Yama Rising

Even Zhou Xianlong grew silent.

Back in the office, he couldn’t help but stare at Qin Ye’s ID, Muscular Pretty Boy - This kid sure is something. This suggestion… strikes a chord in my heart…

“Approved.” He approved the suggestion before anyone else could voice their opinions, “This suggestion is pretty good.”

None of the other instructors said a single word - What do you mean ‘pretty good’... it’s practically nefarious!

“Let’s fix a time for it, then. We’ll involve not only the students, but the instructors as well.” Zhou Xianlong’s words immediately banished Qin Ye into the depths of the bottomless abyss of doom.

“Retract your words!” Vast Ocean Smile immediately messaged Qin Ye privately, “You’ve just shot yourself in the foot! I’ve never seen anyone as idiotic as you in my life! How can you be so stupid and ignorant?!”

“I don’t care what you do, but you’ve got to veto it!” Li Runxue also sent a series of desperate messages to Qin Ye, “The thought of scrambling out of bed in the middle of the night… just makes me want to flash my middle finger at you!”

Even Qin Ye was completely flabbergasted!

His fingers tapped quickly on his phone, “About that… Faculty Head, I don’t think the instructors should participate in this. What if an instructor like Lin Han, who’s lazy like a pig, is unable to get up in time? Wouldn’t that make the students look down on this team of instructors? How will Instructor Lin face his students in future?”

Lin Han, who had been muted, was completely horrified!

What the hell do you mean? How are you so sure I wouldn’t be able to get up? And how can you sling such horrendous insults at me so casually? Speaking of which, how did you come to the judgment of the situation before the event has even occurred? We haven’t even done our emergency drill just yet!

“Then he deserves every bit of it.” Zhou Xianlong’s response dashed all measures of hope and wishful thinking in everyone’s hearts, “Then, it’s decided. We’ll conduct an emergency drill within the week and mobilize all freshmen. Everyone, please be prepared.”

Screw this shit…

Qin Ye wiped the cold sweat off his forehead. Bloody hell… it feels like I’ve just offended the entire faculty in an instant…

“About that… this really isn’t the result I want either, you know?” He sent a private message to Su Feng, only to receive the following response, “You must first add the recipient as a friend in order to send him a private message.”

Blocked?

Su Feng had also edited his last message to Qin Ye, “Don’t talk to me for a week. I might not be able to hold back my killing intent.”

Qin Ye scratched his head. Gosh. Seems like I’ve got some ways to go before I mend this relationship of ours…

For the next few days, life was perpetually on edge for the instructors of the Faculty of Combat. One day passed… two days passed, and yet the entire faculty still seemed completely calm and peaceful.

During these last two days, the freshmen got about familiarizing themselves with their surroundings. It had to be mentioned that the academy had done many things to the campus while they had been away on their study trip. Not only had the facades of the buildings changed, even the interior design of many classrooms and lecture halls had now been furnished with training facilities and the like.

“Why are you drinking so much water before going to bed every night? You haven’t had any restful sleep over the last two days, and you’ve even begun to develop dark rings under your eyes. If I didn’t know any better, I might have thought that you were concentrating on the business and affairs of Hell down under.” Arthis watched Qin Ye douse his innards with water as she quipped sarcastically.

Qin Ye was practically despondent, “You wouldn’t be saying these things if you knew what it was like shooting yourself in your own foot…”

With that, he got into bed at 10 p.m. From his experience, it was rather unlikely that the school would call for an emergency drill around 12 a.m. to 1 a.m. After all, there would still be many night owls who hadn’t gone to bed at that time. Rather, 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. was the period of time when the emergency drill would be most likely, since most people would be dead asleep by then. However, if one slept too late and fell into a deep slumber, they might not wake up even if their phones were set to the maximum ringing volume.

He had gone to college and undergone military training several times, and he had experienced dozens of emergency drills over the years. Therefore, he knew that his bladder would wake him up in approximately three hours time, at around 1 a.m. His plan was to use the washroom, and then wait patiently for the emergency drill which would take place from 2 a.m. onwards.

Given his experience, he felt confident that everything was well under control.

As expected, when he was awakened by his bladder, he took a look at his phone and saw that the time was 1.10 a.m.

“It’s a little early. I’ll fine tune my water intake in future.” He yawned and made his way to the restroom, catching a contemptuous glance from Arthis along the way, “To fine tune your water intake just so that you can deal with the emergency drill… I suppose in some ways, you can be considered a talent in your own right…”

He entered the washroom and wiped his face. Then, just as he took off his pants, a blaring siren instantly cut through the silence of the night sky!

WOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Each wave of siren was louder than the other. Qin Ye paused for two seconds. Then, before he could even take a leak, he immediately rushed straight back into his room and grabbed all of his clothes.

“Zhou Xianlong… screw your ancestors!!” He gritted his teeth as he put on his clothes. Arthis chimed in nonchalantly, “You’ve actually been looking forward to this, haven’t you? There’s nothing to lose, so what are you so afraid of?”

Qin Ye’s face was more ashen than the base of a cauldron. Bloody hell… you’re totally not playing by the rules here!

How urgent are you to activate an emergency drill at just over 1 a.m.? Have you even attempted to break down the prime time for activating an emergency drill?!

Separately… what in the world is up with your alarm anyway?! Doesn’t it make perfect sense to simply blow the whistle! Where did you get the idea to trigger the air raid siren in the first place?!

The lights in the academy lit up one by one in an instant. Countless students stood flabbergasted at the windows, asking, “What’s happening?” or “What in the world is going on?”

At least, that was until a majestic voice thundered throughout the entire school, “Faculty of Combat, this is an emergency drill. All members of the Faculty of Combat are to assemble downstairs in two minutes. Those who fail to do so shall receive a penalty of one student credit, or in the case of instructors, ten teaching credits.”

………………………………………………..

Ye Xingchen was jolted out of his deep slumber by the siren.

“Damn this noisy old man!” He scratched his disheveled hair. It had to be mentioned that his appearances and features were top-grade, even among the ordinary colleges. Thus, there were in fact several female students within the Faculty of Combat who were both overtly and covertly flirting with him. It was also for this reason that he found himself incredibly busy over the last two days, leaving his room early in the morning and returning only late at night. He naturally suffered from some severe sleep deprivation.

College life was great. He thoroughly enjoyed it.

Life was relaxed, pleasurable, and it was completely devoid of any of the usual incessant nagging from his sect elders. There weren’t any of his desperate martial sisters around either. Therefore, he sincerely wished to continue indulging in the pleasures of this college experience and continue sleeping, at least until his roommate pulled desperately on his arm, “Xingchen! Get up! It’s an emergency drill! Hurry up! We have to be downstairs in two minutes’ time!!” “Where are my trousers? Where have my trousers gone?” “Who’s wearing my trousers?! Holy crap!!” “Where did I leave my belt? Somebody, help me find it!”

The lights are so bright… so noisy… He shook his head in frustration, “I got it. You guys go ahead first.”

“I’m gonna leave you to your own devices then! You should hurry up!!” The door to the room slammed shut even before he could finish speaking.

The scrambling and scuttling sounds on the corridor outside grew fainter and fainter, and he turned around and shut his eyes once more.

So sleepy…

As time trickled by, he faintly heard the sound of lecturing downstairs. The lights to the courtyard below had all been switched on. It was a little dazzling, so he subconsciously pulled his blanket over his head.

Eh?

Why does it feel like… it’s getting colder even though I’ve just pulled the blanket over myself?

Swish… With a soft rustling sound, the lights around him dimmed. He suddenly opened his eyes and drew a breath of cold air. His entire body reacted with its conditioned reflex, tensing up all of its muscles. What originally looked no different from a teenager’s body was now rippling with muscles, revealing the indelible mark of years of training on his body. A green runic symbol began to channel in the heart of his palm, and a grim white dagger appeared in his hands instantly.

The sound earlier… was the sound of the curtains.

Someone had just drawn the curtains…

But, who?

It had finally sunken in that there was currently an emergency drill going on downstairs. He drew a deep breath and whispered, “Big brother, didn’t you go downstairs?”

Nobody responded.

“Second brother? Third brother?” There were four students assigned to every bedroom. He called each one of them by their nicknames in turn, but received no response whatsoever.

It was almost as if the blanket he was in had sequestered him from the rest of the world.

“You guys… don’t joke with me like that…” His voice was beginning to tremble and crackle. Yet, the only response he received in return was a soft sound - Click.

That was the sound of the locking mechanism to the door of his room.

In that instant, he abruptly lifted his blanket and dashed out from under the covers. His entire body was covered in cold sweat now. And yet… he saw that there was nobody apart from him within the dorm room.

The windows were shut tightly, and the curtains had been drawn. The lights had already been switched off when the other students had gone downstairs. The entire room was incredibly dark.

It was a moonless night, and dark clouds filled the entire night sky. Under such circumstances, the darkness in the room was almost akin to being completely pitch-black. He glanced about his surroundings a second time to ascertain that there was nobody around. Then, he tightened his grasp around the dagger and cautiously proceeded towards the door.

Something’s not right…

His intuition told him that he had to get out of here - something was wrong with his room! He was 80% confident that he was experiencing for himself the very first supernatural incident in his entire life!

But he still had some reservations about it.

This is the First Academy of Cultivators after all…

How is it even possible that Yin spirits appear in a place like this?

He stared at the door - Alright, perhaps the perpetrator has already left the room. Perhaps someone was simply coveting my family heirloom, the soul breaking saber, huh?

Whoosh… As soon as Ye Xingchen turned around, the curtains suddenly fluttered, and a dark figure behind him flickered right past the windows. Immediately after that, one of the blankets on a bed behind him suddenly lifted itself, and a blurry silhouette silently sat up and stared straight at his back with bloodshot eyes.

Ye Xingchen was completely oblivious to this. He was far too inexperienced. He slowly made his way towards the door, ignoring the fact that he was only dressed in his undergarments, and immediately proceeded to open the door.

But… he quickly discovered to his dismay that the door was locked!

In an instant, a mind-numbing, electrifying sensation surged from his feet straight through his spine!

What did all of these things mean?

He had initially thought that the clicking sound was only the sound of the door being closed. But he had only just realized that the door was in fact being locked. And the locking mechanism was only accessible from within the room. In other words…

There was someone else with him in this room right now!

Boom! He immediately turned around and leaned heavily on the door, jabbing the light switch repeatedly, but to no avail - the lights just wouldn’t come back on. All he could feel right now was his parched throat and the sweat that had already drenched his back. The pitch-black room made the even darker entrance to the en suite bathroom appear as though it were an entrance to hell. It was as though something was shifting about listlessly in the bathroom. It was as though the dark crevices under the bed hid… another person each!

Even his roommates’ blankets that had been bundled up and left on the bed appeared to be hiding a corpse of sorts.

The dim glow of light shone through the cracks in the curtains, while the curtains fluttered gently along their restrictive rails. The abnormally faint traces of light only appeared to cast a darker shadow of suffocating eeriness across the entire room!

That’s right… there are people downstairs! Call for help! I can call for help!

Just then, there was a soft thud. He turned around to look at the source of the sound, and his pupils contracted abruptly.

A pale, sickly hand covered in wrinkles had reached out from the depths of the darkness in the bathroom and rested on the door.

Ssss ahhhh… The bathroom door slowly opened with a spine-tingling creak. Ye Xingchen immediately dashed to the windows. He couldn’t care less about the unknown terror that loomed in the darkness any longer. But just as he was about to open the windows, the curtains suddenly swished on its own and began to flutter wildly!

A lonesome bedroom; wildly fluttering curtains; soft eerie glows of light, and… the reflections on the windows revealed that a dark lurid silhouette was currently facing him.

In that instant… the figure abruptly opened its bloodshot eyes.