The blood-red eye shrouding the Ghost School was just like the mirror Chen Ge had seen moments ago—its surface flowed with fresh blood, and a distinct black crack ran through the center of the pupil.
"The Ghost School's will has never undergone such a change…" Sakura Red stood at the room's entrance, holding Sakura White's hand. The crazed expression on her face had long vanished, replaced by nothing but shock and unease.
The Ghost School's windows were severely damaged. If before this school could still be considered a semi-enclosed scenario, it was now completely exposed to the outside world.
Nearly every window along the corridors was badly broken, and repairing them all would be an enormous task.
Without glass to act as a barrier, the Ghost School's students finally realized that the blood-colored city was right on their doorstep.
"Principal, organize the students immediately and keep them away from the windows. It's extremely dangerous outside." The blood-colored city was drawing ever closer to the Ghost School. Using his Yin Eye, Chen Ge could clearly make out the buildings lurking within the crimson fog. "There are terrifying existences hidden in that blood mist—even things that even Red-coats wouldn't want to provoke."
Dr. Gao had been driven mad inside that blood-colored city. Chen Ge was doing this to protect those children.
The mirror in the hidden room had cracked in two. The blood-red eye in the sky had undergone a similar change. There was absolutely no way these two events were unrelated.
"Look! There are people in the blood mist!" Someone shouted from the corridor, and everyone turned to look out the windows.
In the open space outside the teaching building, shadowy figures could be faintly seen—they were all people who had fled from inside the Ghost School!
"What are they trying to do?"
Before Chen Ge could find an answer, the Ghost School's will had already reacted. Countless shrieking ghost shadows crawled out of the eye in the sky, tearing apart every person who had dared to leave the school building.
The first batch of escapees was quickly dealt with, but soon even more people poured out from the buildings. The majority of them were students of the Ghost School.
Whether they had been deceived by someone or whether this had been planned in advance, they all charged toward the school's main gate.
The Ghost School's will tore through the adult figures without hesitation, but when it came to the students, it hesitated. Although its power was comparable to that of something above a Red-coat, it was ultimately composed of countless aggregated wills and still fell short of a true being above that level.
That moment of hesitation was enough for a small number of students to reach the school's front gate.
But the seemingly ordinary iron gate bore what seemed to be a curse laid upon it. Any Ghost School student who touched the main gate would burst into a blossom of blood, their soul scattering to nothing—and that final flower of blood would become nourishment for the Ghost School's will.
"It's easy to enter the Ghost School, but leaving is another matter entirely. Those wills that have fallen into complete despair will resist with savage ferocity. They won't allow themselves to wallow in a hell of suffering while watching someone else find salvation." Sakura Red watched those students with genuine pity. "They can't escape. From some unknown point onward, no one has ever been able to leave this Ghost School."
"Not necessarily. I know someone who did escape." Chen Ge's eyes were locked on the school's main gate, as though he were searching for something.
Before long—while the majority of students had already been transformed into blood flowers and returned to the Ghost School's will—an unremarkable figure among the crowd slipped up to the gate.
This person seemed to have rehearsed countless times. He gripped something in his hand and smashed it against the iron door.
The gate, which had been utterly immovable, trembled. From the enormous blood-red eye in the sky came a man's voice. Countless spectral remnants of wills rushed frantically toward the strange figure at the gate.
The school uniform was shredded by blood threads, revealing the white lab coat underneath. The person ramming against the school's main gate was the "doctor" from the school infirmary—his true identity was a patient who had escaped from the cursed hospital.