Boundless Void Domain

The moon was bright, the stars sparse.

The bell signaling the end of evening study rang. Students drifted out of the classrooms in twos and threes, chatting and laughing as they walked through the night. After a day of torment, this was perhaps their most relaxing time.

No homework, no teachers, a few close friends gathered around them. Once they got home and showered, they could crawl comfortably into bed and rest. Wasn't that wonderful?

Amid the scattered crowd, a large group of more than a dozen people suddenly emerged, walking neatly and steadily toward the school gates.

At their center, a boy wearing a Black Ribbon Blindfold was wrapped up tight like the filling in a Dumplings.

Such a massive group immediately drew the attention of all the surrounding students.

"Actually... I can walk home by myself, really." Lin Qiye's mouth twitched slightly as he spoke helplessly. "I can see. It's just that my eyes can't handle light very well..."

"Don't say another word, Lin Qiye!" Jiang Qian cut him off, speaking righteously. "We promised your aunt we'd take good care of you, and we'll definitely keep that promise!"

"Yeah, Qiye. Our homes are in the same direction anyway, so it's on the way."

"It's on my way too."

Lin Qiye: ...

Honestly, he would rather have been the isolated one right now. Having spent so long in darkness, he wasn't used to being cared for by so many people. It made him feel awkward.

Of course, his aunt and Yang Jin didn't count. They were family.

Still, they meant well, so he couldn't really say anything. He could only follow the crowd forward helplessly.

"I have to turn right at the intersection ahead, but I can walk with you a little longer."

"I need to turn here. I'm leaving first. See you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow."

"..."

As they got farther and farther from the school, the classmates surrounding Lin Qiye gradually said their goodbyes and left. A few minutes later, only five people remained by his side.

The originally lively atmosphere gradually quieted down, and the space suddenly felt much more open. Lin Qiye let out a long breath.

"Tell me... do you think that fog will really revive and swallow Great Xia again?" Li Yifei asked curiously, turning his head with his backpack slung over his shoulders.

"Didn't you hear what those experts said? The odds of the fog reviving are very low. Maybe nothing will change in the next hundred years. And as for what happens after a hundred years... we'll be long gone by then, so why worry so much?" Jiang Qian rolled her eyes.

"Come on, you know those so-called experts are the least reliable. What if we finally get into college, haven't even had the chance to enjoy life properly, and the fog swallows all of Great Xia? Wouldn't that be a huge loss?"

"So that's why you waste your days instead of focusing on your studies?" Jiang Qian walked up to Li Yifei and said seriously, "Let me remind you: Teacher Wang already said that if you come in last again on this exam, you'll have to move your desk next to the podium."

"Got it, got it." Li Yifei smiled sheepishly.

"Still, I really don't think the fog can revive again." Wang Shao, who had been walking at the front, suddenly spoke. "At the end of the day, the fog is just a natural phenomenon. Once it reaches a certain critical point, it will gradually recede. Just like an ice age—after glaciers cover the earth, they slowly melt away as temperatures rise, and a new era follows."

"I know that theory. It's called the natural disaster theory, right? It seems pretty widely accepted now." Jiang Qian nodded.

"But what if... this fog isn't a natural phenomenon?" Lin Qiye, who had remained silent until then, suddenly spoke.

Wang Shao paused, then smiled. "Qiye, don't tell me you actually believe those so-called theologians who claim the fog is related to supernatural powers?"

"This is the twenty-first century. We should believe in science. There aren't that many gods and ghosts in the world." A classmate named Liu Yuan chimed in.

Lin Qiye didn't answer. Whether there were things beyond science in this world was something he knew best, but there was no need to tell outsiders about such matters.

Li Yifei muttered softly, "I think if those things really existed, the world would be a lot more interesting."

"What's the point of talking so much nonsense? These aren't things we should be worrying about. Instead of agonizing over whether the fog will revive, it'd be more practical to sleep in during the three-day Survival Day holiday." Jiang Qian smiled.

"Right, holidays are what really matter!"

At that moment, in Cangnan City's old district.

A man carried a signboard on his shoulder as he walked unhurriedly through the lonely, dim streets. The old streetlights cast faint light, stretching his shadow longer and longer...

He glanced at his phone, walked to the entrance of a narrow street, and stopped.

"This is the place..."

He muttered to himself, lowered the signboard from his shoulder, and set it upright.

Under the flickering streetlight, the signboard's shadow appeared and vanished. Against its black background, several large scarlet words stood out sharply!

—No Entry Ahead!

The man leaned against the streetlight, lit a cigarette for himself, took a deep drag, and turned on his earpiece.

"Captain, the third signboard is in place."

"Received. Begin."

"Mm."

With the cigarette between his lips, the man stepped in front of the signboard, pressed his thumb against the tip of his teeth, and bit down hard!

A bead of blood welled from the wound. The man crouched down and used his bloodstained thumb to draw a long horizontal line across the four words, "No Entry Ahead"!

His gaze sharpened, and an indescribable aura erupted from him!

He raised his head to gaze at the black night sky, murmuring in a voice only he could hear...

"Forbidden Ruin, Boundless Void Domain."

The next moment, the scarlet bloodstain on the signboard rapidly faded, as though it had been absorbed. Then, the four words "No Entry Ahead" suddenly flashed red!

Then they gradually returned to normal.

The man dropped onto the ground and let out a long breath, complaining somewhat bitterly.

"Damn it, drained dry again..."

At that moment, if someone had looked down upon Cangnan City from the sky, they would have seen three points of light flickering near the old district. Using those three lights as vertices, an equilateral dark-red triangle rapidly took shape!

The instant the triangle formed, half of the old district within it gradually vanished, as though someone had erased it from a map...

Yet from the ground, the old district was still the same old district.

At the same time, at the center of the triangle, six black-and-red cloaks streaked across the sky like lightning!

The man at the front raised his head to gaze at the dark-red sky, reached back to grip the hilt of his blade, and narrowed his eyes slightly.

"The Ghost-faced Man purge operation begins."