Chapter 124: The Old Laboratory Building

The moment the scream pierced the air, I heard a sharp snap—like a cell phone hitting the ground—followed by dead silence.

My nerves tightened instantly. Ignoring the exhaustion racking my body, I bolted toward the dormitory exit. As I burst out, I ran straight into the resident assistant, who was busy lecturing a group of freshmen who had just returned from the internet cafe. Without a word, I snatched the keys from her hand, unlocked the door, and sprinted away.

Behind me, the woman’s roar echoed through the night: "Wu Dao! What the hell are you doing, you little brat? Don't think I won't call your counselor!"

I didn't even look back, heading straight for the old laboratory building.

On our campus, the old lab building sat behind a small grove of trees next to the basketball court. That grove hadn't existed before the building was abandoned; it had been planted specifically to shield the structure from the new campus after the rumors of it being a "ghost building" began to circulate.

As I ran through the grove, the surroundings felt eerie and cold. When I finally reached the entrance of the lab building, the sight before me made my heart skip a beat.

Under the dim, pallid moonlight, the six-story structure loomed like a colossal tomb. Its walls, long neglected and weathered by rain and wind, were choked with creeping ivy that, from a distance, looked like countless ghostly claws reaching out. The iron-chained front gate stood like a gravestone—silent, cold, and unsettling.

I pulled out my phone, clicked on the flashlight, and instinctively checked the time: 11:30 PM.

Shining the light toward the gate, I saw that the rusted padlock had been pried open, leaving a gap in the iron doors. My scalp crawled. I couldn't fathom what had possessed Dadi and his friends to come to this place and stir up trouble.

I took a deep breath, stepped toward the gate, and pushed it open.

With a shrill creak, the iron gave way. I stepped inside with extreme caution, and the moment I crossed the threshold, the air temperature seemed to plummet. Looking up at the building, I saw thick, black mist swirling around it, rising toward the sky and coalescing into a dark cloud that threatened to swallow the moon.

"Such powerful yin energy," I muttered, taking a steadying breath. "You don't even need 'yin-yang eyes' to feel it."

"Liu Yi!"

I stood in the entrance and called her name softly, but the building remained deathly silent. There was no response.

I called out for Dadi, Jiang Chao, and Li Fengyu next, but again, there was nothing. Logically, in such a quiet space, even the sound of light footsteps should have been audible. If they were truly inside, it was impossible for them not to have heard me. For a moment, I wondered if Wang Dan had been playing a prank on me.

I pulled out my phone and dialed Wang Dan’s number. The instant the call went through, a strange, piercing, and eerie cackle erupted from a classroom somewhere deep within the building.

With my nerves already frayed to the breaking point, the sound made me jump, and I let out a curse. That idiot Liu Yi had actually set such a horrific ringtone.

I rushed into the old building, following the sound. Searching for the source was agonizing; the ringtone was so terrifying that I considered hanging up several times. The bizarre melody echoed through the entire structure. Finally, I found Liu Yi in the restroom at the end of the second-floor hallway.

She was unconscious beside the sink, her phone lying next to her, the screen flashing rhythmically as that grating, shrill sound made my skin crawl. I hurried over and ended the call, finally silencing the noise.

"Liu Yi! Liu Yi!"

I crouched down and called her name, but she remained unresponsive. I reached out and pressed hard on her philtrum. After a sharp, gasping breath, she snapped her eyes open.

Liu Yi wasn't as ethereal as beauties like Bai Ruoshuang or Qin Yu, but she was undeniably striking. However, the moment she opened her eyes, they were bloodshot—a haunting, crimson red that gave me a shock. Her beautiful face was twisted in terror as she screamed at me, "Don't come over! Get away! Go away!"

"Liu Yi, it's me!" I grabbed her flailing hands and shouted.

Hearing my voice, she quieted down. She stared at me with those blood-red eyes for several seconds before throwing herself into my arms, sobbing.

I froze, but didn't pull away. I let her cling to me for nearly half a minute, her entire body trembling as if she had been through an ordeal of extreme horror.

When she finally calmed down, I pushed her back slightly and asked, "What happened here? Where are Dadi and the others?"

"Ghosts, Wu Dao! There are ghosts!"

"What kind of ghosts?" I asked, my face expressionless. "And why on earth did you come to this old lab building?"

It was then, through her fragmented story, that I finally pieced together what had happened.

Earlier that evening, Dadi and Liu Dong had gone out to eat and had a bit too much to drink. As the alcohol took hold, Jiang Chao started acting wild, constantly shouting Liu Yi's name.

The group knew he had a crush on her, but Liu Yi’s standards were high, and she certainly didn't care for him, which had been a heavy blow to his ego. Because Jiang Chao was so fixated on her, he knew she had a strange obsession with the supernatural. He had muttered, "If only I could show her a ghost, she'd definitely look at me differently."

That comment had caught Dadi’s attention.

I had always warned Dadi never to let others know I practiced Taoist arts, and he had been good about keeping that secret. But tonight, he was drunk, and his judgment had vanished. He had slapped Jiang Chao on the shoulder and boasted, "Brother, call her! Your Brother Dadi can not only show her a ghost, I can even catch one for her to play with!"

At first, Liu Dong and Jiang Chao didn't believe him, dismissing it as drunken rambling. But then, Dadi began recounting the things we had experienced together, even explaining the real reason why he had been acquitted of murder after his past incident. The guys were stunned.

Dadi, fueled by his ego, started showing off, claiming he was a master of authentic Maoshan sorcery who could summon and capture spirits.

Jiang Chao immediately called Liu Yi. She was skeptical at first, but after some slick-talking from Jiang Chao, she agreed to meet them. Once she saw Dadi perform a trick—igniting a flame out of thin air—she was completely convinced. The way she looked at Dadi changed instantly, filled with pure admiration.

Jiang Chao was unhappy about her shift in attitude, but he held his tongue and told her, "I told you I wasn't lying. We'll show you a real ghost in a minute."

Liu Yi, excited, insisted they bring her roommate Li Fengyu and her boyfriend, Zhou Lei, claiming they were also fascinated by the paranormal.

Jiang Chao, desperate to impress her, agreed to everything. He asked Dadi if he could handle showing so many people a ghost and catching one. Dadi, forever a slave to his pride, boasted, "What's the difference between one person seeing it or ten? Your Brother Dadi can handle any demon or spirit out there!"

Even now, a flicker of Taoist fire still danced on Dadi's fingertip, looking impressive enough, but Jiang Chao and the others had no idea that this idiot had only been studying the *Maoshan Secret Records* for a short time—and that "fingertip flame" was the only trick he had actually mastered!