Chapter 52: Summoning a Horde of Urban Legends

The Slit-Mouthed Woman is one of the most famous urban legends in the island nation.

The mainstream narrative tells of a woman who underwent multiple cosmetic surgeries in pursuit of beauty, only for them to fail, leaving her disfigured to the point that she committed suicide, her jealousy and resentment giving birth to an evil spirit.

Ever since, the monster has wandered the streets day and night, wearing a surgical mask and wielding a pair of scissors.

If someone is unlucky enough to cross paths with it, it will ask the unfortunate soul: "Am I pretty?"

If the passerby answers "pretty," the entity will pull off its mask to reveal a horribly torn, gaping mouth, and ask again: "Still pretty like this?"

If the person panics and flees without answering, or replies "not pretty," it will butcher them with its scissors;

If they answer "pretty," it will slice open their mouth from ear to ear so they can be just as pretty as it is.

......

Tales of the Slit-Mouthed Woman have been spreading everywhere in Jianghua City recently, and the "Masked Senior Sister" at Jianghua University is merely a variant.

The Unusual Investigation Bureau has already confirmed that someone is intentionally propagating terror.

Given that exaggerated spread rate, Ji Yun would not be surprised if he ran into her any day now.

What he simply could not figure out, however, was: How did this monster end up inside a Mirage Realm?

A Mirage Realm is a special spatial dimension formed from the resentment of ghosts and spirits—an isolated domain completely devoid of unrelated nether entities.

Therefore, there is only one logical possibility.

That is, this Slit-Mouthed Woman followed them inside.

In other words, from the very beginning, someone among their group had brought the Slit-Mouthed Woman in with them!

At this thought, Ji Yun muttered inwardly: "The person who brought the cat in..."

......

Before he could ponder further, Liao Feifei, now possessed by the Slit-Mouthed Woman, stood up, wearing a sinister smile as she awaited Jiang Tian's response.

How could Jiang Tian have ever witnessed such a scene?

Despite being a 185-centimeter athlete, the series of eerie events tonight had long since terrified him out of his wits.

Naturally, he had also heard the legend of the Slit-Mouthed Woman.

He knew that no matter how he answered, it would trigger a horrific outcome.

Looking at that blood-soaked, mutilated face, Jiang Tian dared not answer.

He chose to... turn around and run!

Jiang Tian figured that with the others blocking his rear, plus two supernatural shielding cards in the group,

the Slit-Mouthed Woman at least wouldn't chase him first.

The moment Wu Feng realized the Slit-Mouthed Woman had possessed someone, ghost fire ignited in his palms and he sprang into action.

After all, their primary objective tonight was precisely to investigate these urban legends.

Never did they expect to find one right in their midst!

Seeing Jiang Tian flee, the others scrambled to run as well.

Ji Yun, however, stayed pressed against the corner, holding back Zhao Kai, who was about to move.

Because he had clearly seen that the instant "Liao Feifei" finished asking her question, a shroud of deathly aura had enveloped Jiang Tian.

It was as if he had been "marked."

Running away had already triggered the lethal rules of the urban legend.

Sure enough!

Before he had even taken two steps, Jiang Tian tripped over a step while stumbling forward, lurching as if about to fall.

At the exact moment of his fall, an invisible blade of freezing air seemed to sweep past his neck.

The terror-stricken expression on Jiang Tian's face froze instantly.

In that fraction of a second, the scene before their eyes appeared to play out in slow motion.

Under everyone's gaze, a thin red line suddenly appeared across Jiang Tian's neck.

As his body pitched forward, accelerating downward, his head remained suspended momentarily in mid-air.

That crimson line slowly widened, exposing the severed blood vessels and nerves beneath his skin, followed by the cleanly sliced cervical vertebrae.

After the imagery stalled for another heartbeat, the blood pressure within the severed vessels was violently released, and a fountain of blood burst forth with a wet rush.

A single head was flung high into the air.

The headless fountain sprayed directly against the ceiling, splattering the entire staircase everywhere.

Ji Yun and the others were also covered in warm, arterial spray.

Then, amid eyes paralyzed with horror, they watched that head arc upward through the fountain of fresh blood, hit the ground with two heavy thuds, bounce a couple of times, and finally roll to a stop around the stairwell landing.

Jiang Tian's handsome face was smeared with dust,

his eyes still wide open in death, staring fixedly at everyone.

Yet, there was no longer any light left within that gaze.

......

Watching her boyfriend die right before her eyes, Xia Li clutched her head, curled into a ball, and shrieked in terror.

More often than not, a corpse is far more terrifying than a ghost.

As everyone stared at the pools of blood flowing down the staircase, the thick, pungent stench nauseated them, leaving every single person utterly at a loss and frozen with fear.

Ji Yun swallowed hard, his throat dry, as he gazed at the scene of the flying head.

Another person was dead.

The sensation was akin to standing in a queue, knowing your turn would inevitably come.

Yet he was even more baffled by a nagging question: Exactly how did the Slit-Mouthed Woman kill just now?

They hadn't even seen her make a move, yet she had severed a man's head from a distance—how could such a method fail to chill one to the bone?

Rule-based slaughter?

This immediately reminded him of the oppressive, forced compulsion they had felt earlier while playing "Truth or Dare."

It was identical in every way to the lethal mechanism before them.

If you refused to play the Slit-Mouthed Woman's Q&A game, you were forced to bear the fatal consequences.

Witnessing this, a daring conjecture suddenly flashed through Ji Yun's mind: The ghost manipulating the game of Truth or Dare from start to finish was this very Slit-Mouthed Woman!

Not the ghost haunting this eerie building!

Wu Feng and Zhang Xiaonan, the two operatives from the Unusual Investigation Bureau, grasped the gravity of the situation far better than Ji Yun.

If this truly was rule-based killing, then the terror level of the Slit-Mouthed Woman had already surpassed the category of ordinary vengeful spirits.

In other words, this "urban legend" had fully matured and manifested!

The only consolation was that Liao Feifei's obsession seemed to be directed solely at Jiang Tian.

Having claimed her victim, she had finally transformed completely into the [Slit-Mouthed Woman], shedding her human guise entirely.

Just as everyone stood trembling, bracing themselves for the next round of questioning, an unexpected twist occurred.

The Slit-Mouthed Woman appeared utterly uninterested in the rest of them.

Even when singed slightly by Wu Feng's ghost fire, it dismissed it entirely as child's play and paid it no mind.

Instead, its gaze shifted toward "Lin Kexin" inside the room, a morbid, fascinated grin stretching across its slashed mouth.

......

An "urban legend" was simply not something Class-D investigators like them could handle.

Without understanding the situation, Wu Feng and his partner immediately reined in any reckless thoughts of fighting to the death.

And so, in bizarre fashion, a three-way standoff ensued among Ji Yun's group, the Slit-Mouthed Woman, and the malevolent spirit Lin Kexin.

However, this stalemate did not last long before

a sudden change erupted!

From the pitch-black corridor, a shadow lunged forward with the ferocious speed of a leopard.

With a loud crash!

Ji Yun saw only a black shadow and a red shadow collide violently at high speed, instantly teleporting several meters away.

When the visual field stabilized once more, against the wall at the end of the corridor, the vengeful spirit incarnation of "Lin Kexin" had its throat gripped by a dark shadow, pinned relentlessly against the wall.

The sheer force of the impact caused web-like cracks to fracture across the wall, shedding massive sheets of plaster.

Watching this, Ji Yun and the others could not process the sights flashing before their eyes.

The dark shadow was none other than

the very same "masked nether entity" that had been killed three times previously!

What baffled everyone, however, was why this nether entity would attack "Lin Kexin," who was likewise a restless spirit of the Mirage Realm.

Conversely, the Slit-Mouthed Woman seemed to understand.

Tipping its head like an audience member watching a play, it looked on with keen fascination.

Simultaneously, the dense deathly aura permeating the surrounding building was sucked into its body like a whale drinking the sea.

......

While Ji Yun and his companions were trapped inside the Mirage Realm,

outside the T4 dormitory building, by the stone table amidst the dense woods,

a young man wearing a black mandarin-collar jacket looked at the disconnected livestream room on his phone and rose lazily to his feet.

As he packed away the paper figurines scattered across the stone table, he clicked his tongue: "Ah, the show is over. Tsk tsk, the spiritual pressure of the entity inside that Mirage Realm is truly formidable—it actually managed to forcibly sever my connection with my Shikigami. Still, the items have already been delivered safely. Heh, I'd love to see what kind of terrifying monster someone capable of setting up such an elaborate grand scheme has been raising..."

On his phone, the user ID of the recently logged-out account was "Hua Hua."

Had Xia Li and Liao Feifei been present, they would have gasped in astonishment to discover this was the mysterious mega-donor who had tipped generously tonight.

What they remained entirely unaware of was that the [Yin-Yang Rope], the old newspaper, and the suicide script had all been mailed to Liao Feifei by him.

Even tonight's livestream had been subtly steered by his financial backing from behind the scenes.

Just as the black-clad youth stood up to leave, a paper figurine perched on a massive pine tree beside him twitched slightly.

"Oh... you've arrived quite quickly."

He uttered a light exclamation.

He knew his movements had been exposed.

Yet rather than hurrying to retreat, he narrowed his eyes slightly, a playful, mocking smile playing at his lips as he glanced toward the T4 dormitory before him.

In his eyes, sparks of eager anticipation flickered to life.

"The 'Industrial'-shaped building adopts the geomantic array of Heaven's Dry and Earth's Branch; the seventy-two steps on the fourth floor capture the Qi of the Four Symbols, reinforced by the count of the Seventy-Two Earthly Fiends to suppress it; the front building stands thirty-six feet tall to drink in the celestial light, while the rear building is excavated nine feet nine inches deep to seal the subterranean fiends; and the towering pillar in the center building precisely blocks the throat, forming the 'Heaven-Earth-Human Trinity Lock.' This building is a top-tier Feng Shui formation. The designer of this 426 Hospital back then was truly a supreme master of geomancy."

The youth muttered as if talking to himself, critiquing the Feng Shui layout of the T4 dormitory.

Then, abruptly shifting his tone, he continued: "To think they later dug an artificial lake to gather wealth and concentrate Qi, and piled up Wangshan Peak to seal the Yin Eye... If the intent was merely to suppress the nether Qi of the mass grave beneath the earth, it would have been a brilliant stroke. What a pity they ruined half of the rear building, breaking the integrity of the 'Industrial' layout... At first, I assumed the university's upper management simply lacked understanding of this supreme Feng Shui array and blundered. Now I realize that level of mastery is beyond my current realm... It wasn't about gathering Qi and sheltering wind, but rather about cultivating a Yin God."

With that, the black-clad youth cast his gaze toward a shadow melting into the darkness nearby, seemingly seeking validation as he posed a rhetorical question: "Am I right, Your Excellency?"

His tone was arrogant, yet he made no effort to conceal his internal respect for a fellow master of the esoteric arts.

In the darkness, silence served as his reply.

The youth knew that since his cover was blown, escaping unscathed would be impossible.

Yet he refused to lose his composure.

While speaking, he gently pinched several paper figurines between his fingers and tossed them forward.

In the blink of an eye, those paper figurines grew rapidly against the wind, transforming into four terrifying, resentment-seething nether entities.

A towering, hulking monster nearly three meters tall; a pale-faced female student; a woman with hair dragging across the ground; and a grotesque beast with a human face and a dog's body.

Had any outsider been present, they would have instantly recognized these figures as wildly famous urban legends.

[Hachishakusama], [Tomie], [Hime-Fami], and [Human-Faced Dog]!

Witnessing this trick, the person concealed in the shadows finally seemed stirred to speak, their voice cold: "Is it you who has been propagating the urban legends in Jianghua recently?"

The voice was hoarse, rendering gender indistinguishable.

The black-clad youth did not deny it, remarking instead with a sigh: "I used to take a certain pride in my ghost-raising methods. But after witnessing Your Excellency's grand layout, I realize my meager tricks are truly nothing more than a child brandishing a toy sword."

In the shadows, the figure remained silent.

Only a murderous intent, growing increasingly dense, permeated the air.

Yet the youth pressed on, aggressive and unyielding: "Who would have thought such a terrifying Yin God was being bred on the campus of Jianghua University? If it were ever allowed to succeed, a cataclysm would descend, and tens of thousands of people in this school would likely be buried along with it. Tsk tsk, I am genuinely curious: what heaven-defying abilities does Your Excellency possess to have kept the Unusual Investigation Bureau in the dark all these years..."

These words laid bare the secret hidden within this dormitory building for decades.

It was an outright challenge.

The moment the conversation concluded, the ground trembled slightly.

Sensing some shift, the figure hidden in the darkness spoke with a heavily suppressed fury, blurting out: "You actually intended to break the seal?!"

The black-clad youth maintained his amused, fearless attitude: "Indeed. It's rare to find such a gathering ground of baleful Qi. Since Your Excellency is cultivating a Yin God, why begrudge me a fraction of it to nourish my own Shikigami? Besides, once the seal breaks, you'll be the ones with a headache, not me. Why not give it a try?"

The auras of the urban legends standing behind him surged in intensity, unmistakably fueled by the unending stream of deathly Qi continuously drawn from the T4 dormitory.

With matters brought to this juncture, both parties knew a definitive conclusion had to be reached today.

The figure hiding in the shadows stepped out into the open.

From the gloom emerged a mysterious man with a red-eyed crow perched upon his shoulder.

He wore a black duckbill cap, an unassuming old-fashioned trench coat, and his face was obscured by billowing, roiling black mist.

Mysterious and terrifying.

As he stepped forward, the spiritual pressure radiating from his body erupted instantly.

He completely disregarded the four baleful urban legends standing before him, his tone dripping with unconcealed mockery: "Do you honestly believe these pathetic little tricks of yours can save your life?"

The words struck like heavy hammers against the chest.

Hearing this, the youth's playful expression vanished instantly, replaced by a violent shock within: "Such terrifying spiritual pressure!"

That overwhelming pressure was so intense that tiny blood vessels burst in his eyes, staining them red.

Clearly, he had not anticipated that his opponent would be absurdly, overwhelmingly powerful!

With a muffled groan, he forced down the metallic taste of blood surging up his throat.

The shock in the youth's eyes was swiftly repressed, replaced by a stubborn, defiant, and rebellious arc curving upward at the corner of his mouth.

Surprised though he was,

he was not afraid.

Glancing at the red-eyed crow, he remarked with a faint chuckle: "Tsk tsk, as expected of the Eastern esoteric cultivation community—truly a crouching tiger, hidden dragon. Given Your Excellency's methods, no wonder you can afford to ignore the Jianghua Unusual Investigation Bureau... Still, how will we know unless we try? If I am indeed to perish at the hands of a master like Your Excellency, it will at least be my honor."