"Apparitions cannot be killed"
"Only apparitions can deal with apparitions"
"Discern the apparition's rules"
Those three sentences were written clearly on the blackboard, they were messy but clear, its obvious he wrote with a lot of force.
But the students just awkwardly stared at each other.
Is this guy really a lecturer? Spouting things we don't understand to try and fool us, is he sane?
Some students were shaking their heads in protest.
Some were even whispering to each other, laughing at him.
It's apparent that students who were not taking him seriously were in the majority.
The only one who was kind of serious was Yang Jian, after reading the ghost story on the forum, and seeing that photo, he was feeling really uneasy, with the weird things that guy on stage was saying… Has the world really been changing unbeknownst to me?
After Zhou Zheng finished writing, he didn't keep his lecture going and instead he gazed at everyone with his haggard and bloodshot eyes: "Students, if you have any questions or have encountered some weird events, you can ask about them now, I can answer them for you. If there are no further questions, then this is the end of today's public safety lesson"
There wasn't a single person who wanted to ask questions.
"Should I ask about the photo of the old man?"
Yang Jian anxiously pulled out his phone, and went straight to the forum with the photo of the old man.
Just as he was hesitating, the lights in the classroom dimmed, the whole place became a bit dark.
"Hm?"
On the podium, Zhou Zheng instantly looked very cautious.
Yang Jian also looked up unconsciously from his phone, but as he glanced past the windows by the hallway, he vaguely spotted a silhouette, His stomach instantly dropped, his body tensed up, and an alarming sense of terror gripped his whole body from the depths of his heart. Any control he had over his body was surrendered to this primal fear.
Behind the window, clothed in a black qipao, the old man with blood pools all across his face stood there stiffly. His deathly grey eyes were peeping into his classroom.
He just stood there, deathly still.
His surroundings were pitch black, the lights in the hallway seemed to have completely burned out, a heavy murkiness was swiftly flooding towards the classroom like a dense liquid.
Walls near the old man visibly worn down, painted walls aged decades in an instant, moss covered the walls, paint molded and peeled off. A damp decomposing smell was being gradually emanated.
"It's the old man from the ghost story… That's impossible, how is he here?"
Yang Jian's knuckles whitened from his tight gripping on his phone, he held on to his phone, on its screen was displaying the photo of the old man, the same as the old man right outside the window, only he was scarier in person.
He shot up from his seat, unaware he knocked over his desk in his agitated mental state.
Because of his overreaction, all the other students looked at him.
"Yang Jian, why are you standing up, sit down and stop disrupting the class." Mr. Wong, who was standing in the back of the class, commanded.
But right now, Yang Jian is completely blind to his surroundings, his fearful eyes only focusing on the old man in the black qipao
The old man is moving…
His stiff body rotated round his joints mechanically, his grey and dead eyes were unfocused, numb. Only going where the head is headed.
"Tap, tap tap."
Crisp footsteps rang out from the hallway, faintly creeping into the classroom.
"He's leaving!"
Yang Jian felt cold sweat run down his body, he prayed from the bottom of his heart for the old man to leave and not come in.
If the story on the forum is real, if the old man walks in… the consequences were unimaginable.
But reality was unaffected by his wishes, the old man didn't leave, he took a few steps before stopping right in front of his classroom's door.
"Yang Jian, sit down! Have you heard what I just said? Stop distrupting the class." The teacher's tone got a bit harsher.
"Ah!"
A student suddenly let out a scream, then she pointed at the books on her desk, speechless.
The books on her desk turned yellowish in an instant, then it molded, then decomposed… in the end, it became a pile of black compost.
"Damn this stinks, Su Lei, why's there a pile of shit on your desk." Zheng Wei asked while pinching his nose.
“What! How is the school in an apparitional domain at this time!” Another student with a livid expression also leapt from his seat and shuffled backwards.
"Fang Jing, what are you doing!"
Mr Wong was getting a bit angry now, what's happened to his normally quite disciplined class?
On the podium, Zhou Zheng squinted his eyes, he was filled with caution, the air of haggardness around him cleared out, he’s now a beast let out of his cage, with a ferocious look, he stared at Fang Jing.
"You know about apparitional domains?" Zhou Zheng questioned him.
Fang Jing was abnormally calm despite this.
“Zhou Zheng, you know exactly what it means for an apparitional domain to appear, there is at least a danger category apparition in our school right now, if this isn’t dealt with correctly, no one’s leaving here alive, and that includes you.”
“It looks like you know quite a lot, are you also an apparition user?” Zhou Zheng questioned.
“That’s not any of your business.”
Following that, he stared at Yang Jian viciously, "I’d originally planned to take care of you in a few days, but I didn’t expect the future to have changed cause of this. Yang Jian, let me say this first, I’m not letting you mature anymore than this, you’re too fearsome in the future, demon level figures are killed and areas barring the living are destroyed at your whims, but you’re destined to die a premature death this time."
“?”, Yang Jian gave him a puzzled look, he didn’t understand anything he just said, he was paying too much attention to the old man standing outside.
But the other students who heard what he said were all shocked.
"Holy shit, Fang Jing, what you just said contained a lot of information, what happened to you, in the future? This time? Did you transmigrate from the future man."
"That must be! Protagonists are all like this, they all awaken some kind of cheat, you came back to the past, you must be the protag, some drastic change is going to happen soon, let me be a free rider man."
"If that's the case, then Yang Jian must be the villain, Fang Jing must have been murdered by Yang Jian in the future, now he’s come back for revenge. Quick, lets isolate Yang Jian, and not play with him anymore, Sir Fang, I’ll be in your care, you’re servant will follow anything you do"
"Oh my God, what's happening? And why's my book turning into a pile of shit?"
In face of the weird things that were happening, students who were talking didn't seem to realize danger had already arrived. They were just curious and even a bit excited.
Suddenly
“Knock, knock knock.”
They were depressing, and could be clearly heard, knocks that felt like they were pressing down from inside your chests carried themselves into the classroom following a strange rhythm.
It was as if everyone’s souls were being gripped by something, there was a depressing weight on them like them were drowning underwater.
“It’s that knocking sound… they’re the exact same.” Yang Jian shuddered.
It's the same as the sound from the audio file on the forum, only clearer in person.
Zhou Zheng wore a solemn look, he took out his special phone and pressed a button urgently, the call was immediately through.
“Zhou Zheng, Report?”
A female’s voice rang over the phone.
“I'm in Dachang City’s Seventh High School. There’s an emergency, an apparition of at least danger category has appeared on campus." Zhou Zheng replied immediately.
“This has been recorded.”
The voice on the other side spoke very quickly, “Can it be dealt with?”
“The apparition has developed its domain, and it's starting to affect my surroundings. I can’t see the lights outside, Its domain may be larger than I had estimated.”Zhou Zheng answered.
“A domain… The situation has escalated, this isn’t something you can handle. Please make your retreat promptly.”
“It’s a bit late for that, plus there's a lot of students here, I need to have as many of them leave this place alive as it’s possible.” Zhou Zheng retorted.
“It’s extremely dangerous for you to use the power of your apparition in your current state. There might not only be one apparition there, but two if you stay. I suggest you retreat. Although you’re reaching your limits, even if you sacrifice yourself, you might not even be able to save anyone, apparitions that can manifest a domain is at least a disaster category.” The voice on the other side immediately shot back.
Zhou Zheng refused to change his mind, “There's no time to talk, I’m less than five meters away from that thing. It's just outside the door, maybe I’ve already been targeted. I’ll stay on call, if this cuts out, it means I’m dead, please hand my will to my parents for me. That’s all, I’m going to start the operation.”
“Knock, knock knock.”
Dull depressing knocks still sounded from the other side of the door, a single knock, followed by two short raps, with a fixed frequency, it kept at it from the classroom door.
“Mr Wong, someone’s outside.” A clueless student reported.
Mr Wong was a bit hesitant, but seeing Zhou Zheng’s expression, he couldn’t contain his curiosity and opened the back door, heading out to see who’s knocking.
“Don’t!” Zhou Zheng shouted in a hurry.
But he spoke too late, Mr. Wong had already walked outside, but what's strange was that as soon as Mr Wang walked out he was gone without a trace in the blink of an eye.
Indeed, he was gone.
Everything outside of the classroom door was pitch black, the thick darkness seemed to be able to swallow any shred of light. There weren't any signs of movement after Mr Wong walked out, not even any noise, it was as if an entire person had disappeared into thin air.
As the classroom door was opened, darkness emanating from outside quickly penetrated in like thick black mist, constantly eroding classroom space.
Even the most insensitive student got the feeling that something was wrong.
Everyone’s eyes widened with fear, some students even started screaming in fright and backed up from their seats.
Are we actually being haunted right now?