Just as the ghostly student’s hands were about to strike Kuang Feifan’s chest, the hands Kuang Feifan had held over his head suddenly dropped, seizing the student’s wrists. His fingers locked tightly onto the vital points, and his body simultaneously flickered to the left, narrowly dodging the two claw-like hands that swung in with residual force.

At that precise moment, Bai Ru’s hand, previously hidden in her pocket, shot out. With a flick of her wrist, she slapped a yellow talisman directly onto the center of the student’s forehead. Kuang Feifan watched her lips move as if chanting a spell, and the expression on the student’s face rapidly shifted from malicious to vacant, mirroring the movement of her lips. In a moment, his eyes rolled back, and his body went limp, collapsing onto the floor.

As the student fell, the two ghostly figures lurking by the restroom entrance vanished mid-air in a flash.

Only then did Kuang Feifan raise a hand to wipe the cold sweat from his brow, let out a breath, and ask, "All done?"

Truthfully, the preceding scene had left him rather tense. Everything had been decided in an instant. From the moment the student appeared in the doorway, Bai Ru had silently communicated with Kuang Feifan using hand signals. She recognized he was possessed and understood that without harming the student's body or soul, forced expulsion was impossible. Therefore, they had to wait for him to get close before sealing him, and then devise a way to drive out the spirit possessing him.

But matters were not as simple as they had envisioned. Although they successfully lured him over and sealed him, Bai Ru realized she currently lacked any tool capable of peeling off and capturing the malevolent spirit clinging to the student.

They carefully examined the student, who remained motionless with the talisman stuck to his head. By his appearance, they confirmed it was Li Jin, the student who had gone missing the previous night. They also noticed his hands were covered in dried blood. Bai Ru analyzed that it was highly probable Li Jin was possessed when he entered the restroom with Lin Rui last night and had subsequently murdered Lin Rui.

The thought of what the two students endured in that restroom weighed heavily on Kuang Feifan’s heart. Bai Ru’s expression was equally grim. She sighed. While they still didn't know the reason for the haunting in the school building, at least they had found the missing student and sealed the spirit causing the trouble; it meant the night hadn't been wasted.

"But two got away," Kuang Feifan murmured, frowning with concern.

"This whole situation is making me increasingly curious. Many threads are still untangled. I have a strong feeling there’s someone pulling the strings behind all this," Bai Ru murmured, squatting beside Li Jin, deep in thought, sounding as much like she was analyzing the situation as talking to herself, never directly answering Kuang Feifan’s question.

"Uh… Ru, are you okay?" Kuang Feifan’s worry instantly shifted from the ghosts to Bai Ru’s welfare.

"Mhm…" Bai Ru looked up, gazing at Kuang Feifan somewhat distractedly. After a long moment, her expression returned to normal. She managed a weak smile and shook her head, "I'm fine. I just can't think of a good solution right now."

Seeing the inescapable shadow of worry clouding Bai Ru's brow, Kuang Feifan’s heart clenched. He squatted beside her, trying to comfort her with genuine concern. "If you can't figure it out now, let's put it aside for a moment. What should we do with him?" He pointed to Li Jin lying on the floor. "Take him to the hospital?"

Bai Ru bit her lip, pondering for a moment before replying, "The hospital won't help, but we still need to find a secure location. We must drive out and capture the malevolent spirit possessing him using the safest method available."

Kuang Feifan was baffled. "How?"

Bai Ru stood up, looking at him. "You carry him. Let’s get out of here first. It looks like I need to call in an expert."

"Huh?" Kuang Feifan felt his role had abruptly shifted from Celestial Master’s assistant to manual laborer.

Because of the Exorcism Rod in Bai Ru’s hand, their exit from the Second Teaching Building was surprisingly smooth, meeting no resistance whatsoever.

They walked all the way to the school gate. Bai Ru stared intently at the bronze half-statue for a moment before she and Kuang Feifan got into her car. As they left the campus, Kuang Feifan glanced back at the guardhouse; the light was still on, but it was empty.

In the car, Bai Ru, unfazed, told him, "Don't worry about the guard. This ghost probably only targets the students."

Kuang Feifan paused. "What do you mean?"

Bai Ru shook her head thoughtfully. "I can't explain why. It's just a feeling."

Having said that, she instinctively turned her head toward the school gate, staring through the car window at the faintly outlined bronze statue. She had a growing conviction that the statue itself posed a significant problem.

Kuang Feifan glanced at Li Jin, now settled securely in the backseat, and asked with worry, "The immediate problem is how to save this student. Everything else can wait."

Bai Ru hummed and checked her watch. It was only eleven-thirty at night. It felt like they had been struggling for ages, but only three hours had passed. She pulled out her phone, hesitated for a moment, then scrolled through her contacts and dialed a number.

Before the call could connect, Bai Ru suddenly froze, pulling the phone away from her ear to look at the screen. Her expression shifted drastically, and she gave Kuang Feifan a peculiar look, which startled him into quickly asking, "What is it?"

"I have an incoming call... it’s from the hospital..."

"Uh…" Kuang Feifan felt a headache coming on. No need to ask; the hospital knew he had run off.

In fact, after Bai Ru finished taking that call, both she and Kuang Feifan were genuinely shocked. The call was from Xu Hui, the captain of Serious Crimes Unit Five. His first words were: "Kuang Feifan and He Shaoqing are both missing."

Hearing this, Bai Ru's face immediately grew serious. She sensed trouble. Kuang Feifan was right beside her—not missing. But He Shaoqing? He had been poisoned by corpse venom. Although he had taken his medication that afternoon, the toxins should only be slowly dissipating; there was no way he could have fully recovered in one afternoon. That didn't even account for the fact that he had been continuously unconscious. Even if he woke up, he wouldn't be able to get out of bed and move immediately.

The real question was: how could he possibly be missing?

Kuang Feifan was equally bewildered. His first thought was one of immediate regret for accompanying Bai Ru to the school to hunt ghosts; he should have stayed by He Shaoqing’s side.

However, that thought was fleeting. Dwelling on it now was useless. But He Shaoqing’s disappearance was certainly not straightforward. Bai Ru first informed Xu Hui that Kuang Feifan wasn't missing but was with her, undergoing some form of outdoor memory recovery therapy. Predictably, Xu Hui grumbled a few times, but owing to Bai Ru being a beautiful woman, his complaints were brief and polite.

When Bai Ru tried to inquire further about the circumstances of He Shaoqing’s disappearance while on the line, she was told that no one knew exactly when he vanished. Xu Hui's initial suspicion pointed to a window between eight and eight-ten in the evening, a conclusion drawn from reviewing hospital security footage just recently. During that ten-minute span, the video feed from every camera on the floor where He Shaoqing's room was located dissolved into static. Before that time, He Shaoqing could be seen lying in his bed; afterward, the room was completely empty.

Hanging up, Bai Ru and Kuang Feifan fell into a heavy silence. After a long while, Kuang Feifan broke it first, "I’ll go back and check."

Bai Ru glanced at Li Jin in the backseat. Kuang Feifan understood her unspoken thought. He gently took her hand. "I said, I'll go back. Here, you'll be completely alone."

Bai Ru wanted to smile, but the corner of her mouth only lifted slightly, failing to produce a real grin. She whispered softly, "Did you forget? I need to call for backup, but if you leave… I’m a little worried…"

Neither of them explicitly stated the obvious: He Shaoqing’s disappearance was definitely not as simple as him secretly getting up and walking out of the hospital, let alone being kidnapped. His vanishing surely involved some bizarre, inexplicable element, like the monstrous infant Kuang Feifan saw in his dreams.

To be honest, at this point, Kuang Feifan was certain of one thing: that monstrous infant hadn't died; it had followed them out of that small villa.

This truly was a case of "a vengeful spirit refuses to dissipate!"

But Kuang Feifan still didn't know how the infant managed to follow them out of the small building, or where it was hiding now. Was it just a wisp of resentment perpetually lingering near them?

While he hadn't left yet, Kuang Feifan decided to voice all the questions that had just surfaced in his mind to Bai Ru.

Bai Ru offered a wry smile. "When we were at the hospital, I truly didn't sense any ghosts near you or He Shaoqing. But looking back, your nightmare might actually be connected to the monstrous infant you mentioned. I suspect the spirit might have been formed by a newborn or unborn infant, one possessing immense vengeful power, evolving into an 'Evil Fiend' composed purely of malevolent energy."

"'Evil Fiend'?" Kuang Feifan repeated the term.

"You mentioned there was a monstrous infant and a small dried corpse in that villa; I believe you. That dried corpse was the infant's physical body. If it weren't for that final blow you delivered, severely damaging one of them, if the infant and the body had managed to merge, a combined vengeful spirit like that would be something very few people could handle."

Kuang Feifan sucked in a sharp breath. "You mean, if it weren't for us, that ghost would have become terrifyingly powerful, so strong no one could stand against it?"

Bai Ru nodded, then shook her head slightly. "There's a caveat. If you hadn't dug up their bodies, they wouldn't have merged in the first place."

"Uh…" Kuang Feifan was momentarily speechless.

Bai Ru considered this, then added, "But it’s not entirely fair to say you did everything wrong. This is inherently a contradictory problem; it can't be solved by conventional logic. In fact, to completely annihilate that vengeful Evil Fiend, the only way would be what you accidentally did to the female dried corpse—using He Shaoqing’s protective amulet combined with fierce fire to purify it. It’s just bad luck that you reanimated the small dried corpse and let it escape."

"Damn it, when you put it all together, if we hadn't gone in, none of this mess would have happened later," Kuang Feifan lamented.

Bai Ru paused briefly, then her mind suddenly raced, and she blurted out, "No, not necessarily."