Chapter 66: Primary School Security Guard

The singing had returned...

Lu Yuan glanced at the time displayed by the blood-red text: only a few minutes remained.

He could not wait any longer!

Even if the singing anomaly was blocking the entrance of Mingzhi Elementary School, he had to force his way through.

"This singing anomaly is definitely doing this on purpose."

A heavy, sickening feeling weighed in Lu Yuan's chest, but he knew he had to rush into the school gates immediately, otherwise his fate would be no different from death.

With that thought, Lu Yuan bolted forward.

Fortunately, the brief rest moments ago had restored a certain amount of his stamina, allowing him to suddenly burst forth with considerable speed.

Thirty meters!

Lu Yuan narrowed his eyes.

According to his estimation, a distance of thirty meters would take only four to five seconds to cover. He spared a quick glance at the singing anomaly's movement speed: it was very slow.

The anomaly's body was simply too massive.

Its form moved like a small building.

Compared to the bloated An Shi, who had been soaked in water earlier, the size of the singing entity completely dwarfed him.

This was good news for Lu Yuan.

The larger the entity's size and the slower its movement speed, the higher his chances of successfully reaching the school gates.

A piercing chill washed over him.

Lu Yuan looked down at the ground.

Black malice crawled out from within the singing anomaly, rapidly slithering along the pitch-black ground toward Lu Yuan. In the blink of an eye, Lu Yuan's ankles were already bound by the malice.

Lu Yuan pulled out his fruit knife and fiercely stabbed it into the ground.

"Devour malice!"

Lu Yuan let out a low roar.

The skill's description did not mention any cooldown time, so barring any accidents, it could be used frequently in a short period.

As the blood-red text lit up, the fruit knife emitted a chewing sound once again, exceptionally crisp.

The black malice was devoured into the fruit knife bit by bit.

However, the speed of consumption this time was not fast.

Whether the entity's malice was too powerful or the fruit knife in Lu Yuan's hand was too weak, the rate at which the malice was absorbed fell far short of his expectations.

Three seconds later, the malice gripping his ankles snapped free.

Lu Yuan yanked out the fruit knife and continued charging toward the school gates.

The malice devoured by the fruit knife was an absolute erasure; even an anomaly like the singing entity suffered a significant impact.

"Roar!"

The entity's malice was obstructed.

The main face on its body abruptly opened its blood-red eyes, tearing its mouth wide and howling toward Lu Yuan's direction.

As the main face roared, hundreds of human faces all over the entity's body opened their eyes simultaneously, and a deafening roar poured into Lu Yuan's ears.

In an instant, Lu Yuan's mind began to spin into a trance.

The scene before him began to whirl upside down.

At this moment, he was less than ten meters away from the gates of Mingzhi Elementary School.

Lu Yuan shook his head.

Instead of putting the fruit knife back into his inventory, he reversed his grip and shoved it into the side pocket of his backpack, covering his ears with both hands in an attempt to block out the sound.

Far from growing weaker, the entity's roar grew increasingly clear.

Thud...

Lu Yuan dropped to his knees.

He felt as though his head was about to split open.

"My head is going to explode!"

Unable to bear it any longer, Lu Yuan began banging his head against the ground, each impact harder than the last. Gradually, blood began to well up on his forehead.

Whether it was his imagination or not, the roaring seemed to grow slightly fainter.

The pain in his brain eased a fraction.

Lu Yuan raised his head and looked toward the gates of Mingzhi Elementary School.

Just a little further!

He could not give up!

Even if he had to crawl, Lu Yuan would crawl his way there.

He glanced sideways at the entity. The singing anomaly had begun moving toward him again, though its pace was agonizingly slow, barely matching the walking speed of a normal adult.

The entity still refused to let him go.

At the sight of this, Lu Yuan bit down hard on his tongue. A piercing pain, sharp as a needle, rushed from the tip of his tongue straight to his heart, and finally flooded into his brain.

His consciousness cleared significantly.

Lu Yuan scrambled forward on hands and feet toward the gates of Mingzhi Elementary School, his body swaying so violently that he could not even walk in a straight line.

Yet his objective remained absolute: the school gates of Mingzhi Elementary School.

Five meters...

Three meters...

Lu Yuan felt as though he could touch the iron gates of Mingzhi Elementary School if he just reached out his hand.

Right at that moment, the singing entity arrived behind Lu Yuan.

It had no hands.

Yet the malice on its body condensed into a massive palm, attempting to snatch Lu Yuan firmly into its grasp.

Lu Yuan could feel the bone-chilling cold right behind his back. He didn't even need to look; his entire body felt as though it had been tossed into a freezer, his hands and feet frozen to the absolute extreme.

Lu Yuan took a deep breath.

Even in such a critical situation, his brain remained exceptionally calm.

He mentally reviewed every single skill he had mastered, yet found not a single useful one.

Behind him, the hand of black malice drew closer and closer.

Lu Yuan's eyes flickered. The next second, his lips twitched, and his trembling throat hummed a familiar, brisk melody.

The melody was light and breezy.

It was precisely the tune the singing entity had been humming all along.

The malice behind him stopped.

Lu Yuan had never quite understood why all villains in stories would be momentarily dazed by a simple piece of memory.

Now, he understood.

Because these seemingly simple memories were the deepest, most profound scars etched within their hearts.

Just like now, the entity stopped moving.

It seemed entirely unprepared for the notion that Lu Yuan would hum its song, and for a moment, it didn't know how to react, freezing right in its tracks.

Along with the malice wrapping around its body, it came to a complete halt.

"A golden opportunity!"

A flash crossed Lu Yuan's eyes as he lunged violently forward.

Before the malice of the singing entity could react, his hand brushed against the iron gates of Mingzhi Elementary School.

Creeeak...

The iron gate was unlocked.

Stumbling, Lu Yuan lost his footing and crashed onto the ground, yet a wave of relief washed over him because he had fallen well within the gates of Mingzhi Elementary School.

At the same precise moment, the countdown of the blood-red text before his eyes hit zero.

Lu Yuan pulled the teacher's badge out of his pocket and pinned it to his chest.

He had expected the singing entity to charge in with rage, but having regained its senses, the entity simply stood quietly outside the gates, gazing fixedly at Lu Yuan.

The sight was utterly bizarre.

Hundreds of eyes stared straight at Lu Yuan.

Between Lu Yuan and the singing entity lay only an unlocked iron gate, yet the entity chose not to step foot into Mingzhi Elementary School.

"It seems to be afraid of something."

Lu Yuan pondered inwardly.

The reaction displayed by the entity was clearly one of dread and fear; otherwise, an unlocked iron gate would be completely indistinguishable from a mere decoration.

Involuntarily, Lu Yuan recalled what Zhuo Yan had said inside the villa, as well as the words of the old man at the shrine by the intersection.

Could it be that this Mingzhi Elementary School was truly terrifying to the absolute extreme?

Lu Yuan felt extremely apprehensive.

Though he had just escaped death by a hair's breadth, who could say whether he hadn't simply slipped out of a wolf's jaws only to walk right into a tiger's den...

The next second, the beam of a flashlight illuminated Lu Yuan, its glare so sharp he could not keep his eyes open.

"Who goes there!"

"Sneaking in here in the middle of the night, what are you up to!"

After a moment for his eyes to adjust, Lu Yuan made out the speaker: a man in his fifties wearing a security guard uniform, looking entirely like a living person.