Chapter 6: The Bewildered Mind

  Darkness, endless darkness. If I hadn't brought the flashlight to illuminate this dark corridor, I would have thought my eyes had gone blind. The ninth floor, we've been wandering around the ninth floor, and that big "9" has become quite terrifying, twisted like a blood-red snake, coldly staring at us as we pass by it time and again.

  "Clang clang" With a handheld sharp blade, Teacher Xu appeared in front of us with a ghostly air. Her tongue licked the blood on the tip of the knife, and she said with great relish: "The blood of those two children is really delicious!" I felt a wave of nausea, and Ye Zikai roared at Teacher Xu: "Anyway, I'm already dead! If you want to kill me, just do it, let the others go!"

  "Dead?" Mr. Xu's eyebrows rose, and he laughed so hard that his waist bent down: "Kids are just kids, they're simple-minded to the point of being deadly!" I was somehow led by a strange thought, "Actually, they haven't died yet, right? Mr. Xu." I felt a slight chill when I calmly asked this question.

  "Originally, none of them were dead, but those two children just now really died." Teacher Xu dragged his knife and walked towards us step by step, with a gleam in his eyes that seemed to be taking aim at its prey. Ye Zikuo and the others stood frozen on the spot, still stunned by Teacher Xu's words. "You guys retreat!" I stepped forward to stand in front of Ye Zikuo and the others. "That curse isn't a death curse, it's a soul separation curse! The real you should be in the corpse pool, what's here now is just your consciousness separated from your body!" I blurted out this string of words that even I didn't fully understand. But I clearly saw the expression in Teacher Xu's eyes, confirming the truth of my words.

  This is the suspicious point, how can a dead person be unaware of his own death? Wang Xue and others had hopeful glows in their eyes, all smiling to themselves saying: "I'm not dead yet, great."

  I couldn't laugh, because Zhou Wei and Zhang Yi were really dead, and I had indirectly killed them. All my previous reasoning was wrong. I felt like I was going to collapse, my hands shaking uncontrollably. "What happened to Zhou Wei and Zhang Yi?!" I shouted, "Ahh, didn't I just say that they're already dead?! Look, this is their blood!" Teacher Xu held up the knife in her hand, staring at me with a seductive gaze.

  I took a step back, sneering: "You didn't kill their physical bodies, but rather the separated souls! Where did that blood come from? Are you trying to deceive me?" I said with a hint of hope that Zhou Wei and Zhang Yi were still alive. "Oh?! Ah, yes! What's going on with this blood?!" Xu Laoshi laughed seductively as she walked towards me, dragging her knife. A sound of something being dragged came from behind Xu Laoshi, it was the man, his hands were dragging Zhou Wei and Zhang Yi's corpses, their bodies covered in knife wounds, the smell of blood wafting intensely through the air. "I killed their physical bodies, their souls can't return, isn't that death?!" The man's hoarse voice struck me like a hammer.

  In a daze, Mr. Xu's knife was already at my neck, and Ye Zikuo tried to save me but was held back by Wang Xue and others. "Let's go!" Wang Xue said, while Zhang Xin and QiQi also pulled Ye Zikuo tightly saying: "We just lost our souls from our bodies, so we'll be fine once we return! So hurry up and escape!"

  Ye Zikui pushed them away and shouted: "Didn't we agree to leave together?! Why do you always think of leaving first when disaster strikes?!" "Slap!" Ye Zikui's face was slapped hard by Wang Xue, "Are you stupid?! I said those things before because I thought we were already dead. Now that we're still alive, are we supposed to give up our lives for people who have nothing to do with us?!" After saying that, she pulled Zhang Xin, Qi Qi and Liu Bei and ran downstairs.

  "Speak! Who are you!" Mr. Xu's knife had already scratched my neck, and blood was slowly flowing out. "Ye Zikuo! Hurry up and leave!" I shouted at him as he walked towards me. The man threw down Zhang Yi and Zhou Wei's corpses and also walked over slowly. Ye Zikuo's hand tightly grasped Mr. Xu's knife, trying to move it away. Mr. Xu's face suddenly disappeared, and then my face was covered in blood. On the ground lay Mr. Xu's corpse, and her head was rolling around on the ground with a gurgling sound. I stared blankly at the man holding the knife that had beheaded Mr. Xu, frozen in place. The man's expression was ferocious as he cursed: "Everyone here must come with me to accompany my son! You don't have the right to kill people!"

  The man lifted his head, smiled at me and said: "Welcome to join in!" I let out a scream, I could feel Xu teacher's blood all over my face, the fresh blood flowing from the corpse under my feet spreading around me, a huge sense of terror almost swallowed me up, but I couldn't stop trembling. The man pinched his fingers together and stared at my eyes, muttering something unknown.

  "Not good!" Ye Zikuo grabbed me and ran, while my consciousness began to blur. I was only running with Ye Zikuo's footsteps, my mind was in a mess, and my body was getting heavier and heavier, as if I was about to fall asleep. Was this the so-called "soul curse"? "Slap!" My head was slapped awake by this slap, and the drowsy feeling disappeared without a trace. In front of me was Ye Zikuo's relieved face. "Are you awake? You almost became like us." Ye Zikuo asked, leaning against the wall. I rubbed my face numbly and nodded: "Thank you."

  The next second, a tissue was wiping my face, and Ye Zi Ke said while helping me wipe it, "Isn't your courage quite big? You dared to fight hard with that man, how could you be scared by that scene and lose your mind?" "Sorry," I said. Now Zhou Wei and Zhang Yi are really dead, it's all because of me, it's all because of my previous wrong reasoning, causing the current situation. If something happens to Wang Xue again, then I can only use my life to atone for my sin.

  "You really are." Ye Zikuo raised his fist to hit me, looked at my dazed eyes, and put down his hand saying: "Are you an idiot?! Or were you born with such a low IQ?!" I sat on the ground with a thud, pitifully saying: "Zhou Wei and Zhang Yi were both killed because of me, everyone wanted to protect me, but they lost their lives in vain."

  "Can't you see that everything Miss Xu said was just to confuse us? Her goal has been achieved, and Wang Xue and the others have already run away! Ye Zikuo squatted down and hugged me: "Except for you, we are really dead. The corpses in the morgue are also real, your reasoning is not wrong, don't be misled by external voices or illusions, otherwise you will be in great danger!"

  I shook my head, crying: "No, you're not dead! You've been cursed with a soul separation spell, you're still alive!" Ye Zikuo asked calmly: "Oh, a soul separation spell? How do you know it's a soul separation spell?" I suddenly looked up at Ye Zikuo, and he continued calmly: "Don't you think that after Xu Laoshi appeared, your behavior has been very strange? And the way you said those inexplicable words, then Xu Laoshi naturally picked up where you left off... don't you think you just seemed like you had rehearsed it with her?" My mind became confused, yeah, how did I inexplicably say those words, and Wang Xue and the others believed me.

  "Eyes, when she appears, you've been staring at her eyes all along. Didn't I tell you? There's something hidden in her eyes." Yezi Ke looked down the dimly lit corridor and continued, "Ningxi, if you always let your emotions get the better of you, you'll only be led by the nose, understand?"

  I stared at this boy, who was smiling brightly like sunshine, speaking so calmly and maturely. I couldn't help but stare blankly at him. "Ning Lie, listen carefully, don't trust anyone here, don't look into anyone's eyes." Ye Zikai said while staring down the corridor. "Not even you?" I asked. "No, don't trust me either. Because no one knows when they'll be controlled next!"

  The first time I heard him speak to me in such a cold tone, I fell into inexplicable sorrow. "Are you awake? We need to hurry up and leave." Holding Ye Zikuo's hand, I followed him numbly, "Because we can't find the stairs going up, so we have no choice but to head downstairs." Ye Zikuo said calmly.