"What’s going on? Why is this house so moldy?"
"Hiss." Christina’s whiskers twitched as she advised earnestly, "Zhou Bai, this house looks strange, we better not go in!!"
Zhou Bai didn’t speak but continued walking in, saying in his mind, "What are you afraid of? Together, we have over 300 points of Primordial Spirit. With my defensive power and your attack power, if we encounter any abnormality like the old man and Ying Zi again, we can easily handle it."
Zhou Bai stepped onto the floor, and a creaking sound followed. He looked down and saw that the floorboards in the building were all wooden and warped due to mold and dampness.
Any step would cause creaking sounds, echoing into the darkness.
Accompanied by the strange noises, Zhou Bai walked and inspected the dormitory building’s condition.
This building’s situation differed from the last dormitory.
Zhou Bai controlled the Crystal Stone to float into the room, where he saw that beds, desks, chairs, and even wardrobes were still there, but empty, indicating no one lived there anymore, all severely moldy with dark mold spots everywhere.
Drip.
Zhou Bai looked up and found that the ceiling was leaking, with water droplets gathering and either dripping or slowly flowing along the walls.
"Why is there so much water?" Zhou Bai frowned. Dao School was positioned 1,500 meters above Donghua City, with artificial sky and ground, theoretically making rainfall nearly impossible.
So where did this water come from?
Zhou Bai walked layer by layer, with the light from the Crystal Stone illuminating each room, finding no further abnormalities. Seeing Christina curled up in his mind, he helplessly said, "Alright, except for the heavy moisture, there’s nothing wrong with this building. Why are you so scared?"
Christina replied, "It’s too dark here!"
Zhou Bai retorted, "You’re a cat, are you afraid of the dark?"
Walking back along the stairs, Zhou Bai bantered with Christina in his mind, amused by the silly cat’s frightened demeanor.
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After exiting Building No. 5, Zhou Bai entered Building No. 4.
Viewed from the outside, Building No. 4 was covered densely with climbing ivy. Zhou Bai stepped in and found some walls already cracked, exposing branches and leaves.
Zhou Bai glanced at the first room he passed, noticing the door was closed.
He tried to push the door, and with a bang, the whole door fell to the ground.
Inside the room, dense shadows stretched toward Zhou Bai like countless hands.
Startled for a moment, Zhou Bai’s Primordial Spirit instantly covered his body.
But in the next moment, he sighed in relief. What seemed like countless hands reaching out were actually branches and leaves growing from the wall cracks, filling the entire room. If not for the closed door, they might have grown out already.
"They grow so vigorously."
Zhou Bai casually swept around, found nothing special, and moved to the next room.
He found that Building No. 4 differed from the previous damp Building No. 5. While House No. 5 had left-over furniture and wasn’t completely emptied,
Building No. 4 had not only furniture but also many remnants like tattered sheets, old clothes, even some broken hangers, cups, and other things.
It felt like lots of trash left behind during moving.
For Zhou Bai, this was better, as it gave hope of finding clues.
Hence, he entered dormitories, using his Primordial Spirit power to open drawers and search through clothes, looking for anything valuable.
After searching several floors, Zhou Bai finally found a booklet in a dormitory drawer.
The cover read:
There’s no time left, they’re coming after me.
I hid everything in the Tao Te Ching, find it, and you’ll get the answers.
Don’t hate me, child.
Zhou Bai’s eyes narrowed as he turned the pages, discovering the complete content of the Tao Te Ching from Chapter 1 to Chapter 40, leaving him utterly astonished.
He skimmed through it casually without Christina in his mind seeing the detailed content.
"How is this possible? Why is there a Tao Te Ching here? Who wrote this message, and why does it seem like no one else knows about the Tao Te Ching?"
Zhou Bai took a deep breath and continued flipping through, finding blank pages until one page fell out, catching his eye:
16: Attain utmost emptiness, maintain resolute tranquility. All things arise together, I observe their recurrence. All things flourish, each returns to its root...
"Is this Chapter 16 of the Tao Te Ching?" Zhou Bai was shocked as his Primordial Spirit became restless again, with flickering scenes before his eyes.
Zhou Bai quickly closed the book, and the agitated feeling gradually subsided.
"Tao... Te... Ching..."
Zhou Bai continued searching Building No. 4, soon finding more pages, each with a chapter of the Tao Te Ching, totaling seven pages.
Sensing that the Tao Te Ching may hold secrets, Zhou Bai left Building No. 4 and headed to Building No. 3.
Christina’s curiosity was piqued by the unfolding events, "What is this Tao Te Ching? How could it remain hidden in this building for so long without the school authorities noticing?"
"I don’t know." Zhou Bai replied, "But let’s find it first."
Stepping into Building No. 3, a burnt smell hit Zhou Bai’s nose. He opened a room casually, paused briefly, and then moved to the next room, discovering every room in Building No. 3 was covered with red talisman paper.
The bright red characters were like written in blood, mysteriously glowing.
Zhou Bai inspected and found the talismans held no supernatural power, just ordinary paper.
Suddenly, Zhou Bai’s eyes narrowed. He peeled away the talisman paper, uncovering something behind. With a thought, his Primordial Spirit swept the wall, revealing a falling page:
1: The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name. The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth; the named is the mother of all things...
The text matched Zhou Bai’s entry test phrase, completing the whole first chapter. Before his Primordial Spirit could stir, Zhou Bai tucked the page into his chest.
Christina exclaimed, "Isn’t this your entry test quote? So you copied this Tao Te Ching!"
Just then, a light tap echoed through the corridor, spreading across the dark abandoned building. Christina screamed, "Someone’s here!!"
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