As the words left the mouth of the face, Kuang Feifan felt the desk above his head turn soft and icy. The thing pressed against the desk seemed to be reaching for him with a "hand" passing through the wood.

Kuang Feifan shivered, already sensing the face's "hand" touching the top of his head. Staring fixedly at the open-mouthed face, Kuang Feifan suddenly flicked his wrist, shooting a triangular paper talisman into the mouth, while reciting, "Divine Dragon Edict, borrow the law of Zhu Rong, the Southern Fire God! Ignite its body from within, Vanquish Evil!!!"

This talisman was supposedly purchased by Bai Ru from a professional. When she first told Kuang Feifan about it, he found it unbelievable—that such a thing had to be bought? Back then, before he believed in ghosts, he would have instantly pegged the seller as a consummate charlatan.

However, before using it, Kuang Feifan wasn't entirely confident; it was just that the situation was dire, and if he didn't use it now, his life would likely be forfeit.

He didn't know if the talisman originated from the legendary Daoists of Maoshan. Fortunately, his memory was decent; Bai Ru had only said the long incantation once, and now he recited every word perfectly.

As the last syllable of the spell left his lips, the talisman shot into the face's mouth instantly transformed into a ball of golden fire. The flame rapidly burned and spread outward, engulfing the face in a blaze within the blink of an eye.

Kuang Feifan instinctively recoiled, watching the face—like a piece of paper licked by flames—along with the body slumped on the desk, burn entirely to ash. It didn't even utter a scream; it merely managed a couple of faint squeaks before the fireball surged, and it vanished into nothingness.

Almost simultaneously, with a resounding crash, the skeleton that had been standing near the desk collapsed into a pile of bones, losing its controller. The skull tumbled onto the floor, rolling twice before Kuang Feifan, who had scrambled out from under the desk, smashed it to pieces with a PVC pipe.

"Looking at that grinning skull always upsets me," Kuang Feifan sighed, muttering to himself.

He glanced back at the desk. This talisman was truly extraordinary. Aside from some black ash, the tabletop was completely unharmed, looking as if it had never been touched by fire.

Seeing this, Kuang Feifan felt a pang of regret. He should have asked Bai Ru for more talismans. They took up no space, yet their power was immense—the perfect essential item for subduing demons, ghost hunting, or general travel.

Carrying the PVC pipe in one hand and the alcohol lamp in the other, with the fire-ball talismans tucked in his pocket, Kuang Feifan felt a surge of boldness. Using the faint light of the alcohol lamp, he swept his gaze across the laboratory. It appeared that besides the little ghost burned to ash, there was no other presence here.

He walked to the door, gripped the knob, twisted, and pulled. The door flew open. Stepping out into the hallway, he raised the lamp to illuminate the passage; besides the sound of his own breathing, everything was utterly silent.

Kuang Feifan was certain the ghost in the lab was not the same one he encountered outside the restroom. He and Bai Ru had previously discussed this in the lab; Kuang Feifan believed there should be at least four ghosts in this teaching building, including the student who had died just yesterday. Bai Ru, however, suspected there were more than four, possibly with the earliest ghost appearing before Principal Hao took office, though the reason remained unclear.

Kuang Feifan’s current mission was simply to buy time. He trusted Bai Ru was trying to locate the missing student. Although he couldn't fathom why the body hadn't been found, the absence of a corpse offered a glimmer of hope, and that alone was enough to make him try. To prevent the little ghosts from harming the missing student, he and Bai Ru had arranged for him to draw the ghosts' attention while Bai Ru searched for the student's whereabouts as quickly as possible.

It seemed the ghosts weren't taking him seriously. Calculating that only two had appeared, Kuang Feifan began to worry about Bai Ru’s situation. He needed to dispatch the ghost dealing with him quickly.

Kuang Feifan placed the alcohol lamp on the windowsill opposite the lab door. Turning back, he picked up the PVC pipe and sprinted toward the restroom. Time was critical; he couldn't afford to proceed cautiously, probing slowly. The two talismans in his pocket were his means of survival. He had briefly considered grabbing a bottle of sulfuric acid, but then realized that substance was likely useless against ghosts, so he abandoned the idea.

Between the biology lab and the restroom, there were two other labs: a physics lab and a chemistry lab. Both had been dark with locked doors when Kuang Feifan had run back and forth earlier, and he hadn't noticed anything unusual. But this time, the scene was different.

As he passed the physics lab and approached the chemistry lab, the lights inside suddenly flickered on. Both the front and back doors, previously sealed shut, silently swung open. Kuang Feifan involuntarily stopped, his eyes wide. He watched in astonishment as a crowd of students in school uniforms, clutching textbooks and carrying satchels, trickled out of the lab, looking as if a class had just ended. In his peripheral vision, he noticed other students still inside the lab—some tidying up equipment on desks, others milling about in small groups, yet he could hear not a single sound.

Even more unsettling was that the students emerging walked right up to him as if he were entirely invisible, passing directly through his body. The moment they passed through, a tingling numbness shot through him. When he turned back to see what happened to the students who had passed by, they had all vanished into a patch of darkness behind him, a darkness seemingly filled with a rolling, writhing mist that devoured their forms.

An illusion!

Kuang Feifan swallowed hard, wondering when he had fallen into the trap. Looking back, he didn't see the alcohol lamp on the windowsill, confirming that everything happening was his own hallucination—or perhaps an illusion forced upon him by some unknown ghost.

He turned back to face the continuous stream of approaching students and instinctively stepped back. Suddenly, he felt a chill in the hand that wasn't holding the PVC pipe; it felt like a small hand slipping into his palm, accompanied by a piercing, icy cold that shot up his arm from his wrist to his shoulder.

Kuang Feifan couldn't help but shiver violently, the sensation akin to plunging an arm into a cold storage unit. Simultaneously, a wave of cold numbness washed over half his body. He knew something was right beside him, but when he tried to look, his neck remained rigidly frozen.

The students continued to pass through him, and the coldness in his hand intensified. He felt as if half his body was already paralyzed. Gritting his teeth, he managed, with great effort, to raise his hand and shake off the small hand gripping his palm. Unexpectedly, he was hit hard on the lower back, causing him to stumble and fall to the floor.

But that moment allowed him to see one student, dressed in the same uniform, standing behind him facing him. As he looked up, the student's pale, vacant face suddenly flushed a dark green, becoming instantly ferocious and contorted. His eyes were wide open, staring fixedly at Kuang Feifan, the whites rolling grotesquely, and his hands had sprouted long, black fingernails. A faint aura of coldness emanated from his entire body, seemingly filled with infinite killing intent and malevolence—a stark contrast to the image of a ten-year-old student. His lower body was semi-transparent, appearing to float above the ground.

Behind this student-like ghost was the surging black mist. The students who had been walking out of the lab were gone, leaving only this fierce apparition staring at Kuang Feifan in the corridor.

Kuang Feifan tensed up as the ghost slowly raised its hands, apparently preparing to lunge at him. In a hurry, Kuang Feifan reached into his pocket with his hand that had barely regained mobility, intending to pull out the second talisman, but surprisingly, the ghost didn't rush forward. Instead, it flickered backward.

At the same time, wisps of gray smoke began to drill out of the mass of black mist in the darkness, rapidly taking on student forms. However, these figures were horrifying: some had faces mottled purple-black, others had mutilated limbs, some were gut-spilled, and still others were clutching their own heads. In an instant, all manner of terrifying visages, accompanied by a pungent stench of rot and malice, flooded the entire corridor.

Kuang Feifan was utterly horrified. There were at least twenty students here. How could this school have produced so many deceased spirits?

This was not something two talismans and a stick could resolve. Thankfully, though the scene was terrifying, Kuang Feifan’s nerves and courage had built up considerable resistance to such horrors. He finally understood the saying: extreme fear breeds extreme anger.

He pushed himself up, using both hands and feet, nearly rolling and scrambling forward down the corridor until he reached the restroom door. He lunged toward it and pushed hard, but the door remained firmly shut.

"Damn it, I'm seeing real ghosts..." Kuang Feifan swore loudly, but a thought suddenly sparked in his mind.

The approaching horde of ghosts were merely an illusion. He spun around abruptly, pressing his back against the restroom door, and through the ranks of ghosts slowly advancing toward him, his gaze locked onto the student-ghost that had first appeared behind him, not far away.

The semi-floating ghost was also watching him, its distorted mouth curving into a faint, mocking smile.

Kuang Feifan licked his slightly dry lips. Keeping his eyes locked on the location of that ghost, he slowly raised the PVC pipe he had been gripping and suddenly spun his body, flinging the pipe backward with his backhand.

The PVC pipe spun through the air, passing through the throng of spectral figures of various forms advancing on him, flying directly toward where the original ghost was floating.

The little ghost seemed momentarily stunned, a scornful smirk spreading across its face. It likely assumed Kuang Feifan was so terrified he’d gone mad and that this useless pipe could never hit its form.

As expected, when the pipe reached it, it passed straight into the ghost’s body, seemingly set to fly on past.

Just then, Kuang Feifan’s expression turned solemn, and the incantation burst from his lips: "Divine Dragon Edict, borrow the law of Zhu Rong, the Southern Fire God! Ignite its body from within, Vanquish Evil!!!"