“It’s useless.”
A fine, fragmented voice sounded beside Xu Yuan’s ear.
He saw the black shadow, with nowhere left to dodge, suddenly pass straight through that mass of blazing flame. Its figure flickered, and it appeared directly on the other side of the corridor.
It even reached out and pressed lightly into the void.
The sword qi and alchemical fire were extinguished together.
Taking advantage of the other party’s move—
Xu Yuan turned and sprinted madly for the outside.
—He had already used everything he had, but that black shadow could teleport!
Damn it, it could even pass straight through flames!
It had casually snuffed out the two moves he had unleashed with all his strength!
How the hell was he supposed to fight that?
—This was completely beyond imagination, all right!
At the end of the corridor was a window.
Smash through it.
Jump straight down from the third floor.
That was the only escape plan he had right now!
As Xu Yuan was thinking this, he suddenly saw, from the corner of his eye, that black shadow appear once again—
“You have exceeded my highest expectations.”
The black shadow praised him.
Xu Yuan’s heart sank, and he abruptly stopped in his tracks.
It had come too quickly.
This monster was ethereal and unreal, and its strength was terrifying beyond measure.
It was not something a high school student could deal with.
But it did not seem to have much will to fight.
It seemed…
to be testing him?
“What are you? What do you want?”
Xu Yuan held the short blade before his chest and asked in a low voice.
“A tiny hint.”
“I’m actually not in this hospital.”
“If you can find me with that sentence, I’ll give you an answer you’ll be satisfied with,” the black shadow said leisurely as it hovered in the corridor.
Not here…
How was that possible?
If you’re not here, then who am I fighting?
Just putting on airs!
Xu Yuan was about to sneer and retort when he suddenly thought of something. His whole body could not help but tremble.
“Impossible…”
He murmured under his breath, then suddenly sprang up and charged like a madman into the restroom at the end of the corridor.
He leaned over the sink, pressed his face against the cold mirror, and pried open his own eyelid with his fingers.
His left eye.
Inside the eyeball—
Dense black incantation script had gathered into the shape of a human figure.
—This monster was on his own eyeball!
That was why it was not in the hospital!
That was why neither the flames nor the sword qi could hit it no matter what!
All around was silent.
Xu Yuan only felt a chill rising from behind his back.
A black shadow had grown inside his eye?
Why had he not sensed it at all!
A low chuckle sounded by his ear.
“How sharp. Not bad.”
“Then—”
“As a reward, let us begin.”
In the mirror.
Xu Yuan saw endless black runes seeping out from his own eyeball. These runes linked together, forming the shape of an inverted cross.
The entire mirror was suffused with mist, making everything before his eyes blur.
Xu Yuan twitched his nose.
From some unknown place, the scent of burning grass and wood ash crawled in from outside the four windows, curling around him.
Fire.
The aura of fire was mingled within the grass and wood, as if some ritual had been completed, causing a peculiar, rotten stench to rise from underground, bubbling with “glug,” “glug” sounds.
Some kind of power, like rippling water, silently swept through the surroundings.
Xu Yuan froze.
The mirror—
The restroom mirror had vanished.
A hazy glimmer of light shone through from where the mirror had been, as if deep within the mirror there was still an unknown room.
“Go.”
A urging voice came by his ear.
No.
I’m not going to that damned place.
Xu Yuan abruptly turned around and stepped forward, about to leave the restroom.
“Go. Your situation is not good. This is your only chance.”
That voice urged in a low tone.
Xu Yuan stopped.
“How do you know my situation isn’t good? My situation is great,” he said.
“Because you don’t know… certain things have happened…”
The black shadow spoke intermittently.
Xu Yuan was stunned.
Three days later, a flying sword would pierce through his body.
The original body did not even know why he had been killed, but this black shadow seemed to know something.
“What is going to happen? Tell me.”
Xu Yuan said.
The black shadow fell silent.
It was as though it had disappeared again, no longer making any sound.
A choice.
—Only a choice lay before Xu Yuan.
How should he choose?
Leaving this place was a simple matter.
But that shadow had already grown on his eyeball.
—He was not sure that if he gouged out his eye, the other party would disappear.
What if it parasitized some other organ?
And as for running.
Where could he run to?
Perhaps this was the reason the original body had been nailed dead by a sword three days later?
The answer was right before his eyes.
Should he run?
Run away first, then wait three days, and then be nailed to death on the bridge?
Xu Yuan tilted his head back, breathed out, then walked back and stood before the empty space where the mirror had been.
The mirror was filled with churning mist.
He could not see what was inside.
Waves of chill penetrated his body, giving rise in his heart to an ominous, instinctive urge to flee.
“Go.”
That voice urged softly.
Xu Yuan gritted his teeth, tightened his grip on the knife, jumped onto the sink, bent his waist, and burrowed into that place covered in mist.
At first it was extremely narrow, barely wide enough for a person to pass.
After walking several dozen steps farther.
Xu Yuan slowly straightened his bent waist.
The mist grew even denser.
A boundless sea of fog.
In the deathly silence.
Nothing could be seen.
Xu Yuan walked a few more steps, then suddenly saw a broken remnant of a wall ahead.
“Nether…”
He read aloud.
On that remnant wall was carved the character “Nether,” while the rest of it had long since vanished to some unknown place.
—He had absolutely no idea what this place was.
Clang.
A light sound rang out.
His foot had bumped into something.
Xu Yuan lowered his head and looked.
It was a bronze man.
—The bronze man lay on the ground, an eerie smile on its face, its hands forming a strange seal.
If one looked carefully, one would discover dozens of black holes across its body.
Xu Yuan looked at the bronze man.
—That black shadow had made him come here.
And then?
An endless, mist-like world.
Only this bronze man lay here.
This was too strange!
Xu Yuan steadied himself and did his utmost to calm down.
—The appearance of anything had its basic logic and reason for existence.
This bronze man.
And even this almost blank world.
What was the reason for their existence?
Suddenly.
That whispering voice sounded again:
“There isn’t much time… you must quickly master… this…”
This what?
“You mean this bronze man? Who exactly are you?” Xu Yuan could not help asking.
“…Learn it… only then can you live…”
“It’s almost too late…”
That voice gradually receded.
Everything returned to silence.
It was gone.
Xu Yuan shifted his gaze, wanting to see the black shadow once more.
But the black shadow never appeared again.
Only a strong wind blew over from the distant horizon.
The force of this wind was extremely powerful.
The ashes on the ground were blown up high by the wind, connecting heaven and earth into a gigantic wall that cut off all things.
Nothing could be seen anymore.
Xu Yuan could clearly feel that the several auras curling around him—fire, grass ash, decay—were slowly fading away.
The power was declining.
—The power that formed this bizarre world was slowly dissipating!
But as the bronze man was buffeted by the violent wind, the holes across its body suddenly emitted rhythmic sounds one after another.
Wind—
It flowed through the dozens of holes, through the inside of its body, and then produced sound.
Xu Yuan was stunned for a moment. Then an expression of disbelief suddenly appeared on his face, and he cried out involuntarily:
“What kind of technique is this!”
There were twenty-seven holes on the bronze man’s body.
The movement of the wind was like a kind of power—
If it were replaced with the movement of spiritual power, it would mean that spiritual power had formed an effective circulation route among the twenty-seven holes.
To cast any technique, one had to make spiritual power form this kind of circulation within the body!
Going a step further.
The circulation of spiritual power, combined with the secret hand seal that guided it—
A complete technique was produced.
And the bronze man had already displayed an eerie hand seal!
The answer was obvious.
The other party had brought him into this world so that he could see this technique!
In the next instant.
The entire world turned to darkness.
Xu Yuan heard his own voice sound beside his ear:
“What kind of technique is this!”
He opened his eyes.
He was sitting on a chair by the corridor, holding a copy of Senior Year Artifact Refining Exercise Collection (Volume One), turned to page 19, working on fill-in-the-blank questions.
The incandescent lamp hung from the ceiling, pouring bright light over the entire corridor.
The voices of patients talking, the sound of delivery riders running, the nurses calling out loudly, and the voices from the television news kept drifting over from the other end of the corridor:
“We interrupt with a news bulletin.”
“Scientists have discovered a comet approaching our planet.”
“According to joint orbital calculations by the observatory and space probes, this comet will arrive in near-Earth orbit in approximately seven years…”
Xu Yuan did not keep listening.
He merely sat stiffly in place. Once his breathing had steadied somewhat, he took his phone from his pocket and opened the call log.
There had indeed been a call a few minutes ago.
It was a call between him and his mother.
In other words—
At that time, the black shadow had silently waited for him to finish the call before launching its attack!
Everything that had just happened was not an illusion.
It was all real!