ADLH Chapter 17: Does That Nose Even Breathe?
The dim blue candlelight flickered. A mouth torn to the ears stretched across the face of a pale, unnervingly beautiful girl, like a jagged gash.
She giggled, her long crimson tongue licking across her cheek. Black hair floated down her shoulders, and patches of purplish corpse spots appeared on her once fair skin. As if fast-forwarded by time, her tender flesh rapidly rotted, faintly emitting a foul stench.
In the blink of an eye, the school-uniformed girl turned into a blood-soaked ghost in a white nightgown.
Black mist oozed from her body, gradually filling the classroom and even beginning to block out the strong light from outside.
That unrelenting ghostly aura slithered up people's necks, creeping down their backs. It felt like someone had exhaled softly or chuckled by their ears — causing a chill that made their scalps go numb.
"The game has already begun... It will never end until you're all dead. Hehehe... you are all participants in this game!"
Her tongue licked from her right earlobe to her left.
She spoke gently, almost sweetly — but her face was decaying.
The students who had been blocked from running by Qian Ji and his crew wet themselves in fear. They trembled, unable to form words, pointing at the ghost while shivering and curling into a ball.
Qian Ji said nothing. As a dragon with divine blood, this kind of threat was laughably beneath him — like a field mouse baring its claws at an eagle.
The two werewolf brothers guarding the rear casually scratched their faces, showing standard “I’m listening but zoning out in class” expressions.
Only our highly serious and analytical President Ruan began pondering the ghost’s words.
“Fresh, delicious human flesh?”
Ruan Xingzhou sniffed the burnt smell clinging to his hair and calmly asked, “Is your nose blocked or something?”
“……”
“……”
“Pfft! Hahaha!”
Fenghuo and Langyan burst into laughter, yanking at each other's wolf ears. Even Qian Ji's lips twitched slightly, barely holding back the laughter that would crack his regal dragon image.
Ruan Xingzhou blinked after he spoke, then quickly realized his “mistake” and sincerely added, “Sorry, I forgot — ghosts don’t breathe, right?”
“Right?”
“……”
You son of a—!
The ghost, who had just dramatically delivered her dark, edgy monologue, now ground her teeth at Ruan Xingzhou.
“Pfft hahaha!” Fenghuo and Langyan mimicked his deadpan tone and repeated, “Right?”
Then the two doubled over laughing again.
This… this is some next-level aggro-pulling technique!
They wanted to learn it. Badly.
Even Qian Ji finally couldn’t help but smile, raising his hand to ruffle Ruan Xingzhou’s hair.
This infuriating human always managed to push his buttons with a deadpan face, but when it was someone else getting roasted? Qian Ji found it quite delightful.
“You’re all courting death!”
The ghost — who had once been the long-deceased Chen Huanhuan — screamed in rage at being mocked.
Her emaciated body began trembling violently. Skin on her face and arms peeled off in chunks like old paint, her jet-black eyeballs rolling madly and bloodshot.
“The game begins…”
Chen Huanhuan tilted her head back, driving her sharp claws into her own abdomen while cackling. Thick black fluid poured from her eye sockets.
Shhk—
Her blood-smeared hand pulled out… a mirror.
The five terrified “victims” huddled behind them let out desperate screams that needed to be censored.
In contrast, the also-human Ruan Xingzhou simply pinched his nose in disgust and furrowed his brows.
“You’re not going to stop her?” Ruan asked Qian Ji. Clearly, the ghost was about to unleash some big move.
“Doesn’t matter,” Qian Ji raised an eyebrow, his eyes fixed on Ruan’s face. For some reason, he smiled. “Perfect timing…”
Perfect timing for what?
Ruan opened his mouth to ask, but his words were drowned out by a louder noise.
He turned just in time to see the ghost grinning viciously as the mirror in her hand exploded.
Shards of glass flew through the air. In the smoke-filled classroom, the fragments reflected specks of light — like stars in a night sky.
It actually looks kind of pretty, Ruan thought for a moment.
If you ignored the vengeful ghost glaring at them from within the mirror shards and the panicked screaming of the students, this could almost be sci-fi. Almost romantic.
Golden slit pupils narrowed.
A large, tan hand quietly hovered behind Ruan Xingzhou’s back.
Smack.
The hand shoved Ruan forward!
Unprepared, Ruan’s eyes widened as he stumbled into the mass of mirror shards — and disappeared into one of them.
Fenghuo and Langyan tilted their heads. “Wasn’t that human your Chosen One or something?” Did the dragon not want him anymore?
“Just a mere human…” Qian Ji muttered. How dare he come here thinking he could compare to a dragon. Weak, soft, clueless.
Even if Ruan couldn’t sense fear, that didn’t mean he could handle danger.
“Maybe once he understands the threat, he’ll learn to avoid it…” Qian Ji whispered.
Fenghuo looked puzzled. “Why does Dragon Lord want him to avoid danger? Humans are everywhere.”
If one breaks, just get another.
“Hmm~~” Langyan narrowed his eyes and smirked slyly, “Only the Dragon Lord knows.”
Qian Ji’s face remained calm and commanding — his gaze cold, powerful, and unyielding. Like a weapon that never breaks, only moves forward.
Only the strong can pity the weak.
Qian Ji told himself that was all this was — pity.
But the more fragile something is, the more care and attention it demands. The more beautiful, the more you want to shield it from danger and tuck it under your wings.
To a dragon’s eyes, this clingy human had no fur or scales, no fangs or claws. His soft little hands couldn’t even scratch.
If Qian Ji really did need Ruan to bear his offspring, just holding him too tightly might snap his back.
The thought made him irritable. He needed to go in now.
That damn human…
Qian Ji’s tall figure disappeared into the mirror, leaving Fenghuo and Langyan to approach the trembling students in the corner.
Their eyes gleamed coldly in the dark, blue irises lighting up with inhuman brightness. With cruel smiles and tilted heads, they licked their lips.
“W-what are you going to do?” The students huddled like lambs before wolves. “We want to go home, please let us go…”
They remained unmoved.
Fenghuo was hungry.
“You want some?” he asked his brother.
“Of course.”
Fenghuo grinned slowly at the “fat sheep” in front of him—
…
Long legs stepped through the mirror without pause. The horrifying imagery and twisted ghost faces didn’t make the man flinch. One snap of his fingers —
The ghostly illusions and cursed space combusted into fuel.
He walked through the flames, the fire illuminating his face. When it all burned away, only beautiful embers remained as he stepped into the next mirror world.
No Ruan Xingzhou? Burn it. Next.
Still no Ruan Xingzhou? Burn it. Next.
His shoes tread across the void. One mirror after another. One ghost after another. Until finally—
Qian Ji found him.
He concealed his presence, arms folded, golden slit eyes locked on Ruan’s back.
Let him struggle a little, he thought. Learn a lesson — then I’ll take him away.
He didn’t realize how much he resembled a worried parent secretly tailing their child on their first solo trip to the store.
And Ruan Xingzhou?
He was staring at a mirror.
To be exact, he had already deduced that the mirror was the key to escaping — the way out of this world.
He didn’t know why Qian Ji pushed him in, but Ruan wasn’t stupid. He didn’t sense malice, so there had to be a reason.
Still…
Ruan lowered his gaze, feeling something unfamiliar and hard to describe.
Heavy. Unpleasant.
Is this what sadness feels like…?
He didn’t like it. He preferred the way Qian Ji looked at him, the way he would sulk but never actually push him away.
Those moments felt warm and sweet — like a limited-edition candy you could never get enough of.
He wanted to taste it every day. But he had to wait, not knowing when the next chance would come.
In the mirror, Ruan lowered his head again. Then after a while, he looked up.
No use moping now. He had to get out — and go back to Qian Ji. To that sweet taste.
Ruan checked his watch. Earlier, he’d already scouted the area. He was back in the same bathroom where they had regrouped before.
But in this mirror world, there was no light. Only faint daylight from the window.
Even the hallway lights wouldn’t turn on. Only the green glow of the emergency exit sign offered any visibility — and it honestly made things worse.
The faucet dripped rhythmically.
The air was damp and moldy, mixed with some unidentifiable rotting stench.
Ruan frowned, placed his bag on the dirty sink, and took out a flashlight. He stood there, watching his watch.
Half an hour passed — Qian Ji didn’t come.
Another half hour — still no sign of Qian Ji.
Ruan once again lowered his head in front of the mirror. His scorched, messy hair still smelled burnt. His clothes were full of holes. He looked… a little pitiful.
Qian Ji, hidden nearby, clenched his teeth. His jaw tightened.
Why isn’t he trying to get out? Does he really trust me that much?
Didn’t he remember it was Qian Ji who pushed him in?
This idiot…
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