"The tree hollows in the eastern campus hide the female ghost's head, covered in bloodstains and grime, while the tree hollows in the western campus are spotless — not even a single fallen leaf can be found."
The situations in the east and west campuses were polar opposites, and a picture gradually formed in
If the world behind the door was compared to a bottomless sea of blood, then this haunted school was like an hourglass bobbing within that crimson ocean.
The school's owner had crafted a "glass" shell that isolated the school from the blood-red world beyond the door, and then used some method to slowly funnel the residual despair from the western campus into the eastern campus, bringing the western campus ever closer to the world outside.
The only connection between the east and west campuses was the waste processing center. The eastern campus was the true testing ground, while the western campus served as a kind of filter, channeling all negative emotions and irreconcilable despair outward.
Chen Ge had entered the waste processing center before. He had seen those "scraps."
"Despair and malice have both been carted away — that explains why the door Chang Gu pushed open wasn't stained red."
Normal doors were steeped in blood, but that particular door was different.
"The memories these children have forgotten may well be tied to despair and hatred. How did the school's owner pull all of this off? Is this the kind of power that exists above the red-spirit tier?" Chen Ge grew even more curious about the school's master.
"If the school's owner simply wanted to carve out a territory free of despair in the world behind the door, then why are the students inside still scrambling to escape?"
Chen Ge had long since passed the age when people could be neatly sorted into good and evil. Since obtaining the black phone, he had encountered countless people and vicious spirits. Every single one that had reached the peak red-spirit level possessed an overwhelmingly powerful obsession.
Dr. Gao wanted to resurrect his wife. The shadow in Liwan Town wanted to become human and turn Chen Ge into its own shadow.
Thinking about it that way, the school's master surely had their own obsession too — and it likely had something to do with this school.
"I get the feeling that something even more terrifying is still hidden in this school. I'm only investigating the surface right now. I haven't seen what this place truly is."
The new students knew very little. Chen Ge was thinking that once he had enough strength, he could try kidnapping a teacher to assist him in his investigation.
He glanced back at his shadow and noticed it had stopped writhing. The vicious spirit lurking within it seemed to have awakened.
"If I can take out that monster at the waste station, I'll essentially control the passage between the two campuses — free to come and go as I please."
A plan was forming in Chen Ge's mind, but pulling it off would be enormously difficult.
"Mr. Bai, can we leave now? This place looks terrifying, but there aren't actually any ghosts here. Everything is just rumors."
"There's nothing here, true enough, but I'd like you all to remember the layout of this crime scene." Chen Ge stood up and headed toward the edge of the woods.
"Why do we need to remember the layout?"
"You'll understand later." Chen Ge waved his hand dismissively. "Next, we're heading to the next location — the anatomy lab in the science building. Zhang Ju, you lead the way."
Hearing that Chen Ge wanted to visit yet another location, the students froze.
"Teacher, it's already so late. Do we really have to go? Maybe we could wait until tomorrow?" Wang Yicheng said quietly.
"Tomorrow, you probably won't be able to see me anymore. And even if I can hold out until tomorrow, the version of you standing here tomorrow might not be the same as you are right now." With the original spirit in the shadow now awake, Chen Ge spoke with far more confidence.
"But... going to the science building in the middle of the night — what if someone sees us?" Zhou Tu had no desire to follow Chen Ge on these antics. He already felt like he'd boarded a pirate ship, and on top of that he'd signed what amounted to a death warrant in the form of that application form. He had thought about quitting the club, but he was still just a kid — what new student would dare pick a fight with their club advisor on the second day of school?