The Resurrection of Dread

Chapter 5: Getting Lost

Zhou Zheng's roar woke everyone in the classroom from their stupor.

Although they had been stunned silly by the sudden turn of events, the instinct to survive is inherent in every living creature.

"Anyone who wants to live, follow me!"

Fang Jing shouted first, then took the lead, rushing out at top speed toward the back door of the classroom.

They were on the fifth floor. To leave the school, they had to go downstairs. If they had been on the second or first floor, he would have unhesitatingly jumped out the window. But jumping from the fifth floor would be no different from suicide.

Fang Jing's desperate escape attempt was highly contagious. The others snapped out of it and almost instinctively rushed out of the classroom after him.

Yang Jian didn't hesitate either and immediately fled.

He had a premonition that Zhou Zheng wouldn't be able to hold off that old man for much longer.

Crash...

The weathered floor collapsed under the stampede of people. Several students fell straight through.

"Zhang Wei! Miao Xiaoshan!"

Yang Jian was startled and quickly skirted around the collapsed area.

"Pah! I'm fine. Damn it, which bastard pushed me just now? I'm going to sue him for murder!" Zhang Wei clutched his butt, hissing in pain.

Luckily, they had only fallen to the classroom one floor below—a height of about three meters, which wasn't enough to kill them.

However, when Zhang Wei turned his head to look at the others who had fallen, his eyelid twitched.

A girl lay on the ground, eyes wide open. Blood gushed from her neck, and a gurgling sound came from her mouth; she didn't seem to have stopped breathing yet. Yang Jian saw a blood-stained piece of rebar piercing through her neck.

It was Su Lei!

She was a top student in the class and quite pretty, with many suitors from outside the school. No one expected her to meet with such an accident.

With such a grievous injury, there was no time to call an ambulance, let alone in the current situation.

"You guys, get up and leave this place quickly! Don't waste time!"

Yang Jian shouted once, unable to concern himself with others any further, and immediately moved on.

"Yang Jian, I was going to leave this damn place anyway... Damn it, you just ran off? Don't expect me to share any resources with you in the future!" Zhang Wei cursed.

At this moment, the group of students rushed out of the classroom like madmen and ran down the stairs, scurrying around like a herd of frightened rabbits.

Can we really leave this place unharmed?

Yang Jian felt extremely uneasy. The image of the old man in the long black gown, covered in livor mortis spots, lingered in his mind and refused to fade.

If the old man really was a ghost, could Zhou Zheng handle him?

He had also said that ghosts cannot be killed.Only a ghost can deal with a ghost.

Wait... could it be that Zhou Zheng is also a ghost?

Instantly, Yang Jian felt his scalp go numb and a chill run through his body.Was I just listening to a ghost give a lecture?What on earth is happening to this world?

Meanwhile, outside the classroom corridor, Zhou Zheng was still doing his best to hold back the old man, preventing him from unleashing his Ghost Domain again.

Once the Ghost Domain reappeared, as long as those students were still inside it, they wouldn't be able to walk out of this place alive, even if they left the classroom.

But the terror of this old man in the black gown had already exceeded his imagination. He had no idea how long he could hold out.

At this moment, everyone was rushing down the stairs frantically, scurrying like a herd of frightened rabbits.

One floor, two floors, three floors...

It seemed as if the hope of escaping was right before their eyes.

But just as Fang Jing reached the corner in the middle of the staircase, a slight zzzt sound suddenly rang out. The lights in the stairwell instantly went out, plunging the entire staircase into darkness.

This darkness was incredibly dense; one couldn't see their own fingers in front of their face. Not even a sliver of light could be seen through the windows.

"Ahhh~!"

As soon as the lights went out, a female student screamed in terror.

Damn it, has Zhou Zheng reached his limit? Could the Ghost Domain have appeared again? What level of ghost is that old man anyway? He's truly terrifying.

Cold sweat broke out on Fang Jing's face. He didn't dare to linger in the darkness and turned to shout, "Everyone keep moving! Don't stop!"

He actually didn't want to save these people, but he couldn't let them die inside the Ghost Domain. Otherwise, the Ghost Domain would become even more terrifying.

Continuing down the stairs in the dark wasn't difficult for them, as they were familiar with the environment.

But as they continued downward, after a while, Fang Jing suddenly stopped in his tracks. He realized something was wrong.

He wasn't the only one. Yang Jian, behind him, also noticed the anomaly. His whole body tensed up as he realized that the staircase they had walked down seemed to be far more than five stories high... and there was still more staircase ahead.

"Everyone stop. Don't move."

When Fang Jing stopped at the front, the others behind him subconsciously stopped as well.

Under these circumstances, with his body full of mysteries and being relatively calm, he seemed to have become the backbone of this group.

"Fang Jing, what's wrong? Why did we stop?" a girl asked, trembling.

"If you won't go, I will! I don't want to stay here and wait to die!"

Out of fear, a male student continued walking forward and was quickly swallowed by the darkness.

"Fang Jing, don't you f*****g mess with the rhythm! People will die!" someone else stopped and cried out.

"Go my ass! Haven't you counted how many flights of stairs you've walked from the fifth floor?" Fang Jing cursed.

"We were all running for our lives; who would count that?"

Indeed, in a panic, one wouldn't pay attention to such details. Not everyone possesses a calm mind.

At this moment, Yang Jian fell silent for a moment before speaking up: "Before the lights went out, we had reached the third floor and were heading toward the halfway point to the second floor. But the lights went out right there. We should have been able to walk out by going down just one more flight. However, counting from the moment the lights went out, we have walked down at least three, or even four flights. In other words, we have already walked underground."

"But this teaching building doesn't have a basement."

"Damn, Yang Jian, can you not say such terrifying things? What kind of time is this to be talking?" someone replied from the darkness.

"So what do we do now? Do we go or not?"

"Maybe we should try going down a few more floors? It's possible Yang Jian counted wrong."

Just as everyone was discussing, a faint glimmer of light suddenly appeared in the darkness. A female student was trembling as she held up her phone and turned on the flashlight.

The phones still work?

Everyone was pleasantly surprised and hurriedly took out their phones, turning on their flashlights.

Immediately, a dozen beams of light lit up. But compared to the number of students in the class, it was far too few. Had the others gotten separated?

What was even stranger was that the light wasn't as bright as usual. It seemed to be repelled by the surrounding darkness, illuminating less than a meter ahead.

Beyond that was darkness as dense as ink.

This kind of darkness was so oppressive it was almost suffocating, as if one could get lost in it at any moment.

"Keep moving forward," Fang Jing said, gritting his teeth. He had no other choice now.

This was not something that could be fought with individual strength. He could only pray that Zhou Zheng wasn't dead yet and could hold off that ghost a little longer, disrupting this Ghost Domain.

Otherwise... everyone would likely be lost in this Ghost Domain forever, never able to walk out in their entire lives.

They continued down the steps.

This time, not just Fang Jing, but many students started counting the floors.

One floor, two floors, three floors...

The more they counted, the more panicked they became. When they counted to five floors and saw that the staircase ahead still hadn't ended, everyone stopped in their tracks. Their hands and feet turned ice-cold, and looks of terror appeared on every face. At this point, some female students broke down completely, collapsing on the ground and crying.

"We've... we've already walked five floors."

"I counted five floors too. We're... we're finished. We can't get out of here."

"Ghost walls... it must be ghost walls (getting lost in a supernatural loop)..."

For a moment, everyone was at a loss.

Fang Jing's face also looked exceptionally grim. He didn't dare to continue forward. He felt very unwilling in his heart. Was he really going to die here confused and bewildered in this life?

"Yang Jian, you bastard, are you still alive?"

Suddenly, he shouted in a violent tone.

"Fang Jing, I haven't offended you, have I? Don't curse me to die like that," Yang Jian said coldly.

Fang Jing turned around, pushed through the crowd, grabbed Yang Jian by the collar, and said viciously, "Since you're not dead, then lead the way! If it's you, you'll definitely be able to leave this place alive. With your potential, you absolutely won't die in a damn place like this."

Yang Jian replied, "You know more than I do. If even you can't find a way out, what can I do?"

"You must know something! Are you going to talk or not, damn it?" Fang Jing's face became somewhat hideous.

He was at a dead end and could only pin his hopes on Yang Jian. If this Yang Jian really could grow to the height he would reach in the future, there was absolutely no way he would die here.

From before until now, he had started to pay attention to this Yang Jian.

In just a short moment, he had analyzed the pattern of that Knocking Ghost, and during the escape, he had clearly counted the number of flights of stairs.

Without a doubt, this was a guy with terrifying adaptability.

Ordinary people, upon suddenly encountering a Ghost Domain and a malicious ghost, would be scared out of their wits. How could they be as calm as him?

This was a talent.

In normal times, this talent was useless (chicken ribs); even if one had it, they might never use it in their lifetime. But in a situation where the world was changing drastically, this talent could increase the chances of survival. If one could become a Ghost Rider, this talent would give them a significant advantage when dealing with ghosts.

"Fang Jing, it's useless to ask me. This is my first time encountering this situation too. If I had a way out, I wouldn't be staying here either. In a place like this, staying even one extra second could mean running into that thing. Do you think I want to die?" Yang Jian said.

Fang Jing's heart shuddered. Only then did he realize that at this moment, Yang Jian was still a complete novice who knew nothing.

He felt a bit ridiculous. He had actually turned to him for help at a time like this.

Was the future Yang Jian's influence on him too great?

"F-Fang Jing, it's bad! Look..." Suddenly, a student pointed tremblingly at the door of the restroom.

There was a restroom between the third and second floors of the teaching building.

"Damn it, we went in a circle and are still at the halfway point of the second floor. Now we're really finished."

"No, that's not it. Look behind that door, there seems to be a silhouette." That student trembled, raising his phone and shining the light over.

Everyone was so scared they retreated repeatedly.

In the light, a tall, vague human-shaped silhouette appeared behind the glass window of the restroom door.

"Who... who's in there?" someone shouted, summoning their courage.

Hopefully, it's a classmate in the restroom.

Creeeaak~!

A drawn-out sound of a door opening rang out. Then, a pale arm reached out from the pitch-black restroom, resting on the door and slowly pushing it open.

"That's not a human. That's another ghost."

Fang Jing's pupils instantly constricted sharply, but in the end, a ferocious look appeared on his face.

"Since you don't know anything, then go to hell."

Using all his strength, he grabbed Yang Jian and shoved him forcefully toward the endless darkness of the restroom, intending to use this guy's life to temporarily hold off this newly emerged ghost.