept through the window, and the shadow covered the four of them…

Jiang Ziya felt his whole body stiffen, and he could barely glance at Lu Yang through the corner of his eye. He did not have to ask. Just by looking at Lu Yang’s expression, he was certain that Lu Yang could see it as clear as day. This time, it truly wasn’t something that only his accursed left eye could see!

The shadow became thicker and thicker, and the thing above his head was within his vicinity. Jiang Ziya told himself repeatedly not to look upwards at all costs. According to his personal experience, pretending not to have seen it was definitely the best way to deal with the situation. Especially for this kind of thing that felt very abnormal, because they loved to follow people who could see them. Therefore, one must never look up at it!

However, it bent over and lowered its head, looking down at everyone present.

Jiang Ziya finally understood what the thick shadow was. It was actually its black robe.

It was the death G.o.d from this morning.

Its disproportionately large skull was buried in its enormous and thick black shadow. In its eye sockets that were like deep cavities, two b.l.o.o.d.y eyeb.a.l.l.s swivelled around. First, it stared at Jiang Ziya, their eyes meeting each other. However, in the next moment, it turned away to look at the others, seemingly having no interest in Jiang Ziya.

Since our eyes have already met, it’s probably too late to pretend that I can’t see it, right? Jiang Ziya felt a little like fleeing right away, but he still had a girl in his arms, and the thing above him was simply too frightening. What he was afraid of was agitating the death G.o.d if he started running, while staying still might be safe. If he angered it, being stomped to death might even be a possibility!

Jiang Ziya could only hope that the death G.o.d would quickly leave by itself. However, the more he hoped so, the more it appeared otherwise. The death G.o.d seemed to have finally found its target. It moved, and a clacking sound pa.s.sed by his ears. By reflex, Jiang Ziya lifted his head up to look toward the window, and then he immediately regretted it.

The clacking had actually been the sound made by its skeletal hand that had been propped behind the window. Because he was too focused on the shadow just now, he hadn’t noticed that there was something even more terrifying right beside him.

That hand steadily came down, and Jiang Ziya could only s.h.i.+ft to the side desperately. However, once Jiang Ziya’s hand touched the floor beside him, he felt a sharp pain. The floor was covered in gla.s.s shards. Only the area under the window where they were lying was somewhat cleaner.

With no escape routes, Jiang Ziya could merely turn back to see whether the skeletal hand would capture him soon. With this glance, however, he discovered that he wasn’t the target of the death G.o.d at all. Its claws reached in the direction of Lu Yang—

Without any hesitation, Jiang Ziya reached out to grab the sleeve of the death G.o.d. However, he was not able to grab anything. The shadow robe was actually like fog and scattered the moment he touched it. He became anxious and could only pounce on that skeletal palm—

“Don’t touch it!” Lu Yang shouted out sternly. “Ziya, you’d better retreat!”

Jiang Ziya was stunned, and his hand froze in mid-air. However, he didn’t want to just look on as the death G.o.d came for Lu Yang. What should he do if it really dragged Lu Yang to h.e.l.l?

However, he didn’t expect that the hand’s target wasn’t Lu Yang either. It kept pointing at the girl who was currently in Lu Yang’s arms, Lin Zhixiang!

Lu Yang first moved the girl away from the hand to avoid the death G.o.d. Following that, he made a motion that completely puzzled Jiang Ziya. His index finger and his middle finger on his right hand were put together, and he raised them up straight. His thumb then connected with his ring finger…

“Natural order of Heavens and Earth, disperse the foulness from the air, mighty G.o.ds of the eight cardinals, cut down demons and bind evil…”

To think that he even started an incantation!

As an incantation, the kind that Jiang Ziya had only ever heard of in movies, rolled out from Lu Yang’s mouth, Jiang Ziya stared dumbfounded at his good friend. Moreover, Lu Yang was chanting such a long piece, yet every word was clearly audible. It didn’t seem at all like the work of someone who was on death’s door and was just randomly chanting, “Buddha bless me, Guan Yin help me.”

“… Let the evil impurities dissolve away, let Taoism last for all eternity, let this imperial decree of Taishang Laojun4 be heard—obey!”

Lu Yang showed no signs of fear, and both his fingertips pointed at the hand of the death G.o.d. Jiang Ziya was just about to break into a scolding of “Do you not want your hand anymore—?” when he saw a silver light appear from the side of his fingers. Once this silver light appeared, the skeletal hand actually flinched.

Lu Yang turned his fingers, and the silver light too turned along with him. The light gradually manifested into a long shape, and it actually became a sharp elongated blade of a sword. As it continued to extend, the front became a sword tip and the back a hilt. It then contracted and solidified, becoming a real sword; or at least to Jiang Ziya, it was real enough.

As Lu Yang commanded it with his fingers, the sword too started dancing as well. It swung at the death G.o.d’s hand, but the death G.o.d managed to dodge in time. This attack only cut through the black robe and didn’t land on the hand at all. However, what was. .h.i.t was the section right above its hand. Logically, it should have cut through his arm. Instead, there was nothing there, as though the hand floated by itself in mid-air, without any arms to support it.

Even so, the slash seemed to have an effect on it. The death G.o.d actually did not dare to approach anymore.

Lu Yang raised his fingers in front of his chest, and his sword moved in front of everyone, protecting them, as though it was a bodyguard. Once again, he started chanting, “Natural order of Heavens and Earth, disperse the foulness from the air…”

All thanks to that sword, the incantation seemed to have even more of an effect. The hand of the death G.o.d did not dare get any closer, and it steadily retracted the upper half of its body. This continued until Lu Yang finished his last line of “Let this imperial decree of Taishang Laojun be heard—obey!” With a serious expression, he pointed both his fingers at the death G.o.d, and the sword tip stabbed straight at the death G.o.d’s chest.

However, Jiang Ziya felt that the death G.o.d seemed not to mind this attack as much as the last one. When Lu Yang had attacked its hand just now, it seemed to have pulled back a lot more. Its b.l.o.o.d.y eyeb.a.l.l.s had stared at the sword without moving, rather like it was restraining its fear. On the contrary, when the attack landed on its chest, it stopped drawing back and seemed as though it didn’t mind much.

“Ah Yang, don’t attack its chest. Aim for its face!”

Lu Yang paused and tilted his fingertip. The sword immediately moved upwards and pierced its way toward the skull.

Jiang Ziya stared fixedly at the expressions and movements the death G.o.d was making—though there was not much left of its face, once the sword had changed directions and aimed at its head, it immediately opened its mouth and let out a roar. Jiang Ziya actually did not hear any sounds, but he could at least tell with his eyes that its two rows of teeth had spread open wide, probably wide enough to even be able to swallow a human’s head whole.

Attacking its face was, as expected, the correct choice!

Just as the sword was about to hit it, the surroundings suddenly erupted in light. It was so bright that it hurt Jiang Ziya’s eyes and rendered him nearly blind, especially in his left eye. The sudden light caused him to start tearing up.

So did the blow connect or not? What is going on with this light? Please don’t let Lu Yang be the one who was. .h.i.t…

Footnotes

1 “Chiung Yao”: The penname of a popular Chinese romance novelist based in Taiwan. One of her most famous works is還珠格格 (huánzhūgégé), otherwise known as “My Fair Princess,” “Return of the Pearl Princess,” or “Princess Returning Pearl.” For more information, see /wiki/Chiung_Yao.

2 “Department gra.s.s”: In Chinese, the most beautiful girl in the school, the school beauty, is called the school flower (校花). In companion to that, the handsomest guy of the school is called the school gra.s.s (校草), though it is not used as often as school flower. Lu Yang is considered the handsomest guy in his department, so he is called the “department gra.s.s.”

3 “Who’s gra.s.s, you’re gra.s.s”: There’s a crude pun here because in Chinese, the word used for gra.s.s sounds exactly the same as the word for f***. So to Li Yao, what it sounds like they’re saying is “I f***, You f***.”

4 “Taishang Laojun”: Literally translates to “The Grand Supreme Elderly Lord.” It actually refers to one of the Taoist deities. (For more information, please visit: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daode_Tianzun)

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