“How could this happen?”
Shui Miao’s mind raced, quickly deducing that it must be the female ghost opposing him.
“She must have been possessing Zhao Xue all along. Those words just now were spoken by her, not Zhao Xue herself. She even came to provoke me early this morning. How audacious this female ghost is! Who exactly is she?”
“Could it be that Zhao Xue is in this state because the ghost wants to kill her and frame me?”
“Could this female ghost be in cahoots with the hedgehog demon and the monkey demon?”
“Yes! They must be working together!”
“The hedgehog demon called the monkey demon ‘third brother,’ and the monkey demon addressed the hedgehog demon as ‘big brother.’ That means there must be a ‘second brother’ in between. Perhaps this female ghost is the second brother! Clearly, this ghost possesses formidable power. She injured Zhao Xue—perhaps to test my abilities, to see if I could heal her?”
“Hmph! How childish! I wounded her earlier; she should now have some trepidation toward me. If she still refuses to repent, I will utterly destroy her soul!”
Shui Miao, having cultivated Lingtong Jue and Zongheng Ce, possessed an exceptionally quick mind. In an instant, he had deduced the general situation. Immediately, he scooped up Zhao Xue and gently laid her on the bed, placing one hand on her head and slowly channeling his immortal energy to replenish her vitality, restore her blood, and bring her back to life.
A group of girls, confused and bewildered, sighed in relief when they saw Zhao Xue recover.
Zhao Xue, dazed and disoriented, looked around but couldn’t recognize where she was.
Shui Miao glanced at Zhao Xue, then subtly activated his mental powers, entering her consciousness to gather information.
A short while later, Shui Miao turned and walked toward the door, where Yaqi followed closely behind. “Master, what exactly happened? Can’t you tell us?”
“Ah, it’s hard to explain in just a few words!”
Shui Miao took a deep breath. “Yaqi, three days ago, didn’t you girls go fishing outside the city?”
“Yes, yes we did,” Yaqi nodded quickly. “Zhao Xue insisted we go. She said she saw a lot of fish in the ditch when she passed by, so we went. But in the end, we didn’t catch a single fish…”
“Then when you returned, you noticed something was off with Zhao Xue. She kept telling you ghost stories and took you girls to play with the spirit board at night. Finally, last night, something happened.” Shui Miao finished her sentence. “In fact, the place where you went fishing was extremely impure. When Zhao Xue passed by there earlier, she had already been bewitched by something evil. There were no fish there at all. Then, the evil spirit possessed her body, intending to kill all of you. Coincidentally, you had the weakest spirit and became its primary target. It wanted to kill even more of you, but fortunately, my divine senses detected it and I intervened to save you. Otherwise, the disaster would have been irreversible.”
Shui Miao had correctly deduced the sequence of events, leaving all the girls present stunned.
Zhao Xue suddenly understood. Supported by her classmates, she approached Shui Miao to express her gratitude for saving her life. Her demeanor was now completely different from before.
“Alright, no need to thank me. Don’t rush back yet. I’ll make a phone call to have the police come over and accompany you. Police officers represent justice, and their uniforms can ward off evil spirits. You can safely stay here. Also, this case is not simple—it might be connected to a major incident. I will do my best to help you so you can return to normal lives.”
After speaking, Shui Miao asked who had a mobile phone and then called Lin Xue.
Shui Miao had long since lost his phone and had no intention of buying a new one. He originally wanted to retreat from worldly troubles and cultivate in peace, but unexpectedly, within just a few days, he had been dragged back into mundane affairs.
※※※
Lin Xue and Chu Miaoyi arrived with several female officers, surprised to see so many female students.
Shui Miao pulled Lin Xue and Chu Miaoyi aside and briefly explained the situation.
After listening, both Lin Xue and Chu Miaoyi found it utterly unbelievable.
Fortunately, they were familiar with Shui Miao’s abilities and knew he wasn’t making things up. Otherwise, they would never have believed that Shui Miao could get involved in such a complicated situation in just one night.
However, this case reminded Chu Miaoyi of two previous ones. “Shui Miao, the day after I and Lin Jie arrived here, I reviewed some unsolved cases at the station and found two that might be connected to this one. One was a strange death case involving a female student three years ago. The death occurred exactly in their dormitory. The other was a case involving a group of monkeys from the zoo killing someone. It’s hard to explain clearly here. How about we all go back to the station and review those case files together?”
“Good!”
Having leads made things easier. Shui Miao was particularly interested in this female ghost. He glanced back at the girls and said, “Bring them all back too. It’ll be safer at the station.”
“No problem, I’ll call a car.”
Lin Xue immediately took out her phone and called Officer Li from the station to come pick them up.
※※※
Three years ago, just like last night, it was also in the girls’ dormitory, shortly after midnight.
A girl named Tan Ling lay in her dorm bed and was mysteriously drowned to death.
Yes, drowned. After her death, the medical examiner found a large amount of river water in her stomach, along with silt, water plants, and even small fish. Water was everywhere—on the bed, on the floor.
Surveillance footage from the school showed that Tan Ling had returned to the dormitory and gone to sleep as soon as it got dark.
From dusk to dawn, no one had visited the dormitory.
And yet, she died drowning in the presence of five or six roommates.
According to witness statements, all the girls said that Tan Ling suddenly screamed in her sleep, waking everyone up. Then she cried for help, kicked off her blanket, her stomach began to swell repeatedly, and water started gushing from her mouth—tons of river water. She struggled for about four or five minutes before finally dying.
The entire case was completely inexplicable and thus categorized as a bizarre mystery.
The case had no clues and eventually faded into obscurity as time passed.
The case file contained a photo of the deceased, Tan Ling. Upon seeing it, Shui Miao immediately confirmed that the ghost he had seen that morning was this very girl. Although her appearance had changed, Shui Miao could still recognize the resemblance.
But why would this ghost try to scare him?
What was so special about her that he couldn’t sense her presence at all?
Shui Miao furrowed his brow, deep in thought.
Suddenly, inspiration struck. He recalled something extremely unusual and quickly turned to Chu Miaoyi, saying, “Find me all the drowning cases near Huanghai University in the police records. If you can’t find any, immediately send someone to investigate nearby villages. I’m certain that six or even nine years ago, there must have been other strange drowning cases.”
“Why… why are you so sure?”
Chu Miaoyi, unfamiliar with such supernatural matters, wanted to understand the logic behind Shui Miao’s reasoning.
“First, check the case files. This is a long story. Hurry up!” Shui Miao anxiously scanned the pile of case files on the table. “Hurry, hurry! Time is pressing. We must act immediately without delay. Find me the case file about the monkey killings at the zoo—quickly!”
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