Silence.

  The guy fell silent on the spot.

  When someone abandons all morality, moral coercion simply stops working.

  “You have the power—why won’t you help everyone?”

  “For real? You’re crazier than I am!”

  John narrowed his eyes slightly.

  “Here’s the deal. If we’re heading down the mountain, the group needs a vanguard and a rear guard. I’ll lead the way, you cover the back. Sound good?”

  Silence again.

  The guy was left tongue-tied, muttering after a long pause, “I don’t have any power at all…”

  “But there are over a hundred lives on the line. Isn’t that worth the risk?”

  John’s voice was calm, cutting straight to the chase—turning his own words against him.

  It was a move that left the guy utterly speechless.

  Seeing he had no more to say, John spoke coolly.

  “I’ll say it one more time. Stay or go, it’s your call. It’s nothing to do with me.”

  With that, he settled back on the couch and closed his eyes to rest, paying no mind to anyone else.

  “Sir…”

  Someone turned their hopes to the three homeroom teachers then. Ron was gone, after all—they were the ones in charge of the assessment this time.

  Surely John would listen if they asked him to help.

  “Shut up.”

  Ethan’s expression turned frigid, and he shot the student a glare.

  “Everyone stay in the first floor of the hotel. We’ll wait till dawn.”

  Even without ghosts lurking about, venturing down the mountain in the dead of night was fraught with danger.

  In an instant, the crowd abandoned all thought of leaving, gathering silently in the hotel lobby.

  John didn’t head back to his room, either.

  He had a hunch the ghost would strike again. If it did, he’d be the first to catch it by staying in the open lobby.

  Time ticked by.

  The lobby blazed with light, yet not a soul in the room felt the least bit safe.

  Half an hour later.

  “I need to use the bathroom…”

  A male student spoke up quietly, looking desperate to pee.

  He had no plastic bag on hand, and with girls around, relieving himself in public was out of the question.

  But he wasn’t stupid enough to go alone. He called a friend along.

  The two set off, eyes sharp with wariness, toward the bathroom at the side of the lobby.

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  Every eye in the room followed them—almost as if they were watching warriors march off to battle.

  Two minutes later, though, they returned unharmed, and the rest of the group let out a collective sigh of relief.

  It seemed the ghost didn’t dare show its face after all.

  One by one, more people paired up to head to the bathroom after that.

  To avoid disturbing the others, everyone kept quiet by unspoken agreement—also afraid that if something happened, their shouts wouldn’t be heard outside.

  Then, in an instant.

  John’s eyes flew open, even as he still appeared to be resting with his eyes closed.

  He shot to his feet and lunged forward in a flash.

  The entire room tensed, all eyes snapping to him—only for a flicker of confusion to cross their faces when they saw where he was going: the bathroom.

  Even if he had to pee, there was no need for that kind of hurry, was there?

  But John paid no mind to their stares.

  Because a moment earlier,

  he’d heard the sound of someone collapsing inside the bathroom again.

  BOOM!

  Without a second’s hesitation, he kicked the bathroom door open with brutal force.

  The noise jolted everyone.

  “Shit!”

  Ethan and the others’ expressions tightened, a cold dread coiling in their chests as they sprinted for the bathroom.

  And when they peered inside, their worst fears were confirmed: two bodies lay crumpled on the floor, their faces frozen in unbridled terror.

  “Got away again?”

  John scanned the cramped bathroom, his brow furrowing deeply.

  The familiar warm tingle in his chest was gone—meaning the ghost was no longer nearby.

  “That can’t be right. I got here the second I heard the noise. Is it really that fast?”

  If it could escape that easily, it wouldn’t have fled so clumsily when he’d chased it before. It could’ve just teleported away.

  “No one else left the lobby just now. So it didn’t shapeshift into a regular person…”

  John’s eyes narrowed in thought. He knelt down to study the two victims on the floor,

  and after a long moment, he let out a sigh, a hint of helplessness crossing his features.

  “No clues?” Ethan asked, his voice slow and tense.

  John shook his head. He turned on the faucet and splashed cold water on his face,

  then glanced up at his reflection in the mirror, shaking the water from his hair as if admiring his own features.

  “God damn it, I’m still this godforsaken handsome. I can’t stand it!”

  With that, he clenched his right fist and slammed it into the mirror hard.

  But there was no shattering crack—not as anyone expected.

  Instead, the mirror rippled like a pool of still water, unbroken.

  The sight left Ethan and the other two teachers staring in stunned disbelief. Then realization dawned, and their gazes locked onto the mirror as one.

  “Got you.”

  A sinister smile tugged at John’s lips, his eyes fixed unblinkingly on his own reflection.

  His guess had been right all along. The victims had fallen straight to the ground, their terrified stares fixed directly at the mirror.

  Coupled with what he’d learned from the ghost’s previous attacks, he’d suspected it was hiding inside the glass.

  BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

  He rained down punch after punch on the mirror’s surface.

  And the version of him in the glass flashed a look of pure terror—

  it had never imagined he’d figure out its hiding place so quickly.

  BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

  With each blow, cracks spiderwebbed across the glass, a clear sign the ghost’s spiritual power was fraying fast, unable to hold on much longer.

  Inside the mirror, the ghost cowered at the sound of the impacts, a helplessness washing over it like a wave—like a lamb cornered by a hungry wolf.

  “Don’t be scared. Big brother’s gonna take real good care of you.”

  A sharp crack split the air. John’s hand slipped through the glass as if it were nothing but water, into the world on the other side.

  The ghost inside tried to flee, but the space around it was sealed tight.

  It was trapped in an area no bigger than the mirror itself, unable to even dodge.

  John wasn’t the least bit surprised.

  If the mirror led to a full, real world, the ghost would’ve just opened a door and run long ago.

  It was clear now—this ghost’s level was really not that high at all.

  John snaked his hand around the ghost’s throat, channeling his terrifying brute strength and yanking it out of the mirror in one violent motion!

  The vicious ghost revealed its true form in an instant: a rotting, decayed corpse.

  Its eyes blazed with bitter hatred, and it let out a guttural snarl—yet fear flickered deep in its hollow sockets.

  “It’s okay, it’s okay. No pain, no pain at all.”

  John’s voice was soft, gentle—then his fist slammed forward, driving the ghost’s head straight into the bathroom wall with a sickening thud.

  “Just breathe. Nice and slow. No need to be afraid.”

  His face remained cold as stone, his voice still honeyed and soothing as he comforted the ghost—even as he unleashed every ounce of his inhuman strength, pounding it as if he meant to smash it to smithereens.

  The sight made Ethan and the other two teachers’ scalps tingle, their hearts racing with unadulterated terror.

  This was downright inhuman.

  As teachers of the Spirit Studies Department, they might not have bound spirits of their own, but they’d seen their share of supernatural incidents—even watched spirit wielders battle vicious ghosts.

  But never once had they seen a fight like this.

  No,

  this wasn’t a fight at all.

  It was a one-sided slaughter.