Baili Pangpang flew back to the dormitory building, put away all the forbidden items on his body, and swaggered up to Shen Qingzhu.
"How is it?" Shen Qingzhu asked.
"What else could we do? Of course, we took care of everything!" Baili Pangpang chuckled. "And I even found where that thing was hiding."
Upon hearing this, Shen Qingzhu's eyes lit up. "Where is it?"
"It's in the second warehouse on the east side, but I'm afraid of dying, so I'm going to wait for you guys to go together," Baili Pangpang said honestly.
As the two were talking, the doors around them opened one after another, and the other recruits, whose souls had returned to their bodies, woke up from their sleep and walked out of the room in a daze.
"Brother Shen, Brother Shen!" Deng Wei rushed over to Shen Qingzhu in the corridor. "I have a nightmare! I dreamt I was trapped in the sky by a spider, and no matter how hard I struggled, I couldn't wake up!"
"Hmm?" Baili Pangpang's lips curled up as he asked with a smile, "Then do you remember how you escaped?"
Deng Wei was taken aback. After a moment of hesitation, he said somewhat uncertainly, "I seem to remember... a glowing sow flew into the sky, and then somehow came back."
Baili Pangpang:...?
A sow flying into the sky?
I, your humble servant, tread upon the radiant light, wielding the Soul-Severing Blade, to save you from your dire straits, and yet from your perspective, it looks like a sow soaring to the heavens?!
Just as Baili Pangpang was gritting his teeth in anger, Shen Qingzhu snorted coldly, slapped Deng Wei on the back of the head, and said icily:
"A bunch of useless trash, their souls were stolen so easily. What kind of Night Watchmen are they? They should just go back to their hometowns and farm!"
"Brother Shen, I..."
Deng Wei was about to speak, feeling wronged, when Shen Qingzhu glared at him fiercely, forcing him to swallow his words back.
"Now all the new recruits are awake, and there are about 150 men available. We can overwhelm that spider with sheer numbers," Baili Pangpang said with satisfaction.
Shen Qingzhu was silent for a moment, then slowly said, "That's not how it's calculated. That spider... it really can kill."
Baili Pangpang was taken aback. "Didn't you say it was an exercise?"
"But some people did indeed sacrifice themselves, and their deaths were gruesome..." Shen Qingzhu's gaze was filled with solemnity. "Even if we have more than 150 people, not all of them will cooperate with our actions, and even if we do have that many people, facing a powerful 'Chuan' realm mystery, there will inevitably be casualties..."
We need to find a way to kill the spiders while minimizing casualties.
Shen Qingzhu lowered her head and fell into deep thought.
Baili Pangpang looked at Shen Qingzhu in surprise. In his impression, Shen Qingzhu had always been the kind of brainless, hot-tempered, and reckless man. He never expected that when faced with an emergency, he would be calmer than anyone else...
That makes sense, considering he successfully ambushed the entire Masked Squad when they were fighting against [Mask]. How could someone like that be truly brainless?
"By the way, where's Qiye?" Baili Pangpang asked in confusion.
"He took some people to Building 3. He said there's something 'mysterious' in that building."
"Building Three? The girls' dormitory?" Baili Pangpang was taken aback at first, then his eyes widened. "Building Three is mysterious? Doesn't that mean... Molly is in danger?"
Without saying a word, Baili Pangpang turned around and ran towards Building 3.
"Wait, aren't you going to kill that spider?" Shen Qingzhu asked in surprise when she saw Baili Pangpang run away like that.
Baili Pangpang slammed on the brakes, hesitated for a moment, then took off the black ring on his right hand and tossed it to Shen Qingzhu.
"You hundred-plus people should be enough to deal with one spider. This is the [Soul-Severing Blade], capable of severing the spider's silk that pierces even souls. You can borrow it for now; I'm going to... play the hero and rescue a damsel in distress!!"
Shen Qingzhu caught the black ring and watched Baili Pangpang's figure disappear at the end of the corridor, shaking his head helplessly.
...
In front of the three buildings.
Lin Qiye stared at the eerily quiet dormitory building before him, his brows furrowing slightly.
He was standing right at the dormitory entrance, but [Mortal Realm]'s spiritual perception couldn't detect the building's existence at all, as if it had been blocked. This was the first time he had ever encountered such a situation.
Cao Yuan stepped forward, trying to push open the dormitory door, but no matter how much force he used, the glass door wouldn't budge.
He frowned, took the Star Blade from behind his back, and slammed the hilt heavily against the glass surface. Several muffled thuds were heard, but the glass door remained motionless, without even a crack.
Cao Yuan reluctantly slung the sword back over his shoulder and turned to look at Lin Qiye, who was deep in thought.
Given their current physical abilities, they should be able to smash through the glass door with their bare hands. This strange situation must be caused by something inside the building.
"The space here has been partitioned off." Just then, Li Shaoguang suddenly spoke up from the crowd.
Lin Qiye turned his head and asked in confusion, "A spatial partition?"
"Yes." Li Shaoguang nodded. "My Forbidden Ruins are somewhat related to space, so I can sense the situation of this building. Although it appears to be right in front of us, from a spatial perspective, it's not actually here."
"So how do we get in?"
"Let me give it a try." Li Shaoguang stepped forward and took a knife from his back. This knife was not the standard Star Blade of the Night Watchmen, but a large cleaver with red tassels like the ones from decades ago. In addition, Li Shaoguang was already a bit bald, so from a distance he looked like a fierce-looking cleaver squad.
Li Shaoguang stopped in front of the door, took a deep breath, and suddenly swung the machete in his hand!
A blade of light mixed with a faint gray glow struck the glass door. The moment the gray light burst open, a soft sound rang out, as if something had shattered.
The glass door wasn't broken at all, but Li Shaoguang gently pushed it open with both hands, revealing a dark corridor inside.
"Hurry up and go in. I can only cut open a corner of this space; it will automatically revert to its original state in a moment," Li Shaoguang said to the others as he entered the building first.
Lin Qiye and the others quickly entered the building. A moment later, the glass door closed automatically in a strange way. Looking out from the inside, the original path quickly disappeared, and the outside environment dimmed, eventually turning into an eerie deep blue...
It felt like being at the bottom of the deep sea.
"This is space..." Lin Qiye walked to the door and pushed the glass door, but it still wouldn't budge. The entire building seemed to have been moved to another place and imprisoned in this space.
"Let's go up and see what's going on here." Lin Qiye turned and walked towards the stairs. He had only climbed half a floor when a girl's sharp scream suddenly rang out from above, echoing throughout the entire building.
Lin Qiye and the others' faces darkened. They exchanged glances and then rushed upstairs.