# 52
**Chapter 52: Serpent Demon**
Rose-colored flames lit the corridor like broad daylight.
Hongying gripped her spear, body slightly crouched, eyes locked on the four monsters ahead. A ring of fiery heat rippled outward from her.
Suddenly, her form burst forward like a blazing fireball!
Rose embers dissolved mid-air, trailing a scarlet afterimage. She moved too fast for the eye to follow.
In an instant, she flashed before the monsters!
The spear trembled; countless flame-shadows bloomed like buds, skewering the four unprepared creatures into sieves.
Rose fire surged, swallowing the shrieking monsters.
Sparks drifted down like withered cherry blossoms, carpeting the corridor.
Hongying slung the spear across her back, snapped her fingers, and the flames vanished, plunging the hall back into darkness.
“Xiaonan, you okay?”
“I’m fine… I hacked one to pieces.” Si Xiaonan pointed at a mangled corpse and grinned.
“Good girl.” Hongying ruffled her hair.
“No match for you, Sis Hongying. With your ‘Rose-Plume Garment’ out, dozens more wouldn’t last a second.”
“Sweet-talker.”
Hurried footsteps clattered up the stairwell.
Hongying frowned, hand returning to her spear, wary.
“What’s going on? Students still inside?” The panicked dorm manager reached the landing and gasped at the scorched corridor.
Seeing her, Hongying relaxed and let go of the weapon.
“We’re students who came to put out the fire—it’s out,” Hongying answered.
In the dark, the matron didn’t notice the spear and waved frantically.
“Which class? Aren’t you afraid of dying? Come on, fire trucks are coming!”
Hongying and Si Xiaonan exchanged glances, stowed their weapons in black cases, and followed.
As they reached her, the matron opened her mouth—
Bang!
A gunshot rang; a bullet slipped through the railing and punched into the matron’s waist!
Hongying and Si Xiaonan sprang back, pupils shrinking.
The impact slammed the matron against the wall. Eyes bulging, she stared at the boy climbing the stairs.
Her head split open, revealing a grotesque flesh-monster that shrieked.
“Aimed for the head… hit the waist instead?”
From the corner, Lin Qiye murmured, gun already leveled. Expressionless, he fired again.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three shots pierced the monster’s maw; it convulsed and tumbled down the stairs.
“Qiye?” Hongying exclaimed.
“Heard you were in trouble—came running.” Lin Qiye holstered the pistol and stepped over the gore. “Hmm? Monsters?”
“All chopped.” Hongying planted hands on hips, beaming: praise me.
“Find the main body?”
Her face fell. “No.”
Lin Qiye paced the floor, thinking. “First infection happened here. Maybe it left after seeding others?”
“That smart?”
“This creature’s intelligent,” he said firmly. “Perfect mimicry of personality and habits—no beast could manage that. And its infection pattern is highly logical.”
“Logical?” Si Xiaonan tilted her head.
“It started in the girls’ dorm: weaker, easier to control, and uses feminine charm to lower guards. Those girls chat boys up, lure them somewhere private, infect them—stealthy, methodical. Without Li Yifei stumbling on Liu Xiaoyan infecting the dean, we might not have noticed for months. By then… infected numbers would be terrifying.”
Hongying and Si Xiaonan felt their scalps tingle.
“Never faced a myth creature this smart,” Hongying muttered. “So it knew we were coming and bolted?”
“Likely.” Lin Qiye sighed.
“Then… what’s that?” Si Xiaonan pointed down the hall.
They spun around, eyes widening.
On the balcony at the corridor’s end coiled a serpent-tailed humanoid, black scales glinting coldly, green eyes fixed on them.
Hiss—!
A forked tongue flickered; the creature smirked.
Lin Qiye and Hongying exchanged one look and sprinted.
“After it!”
The monster raised its head and shrieked skyward.
Hiss—!!
It slithered over the balcony edge and slid down the wall like lightning.
Instantly, screams erupted from distant classrooms.
Lin Qiye skidded. “The infected are rampaging!”
Hongying vaulted onto the railing, spear on her back. “You protect the students—I’ll chase it!”
She leapt off and vanished.
Lin Qiye spun and bolted downstairs.
For Hongying, a five-floor drop was nothing; for him, it would be a disaster.
Black case on his back, he raced through panicking students swarming like headless flies. Monster roars echoed ahead.
“Stop! Follow me! You can’t leave campus!” he shouted.
No one listened; all surged toward the gate—only to rebound off an invisible barrier.
The No-Entry Domain preventing escape.
“Quiet! Listen—”
Still ignored, he recalled Leng Xuan’s advice.
He pulled the pistol.
Bang—!
The gunshot froze the crowd.
Lin Qiye leveled the weapon at the statue-still students, chin lifted.
“I said—shut up.”