Raising a Wife in a Supernatural World [Infinite] – CH18

Chapter 18: Spook High (18)

The moment Qin Fu’an’s invitation for Xie Yunhuai to watch a live mukbang left his lips, the “Physical Training Aid” at the stairwell let out a guttural roar, lurching toward him in a frantic stumble.

As the creature closed the distance, Qin Fu’an continued his measured observation.

His final assessment: faster than an ordinary student, yet its offensive threat remained dubious at best; most importantly, it appeared almost entirely devoid of brains.

To test his hypothesis, just as the entity was about to reach him, Qin Fu’an took a single step back into the classroom and casually pulled the door shut behind him.

Bang—! The heavy impact rattled the frail wooden door, drawing a strained, groaning shriek from the hinges.

Yet the creature failed to breach it.

Nor did it muster the wits to circle around and lunge through the adjoining windows. Instead, driven into a blind frenzy by the barrier, it slammed itself relentlessly against the panels again and again.

“Don’t break the door,” Xie Yunhuai’s voice abruptly cut in from behind.

Qin Fu’an turned around, only to see the boy’s brow knit into a sharp scowl. “If this door is ruined, we won’t be able to keep out any creature that wants to enter tomorrow.”

He hadn’t used the word “person.” He had chosen the word “creature.”

So this door functioned as an active defense during daylight hours?

Much like a shut classroom door in a standard school—keeping out the freezing winds while barring students from wandering in from neighboring rooms.

“Then I’m letting go.”

With that brief warning, Qin Fu’an pulled his hands away.

Before Xie Yunhuai’s dilated pupils, the monster bearing the identity of the deceased player lunged inside, its blood-smeared fangs snapping straight toward his head and face—

In that split second, Qin Fu’an watched a deluge of pitch-black tentacles billow from Xie Yunhuai’s vessel. The shrieks of the soul entities nearly ruptured his eardrums. Yet the master of these very entities stood frozen in place after a heartbeat’s stupor, neither flinching nor attempting to dodge the lethal bite.

“Why do you space out so much?” Qin Fu’an reached out, shoving the dazed youth out of harm’s way, and allowed the creature to sink its jaws straight into his own forearm.

Blood sprayed out—chilling, dark, and lethal, speckling both the monstrosity and Xie Yunhuai with crimson dots.

Xie Yunhuai stared in stunned disbelief, his lips parting to speak, but Qin Fu’an was already snapping a kick into the creature’s midsection with cold impatience.

The blood-drenched fabric of his uniform tore away alongside the chunk of flesh clamped between those fangs. Qin Fu’an didn’t even twitch an eyebrow. Snapping another brutal kick that pinned the monster against the corridor wall, he seized its collar and hurled it over the balcony railing into the dark abyss below.

A second later, a dull, wet thud echoed from the pavement.

As if finally jolted from a trance, the blankness in Xie Yunhuai’s gaze snapped into sudden focus.

He lifted a face speckled with droplets of red. His otherwise plain features were lent an eerie, bewitching allure by the crimson stains clinging to his skin.

Fixing his eyes on Qin Fu’an’s bleeding arm, Xie Yunhuai’s hands curled into tight fists at his sides.

“You didn’t need to save me,” he whispered. “I won’t survive tonight anyway.”

Earlier, when Qin Fu’an released the door, it hadn’t been a lapse in reaction time; Xie Yunhuai had merely stood in numb, calm resignation, waiting for the agony to consume him.

As long as he remained stationary and took the hit, he wouldn’t have to endure three point deductions or be warped into an Aid; he would simply die outright.

It was a path Xie Yunhuai had walked countless times. Yet Qin Fu’an had insisted on butting in.

Qin Fu’an’s brows knit faintly, but he didn’t waste breath arguing.

Time was running out. He needed to staunch the bleeding immediately, then find a new, secure hiding spot for Xie Yunhuai.

His wrist was seized once more in an iron grip. Xie Yunhuai had not expected him to take action without a word; caught off guard, he stumbled forward, looking up only to catch the sharp, handsome line of the youth’s jaw cut against the dim corridor lights.

Qin Fu’an hauled Xie Yunhuai upward.

Grade 12, Class 4 was not on the top floor; other senior classes occupied the levels above. Yet as they cleared the stairs to the sixth floor, Qin Fu’an showed no sign of slowing down.

“This is the sixth floor. There’s nothing higher,” Xie Yunhuai felt compelled to remind him.

Qin Fu’an glanced back at him, pulling him up the final flight of steps in three long strides.

He pointed to a rusted metal ladder bolted into the mottled, peeling wall. “We go up from here.”

Struggling to steady his ragged breathing after the sprint, Xie Yunhuai lifted his eyes to look.

The ladder was secured flush against the concrete, its lowest rung hovering roughly two meters off the ground. Under normal circumstances, no one would ever consider climbing it.

The heavy layer of rust coating its frame served as testament to that fact; in times past, scarcely a soul had ventured up this path.

Looking further upward, one could clearly see a padlocked iron grate blocking the ceiling hatch—equally corroded, its gaps revealing a night sky that appeared even deeper and more viscous than below.

Qin Fu’an had spotted the lock as well. Furrowing his brows, he confirmed that no immediate danger was ascending from the lower landings. He took two steps back, broke into a short run, and leaped decisively, his hands locking firmly around the metal rungs.

“Watch yourself,” he instructed, looking down at Xie Yunhuai before scaling the ladder with crisp, agile efficiency.

Watching his figure ascend, Xie Yunhuai stood quietly in the stairwell, his eyes tracking every unhesitating movement. This time, the gaze he rested upon Qin Fu’an was more focused and intense than ever before.

Why save me?

He just transferred here—how did he know this spot existed?

What does he gain by keeping me alive?

If he’s willing to bleed for it… what on earth is he trying to take from me?

A flood of questions had been pooling in Xie Yunhuai’s mind from the instant Qin Fu’an stepped between him and the monster. Yet he remained silent, burying every shred of doubt and suspicion deep within his chest.

He thought to himself: If I survive tonight, I’ll voice these questions.

But if I still die here, there’s no reason to ever speak them aloud.

For when he next opened his eyes, another cycle would reset, and the empty seat beside him would never belong to Qin Fu’an again.

And so, Xie Yunhuai held his tongue.

Meanwhile, Qin Fu’an had no idea what was running through his little deskmate’s mind. Gripping the sturdy, rusted brass lock with one hand, he attempted to snap it through sheer physical force.

Yet ever since setting foot into this trial, his power had been suppressed severalfold by the game mechanics; he couldn’t even assume his true form, and the pervasive reek of malice in the air meant the spiritual energy at his disposal was razor-thin, dwindling with every use.

Not to mention the racial traits he had exerted earlier that day—right now, Qin Fu’an’s physical conditioning was only marginally superior to Nan Zhu’s. This lock… was proving remarkably stubborn.

Glancing down at Xie Yunhuai, whose shadowy tentacles were writhing anxiously in the air, and noting the several pitiful tendrils that had crept onto his bleeding forearm in a clumsy attempt to staunch the wound, Qin Fu’an settled his focus. Gathering what strength remained in his core, he prepared to wrench the lock free as quickly as possible.

At the very same time, a graver peril was steadily closing in, tracking the trail of blood droplets he had left in his wake.

Xie Yunhuai, who had resigned himself to a numb death, felt an inexplicable wave of tension and urgency seize his chest as the approaching sounds grew louder.

His fingers clenched repeatedly. His body, moving ahead of his conscious thought, quietly tucked itself into a blind corner.

Swallowing down the dryness in his throat, Xie Yunhuai kept his eyes locked onto the sole staircase leading up.

As the twisted, dark shadow crawling across the floor stretched shorter and drew nearer, a bloated, towering mass of flab materialized before him.

In that instant, Xie Yunhuai’s heart felt as though it would leap into his throat. He recognized that gore-soaked frame—it was Teacher Zhang, whose head had been bitten clean off by the Dean.

No one could have guessed that he, too, had been enlisted as an “Aid” for tonight’s physical examination.

The only saving grace… was that he had no head.

His head rested deep within the Dean’s belly, likely fully digested by now.

Above, Qin Fu’an—still wrestling with the lock—caught sight of the peril Xie Yunhuai faced below.

Just as he prepared to abandon the lock and drop down to pull Xie Yunhuai away, Xie Yunhuai moved.

The second the boy sprang into motion, the endless tentacles billowing from his form seemed to solidify into tangible mass. As Xie Yunhuai mirrored Qin Fu’an’s signature move—snapping a vicious kick toward the unsteady abomination—the tentacles flared into a wild dance.

They coiled tightly around the massive bulk of the headless Teacher Zhang. The instant Xie Yunhuai’s foot connected, the tendrils acted like accomplices in a heist, coordinating in perfect sync to drag the monster over the edge and send it plummeting down the stairs.

To an outside observer, it looked as though Xie Yunhuai possessed Herculean strength, sending a colossal monstrosity flying with a single kick.

Disregarding his bloodless complexion and the trembling in his limbs, the execution had been remarkably clean and sharp.

In the livestream, the roaming viewers broke into a flurry of appreciative comments, declaring that Student Xie was a hidden grandmaster NPC—a classic wolf in sheep’s clothing.

A dizzying wall of text scrolled past, nearly blotting out Qin Fu’an’s vision entirely.

It was at that moment that he felt a new weight settle onto the metal ladder beneath him.

Looking down, he met Xie Yunhuai’s upturned gaze.

Their eyes locked. After a brief pause, Xie Yunhuai was the first to pull his gaze away, hauling himself upward with deliberate arm pulls.

Without realizing it, a faint smile curved Qin Fu’an’s lips. Still holding the brass lock, he transferred his weight onto his wounded arm and carefully shifted his body to the side.

Without Xie Yunhuai needing to ask, Qin Fu’an had already cleared enough footing for him on the upper rungs.

The two youths crowded into the cramped space before the rooftop hatch. Placing his chilled right palm over the back of Qin Fu’an’s warm hand, Xie Yunhuai drew a shallow breath, counting down in a hushed murmur:

“Three, two—one!”

Both threw their full weight downward in unison. The rust-encrusted brass lock finally surrendered, snapping with a sharp, brittle crack.

Still holding the shattered lock, Qin Fu’an lowered his gaze to the hand resting atop his own, his eyes crinkling with quiet amusement. “Student Xie, this is all thanks to you. Mind letting go so I can pop up and take a look?”

In the next heartbeat, as if burned by a branding iron, Xie Yunhuai jerked his hand back and instinctively curled his fingers into a tight fist.

Raising a Wife in a Supernatural World [Infinite]