At an unknown time.
Somewhere in Guixu, intermittent calls drifted through black fog as dense and heavy as yellow sand:
[Lin Yi, oh, Lin Yi-]
[Take us back-]
[You said-you would take us back-]
As the voices approached, a blurred figure slowly emerged, drifting through Guixu like a wraith.
It was none other than the Principal, whom the Mist-Speaker had transformed into a proto-type ashes apostle.
Around the proto-type ashes apostle, illusory spaces intersected to form a dreamlike network, and all manner of scenes appeared within the cells formed by that overlapping network-
The proto-type ashes apostle drifted ceaselessly. Gradually, gradually, no living creature knew whether the place where he was lay in Guixu, the Gray Fog Sea, or some other layer...
He continuously experienced all manner of events within the scenes in the grid. He seemed to enter the Campus at an unknown time and struggle against the Convenience Store Owner of that moment, then seemed to enter the Teaching Building and encounter Lin Yi as he had once been-
Again and again, he traveled, wandered, and lost his way-
Throughout this process, the Broken Sculptures' calls constantly echoed in his ears, those voices crying [Lin Yi, oh, Lin Yi-].
After an unknown stretch of time, he suddenly caught some strange thread within those calls. Following it, he slowly felt his way into a stretch of sea.
As he traveled this way, his consciousness gradually cleared.
"This-where is this-?"
Within that humanoid appearance composed of countless glass shards, traces of the Principal's lionlike face also faintly emerged.
He looked down at the sea below, where countless Streetlamp Poles bearing red-painted numbers floated like scallions in a pot.
This was precisely where Tian Bufan had built the anchor point platform.
He had finally found his way back.
"This is-the way