Paper Illusion

Hearing the sudden sound, Zhou Bai sprang to his feet and looked toward where it had come from, only to see that the wall was completely intact.

But Zhou Bai did not relax in the slightest. The moment that sound rang out, a powerful stench suddenly filled the room, sending his vigilance soaring to its peak.

Rather than thinking of fighting immediately, Zhou Bai headed straight for his door, intending to open it and get out.

This was Donghua Dao School. If he had truly encountered some kind of monster, calling for help at once would be the strongest counterattack.

But when Zhou Bai reached out and pressed down on the doorknob, his heart jolted. The door was locked.

Without hesitation, Zhou Bai unleashed his Primordial Spirit Power. Strength sufficient to overturn a sedan slammed fiercely into the wooden door, yet with a deafening boom, the door remained standing in place without a scratch.

"Impossible! With the quality of this wooden door, my Primordial Spirit Power should have smashed through it instantly!"

Zhou Bai's eyes widened. Power erupted throughout his body; his bones trembled, his muscles twisted, and together with his Primordial Spirit Power, he rammed the door again.

With another thunderous crash, the door still did not budge, while his own body was nearly numbed by the recoil.

And logically, after making such a huge commotion, someone should have come by now.

Yet the entire room, even the corridor outside, remained utterly silent, as though his room had been cast into another world and completely severed from the outside.

Zhou Bai frowned as he surveyed the room.

This is trouble. A method like this is completely beyond what I can handle, isn't it? Li Xiuzhu, that guy is really unreliable. I just hope he's late, not standing me up.

Just then, the stench in the air grew thicker and thicker. Elsa suddenly began barking madly toward the bathroom door.

Zhou Bai snapped his gaze toward the bathroom. As students of Donghua Dao School, their food, clothing, housing, and transportation were all of excellent quality. Even each dorm room came with its own private bathroom.

But seeing Elsa suddenly bark like this, Zhou Bai could not help suspecting that something was hiding in there.

Just as that thought crossed his mind, a bang rang out.

The closed bathroom door shuddered.

"There's something inside!" Zhou Bai's heart lurched. He shouted at Christina, who was curled into a ball in his mind, "Stupid cat! Wake up! Something's very wrong here!"

But Christina did not react at all. She remained curled into a ball, floating inside Zhou Bai's mind.

Meanwhile, the bathroom door began to pound more and more urgently, each impact louder than the last, as if something were slamming against it, trying to come out of the bathroom.

Zhou Bai quickly pulled Elsa behind him. His brows knitted tightly as he considered his options.

"No. A method that can completely seal off my tiny room is too bizarre, far beyond my current level. Faced with something like this, I have no power to fight back at all..."

"Wait... no power to fight back." Zhou Bai narrowed his eyes. If the other side has a method like this, killing me would be as easy as slaughtering a pig. So why be so roundabout, banging this and that just to scare me? Why not simply kill me with a Dao technique?

Unless... he isn't as powerful as he appears right now.

As Zhou Bai gradually calmed down, his mind began reviewing what he had learned lately.

"All Dao techniques leave traces to follow."

Following the basic textbook's explanation, Zhou Bai tried to sense the changes in the surrounding Spiritual Machine.

Invisible, colorless ripples flickered in his eyes. When he looked over the room again, he immediately discovered that everything before him had been stained with a hazy layer of color.

"No..." Zhou Bai looked at Elsa and found not the slightest trace of Spiritual Machine on her. She looked just like an ordinary dog.

"Something's wrong. Could this... be an illusion?"

Remembering the illusion he had encountered during the second round of the entrance exam, Zhou Bai lay down directly on the floor to verify his judgment.

"Theoretically, it should already be past midnight. If I lie down, I should gain Laziness Qi Value, but..."

Zhou Bai looked at the completely motionless Laziness Qi Value on his panel, understanding dawning in his heart. So it really is all an illusion? I have to rely on the panel even to tell whether I've lain down or not. Looks like this is quite a powerful illusion.

Zhou Bai raised his brows. The basic textbook had also discussed illusion techniques.

"So-called illusions use Spiritual Machine to influence the body's five senses."

"Whether it is or not, I'll know once I test it."

Zhou Bai circulated his Primordial Spirit, controlling his Primordial Spirit Power as it spread outside his body. He immediately sensed something different.

Primordial Spirit Power could directly perceive Spiritual Machine.

As Zhou Bai used his Primordial Spirit Power to touch the surrounding matter, he immediately sensed the air brimming with vigorous Spiritual Machine, far surpassing the usual state of his room. It even directly distorted the perceptions of his Primordial Spirit Power.

"So it really is an illusion." Zhou Bai looked at the bathroom door, whose sounds were growing softer and softer. "Then all these tricks were deliberately meant to scare me?"

As he thought, Zhou Bai became increasingly composed. The bathroom door, which had been taking constant blows, gradually quieted down before finally stopping altogether.

Zhou Bai let out a breath. "Looks like I guessed right."

The next moment, Zhou Bai felt the entire world tremble. Amid wave after wave of shaking, he reflexively closed his eyes.

"Zhou Bai? Are you awake?"

Zhou Bai opened his eyes to find Li Xiuzhu standing before him, his face gloomy and his brows furrowed into a deep crease.

"You came?" Zhou Bai said. "I was pulled into an illusion just now. I..."

Li Xiuzhu said, "I know. I stopped the other party, so the illusion technique affecting you was dispelled."

"The other party? The one next door?"

Li Xiuzhu nodded. "More or less. Go take a look and you'll understand."

Zhou Bai froze slightly. The other man's mood seemed rather poor.

He walked out of his room and looked into the room next door. He saw that its door was now open, scarlet light spilling out and bathing Zhou Bai from head to toe in red.

Waves of foul stench rushed at him, finally making Zhou Bai understand the source of the earlier smell.

Upon entering the room, Zhou Bai saw that it was plastered from top to bottom with red talismans. Bright crimson bloodlight flickered across them, the source of that red glow.

But the most eye-catching sight was a young girl stuck to the wall.

The instant Zhou Bai saw her appearance, his heart gave a violent thump.

Her face was incomparably pale, white as a sheet of paper. From her neck downward, her skin grew whiter and whiter, until in the end it had become unnaturally white, as though she had been made entirely of paper.

Yet waves of intense stench continuously wafted from her body, like the reek of rot that had been left to fester for months.