CH 123

Xiao Lan waited quietly for a while, making sure that Mrs. Hong Yue had gone far away and would not return any time soon, before he quietly approached the body and observed it by moonlight.

The body on the ground would appear to be an adult male by its size.

He looked miserable, his limbs spread helplessly as he lay in a pool of blood. The skin on the surface of his body had been completely stripped away and the red muscles were just exposed to the air, giving off a gushing smell of blood.

The fatal wound would have come from the deep cut in the throat that almost severed his neck, as evidenced by the large bloodstain on the floor.

Mrs. Hong Yue looks like an elegant noblewoman, but her attacks are sharp and brutal.

In a pool of blood, Xiao Lan saw a familiar badge.

This badge, which he had also seen on Luo's chest, is representative of his status as a teacher at Corrieff College.

Although the corpse had lost its skin, Xiao Lan remembered that one of the players had become a teacher, like Luo, and had not become a student, like Mr. Cheng, whose height and build were very similar to the corpse on the ground.

Will it be the player who dies?

According to student rumours, Mrs. Hong Yue likes to kill good-looking people and then use their skin to make herself more beautiful.

But Xiao Lan clearly remembered that the player who had become a teacher looked ordinary, the level of an ordinary adult man, and even had a beard that didn't look very good, so there didn't seem to be any connection between this appearance and the word beauty, right?

This is not unlike what is rumoured.

Is the rumour wrong, or is Mrs. Hong Yue's aesthetics different from the norm and she likes the bearded type?

After examining the body, Xiao Lan carefully removed the traces he had left and left.

This time he did not help the other side collect the body, as it was not clear what kind of relationship the College had with Mrs. Hong Yue, and if anything was left on the body and the people handling it found out, it would reveal that someone had seen the body.

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Xiao Lan, as a student on night duty, will certainly be the first to be noticed and will be in a lot more danger.

Players help each other on the basis that they will not put themselves in danger.

Nor did Xiao Lan have the sentiment of laying down his life for the body of a stranger.

--

Finally we arrived at the auditorium.

The auditorium was dark and it looked as if no one should have stayed behind. The candles from the previous funeral had all been extinguished and only the pale red moonlight from the window served as illumination.

The door to the auditorium was locked, but this was no obstacle at all for Xiao Lan.

After silently picking the lock on the door, he dodged inside the auditorium.

The coffin was still laid out as it had been at the funeral, and Xiao Lan approached the body easily, this time finally noticing that something was wrong before.

Earlier in the candlelight he had seen the skin of the corpse reflecting in a way that did not resemble the sheen of human skin.

And indeed it did; the skin of the corpse felt like an odd hand, both like wax and more pliable than wax, even somewhat elastic, but nowhere near as strong as leather.

For a moment it was impossible to tell what it was actually made of.

Xiao Lan took out [It's a dagger covered in poison] and gently cut the corpse in the hidden spot covered by clothes, as the target's corpse, the prop's ability would naturally not be activated.

The tip of the knife picked through the oddly textured skin and he saw the muscle tissue directly inside.

No skin.

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The body, like the one previously attacked by Mrs. Hong Yue, had lost its skin.

Xiao Lan had previously speculated that Mrs. Hong Yue's true identity might be that of a school headmaster.

But why did the headmaster peel the skin while making a new layer of skin for the deceased at the same time?

Could it be that they don't want to draw attention to themselves.

But that's not right either. If you don't want to draw attention to yourself, why not just not have a funeral?

The students at Corrieff Academy are unnoticed children anyway, and there is no way for students to check if they have changed schools or been picked up by their parents.

For the parents' side, those irresponsible parents who say their child has escaped or gone missing will instead feel relieved, I guess, and maybe look for it for face value, but won't actually take it much more seriously.

The funeral had to be a big affair when it would have been possible for the person to disappear silently.

If Mrs. Hong Yue is the headmaster, what is the reason for this contradictory behaviour?

If the headmistress is not Mrs. Hong Yue, then what kind of being is Mrs. Hong Yue? What is her relationship with the Principal?

The auditorium was silent, with only the slightest glimmer of light from the red moon casting a red veil over everything in sight.

Beneath the compassionate statue of the goddess, Xiao Lan and the unknown deceased are speechless, and it is clear that the student, who can no longer speak, cannot tell him the answer.

--

Leave the auditorium.

Xiao Lan walks towards the north of the college, where the monsters are rumoured to be located. According to the students' rumours, the towers in the north are home to two giant snakes that speak like humans.

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But as far as Mrs. Hong Yue's reality is concerned, I'm afraid there's something about this rumour that doesn't add up.

What attracted Xiao Lan was the same thing Xi Li had mentioned earlier, the voice of a little girl saying "Adeline is scared", and since this key name had come up, he was definitely going to check it out.

On the way, he passed the garden which he had hastily seen on entering the school earlier.

Xiao Lan is surprised to find that there are still people inside.

Do gardeners work this late? And on a notoriously unsafe red moon night?

What kind of selfless social animal sentiment is this?

The social animals in the rotation don't even work that hard, do they?

It was only when he got inside that he realised that the figures that looked like gardeners were in fact statues, their bodies were cold and stiff stone, but with clothes on their bodies and straw hats on their heads, they looked like people at first glance.

Xiao Lan was just relieved when his eyes caught another glimpse of the shadow of Little Xiao, who looked like a small child.

This time there was no one else around to watch and Xiao Lan quickly chased in the direction of the shadow.

The Shadow wasn't very fast, even if Xiao Lan was barely keeping up now that his body had shrunk to fifteen and he wasn't as fast as he had been in his prime.

However it didn't take long for it to come to a halt.

For after turning a few corners, what appeared before him was a dead end.

The movement of the Little Xiao figure also stopped, its body appearing vague, almost a vague human form, translucent, with no visible outline or anything like that, twisting and shifting constantly.

The figure of Little Xiao raises its hand towards Xiao Lan, and in its hand is a white object that it seems to be trying to hand to Xiao Lan.

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But it suddenly blurred, like an old TV with a bad signal, and even the object in its hand became indistinct.

In the next instant, the figure disappeared and the object in his hand did not remain.

Xiao Lan went up and checked the ground nearby, the floor, the weeds, the flower beds, everything was as it should be, no clues left behind, as if everything that had just appeared was just an illusion on his part.

What the hell is that thing?

And what does it want to give to Xiao Lan?

Xiao Lan stayed where he was for a while and waited, but the shadow did not reappear.

Looking at the red moon in the sky, he chose to leave the area and go first to find clues about the northern towers.

--

Corrieff College has four towers, the most northern of which is the most isolated and not usually visited by students on their daily activities.

Usually perhaps even the cleaning staff rarely come this way, and the ground and flower beds below the tower are overgrown with weeds, dead branches and fallen leaves piled up haphazardly in a decrepit manner.

Xiao Lan approached the tower with caution.

He waited with bated breath, and a moment later he heard a "rustling" sound, which indeed sounded like the movement of a scaly snake crawling on the ground.

Rustling sounds wandered through the tower, interspersed with the murmurs of childish voices " Adeline ...... ", "No ...... ", "This way ......".

The voice is intermittent and incoherent, making it difficult to hear what is being said.

So far, it seems to be as rumoured.

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Xiao Lan tries to get a little closer, he wants to see what's really in the tower.

"Ta-da-da-da-da-"

The sound of unhurried footsteps came as if a leisurely noblewoman was strolling through her own garden in the afternoon.

But Xiao Lan's hair stood on end.

For the voice - not far behind him!

When exactly did that come? He hadn't heard a thing!

Out of the corner of her eye, Xiao Lan had caught a glimpse of a rich red colour.

He turned his head and saw the noblewoman dressed in red with a black veil over her head walking slowly towards him in the pale red moonlight.

With her delicate figure and graceful demeanour, she looks like a stunning beauty who is about to invite you to dance with her.

A bloody dance that can only be experienced once in a lifetime.

After just one look, Xiao Lan immediately turned her head and ran.

He didn't know whether Mrs. Hong Yue was beautiful or not, but he knew that she was fast, and he didn't know how Mrs. Hong Yue managed to keep running at super speed in her high heels.

Perhaps Wang Ke will know.

As the saying goes, the dumb bird flies first.

Do you want to have a fair fight with her at the starting line if you don't slip away before Mrs. Hong Yue is up and running at full speed?

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The Advent world has never been about the Olympic spirit.

Xiao Lan's form disappeared in a flash, running towards the overgrown area.

He knew that he was no match for Mrs. Hong Yue in terms of speed alone. So he looked for obstacles and tried to use them to block Mrs. Hong Yue's movement.

The sound of high heels behind them instantly quickened.

This was accompanied by a sound similar to the sheathing of a sharp sword, so she must have opened the folding fan with all its sharp edges.

Thinking of the wound that had almost severed the neck on the body earlier, Xiao Lan didn't look back and ran faster.

The weeds and obstacle-laden terrain did limit Mrs. Hong Yue's speed, but she was still in hot pursuit, and the distance between them was never closed.

Xiao Lan was also unfamiliar with the obstacles and nearly stepped into a pit on several occasions.

The two chased each other for a while and Xiao Lan felt himself panting a little.

Even with the added physicality of his skills, his body at the age of fifteen was still not great in terms of endurance.

Behind her, Mrs. Hong Yue also seems to be getting impatient.

She reached out with a hand so slender that it looked as if it would only hold a teacup, grasped the wall with her bare hands and then broke off a piece of masonry from the wall with a stiff grip.

Sensing a cracking sound coming towards his head, Xiao Lan quickly deflected his head as a piece of masonry about the size of his head grazed his head and then whistled onwards, smashing deep into a wall in front of him.

Crap! What's with this terrifying brute force?!

Do you still want your noblewoman persona?

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It was this dodge that caused Xiao Lan's movements to stall slightly.

The sharp fan was already coming towards his neck.

Xiao Lan took out his [Bone of Dalet] with his opposite hand to defend against it. Although [Bone of Dalet] was made of bone and was not as hard as metal in principle, the rare item was so unreasonable.

The moment they made contact, there was a clash of iron and gold, and the Bone of Dalet was unscathed, but the force of the impact made Xiao Lan's hand slightly numb.

At the moment the distance between the two has closed and it is no longer easy to get away.

Xiao Lan changed his strategy and switched his Bone of Dalet to blade form, slashing at Mrs. Hong Yue.

Mrs. Hong Yue raised her fan to block it with a clink, then she turned it around and the blade came at Xiao Lan again.

Xiao Lan sidesteps the blow and, before she can withdraw her hand, swings a knife at her arm.

The sharp blade cut through the blood-red dress, but Mrs. Yue was able to dodge it in time, but it still cut a little, and no blood flowed from the wound.

Mrs. Hong Yue did not care about such a small injury.

She was about to strike again when a deep purple flame sprang up from the wound in her arm. The flames of the Dalet, which burned everything, had left a spark on her body, and the flames were spreading outwards, centred on this one wound.

Mrs. Hong Yue tried to extinguish the unexplained and bizarre flame, but found that the usual means of extinguishing it were useless.

As the wound was too small to affect Mrs. Hong Yue's movement, she ignored it and continued her attack towards Xiao Lan.

The swift and powerful attacks were a bit of a struggle for Xiao Lan, a player known for his strength, and the sudden loss of his customary strength had a significant impact on him.

After a few moves back and forth between the two sides.

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Mrs. Hong Yue's head suddenly tilted to the side.

The tiny flames on her arm, which had been negligible, had now spread to occupy almost half of her arm, and if it continued like this, the fire would probably continue to spread until it engulfed her.

Through the black veil, Xiao Lan could not see her expression at the moment.

Just see Mrs. Hong Yue super he rushed forward without slowing down, just raised his hand -

Without mercy, he tore off his flame-stained skin straight away.

The gesture was as simple as if it was a mask she was tearing.

What was revealed underneath the torn skin was not muscle, but another layer of white, delicate skin. She threw away the burning skin in her hand, and the torn skin on her arm healed at a rate visible to the eye, and soon there was no sign of the tear.

Xiao Lan, who witnessed this, was shocked... is this guy a nest egg?

Mrs. Hong Yue is already in front of Xiao Lan and, seemingly enraged, her attacks are becoming more and more violent.

Xiao Lan raised his sword to block the sharp blade coming towards his eyes, the fierce attack causing his wrists to feel sore and numb, his combat prowess noticeably diminished by the suppression of his physical abilities.

Xiao Lan breathed heavily and stared at Mrs. Hong Yue.

The other team is clearly still in good form compared to the dip in form on his side.

If the fight continued, it would be to his disadvantage. There is no mention of killing Mrs. Hong Yue to clear the level, and it is not in Xiao Lan's best interests to fight her to the death.

But the current stalemate was not something he could get away with just by trying to get away.

Is it time to use the skill?

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He watched his opponent's movements closely, trying to find the slightest break in them.

Suddenly, Xiao Lan caught Mrs. Hong Yue's movements stalling, as if a pause had been pressed.

At the same time there was a flash of darkness and Xiao Lan felt herself being picked up and darted forward at a great speed.

Luo's voice rang in his ears, "You should have sought my help, sir."

Although I want to give Luo credit for showing up in time, the position at the moment is a bit awkward for Xiao Lan: "...... Can you change the position? Like on your back?"

He had never experienced the feeling of being held in his arms before, after all, the height difference between them wasn't that great and if it wasn't for the game forcing Xiao Lan to shrink this time, they might never have unlocked this position.

Luo refused: "It's safer this way, I can't use your back to face danger."

As if to confirm Luo's words, the sound of Mrs. Hong Yue's rapid footsteps were approaching from behind.

"Hold on tight, sir." Luo's arms were once again strong, holding Xiao Lan firmly in his arms.

At the same time darting forward at full speed, the obstacles on the ground seemed non-existent to him under his powerful scrying, leaving Mrs. Hong Yue behind him further and further behind.

Xiao Lan suddenly feels like he has unlocked a new feature of Luo.

Like limited edition humanoid mounts or something ......

Not to say, it's quite stable.