The Suspended Girl; Clearly, It Was the Major

Rustle, rustle... The Dead Sea Secret Scrolls vibrated, flew out from Bai Zhou's chest, and flipped open on its own to its latter half. To Bai Zhou, the contents within were like flowers seen through a dense fog, utterly hazy and impossible to make out. A single fleeting glimpse was enough to make his head spin. Not daring to look any further, he hurriedly averted his eyes. Immediately after, the opened pages of the Dead Sea Secret Scrolls unleashed a whirlwind of powerful suction directed straight at the notebook. "What is this...?" Bai Zhou blinked, an astonishing and audacious guess welling up in his heart. Before long, a faint speck of golden luminescence emerged—just like the shower of light Fang Xiaoyan had dissolved into, only far more condensed. It slowly drifted out from the notebook she had left behind. Under Bai Zhou’s unblinking gaze, it slipped right into the open pages of the Dead Sea Secret Scrolls. A vivid, lively silhouette settled upon the page! Snap! The Dead Sea Secret Scrolls slammed shut once more. Silence returned to the room, and all anomalous phenomena vanished without a trace. Bai Zhou could not wait. He picked up the scrolls and flipped through them. Yet just as before, he could only open the first volume concerning the Thousand-Faced Moon, where the figures of the Cursebound Colossus and the Life-Stealing Spirit Cat remained lifelike upon the parchment. As for the pages beyond, they remained locked fast by the bizarre chains binding the spine, completely unyielding. It was as though everything that had just occurred was nothing more than Bai Zhou's fanciful delusion. "So that means..." Though his face remained expressionless, waves surged within his heart. The Dead Sea Secret Scrolls... seemed to have preserved "a part" of Fang Xiaoyan. Could this forbidden tome, which recorded the arcane secrets of death, contain methods in its deeper chapters capable of returning the dead to life? Even for an "anomaly" like Fang Xiaoyan, who had never truly existed in the first place and was not even considered a living creature? Bai Zhou could not be certain, but at the very least, it gave him a sliver of hope. If he grew strong enough to unlock the corresponding chapters of the Dead Sea Secret Scrolls, would he be able to revive Fang Xiaoyan? When that day came, he wondered how Fang Xiaoxia would react upon discovering she suddenly had a capable younger sister out of thin air. ...If doing so could save this life, Bai Zhou would not mind lending a hand. He had never viewed himself as some saint or hero destined to save the masses, but what else could he do when he happened to witness it unfold before his very eyes? People were inevitably touched when a life faded away before them—especially when Fang Xiaoyan's departure had been so breathtakingly brilliant. "..." As he sat before the office desk lost in contemplation, Crow's soft murmur suddenly drifted from beside him: "It's already so late, and you haven't headed back yet." "Teacher Bai Zhou, on your very first day on the job, you seem to really enjoy your work." Hearing her, Bai Zhou turned his head in surprise. Crow, however, was taken aback, a subtle flicker of confusion passing through her eyes. Contrary to what she had expected, all she saw on Bai Zhou's face was exhaustion. His bloodshot eyes carried a trace of disorientation, and even his cowlick, which usually stood defiantly upright, hung limply downward. Her brow furrowing slightly, Crow walked over to his side. The rich fragrance of coffee brushed against his senses as the young woman gently placed a hand on his shoulder. She asked softly, her tone serious: "What happened?" "Well... that's a long story." As coincidence would have it— What Bai Zhou blurted out by instinct was the very opening line Fang Xiaoyan had used so many times. Through Bai Zhou's concise summary, Crow learned Fang Xiaoyan's story. Upon hearing it, Crow fell silent for a moment, understanding why Bai Zhou looked the way he did. "An Extraordinary's life is always like this. Every story begins by sheer coincidence, catching you completely off guard, yet ends with everyone scattered to the far corners of the earth." "In a world where parting is so terribly common, Extraordinaries always have to get used to saying goodbye." Crow shook her head and spoke gently as she stood beside him: "Still, I don't believe Fang Xiaoyan's story was a tragedy. She departed feeling lighthearted and at peace... That isn't something worth grieving over." "On the Blue Star, there's a story about the little people. It tells of a tiny borrower girl named Arrietty who survived by borrowing things, only to be discovered by a human boy." Crow abruptly began recounting a tale, catching Bai Zhou's interest: "The boy's well-meaning help ended up alarming the adults. In the end, because their presence had been exposed, Arrietty's family decided to move away. At their parting, she gave the boy her hair clip as a keepsake..." "Huh?" Bai Zhou glanced at the notebook on the desk, then looked up and blinked. "So what I mean is..." Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, Crow met Bai Zhou's gaze and gave a gentle nod. "Some beautiful things are enough simply because they happened." "To have met this little Class Monitor Fang, to have helped her while witnessing her departure—that was already your fortune, wasn't it?" Hearing that, Bai Zhou was rendered speechless, falling into contemplation. He felt Crow's words were very reasonable. And had the Dead Sea Secret Scrolls not reacted, they would have sounded even more reasonable. "However..." Bai Zhou blinked, slowly picking up the Dead Sea Secret Scrolls from the desk. "Even though Fang Xiaoyan is gone, she didn't seem to leave completely..." Crow: "?" Did you tear her apart? After hearing Bai Zhou's explanation, Crow shared similar thoughts, but her expression grew solemn as a result: "You should still remember my warning." "Whenever it comes to secret arts or rituals bridging life and death, you must exercise the utmost caution." "Even Dr. Dee fell to such a state. You must take his downfall as a cautionary tale!" "Just like that half of an ancient glyph inside your body, until you become strong enough, do not touch these forbidden taboos you shouldn't be messing with!" "Don't worry, don't worry..." Bai Zhou felt that his caution and love for his own life were the absolute last things Miss Crow needed to fret over. "No matter what, aren't you keeping an eye on me?" "..." Crow neither confirmed nor denied his remark, merely shaking her head as her expression turned increasingly grave: "Actually, the reason I rushed over to the school to find you was because of those ritual symbols you handed over to me." "You mean... the rituals that were just broken?" Bai Zhou's expression grew serious as well. "You managed to shatter them?" "To be honest, when Fang Xiaoyan vanished, I was startled, worried that the dissolution of the ritual might alert someone." Crow waved a hand dismissively. "Then you can put your worries to rest." "Because whatever you did to those rituals was meaningless—this was a medium-scale ritual that was completed long ago!" "A ritual... completed long ago?" Bai Zhou slowly rose from his seat. With his increasingly sharp instincts regarding the supernatural, he already smelled something intensely dangerous. "Yes," Crow nodded. "The reason those symbols you saw were fragmented was because they had already been executed once and then discarded." "It's just that along with the gathering of emotions within the school, those symbols were awakened once more." "However, this time, these broken symbols performed a function entirely different—practically the exact opposite—of their original purpose." "That's why 'Fang Xiaoyan' and the 'Exam King'—two ruin realm anomalies that were never supposed to possess sentience—strayed into the mundane world!" "...In fact, the emergence of Fang Xiaoyan and the Exam King was almost certainly not part of the mastermind's plan. They were merely the side effects of the ritual running in reverse on its own!" "The exact opposite?" Bai Zhou's eyes widened, his pupils shrinking slightly. "You mean..." "I'm afraid it's exactly what you're thinking!" Crow nodded with a heavy expression. "Much earlier, the original function of those ritual symbols was very likely to randomly pull students from the mundane world of the school down into the Reflected Ruin Realm!" "Try imagining a scene like this..." "In some secluded corner of the campus, a solitary student heading home late is quietly swallowed by shadows creeping out from the corner." "Without the student noticing a thing, they take a single step forward and find themselves inside the Yuanmeng Middle School of the Reflected Ruin Realm—a place completely inverted from reality!" Crow knitted her brows tightly. "The person who laid down these rituals possesses extraordinary skill." "What I can't understand is, if all of this is related to the Major, what was his motive for doing it?" "Harvesting 'Human Material' for profit is one thing, but capturing living people from reality into the Reflected Ruin Realm... what conspiracy is he plotting now?" The more Crow spoke, the deeper her voice became. Sending ordinary people to the Yuanmeng Middle School in the Reflected Ruin Realm? The ubiquitous ruin realm contamination would drive them insane, and the bizarre monsters wandering everywhere inside would tear their defenseless bodies to shreds! "...Right, what does he want to accomplish by doing all this?" A sudden shiver ran down Bai Zhou's spine. "Crow, don't you think this handiwork feels somewhat familiar?" "What?" Crow paused for a moment. But seeing the complex look on Bai Zhou's face, her pupils abruptly constricted. "You mean—" "Wancheng!" "Doesn't it look strikingly similar?" Bai Zhou nodded, his gaze lowering. "Both involve quietly dragging people into the Reflected Ruin Realm to achieve certain objectives." His voice dropped lower: "Those townsfolk brought out from Wancheng are still under the Major's thumb, after all..." Crow's brows furrowed deeply. The two did sound quite alike. Yet she could not comprehend how Major Luo could suddenly be connected to the Blood Worship Cult. Not long ago, the Blood Worship Cult had been swindled big time by the Major... Just then, a thought struck Bai Zhou. "I believe this school should have records of mysterious student disappearances from years ago." "—And more than just one!" Verifying this was not difficult for Bai Zhou now. The price was merely a pack of Furongwang cigarettes. Using that pack of Furongwang bought from the convenience store by the school gate, Bai Zhou obtained the answers he sought while chatting with the elderly security guard. Just as expected, five or six years ago, Yuanmeng Middle School had indeed witnessed multiple cases of disappearing students, and even a teacher. A large number of law officers had been dispatched back then, but the investigation ultimately went nowhere. In the end, the school replaced its principal, hired a different security firm, and completely renovated the campus. Only then did everything settle down. By that time, it was already three years ago. Bai Zhou ran a rough calculation of the timeline... Three years ago happened to be the year Fang Xiaoxia graduated! That same year, the ritual was completed and discarded. It was also the year 'Fang Xiaoyan' and the 'Exam King' were born. And it was during that very year that the school's admission rate to key high schools leaped from 95% to 100%, its students sweeping the top three ranks in Tinghai City's high school entrance examination, catapulting the school from Tinghai's top five to the uncontested number one. —The timeline matched! "It seems all the answers hidden behind the mist lie within the Yuanmeng Middle School of the Reflected Ruin Realm." Reuniting with Crow, Bai Zhou reached this conclusion, though he could not help but shudder. He still had to go to that place. However, the harrowing experience of almost being lassoed away by the homeroom teacher's pointer had left a lingering shadow on Bai Zhou's mind. At that moment, Crow produced a chillingly frigid crystal ball from out of nowhere. The moment he saw it, phantom pain flared in Bai Zhou's buttocks, reminding him of those grueling days of meditative cultivation back at the base. "It's already dark. Soon, you'll have to go prepare to deal with the Major... Looking at it now, under no circumstances can we let him know that we've already discovered these things at the school." As she spoke, Crow tapped her fingertips lightly on the crystal ball three times. Three crisp sounds rang out: tap, tap, clack. The next instant, the crystal ball, previously as white as frost, turned into a deep, pitch-black sphere reminiscent of the night sky. Specks of starlight emerged across its surface. "Tonight's starlight is exceptionally fitting. In this crevice between dusk and night, just as twilight has passed, perhaps we can use this opportune moment to perform a divination—" "To divine the Yuanmeng Middle School in the Reflected Ruin Realm." Placing the crystal ball on the floor in front of Bai Zhou, Crow sat cross-legged, her slender fingers tracing and grasping at empty air above the sphere: "My teacher once taught me that the mystic world is never short of fog, but the wise always find a way to pierce through it." "—And divination is the simplest, most direct lantern in an Extraordinary's hands!" Crow's voice was measured as she signaled for Bai Zhou to look at the crystal ball. "I believe this will offer some guidance for the path ahead." Hearing this, Bai Zhou gazed at the crystal ball in mild bewilderment, his eyes cautiously inspecting the object that appeared otherwise ordinary. The next instant— Hum! The crystal ball on the floor vibrated. The starlight from the heavens converged like a pale golden liquid, pouring straight into the sphere. The moment the starlight flared, Bai Zhou's vision blurred as he stared into the crystal ball, feeling as if the world were turning upside down. "This is...!" Hazily, he felt as though he had entered the interior of the crystal ball. It was certainly not made of glass or crystal inside, but of a dense, churning mist. Yet as Bai Zhou "fell" into it, the fog collapsed at once, surging and convulsing before turning into intermittent, flashing scenes before his eyes, hissing with a gray static like a broken signal. Then, he saw it... He saw a desolate, grayish campus. Familiar oath-taking chants drifted into his ears. Like a gust of free wind, Bai Zhou felt himself floating past the frenzied, fanatical ranks, his gaze exploring deeper into the school's interior. Beneath the ash-gray sky, everything was devoid of life, yet every so often, comical yet terrifying noises echoed out. Funeral dirges reverberated over the broadcast speakers, mathematical formulas squirmed across blackboards, and walls were overgrown with purple mushrooms. There were also teachers patrolling the corridors clutching pointers and set squares, their eyes pitch-black and hollow, their footsteps echoing down the mold-covered walkways, dragged out long... and slow... A library gaping open like a bloody maw, waiting to devour passersby, and bare, clawed treants camouflaged and lurking in the corners... In this small reflected school, traps lay everywhere, and danger lurked at every turn. It was nothing short of a realm of monsters, a lair of wraiths. Yet, at the very end— What else did Bai Zhou see...? The wind of his perception strayed into an abandoned teaching building on the mountain behind the school. All the walls and fixtures inside were gone. All that remained were countless pulsing, conjoined lumps of pink flesh, with crimson fascia connecting the different floors, blanketing everything like a dense spiderweb. Enveloped within these masses of flesh were all manner of objects. Crumpled, torn test papers, rusted and abandoned desks and chairs, screaming diaries, and countless ethereal, indistinct phantoms. Eventually, these pink masses of flesh coalesced into a veritable mountain of flesh shaped like a heart, slowly beating to a peculiar rhythm. Yet that was not all. All the flesh seemed bound and drawn by an invisible gravitational pull, spiraling inward toward the center of the fleshy mound, as if in worship. There, at the very core of the heart, Bai Zhou saw... A "person"! That "person" was hung upside down by a crimson cord of sinew, nestled right in the center of the mountain composed of tightly packed flesh, resembling a slumbering empress or a dormant demon that profaned the gods. "Her" eyes were serenely shut. Even while hanging inverted, her hands remained folded over her chest, much like a pious nun in prayer, her delicate features quiet and gentle. Across "her" face crept mysterious, sinister black markings, crawling like dark veins from her neck to her ears and finally converging at the center of her brow to form a shape resembling "π". Behind her, equally bizarre and cryptic black symbols were densely branded upon the piled masses of flesh, pulsating in rhythm with the meat. At first glance, the symbol resembled a withered apple with a bite taken out of it... "!" Bai Zhou suddenly felt his heart skip half a beat. Because he had seen this demonic "her" before. Stripping away the mountain of flesh as a background, stripping away the dark, bruised markings on her face... —"She" was unmistakably that mysterious female classmate who had appeared in Fang Xiaoxia's graduation photo, forgotten by Xiaoxia yet having left behind her last words! Squelch... splat! At that moment, cautious footsteps tread across the mountain of flesh, breaking the silence of the area. A man's furtive silhouette appeared. Bai Zhou hurriedly shifted his gaze, just in time to see the man place several cute dolls clutched in his arms before the young girl. Zzzzt... As the zippers of the dolls were slowly pulled open, the "Human Material" inside was revealed. Then, as if sensing the presence of the "Human Material," several vein-like tendrils covered in dark blue vessels abruptly burst forth from the mountain of flesh behind the girl— Like greedy red-banded snakes opening wide their maws, they bit into the "Human Material." Their hollow tubes squirmed as the vessels drained and absorbed the "Human Material" one by one. In the blink of an eye, the materials were sucked dry, leaving behind nothing but the deflated skins of the dolls. Thump! Thump! Thump! Accompanied by a low, satisfied hum from the vessels, the pulsation of the flesh grew even more vigorous. A contented smile appeared on the man's face. Only when those vessels turned their attention back toward him did the man shudder all over, hurriedly executing a devout and standard ritual gesture. With that, the vessels retreated with lingering appetite, and all returned to tranquility. The scene was extraordinarily terrifying, grotesque enough to make anyone lose their sanity. —This mysterious, furtive man seemed to be feeding this mountain of flesh, and feeding this suspended girl! "...!" When his vision finally took in everything clearly, Bai Zhou's pupils constricted violently, his eyes nearly splitting at the corners. Because he suddenly realized— Behind the suspended girl, those squirming vessels extending from the mountain of flesh— Every single one bore a striking resemblance to the F-rank Black Box, the "Legacy of Bloodthirst," which he had once seen back at Branch 36! Only, compared to the shriveled "Legacy of Bloodthirst," these vessels were unimaginably more vibrant, fresh, and thick. As for the man who was feeding this terrifying flesh and the suspended girl... —It was unmistakably the Major!!!