Outside the door:
The maids heard the pipa within raging like a torrential downpour, like clashing golden spears and iron steeds, murderous intent soaring into the sky.
Through the paper window, they saw silhouettes locked in combat.
Yet, strangely enough:
There was not a single sound of fists or feet colliding inside.
One second...
The figures crossed.
Three seconds...
The figures shattered!
Five seconds...
The pipa's clashing-steeds melody vanished.
The final female voice had its head crushed by the young man's silhouette.
"This is life!"
The maids exchanged glances, trembling like leaves, not daring to speak.
At that moment:
Chu Qing's voice came from inside:
"Come in and clean up!"
The maids had long been prepared. They immediately rushed inside.
Then, they froze.
There was no mountain of corpses or sea of blood as they had imagined.
Nor were there bodies strewn across the floor.
There were only shattered paper figures everywhere.
Some of these paper figures were cut from paper, while others had bamboo frames covered in pasted paper.
Every paper figure was lifelike, just like a real person.
Thinking of the maid from earlier, the moment they saw the many paper figures, their expressions changed drastically. "Anomaly!"
"How could there be an anomaly in the Martial Academy?"
The maids panicked.
Chu Qing did not care about what the maids were thinking. Instead, he stared fixedly at his hands.
A black pattern had appeared on both his hands.
The pattern resembled the Skeleton Society's skull emblem and looked deeply sinister.
This was no good thing.
Chu Qing frowned.
The Princess Consort had told him about this thing:
An anomaly curse!
Anyone bearing this curse would attract many anomalies.
In the end, they would all die at the hands of anomalies.
And if someone bearing this curse entered a forbidden