...

Year X023, May 11, 12:45 PM.

As Lin Yi was lost in thought, he left the cafeteria area with Wei Shan and Wei Liang, entering the teaching building area.

Just after entering the teaching building area and walking only a few steps, Lin Yi suddenly felt a sense of induction and noticed a figure in the distance.

Although the figure hadn't appeared in his vision yet, his perception had already conveyed the person's information to his mind.

"Zhao Lingxiao?" After confirming the person's information, Lin Yi's expression remained unchanged, but he started to murmur to himself internally. Meeting Zhao Lingxiao today, even at such a distance, he could precisely pinpoint her presence.

In the depths of his mind, he felt there was an inexplicable connection between himself and Zhao Lingxiao...

This connection wasn't exactly a bond, but rather like a puppeteer's string. It was as if there was an additional string in his hand, and the other end extended into Zhao Lingxiao's body...

Lin Yi had a strong premonition that currently, this string was merely hanging and suspended, but as long as he wished, he could easily manipulate it.

As for what would happen after manipulation, he couldn't quite say.

His intuition told him that it wouldn't be anything good — neither for him nor for Zhao Lingxiao.

He immediately thought of the fragmented scene he saw in his dream, where Zhao Lingxiao was incoherently chasing his scent, ultimately seeming to become his... "Mist Chasing Light Seeker"?

"Hiss..." Lin Yi took a deep breath. Could it really be that this string-like induction originated from this?

His brows furrowed, feeling a sense of foreboding.

Lin Yi detected Zhao Lingxiao, whereas Zhao Lingxiao, after a brief delay, sensed Lin Yi's presence in return.

"Lin Yi..." Zhao Lingxiao's eyes behind her glasses seemed to sparkle with a peach-colored glow, like a composed fangirl seeing her idol, appearing calm on the outside while a storm raged within.

Lin Yi and his companions walked towards Zhao Lingxiao, quickly facing each other. Zhao Lingxiao's heart raced "thump thump," like it was beating a drum.

However, they merely passed by each other without even a greeting.

As she passed by Lin Yi, Zhao Lingxiao couldn't resist taking a deep breath, and then, with her back to the three of them, a look of pathological satisfaction and joy appeared on her face, as if her mind and body had reached some peak.

Nonetheless, such a scene was captured entirely by Lin Yi's perception and relayed back to his mind.

"This Zhao Lingxiao... she's done for!" Lin Yi sighed internally. No matter who she pursued, the mist chasing light would lead to no good end. It's evident Zhao Lingxiao was deeply entrapped.

And what troubled Lin Yi was, Zhao Lingxiao wasn't caught up in the Angel Sculpture, but in him.

What troubled him even more was, he was aware of it, yet helpless about it.

Because the decisive factor for a unit to start the mist chasing light path wasn't the light source but the unit itself.

Birds chase the sun and fall, but what fault does the sun have?

And as Zhao Lingxiao passed by Lin Yi, Lin Yi discovered a breath of ashes emerging from Zhao Lingxiao's body!

"How did the ashen breath in Zhao Lingxiao's body come about? Could it be because of me?"

Lin Yi was horrified; how could he possibly draw others closer to the "Ashen Apostle"?

What's more, how could Zhao Lingxiao's body bear ashes?

When Lin Yi first met Zhao Lingxiao, he didn't perceive ashes from within her!

Because "Ashen Apostles" naturally perceive and attract each other, what he could now confirm was that Zhao Lingxiao had become a carrier of ashes. The degree of bearing it, though still different from an "Ashen Apostle," wasn't far off.

One of the conditions for becoming an "Ashen Apostle" is being able to bear ashes without dying, which Zhao Lingxiao had reached.

Given time, she would become an "Ashen Apostle," and still be a mist chasing light seeker with Lin Yi as the pursuit object.

Incredible.

Yet, it's just so bizarre.

...

The light in the teaching building area had an inexplicable dimness, Lin Yi glanced around and just felt the nearby green forest belt exuded a sense of blur, while the slightly distant mountain outlines seemed exceptionally clear.

The scenes near and far blended together, creating a stark visual contrast, even the spatial boundary seemed blurred. Lin Yi walked on the cobblestone path for a while, gradually feeling dizzy from observing the environment.

He withdrew his gaze, shook his head lightly, and felt much better.

"Old Lin, what's wrong with you? Are you okay?" Wei Liang's voice reached his ear, asking with concern, "In this overcast weather, could you have gotten a heatstroke?"

Lin Yi was speechless: "Heatstroke on an overcast day, please, do you realize what you're saying?"

Wei Liang pouted: "Heatstroke doesn't differentiate by weather, just like wallets don't differentiate by age."

"Shoo shoo shoo... don't joke around." Lin Yi waved his hand, focused his gaze ahead, and instinctively squinted his eyes.

He somewhat understood why the campus experience time was set to seven days.

Seven days should be a threshold, even the most normal person would experience various abnormal phantom visions nearing this time.

Even for him, with his depth of cognition, it surprisingly led to even deeper phantom visions.

The campus seemed like a vast ocean, and he was like a deep diver, presuming to adapt to the shallow water zone, only for the deep water zone to appear, and when he reached the deep water, the deep sea merely revealed a corner of its boundary.

The secrets of the layers... can't be completely understood by relying solely on personal power!

Suddenly, his visual field slightly fluctuated, a subtle induction appeared within his perception.

"Huh? This is...?"

His gaze flickered, looking toward the green forest belt.

If just seeing with human vision, all he'd see would be the shadows of grass and trees.

Yet, after Lin Yi's vision flickered, it gradually penetrated the layers, revealing the appearances within layer after layer, and in one of the layers, he saw a large intertwining mass of... flesh.

A multitude of strange creatures squeezed together in a certain area of the green forest belt, despite the spaciousness, they occupied only a very limited space.

The nocturnal species and pseudo-human sculptures, like clay figures molded together, indistinguishable from one another, with clothes boundaries unclear, leaving only bulging eyeballs, glued by blood threads to the flesh, occasionally turning, appearing eerie and terrifying.

"Those nocturnal species and pseudo-human sculptures invisible during the day, they're all here?!"

"What are they doing?"

Lin couldn't understand the behavior of these bizarre creatures, they actually hid beneath the layers.

If it were just one or two, that would be understandable, but the key was they all hid there, as if they received some sort of decree.

The phalanx of sculptures originally in the campus green forest belt, turned into a giant cluster within the layers.

Lin Yi, unsure of the reason, could only remember this phenomenon, so he could inform Class Teacher-040 and Tian Bufan later, they might know something about it.

"Wait!"

Lin Yi suddenly thought of something, then instinctively called in his heart: "Young Master Tian..."

No response.

He tried calling a few more times.

But received no response each time.

He shook his head self-deprecatingly.

"I'm really overthinking..."

He recalled how Tian Bufan summoned him at Corpse Bone Forest in the morning, so he thought perhaps he could emulate this to summon Tian Bufan, which would allow him to directly discuss this with Tian Bufan, without having to wait until they meet again to communicate.

But reality proved that it was, indeed, futile.

Yet just as he chuckled in self-mockery, Tian Bufan's voice surprisingly echoed in his mind.

"Old Lin, I'm here."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.