And just as he turned to step down from the podium, a strangely familiar yet indescribable voice suddenly echoed in his ear:

"Old Lin..."

Lin Yi paused slightly, instinctively looking back.

Class Teacher-040 and Xu Shunkang had just started talking and, seeing Lin Yi suddenly turn around, they glanced over as well.

"Do you have anything else to say?" Class Teacher-040 asked.

Lin Yi frowned slightly, carefully perceiving, then shook his head, saying, "Nothing..."

As he spoke, the familiar voice sounded again in his ear:

"Old Lin..."

Lin Yi froze for a moment, and after carefully discerning, he realized that this voice seemed to belong to Tian Bufan!

"Young Master Tian is calling me...?"

"No... how is this possible?!"

Lin Yi didn't dare to be careless, quickly returning to his seat, flipping the seat and sitting down.

He leaned against the back of the chair, trying to respond in his heart:

"Young Master Tian...?"

However, Tian Bufan's voice remained only at the level of calling, seemingly always calling out to him.

"What's going on? What's the situation..." Lin Yi was frustrated and anxious, but he quickly calmed down and began to trace that kind of call.

"Old Lin..."

"Old Lin..."

"..."

Lin Yi continued to sense that kind of calling, and his consciousness began to appear in a momentary trance, within which, a slight ripple seemed to appear before his eyes.

The space in front of him seemed to ripple slightly, and through those ripples, he seemed to see the figure of Tian Bufan...

And as his perception continued, his will also began to penetrate that ripple...

"Buzz..."

As he anticipated, his will indeed penetrated downwards, and around him began to appear distortions and collapses that transcended physical laws, an inevitable process during "Will Transition."

Soon, his vision plummeted into Tian Bufan's body, as if he were a skydiver descending through clouds...

...

In the year 2023, on May 11th, at 9:44, near the Desolate Land in the Green Forest Belt.

As Tian Bufan shuttled continuously through the Green Forest Belt, his body suddenly trembled.

"Old Lin... you've come?" Tian Bufan slowly spoke, as if talking to himself, quite eerie.

Lin Yi was taken aback, knowing this was Tian Bufan speaking to him, and immediately tried to respond, "Young Master Tian, I'm here."

Hearing Lin Yi's voice, Tian Bufan nodded slightly, "It's good that you're here."

However, facing the calm Tian Bufan, Lin Yi became puzzled, "Young Master Tian, what is going on?"

Tian Bufan explained, "I am about to enter the Corpse Bone Forest and need you to accompany me; otherwise, once inside, the layer fluctuations will be too great, and I may not be able to call you."

"No, that's not what I meant, although, I do want to know that, but what I mean is, how can you... summon me?" Lin Yi asked, bewildered.

Tian Bufan slowly said, "Since the start of contamination distribution, we've been able to perceive each other, only initially, you hadn't adapted enough, so we couldn't establish a perfect connection."

"But now, after you've experienced the Dream Boundary transition of Maozi, you can."

"So now... I'm penetrating your will through the Dream Boundary?" Lin Yi asked in surprise.

Tian Bufan nodded, "There are many types of Dream Boundaries; it doesn't only count when sleeping... as long as you penetrate will through the Dream Boundary during Dream Building, it counts."

Lin Yi realized, it seemed that tracing Li Zidan's consciousness through the comics earlier and reversing spirit transition was also a skill in the field of Dream Studies.

Tian Bufan said, "Listen, Old Lin, right now, I'm calling your will. On one hand, I indeed need your presence; on the other, it's to familiarize you with this feeling."

"Tonight, you'll need to stay on campus, accepting 'summons' from all of us just like now."

Lin Yi was startled, reminded of Tian Bufan's previous instructions:

["Tomorrow night, after all of us begin our actions, you can't return to the dormitory nor stay in the Teaching Building..."

"You need to remain on campus, using layers to 'assist' Kuai Kuai and Maozi in the Art Building, doing your best to shield them from layer influences, including but not limited to 'attacks' and fluctuations from other mysterious creatures or the environment..."

"You've been to the Art Building before, you should have experienced the horror of layer-level units."

"Once Kuai Kuai and Maozi really start to act, there's a high chance it will attract the attention of the Night Watchman, and if luck isn't on our side, it might even lead to a direct attack by the Night Watchman. In that case, you'll need to help them through it."]

"So this is the method of reinforcement you mentioned?" Lin Yi asked.

Tian Bufan affirmed, "Exactly, or did you think you'd layer transition over on campus to help us fight?"

Lin Yi instinctively shrank his neck, initially thinking it was indeed this...

"Since I'm helping you through the Dream Boundary, why not just go to the dormitory and sleep?"

Tian Bufan retorted, speechless, "Old Lin, are you an idiot?"

"Uh..." Lin Yi was choked.

"Once you fall asleep in the dormitory, how can you ensure your dream boundary can intervene with us? The 'time' while sleeping isn't the same as the 'time' while awake."

"It's just like how you can help me while awake now."

Lin Yi suddenly came to understand, "I see... What do you need me to do now?"

"Be a 'puppet'," Tian Bufan replied, "I need a little utility."

"'Puppet'? But there aren't materials here!" Lin Yi said.

Tian Bufan smiled mysteriously, "Aren't these all materials?"

Lin Yi was startled, his perception rapidly expanding outward from Tian Bufan as the center.

Soon, through the surrounding misty white fog, he discovered a tree deep in the forest full of snowy white flower buds.

"Corpse Bone Forest?" Lin Yi exclaimed.

The snowy white flower buds maintained a posture of budding, clustering together into small skulls.

Starting from this tree, looking deeper into the forest, all the trees bore these small skulls.

The misty white fog drifted among the dense forest, and as the wind blew, the skulls seemed to come alive, humming with a wailing tone.

The deeper it went, the more eerie the trees became, particularly those gnarled ancient trees, which started to grow human limbs. Of course, not that those eerie trees turned into war trees, but that the ancient trees still grew there, only now the places that should be leaves had turned into hand and foot appendages.

These appendages poked out from the gaps of skulls, endowing the entire ancient tree with a bizarre, absurd art style.

This is the "Corpse Bone Forest"!

Starting from the skull-tree, the further one looked into the forest, the more anti-cognitive the plants became. All these plants had escaped the normal confines of "plants", transforming into some sort of "animal" and "plant" hybrid organisms, exuding a sculpture-like sense of transformation.

Those things seemed like milky white gelatinous organs fashioned and grafted onto ancient trees, continually growing.

Whether they were eyeballs, limbs, or other trunks, or organs, they seemed to exist independently of each other.

Unknowingly why, when he perceived this scene, he instinctively compared the "Corpse Bone Forest" before him with the "Burial Body."

The state of the "Burial Body" in the cafeteria seemed somewhat similar to the organs on these trees, except, compared to the "Corpse Bone Forest," the "Burial Body" seemed to possess more "vitality."

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