Chapter 125: Sneaking Out Behind the Girls’ Dormitory Building at Night

It had to be said that Qian Ming was a quite responsible and efficiency-oriented person.

After Su Chunfeng left his dorm room, he immediately went to the school’s Office of Academic Affairs. He reported to the Director of Academic Affairs that he had heard some resident female students recently started playing a summoning game called “Pen Spirit”. He said seriously and solemnly: “Although we know such supernatural things don’t exist, this game itself can greatly affect the students’ psychology. The incident of the female student jumping to her death in Dormitory Building No.1 the year before last had no conclusive cause… The biggest possibility is that the deceased suffered a mental breakdown while playing that game.”

These words made Director of Academic Affairs Liu Fuguo’s heart tremble.

He clearly remembered that the incident from the year before last eventually caused an extremely serious and negative impact. Moreover, he knew even better that high school students of this age were in a physiological rebellious phase. Their thoughts were changeable and unstable, their emotions fragile and prone to losing control. A slight misstep could lead to an irreparable mistake.

Therefore, Liu Fuguo immediately contacted the principal and reported this issue.

Since some faculty and staff would not be on campus in the evening, it was impractical to quickly convene a meeting to discuss this matter. So the principal decided to gather all the homeroom teachers the next day to hold a meeting. The topic was to strengthen the students’ correct worldview, oppose superstitious thinking, and all unhealthy games.

At the same time, Director of Academic Affairs Liu Fuguo quickly found several female teachers, including the person in charge of the Girls’ Dormitory Management Office. He instructed them to conduct a related investigation into this matter and provide psychological counseling to the students.

Calling it counseling was actually just criticism.

How many schools in those days paid any attention to real psychological counseling?

To be honest, within the entire Pingyang City, probably only No.1 Middle School had a real psychological counseling teacher.

And to prevent such an investigation from arousing students’ suspicions, thereby causing rumors on campus and leading to large-scale panic among the students, Liu Fuguo especially emphasized when giving the instructions: during the investigation and inquiry process, they must remain calm, the approach must be tactful, and they should not make a big fuss.

While all this was proceeding in full swing, Su Chunfeng was already sitting in the classroom, studying diligently.

As a master of Esoteric Technique, he knew that such a matter was indeed a big event for ordinary people, but for those in the Jianghu of Esoteric Arts… it was just a trivial matter.

Having Qian Ming take the lead to launch an investigation likely wouldn’t ultimately identify who the mastermind behind it was. After all, no Occultist was a fool who would personally come forward to encourage girls to play those summoning Planchette Writing games in school dormitories. The purpose of the investigation was merely to intimidate the potentially scheming Occultist lurking behind the scenes. And finding the small Magical Artifact secretly planted by this vile Occultist on the campus wall behind the Girls’ Dormitory Building was enough to make that Occultist feel some apprehension.

As for other things, Su Chunfeng really didn’t think much about them.

But what he didn’t know was that his somewhat motivational words, spoken to use Qian Ming and make him take the lead, filled Qian Ming, who was already full of a sense of justice and always had a hero complex, with soaring heroic spirit and an overflowing sense of justice. He was now determined to find the evil Occultist and eliminate him!

Su Chunfeng didn’t want to enter the Jianghu, so he carefully considered everything and exercised caution. Unless absolutely necessary, he would never attract hostility.

But Qian Ming felt that merely intimidating and stopping that scoundrel Occultist from using his Art Casting to harm people at No.1 Middle School wasn’t enough; he must be eliminated. Otherwise, he would go to other schools to harm people.

As for whether his full sense of justice would fully attract hostility…

Qian Ming had considered it, but still decided to proceed.

The reason was simple: although he felt some fear toward the mysterious, never-before-encountered Jianghu of Esoteric Arts, he was driven more by curiosity and a sense of justice, boiling with passionate yearning — the Jianghu! That was a world of justice and evil, flashes of blades and sword shadows, happily settling scores, and freely indulging in heroism!

Late at night, midnight.

Su Chunfeng silently got out of bed in the dark, put on his clothes, and went out quietly, closing the dormitory door.

He went along the hallway to the stairs and down. When he reached the stairwell entrance, the tightly closed window of the Dormitory Management Office still had its light on. However, the young, lazy-duty dorm manager inside was slumped on the table, fast asleep.

Su Chunfeng, who had originally planned to sneak by hunched over, felt somewhat angry at the man’s lack of effort. He strode openly past the Dormitory Management Office window and gave the irresponsible dorm manager inside a hard glare. He wondered if making a face and knocking on the window at that moment would scare the guy out of his wits.

The night was pitch-black; one couldn’t see their own hand in front of their face on the campus.

The biting north wind howled and raged under the thick cover of night. It swept up layers of snow particles from the snow piled in flowerbeds planted with evergreens, scattering them everywhere. They hit trees, doors, windows, and walls, making a rustling sound. Yet this only made the campus under the night sky seem more tranquil and peaceful.

Qian Ming was already waiting by the west wall of the Faculty Dormitory Building. He wore a thick black down jacket, his neck tucked in and hands shoved into his sleeves. He was pacing back and forth in the dark, freezing.

“Teacher Qian…”

“Ah.” Qian Ming, who was quite nervous and excited inside, jumped in fright.

“Let’s go.”

“Right.”

The two walked side by side towards the Girls’ Dormitory Building area.

As they walked, Qian Ming, still somewhat flustered and uneasy, said: “I say, Chunfeng, what if we run into a patrolling security guard? How do we explain ourselves?”

“You should figure that out; you’re the teacher,” Su Chunfeng said.

“Being the teacher makes it harder to explain,” Qian Ming said, tentatively suggesting: “You’re the student, so it’s easier to explain. At worst, you just sneaked behind the girls’ dorm to peek at girls or something… uh, that doesn’t seem right either. How would I explain following you? Sigh.”

Su Chunfeng said discontentedly: “Nonsense. I’m a model student! How can I take the blame for something like that?”

“Then what do we do?”

“How about we don’t go…” Su Chunfeng stopped walking.

“No, no, we have to go. Otherwise, the resident female students might be in danger!” Qian Ming urgently shook his head with a full sense of justice. “How about this: if we get spotted, we run separately. If that doesn’t work, we jump over the wall.”

Su Chunfeng nodded in agreement: “Good idea.”

Qian Ming thought to himself, damn, that’s clearly a bad idea born of a guilty conscience.

The two, harboring ulterior motives, crept and skulked secretly through the darkness, stealthily making their way to the vicinity of the Girls’ Dormitory Building. Then they were startled to discover that not only were the lights on in both buildings’ Dormitory Management Offices, but in one of them, they could see two female dorm supervisors chatting inside…

Damn, the danger level just went up again.

They looked at each other.

Su Chunfeng whispered angrily with resentment: “This is ridiculous. In the middle of the night, why aren’t they sleeping in their own rooms? What are they gathering to chat about?”

“Yes, the Director of Academic Affairs instructed them to pay more attention to the girls’ dorms at night to prevent any incidents…” Qian Ming felt somewhat regretful. Maybe tonight, to prevent an incident, he shouldn’t have been in such a hurry to report this to Director of Academic Affairs Liu Fuguo. He could have reported it tomorrow too.

Su Chunfeng asked: “So, are we still going?”

“We’ve come this far. Let’s go?” Qian Ming sounded a bit unsure.

“You said it!” Su Chunfeng turned his head: “Let’s move!”

Qian Ming thought to himself, why did Su Chunfeng’s tone sound like he was intentionally emphasizing that if something went wrong, I’d have to take the blame as the mastermind?

The two hugged the wall and quietly sneaked into the narrow alley behind the Girls’ Dormitory Building, which was less than four meters wide. They stood at the easternmost end behind Dormitory Building No. 2.

Su Chunfeng raised his hand, signaling Qian Ming to be quiet.

He slightly furrowed his brows and slowly walked westward, keeping close to the wall. While silently reciting a Spell Incantation in his heart, he began carefully sensing the subtle changes in the nearby Heaven-Earth Five Elements aura with his left hand forming a seal — if that small Magical Artifact were placed right in front of Su Chunfeng, he could immediately recognize and sense its esoteric aura. But since it was embedded in the wall and it was dark, Su Chunfeng needed to use a bit of his Art Casting to perceive its existence.

Qian Ming followed closely behind Su Chunfeng, not daring to make a sound.

After walking about ten meters, Su Chunfeng stopped. He looked up at the nearly three-meter-high dilapidated wall, raised his hand to signal Qian Ming, and whispered: “Come on, squat down…”

“What for?”

“There’s one up here. I can’t reach it; we need a human ladder.”

“Oh.” Qian Ming immediately supported himself against the wall and squatted down. “Come on up.”

Su Chunfeng didn’t stand on ceremony. He placed his hands on the wall, stepped one foot on Qian Ming’s shoulder, then stepped up with the other foot: “Alright, stand up slowly.”

“Right.” Qian Ming slowly stood up.

Before he was fully upright, when he was almost half-squatting, half-standing, Su Chunfeng whispered: “Stop.”

Qian Ming immediately froze.

Su Chunfeng reached out and felt around in a fairly deep crack in the wall where dust had fallen away over the years. Then he picked out a small object, exactly the same as the one Cui Hao had given him before, and put it in his pocket. He said: “Alright, slowly squat down. Don’t make any noise.”

“Right.” Qian Ming slowly squatted down.

Su Chunfeng carefully climbed down, not making a single sound.

Things went smoothly from then on…

As Su Chunfeng expected, and even more than the minimum three small Magical Artifacts he anticipated, he picked out a total of five small Magical Artifacts from the top of the wall over a distance of several tens of meters from east to west. This made Su Chunfeng inwardly scorn that vile Occultist — why did a master need to place five artifacts? That just adds trouble for yourself. You should know, even though each of these small Magical Artifacts only opened a tiny, negligible gap in the stable state of the Heaven-Earth Five Elements, having more of them increased the risk of causing a Five Elements disorder and a strong Backlash.

Therefore, the caster was definitely not a master. At best, his cultivation had reached only the mid-level of the Pure Body Realm.

“Let’s go,” Su Chunfeng whispered.

“Chunfeng…” Qian Ming said very responsibly: “For safety’s sake, I think it’s necessary to go back and check again, in case we missed any.”

Su Chunfeng thought about how tense he had been the whole way, and it was indeed possible to have made an oversight. So he nodded: “Alright.”

The two then turned and went back.

Sure enough, on the wall directly opposite the path between the two buildings, they found another small Magical Artifact stuffed into a crack. The two again used the human ladder to climb up and pick it out.

Just as Su Chunfeng had picked out that small Magical Artifact and was about to tell Qian Ming to squat down…

Two beams of light from flashlights suddenly swept over them from the path behind them. At the same time, hurried footsteps were heard, along with a shouted command:

“Who’s there?”

“Freeze!”

At this critical moment, Su Chunfeng didn’t hesitate. He forcefully gripped the top of the wall with both hands, pushed off Qian Ming’s shoulder with his feet, and did a hawk-flip over the wall…