The two of them remained still for a moment, quietly observing the situation.
The shadowy figure in the distance was also clearly startled. It seemed to have heard their conversation and did not advance for quite some time, as if analyzing the situation as well.
After a brief pause, both sides cautiously moved forward. The shadow in front of them revealed a familiar face—it was Joe, with deep-colored hair and blue eyes, a golden eagle necklace hanging on his chest.
Upon recognizing them, Joe let out a long sigh of relief, but he also seemed somewhat disappointed. “It’s not you two,” he said.
Chu Qianli had previously argued with Joe at the main hall entrance. She hadn’t expected to run into him again at Tingfeng Xiyu Tower. Hearing the underlying meaning in his words, she felt puzzled.
“Have you seen anyone else?” Joe asked.
“If we did, we should probably pretend we didn’t, right? After all, we all snuck in early to investigate,” Chu Qianli quipped. Then, noticing that he was alone, she casually asked, “Where’s your partner?”
At the mention of this, Joe lowered his head, looking worried. “They just arrived at the hospital. Their condition is stable for now, no fatal injuries…”
Tan Muxing was surprised. “The person who got injured and withdrew from the competition last night—was that your teammate?”
Huang Jue had mentioned during breakfast that a foreigner had been injured and withdrawn from the competition, likely attacked by the vengeful ghost of the haunted house. He had even mocked them for lacking skill. Unexpectedly, it turned out to be Joe’s group.
Chu Qianli raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t you guys supposed to have a guardian spirit? How did you still get hurt?”
“Our guardian spirit can only ward off evil, but someone deliberately attacked us last night!” Joe frowned. “My teammates and I split up after entering the building, but they inexplicably fell down the stairs. Someone must have pushed them.”
“We performed a ritual before entering, so it couldn’t have been an attack from an evil entity. It must have been a living person,” Joe said angrily. “I suspect someone has been lurking here all along, deliberately harming candidates who come to investigate. They even spread rumors that the ghosts here are too powerful for us to handle!”
According to Joe, he and his teammates studied runes from the Norse guardian deity system and were well-known in overseas mysticism circles. His teammate’s injury and withdrawal had a huge impact on other foreign practitioners, causing many to panic and abandon the second round of selection.
The same situation was occurring in China’s metaphysics community. Some domestic practitioners who suffered fractures had likely encountered the same group of people. It was no longer a matter of ghost attacks but rather someone deliberately playing tricks.
Joe was furious. “These people framed my teammate and smeared our reputation. Now I’m being laughed at all over the European circles!”
Joe and his team had a strong presence in European mysticism circles, but with their group suffering heavy losses on the first night, many of their peers were now gloating over their misfortune.
“Be more confident. It’s not just Europe—the laughter has spread worldwide,” Chu Qianli said. Then, as she looked down and edited a message, a hint of worry flashed in her eyes. “If someone is pushing people down the stairs, we should warn Sister Rujing. Let’s go meet up with her first.”
Although Chu Qianli and Joe had clashed at the main hall entrance, both sides had their own principles—they wouldn’t attack others with spells or have any intention of harming lives.
Chu Qianli and her group weren’t afraid of ghosts or spirits, but defending against real people lurking in the shadows was a different challenge. That wasn’t something fortune-telling alone could prevent. They had just parted ways with Mei Rujing, which was eerily similar to Joe’s experience last night. There was no guarantee they wouldn’t run into trouble.
Tan Muxing asked, “Did Sister Rujing reply?”
“No, she might not have seen it,” Chu Qianli said, then calculated using her fingers. “Let’s just pinpoint her location directly.”
They weren’t particularly familiar with Joe. After this brief encounter in Tingfeng Xiyu Tower and hearing about his teammate’s tragic situation, they didn’t have much else to discuss.
“I’ll go find those people then,” Joe said without lingering. He waved goodbye to them and set off on his journey for revenge.
Tan Muxing was stunned. “You’re really going after them?”
“Yes, my companion left some traces yesterday, but I haven’t seen those people during the day. My guardian spirit says they’re still in the building, mostly active at night. The traces are about to disappear—I have to hurry.”
All mystical arts have time and condition limitations. If the traces Joe had disappeared, there would be no proof left.
Chu Qianli watched Joe leave resolutely and muttered in a daze, “How is this foreigner so confident? Doesn’t he realize he might be like the ‘Calabash Brothers saving their grandfather’?”
Chu Qianli still remembered that Joe’s companions were all tall and strong. If they were ambushed even as a group yesterday, wouldn’t he be in even greater danger going alone now?
However, the two of them had no time to persuade the determined Joe. Finding Mei Ru Jing, who was alone outside, was more important.
At the sealed elevator entrance, Mei Ru Jing was quite surprised to see the two of them rushing over. She asked in confusion, “Why are you here so soon? Didn’t we agree to meet by the railing?”
“This should be the elevator where the murder happened. I just cast a divination and saw that a woman fell to her death in the elevator shaft over ten years ago…” Mei Ru Jing frowned. “But the hexagram here is too ominous. I’ve encountered cases of accidental death before, but none as foreboding as this one—not even those where multiple people perished.”
Chu Qianli quickly asked, “Forget about that for now. Have you encountered any suspicious people, Sister Ru Jing?”
“Suspicious people?”
Tan Muxing explained, “A foreign practitioner said his companion was pushed down the stairs here yesterday.”
“That’s absolutely insane!” Mei Ru Jing was shocked. “I don’t think I encountered anyone, but after I entered, I kept hearing the sound of the wind. I couldn’t tell where it was coming from.”
She suddenly realized, “So that’s why you came specifically to find me?”
Chu Qianli made a firm decision. “We should move together. History has shown that being alone never ends well.”
Just then, a wailing scream suddenly echoed from upstairs, piercing through the silence and darkness of the building.
Tan Muxing and Mei Ru Jing instinctively turned their heads to locate the source, while Chu Qianli’s eyes widened in alarm. “That history lesson came a little too fast!”
“Could that foreigner have already been taken out?” Mei Ru Jing hesitated. “Huang Jue said the people who withdrew from the competition never saw a ghostly figure. But if this foreigner saw the culprits’ faces, I doubt they’d let him live.”
The competitors who withdrew during the day hadn’t seen their attackers, so they had no way to identify them and naturally assumed it was the work of ghosts.
However, Joe had claimed to have a guardian spirit and was determined to capture the culprits. If those people wanted to stay in the competition, they would have to get rid of Joe, who had discovered the truth.
Chu Qianli had never seen the people attacking the competitors before, so she could only use Joe’s features for divination. After a moment, she frowned. “This is bad… The signs don’t look good.”
When she first met Joe and his team, she had sensed that their luck was poor. She initially thought Joe had miraculously escaped disaster yesterday, but now that she took a serious look at the divination, his fate might actually be worse than his companions’.
Tan Muxing suggested, “You two stay here. I’ll go up and check.”
“We go together. No splitting up,” Mei Ru Jing said decisively. “In this kind of situation, we can’t afford to separate.”
The wailing sound quickly faded, and soon, the building returned to an eerie silence.
The three of them cautiously climbed the stairs toward the source of the scream. The corridor was pitch dark, so much so that they couldn’t even see their hands in front of them. They couldn’t risk using a flashlight and alerting any potential threats.
The cries seemed to have come from the third floor. But when Chu Qianli and the others arrived, they found nothing—the rooms were empty, and Joe was nowhere in sight.
None of them dared to make a sound. Chu Qianli tugged on Tan Muxing’s sleeve and gestured in a certain direction, indicating that the hexagram pointed there.
Mei Ru Jing scanned the surroundings and casually picked up an old, worn-out cue stick from the corner, readying herself.
Chu Qianli carefully maneuvered behind a couch and finally found Joe in a corner, his face bruised and swollen.
Joe had been tied up with thick ropes, unable to call for help. When he saw Chu Qianli, he struggled desperately, shaking his head furiously to warn her not to come any closer.
At that moment, a dark figure suddenly lunged from behind the thick curtains, attacking Chu Qianli at lightning speed—it was as if they had been lying in wait all along!
“Star!” Chu Qianli gasped and quickly retreated. Then, in a split second, she nimbly darted toward Joe, seizing the opportunity to untie his ropes.
Tan Muxing immediately stepped forward to take Chu Qianli’s place, grabbing the foreign brute who had attacked and trying to subdue him.
Joe’s bindings were only halfway undone when he shouted, “There’s more than one!”
As Chu Qianli was untying Joe’s hands and feet, she suddenly felt her hoodie being yanked upward—like a helpless baby animal caught by a predator.
Beyond the first brute who had distracted them, there were still more assailants hiding behind the curtains!
There were five or six attackers on the third floor. Seeing that only three people had come upstairs, they used their superior numbers to swarm and surround them!
Mei Ru Jing, trained and agile, showed no hesitation. With an impassive expression, she swung the cue stick, striking down a charging brute with ruthless precision.
Tan Muxing initially hesitated to use force, but when he saw Chu Qianli being grabbed by the collar, a trace of panic flashed in his eyes. Yet, before he could act, two more burly attackers lunged at him.
The assailants clearly recognized Tan Muxing as the most physically capable threat. They sent only one person to deal with Mei Ru Jing, while the rest ganged up on him!
“I really don’t like violence,” Tan Muxing murmured, his gaze flickering. At first, he only tried to restrain his opponents, but now, he pressed his lips together, and at last, he threw a powerful punch. He barely whispered, “…But I will protect her.”
His punch sent two attackers flying at once, slamming one directly into another behind him!
Even in his wrestling days in the shamanic village, Tan Muxing had never dared to use his full strength. But seeing Chu Qianli in danger made him panic—this was the first time he had truly lashed out at someone!
He had always disliked using this power, but now, he needed to hold onto something.
The brute who had grabbed Chu Qianli, like a hunter taunting a bear cub, had no time to react before a heavy blow struck him. He crashed into the solid wall, letting out a pained wail.
Chu Qianli, now free, swiftly leaped away, turning her back on the battle. She frantically worked to untie Joe’s ropes and urged him, “Go help Star and Sister Ru Jing!”
Joe was staring at the battlefield, his pupils contracting in disbelief as he trembled and said, “…My friend, do you still think they need help?”
Chu Qianli had been focused on untying the ropes and hadn’t seen the fight. But Joe had witnessed the rampaging bear state in full view, making her offer of help seem utterly ridiculous!
When Chu Qianli turned around, she was instantly stunned—the fight was already over. The five or six burly attackers lay groaning on the ground, clutching their stomachs in pain, unable to get up for quite some time.
Mei Ru Jing tossed the cue stick aside and couldn’t help but look at Tan Muxing in disbelief. “This is beyond my expectations.”
Tan Muxing had always followed quietly in the background, leaving little impression. Mei Ru Jing had never thought of him as the “muscle” of the group.
The last time she had seen such an exaggerated one-versus-many battle was in martial arts films. Yet, she had actually mistaken a bodyguard for a babysitter—what an absurd joke!
Chu Qianli was utterly bewildered. “This is…”
Tan Muxing averted his gaze, unwilling to expose the fact that he had been so aggressive. He didn’t want to leave her with a bad impression of his rough behavior, so he murmured softly, “Ru Jing and I worked together.”
Mei Ru Jing: “?”
What teamwork? Since when was I part of this “shared victory”?!
I am just a novice translator and Chinese is not my native language. I try my best to translate the chapters as accurate as possible.
If there are any mistakes then kindly comment and remind me. Your support means a lot.
