083 Sun Xiao Xiao and Midnight

"Damn," I couldn't help but curse.

Li Ergou’s attack actually swept around the entire corridor of the library’s seventh floor—a full circle, nearly a hundred meters long.

A handgun’s range is only about a hundred or two hundred meters, yet the force behind Li Ergou’s attack was this overwhelming.

With a single strike, she wiped out every blood-red ghost haunting the seventh floor.

Later, Li Ergou explained to me that after releasing the wind energy, she used an immense amount of spiritual power to manipulate it, continuously absorbing new energy during the attack to replenish it, ensuring the onslaught could obliterate every monster on that floor.

But, this move had an obvious flaw.

When Ergou concentrated all her focus on executing the technique, her defense was at its lowest; anyone could have easily harmed her.

Fortunately, these blood-red ghosts were weak. Ergou finished them all off in just a few seconds, not giving herself a chance to be exposed.

"Ergou, you're really powerful," I sincerely praised after hearing her explanation.

Ergou seemed to have anticipated my reaction and, with a flick of wind, brought back a tattered piece of paper from the end of the hallway.

"Is this a fragment of the ancient scroll?" I asked, watching the scrap of paper float in the air.

Li Ergou gave me a smack on the head. "As if it were that easy."

"It's a clue."

I studied the words on the scrap.

"The Xun Gate scroll fragment is outside the seventh floor."

"Xun Gate?" I mused. "Isn't that one of the Eight Trigrams?"

At that moment, the sound of footsteps echoed in the corridor—"da-da-da."

Two more people had entered the eighth floor of the library. Ergou and I hurriedly tucked away the clue, stepped out of the reading room, and ran into the newcomers just as they reached the seventh floor.

To my surprise, I knew them both.

"Midnight? Sun Xiaoxiao?"

Midnight saw me and immediately grasped my hand. "Finally found you two!"

"The competition down below is brutal," he said. "We decided to try our luck on the seventh floor and didn't expect to run into you."

Sun Xiaoxiao quickly nodded in agreement. "Yeah, with the four of us together, we can fight side by side."

I glanced at Li Erxin, giving her a subtle signal—should we tell them about the clue?

But Li Ergou simply bypassed me and handed the clue to Midnight.

Midnight took the scrap, scratching his head in confusion. While he and Sun Xiaoxiao examined it, Ergou whispered to me,

"You need these two. The system just warned me."

No wonder Ergou handed over the clue without hesitation—she meant to use them as our muscle.

A feverish light shone in Midnight’s eyes as he held the clue, his voice trembling. "How did you get this?"

"Doesn't this mean we can get out of here?"

Sun Xiaoxiao, still clueless about what was happening, glanced at the clue and couldn't contain her excitement either. "Wow, did you guys really kill all the monsters on this floor? That's amazing!"

Ergou had been warned by the system, meaning she could no longer use her awakened abilities in this trial. It made sense—the system wouldn't allow her to sweep through all the specters with such overwhelming power. Even the sea of blood-red insects on the ninth floor likely wouldn't have stopped her.

So, not only Ergou, but the other awakened ones—Zheng Wei and Zhou Zitong—were probably also barred from using their powers.

I pondered how to explain the absence of monsters on the seventh floor. Since Ergou couldn’t use her powers anymore, blaming it on her or myself wouldn’t work; the moment we tried, the difference would be obvious.

Just as I was struggling for a solution, Ergou seemed to sense my confusion.

In an instant, she put on an act—pulling at her shirt with both hands and, bashfully, said,

"When Zijian and I got here, we saw a really strong guy with a scalpel. He killed all the ghosts here."

"He didn’t seem satisfied and went upstairs to hunt more ghosts."

"He was amazing!"

Ergou’s cutesy voice sent chills down my spine.

"We ran into him on the way," she continued. "He even said we got lucky."

"Isn’t that right, my dear Jianjian?"

She abruptly shifted the focus to me. Midnight and Sun Xiaoxiao both looked at me, waiting for my response.

"Uh..."

Ergou’s face suddenly appeared in front of mine. "Say yes, now!"

Startled, I nodded quickly. "Yes, that's right. The guy named Zhang Yisheng cleared this floor."

"We just picked up the leftovers."

Satisfied, Ergou smiled at me, then resumed her feeble act. "Even though we have the clue, I’m not an ability user, and I don’t feel safe with Zijian going alone."

I swallowed my discomfort and forced myself to keep up the act. If Midnight and Sun Xiaoxiao bought our story, it would save us a lot of trouble.

To my surprise, both of them agreed without a second thought.

"Then you three, good luck!" said Midnight.

Ergou smiled and stepped aside while I opened the nearest window.

At that moment, the clue map floated up and pressed against the glass. The view outside instantly turned murky and distorted.

"A spatial gate?"

I glanced at Ergou, who said nothing. Taking the lead, I stepped through the gate first.

Inside, the scene hadn't changed much—it was still the seventh-floor corridor, but the entire world was now bathed in red.

Two more thuds sounded as Midnight and Sun Xiaoxiao landed behind me, entering this special seventh-floor space.

"There’s actually a space like this," Midnight muttered, curiosity all over his face. It was clearly their first time entering a pocket dimension for battle.

Then, the system’s mechanical voice sounded again.

"Welcome to the Ancient Scroll Fragment Contest."

"Reward for success: Xun Scroll."

"Target for this challenge: Blood-red Ghost King."

"The challenge begins."

A small blood-red sphere appeared before the three of us and began to expand at a rate visible to the naked eye...

Within moments, the sphere grew to two meters tall, swelling into a gelatinous, blood-red mass. As the color deepened, limbs and a head emerged, the body gradually taking shape.

A gigantic, crimson ghost, lobster-like with two razor-sharp claws, stood before us.

"Watch out for its claws," I warned, recalling the deadly sharpness I’d seen wielded by Zhang Yisheng. Judging by the look of these, they would be just as lethal.

Without warning, the Blood-red Ghost King roared and attacked.

Both claws slashed toward us. In a panic, I conjured a shield of light.

But the shield shattered in less than three seconds.

I used to think the light shield was invincible, but after several battles, I’ve realized its defense is far from enough. Either my power is too weak, or the enemies have grown too strong. I can no longer rely on solo defense.

Behind me, Sun Xiaoxiao and Midnight seemed exceptionally calm. Three seconds were more than enough for us, as contract holders, to dodge the attack.

Sun Xiaoxiao quickly retreated five or six meters from the battlefield, clearly with no intention of joining the fight directly.

From her bag, she pulled out a…

Sewing kit?