Shrouded in blood mist,
"The well is over there." The old principal was very protective of Chen Ge, as if worried something might happen to him. He kept Chen Ge behind him the entire time, walking ahead himself.
Crossing the field under the old principal's guidance, Chen Ge finally found the abandoned dry well.
The moment he drew close, a chorus of wailing erupted from within—men's cries, women's cries, children's cries. It was absolutely spine-chilling.
"The exit is at the bottom of the well?" The mist was so thick that even with his Yin Eyes, Chen Ge couldn't see what lay at the bottom.
"Yes."
"This is how you entered the ghost school?" When Chen Ge stepped up to the edge of the well,
"That's right. The blood mist at the bottom is incredibly dense, almost solidifying into substance. That might be the key to why the dry well can evade the school's will." The old principal gestured for Chen Ge not to stand by the well for too long, to avoid drawing the school's will's attention. "Once you descend to the bottom, there's only one path. Follow that direction, and after roughly three to fifteen minutes, you'll leave the ghost school and enter the underground of that blood-red city. From there, we just need to find a route to the surface."
The whole process sounded simple enough, but there were plenty of details that didn't hold up under scrutiny.
Chen Ge gripped the edge of the well with both hands and turned back to face the old principal. "After descending to the bottom, it takes three to fifteen minutes to leave the ghost school? Why is there such a huge variance in the time? If the distance is the same, even at a slower pace the discrepancy shouldn't be that large!"
"I can't explain it myself. It's the same path every time, but sometimes it takes longer, sometimes shorter. Do you want to go down and check first?" The old principal hadn't figured it out either.
If anyone else had said this to Chen Ge, he not only would have refused to go down, but would have suspected them of deliberately trying to harm him—and would have thrown them in first to scout the path. But the old principal was different; he trusted this old man completely.
"With this escape route in place, I'd be in an unassailable position, free to act boldly. But only if this path actually works and isn't a dead end."
Chen Ge deliberated for a long while, then asked for Xu Yin's opinion. Only after receiving his approval did he decide to descend into the well with the old principal.
"I've always gone down alone before, with no point of reference. This time we have numbers, plus a Red Dress accompanying us—there shouldn't be any problems." To put Chen Ge at ease, the old principal was the first to walk to the well's edge. But just as he was about to jump down, Chen Ge stopped him.
"Hold on." Chen Ge pulled some rope from Lin Sisi's backpack—leftover from scaling the wall in the western campus. "Tie it around your waist, in case we get separated."
"How do you have everything?" The old principal was no longer as surprised as before.
"How deep is this well? Will two ropes be enough?"
"Should be about right." The old principal braced both hands against the well wall. On his seemingly worn-out coat, blackish-red flowers began to bloom one after another, and his eyes slowly filled with the color of blood.
Watching the old principal's body undergo this transformation, Chen Ge realized that this half-Red Dress before him was fundamentally different from every other half-Red Dress he had encountered.
The old principal gave him a peculiar feeling—hard to put into words. Standing beside him, Chen Ge would never have taken the old man for a vengeful spirit. He felt like a living, breathing person.
"Even full Red Dresses have never shown this kind of phenomenon. Could it be because the old principal did so many good deeds in life that even after becoming a ghost, there isn't a trace of sinister or violent energy about him?"
Watching the old principal gradually disappear below the rim of the well, Chen Ge quickly hurried over. He placed Xu Yin at the rear, positioning himself in the middle.