Chapter 4: The Abandoned Teaching Building

  This teaching building has only four floors, on the east side of the entire school. The school's later buildings are slightly shifted to the west, so this building is a bit lonely. Many vines that have grown for many years have slowly covered the bottom of the entire building. Due to years of neglect, the original color of the teaching building can no longer be seen. The wall skin has fallen off badly, and the overall appearance is dull gray.

  With weeds growing all around, it looks even more desolate and bleak.

  It was already around 4 or 5 o'clock, the sun had not set yet, but it wasn't scorching hot either. We walked to the front of the old teaching building, the windows on the first floor were all boarded up from the outside with wooden planks. On the ground beside the main gate was a rusty chain and an old lock that had been discarded together with the chain, the lock's surface was covered in rust stains.

  The gate was wide open, with an old wooden frame and glass on top. The glass had long been shattered, and the broken pieces were filthy. Inside, it was pitch black, and from here, it seemed like a ferocious beast waiting to devour anyone who entered. It felt as if it led to another world. Even standing at the entrance, you could feel the chill emanating from within.

  "Master, or else I'll go back and prepare dinner for you guys, you come back early..." Jiang Paozi stuttered and finished, turned around and wanted to run away, but was kicked in the butt by the madman with a loud thud. He let out a painful cry, and Ho Nuo glared at him with one eye, he hummed and didn't speak anymore.

  I stepped into the dark entrance of the building. As soon as I walked in, a gloomy aura hit me in the face. Ruins are inherently places where evil spirits reside, belonging to the two black and five yellow categories, representing filth and disaster. However, this is a school, where there should be a strong positive energy, and the sound of students reading aloud should enhance it. I couldn't help but wonder how such a chilling atmosphere could exist here.

  In the pitch-black teaching building corridor, I turned on the flashlight that had been prepared in advance. Our footsteps echoed throughout the entire teaching building. This old building was built extremely unscientifically. The entrance was dark and empty, and only the outline could be vaguely seen, but a mirror was placed directly opposite the door. The corridor echoed with echoes. However, when it came to the fork in the road on both sides of the corridor, it became abnormally narrow. Both sides were old and worn wooden doors.

  As soon as I walked into this corridor, I felt extremely depressed. Suddenly a hand grabbed my arm, and when I turned around, it was Jiang Baozi. I looked at him with both anger and amusement.

  Hou Weiwei was probably a little scared in her heart, but she wouldn't show it. She just scolded Jiang Baozi: "Pfft, what's the use of your fat body? You're not even braver than a mouse."

  "Eh yo hey, I'm not afraid of heaven or earth, just ghosts and women, hehe!"

  After hearing Jiang Paozi's words, I and the madman stood still, looking at each other solemnly. Immediately turned around to look at Jiang Paozi. Just now, after Jiang Paozi finished speaking, I clearly heard a strange "heh heh" laughter. The voice was extremely out of tune with Paozi's voice, but because it was very low, it sounded like an unintentional lingering tone at the end of speech, and it was easy to overlook.

  After all these years of tempering, I am no longer the six-spirited Fang Xian from back then. Before turning my head around, I had already taken out two talismans from my bosom, in preparation for Jiang Hua's possible misbehavior, and would cast a spell immediately.

  But turning back, when the flashlight shone on Pangzi's face, he found that there was nothing unusual about him, only a fright, and said: "Master, Crazy Brother, can you two give me a signal before stopping? Almost crashed!"

  Huò Huàihuā was also startled by our simultaneous movements, her body leaning back and losing balance. Liáng Yǔhào quickly supported her with one hand, and she stood steady again.

  "Brother Fang, what's wrong?" asked Liang Yuhao.

  I furrowed my brow and looked at the madman, who also shook his head in confusion.

  I asked Pangzi: "What were you 'heh heh' laughing at just now?"

  "What? Who's laughing? I'm not a hen!"

  The madman patted me and said: "Take out the compass and take a look."

  I was also afraid that the fat man would be contaminated with some dirty things, so I took out the compass. However, the compass remained still and quiet without any movement, neither jumping nor turning back to the direction-of-travel needle, always pointing in one direction. I secretly let out a sigh of relief. Just as I was about to relax my guard, I suddenly discovered that the madman's whole body was like a tightly strung wild beast, his hands clenched into fists, and his thumb was pressing down on his index finger with force. His eyes were fixed intently on the direction pointed by the compass needle.

  From what I know of him, every time he makes this gesture, he is preparing for battle!

  The madman never shoots without a target, and I hurriedly grasped the talisman and asked him what was going on? What's wrong?

  The madman's eyes narrowed slightly as he said to me, "Something's off!"

  Huò Huàihuā said from the side, "What's wrong? I think you're looking for trouble. What's wrong here? Don't try to fool me, even if I don't understand the compass, I know that thing has a ghost and will naturally come back and forth, you see, the pointer is calm and still, no movement at all."

  The madman chuckled and said in a tone that was completely devoid of humor, "Little girl, do you know which direction the compass needle usually points to?"

  The madman said that, and I only felt a chill running up the back of my neck. My hair stood on end, and I suddenly lowered my head to look at the compass. No mistake, there was a problem, and it was a big one.

  The place where the needle is placed in the center of the compass is called Tianchi. The needle in Tianchi is called a magnetic needle. Due to the geomagnetic principle, the magnetic needle will accurately point towards the south and north without any interference around it. The red head of the magnetic needle points towards the true south direction.

  But I just noticed that the pointer was as steady as Mount Tai, but didn't realize that the direction it pointed to wasn't due south, but... due east! How is this possible?

  I immediately knew why the madman was on high alert. My compass is mostly used to detect ghosts, because I'm a spirit hunter, specializing in exorcisms and dispelling evil spirits. However, the madman is half a Feng Shui master, and his compass is mainly used for determining directions. So the angle he's paying attention to is completely different from mine, which is why he immediately discovered the problem.

  "Bang!" - Suddenly, a particularly crisp sound rang out, and in the entire quiet and somewhat eerie old teaching building, it was especially clear. For a moment, we didn't even dare to breathe.

  Just shine the flashlight quietly in the direction of the sound. Under this light, it was found that it was a strange black fragment. The madman picked up the fragment first and looked like a piece of tile.

  Liang Yuhao's face turned red as he said: "Fang, Brother Fang, don't be afraid, it was an accident. I, I was too nervous just now, so..."

  I reassured him with a glance that everything was fine. Along with the madman, I raised my flashlight and saw that the fragment should have been something that had fallen off somewhere long ago, it's normal for this old teaching building to have some broken tiles after years of disrepair.

  I signaled to the madman to continue walking forward, but as we walked, I felt that something was off. We turned back and found Jiang Paozi standing still in his original position with a pale face, not following us.

  "Hey, fatty, what's wrong with you now?"

  Ginger fatty finally came back to his senses, shaking off the fat on his body, and ran to our side in three strides, saying with a crying tone: "Master, Master... that, the fragment just now, seems to be, seems to be from the jar I moved out for the first time."

  I and the madman heard him say that, also looked at each other nervously, and quickly bowed our heads to take a look. The tile was pitch black, under the careful illumination of the flashlight, some raised patterns could be seen, but the fragments were too small, and it was impossible to see what the complete pattern should be.

  Huò Huò was a bit anxious and muttered: "I want to see, go out and take a look, find someone first, don't scare yourself."

  I comforted Jiang Pangzi a bit, and then continued to walk inside with the crazy people. After walking for a few steps, a dark empty space suddenly appeared on the left side. We shone our lights over there and found a pitch-black staircase leading directly upstairs. This is the typical layout of an old building, with staircases on both sides of the corridor that lead to the upper floors.

  Unlike modern buildings, each has its own separate staircase.

  "Let's go, go upstairs and take a look." The madman took the lead in walking upstairs, suddenly he seemed to step on something, his foot slipped, and he almost fell down, but he reacted extremely quickly, with one hand supporting himself, he jumped up and stood firmly on his feet.

  "What the f***? You scared me to death!" The madman cursed and looked down at his palm, only to find that it was stuck with a thick black substance, he had no idea what it was.

  As it was exposed in our line of sight, a smell that cannot be described as anything but putrid wafted out, making people feel somewhat uncomfortable.

  "Ugh, it smells to death! Hey, did you step on some cat or dog poop? How can it smell so bad?" Huo Mengmeng pinched her nose and took two steps back.

  The madman frowned: "How can there be mucus here? Whatever mucus should have dried up long ago."

  "Could it be... Wang Dong's urine?" said Jiang Pangzi in a trembling voice.

  The madman laughed and scolded: "I've heard of pulling black shit, but I've never seen anyone pee black urine. You pee a bit for me to see?"

  Jiang Pangzi stopped talking with a sullen face. Huo Mengmeng took out a tissue and threw it at the madman, and our group continued to walk upstairs. This time, we didn't encounter anything strange and successfully reached the second floor. As soon as we stepped onto the second floor, I heard Huo Mengmeng let out a terrified scream.

  Nothing has really scared me on this road, but the girl's deadly scream startled me so much that I was completely frightened, and the madman also jumped up with a conditioned reflex and shouted: "What are you doing?"

  Huò Huò Huò suddenly threw herself into the madman's arms, her head buried deep in his chest. She stretched out a hand and pointed upwards with a trembling voice, saying: "T-there, t-there's someone hanging up there!"