The girl's face appeared even more ethereal and otherworldly, accentuated by the vivid crimson of her outfit that seemed to glow faintly against the surrounding darkness. Her long black hair floated and fluttered around her as though stirred by an unseen wind that existed only for her. Zhang Ya stood directly in front of Chen Ge, so close that less than thirty centimeters separated their faces. The cold radiating from her body seeped through his clothes and skin like icy water poured directly into his veins. His lips quickly turned purple, and small clouds of breath escaped with every shallow exhale as the temperature around him plummeted.
Even the man who claimed he feared nothing felt genuine fear coil tightly around his heart in that moment. Instinctively, every fiber of his being urged him to lean backward, to put distance between himself and the red-dressed specter. But he found himself completely unable to move. The crying-face candy he had swallowed seemed to have melted into a flowing river of ice inside his bloodstream, freezing his blood vessels, locking his muscles, and rooting him in place as though his body had turned to stone.
A spirit's desperate cry for help surged through his veins like a second heartbeat. Waves of negative energy gathered and pressed around his heart, constricting it like a pair of invisible hands squeezing with merciless force. The candy was impossible to swallow now; it lodged in his throat, choking him. Chen Ge felt the air being squeezed from his lungs, darkness creeping in at the edges of his vision as though he might faint from lack of oxygen.
Zhang Ya moved toward him with agonizing slowness, her presence radiating pure, unrelenting cold. She finally stopped directly in front of him. That face—beautiful yet utterly without warmth—hovered so close that Chen Ge could feel the chill radiating from her skin. Her beauty was overwhelming, breathtaking, the kind that could stop the breath in a person's throat and leave them frozen in awe and terror.
His throat refused to produce any sound. The candy had fully melted now, its bitter-sweet taste spreading across his tongue like poison. Chen Ge could feel a powerful spirit surging and coiling within his own body, fighting for control. Looking at Zhang Ya—now only six centimeters away—his calves began to quiver involuntarily, small tremors that spread upward through his legs despite his best efforts to stay steady.
This is not what I had in mind at all! Someone stop her! The thought screamed inside his skull, raw and panicked.
Perhaps the title of "Specter's Favored" finally activated in that desperate moment, because the blind, wounded monster—still reeling from the Pen Spirit's attack—suddenly surged forward at full speed. Its thin, serpentine body slithered and writhed across the floor like a giant snake desperate to reclaim its prey. Its bony, shriveled hands clamped onto Chen Ge's shoulders with bruising force. The lower half of its elongated body arced upward, coiling and preparing to leap onto his back and claim him completely.
The sharp pain exploding from his shoulders snapped Chen Ge out of his fear-induced trance. He whipped his head around to look at the monster—and, in that split second, gave it an appreciative nod. A small, grim acknowledgment of gratitude.
Appreciation?
The gesture seemed to offend the monster deeply. The head that hung high above suddenly went mad with rage. It abandoned any intention of confronting Zhang Ya directly and instead chose a vulnerable spot on Chen Ge's neck to bite. The twisted human head opened its jaws impossibly wide—but stopped abruptly half a meter from its target.
It wasn't that the monster wanted to stop. It was forced to.
In the darkness, long strings of bloody hair had whipped out like living ropes and bound its body tightly, wrapping around its thin limbs and elongated torso. The monster screamed in fury and glared resentfully at Zhang Ya. It had not attacked her earlier—not out of fear—but that did not mean it respected her power.
The three monsters quickly communicated in some silent, unspoken way. Their focus shifted instantly to Zhang Ya. Chen Ge did not know exactly what she intended to do, but he saw her beautiful face suddenly drop into an expression of pure, murderous intent. Her black hair drilled forward like thousands of needles, piercing directly into the monster's body. Her slender arms reached out, gripped the creature's head with terrifying strength, and slammed it violently against the nearest wall.
The monster wailed for the second time that night. The first had come when Chen Ge drove the Pen Spirit's pen into its eye. This second scream was deeper, more guttural, filled with genuine agony.
This is so cruel, Chen Ge thought, watching in stunned silence.
As Zhang Ya began her brutal assault on the monster, the suffocating chill that had paralyzed Chen Ge finally eased enough for him to move. He quickly stepped backward, putting distance between himself and the fight. The screaming spirit inside his body weakened as the crying-face candy continued to dissolve completely on his tongue. The cold around his eyes receded slightly, and his vision sharpened once more. He could see clearly in the darkness again, every detail of the corridor and the battle standing out in sharp relief.
The three monsters now fought desperately against Zhang Ya. Her red outfit blazed like fresh blood in the darkness, a vivid signal of her burning anger and bottomless resentment. It looked as though she intended to tear the creatures apart piece by piece and consume whatever remained.
Ten minutes later, the corridor had become a scene of absolute slaughter. The monsters were increasingly wounded—limbs torn, bodies shredded, their once-cohesive forms fraying at the edges. When they remained joined to their human hosts, these thin monsters were at their strongest. Detached from their anchors, however, their power weakened dramatically. Even with the advantage of numbers, they could do almost nothing against Zhang Ya's overwhelming force.
The difference in power is so huge? Chen Ge stared in disbelief. The thin monster had been the most terrifying ghost he had ever personally encountered—until now. He had initially assumed it would be a near-equal match for Zhang Ya. Clearly, he had underestimated her strength by an enormous margin.
She is definitely unique, he realized. To have earned her own dedicated page inside the black phone, she must be far beyond ordinary ghosts.
Chen Ge tightened his grip on the cleaver, refusing to let his guard down even for a second. At most, Western Jiujiang Private Academy had been a three-star scenario—but after witnessing Zhang Ya's dominance here, he now suspected it had only truly been a two-star threat. As a ghost born from that academy, she was effortlessly handling monsters from the genuine three-star Third Sick Hall. This could only mean one thing: something far scarier than the thin monster still hid somewhere deeper inside this wing. Something that had yet to reveal itself.
The boy added in a quiet but firm tone, "But Wu Fei is not the most difficult one to deal with. You have to be especially careful about the one with the ruined face—he is by far the most dangerous presence here." His empty eye sockets seemed to darken slightly as he spoke the name, as though even mentioning the ruined-face man carried a weight of old resentment and caution.
"Thank you for the reminder," Chen Ge replied sincerely, nodding once. He genuinely appreciated the warning. Knowing the relative threat levels of the remaining possessed patients could mean the difference between survival and becoming another victim trapped behind the door.
"There's no need to thank me," the boy said calmly, "because I have a favor to ask of you in return." He had been silently observing Chen Ge for some time now, studying his actions, his reactions, and his choices. Only after careful consideration did he finally voice his true purpose. "I am merely a persona—a fragment of consciousness. This Third Sick Hall behind the door serves as my host body. I have been here for so long that, from a certain perspective, my awareness has merged with the building itself. Outsiders cannot truly kill me; they can only weaken me, wear me down, and force me back into a deep sleep."
"They cannot destroy me outright," the boy continued, "but they can influence me—perhaps even control me—by harming my second persona in the real world. That is what I fear most. If they manage to break or manipulate him, they could use him to manipulate me. That is why I need your help. If the situation ever comes to it, please protect my second persona. In that world, I have no family left. He is my only remaining friend."
"No problem at all," Chen Ge answered without hesitation. "I am already friends with your second persona. I would never abandon him if he were in danger." In his mind, Chen Ge was already thinking several steps ahead. Befriending this powerful childhood persona could one day allow him to recruit the boy as a worker for his Haunted House. A being of this caliber, tied to such a terrifying location, would be an invaluable asset.
"Hopefully you will keep your promise," the boy said softly, his tone carrying both hope and quiet warning. He carried the severed head of the old director toward Room 3. "Staying too long in this world will damage your spirit and body. It will fill you with negative thoughts and resentment. If you remain here long enough, you too will eventually go insane—just like so many others before you."
He pushed open the door to Room 3 and gently placed the old man's still-screaming head beside the bed. "I will send you back now," the boy said. "If you ever need to return or find me again, come at midnight. I will hold the door open for exactly one minute."
"Why only one minute?" Chen Ge asked, his eyes twitching slightly as he processed the limitation.
"That is the limit of my control," the boy explained patiently. "This world is vast, and there are many other doors scattered throughout it. Some doors, like this one, are guarded by people. Others are left completely unattended. Normally, when a door is actively guarded by someone like me, it can only remain open for one minute before the connection becomes unstable."
"Okay, I understand," Chen Ge replied, nodding slowly. His thoughts drifted briefly to the blood door still hidden inside his own Haunted House. The boy's words carried heavy implications for his future plans.
When both Chen Ge and Zhang Ya stepped back into Room 3, the boy quietly closed the door behind them. He stood beside it, small and solemn, his blood-red shirt still dripping slowly onto the floor. "You can go back now."
"But how exactly?" Chen Ge asked, glancing at the now-closed door.
The boy pointed directly at the door of Room 3. "Push it open. You only have one minute."