His heartbeat grew faster and faster. A booming sound echoed from within his chest cavity—painful, freezing, suffocating. He couldn't breathe. He opened his mouth, and something metallic and sweet lodged itself in his throat.
"So these are the memories I once lost? This is what the taste of memory feels like?"
Sounds like these rang out from every corner of the Ghost School. One by one, incomplete monsters emerged from the campus, their eyes filled with malice, tears streaming down their faces as they howled.
Cracks spread across the mirror that shrouded the Ghost School. As the students recovered their lost memories, the blood threads that formed the mirror began to spiral out of control.
That mirror was, at its very foundation, composed of the will and memories of the Ghost School's students. The negative emotions of humanity and the painful memories they had forgotten became the power of vengeful spirits behind the door—and it was these that together formed the Ghost School Will, an existence that transcended the Red Dress.
The Ghost School Will had always sheltered the school, but today, because of Chang Wenyu's betrayal and various other reasons, it had suffered an unprecedented blow.
"Everything has returned to square one." The Painter gripped the broken drawing board with one hand, while his other hand slowly rose, reaching toward the collapsing blood-red mirror overhead. "My drawing board… is broken."
The sensation of having one's memories stripped away was anything but pleasant. The students in the East and West campuses had once been so innocent—and now they were just as vicious.
Gradually, the blood threads began to detach from the mirror's surface of their own accord. The buildings in the East and West campuses blurred. The dream the Painter had woven for everyone slowly dissipated. The crimson curtain that had blanketed the sky crashed downward. The two inverted campuses were about to merge—and the focal point of that merger was precisely the laboratory building where the Painter stood.
He stood between the mirror world and reality, a reflection of his current predicament. In the blood-red world were the students who refused to acknowledge him and the threats from the Crimson City. In the mirrored East and West campuses were the students who were slowly recovering their memories and desperate to seize the one responsible.
Both sides of the mirror pressed in on the Painter, yet his expression barely changed.
"The drawing board is broken, so I'll just get another one. The world has never lacked drawing boards or paint—it only lacks the painter."
Just as the blood-red mirror was about to shatter completely, the drawing board in the Painter's hands dissolved into gray ash. This seemed to serve as some kind of signal. From every building across both campuses, red blood began to flow.
From the East Campus library emerged a sightless figure with his eyes wrapped. From the West Campus artificial lake, a black-and-red corpse floated to the surface.
In the East Campus boys' dormitory, a door was pushed open. A small boy pulled the nails from the back of his hand. Tossed beside him was a student ID bearing only three words—Lin Sisi.
The final building was the waste transfer station located between the two campuses. A tightly shut door was forced open by a creature crawling on all fours. A suffocating stench flooded the nostrils, and countless dark thoughts and negative emotions surged forth.
The four buildings served as four anchor points. The mirror was still shattering, the crimson curtain was still falling, but under their support, a merger with the blood-red world was temporarily averted.
"It's no use. The foundation of the East and West campuses is the Ghost School Will. Once the Ghost School outside the mirror is overwhelmed, the mirror will still break." Ying Hong gazed at the fracturing mirror in the sky, her eyes a terrifying shade of red. "The Ghost School Will can contend with what lies above the Red Dress. That's why the school hasn't been swallowed by that city. Now the two people who held the most recognition from the Ghost School Will have turned on each other. Reality and the reflection have been torn apart. This place is finished."
Boom!
The Ghost School's main gate was smashed wide open. Within the blood mist, dark branches began to appear—resembling some kind of plant, yet also like the arms of dried corpses. Anyone who touched those things was dragged deep into the fog and vanished without a trace.
"
"If we leave, the Ghost School is truly finished." Chen Ge clenched his teeth, staring at the Painter and the blood-soaked clothes of Chang Wenyu on the rooftop. "Every one of you just keeps saying whatever you want. Who do you think pushed open this door?"
"Chen Ge?" The Old Principal noticed something off in Chen Ge's tone. "Are you alright?"
"Of course I'm alright. My condition right now is better than it's ever been." Chen Ge narrowed his eyes, his pupils contracting. "Like I said before—the sealed scenario behind the door belongs to whoever opened it. Whoever kills the one who opened the door becomes the new master of this place."
The Old Principal didn't understand what Chen Ge meant. He had long known that Chen Ge wasn't the kind of kid who was easy to handle, so he didn't press it, only suggesting in a low voice, "How about we head toward the well first?"
"Fine. Having a way out gives us more room to maneuver." As he spoke, Chen Ge's gaze never left the laboratory building. "A lot of the clues in my head have fallen into place. Entering the Ghost School this time was no accident. I still have something to discuss with the person who's been using me."
"So… can we head toward Muyang Middle School now?" The Old Principal was terrified that Chen Ge would do something rash again. He had hoped Chen Ge would behave—but很快就 realized how wrong he was.
"Heading that way is fine, but before that, I need to catch that person first." Chen Ge pointed toward Chang Gu, who was sprinting wildly across the schoolyard. The Ghost School Will had split, the Painter was being held down by Chang Wenyu, and Chang Gu—the one who had opened the Ghost School's main gate—was now fleeing toward the teaching building with the help of the school hospital's "doctor."
That "doctor" probably had ill intentions as well. He and Chang Wenyu had likely reached some kind of agreement, but he feared Chang Wenyu might break her word, which made Chang Gu the hostage in his hands.
"Isn't it a bad idea to confront them directly right now?"
"As soon as I've got what I need, I'll leave immediately and avoid a direct confrontation as much as possible." Chen Ge had an absolute reason to capture Chang Gu—one he couldn't tell anyone about, because the black phone was his greatest secret, and that secret might now be in Chang Wenyu's possession.
He opened the comic book and released all of his Red Dress spirits. "Strike when you see your chance. Anyone who stands in your way is the enemy!"
At the same time, Chang Gu and the school hospital's Red Dress "doctor" had already retreated into the teaching building. As if by prior arrangement, the moment they made it back, a wailing cry erupted from the Ghost School's main gate.
That crying drowned out the students' howls and screams, reaching every single ear.
Within the blood mist, a figure materialized. She stood at the Ghost School's main gate, not stepping inside—but the blood mist flooding the school grew ever thicker, and more and more monsters began to混杂 within it.
That wasn't all. Before long, sounds of chewing and gnawing joined the crying, and beside the first figure appeared a second—a massive, grotesque shadow, twisted and horrifying.
The thick fog blocked everything. Those inside the buildings could only make out vague shapes from afar. But merely gazing at those two silhouettes from a distance was enough to fill one's heart with terror and helplessness.