Having devoted myself to guiding souls, I was surrounded by them after my death.

The murky pool water resembled an abyss; just looking at it sent a chill down one's spine.

A chill crept up the skin. In the pool, a figure slowly floated up, its outline indistinct and blurred, distorted by the water's reflection, its head tilted back, motionless.

"Sure enough, they're up here again."

Chen Shi remained calm, ignoring the figure and focusing his gaze on the water.

However, only his own face remained on the water's surface.

"Didn't come?"

Chen Shi remained vigilant, glanced at Su Yining's location again, then looked back at the water's surface.

He should have kept quiet, because once he looked, a chill ran down his spine.

Beside his face, a pale, indistinct face was hanging on his shoulder!

That distance was even closer than last time.

It's that drowned spirit.

Seeing the drowning spirit raise its hand, Chen Shi shouted:

"Right now."

As soon as she finished speaking, Su Yining rushed out like a burning arrow, instantly reaching his back. Her delicate body burst with power, and she grabbed the Drowned Spirit.

As a spirit herself, she possessed sufficient power to contend with the drowning spirit.

"Caught you!"

Su Yining gritted her teeth and restrained the drowning spirit with both hands, just as Chen Shi had planned—he, a human, would act as bait, deliberately breaking the rules so that she could "stalk the cicada from behind."

Clearly, Chen Shi was not a cicada to be slaughtered at will.

He rolled to the side, taking advantage of the fact that the drowning spirit was under Su Yining's control, keeping his face towards the pool and his eyes fixed on the water, while grabbing the drowning spirit's neck with both hands.

"Press it down!"

Chen Shi and Su Yining exerted force simultaneously, pressing the drowned spirit's face into the water.

If that can still be called a face.

"Are you sure this will solve the problem?" Su Yining was somewhat doubtful, but she vigorously pressed the drowning spirit into the water.

"Why don't you try and see?"

Without any hesitation, Chen Shi also restrained the drowning spirit and pressed its head into the water.

Where do we come from, and where do we go?

If Jiang Liu's guidance is correct, this is the only way to kill this drowning spirit.

A few seconds later, some bubbles began to rise to the surface of the water.

Immediately afterwards, a strange sound was heard:

"Gurgle...gurgle..."

The previously stiff drowned spirit began to twitch, its pale body trembling and twisting, its limbs contorting into irregular pretzel shapes.

It looked like it was struggling.

"It's working! Keep going!"

Seeing this, Chen Shi pressed the drowning spirit even deeper.

"Gurgle..."

The pool water bubbled as if boiling, and the drowned spirit's limbs began to twist and writhe. Finally, as a huge bubble burst on the surface, it became completely still.

"Success?"

Su Yining, panting heavily, looked at the motionless drowned spirit, a smile appearing on her face:

"It really worked."

"Did you really kill the evil spirit?"

Chen Shi's eyes lit up; this was of great significance to him.

Evil spirits can indeed be killed.

In other words, he really had a chance to deal with that three-faced evil spirit.

"Wow, you're quite the guy who's into older men. You've really got some skills. It was worth it for me to help you organize your study materials."

Su Yining giggled, her red highlights standing out brightly, her smile like the sun radiating warmth.

"Could you please stop calling me 'older-obsessed junior'? It's a bit awkward..."

Chen Shi also breathed a sigh of relief.

Just as he was about to rush out to find Jiang Liu, a glance out of the corner of his eye made his expression turn serious again.

The swimming pool remains exactly as it was in Ling Cage; it hasn't changed back.

"how……"

Before he could finish speaking, the moment he turned around, the drowned spirit had already stood up!

And standing right between him and Su Yining, her blurry face was only a few fingers' distance away from him.

Everything happened in the blink of an eye. Su Yining was still smiling when he didn't even have time to catch his breath.

"Crack!"

The sound of flesh being torn apart and bones breaking echoed from his chest, and his breathing instantly became heavy.

"!"

The familiar pain came, and my whole body felt like it was on fire, which then quickly turned cold.

Chen Shi looked down and saw that his chest had been pierced again. The drowned spirit's hand pierced through his chest, its palm protruding from his back, and it was clutching his heart.

"Junior!"

Su Yining spun around and kicked the drowning spirit with a powerful and precise kick, sending it flying against the wall.

Along with that heart.

"Junior, look at me, you better not..."

At Su Yining's call, Chen Shi collapsed to the ground again.

Vision blurred, sounds faded into the distance...

Su Yining pressed her hands against his chest, trying to plug the bloody hole.

Senior, stop blocking your way. Your heart is already gone, blocking it won't help.

Chen Shi felt dizzy and saw Su Yining's long hair fluttering, and a few bright crape myrtle petals falling out of her pocket—there were two rows of crape myrtle trees downstairs in the dormitory building of Nanjing University.

"Don't...die..."

……

……

Consciousness began to return, and the scene before my eyes gradually became clear, as if I were waking up from a dream.

Before me was my senior's face.

His face still looked extremely pale.

“Su Yining died three years ago.”

Chen Shi stood in the corridor, and his senior said to him:

"Stop scaring people. I'm tired of hearing these ghost stories. What about the ghost senior suddenly appearing? Don't make jokes like that next time."

After saying that, he walked towards the swimming pool.

"Wrong."

Chen Shi took a deep breath, his hand trembling as he placed it on his chest, feeling the lingering heartbeat.

That drowned spirit didn't die.

Two possibilities.

First, the information Jiang Liu gave him was incorrect.

Second, that wasn't a drowned spirit at all!

The person in the swimming pool didn't drown!

Chapter 5 Senior Sister Jiang

In the corridor, Chen Shi stood there, lost in thought.

No, something's wrong.

Recalling the situation at the time, Chen Shi still felt a chill run down his spine.

Just when he thought it was all over, the evil spirit suddenly came back to life and killed him.

"Where did we come from, and where are we going?" He murmured these words to himself.

If the information left by Jiang Liu is correct, then there is only one possibility: the spirit did not drown, but died in some other way.

Chen Shi was still thinking when his senior noticed he hadn't followed and turned to call out:

"Chen Shi, why are you still..."

He suddenly exclaimed in surprise halfway through his speech:

"Oh my god, why is your nose bleeding?"

"nosebleed?"

Chen Shi raised his hand to wipe under his nose, only to find that he had noticed two streams of blood flowing from his nose, with a few drops even landing on his collar.

"Quickly wipe yourself dry, you must have heatstroke!" The senior student hurriedly brought over a few sheets of paper, rolled them into strips, and handed them over.

"It's possible; the summer sun in Nanhai City is too strong."

Chen Shi wiped his nose and stuck a tissue into his nostril.

Although he said that, he had another terrifying thought in his heart.

It's a side effect of death rewind.

The first two times I didn't have a nosebleed at this time, but this time I bled without any warning. The only variable is the death rewind.

It seems that death regression can put a strain on the body and cannot be relied upon indefinitely.

Although it's just a nosebleed now, if I die a few more times, who knows where the bleeding will start?

"Um, senior, I need to go to the restroom. Can you wait for me at the entrance of the swimming pool?"

To avoid triggering any other unforeseen circumstances, Chen Shi didn't ask his senior to find anyone else, but instead had him wait at the entrance of the swimming pool.

"Are you alright? If you're not feeling well, I can call someone else."

The senior looked a little worried. From his perspective, the junior had just finished joking about the "ghost senior" a second ago, and the next second he had a nosebleed.

It was a bit scary, as if he had actually seen something.

"It's okay, I'll be back soon."

Without dawdling, Chen Shi waved his hand and ran off.

He was going to find Jiang Liu.

That beautiful alumna must know something.

Moreover, Jiang Liu's initiative in giving him her business card clearly indicated that she had foreseen his encounter with a malevolent spirit and needed to ask her for clarification.

Although it's a bit earlier this time compared to the previous round, finding Jiang Liu is still very easy.

"Let me see where all the innocent-looking male college students are hanging out."