My mind was going blank. The scorched corpse on my back dragged me toward the thirteenth step. The soul imprisoned inside was hammering at an invisible barrier—between this world and the next, there seemed to be a hidden door.
My heart slowed. My eyelids grew heavy. A bone-deep exhaustion overtook me.
"I'm so tired." I just wanted to sleep… and never wake again.
"Gao Jian!"
At the critical moment, that voice rang out again. But half of my body had already been pulled into the world of the dead—icy cold, my throat dry and tight, as if I were submerged at the bottom of a dark lake. I couldn't say a word.
"Gao Jian!"
Someone kept calling my name. It wasn't a hallucination. I heard it—clear and real.
I thrashed like a drowning man, but my body kept sinking, just like in a nightmare… falling into a bottomless pit.
"Grab my hand, Gao Jian!"
Ripples spread across the black waters. A blazing fire shot down from the sky and lit up my lifeless eyes, filling my entire vision.
I instinctively raised a hand to shield my eyes—and touched the fire.
There was no burning pain. Only warmth.
Smooth, firm—like holding a fine jade stone.
It was a woman's hand.
"Hold on tight!"
A long-lost warmth flooded through me. My heart began to beat again. I clung tightly to that fire.
And all the darkness in front of me burned away.
Gasping for breath, I woke as if from a terrible dream, eyes snapping open.
The corpse was still on my back—but the thirteen steps to the other world were gone. In their place, on the floor before the rooftop door, lay a piece of human skin, flayed from the chest and carved with strange patterns.
The missing patch from Guo Junjie's chest—it was this cursed skin that had trapped the souls of the unjustly slain students.
"Who saved me just now?"
I looked up. Two figures—one in black, one in crimson—were battling fiercely on the stairs. The monstrous black one was the Yuanchen Curse Spirit, and the one in vivid red, filled with the same burning resentment… was Xiaofeng!
"Hongluan Tianshi!"
Daoist Master Wanyi's voice rang out in the livestream:
"One of the Eight Fate Spirits has appeared! What kind of fate does this streamer have? Most people never encounter even one in a lifetime, and he's met two in a single night—and opposing ones at that! Yet still he survives!"
Hongluan Tianshi, one of the Eight Fate Spirits, wasn't as vicious as Yuanchen but brought its own kind of danger. In a fight, it wouldn't fall behind easily.
I had no idea how Xiaofeng had found me, and I had no time to figure it out.
Getting back on my feet, I hoisted Guo Junjie's corpse again and stepped over the cursed human skin. I kicked open the wooden door to the rooftop.
Pale moonlight poured down on my face. Only at the top of the building could you see the glow of the moon.
"Bathed in moonlight, let this evil spirit be shattered to pieces, his soul obliterated!"
Step by step, I walked to the edge of the rooftop and climbed onto the railing.
"Die!"
With all my strength, I hurled the corpse off the roof.
"ROAR!!"
A deafening howl echoed through the halls. Black smoke billowed, filled with howling, shrieking faces.
THUD!
The body hit the ground seconds later. And just like that, every ghost on the rooftop vanished in a wisp of smoke.
The Yuanchen Curse Spirit finally broke free from Xiaofeng's grip and rushed to the rooftop—only to find everything was already over.
Its form dissolved into smoke.
And in the end, only a small boy stood before me. He wore a tattered school uniform. His face, once blurry, now became clear.
"It's you?" I blurted out, though I couldn't recall where we'd met.
"We'll meet again."
Bathed in moonlight, he turned to ash—but his final words etched themselves into my mind.
"Is it over…?"
A pale light rose in the sky. Limping, I made my way back down the stairs. The cursed skin was gone. Xiumu and Yingzi had vanished.
On the cold concrete steps, only Xiaofeng remained, slumped in her red wedding dress.
"Hey… thank you."
I reached out to touch her shoulder, but she turned to me, and I nearly jumped out of my skin. That wasn't a human face—it was twisted with hatred and agony.
Then it clicked.
The thing inside Xiaofeng now wasn't her—it was the vengeful spirit from Anxin Motel. No wonder her aura was so heavy with malice.
Still, I didn't pull my hand back. I gently rested it on her shoulder.
"It's okay now, Xiaofeng."
Her murderous gaze slowly softened. Her expression eased.
She tilted her head and collapsed in my arms.
"Sorry for dragging you into this."
I carried her back to the rooftop. It was still dark. The Netherworld Live Show hadn't ended. I couldn't leave yet.
Placing the phone and camera down, I sat on the edge of the rooftop railing, staring at the silent, dead campus.
"Is this… the real world?"
Tonight, I'd danced along the edge of death more times than I could count. One wrong decision, one moment of bad luck, and I'd have ended up as just another cold corpse—my soul trapped here forever.
"No wonder Xia Chi ran from this job. This isn't work for the living."
I lit a cigarette and waited for the first rays of sunlight to touch my skin.
"Cheated death… there's gotta be a blessing in store for that. To have both Yuanchen and Hongluan in your fate… that's a first even for me."
The chat still had over 400 viewers. What a night. Way better than any horror film.
"Still here, Daoist? Aren't you cultivators supposed to be all about rest and peace of mind?"
I was actually grateful for this boastful Daoist.
"You brat. I just saved your life and now you're trying to kick me out?"
"I'd never! If you give me a mailing address, I'll send you two crates of free-range eggs as thanks."
"Delicacies don't impress me. But your fate is rare. Should the opportunity arise, would you be willing to meet?"
"With pleasure. Not gonna lie, my life's hanging by a thread. I could really use some guidance."
"When the time is right, we'll meet."
"You guys always talk in riddles. Do you think I'll even live long enough to see that day?"
"You never know. But if I, Daoist Master Wanyi, have taken an interest in you, your fate's tougher than you think."
"Let me send you off with a poem:
Hongluan blesses your fate unseen,
Fortune flows from all between.
Watch the blossoms blush and bloom—
A noble soul you'll meet soon."
"What's that supposed to mean—"
Before I could finish, Xiaofeng stirred in my arms.
She saw herself in a wedding dress, resting on my chest—and her face turned scarlet.
"Last night was… terrifying."
She buried her face in my chest, nervous and unsure what to say.
Seeing her like this, my heart ached.
I didn't ask about her secrets. I just brushed her hair aside.
"Didn't expect you to look so good in a wedding dress. Whoever marries you… is a lucky guy."
As the sun rose, golden light burned away the last of the night. The New Hu High School livestream was finally over.
Ding!
The sunlight hit my skin, and a notification popped up on the Netherworld Live Show app:
"Livestream mission complete: Survive from midnight to dawn at New Hu High School.
– Surviving till dawn: 1 point
– Peak concurrent viewers exceeded 500: +2 points
– Gifts received totaled over 1,000 underworld coins: +2 points
– Successfully fulfilled a Netherworld contract: +1 point
– Optional task: Participate in seven games – Progress: 3 (Courage Test, Four Corners, Hide & Seek): +3 points
Total Score: 9 points."
Nine points. High risk, high reward. That was double what I got from Anxin Motel.
I didn't even remember playing three games, but if the app said so, I wasn't going to argue.
"Maybe if I'd kept pretending and not exposed Xiumu's identity, I could've played more games... damn shame."
Each point was basically worth a bar of gold—thinking about it still stung.
"You've earned 9 points. Available items now updated.
– Thai Kuman Thong (5 points)
– Random set of six Lesser Talismans (5 points)
– Spirit Child Wine (boosts Yin/Yang, balances organs – 5 points)
– Headless Ghost Shrine (binds a low-tier ghost servant – 6 points)
– Intro to Fatecraft (6 points)
– Enlightenment Pill (unlocks a random acupoint – 6 points)
– Flying Dragon Gu Larva (binds by blood, can save or kill, high growth potential – 9 points)"