C7 Chapter 7

After the haunting finally blew over, Shidian shifted his focus to researching ancient monsters. Back then, they’d been able to call out names like the Purple-Winged Fire Phoenix and the Nine-Serpent Spider Emperor, but now they realized they didn’t actually know anything about them.

He tore through every book he could find on ancient creatures, only to come away disappointed: there wasn’t a single mention of either one.

Seeing him slumped and discouraged, Chen Rui walked over and gave his shoulder a reassuring pat. “It’s fine. Stuff like monsters and demons—unless you’ve seen it with your own eyes like we have, who’s going to believe it? If it’s not in the official records, maybe it shows up in the obscure ones.”

“That’s what I thought too,” Shidian sighed. “But I’ve already checked everything I can get my hands on. No matching drawings, no matching names—nothing.”

“Oh… so you already thought of that,” Chen Rui said. He’d been about to show off how clever he was, only to get shut down immediately. He quickly changed the subject. “Honestly, if we can, we should probably ask an expert.”

“An expert…” Shidian looked like something clicked. “Wait—maybe we can ask Dr. Feng!”

“Dr. Feng? Who’s that?” Chen Rui scratched his head, drawing a blank.

“You forgot? The person we met at the museum!” Shidian said excitedly. “Those statues—weren’t they insanely lifelike?”

That jogged Chen Rui’s memory. “Right! And they were creatures I’d never seen before. They had that same creepy vibe as that spider. Maybe they’re the same kind of thing.”

“But how are we supposed to get in touch with Professor Feng?” Shidian frowned. “I heard he left town after the exhibit ended.” With the two of them being just students, getting a meeting with a famous professor wasn’t going to be easy.

“First we figure out where he’s staying. Leave that to me,” Chen Rui promised.

Shidian could only nod. If Chen Rui was that confident, all he could do was trust him with it.

Chen Rui really was insanely capable. By the next day, he’d already tracked down Professor Feng’s address and phone number. Ten Dian quickly called the professor’s office, but to his surprise, a girl answered. She told him she was Professor Feng’s assistant and that the professor was currently out of town on a work trip. As for where he’d gone, nobody seemed to know.

“How can that be…?” Ten Dian muttered, hanging up in frustration.

“Yeah, well,” Chen Rui said, flopping onto the bed and sounding half-asleep. “Sometimes you just get unlucky. Looks like we can’t rush this one.”

Ten Dian was about to respond when his phone rang. He glanced down—it was Chen Xin.

“Hello, Chen Xin. What’s up?” Ten Dian had barely spoken when Chen Rui sprang off the bed.

“I heard they found some ancient ruins over by the old dorm building. Want to come check it out? Oh—and is my brother with you?” Chen Xin sounded excited. As a student in ancient languages, she was clearly into this kind of thing.

“Of course he is! We’re on our way!” Chen Rui shouted before Ten Dian could answer.

Ten Dian could only let out an awkward chuckle before saying, “Yeah. We’ll be right there.”

“Perfect. Meet me at the entrance to the dorm area!” Chen Xin said briskly.

Before long, Ten Dian and Chen Rui arrived at the front of the old dorm building—the same place that had supposedly been haunted before. Only now, everything had been torn down, and a massive pit had been dug into the ground.

“Hey! Ten Dian—bro!” Chen Xin’s voice suddenly called out.

They turned and saw Chen Xin jogging over, dressed stylishly and practically bouncing with energy. She looked so bright and youthful that both Ten Dian and Chen Rui froze for a second.

“What’s with you two?” Chen Xin asked when she reached them, eyeing them suspiciously. “Why are you just standing there?”

“Oh—nothing,” Chen Rui said quickly. “Your outfit just looks really nice.”

“Really? I just bought it. Guess I’ve still got good taste,” Chen Xin said with a bright laugh. “Right, Shi Dian?”

“Uh… yeah,” Shi Dian mumbled, his face turning red as he quickly looked away. Even though he and Chen Xin were usually close, this was the first time he’d seen her dressed up this beautifully.

“Come on, let’s go take a look inside,” Chen Rui said, leading them toward the site. But the moment they reached the entrance, someone stopped them.

“You can’t go in. This area is closed to visitors right now,” a security guard said, stepping in front of them.

“So what now—are we stuck looking from outside?” With the main gate blocked, Chen Rui started searching for another way. “What if we do what we did last time and go around from over there—”

“No. Last time there weren’t this many guards. Even if we sneak in, we’ll get spotted right away,” Shi Dian said, shaking his head. He was interested in the ruins, sure, but it wasn’t worth breaking the rules.

“Great. So we came all this way for nothing,” Chen Xin sighed. She’d really thought this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance.

“Tch, I don’t care. I’m going in to see it for myself!” Chen Rui rolled up his sleeves, stubborn as ever.

“Hey, don’t do anything stupid!” Shi Dian grabbed him immediately.

But once Chen Rui made up his mind, Shi Dian couldn’t hold him back. Step by step, Chen Rui dragged them to the same spot they’d climbed over last time.

“I’ll go up first, then I’ll pull you guys up,” Chen Rui said, and before anyone could argue, he scrambled up in one quick motion, nimble as a monkey.

But just as he turned to reach for Chen Xin, a sharp whistle cut through the air. Before they could react, several guards rushed over and surrounded all three of them.

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?” one guard barked, his face twisted with anger. “This area is off-limits. You didn’t know that?”

“Sorry—sorry. This is our fault,” Shi Dian and Chen Xin said quickly, lowering their heads as they signaled for Chen Rui to climb back down.

But Chen Rui shot back without missing a beat: “Why wouldn’t they let us in? We’re just going to take a look. It’s not like anything’s going to go missing. Seriously.”

“Take them to the security office,” the man said with a dark expression, clearly not interested in arguing.

Before long, the three of them were escorted into the security office by the front gate. After a quick, basic check, and without being given any chance to explain, the person in charge said flatly, “What you did violates the rules. Since you’re students here, you’ll be written up.”

“Please, no—please,” Chen Xin begged in a rush. A write-up might not sound like much, but it went into your record, and that could seriously affect things later—jobs, internships, everything.

“Then punish me,” Chen Rui blurted out, panic rising. “This has nothing to do with them!” He didn’t want one impulsive move on his part to cast a shadow over his sister’s future.

They were still arguing when the door suddenly opened and someone walked in. “What’s going on in here? Why is it so loud?”

“Professor Feng?!” The three of them stared, stunned. It was Professor Feng—the very person they’d been trying and failing to find.

“These people were just trying to sneak in,” the supervisor said, frowning. “Are they your students?”

Professor Feng studied them for a moment, then nodded. “Yes. They’re my students. I was actually about to take them in to learn a few things.”

At that, the three of them lit up, crowding around him with open admiration.

“Alright,” the supervisor said, his tone easing. “If that’s the case, we’ll let it go. But no more climbing fences.”

After giving them a few instructions, Professor Feng led the three out of the security office and over to the excavation site.

“Professor Feng, thank you so much,” Chen Rui said, still buzzing. “I can’t believe you even remembered us!”

Professor Feng let out a helpless chuckle. “How could I forget? You toured that stone slab, and right after that, it got wrecked.” He shook his head, half amused, half exasperated. “Now you show up here again, and I’m honestly a little worried the stuff in this site is going to get wrecked too.”

“Ah... uh...” Chen Rui went completely speechless.

“The stone slab... got destroyed? How did that happen?” Shi Dian asked, looking totally confused.

“Oh?” Professor Feng gave him a puzzled look. “Weren’t you there too? How do you not know?”

So Shi Dian went over what had happened again, explaining it all to Professor Feng.

“So that’s what it was,” Professor Feng said, nodding thoughtfully after he finished.

“Right—actually, we came to ask you something,” Shi Dian went on.

“Go ahead,” Professor Feng said with a nod.

But before Shi Dian could get the words out, a sudden cry of alarm rang out.

Professor Feng whipped his head around and took off at a run. “It’s coming from the ruins. Let’s go see what happened.”

No choice—whatever they’d come to ask would have to wait. The three of them followed the professor straight to the newly excavated site. The moment they reached the edge and steadied themselves, they froze, stunned by what they saw.

The floor of the pit that had been buried under dirt had now been mostly cleared. What lay before them was a massive bas-relief—about thirty-three feet by thirty-three feet—carved from some kind of bluish-gray stone. Even after being buried for so long, the images on it were still strikingly vivid.

“This is—!” Shi Dian and Chen Rui blurted out at the same time. The carving was unmistakable: the Nine-Serpent Spider Emperor.

“My God!” Professor Feng shouted, then rushed down into the pit.

But before he could get close, the newly unearthed giant relief suddenly split down the middle, cracking cleanly into two halves.

Everyone stood there in shock, rooted to the spot. Professor Feng let out a long sigh, then turned back and gave Shi Dian and the others a look that seemed to carry a warning.

“I think the professor called it,” Chen Rui said, breaking into a cold sweat. “I thought he was just messing with us.”

“I don’t think this was an accident,” Shi Dian said, frowning. “It probably has something to do with me taking out that giant spider. This is getting really weird.”