Chapter 56: Unexpected Turn of Events

"Ah, that red cloth was something I sealed inside Li Ting's corpse back in the day. The purpose was to prevent her from reanimating and wreaking havoc on the world." The limping old man pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and said, "Follow me."

After speaking, the old man slowly headed toward the second floor. Zhang Xiaofan and the others exchanged glances and followed.

From the old man, Zhang Xiaofan gathered that this must be Li Qingshan. He had hidden a talisman inscribed with his own name inside Li Ting’s body to seal her away.

Reaching the end of the second-floor corridor, Zhang Xiaofan was shocked to find that Li Qingshan was leading them to the very room where he had been sawing up corpses earlier.

Upon entering, Hu Xiaotian and the others were startled. The sight before them was horrifying: the corpses had their arms sawn off, and standing to the side was the old man in white they had seen earlier.

However, the white-clad old man’s eyes were tightly shut, his body rigid, like a lifeless corpse devoid of any breath.

Seeing their nervousness, Li Qingshan snorted, "Don't be afraid. These are dried corpses I have refined. Without my command, they will not harm you."

The four of them breathed a sigh of relief. Zhang Xiaofan realized that this man’s power was far from simple, and from his scattered remarks, it was clear he knew exactly what had happened at their school.

Zhang Xiaofan asked, "Sir, what is this all really about?"

Li Qingshan sat in a chair, smoking, and recalled, "Ten years ago, a major tragedy occurred at your high school. Many people died."

Zhang Xiaofan’s brow twitched. He thought to himself that his suspicions were correct.

"The root of the incident was this Li Ting. She and I were from the same village, Baihua Village. The people there practiced various arts for generations. Growing up surrounded by this, Li Ting achieved some success herself. But don’t let her appearance as a mere girl fool you—she was incredibly ambitious, obsessed with immortality and eternal youth. To achieve this, she learned some dark arts from somewhere, took her own life, and transformed herself into a vengeful spirit."

"The boiler room in the old staff dormitory? So that’s where she committed suicide?" Zhang Xiaofan asked, stunned.

"It seems your investigation was quite thorough. Indeed, she died there. Li Ting was a ruthless person; she would stop at nothing to achieve her goals. To push her resentment to its peak, she threw herself into a high-temperature boiler and scalded herself to death alive."

"But looking at her corpse just now, it didn't seem to have any burn marks," Zhang Xiaofan observed.

"That is natural. After her body was retrieved, she transformed into a malicious spirit that very night and began slaughtering the people in the dormitory. After absorbing the blood of the victims, she changed into the form you see now."

"It seems the techniques she learned were formidable to turn into a vengeful spirit in such a short time," said Zhang Xiaofan.

"Certainly. I later learned that she practiced a dark art involving the absorption of blood. If cultivated to a high level, one could attain immortality," Li Qingshan explained. "The incident shocked the entire school, but Li Ting had manipulated the school’s management and faculty. The matter was suppressed, attributed to criminals, and the government kept it quiet to minimize the fallout."

"Didn't the parents of those students investigate?" Zhang Xiaofan couldn't help but ask.

"Heh, look at the deathly pallor on all your faces. A lot of people have died around you recently, haven't they? Have the parents of those victims investigated?"

Zhang Xiaofan was stunned. "We were killed by a red envelope group..."

His expression shifted drastically as he realized something. "You mean to say, this red envelope group... it might be controlled by Li Ting?"

"I don't know about that. I’ve never seen this 'red envelope group' you speak of. But one thing is certain: Li Ting's power is truly immense. That year, our entire village learned of her actions. We formed a team to go and eliminate her. But because she had already consumed the life essence of so many students, her strength was beyond what we could handle. In the end, we organized a sealing ritual to lock away her physical form. We paid a heavy price; all the villagers who went with me died, leaving only me."

He extinguished his cigarette and rubbed his crippled leg. "This leg was injured by her corpse poison back then."

"But why did everyone in Baihua Village suddenly die?" Zhang Xiaofan asked, recalling the dried corpses he had seen that night.

Li Qingshan looked at him. "Although we sealed her body, we never imagined her soul had already entered the body of one of our villagers during the fight. That villager had actually died at the start of the battle. Upon returning to the village, the villager—controlled by Li Ting—entered our graveyard. With the yin energy gathered there, she began to practice in earnest. Before long, people in our village started dying. By the time we realized what was happening, it was too late. Many villagers were turned into dried corpses. By then, I was the only one who escaped."

Zhang Xiaofan frowned deeply, never imagining that Li Ting could be so vicious.

"After that, I hid her body here, suppressing it with talismans. As long as she dared to come after me, I would trigger the talismans to explode. That is why she never dared to touch me. But I never expected that you would take those talismans away."

Li Qingshan looked miserable, and his words left the group in silence. Zhang Xiaofan realized they had been used by Li Ting; she had planned this from the moment they entered the village.

At first, they had been separated and nearly led into a room by a female student. Even though they hadn't entered then, they were eventually lured in. Everything had been within the vengeful spirit's control.

Zhang Xiaofan began to suspect that Li Ting was the ghost behind the red envelope group. She was powerful, intelligent, and knew how to use people against one another.

He suddenly remembered the poem Old Shen had given him:

*Sea mist veils the storied towers; the mountain gate, a quiet path of flowers and bamboo. Birds return as the village fades; a lonely feast in the empty woods. Even without the trickery of ghosts and gods, the scholar must cherish himself.*

The middle characters of the first five lines spelled out: *Baihua Village has a ghost.*

Zhang Xiaofan had always interpreted the last line, "the scholar must cherish himself," as a warning to be careful when going to Baihua Village. But now, he knew he was wrong. It wasn't a warning to be careful; it was a clear instruction not to go to Baihua Village at all.