"He died in the underground parking lot of Zone B. His deep resentment has affected the entire school. Our goal is to destroy his corpse!"

"Only by destroying his corpse can we possibly end the curse!"

"Coincidentally, when we first entered the school, we brought a very powerful weapon... But that item was left behind in a vertical shaft labeled 'Contaminated Fire' in the underground parking lot of the West Zone after being attacked by Chen Qiong's spirit."

"That special weapon requires identity verification, but it won't take long. As long as you can distract Chen Qiong's spirit, I can quickly activate the weapon and destroy Chen Qiong's corpse!"

Yang Linlin bit her lip.

"How long will it take?"

Li Sheng replied:

"About three minutes in total!"

Yang Linlin looked at Zhao Yi, her eyes questioning.

Zhao Yi reached out and shook hands with Li Sheng.

"When do we take action?"

Li Sheng pondered:

"Tonight is too late. Tomorrow night, come back here to the water tower, and I'll take you to the West Zone's underground parking lot!"

Zhao Yi:

"Can we scout the area first?"

Li Sheng scratched his head:

"Almost forgot... You're not familiar with the terrain, so scouting the perimeter first is a good idea!"

After making their plans, the three sat quietly for about four hours until the ghostly fog outside dissipated. Only then did Zhao Yi lead Yang Linlin away from the water tower and head to the dormitory building.

The next day, they sat according to the seating chart.

A few people in the class sat in the wrong seats and were beheaded on the spot!

The blood was cold and foul-smelling.

But in the blink of an eye,

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Both the blood and the bodies vanished completely.

The two managed to survive the day without incident.

While eating dinner in the cafeteria, Zhao Yi shoveled food into his mouth and asked Yang Linlin beside him:

"Do you have any fishing line?"

"Thread will do... It needs to be thin, long, and strong."

Yang Linlin was still preoccupied with the night's events, not interested in eating.

"I do."

"But... what do you need it for?"

Zhao Yi replied:

"To kill."

Yang Linlin froze.

"Kill who?"

Zhao Yi:

"Li Sheng."

Yang Linlin continued to watch Zhao Yi, who was eating nonchalantly, as if he were discussing something trivial.

But only those involved knew how crazy this sounded!

"Are you insane?"

"If you kill Li Sheng, who will help us break the curse?"

Yang Linlin didn't understand what had gotten into Zhao Yi, but from his tone, he didn't seem to be joking!

He really intended to kill Li Sheng!

After finishing the last bite of his meal, Zhao Yi elegantly opened a bottle of '82 soy milk and said seriously:

"If you're still counting on him to help us break the curse, then you're not far from death."

Yang Linlin glanced at the noisy cafeteria around them, leaned in, and whispered:

"What do you mean?"

Zhao Yi drank the soy milk in one go.

"He lied."

Yang Linlin frowned.

"Lied?"

"How do you know?"

Zhao Yi tapped his finger lightly on the table, recalling everything from last night, and explained:

"First, he's just an investigator, not a student of Class 8, Grade 1. Don't you think his description of Chen Qiong was too detailed?"

"So detailed that he even knew about Chen Qiong seeing the mayor's son, Pang Xiao, putting his hand inside class beauty Zhang Ya's clothes during class."

Yang Linlin's body stiffened.

"Second, three people are missing from the roster."

"Chen Qiong, Pang Xiao, Zhang Ya."

"These three are not on the roster."

"If everything happened as Li Sheng described, then I think Chen Qiong, who has the power to plunge the entire school into a strange force, wouldn't let Pang Xiao and Zhang Ya go—at least not Pang Xiao."

"Because Pang Xiao is the source of his tragedy!"

Yang Linlin fell into deep thought.

Zhao Yi continued:

"Third, that water tower's basement wasn't discovered by him by chance... I even suspect he built that basement."

Yang Linlin looked up at Zhao Yi, her face full of confusion.

If she could understand the first two points, this third point made her think Zhao Yi was talking nonsense!

"The school's curse has spread to most corners, affecting all the teachers and students inside. How could he have had the time to build such a large basement in front of so many evil spirits?"

Zhao Yi's gaze was deep.

"No dust."

"Huh?"

"I said, there's no dust in the basement."

Recalling last night's events, Zhao Yi explained:

"Last night, I deliberately checked many corners."

"The lampstand, the sofa, even... those miscellaneous items, almost no dust, very clean."

"Generally, no one cleans a basement."

"Unless someone lives there regularly."

"As you said, after the curse occurred, it's almost impossible to build such a basement in front of evil spirits, so the basement could only have been built before the curse."

"The entrance is so hidden, there's no light, and the mechanism is hidden behind bricks where no one would think to look... Do you think it's more likely he stumbled upon the basement while being chased by evil spirits, or that he knew about the basement's existence all along?"

Yang Linlin was stunned.

Zhao Yi's observational skills... were terrifying!

"But if he's deceiving us, what's his motive?"

Zhao Yi explained:

"In psychology, purposeful lies are usually a mix of truth and falsehood."

"To make the lie more logical and believable, some real elements are often added."

"For example, in the West Zone's underground parking lot, even if there's no evil spirit version of Chen Qiong, there's definitely a danger we can't imagine."

"And Li Sheng genuinely wants to enter that vertical shaft labeled 'Contaminated Fire.'"

"It's just that once he goes in, he won't come out, so he lied to get me to distract the specter outside."

Layer by layer, the analysis unfolded.

Yang Linlin now believed that the seemingly harmless Li Sheng was actually a liar!

...

Live Stream Comments:

: Damn, this level of observation and judgment is incredible!

: Honestly, I also felt something was off about Li Sheng!

: This unlucky guy actually tried to outsmart Zhao Yi, the madman. He's probably in for a bad end!

: But since Zhao Yi discovered the problem, why didn't he kill Li Sheng last night and wait until today?

: It's normal for you not to understand. After all, we're normal people, and he's a madman!

...

Yang Linlin took out the fishing line and handed it to Zhao Yi.

After Zhao Yi put it away, Yang Linlin asked:

"What do I need to do tonight?"

Zhao Yi said:

"You don't need to do anything."

"Whether we succeed depends on tonight."

"If we're lucky, we can break this curse tonight!"