"Meow~"
The pink fox, as soon as it appeared, rubbed its back against the pajama-clad girl like a spoiled pet, letting out a meow.
Delicate and drawn-out, familiar yet eerie...
Bai Jie: "..."
Xia Qimeng: "..."
So that eerie cat meow in the hallway earlier—was it this thing all along?
Wait!
How do foxes actually sound again...
The next second, intense energy fluctuations emerged around the Nine-Tailed Spirit Fox, keenly detected by Bai Jie.
"This is unmistakably...spirit power."
The indoor temperature plummeted. Though it was a summer night, it felt like early winter. A chill surfaced as diamond-shaped ice crystals materialized in the air around the two humans and one fox.
Swish swish swish!
The next moment, the ice crystals scattered in all directions, shooting like a storm of bullets toward the mutated cockroach swarm that surged forward like an oppressive black cloud.
Thud thud thud—muffled impacts rang out in succession. Dark brown juices splattered everywhere, staining the walls like eerie, dark graffiti. Not a single cockroach could evade the onslaught of the ice crystal rain.
Xia Qimeng covered her mouth, her bright eyes filled with shock. Due to the dropping temperature, her glasses had frosted over.
"These cockroaches may look terrifying, but their actual Vitality isn't high, so this doesn't really showcase the Nine-Tailed Spirit Fox's true combat strength."
"What a pity, what a pity." Bai Jie thought to himself.
"Hey? How about I add a little difficulty for this little cat... uh, little fox?"
Once this mischievous idea arose, there was no stopping it.
He even began to imagine this stunningly beautiful fox being bullied into a sorry state, begging for mercy in utter distress.
In the shadowy corners of Bai Jie's heart, a "hehehe" cackle echoed...
Before long, the cockroaches were all dead before even mounting an effective offensive, reduced to countless fragments and minced meat. Now and then, one could see a bristle-covered leg twitching faintly.
Xia Qimeng heaved a massive sigh of relief, feeling as if she had just been rescued from drowning—though the stench of decay still hung in the air.
Still, at least she wouldn't have to take off her shoes and fight these terrifying mutated cockroaches...
She was about to thank this mysterious pajama-clad girl when she heard:
"Weird things are really happening more and more often. Thank goodness I have you, my Nine-Tailed baby!"
One second the pajama-clad girl was rubbing her chin and sighing; the next, she suddenly scooped up the majestic Nine-Tailed Spirit Fox and began kneading it wildly in her arms.
"Meow..."
Xia Qimeng felt she could sense a look of helplessness in the beautiful fox's expression, its gaze seemingly sending out a silent cry for help...
"Um, thank you for saving me. I haven't asked your name yet?" Xia Qimeng spoke up.
The question did nothing to interrupt the pajama-clad girl's reckless behavior. Without even turning her head, she replied, "Me? My name is Yang Shining, just finished sophomore year."
Just finished sophomore year?
Hearing this, Bai Jie suddenly recalled that at the time of his disappearance, it was still summer break before the new semester. If he hadn't been reincarnated, by now he would already be a junior.
As for why Yang Shining, a sophomore, lived in the same dorm building as Xia Qimeng, a junior—that was because Xingchuan University had expanded enrollment in recent years, leading to multi-grade students sharing the same dormitory building.
Bai Jie had once joked with Chen Zhang that if the school kept expanding enrollment, co-ed dorms wouldn't be a pipe dream for much longer.
What a pity, it's all nonsense now.
Only by strolling through the girls' dorm... ahem, conducting an investigation, could he fulfill that dream.
...
"Oh, hello. My name is Xia Qimeng, junior, I live on the 7th floor." Xia Qimeng said dryly.
"Ah! So you're a senior~ Pleased to meet you... mm..."
Yang Shining's reply carried a somewhat perfunctory tone. Then she plunged her face into the pink fox's snowy-white belly, inhaling its scent with wild abandon.
Muttering under her breath: "Stinky fox! For helping me this time, I'll forgive you today. But if I ever catch you sneaking out again to dig through the trash for food, I'll lock you up for a whole month!"
Xia Qimeng suddenly understood. Could it be that the one eating garbage wasn't Yang Shining, but the pink fox in her arms?
Appearances really were deceiving—such a beautiful fox had somehow fallen to scrounging for garbage in the middle of the night. Was it the owner's mistreatment, or the fox's own strange obsession?
"Uh... excuse me, is that your pet?"
Xia Qimeng had been standing there for so long, feeling awkward whether she left or stayed.
"Mm-hmm..."
The pajama-clad girl huffed and puffed while nuzzling the fox, only stopping her out-of-control behavior when Xia Qimeng spoke again.
"Oh, sorry, I almost forgot about you."
Yang Shining pulled her face away from the fox's snowy-white belly, a few fine white hairs sticking to her cheek. "Let me escort you back."
Xia Qimeng was just about to say that wouldn't be necessary.
"Meow!"
At that very moment, the Nine-Tailed Spirit Fox suddenly let out a sharp cry, breaking free from Yang Shining's hands and leaping to the ground. Its back arched, its fur bristled like an explosion, and its nine tails ceased their swaying.
"Nine-Tails, what's—"
The look of confusion on the pajama-clad girl's face lasted only half a second before it was replaced by the tense expression of someone facing a formidable enemy.
Space was compressed and distorted by some unknown, eerie power. The air itself seemed to be sucked into a vacuum. Wisps of pure black smoke rose from the corpses of the cockroaches.
The pure black smoke slowly diffused, gathering together to form a great curtain of black mist.
The instant the black curtain took shape, Yang Shining, as if foreseeing something, urgently cried out, "Destroy it!"
Immediately, from within the black curtain, pale bone arms emerged one after another, radiating a cold, sinister aura.
The Nine-Tailed Spirit Fox had also finished charging up—dozens of ice arrows as thick as an adult's wrist pelted toward the black curtain like a violent storm.
Crack crack crack crack!
The moment the ice arrows touched the bones, the latter crumbled like dried twigs. The skeletons that emerged fully from the black curtain were all missing arms and legs, disintegrating into pieces after barely lasting a single exchange.
"Interesting, but don't think this is all. This is just the appetizer."
From the darkness, Bai Jie watched the two humans and one fox, murmuring to himself.
These skeletons were summoned by Bai Jie.
What he had just used was a newly awakened skill—Dark Summoning.
With a flick of his will, spirit power circulated, and another black curtain slowly rose behind the two humans and one fox!
On both sides of the corridor, one ahead and one behind, two black curtains now blocked their path of escape.
"Dammit, the aura inside this one is even more sinister."
The pajama-clad girl warily fixed her gaze on the second black curtain, which was even darker and more unfathomable.
Flap flap flap.
Suddenly, from within the second black curtain, a swarm of bats burst forth—their eyes blood-red, wings fully spread, their fangs long, sharp, and gleaming menacingly.
"Screech screech!"
The mass of bats shrieked shrilly, sweeping toward the two humans and one fox like a black, bloody gale.
"Nine-Tails!"
Amidst the alarmed cry, invisible energy coalesced into blades of wind, slashing out to meet the bat army.
The Nine-Tailed Spirit Fox was actually controlling ice arrows to intercept the white-bone skeletons on one side while simultaneously unleashing a net of wind blades against the bats!
However, caught in a two-front pincer attack, the Nine-Tailed Spirit Fox was ultimately overwhelmed. Several bats broke through the wind-blade net and were about to bite into the neck of the nearest person—Xia Qimeng.
"Crap, I can't let this go too far!"
A panicked cry rang out in the spider's heart.