"Why is the school's will suddenly malfunctioning?" Chen Ge was still standing atop a pile of mirror shards—one wrong move and he'd shatter the glass beneath his feet.
"Everyone, stay alert! Stay away from the windows!" the old principal shouted. He didn't hesitate before ordering the students to evacuate—it was instinct, something drilled into his bones, his body reacting before his mind could catch up.
"What's happening out there?" The corridor was in chaos. Before Chen Ge could even ask, deafening crashes of shattering glass erupted from outside the hallway. Every window in the ghost school had blown open!
Dense blood-colored mist drifted into the corridor. Chen Ge looked toward the doorway. Screams and the sound of breaking glass never ceased beyond it. The only thing that put him at ease was that no matter what was happening, Xu Yin stood single-handedly holding the rag doll, guarding the entrance to the room—as though nothing in the world could make him budge.
"The moment the Red-clothed boy in the mirror screamed was exactly when the school's will began to change. Is there some connection between the two?"
Chen Ge pulled his gaze back and turned toward the blood-red mirror in front of him.
Cracks were spreading across its surface, blood pouring endlessly from within, like a heart that had been stabbed full of blades.
The small figure inside the mirror was frantically tearing at its own face, as though trying to rip Chen Ge's face right off.
"What the hell is this thing?" Chen Ge was fearless now. He knew Red-clothed ghosts and vengeful spirits had trouble approaching this place. Gritting his teeth, he reached out and grabbed the mirror leaning against the corner of the wall.
The instant his fingertips touched the edge of the mirror, a roar erupted from within. That mangled, flesh-torn face screamed at Chen Ge from the other side of the glass.
He looked like a severe germaphobe who had just discovered someone with mud-caked hands touching his drinking cup.
The Red-clothed boy inside the mirror was howling. The composite will of the school above was going berserk. The sound of shattering glass echoed through the corridor, and blood mist crashed against the room in violent waves.
Yet the room Chen Ge occupied remained largely unaffected. Xu Yin stood in the doorway, one hand clutching the rag doll, the other braced against the door. Crimson threads wound across his blood-soaked robes and coiled around his body, and his pale hand gripped the door frame with iron resolve—he had blocked every tendril of mist from seeping inside.
His blood-soaked robes billowed. His body was under unimaginable pressure, but Xu Yin's expression hadn't changed in the slightest.
"Are you the one calling out to the school's will? Can you influence it?" Chen Ge gripped the edges of the mirror with both hands and yanked, trying to lift it.
The mirror was far heavier than he'd anticipated. No matter how hard he strained, he couldn't pull it free from the pile of shards. Worse still, as he continued to apply force, every piece of glass in the room began to behave abnormally—the mirrors bled like open wounds on a living body.
Chen Ge felt as though countless bleeding eyes were staring at him. They belonged to different people, and through the mirror's surface, they gazed at him with every shade of emotion.
**BOOM!**
Another thunderous crash came from the corridor outside, close by. Something had arrived and was fighting the old principal.
"Is it one of the school's teachers? Or another Red-clothed ghost in the school?" Chen Ge's mind raced. The Red-clothed boy in the mirror could indirectly affect the school's will, and he seemed to know secrets about Chen Ge's own face. The boy must have realized something just now—that was why he'd torn at his already-morphing face with such desperation.
"This mirror is very likely the Door Pusher's mirror from the Xicheng Private Academy! His memory fragments still linger inside!" Chen Ge remembered what he'd seen the first time he looked into the mirror. The mirror showed this very room, and in this room was the Red-clothed boy.
"If it really was Zhang Ya who killed the Door Pusher, then this mirror shard can't be left behind. He might pose a threat to Zhang Ya." Since the rag doll was right beside him, Chen Ge didn't speak this thought aloud. He simply became even more determined to extract the mirror.