After crashing into the wall, Qiao Nuo’s drowsiness subsided, and his heartbeat returned to normal. He looked at Ruan Qing with a displeased expression and asked, “How did you end up here?”
Ruan Qing pursed his lips, shook his head, and replied, “I don’t know. I woke up... and I was here.”
Qiao Nuo squinted at his words, “So, someone brought you here?”
Could there be a traitor among humans?
After all, his talismans couldn’t be touched even if one was possessed by a ghost, only a true human could do so. Moreover, the person not only took Ruan Qing away, but also deliberately threw away his talisman.
This was clearly not a coincidence.
If he hadn’t received a text message from an unknown contact, he wouldn’t have known that Ruan Qing had been taken away.
Who reminded him? They even provided the location.
Someone? Ruan Qing, upon hearing Qiao Nuo’s words, was puzzled. How could Qiao Nuo be so sure it was a person?
Ruan Qing’s gaze fell on the talismans on the piano, and he seemed to understand why.
He originally thought he had fallen into the hands of a ghost after fainting. Now it seemed that wasn’t the case; it was likely that Qiao Nuo had saved him first.
It was because Qiao Nuo knew where he should be that he asked how Ruan Qing ended up here.
While Ruan Qing was about to speak and confirm his guess with Qiao Nuo, footsteps were heard outside.
It seemed like someone was approaching.
Ruan Qing instinctively looked at Qiao Nuo, who had already torn off the cloth strip on his wrist and walked to the broken glass window.
Before leaving, he also tore off the talismans from the piano.
Seeing Ruan Qing standing still in confusion, Qiao Nuo lowered his voice and said, “What are you waiting for? Let’s go.”
Seeing that Ruan Qing seemed not to understand, Qiao Nuo spoke directly, “This building is a restricted area. Do you want to get expelled?”
Ruan Qing knew that this building was off-limits, but the problem was, shouldn’t they go through the door instead of jumping from the third floor?
However, Qiao Nuo kept urging, and the footsteps were getting closer. Ruan Qing had no choice but to follow.
Seeing Ruan Qing approaching, Qiao Nuo propped open the window and made a swift and decisive leap, directly jumping down from the third floor.
Finally, he landed steadily on the ground.
The entire movement flowed like flowing clouds, incredibly easy and graceful, as if he was merely walking down a small staircase.
Ruan Qing looked at it in silence for a while, remaining motionless for quite some time.
He felt it would be better to go through the door...
Qiao Nuo frowned at the motionless figure and urged, “Hurry up and jump. What’s with all this dilly-dallying? Are you even a man?”
Ruan Qing: “...” No, this wasn’t about being a man or not...
It’s about whether he would be crippled if he jumped down, and maybe, with a bit of bad luck, he could even end up dead.
Qiao Nuo looked at the hesitant Ruan Qing with a tone full of disdain. “I don’t know what you’re afraid of. It’s just the third floor. I can even catch you if you fall.”
Obviously, Qiao Nuo meant he would catch him.
Listening to the footsteps outside the classroom, Ruan Qing finally struggled to climb out of the window.
Then he jumped without hesitation.
It wasn’t because Ruan Qing trusted Qiao Nuo, but because the footsteps had stopped at the entrance of the music room, and if he didn’t jump now, he would definitely be discovered.
It wouldn’t matter if it was a person. At most, he might face disciplinary action like expulsion.
He was just afraid that it might not be a person at all.
The feeling of weightlessness was extremely uncomfortable, especially when one was placing their hope of landing safely in someone else’s hands. Even if it was Ruan Qing, he felt somewhat uneasy.
After all, even though he was light, jumping from the third floor meant the impact force was nearly ten times his weight, something ordinary people couldn’t handle.
Fortunately, Qiao Nuo did as he promised, effortlessly catching Ruan Qing, as if he had no weight at all.
Ruan Qing looked down at Qiao Nuo’s profile. Maybe his physical strength and abilities were different from ordinary people’s. After all, he could use talismans and such.
This kind of person... belonged to the category of celestial masters, right? (T/N: In Taoist beliefs, a Celestial Master (天师, Tiānshī) is often seen as having the ability to interact with and influence spiritual entities, including ghosts and other supernatural beings.)
Celestial masters and ghosts should be in opposition to each other.
So, was Qiao Nuo the first one to agree to play the summoning game so he could deal with the pen spirit?
Ruan Qing felt it was highly likely that it was to deal with the problem of the ‘pen spririt.’
He didn’t expect the instance to also set up a righteous NPC belonging to the player camp.
However, Qiao Nuo probably couldn’t defeat the pen spirit. After all, if he could solve it, players could just cling to him, and they would be able to clear the instance directly. This obviously didn’t match the difficulty of an intermediate dungeon.
Maybe he’s just an NPC giving players hints and help, probably following the original setting, not the kind of person who could survive until the end.
Qiao Nuo caught Ruan Qing and then let him down. Then, he pulled Ruan Qing and directly flashed into the corner of the building, hiding his figure in the shadow.
Even without Qiao Nuo’s reminder, Ruan Qing was well aware of the reason—it was to prevent that person, if they ever looked down through the window, from seeing them.
Ruan Qing hid in the corner, glancing at the glass window they had just jumped down from.
There was a person standing there, seemingly looking down.
However, the person didn’t stick their head out. From their perspective, only a hand rested on the windowsill, and only a few fingertips were visible.
It was impossible to distinguish who it was.
The first thing Ruan Qing did when he saw that hand was to touch his pocket; the phone was still there.
He directly took out his phone, opened the camera, aimed at that hand, zoomed in to the maximum, and took a few photos. From the fingertips, the person seemed not to be fat and rather slender.
Unfortunately, it was too far away. Even using the phone camera to zoom in, no distinctive features could be made out.
After crashing into the wall, Qiao Nuo’s drowsiness subsided, and his heartbeat returned to normal. He looked at Ruan Qing with a displeased expression and asked, “How did you end up here?”
Ruan Qing pursed his lips, shook his head, and replied, “I don’t know. I woke up... and I was here.”
Qiao Nuo squinted at his words, “So, someone brought you here?”
Could there be a traitor among humans?
After all, his talismans couldn’t be touched even if one was possessed by a ghost, only a true human could do so. Moreover, the person not only took Ruan Qing away, but also deliberately threw away his talisman.
This was clearly not a coincidence.
If he hadn’t received a text message from an unknown contact, he wouldn’t have known that Ruan Qing had been taken away.
Who reminded him? They even provided the location.
Someone? Ruan Qing, upon hearing Qiao Nuo’s words, was puzzled. How could Qiao Nuo be so sure it was a person?
Ruan Qing’s gaze fell on the talismans on the piano, and he seemed to understand why.
He originally thought he had fallen into the hands of a ghost after fainting. Now it seemed that wasn’t the case; it was likely that Qiao Nuo had saved him first.
It was because Qiao Nuo knew where he should be that he asked how Ruan Qing ended up here.
While Ruan Qing was about to speak and confirm his guess with Qiao Nuo, footsteps were heard outside.
It seemed like someone was approaching.
Ruan Qing instinctively looked at Qiao Nuo, who had already torn off the cloth strip on his wrist and walked to the broken glass window.
Before leaving, he also tore off the talismans from the piano.
Seeing Ruan Qing standing still in confusion, Qiao Nuo lowered his voice and said, “What are you waiting for? Let’s go.”
Seeing that Ruan Qing seemed not to understand, Qiao Nuo spoke directly, “This building is a restricted area. Do you want to get expelled?”
Ruan Qing knew that this building was off-limits, but the problem was, shouldn’t they go through the door instead of jumping from the third floor?
However, Qiao Nuo kept urging, and the footsteps were getting closer. Ruan Qing had no choice but to follow.
Seeing Ruan Qing approaching, Qiao Nuo propped open the window and made a swift and decisive leap, directly jumping down from the third floor.
Finally, he landed steadily on the ground.
The entire movement flowed like flowing clouds, incredibly easy and graceful, as if he was merely walking down a small staircase.
Ruan Qing looked at it in silence for a while, remaining motionless for quite some time.
He felt it would be better to go through the door...
Qiao Nuo frowned at the motionless figure and urged, “Hurry up and jump. What’s with all this dilly-dallying? Are you even a man?”
Ruan Qing: “...” No, this wasn’t about being a man or not...
It’s about whether he would be crippled if he jumped down, and maybe, with a bit of bad luck, he could even end up dead.
Qiao Nuo looked at the hesitant Ruan Qing with a tone full of disdain. “I don’t know what you’re afraid of. It’s just the third floor. I can even catch you if you fall.”
Obviously, Qiao Nuo meant he would catch him.
Listening to the footsteps outside the classroom, Ruan Qing finally struggled to climb out of the window.
Then he jumped without hesitation.
It wasn’t because Ruan Qing trusted Qiao Nuo, but because the footsteps had stopped at the entrance of the music room, and if he didn’t jump now, he would definitely be discovered.
It wouldn’t matter if it was a person. At most, he might face disciplinary action like expulsion.
He was just afraid that it might not be a person at all.
The feeling of weightlessness was extremely uncomfortable, especially when one was placing their hope of landing safely in someone else’s hands. Even if it was Ruan Qing, he felt somewhat uneasy.
After all, even though he was light, jumping from the third floor meant the impact force was nearly ten times his weight, something ordinary people couldn’t handle.
Fortunately, Qiao Nuo did as he promised, effortlessly catching Ruan Qing, as if he had no weight at all.
Ruan Qing looked down at Qiao Nuo’s profile. Maybe his physical strength and abilities were different from ordinary people’s. After all, he could use talismans and such.
This kind of person... belonged to the category of celestial masters, right? (T/N: In Taoist beliefs, a Celestial Master (天师, Tiānshī) is often seen as having the ability to interact with and influence spiritual entities, including ghosts and other supernatural beings.)
Celestial masters and ghosts should be in opposition to each other.
So, was Qiao Nuo the first one to agree to play the summoning game so he could deal with the pen spirit?
Ruan Qing felt it was highly likely that it was to deal with the problem of the ‘pen spririt.’
He didn’t expect the instance to also set up a righteous NPC belonging to the player camp.
However, Qiao Nuo probably couldn’t defeat the pen spirit. After all, if he could solve it, players could just cling to him, and they would be able to clear the instance directly. This obviously didn’t match the difficulty of an intermediate dungeon.
Maybe he’s just an NPC giving players hints and help, probably following the original setting, not the kind of person who could survive until the end.
Qiao Nuo caught Ruan Qing and then let him down. Then, he pulled Ruan Qing and directly flashed into the corner of the building, hiding his figure in the shadow.
Even without Qiao Nuo’s reminder, Ruan Qing was well aware of the reason—it was to prevent that person, if they ever looked down through the window, from seeing them.
Ruan Qing hid in the corner, glancing at the glass window they had just jumped down from.
There was a person standing there, seemingly looking down.
However, the person didn’t stick their head out. From their perspective, only a hand rested on the windowsill, and only a few fingertips were visible.
It was impossible to distinguish who it was.
The first thing Ruan Qing did when he saw that hand was to touch his pocket; the phone was still there.
He directly took out his phone, opened the camera, aimed at that hand, zoomed in to the maximum, and took a few photos. From the fingertips, the person seemed not to be fat and rather slender.
Unfortunately, it was too far away. Even using the phone camera to zoom in, no distinctive features could be made out.
