Changes on the Dark Side

At that moment, in another corner Mo Bai had failed to notice.

A girl with long pink-and-blue hair sat high above the academy's dark side, frowning at the student in the distance whose instincts were so sharp.

Mo Bai was the student the president had assigned her to monitor covertly at the academy.

Star Torch Academy drew talent from all across Solaris.

With so many people gathered there, it was also bound to harbor some with ill intentions.

Those people slipped into the academy under all kinds of identities, from students and orderlies to teachers and researchers.

The pink-and-blue-haired girl was an undercover agent the Remnant Star Society had planted among the students.

Why was she watching Mo Bai?

Like Lynae and the Rover, Mo Bai had stood out too much after fighting the Voidworm, drawing the attention of others.

The president had told the young undercover agent little else, merely ordering her to pay close attention to Mo Bai's abilities.

"His abilities are decent, at least. He held off the Holographic Six Impermanence Heron alone, and he even sensed me in a place like this..."

Sitting on a dilapidated academy rooftop, the girl spoke lazily, though a hint of wariness crept into her voice.

She had planned to use the chaos of the academy's Sonoro to get a little closer to him, but she had nearly been discovered instead.

"Looks like I'll have to watch from a distance from now on..."

The girl twirled a lock of hair beside her ear and decided to lie low for the time being.

Meanwhile, Mo Bai picked up the long strand of hair from the floor and held it out for the Divine Dogs to sniff.

"Whine..."

When both the black and white Divine Dogs shook their heads, Mo Bai knew they couldn't catch whoever it was now.

Either the space was too unstable, or the person had quickly moved beyond the Divine Dogs' search range after sensing danger.

Either way, I need to be more careful from now on...

With that thought, Mo Bai looked down the corridor, where desks and chairs lay scattered everywhere.

"Now that I know the Remnant Star Society is here, I need to get Moqu out first."

Mo Bai knew that getting word of the Remnant Star Society to people outside the academy mattered more than helping Moqu work through his troubles.

Fortunately, he could use the Ten Shadows Technique to pass through walls and quickly find the "Key."

He also hadn't been at the academy long, so he hadn't left behind enough negative emotions here to give rise to inner demons.

That meant he could move through the place unhindered.

"Great Serpent!"

"Hiss!"

Mo Bai had the Divine Dogs search for Moqu while he used the Great Serpent to charge through the corridors.

Elsewhere.

Like Mo Bai, Moqu found himself at a plaza resembling the academy's, though a closer look showed it was much messier.

He spotted a crowd not far away.

They had gathered around a temporary stage in the middle of the academy plaza.

More precisely, they were watching the person at the center of the stage.

That person was him.

After all, he was the only one at the academy who wore that distinctive pure-white coat.

At the sight, Moqu instinctively wanted to back away.

But then he remembered he had come here to face his past.

"It's only an illusion anyway. All that happened long ago..."

Muttering as if to encourage himself, Moqu walked forward.

As he remembered it, the audience hadn't applauded or smiled.

They had simply dispersed in silence after watching his performance.

It's fine. That just means my performance was boring at worst. It wasn't so bad it made them sick...

"Tch. That was awful."

!

Then Moqu heard the last thing he wanted to hear.

"Yeah. The performance was so over-the-top and abstract that we couldn't understand any of it."

"I heard that guy came from Rinascita, but we don't know the place at all. Who was supposed to get those jokes?"

"Exactly. And his weird take on those characters ruined how so many of them had been portrayed."

So... that's what the audience thought back then?

Moqu couldn't tell whether the complaints in his ears were merely noise conjured by the chaotic Sonoro.

Or whether they were real voices he simply hadn't noticed that day.

Just as he lowered his head, unwilling to look at the painful scene any longer, everyone in the crowd turned to look at him.

Back with Mo Bai.

After sweeping through the corridor for a while, Mo Bai realized something was wrong.

"Come back."

He recalled both Divine Dogs and the Great Serpent, then slowly sank his hand into the shadows.

Plop.

As before, he slipped into the shadows. After traveling what he thought was some distance within them, he surfaced again.

Whoosh.

But he found himself in the same corridor.

Am I going in circles?

Puzzled, Mo Bai looked out through the corridor windows.

From where he stood, the plaza outside looked normal.

Crash!

He smashed the glass and leaped out of the corridor.

Thud!

But in the blink of an eye, he found himself landing in that same corridor.

The window was broken where he had smashed it, yet the ceiling above him was untouched...

Did I return here in an instant?

Mo Bai went to the window again.

The view outside still hadn't changed.

I'm trapped. Was this the work of that Remnant Star Society agent?

What if I destroy the entire corridor?

With that thought, Mo Bai formed the hand sign to summon the Great Serpent again.

This time, he intended to pour in a massive amount of Cursed Energy at once and summon a Great Serpent big enough to burst the corridor apart.

"Great—"

Tap, tap, tap.

But just before Mo Bai could summon the Great Serpent, the Cursed Energy within him suddenly dropped.

He had stopped the summoning himself.

Because he had just heard footsteps.

Shuffle, shuffle.

This time, the footsteps were clearer, their rhythm more uneven.

They were coming from the classroom beside him.

No smashing down the door this time.

Mo Bai now knew for certain that something had trapped him, so he would be as cautious as possible.

Click!

He abruptly pulled open the classroom door.

Inside, he saw a... monster.

Beneath its red dress were eight legs, though its upper body looked no different from an ordinary woman's.

The moment Mo Bai stepped through the door, he found himself less than a meter from the thing.

More importantly, it...

"Good... evening..."

Seeing that Mo Bai had found it, the monster gave him an exaggerated grin that nearly stretched to its ears.

"Cursed Energy..."

As a sorcerer with a technique of his own, Mo Bai could clearly sense the Cursed Energy emanating from the monster.

Its twisted body and Cursed Energy brought only one thing to mind.

"A Cursed Spirit? Here?"

Mo Bai stared at the monster, his brows drawn tight.