Chapter 232 - Buying Time

"Are you passing through Food and Leisure or Treatment Hall?" Chu Youlan asked, and the words made Liu Xiaodan twitch. The woman blinked once. "Food and Leisure Hall is connected to the Administrative Hall which connects to the Lodging Hall…"

"…which path would you recommend?"

Chu Youlan stared at him with a pout threatening to twist her lips. She then rubbed her arm. "Treatment Hall. It's far dangerous to pass by the Administrative Hall right now. It's the most secure and probably a place where the most powerful shamans are. Also, there's something that you might want to see in the Treatment Hall."

…

Song Qixi was on the second floor by then, but he was too far from the resident's station when Liu Xiaodan and Qiao Shan were there. He only came close to the stairs again when he heard the noises of those who had gone up. He followed them closely and even saw Fan Meiling and Qiao Ni doing the same. When they reached the fourth floor, they heard the nurses and doctors speaking to the people inside the room.

"Huh? Where's He'er? He said he's here…" the nurse that led the group was confused. She wanted to find and hug Yun He, but she couldn't find him. All she saw was a few people and two soldiers. There was also someone tied at the side that Nurse Miao was tending to.

"Could it be that they deceived us?" The doctor said. The rest were also murmuring.

Nurse Miao then came to them. "What is your problem? This place is safe, and that's all that matters. If you don't want to stay here, at least keep it down. I have patients here, and they needed to rest." She then heard the sentiments of the nurses. She didn't understand how Yun He sent chats to them, but she knew of the news about him. "Nurse Yun went to find more people. Stay here and wait for him to return if you want to see him."

From the side, Song Qixi hummed as he took a look at his company. They had crouched down to avoid being seen and to rest their legs as well. "Where are Miss Yun and Five?"

A frown came from Qiao Ni. "Aren't you supposed to be with Qiao Yun? Five is supposed to be here… on this floor. Could it be that something already happened to him? I can still sense the presence of the demon around here."

"Hmph, he could be so stupid he forgot to die if that demon killed him. He should be here somewhere." Fan Meiling didn't know why, but she felt rather uncomfortable upon hearing that Sun Yinxie was already dead. That guy would probably have no one to mourn for him if that's real, and that's kind of sad. No, it wasn't because she would be the one sad about it.

"It would be difficult to go around with these people out there. We should wait for them to go inside at least." Song Qixi gave quite a few things to that man, and Sun Yinxie was actually reliable. They shouldn't have split up when they got here just because there were protective formations on the floors. He still needed the stuff if ever Sun Yinxie really was dead.

Giggling then came next to them, and Qiao Ni was shocked that a ghost had snuck so close to her without her feeling it. When they all turned and saw a beautiful ghost, his purple eyes had already stared straight at Qiao Ni. Back then, Tang Mingming couldn't do anything to this woman. Right now, he could try… but that would be against the rules Guangru had imposed on this floor for now.

Actually, Liu Xiaodan sent him and Yi Junhai to make sure nothing would harm the group. Just nice, Tang Mingming detected a familiar smell and wanted to make an appearance to unnerve her. With a sweet smile as opposed to his murderous gaze, he joined the three people in crouching down.

"You…" Qiao Ni couldn't believe the growth this ghost had gotten. He was even on the verge of breaking through; it's just that he wasn't doing it for now. If anything, it would be very easy for him to be a King right now. "What are you planning to do—?!"

"Shhh… you will expose yourself to Old Xiong if you're very loud." Tang Mingming placed his finger on his lips. "I'm only here to shoo you guys away. Not only will Old Xiong kill you upon sight, but Liu Xiaodan would fly here at first notice. He's really looking for you, Sergeant." He smiled at Song Qixi. "I can make a move, but I don't want to rob Liu Xiaodan the joy of clawing your soul out of your body."

He then placed his hand on his chin as if leaning on it. "How funny. You really are so audacious, Sergeant. Not only did you burn a lot of people in the prison, but you are also burning people here, too. You're almost breaking my record of burning all my relatives during a family reunion event. Do you like it, too, when they all scream in pain… not being able to escape a very painful death…?"

Song Qixi raised a brow and took out his magnum before aiming between the eyebrows of the purple-eyed ghost. "Don't lump me with you. You're threatening me? Do you know how many people live through threatening me? Hmph, you keep on talking about death, but you're just buying time, aren't you? For what? For Liu Xiaodan?"

"No… for him."

When Tang Mingming looked up next to them, Qiao Ni was shocked again. Next to them stood a black teddy bear that was bigger than a man. Its eyes were glinting furious, and it really looked murderous. What's worse was that it was morphing into a realistic black bear. The claws glinted… and then slammed down at them.

Song Qixi rolled out of the way, and the bear roared very loudly. The nurses and doctors outside quickly ran inside the room since the roar was pretty close to them. They didn't want to close the door because it would lock them inside. Nurse Miao and Li Feng were the ones who tried looking for the source, but they were not allowed to step outside the room.

However, there was no trouble since it wasn't headed towards them. The black bear was turning into a nightmare to fight off actual human beings. That was dangerous for a guardian to do, but it was starting to become corrupted anyway. There was nothing much it could do in a place where the negative energy was too abundant.

Song Qixi fired at the bear, but the bullet wasn't hurting it. If anything, it would even make the bear even stronger. Blessings were friends to the guardians; the only difference was that each bullet would clear the corruption. It might be hard for Old Xiong to shoo humans with just his guardian form. Still, it was not something that deterred this old spirit.