Translator: CinderTL
"Brother Jiang," Huai Yi emerged from under the table, sidling up to Jiang Cheng and Fatty to complain, "Damn, that was close! Thank God that guy's eyesight is terrible. I saw it walking straight toward me, and I thought it had spotted me."
"But this Ghost is so strange," Huai Yi mused, stroking his chin. "It's just scary-looking. Otherwise, there's nothing special about it." He seemed to have noticed the oddness of the Burnt Ghost.
Jiang Cheng briefly explained the hourglass situation to Huai Yi, who grasped it immediately. "So it seems the restrictions in the library aren't just on us," he said. "This Ghost is severely restricted too."
Not long after, footsteps echoed from the direction the Burnt Ghost had disappeared. The footsteps were light and brisk, sounding more human than ghostly.
Jiang Cheng and the others didn't let their guard down. They quickly scattered to hide until Shen Mengyun appeared. Wang Qi and Gao Yan followed close behind her.
Seeing Jiang Cheng and the others, Shen Mengyun spoke rapidly: "That Ghost circled around and went upstairs. Also, I checked earlier, and the gate to the library's second floor was locked. Now it's open," she added.
After a moment's hesitation, Jiang Cheng immediately said, "We're going up too."
The situation was now clear: this mission was similar to the one in the Medical Building, requiring them to clear each floor one by one.
Their goal was to reach the 4th Floor, find the missing Xiaohui, and locate the burnt-down Circulation Desk—most importantly, the book.
"And," Shen Mengyun said, her gaze fixed on Jiang Cheng, a strange expression in her eyes as if something wasn't quite clicking, "near the staircase leading to the 2nd Floor, we found a wooden plaque. On it..."
Seeing Shen Mengyun's hesitation, Gao Yan stepped forward and urged, "Don't dawdle. Let's go see it first. Once we're there, everything will become clear."
The group raced toward the staircase.
The library was far larger than they had imagined, with a peculiar layout filled with winding corridors and blind corners that severely limited their visibility.
As they ran, the two groups quickly exchanged information. According to Shen Mengyun, the Burnt Ghost had also targeted them, but because they had hidden well, the Ghost had searched the area without finding anyone and eventually left.
Based on Shen Mengyun's account, Jiang Cheng roughly reconstructed the Burnt Ghost's movement pattern in his mind.
It circled almost the entire first floor of the library.
Judging from the search range, there were no obvious blind spots.
In other words, there was no place that was guaranteed to be safe.
Huai Yi pondered for a moment before speaking. "Do you remember the gate the Ghost emerged from? If we had hidden nearby from the start..."
Shen Mengyun stopped and turned to him, asking, "You mean the 'darkest under the lamp' strategy?"
"Don't even think about it," Wang Qi interrupted. "When the Ghost emerged, it paused the longest in front of the gate. Do you think it was warming up or doing something else?"
Huai Yi recalled the scene for a moment, and his expression quickly turned awkward.
Wang Qi was right.
"Oh, right," Gao Yan said, tilting his head. "While we were hiding, we also found hourglasses—more than one. They were placed at regular intervals in plain sight."
Jiang Cheng nodded. That made perfect sense. They were there to help them keep track of time.
Once the hourglass ran out, the Ghost would have to leave, signaling their entry into the next stage and their ability to ascend to the next floor.
Reaching the staircase Shen Mengyun had mentioned, they saw the wooden sign.
Above the gate, a line of chalk scrawled in crooked letters read: "All who pass through this gate will receive the first treasure, just like the Lord."
The words were identical to those on the blackboard behind the library's door.
"The first treasure..." Huai Yi pondered for a moment. If he remembered correctly, it was the item that could make the slaves disappear.
"Let's go upstairs first," Jiang Cheng suggested. The group quickly ascended to the library's second floor.
The layout here differed from the first floor. The space was more compact, and the overall area seemed smaller.
This wasn't good news for Jiang Cheng and the others.
A smaller area meant fewer hiding places, increasing their risk of being caught by the Burnt Ghost.
Fatty, with his sharp eyes, spotted an hourglass standing on a shelf in the middle of the room. It looked very similar to the one they had seen before.
"Don't go over there yet," Gao Yan cautioned. After a moment, as if struck by an idea, he slowly said, "Brother Jiang was the one who moved the hourglass last time. When it flipped over, it alerted the Ghost."
"In other words... we control when the Ghost appears."
"So, what if we don't touch any of the hourglasses this time?" Gao Yan said, his excitement growing. "We just stand here, not touching anything at all."
"Then the Ghost shouldn't appear, and when time's up, we can just leave naturally."
Jiang Cheng looked at him with the pitying gaze one might reserve for an intellectually disabled person. This old man was so terrified of dying that he'd lost his mind, coming up with such a foolish idea.
"Your plan might work," Jiang Cheng continued. "We might not die immediately, and we might even escape the Library Urban Legends safely. But have you considered what that means? It means we'll be trapped on the library's 2nd Floor forever, unable to reach the 4th Floor."
"If we can't reach the 4th Floor, we won't find the Circulation Desk, Xiaohui, or that crucial book!"
"We can look for that Notebook," Gao Yan replied quickly, clearly having planned an escape route long ago. "We'll go during the day, so the Heart-Corroding Demon won't target us."
Their exchange had a sharp, confrontational edge.
In this life-or-death situation, Gao Yan could no longer hide his true feelings. His gaze at Jiang Cheng was filled with distrust, suspicion that Jiang Cheng was concealing a vital clue he hadn't revealed.
In the end, Wang Qi stepped forward and settled the dispute with a single sentence.
"Then you stay here," Wang Qi said, walking forward and flipping the hourglass over in front of everyone.
A few seconds later, a creaking sound echoed from nearby, sealing the matter.
Seeing the situation change, Gao Yan, being a man who knew when to let go, forced a smile and said, "I was just sharing my thoughts. Since you disagree, consider it as if I never spoke. From now on, we should be helping each other."
"It's coming out," Huai Yi whispered, his eyes fixed on the source of the sound.
Having learned from their previous experience, everyone instinctively scattered. Gao Yan turned and fled deep into the library.
Shen Mengyun and Wang Qi also disappeared.
"Let's split up too," Jiang Cheng said after a moment's hesitation. "Spread out even further than last time."
"There's not enough space here to hide three people," Huai Yi said, glancing around before quickly returning, his voice tinged with urgency.
Jiang Cheng thought for a few seconds, then turned to Huai Yi and Fatty. "You two go inside with them and find a hidden spot to hide."
(End of the Chapter)
---
📖Read (NS) on Pa.treon@CinderTL - c1190. [+2]
🔑Early Access at $1.
💥Translated (6) Series, (4.6K+) Chapters, (6.7M+) Words.