"Do you know what you look like right now?" Fan Daoyi tipped his head back and sank into a relaxed posture.
The principal lay face down on the floor, wriggling.
She raised her head, tears streaming down her face, and spoke with endless sorrow. "I was wrong, I was wrong..."
Fan Daoyi narrowed his eyes and ignored her.
He lazily raised an arm and swept it forward. The branches and vines at the perimeter returned to the intricate mural.
Only the three of them remained here.
The principal had wriggled to Fan Daoyi's feet. A trace of ferocity entered her pleading gaze.
She was another one who could not hide her thoughts.
Fan Daoyi grew bored. He sat up straight and looked down at the principal. "Don't you think you look a lot like the traitor in the story? Except the one you betrayed was Wang Long."
Intricate patterns suddenly appeared on the office floor, with the center of the formation linking Wang Long and the principal. Their deal had planted a cause, and now its fruit had come.
Wang Long held out his hands and watched wrinkles spread across them as his body gradually aged. He stared at the principal in disbelief and accused her in an aged, raspy voice, "That wasn't the price we agreed on..."
The principal's severed limbs grew back. She put on a different face, assuming a cultured and reasonable appearance as she pleaded with Fan Daoyi.
"Lord Dao Yi, I really was in the wrong this time. To carry out your instructions, I failed to fully understand the story's background and used improper methods to achieve the final goal..." she said sincerely.
Before the principal could finish, a bamboo cane pierced her abdomen.
In an instant, the principal vanished before Fan Daoyi's eyes, and the space around him began to change violently. The once-stable space suddenly flipped upside down, and white walls enclosed Fan Daoyi in a square cage.
"Look, you've chosen to betray someone yet again." Fan Daoyi remained seated steadily in his chair, his body and head pointing downward as he spoke calmly.
Branches and vines grew wildly within the walls, breaking through the walls enclosing him. They spread rapidly across the once-pristine white walls, completely surrounding the space like a surging tide.
Then they followed that faint trace of her aura.
The hidden principal clutched the "token" used to alter Guixu, her eyes full of tension and unease. Before she could react, however, the raging branches and vines caught her and tore her apart once more.
After a brief spell of chaos, the space grew calm again. The dismembered principal now hung in the air, suspended by the branches and vines. Blood dripped down from above, yet perfectly avoided the spot where Fan Daoyi sat.
The scene was both eerie and tragically beautiful, enough to send a chill down one's spine.
Just then, a bottle of potion slipped from the principal's mangled palm. Fan Daoyi casually reached out, and it landed squarely in his hand.
Even in her final second before death, the principal could not understand why the branches and vines were not subject to the "token's" control.
"The course of a story should be in its protagonist's hands." He pinched the top of the potion bottle and waved it at the branches and vines. "Since Apothecary gave you a chance, I'll offer you a lifeline as well. Will you accept it?"
The branches and vines waved and shoved one another until, together, they pulled out one to represent them.
The representative hesitated before the potion bottle for a moment. In the end, it coiled around the bottle and quickly burrowed into the wall, moving toward the rosebushes in front of the school gates.
A few small vines remained in the room. Fan Daoyi instructed them, "Don't let the remaining players escape Guixu. Whatever method you use, even keeping them here as NPCs will do."
The tips of the little vines nodded.
"Also, without changing the story's background, the content inside needs to change to keep things fresh."
The little vines looked at one another, then nodded again, only half understanding.
Atop the teaching building, a white-haired young man wearing glasses stood quietly in the gentle breeze. He wore a white coat, his hands resting casually in his pockets, and gazed deeply at the rosebushes below.
A strange sight was unfolding among the rosebushes. Skeletons slowly emerged, one after another. Gradually, they began to take on flesh again, returning to the innocent, guileless forms they had at the beginning.
"It's about time to let that group of players pass through Guixu."
A black cat appeared silently beside the white-haired young man and licked its paw gracefully. "Apothecary, if Dao Yi finds out about this, you're absolutely dead, meow."
Apothecary smiled, his tone light. "What else can I do? We can't let Lord Dao Yi stay in Guixu at this stage."
"The notification's been sent, and there isn't much time. Whatever you're going to do, hurry up," Xuan Miao said.
Meanwhile, in other instances.
"Boss, I'm curious. Where's Little Jianjian? He actually didn't say he was coming to join the fun for something like this?" asked a woman with long red hair, wearing a spaghetti-strap top and denim shorts.
"He went in," Qian Heaven replied.
"Whoa." The woman exclaimed, sounding rather delighted. "Which genius sent that scourge in? Heaven's finally opened its eyes."
Qian Heaven sounded somewhat helpless. "I mean he's already entered the college entrance exam venue."
"Boss, over here!" Xun Wind waved to them and pointed in a direction. "My intuition tells me we can clear it quickly over there."
They stopped talking and hurried in that direction.
Much the same was happening elsewhere.
In time-limited instances, players inexplicably completed a hidden objective, and NPCs sent them straight out. Or they would simply be walking along when the path to clear the instance appeared before them.
In other monster-fighting instances, players had been struggling to hold their own, only for the monsters to act as though they were putting on a show for them, muttering about getting off work before flying backward and vanishing. Then the exit appeared right in front of them.
They did not dwell on it. What mattered now was making wishes to save people.
Relying on the assignments made outside, they entered each instance exactly as planned.
Numerous wishes appeared all at once. Because of the rules he had set himself, he had to fulfill them even if it made him weep, and Origin Source poured away.
Sitting in his chair, Fan Daoyi suddenly felt dizzy. He held his forehead and fell into thought. What's going on? Why have so many wishes appeared at once?
The massive loss of Origin Source made it impossible for him to remain conscious. Before he could think it through, he finally closed his eyes and fell asleep.
Apothecary walked down the corridor, his gaze sweeping casually over his surroundings. He happened to see the players fleeing in panic.
"Become NPCs? Was that his instruction?" Listening to the girl beside him, Apothecary curled his lips into a cold smile. A sharp scalpel suddenly appeared in his hand. Cold light flashed, and he swiftly slit the throats of the fleeing players.
Watching them slowly fall, he said calmly, "The dead are more reassuring. They won't spill any secrets."
Apothecary continued onward. As he passed Jiang Lin's corpse, he stopped. He crouched down and carefully examined the nearly healed wound on Jiang Lin's neck, his eyes gleaming with excitement. "Lord Dao Yi has brought up quite a good specimen."
Xuan Miao swiped a paw through the air, and a crimson opening appeared in the corridor. "Hurry up. They'll be here soon," it urged.
Apothecary grabbed Jiang Lin by the back of his collar and dragged him through, replying, "Coming, coming."
"Speaking of which, aren't you retrieving that fellow you sent in?" Xuan Miao asked.
As he walked, Apothecary answered lightly, "Just a specimen that betrayed me. It doesn't matter. Besides, leaving the corpse there gives Lord Dao Yi ample reason, doesn't it?"
When the crimson opening vanished, an azure opening appeared in the instance immediately afterward.
Several Azure Dragon Guards swiftly went on alert and surveyed the situation inside the instance.
"The college entrance exam instance is over?" As soon as they entered, they sensed the state of the instance.
At the sight of the corpses and remains on the ground, their hearts sank.
"Split up and search for survivors," one of the leaders ordered.
They separated to search, and one of them eventually found the principal's office.
He reported to the others over the radio: "Reporting in. One survivor found in the principal's office. His breathing is weak. He needs emergency treatment."