Chapter 54 Ghost Qi is a Hidden Reward

"What is the final exam?"

Huan Xiao did not mind the change in the long-haired ghost's attitude. Wary of the ghostly aura radiating from Huan Xiao, the long-haired ghost chuckled a few times and offered no reply.

Supporting its rotting body, the twin-tailed ghost said to the other two:

"Let's get out of here quickly. The one surnamed Chen is coming. It just wants to torture us."

"That vicious thing! If I ever get my hands on its ghostly aura, I'll make it experience the agony of having its tendons pulled and bones shattered!"

The braided ghost's eyes burned with malice.

"Let's go, search quickly! We must find its weakness this time!"

At the long-haired ghost's command, all three ghosts scattered.

Left all alone, Huan Xiao found the feeling quite familiar. Earlier, the freckled ghost had treated her in the exact same manner. Realizing they were no match for Huan Xiao, they simply chose to ignore her existence.

Failing to glean any useful information, Huan Xiao picked up the bag she had prepared on the bed and headed toward the Fourth Teaching Building.

The previously white walls had transformed into a charred black from a fire, restoring the entire school to the night of the disaster. Flames even began to lick upwards from the ground...

Acrid, choking smoke slowly drifted into the air. Displeased by the foul odor, Huan Xiao used her ghostly aura to teleport directly in front of the Fourth Teaching Building.

Compared to the rest of the campus, the fire here burned far more fiercely. The overgrown weeds in front of the building had vanished, allowing direct access through the front entrance.

Huan Xiao hesitated for a moment before stepping inside. Ever since leaving the dormitory, she had kept a protective barrier of ghostly aura wrapped around her body to keep the flames from touching her clothes. Yet, even so, she could still feel a scorching heat.

Not a single ghost was to be seen anywhere near the Fourth Teaching Building. Feeling this was rather odd, Huan Xiao paused on the staircase. She wondered if she should find somewhere else to escape the fire. This place looked like the center of the blaze and hardly seemed like a good refuge. Perhaps she could even find a way out of the school...

"Ding-dong!"

A notification sound came from her phone.

Huan Xiao opened her phone and read the message sent by the Weird Game:

The final exam has begun. No examinee is permitted to leave the examination hall; otherwise, it will be considered a failing grade, and you will remain trapped in this world forever.

Followed by a line of smaller text in a slightly different shade:

You are the first person to be given the answers by a proctor. I won't count this time as cheating.

Huan Xiao: ......

It seemed probable, perhaps even likely, that Teacher Chen had been telling the truth.

Consequently, Huan Xiao continued up the stairs.

The rooftop door, worn down by years of neglect, let out a harsh, creaking shriek as it was pushed open.

Stepping out onto the rooftop, Huan Xiao discovered that the atmosphere here was in stark contrast to the rest of the school. While the inferno still raged furiously in the stairwell, not a single spark of fire was to be seen on the rooftop, save for scorched marks left upon the ground.

Seeing this, Huan Xiao walked forward.

The moment she stepped onto the rooftop, the stifling heat vanished like bursting bubbles. The surrounding air grew fresh and crisp. Relieved of the oppressive heat, Huan Xiao let out a long breath of tainted air.

She had survived. Had she stayed in the fire any longer, she would have suffocated.

Huan Xiao looked around the rooftop. It was situated in the southwest corner as the tallest building in the entire school. From this vantage point, she could overlook most of the campus grounds.

She walked straight to the balcony railing and peered downward...

Looking from above, she seemed to have found the only sanctuary amidst the sea of fire. Not only the dormitories and teaching buildings, but even the open sports ground had turned into an ocean of flames with nowhere to set foot.

Wandering amidst the sea of fire were the ghost students of the school. Uttering shrill screams, they searched for something within the blazing inferno. Not a single ghost noticed Huan Xiao standing on the rooftop of the Fourth Teaching Building.

This included not only the ghost students from Class 4, Grade 2, but those from other classes as well. The normally silent campus suddenly sprang into chaotic life.

Huan Xiao spotted the long-haired ghost near the cafeteria entrance. Before it could even step inside, it was pounced upon by Teacher Chen.

Teacher Chen looked different than usual. Now, it had no head—it had become a headless corpse. After grabbing the long-haired ghost, it ignored the creature's struggle and began draining the ghostly aura from its body. Once the aura was completely absorbed, Teacher Chen cast the lifeless-looking long-haired ghost aside.

Huan Xiao's gaze followed Teacher Chen, and she gradually grasped the true nature of the so-called "final exam."

...This was a one-sided massacre orchestrated by Teacher Chen.

Any student caught by Teacher Chen would have their ghostly aura plundered, leaving them like the "corpses" scattered across the ground. Perhaps once the final exam concluded, they would "come back to life," albeit with missing memories and a depleted ghostly aura.

Countless ghosts were frantically searching while hiding. Utilizing her ghostly aura, Huan Xiao finally made out the words of their unconscious murmuring: "...Head... Where is its head... Find its head..." The voices were sharp, piercing like sirens.

Flames licked at the ground below, yet the rooftop of the Fourth Teaching Building remained completely devoid of heat. Why was this rooftop so special?

As she watched, Huan Xiao suddenly realized something she had almost overlooked.

The monitor of Class 4, Grade 2—the freckled ghost—was missing from the fleeing crowd. Given the freckled ghost's penchant for traveling with an entourage, it should have been quite conspicuous. Why hadn't it appeared even once?

Could it be that it had separated from its followers?

Suddenly, Huan Xiao sensed a ghostly presence ascending the stairs. A ghostly aura was drawing closer and closer to the rooftop, step by step.

Huan Xiao turned around and watched as the rooftop door swung open, revealing a familiar figure...

It was the freckled ghost!

Seeing it, Huan Xiao felt a sense of inevitability. Within Class 4, Grade 2, apart from Teacher Chen, the freckled ghost was by far the most extraordinary entity. The fact that it could still command other ghosts even after death showed that both its ghostly aura and intelligence far surpassed those of ordinary ghost students. She just didn't know whether it had come here to hide like her, or if it had some other objective.

Upon spotting Huan Xiao, the freckled ghost, its face covered in burn scars, looked momentarily startled before issuing a warning:

" Outsider ghost, do not interfere with matters here."

"Class Monitor, did you come here to hide from Teacher Chen?" Huan Xiao asked.

She noticed that the freckled ghost possessed a much denser aura than before. While still far weaker than Teacher Chen, it was definitely more powerful than the other ghosts.

As the long-haired ghost had previously mentioned, the class monitor was the most unique entity in the class. It retained memories of the past and remembered the events of the final exam day, making it the only student in the class who had never been exploited by Teacher Chen.

If Teacher Chen never came to the rooftop of the Fourth Teaching Building, and the class monitor stayed here from the start of the exam until the end, then its special status made complete sense.

However, why hadn't it shared this discovery with the other ghosts? Since they and Teacher Chen were adversaries, wouldn't bringing everyone to the rooftop to preserve their strength and successfully pass the exam be a better way to fight back against Teacher Chen?

"How could I possibly hide from it? Since this is your first time taking our final exam, you wouldn't understand. As long as we can find the head of that headless ghost surnamed Chen, we can obtain its entire ghostly aura," the freckled ghost stated.