Chapter Eighteen: The Strange Young Woman, Si Liren

Outside the classroom, he saw a figure.

“Huh? I didn’t expect a top student like you to get punished and stand in the hallway too.”

It was a refined-looking girl named Jiang Yuqi.

“I… didn’t rest well last night. I just dozed off and got caught by Teacher Zhu.”

Her voice was soft, tinged with fear.

Seeing her like this, Wang Hui didn’t press further, but he did notice a purplish bruise on her neck.

He didn’t dwell on it, his mind instead replaying the events from his recent dream.

Remembering the blood-red shadow that looked exactly like him, he couldn’t help but shiver.

Why… why was that dream so bizarre?

And the thing said it would show him true terror—was it referring to the math teacher’s face just now?

Well, that was terrifying enough…

But was that really just a dream, or was something truly strange reaching out to him through his sleep?

The more he thought about it, the more disturbing it became. Even by the end of the school day, a chill lingered in his heart.

The deeper he dwelled on it, the more frightening it seemed, until his mind felt unsettled, as if something foreign lurked inside his body.

“Wang Hui, let’s walk home together after school,” a sweet voice called.

Only then did Wang Hui realize classes were almost over.

“No, I’ve got something to do. I’ll head out first.”

It was Si Liren who spoke to him, the very girl who had pestered him so much yesterday that he’d ended up getting beaten.

At that moment, Si Liren suddenly fixed her gaze on his eyes, staring for a long while.

“What are you doing?” Wang Hui was unsettled by her look and quickly averted his eyes.

“Have you… felt unwell lately?”

“My health is fine.”

“No? I mean… have you felt like something’s wrong with your soul or something?”

“Soul? What are you talking about?”

“Oh, nothing, just my teenage drama acting up.” Si Liren laughed awkwardly. “You’ve got a shadow between your brows. If anything happens, be sure to tell me.”

Wang Hui shot her a look as though she were crazy, then asked blandly, “Never mind if there’s something wrong with me, shouldn’t you get your head checked out first?”

Si Liren was left speechless.

As Wang Hui was about to leave school, Si Liren glanced at him with a look of pure affection.

That single look was so full of feeling that even an innocent youth like Wang Hui, single since birth for seventeen years, felt his cheeks flush. Swallowing hard, he hurried away.

Meanwhile, inside his body, Xiao Zi stared blankly at the new purple orb in his soul.

“What’s this? What did that girl just put in him?”

Indeed, at the very moment Si Liren and Wang Hui locked eyes, something purple had been injected into Wang Hui’s soul.

By instinct, Xiao Zi sensed it was nothing good—and the aura from that girl was odd as well.

One thing was certain: there was no trace of anything supernatural about that girl, so she couldn’t be a spirit handler or a supernatural creature.

But after observing the energy fluctuations within her, especially the strange purple thing she injected into Wang Hui, Xiao Zi was sure she wasn’t an ordinary person either.

So why was she paying special attention to Wang Hui?

Not only did she warn him, but she also left something strange on his soul.

Xiao Zi felt this purple thing could only bring trouble.

He immediately absorbed the orb into his system.

The system was supposed to only absorb mission items, but it could take in other things too, making it a handy storage method.

Elsewhere, Liu Anran—the one who’d bullied Wang Hui before—watched all this from the shadows. Fuming, he clenched his teeth and made a call.

“Hello, Scar Bro? I need to borrow some guys from you, and the price is negotiable.”

That night, Si Liren somehow ended up sitting atop the town’s tallest television tower, dressed in a black Lolita dress, her long legs swinging in the air. She gazed toward a particular part of town, eyes narrowing.

“It seems my soul mark is useless against this kind of being. Their strength is at least C-class or higher. I don’t know which side they’re on, but since there was no attack, they’re probably aligned with me.”

Her gaze sharpened. “In that case, there’s no need to hide anything from Wang Hui in the future.”

With that, she disappeared into the boundless night.

...

“Damn! Where am I?”

Wang Hui suddenly snapped out of it, stunned to find himself on a dim, narrow path.

He felt as if he’d been sleepwalking, with no idea how he ended up here.

“Is there something wrong with my brain?”

His expression twisted in confusion, thinking that maybe Liu Anran had hit him too hard yesterday and damaged his head. He resolved to get checked out soon.

Just then, he heard a faint, almost inaudible sound from up ahead.

It sounded… it sounded like someone quietly calling for help…

But there shouldn’t be anyone in such a remote place, right?

Yet curiosity got the better of him, compelling him toward the source of the sound.

Following the path deeper in, it grew narrower and more deserted.

After some distance, the way suddenly opened up.

Directly ahead stood a ramshackle wooden hut, so dilapidated it seemed ready to collapse at any moment, offering no sense of safety at all.

A dark, oppressive aura radiated from the hut, making one instinctively want to stay away.

Combined with the dream he’d had earlier, Wang Hui’s adrenaline spiked, the hair on his back standing rigid, his heart pounding.

Yet his feet moved forward of their own accord, drawn by the urge to see what lay inside.

Peering through a rickety, swaying window, he saw only ruin and decay—hardly the kind of place where anyone would live.

Shaking his head, Wang Hui turned to leave.

But in that instant, he caught sight of a pair of blood-red eyes!

Those eyes glowed like crimson gems, dazzling and intense, filled with endless violence and terror.

With just a glance, Wang Hui felt himself plunged into hell, every pore in his body opening in a rush of panic.

Only after a moment did he see clearly the owner of those red eyes.

Before him sat a snow-white rabbit, cocking its head, staring straight at him with those bloody eyes.

The next moment, something even more shocking happened.

The rabbit’s mouth opened—and spoke in human language.

“You’re carrying a human scent.”