"Inherit... everything of yours?"
Following the direction of the Principal's gaze, the Sword of Winter looked over, but saw only hazy mist and a few teaching buildings looming faintly within it. "To become a new quasi-King of Wicked Desires?"
"No—a new gatekeeper!"
The Principal shook his head, describing something cruel and cold in a calm tone that sounded entirely detached: "That thing and I were supposed to coexist upon the throne of this secret realm, like the two sides of a coin, before slaughtering and consuming each other—until the ultimate victor became the true King of Wicked Desires."
"However—"
"From the moment of its birth, it was never itself, but something else..."
"Thus, what should have been a symbiotic bond turned into the sealed and the gatekeeper."
The Principal seemed disinclined to elaborate on the subject, quickly shifting back to what he had raised earlier: "The entire school is a ritual, yet within it lies another ritual arranged by my own hands—"
"This ritual and I have always been waiting for a suitable, special candidate."
He seemed to be answering the confusion of Bai Zhou far in the distance, his voice drifting erratically as it resonated through the mist: "Alas, people came and went. So many Extraordinaries passed by the school every day, yet not a single one met the requirements."
"I thought such a person would never appear, just as fate has never once been kind to me."
"Yet now—I have no need to wait for anyone any longer."
"Because he has arrived."
So he spoke, then raised his hand and snapped his fingers.
*Hum! Clatter! Clatter!*
Amidst the tremors rippling from the teaching building across the entire school, a new vibration quietly intermingled and surfaced.
Yellow papers fluttered up and down, resembling thousands of fluttering soul banners, or thousands of hands waving with ardent enthusiasm.
The crowd grew restless.
"He is conducting a ritual!"
The Sword of Winter immediately turned toward the Emerald Flame, asking the Titled Extraordinary well-versed in ritual craft, "Can it be stopped?"
The Emerald Flame had long been surveying their surroundings, yet the more she observed, the graver her expression became. "Too late—this quasi-King of Wicked Desires concealed all traces of the ritual in the minor secret realm's second secret layer, only exposing it now!"
"This could never have been accomplished overnight; he must have been setting it up for an exceptionally long time!"
"Without finding the ritual's core or understanding its operating principles, there is no way I can unravel such a massive ritual in so short a time!"
*Whoosh!*
The fluttering yellow papers suddenly halted.
Aside from the vibrations spreading from the teaching building, a sudden quiet fell across the school grounds.
It was as though the rite was complete, the ritual anchored!
In the unseen depths, everyone shared a subtle sensation, as if something invisible was quietly unfolding right before their eyes.
Like a gentle breeze brushing against their cheeks, an intangible ripple drifted across the lake of every person's heart.
"Careful!"
Facing a looming threat, the crowd gripped their swords and firearms warily, as though perpetually bracing for some colossal monstrosity to burst forth from the earth or a beast spewing blue flames to rip the ground asunder.
Frost crept before them as shields of ice vaulted into the air, forming an apparently impregnable rampart of cold.
Yet—it seemed nothing happened.
Only the Principal's silhouette gradually grew translucent.
His rigid expression tugged into a relieved smile. He remained standing calmly in place, yet his form dissolved bit by bit into the air.
*Snap.*
Light and ethereal, the Principal vanished.
Only a blue-and-white school uniform was left behind, dropping limply to the ground.
Just like that, with utter abruptness—resembling a magician's disappearance act—the Principal made a brief appearance before the crowd and vanished once more.
Yet just before fading away, he looked once more toward where a certain black cat with the surname Bai was hiding.
Those originally rigid eyes grew gradually animated, carrying a hint of encouragement and anticipation.
As if anticipating their next meeting.
"What is he—"
Seeing this, everyone looked at each other in bewilderment.
"Dead?"
"No presence remains, and his spirituality is gone—it is as if he truly died."
A scrutinizing gaze filled the Sword of Winter's cold face. "Yet—I do not believe it!"
"Because he was just like this earlier!"
Under these circumstances, the Sword of Winter could hardly avoid thinking back to the scene when Deputy Director Liu had shot straight through the Principal, leaving no corpse behind, only a crimson folding knife!
He had clearly just died once, and now he had died a second time before everyone's eyes.
Both instances were identical: no body left behind, only a single relic.
This very moment—
Was exactly like that earlier moment!
"It is... a Corpse-Liberated Immortal!"
The Emerald Flame suddenly gasped in a low voice, her gaze sweeping toward the yellowed papers that had settled in the distance as understanding finally dawned on her.
"These rituals are modeled after the ancient Corpse-Liberated Immortal rituals of the Eastern Federation!"
*Corpse-Liberated Immortal?*
Everyone was taken aback by her words, though some also took on looks of realization.
"In the ancient lore of the Eastern Federation, Extraordinary predecessors proposed a hypothesis, believing that powerful Extraordinaries could rely on rituals to discard useless mortal flesh and ascend as immortals."
"Or leave no corpse behind at all; the Extraordinary would merely borrow an object—such as personal clothing, a walking stick, or a Daoist sword—to remain in the world in their stead, deceiving fate to shed their mortal coil and attain immortality!"
The Emerald Flame explained in a hushed, solemn voice, "This daring theory of using a body or object as a stand-in in the mundane world, allowing the true self to shed karma and bonds and leap beyond reincarnation into ascension, is called the 'Corpse-Liberated Immortal Conjecture'!"
"Over the years, countless Extraordinaries have charged forward along the path of this hypothesis. Some fell in sacrifice, while others achieved success."
"Many Extraordinaries and ritual masters have conducted deep research and deductions on the foundation of the Corpse-Liberated Immortal Conjecture, deriving many practical rituals from it."
"—Just like right now!"
The Emerald Flame's judgment was delivered with resolute certainty. "This is a simulated Corpse-Liberated Immortal ritual!"
"When this quasi-King of Wicked Desires left behind the folding knife—or rather, cast aside the key—during his first 'death,' it was precisely to use us as witnesses to his demise!"
"He sought to deceive fate through the slaughter inflicted by outside forces, making fate believe the 'key' had perished, thereby severing his identity as the 'key'!"
"—If I am not mistaken, that was the initial activation of the simulated Corpse-Liberated Immortal ritual!"
"And now, having stripped away his identity as the 'key,' he took advantage of the teaching building's uprising and the destabilized seal to sever his identities as both gatekeeper and Principal with our witness once again!"
"Yet this time, he dared not feign death directly."
"Perhaps it is because if the 'gatekeeper' dies, it would trigger something catastrophic that would prevent him from slipping away—"
Saying so, the Emerald Flame cast a wary glance toward the increasingly hideous teaching building of flesh and blood in the distance. "Therefore, he found a successor to transfer his identity to first, before executing his escape by feigning death!"
"After all, every corpse-liberation ritual without exception requires 'witnesses to death' and a 'relic' to serve as a stand-in."
"No matter how a simulated Corpse-Liberated Immortal ritual changes, these remain its core prerequisites!"
Saying that, the Emerald Flame pointed a slender finger directly toward the dense sheets of quiet yellow paper in the distance. "According to him, those yellow papers—or rather, the corpses of those mysterious 'dreams'—"
"Are the mortal slough left behind by that man!"
A transfer of identity, two feigned deaths, and two deceptions of fate!
Hearing the Emerald Flame's explanation, everyone finally understood what the Principal had been doing all along.
It was like a king named "Louis" who faked his death to deceive heaven, while finding a Louis II to fill the vacant throne so heaven believed "Louis" was still there.
Louis II would become the new "Louis" and inherit everything of his predecessor, keeping the kingdom stable.
Meanwhile, the predecessor could cast aside all duties belonging to "Louis" and conceal his identity to live as an ordinary man.
"So from the very beginning, our actions—including Deputy Director Liu striking him down—were within his calculations?"
A chill ran through the Rusted Silver Knight, his voice heavy. "He must have waited for today for a very long time, and planned it for just as long."
Upon hearing this, the Emerald Flame shook her head. "The risks of such rituals are usually enormous; a single misstep turns a fake death into a real one—he was likely gambling as well."
"Just like how he appeared earlier inside a student's body in a peculiar state, clearly having paid a hefty price."
"And in this final feigned death, he severed nearly everything of himself. Right now, he is probably weaker than an ordinary aberration."
"Yet in return—"
The Emerald Flame paused briefly. "He should have now successfully broken free from the shackles of being the master of this minor secret realm, escaping into the Ruin Realm beyond."
With that, the Emerald Flame fixed a grave gaze upon the school uniform collapsed on the ground. "Perhaps we will meet him again in the future—"
"Provided we can still make it out this time."
Under normal circumstances, had they been played for fools by a quasi-King of Wicked Desires, they would have caught him no matter what.
Yet now, barely able to save themselves, they could only fall silent before everything the Principal had painstakingly prepared for today's grand gamble.
Standing to the side, the Sword of Winter frowned deeply, realizing something was amiss. "There are two questions."
"Speak." The Emerald Flame looked over.
The Sword of Winter raised a finger coated with flecks of frost. "First, what kind of existence made this quasi-King of Wicked Desires feel such hatred and disgust, yet do nothing against it, opting instead to pay such an immense price just to flee with all his might?"
Then, a second finger rose. "Second, who is that special person he waited so long for—the fellow who inherited everything?"
At this moment, Number 9, hidden inconspicuously among the crowd of Extraordinaries while pricking her ears to eavesdrop on the high-level conversation, suddenly felt her heart stir.
In that fleeting instant, the Explorer trio and the pale-faced Commander Han all thought of the same mysterious figure clad in a blue-and-white school uniform with a black cloth perpetually masking his face—
*Could it be—?*
***
"Damn it! What is this?!"
From the moment the Principal began the ritual and the yellow papers started rustling, Bai Zhou, hiding in the shadows, blurted out a curse.
He finally understood why the Principal had fixated on him and sought a successor: *Don't tell me he's going to—*
*Transfer this gatekeeper identity to me?!*
Though he did not understand what this entailed, the ever-cautious Bai Zhou did not believe free lunches fell from the sky.
*Whoosh!*
Like an arrow loosed from a bowstring, the black cat's tiny silhouette darted through the grass as Bai Zhou scrambled on all fours to flee.
Yet it was useless.
The ritual spanned every corner of Yuanmeng Middle School, and the Principal was the quasi-King of Wicked Desires governing the entire minor secret realm.
Trapped inside, once targeted by him, where could one possibly run?
Something intangible in the unseen depths bypassed the figures of numerous Extraordinaries, penetrated the hazy mist, and descended straight onto Bai Zhou.
"What is this!"
A surging sensation swept over him like a wave, engulfing Bai Zhou in an instant and submerging him entirely.
*Cold—*
That was Bai Zhou's first sensation.
With the revival of the flesh-and-blood teaching building, the school had felt like an added furnace, the ambient temperature growing stifling and unbearable.
Yet as that intangible wave submerged Bai Zhou, a gloomy chill coursed through his entire body.
This chilling sensation was difficult to describe; it was as if Bai Zhou was harmonizing and resonating with the innate chill of the secret realm itself.
This chill was even "pleasantly warm," giving Bai Zhou a familiar feeling of coming home, as if returning to Wancheng, which was perpetually blanketed in cold and dampness.
When that chill enveloped Bai Zhou completely, making his body momentarily resemble a corpse—
Bai Zhou did not die.
Instead—it succeeded!
Vast Extraordinary knowledge surged into Bai Zhou's brain.
For instance, the greatest treasure within the minor secret realm that the high-ranking Extraordinaries coveted—the very prize that had drawn Deputy Director Liu—a brand-new Extraordinary pathway nurtured by the Reflected Ruin Realm that had never before appeared in the world!
At the same time, Bai Zhou caught dazed glimpses of blurred scenes carrying immense emotional impact.
These images flitted through the depths of his mind in a flash; he could neither grasp them nor spare the energy to organize them.
As the fragments of knowledge and memory were inherited by Bai Zhou, he seemed to be acknowledged in the unseen depths by some invisible, colossal presence.
*Hum!*
The school uniform worn on Bai Zhou's body suddenly vibrated, even letting out a hum that stirred the surrounding gray mist.
Those gloomy, intangible waves seemed to sense the uniform's presence. Like an army catching sight of its own banner on the battlefield, they immediately wheeled around, surging onto the school uniform one after another.
Even the school uniform undergoing evolution seemed bewildered, not understanding why such a feast was served to its mouth.
Yet since it had arrived, there was no reason not to devour it. Something unseen caused the uniform to change once more.
The quantity of wicked desires contained within remained unchanged, but the shape of the uniform slowly altered, at times shifting into a suit.
At times it morphed into a student dress uniform, its aura transforming from callow youthfulness to noble dignity.
At this moment, Bai Zhou suddenly realized the new identity he had obtained within this school.
He was no longer an ordinary student, nor was he "Senior Zhou."
So long as he wore this school uniform, so long as he stood upon the grounds of Yuanmeng Middle School—he was the Student Council President who wielded both student and administrative authority! The new Principal!
Naturally, he was still the human Bai Zhou.
Those former titles were merely temporary, regional identity cards valid only within Yuanmeng Middle School.
Yet what this region-limited identity card brought Bai Zhou went far beyond merely two titles.
Hidden in the corner, Bai Zhou opened his eyes.
Immediately, the mist throughout the entire school boiled into a roaring tumult!
Teaching buildings swayed, mist churned in every quarter, and students locked in combat with the intruders abruptly snapped their heads around.
At this instant, the school fell dead silent, resembling a quiet reservoir accumulating power right before a climax erupted.
"I am—"
Bai Zhou blinked twice, looking down at his empty hands.
Yet with a mere wave of his hand, the school trembled slightly twice.
He crooked a finger, and the nearby mist began to swirl.
"What is happening?!"
"On alert! On alert! A monster is coming!"
The Extraordinaries in the distant mist grew extremely agitated. The three Titled Extraordinaries maintained peak vigilance, standing in defensive formation.
And Bai Zhou, the one they were guarding against and the cause of it all, merely looked down, dumbfounded. "I am Bai Zhou—the human Bai Zhou!"
Solemnly reminding himself, Bai Zhou's heart thumped wildly.
Right now, Bai Zhou experienced a very peculiar sensation.
He felt he could "see" the vast majority of the school's corners and command every aberration, every blade of grass, and every tree within it.
He could even use the wicked desires on his school uniform as a foundation to establish rules enveloping the entire school!
All these sensations made an unmistakable fact crystal clear to Bai Zhou—
Solely limited to this place, to Yuanmeng Middle School, within this minor secret realm teeming with vicious aberrations—
"I am still—"
"I am still the master of this realm!"
*Boom! Boom!*
Immense tremors spread. Under the baffled and alarmed gazes of numerous Extraordinaries, not a single corner of Yuanmeng Middle School remained unchanged.
Students across the school stepped back in unison and bowed.
The teachers wore solemn expressions without exception, muttering softly under their breath.
The hazy mist grew scalding, resembling boiling steam.
From all directions, the mist surged toward Bai Zhou's location, converging upon him as if paying homage to a new master.
Even that teaching building of flesh and blood quieted down slightly at this moment.
At this instant, all demons and monsters, mountain sprites and aquatic fiends, buildings, grasses, and trees felt the resonance in their hearts.
And then—
All creation in this realm bowed before the crown!
Chapter 135