The Source of the Realm
Lu Congxing snapped his fingers, and several small flames burst out from his body, surrounding them in a protective ring.
In an instant, the cold, chilling feeling was driven away for the most part.
Whatever was behind them seemed to realize it had been discovered, and no longer bothered to conceal the sound of its footsteps.
Three people were walking, but there were four sets of footsteps.
Tap, tap, tap, tap…
Suddenly, a familiar voice called from behind.
“Yiyi, who are you holding hands with?!”
It was Lin Yang’s voice.
What?! Wasn’t I holding your hand?!
Just as that thought crossed her mind, Wen Yi’s face turned pale with fear. Her first instinct was to turn around.
But the moment her head moved, the talisman Lu Congxing had given her in advance scorched her in her pocket.
The pain made her eyes widen instinctively. But it also reminded her of Lin Yang’s earlier warning—don’t look back.
The hand she was holding still felt warm and dry, just like she remembered. She let out a slow breath and ignored the increasingly desperate voice of the “Lin Yang” behind her.
It seemed like only she could hear the voice. The Lin Yang whose hand she was holding, and Lu Congxing walking ahead, both appeared unaware of it.
And whatever it was seemed bound by some invisible limit. Though its voice grew more frantic, its footsteps remained steady, matching theirs in pace.
Realizing this gave her peace of mind. Wen Yi began silently chanting in her heart: If you turn around, you’re a fool… If you turn around, you’re a fool…
The talisman in her pocket kept a steady heat, enough to stop her from even considering looking back.
“Lin Yang”—thinking this timid girl would turn at the slightest provocation—was getting frustrated when his calls were ignored. Enraged, it switched tactics.
It turned its attention to Lu Congxing. Though it couldn’t actually read minds, it could mimic the tone of someone closest to him.
Just as Lu Congxing was trying to figure out which way would lead to the staff office, he heard a familiar voice behind him.
“He Zhouyan’s” voice rang out with feigned delight: “My dear, I’m here! You must be so scared. Come, I’ll take you out.”
As soon as the voice came out, Lu Congxing’s beautiful eyes filled with doubt.
Are malevolent ghosts these lazy nowadays? That impersonation was terrible.
It was clearly the same voice as before, but when it came from this thing, it sounded especially sticky and disgusting.
The small flames sensed their master’s irritation and suddenly swelled several times in size, surging backwards in a blazing wave.
Forced to reveal itself while imitating someone else, the ghost had nowhere to hide under the assault of the flames. It wailed in pain, switching between He Zhouyan’s voice and Lin Yang’s in desperate pleas.
But none of them looked back. And oddly, whenever it used He Zhouyan’s voice, the flames only burned hotter.
Lu Congxing’s eyes turned cold. His hands moved quickly, forming a gesture, and with a final surge of flames, he incinerated the ghost completely.
Just like that, the ghost was exorcised.
Lin Yang, who had been preparing to risk his life with sweat beading on his forehead, was stunned. One second he was ready for a last stand, and the next he watched Lu Congxing casually roast the ghost alive.
The oppressive air vanished.
For a moment, Lin Yang was in awe, and when he looked at Lu Congxing, his gaze was full of newfound respect.
Truly a master with extraordinary skills.
With the ghost gone, they finally saw the real path to the office.
The door ahead was tightly shut, and the word “Office” was scrawled on it in bright red liquid, reeking of blood.
Lin Yang clenched his teeth. Deep down, he knew the key to breaking this illusion likely lay behind that door. If this were a game, the final boss was probably inside.
He took out every talisman he had and stuck them all on Wen Yi, instructing her not to go in no matter what happened.
Lu Congxing also left behind a cluster of flames to protect her. He even secretly sent Yingying—the shadow—to search for the other students who had been separated from them earlier.
They probably hadn’t been turned into ghost food yet—just scattered to different places. The malevolent ghost had planned to isolate and consume them one by one, but its greed caused it to fail at the last step.
Yingying wasn’t thrilled, but obeyed its master, shrinking into a palm-sized flickering shadow and bouncing off into the darkness.
Only then did Lu Congxing feel at ease. He planned to storm the office and destroy the ghost within. As his hand reached for the doorknob, Lin Yang’s eyes widened.
His voice cracked with nervousness. “W-Wait, you’re just going to go in like that?!”
Lu Congxing frowned. “What else would I do?”
Lin Yang gritted his teeth. “Shouldn’t we at least come up with a strategy?”
Like—one person distracts it, the other uses blood to draw a sealing formation…
The blue flames dancing in Lu Congxing’s hand radiated killing intent. His expression was blank as he said, “No need.”
He honestly thought Lin Yang might be a bit slow. If they were going to strategize, shouldn’t they have done it before standing right at the door?
This is basically shouting out their plan.
Just then, a scream from inside the office interrupted them mid-conversation.
A human life was at stake.
Lu Congxing and Lin Yang exchanged glances—then kicked the door open without hesitation.
A man in a suit, covered in blood, looked up and saw them like they were saviors. He stumbled forward, crying out:
“Help me! Please help me!”
The malevolent ghost behind him, holding a one-meter-long compass1, sneered sinisterly. “Heh, another pair of bad students walking right into my trap.”
Lu Congxing turned to the man in the suit. “What did you do?”
How did he end up alone in the office? Judging by the ghost’s actions toward him, it was clearly out for revenge.
Both of the man’s arms had been twisted in ways that defied human anatomy. Yet he couldn’t even faint—he had to endure the pain fully conscious.
Seeing him still stammering, unwilling to speak the truth, the ghost with the compass grinned, revealing a mouthful of unnaturally red teeth. “He’s a bad student. Maliciously tampered with his report card. Of course he had to be dragged in for punishment!”
When it got to the last two words, a wave of violent rage burst from its eyes like a bomb exploding.
Lu Congxing hadn’t expected the sudden attack. He grabbed Lin Yang’s hand and flung him aside, then rolled to the ground to dodge the sharp end of the compass.
If that thing pierced someone, it would be fatal.
The man in the suit wasn’t so lucky. Just moments ago, he’d been trying to use Lu Congxing—small arms and legs and all—as a human shield, so he had positioned himself right behind him.
When Lu Congxing dodged, he had no time to react. The full brunt of the attack sent him crashing into the wall.
Blood spewed from his mouth, but due to the ghost’s oppressive presence, he couldn’t even pass out. His eyes rolled back, almost completely white.
A fire dragon formed of ghostly blue flames seized the opportunity to attack from the side, opening its jaws wide to bite. It was fast and ferocious, giving the malevolent ghost no time to react.
But the malevolent ghost was no pushover. As the dragon bit into its arm, the limb disintegrated into countless flying paper scraps—each with red-inked grades, some high, some low. These fragments, which seemed to erupt from the malevolent ghost’s very body, were gradually incinerated by the dragon. And yet, the malevolent ghost appeared to feel no pain, continuing its attacks like a machine.
It aimed the compass at Lu Congxing and suddenly released it like a spring. The two parts snapped into a straight line, jabbing straight at his face.
Lu Congxing raised his hand to block and shifted his weight onto his shoulder to absorb the force. Sliding to the right of the compass, he grabbed one end tightly and yanked hard, locking it in place.
With the compass restrained, the malevolent ghost seemed to freeze for a moment—then suddenly smiled, as if it had gotten the upper hand. It shoved the compass downward, aiming at Lu Congxing’s lower half. As he instinctively lowered his head, the malevolent ghost let go of the weapon and lunged at him with full force.
Its voice howled as it pounced, “Bad students! All should be eliminated in the name of remedial education!”
Its eyes were bloodthirsty and crazed—devoid of any trace of a teacher’s humanity. It was more like a beast wrapped in human skin… or a pile of rotting flesh.
Just as it was about to reach Lu Congxing, a towering wall of ghostly blue flame rose between them, lighting up the entire office.
The flames revealed countless exam papers piled high and, on the walls, red-inked labels that marked students as “Failing” or “Bad.”
Faces—each one familiar—were pasted onto uniformed student bodies. But the proportions were wrong, like someone had crudely cut out heads from photos and slapped them onto high school ID pictures. Everyone who had entered this illusionary realm had their faces plastered all over the wall.
The malevolent ghost couldn’t avoid it in time and plunged halfway into the fire.
“Bad students! Bad students!” it snarled, eyes full of malice as it glared at Lu Congxing, as if it wanted to tear him limb from limb.
But its body was growing transparent as the flames devoured it. All it could do was claw at the air, locked in a burning stare of hatred, like Lu Congxing was its lifelong nemesis.
Lu Congxing let out a breath, brushing his sweat-damp bangs from his forehead. He pointed behind the malevolent ghost with a calm, innocent smile.
As it turned to look, a peachwood sword pierced straight through its mouth.
No one knew when Lin Yang had moved behind it, but now he stood there, gripping the sword tightly with trembling hands.
That final strike shattered the malevolent ghost completely. It dissolved into fuel for the flames and was consumed by the fire wall.
Lin Yang exhaled in relief and smiled. “That should be the end of this illusionary realm, right?”
Lu Congxing didn’t reply. He curled his fingers slightly, suddenly overcome with the urge to play a round of match-three game.
Other people might want a cigarette or a night out at the club after an exorcism. All he wanted was a quiet game.
Unfortunately, that wish would have to wait. A few silent seconds passed, but the illusionary realm showed no sign of collapsing.
Lin Yang’s expression turned grim. “It’s… not over yet?”
Wen Yi didn’t hear any sounds of fighting. She gathered her courage and peeked out. Seeing that both people were safe and sound, she breathed a sigh of relief and ran over.
“Why do you still look so worried?”
Wasn’t the final boss already defeated?
The next second, she saw the man in the suit collapsed on the ground, convulsing in pain, and was startled.
Lu Congxing thought for a moment. “Even after defeating the final boss of this illusionary realm, we still can’t leave. That probably means the real issue lies at the source.”
As he spoke, he crouched down to check the man’s injuries—then noticed a report card that had fallen from the man’s pocket.
He quickly snatched it up. With his sharp memory, he instantly realized the grades on the report card didn’t belong to the suited man.
But the signature at the bottom was his own name.
He rubbed at the signature with his finger—and sure enough, a layer came off.
The man had cut the name off his own report card and pasted it onto someone else’s.
And the report card belonged to Xue Shuangshuang.
Suddenly, he remembered—among all the people who had been summoned here, the only one whose identity actually matched someone from the school… was the female student, Xue Shuangshuang.
Finding the rest of them wasn’t hard. Yingying had already gathered everyone in a classroom and sent Lu Congxing the location, like a human GPS.
. . . . .
Although he almost got lost a few times along the way, in the end, he managed to find the right classroom where the others were gathered.
The man in the suit followed behind, barely supported by Lin Yang. Both of his hands were completely disabled, and his face was covered in scars. When they reached the classroom door, they almost couldn’t get in.
The others thought he was some kind of ghost coming back to haunt them.
Luckily, they managed to explain everything in time.
Pang Ziwen, a 200-pound grown man, was bawling his eyes out, snot and tears streaming down his face—he nearly threw himself into Lin Yang’s arms.
“Wuwuwu, where did you go? I thought I was going to die! And just now there was this terrifying little girl in red!”
He had originally wanted to complain—after all, he had paid good money to hire Lin Yang for protection—but then he remembered he’d only paid for help with the nightmare. So he swallowed his grievances, not daring to offend an exorcist right now.
The Lin family’s exorcists were known for their pride.
Lin Yang, unfamiliar with Yingying, froze when he heard that. “A little girl in red?”
Everyone immediately jumped in, all talking over each other, describing how terrifying the girl was—far more frightening than the ghost that had scattered them earlier.
“Ying.” Yingying, who had somehow returned to his bell without anyone noticing, grumbled in dissatisfaction, “These humans really don’t know how to be grateful.”
Lu Congxing couldn’t help but clear his throat softly. That little cough drew the attention of Deng Zhi, whose expression wasn’t looking too good. He walked straight up to Lu Congxing, leaned in slightly, and asked with intense concern, “Little lamb, are you okay?”
He looked Lu Congxing up and down, and only after confirming there were no injuries did his expression finally relax.
Lu Congxing looked a bit confused. “Little lamb?”
Deng Zhi grinned. “It suits you.” If he were a demon, his wolf tail would probably be wagging right now.
Hearing that, Lin Yang rubbed his forehead and sighed. “He’s no little lamb—he’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing. This school’s final boss was basically taken down by him alone.”
As for himself, Lin Yang had only picked up the scraps, his presence practically invisible by comparison.
The rest of the group instantly fell silent. After hearing what Lin Yang said, everyone turned to look at Lu Congxing. No one dared underestimate him now.
And no one doubted Lin Yang’s words either—they’d all seen firsthand how calm and composed the boy was when handling corpses and how methodical his reasoning was.
Now that he had unexpectedly become the center of attention, Lu Congxing decided to go with the flow. “Now that we’ve got some time,” he said, “let’s figure things out. Why exactly did each of you end up here in the first place?”
At those words, the room fell completely silent.
Author’s note:
Boss He is about to make his entrance. His identity within the illusionary realm is anything but ordinary.
