The Puppet

Mei Ye glanced at the girl. He slapped his left hand against the blade, and the long saber leaped from its sheath. A flash of silver streaked past as shattered stone burst apart and dust billowed. Every falling fragment was cleaved in two in midair.

"Are you all right?"

Mei Ye helped the girl to her feet.

"I'm fine."

Wen Siyi froze and answered instinctively.

But the next moment, as if remembering something, she suddenly looked terrified and grabbed Mei Ye by the lapels.

"I'm so scared. There are monsters here!"

Wen Siyi's eyes brimmed with tears as she pointed at Jin Hong.

"Leave it to me. Step back."

Mei Ye patted her shoulder, signaling for Wen Siyi to let go of him, then turned to the puppet monster nearby.

"You bitch!"

Seeing the woman who had shown him nothing but contempt holding someone else, Jin Hong was green with rage.

"Students, there's a monster! Evacuate in an orderly fashion!"

The principal emerged, saw the enormous puppet monster, and hurriedly organized the students' evacuation despite his panic.

Once the students had gone far away, Mei Ye stepped forward with relief, his long saber gleaming with a cold light.

The Vast Blade Art suppressed evil demons and heretics. Its swift, clear strokes danced across the lake's surface, waltzing with the moonlight.

Paired with his Glazed Treasure Body Art, its splendor and beauty made heaven seem to appear before him, the great sun rising in the east.

It was perfectly suited to dealing with an evil fiend like this!

"I'm going to tear your face off!"

The puppet monster grew even angrier when it saw Mei Ye's striking features. In a fit of rage, it struck first. Several spiderlike limbs swung down at Mei Ye with tremendous force.

Mei Ye looked at the monster and casually raised his hand, bringing his blade down on one of its limbs.

The blade collided with the puppet's limb with a sharp clang, sending sparks flying.

Jin Hong's wooden joint snapped, splinters bursting through the air.

With one arm cleaved off, Jin Hong raised the other and swung at Mei Ye in a fury.

A sneer flickered across Mei Ye's face. He grabbed Jin Hong's arm and yanked, then curled his fingers into a fist and slammed it into Jin Hong's chest.

A heart-piercing strike!

The force of the punch passed through Jin Hong's body. His chest caved in, wooden grain cracking outward from the point of impact as splinters rained down.

"So, you're a monster, but you're a puppet? That's pretty interesting."

Mei Ye watched Jin Hong fly backward like a machine coming apart.

The birth of demons was another evolution of life. Since they were enemies of humanity, they were called demons.

But Mei Ye couldn't understand how a puppet could become a monster.

Weren't puppets mindless?

Jin Hong struggled to his feet, stumbling and staggering. His smooth, hard skin was covered in scars, and he looked as if he'd just crawled out of a garbage heap.

Seeing the Demon Suppression Bureau suppress the monster with a single move, the teachers and students in the distance breathed a sigh of relief.

"Finish it off!"

"Monster, you deserve to die!"

At the students' urging, Mei Ye slowly walked toward Jin Hong.

Jin Hong let out a threatening roar, but it sounded so ridiculous, utterly lacking in conviction.

Mei Ye swung his long saber and leaped six zhang in a single bound. His gleaming white blade was about to fall on Jin Hong's head.

But at that moment,

a streak of purple light suddenly shot toward Mei Ye.

Mei Ye's gaze sharpened. He turned and blocked it, leaving a crimson scorch mark on his blade.

The mark was caused by the intense heat of the purple light.

Following the light's trajectory, Mei Ye looked toward the school building and spotted a blurry figure.

"There's another one?"

Just as Mei Ye was about to pursue it, something suddenly stirred behind him.

Mei Ye tensed and turned around, only to see Jin Hong—the one who should have been as good as dead—twisting his body and scrambling away on all fours.

"..."

There was more than one monster at Second Middle School. The reason they could hurt the teachers and students was that another monster was powerful.

Mei Ye figured out the truth.

"Is the monster gone?"

The principal of Second Middle School approached, trembling. He was a decent martial artist, but age had caught up with him, and his cultivation was low. He couldn't fight a monster.

"Yes."

Mei Ye replied frankly, "But I never expected the monster's true form to be a puppet. Principal, do you know where that puppet came from?"

The principal thought carefully for a long while, then shook his head. "I don't know. I can't figure out what the monster's goal was, either."

"Thank you for helping me just now, brother."

Wen Siyi came over and smiled brightly.

Mei Ye noticed her then and said casually, "It was the least I could do."

Seeing that he was still thinking about the monster and had no mind to pay attention to her, Wen Siyi said:

"Brother, remember? There was someone at school who didn't exist. That monster was the person who didn't exist. His name was Jin Hong..."

"Jin Hong..."

Mei Ye froze, not just because this was the former boyfriend of Wen Siyi, the girl before him, but because the name itself was unusual.

Mei Ye suddenly had an idea.

He looked at the potbellied director of studies behind the principal, his gaze full of scrutiny and coldness.

"Teacher Wang, you've taught at this school for over twenty years. Do you know the name Jin Hong?"

"Jin Hong...!"

The director of studies went pale, breaking out in a cold sweat.

"Teacher Wang?"

The principal noticed his old friend's expression and looked puzzled.

Seeing the director of studies like that, Mei Ye's expression darkened. "Teacher Wang, please cooperate."

Under Mei Ye's pressure, Teacher Wang told them what had happened all those years ago.

"More than ten years ago, there were two students," Teacher Wang said with a sigh. "They were secretly dating. Back then, I was still a PE teacher. When I found out, I called the girl to the storeroom to lecture her about putting her studies first.

"I promised her I wouldn't expose their relationship as long as she studied hard.

"But in exchange, she had to show me good grades. She came to the storeroom every day for private tutoring with me. I mean, I was an educator, wasn't I?"

"But one day, rumors started spreading around the school that the girl was sleeping around.

"She couldn't bear the humiliation and killed herself. Later, the boy killed himself too.

"It caused a huge commotion. Lots of students watched from below as their bodies shattered into pieces."

Teacher Wang shut his eyes in pain, as if opening them would make him see that scene again.

"Where did they jump from?"

Mei Ye asked calmly.

"The roof of the Third Teaching Building."

"Let's go."

Mei Ye headed for the roof of the Third Teaching Building. The panicked principal and the grim-faced Director Wang followed him.

"This is the place. They jumped from right here."

On the rooftop, Teacher Wang pointed at the edge, his face desolate.

A breeze stirred Mei Ye's hair. Up high, far from the ground, it was easy for his thoughts to drift, to wander toward this and that.

Mei Ye couldn't help wondering what the young man and woman had been thinking before they died.

"It was all my fault." Teacher Wang lowered his head in anguish, his shoulders trembling. "I was their PE teacher. If I'd given them proper counseling sooner, this wouldn't have happened."

"Director Wang, as an educator, you've done a fine job. Haven't you helped nurture plenty of promising students over the years? It was just an accident."

The principal comfortingly patted Director Wang on the shoulder.

"That's a hurdle I'll never get over. Two young lives were lost just like that. I wish I were the one who'd died!"

Director Wang clutched his chest, his face full of remorse and pain.

Seeing this, the onlookers couldn't help but admire this senior teacher.

What a good teacher, truly devoted to his students!

"Then please, go and die."

A sudden, shocking voice rang out of nowhere.