Changes in the Magnetic Field

The moment he stepped into the containment force field, the noise from outside was completely cut off.

An eerie silence filled the campus. Besides the familiar scent of grass and trees, there was an increasingly thick, sickeningly sweet stench of blood.

Sunlight passed through the pale blue force field, casting everything in an unreal, cold hue.

"Spread out! Search enclosed buildings where people may be hiding first—the teaching buildings, library, cafeteria, gymnasium, and so on!"

"If you find survivors, guide them to the assembly point at the school gate! If you encounter a snake swarm, prioritize your own safety and call for support immediately! Move!"

Captain Wang's orders rang through the communications channel, crisp and decisive.

The team members quickly dispersed.

Hua Yin gripped the hilt of his Tang Blade tightly. The cool touch steadied his mind. He started forward, walking briskly in the direction he remembered.

This was his school. He knew every building and every path.

During his second year of high school, he had taken shortcuts to get to work faster, and had practically explored every secluded corner of the campus.

He knew the utility room in the old teaching building could hide people. He knew there was a blind spot behind the gym's equipment room.

He also knew that the warehouse in the activity center, where old costumes and props were stored, had a broken lock but a heavy door.

He chose to head for the activity center first.

Its location was relatively isolated and far from the main teaching building. Panicked students might instinctively run there.

The closer he got to the activity center, the more horrifying the traces on the ground became.

Scattered books, shoes trampled off people's feet, and... dragged bloodstains.

The bloody stench in the air was so thick it seemed impossible to disperse.

After turning the final corner, the low activity center building came into view.

Hua Yin paused.

The sight in the open space before the building made his pupils constrict.

Dozens of dark green snakes with white rings writhed together across the ground. They varied in thickness, and some were already nearly as thick as an adult's calf.

They were far from quiet, slithering about as if excited. And in the middle of the snake swarm...

Hua Yin saw several figures in school uniforms lying motionless. Their uniforms had been torn apart, and the exposed skin was an unnatural bluish-black. They were clearly no longer breathing.

More stomach-churning still, several of the thickest snakes were coiled around the corpses, their mouths open as they swallowed slowly and steadily...

They were not merely attacking. They were feeding.

These snakes had already added humans to their menu.

A cold fury mixed with indescribable disgust surged up from the depths of Hua Yin's heart.

He recalled the feeling of "hunger" coming from within his own body, but that had been a comparatively "pure" desire to devour.

The rotten stench and greed behind the feeding before him only repulsed him.

Hisss—

The snakes noticed him.

Several Nether-Ring Snakes closest to him, each about as thick as an arm, immediately raised their heads. Their cold vertical pupils locked onto Hua Yin, tongues flicking rapidly as their bodies arched into attack positions.

Without hesitation.

Hua Yin pushed off the ground and lunged forward, his Tang Blade carving a frigid arc through the air.

The blade swept precisely across the vital point of a snake lunging to bite him.

The special alloy edge, combined with the power of his late Meridian-Opening Realm cultivation, severed the snake's head without the slightest resistance!

Foul blood splattered everywhere.

But the snake swarm was not frightened off. Instead, the scent of blood seemed to stimulate them, and more snakes hissed as they surged forward!

Hua Yin's gaze turned icy, but his movements did not pause in the slightest.

His footwork was agile as he maneuvered through the limited open space. His Tang Blade chopped, slashed, swept, and stabbed. Every strike was simple and efficient, aimed directly at a snake's weak points—its head and neck.

He used no flashy sword techniques. He simply pushed the basic moves to their limit, combining them with reflexes and speed far beyond ordinary humans to unleash unmatched killing power.

Splat! Splat! Crack!

Foul blood continued to spray as severed snake bodies writhed on the ground.

His combat uniform was soon drenched in sticky blood and unidentifiable slime, with several droplets splashed across his face as well.

The foul stench rushed into his nostrils, but he did not even frown. He simply kept swinging his blade, clearing a path to the activity center's entrance.

He occasionally stepped on slick snake corpses, but his stance was exceptionally steady, and he did not slip.

A snake hidden beneath a corpse suddenly sprang up and bit toward his ankle!

Without even looking, Hua Yin pivoted on his left foot, half-turned, and chopped downward with a backhanded strike, pinning it dead to the ground.

In just two minutes, more than half the snakes in the open space before the activity building had been wiped out. The rest seemed to realize how dangerous this human was and hissed as they retreated into the surrounding shadows. Yet they still coiled nearby, unwilling to leave.

Hua Yin did not pursue them. Holding his blade, he stepped over the carnage and arrived before the activity center's heavy wooden doors.

There were scratch marks and impact marks on the door as well.

He pressed his ear against it. Inside, he seemed to hear extremely faint breathing and suppressed sobbing.

Then he reached out and pushed the door open.

The hinges let out a strained creak.

The door opened, revealing a dim interior piled with dusty clutter and hanging old theatrical costumes. The air was stale.

As light poured in, several brief, terrified screams suddenly rang out from a corner.

Hua Yin adjusted to the light and looked over.

Behind a makeshift barricade formed by several toppled old cabinets, seven or eight students were huddled together. There were boys and girls, every one of them pale-faced and trembling all over.

When they saw the figure at the door—a person covered in dark red blood, holding a dripping long blade and staring at them with cold eyes—the terror in their eyes reached its peak. Several girls clamped their hands over their mouths as tears streamed down their faces.

Hua Yin's gaze swept across them, pausing briefly on two faces.

They were former classmates. One was a girl who had sat diagonally in front of him, while the other was a boy who had occasionally been on the same team as him during PE class.

The way they looked at him now was as though they were staring at an asura crawling out of a blood pool in hell. Their eyes were full of unfamiliarity and terror; they had not recognized him at all.

At that moment, a faint emotion passed through Hua Yin's heart, one he did not examine too closely. Perhaps it was self-mockery. Perhaps it was indifference.

He restrained the killing intent naturally radiating from him after the battle and tried to make his voice steadier, though it still carried a hard chill.

"Special Affairs Bureau. It's temporarily safe outside. Stay close to me. I'll take you to the assembly point at the gate."

At the words "Special Affairs Bureau," the fear in the students' eyes eased slightly. But seeing Hua Yin's terrifying appearance, they still did not dare move.

Hua Yin said no more. He turned around, lowering the tip of his blade without sheathing it, his eyes warily scanning the remaining snakes outside.

"If you don't want to die, follow me now."

Perhaps his calmness affected them. Or perhaps their fear of the snake swarm outside outweighed their fear of him.

One boy shakily stood up first, then a second...

The two former classmates supported each other. Their eyes remained filled with uncertainty as they watched Hua Yin's back, but they finally started walking.

Hua Yin stepped out of the activity center first, holding his Tang Blade horizontally before him. His sharp gaze searched every corner where a snake might dart out.

The students followed tightly behind him, nearly stepping in his footprints. None of them even dared breathe loudly.

Just as they left the blood-soaked open space before the activity center, no one noticed.

A faint strand of pale green spiritual light, carrying an extremely cold aura, seeped from the wounds of the snakes Hua Yin had killed.

It flickered once like the dying flame of a candle, then silently merged into the air, traveling along the earth's veins...

Deep underground, inside an abandoned flood drainage tunnel.

The coiled dark green mother snake suddenly opened its ghostly green vertical pupils!

For the first time, intense emotion appeared in those cold eyes—the fury of offspring slaughtered and a mark being triggered!

It abruptly raised its enormous head, its tongue flicking madly as it caught the direction and aura of the death markers transmitted from afar, which only it could sense clearly.

A cold and violent spiritual pressure rose from its body, stirring the filthy air within the tunnel.

The next instant, its massive body moved!

It no longer coiled slowly. Instead, like a dark green arrow released from a bowstring, it shot into a thicker main drainage pipe and charged furiously toward the source of the marks—Youcheng No. 3 Middle School!

Its hard scales scraped against the concrete pipe walls, producing dull, terrifying sounds. Wherever it passed, insects and rats hiding in the darkness fled in panic. Those that failed to escape were mercilessly crushed and devoured.

Revenge—or rather, the instinct to hunt stronger prey—drove this clearly extraordinary mother snake straight toward the place where so many of its offspring had died.

Meanwhile, Hua Yin had just escorted the first group of students near the relatively safe assembly point and was preparing to turn back to continue searching when he seemed to sense something. His brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.

He seemed to feel the surrounding magnetic field being lightly plucked, like the string of a harp.

Something... was coming.

And it was very strong.