May 9, Year X023, the Gymnasium Annex, "Giant Dome."
Deep asleep, Lin Yi had a dream.
In his dream, he seemed to enter a thick jungle, both familiar and strange. It seemed to be the Wooded Belt on Campus, yet it was different, like a corner forgotten by the world, exuding a chilling air.
Light struggled through the overlapping layers of foliage, but it had already grown extremely dim, like a dying person's last breath, faint and powerless.
Every ray of light was like a prisoner being devoured by darkness, gradually fading as it struggled, leaving only mottled, barely perceptible patches of light and shadow on the ground. Those patches resembled specters hidden in the darkness, twisted and irregular, seemingly writhing uneasily with the occasional breeze.
The mist was like a gigantic, icy white snake, winding and coiling tightly around the entire Dense Forest.
It permeated every inch of space, heavy and damp, like miasma surging from the depths of hell.
Within the mist, everything became indistinct. The outlines of trees flickered in and out of sight like monsters baring their fangs and claws in the darkness.
Occasionally, the mist would briefly disperse a little, only to gather again rapidly, as though deliberately toying with intruders, mercilessly extinguishing that fleeting glimmer of hope.
The trees here seemed twisted by some evil power, their trunks bending at unnatural angles like limbs struggling in agony.
Their bark was rough and cracked, like deep wrinkles carved by time and suffering. Their branches stretched helplessly toward the sky like withered arms, yet also seemed to tug and tangle with one another in an endless struggle. Some withered yellow leaves still hung from the branches, ready to fall at any moment, rustling in the breeze like muffled whispers that involuntarily raised goosebumps.
Rapid currents of