Luo Ning stood there in a daze for a long time, like a withered tree, exuding a grayish aura of death all over her body.
Her festered hands tightly clutched at her clothes. Her bulging eyes were wide - open, and she seemed on the verge of collapse.
Just like when she was on the verge of death, she stared fixedly at Qiu Xuan without blinking.
Qiu Xuan couldn't tell what emotions were surging in Luo Ning's eyes.
Was it grievance? Sadness? Or perhaps disbelief.
Qiu Xuan frowned and averted her gaze. "I hate it most when you show such a pitiful expression. Every time you do this, everyone will forgive all your mistakes."
Qiu Xuan's father had passed away early. Her mother was in poor health and had no diploma or skills.
The mother - daughter duo lived frugally on the pension from Qiu Xuan's father. Later, by chance, Qiu Xuan's mother got to know Luo Ning's mother and became a cleaner in Luo Ning's parents' company ever since.
It was from then on that Qiu Xuan got used to meekly staying in Luo Ning's shadow.
"Do you still remember the sports meet in our first year of senior high school? I didn't even have a decent pair of sports shoes. My mother picked up an almost - new pair of famous - brand sports shoes from downstairs of the company when she was at work. But when I happily wore them to school the next day, my classmates recognized them. They were the old shoes you had discarded!"
"Wherever we appeared together, I was always your foil! They called me 'Luo Ning's good friend', 'Luo Ning's shadow'... I didn't even have my own name!"
"Do you know why I killed you? On April 6th, you got the qualification for the art college entrance examination with early admission. You were smiling so brightly. You kept dragging me around and laughing non - stop. You said it was the happiest day of your life. But do you know what day that was? It was the anniversary of my father's death! It was the most painful day for me! Your life is full of promise, while mine is like a quagmire that I'm sinking deeper and deeper into, dark and hopeless! Why? Why do only good things happen to you? What did I do wrong for God to treat me like this?!"
"Maybe you and Ji Jia are cut from the same cloth, two young ladies who grew up in luxury. But I don't need your pity and sympathy at all!"
Qiu Xuan truly hated Luo Ning, yet Luo Ning always clung to her, chattering on and on with all sorts of nonsense. But Qiu Xuan couldn't afford to offend Luo Ning because that would make her mother lose her job.
So Qiu Xuan tried her best to hide her emotions every day, making herself look as innocent as other students.
But Teacher Cao He still didn't like her.
Qiu Xuan had heard Cao He say more than once that she had a gloomy personality and always thought the worst of others.
But who didn't want to live a carefree and upright life? But Qiu Xuan just couldn't get over that mental hurdle.
She knew that Cao He just didn't like her.
If it was Luo Ning who was deep - minded, Cao He would surely find another way to praise her for being intelligent and delicate.
She almost forgot about that decoration worker invited by the school.
The worker was an old acquaintance of Qiu Xuan's mother. He was quite surprised when he saw Qiu Xuan at school. Although he said something grand like "come to me if you have any difficulties", behind her back, he used Qiu Xuan's family affairs as a topic of conversation and joked about them with other workers.
That night, Qiu Xuan locked herself in the room for a long, long time. Finally, she took out that spirit - summoning book again. She made a wish that the worker would never appear in the public's sight again and would never be able to point fingers at her and gossip.
So the next day, the worker fell from the building and died. His hands and feet were all broken, and his death was extremely miserable.
As Qiu Xuan was talking, she suddenly started laughing maniacally. The laughter was unpleasant, like the sound of two pieces of metal scraping against each other, making people feel gloomy.
Yu Nian looked at Qiu Xuan for a while and suddenly said, "You're really pitiful."
Qiu Xuan stiffened all over. She seemed extremely sensitive to the word "pitiful", and anger buried all her other emotions.
"The pitiful ones are Luo Ning and Ji Jia! They originally had bright futures, but unfortunately, I've ruined them all! Now we're all in a mess... No! You two are even worse off than me. You're already dead, but I'm still alive. I'm stronger than you! Luo Ning, you must hate me to the core, right? Ji Jia, do you want to kill me? Hahaha. Seeing you like this makes me so satisfied!"
Luo Ning seemed to be unable to bear it any longer. She suddenly took a step back, tightly clawed at her own face, and let out a shrill scream.
Her voice was so sharp and ear - piercing that all the students covered their ears in pain, their chests feeling so stuffy that they could hardly breathe.
A hurricane howled in. The tree shadows swayed. One after another, the glass on the outside of the teaching building shattered. The fragments flew everywhere and kept hitting the people on the ground.
Luo Ning's grief and indignation drove Ji Jia beside her. The resentment on them burst out like a flood breaking through a dam and quickly covered the entire Wanjv High School.
The thick resentment was like sharp blades, silently leaving tiny wounds on everyone.
The pain was different from the pain caused by physical injuries. It was a long - lasting and heart - piercing pain.
Xu Ning accidentally got a cut on his cheek.
He looked at the two ghost girls not far away with their hair flying wildly in horror and slapped his thigh anxiously.
"It's over, it's over. Luo Ning and Ji Jia are out of control! We're completely doomed this time!"
Yu Nian frowned instantly. If Luo Ning and Ji Jia were like two taut strings before, there was still a possibility of remedy if they were careful.
But now, after being severely provoked by Qiu Xuan, the two strings snapped with a "pop" and were almost impossible to repair.
Two young lives had died unjustly, and all the grievances, hatred, and other negative emotions welled up.
Qiu Xuan watched the collapsing Luo Ning and Ji Jia expressionlessly and suddenly sneered.
She was the creator of this obsession. In other words, the entire Wanjv High School was created based on her.
No matter how ferocious Luo Ning was, her resentment would only harm outsiders like Yu Nian and had no effect on Qiu Xuan.
"Kill them!"
Qiu Xuan was like a spectator, grinning malevolently at everyone.
Xue Yier got goosebumps all over from her smile. She turned to Yu Nian and shouted, "What should we do now? Can we still exorcise such fierce ghosts?"
Before Yu Nian could answer, Fu Sui took over. "Exorcise? This illusion is the ghost's home court. Their resentment is almost drowning us! In such a dangerous environment, using a large amount of supernatural power and spiritual energy to exorcise them is like looking for death! If we want to get out alive, we have to use some drastic measures."
Xue Yier was stunned. "Drastic measures? What do you mean?"
Fu Sui stared coldly at the collapsing Luo Ning and Ji Jia in the distance, his fingers twitching slightly. "Suppress, subdue, and kill. Which one is not easier than exorcising?"
The expressions of all the contestants were a bit ugly. For ghosts that died miserably like this, Taoists usually chose to persuade and subdue them. If they were severely injured again in the illusion, they would never have the chance to be reborn.
Zhong Yaya couldn't bear it. "Isn't this a bit too extreme..."
Before she could finish her sentence, two more contestants were injured by the resentment. They vomited a mouthful of blood and were forcibly shaken out of the illusion.
Fu Sui frowned tightly. "Do you think I don't want to exorcise them? But wake up. They're already blood - thirsty. If we don't take action to kill them now, we'll all be killed by them!"