Arc 21Chapters 517–542
No recap yet.
No recap yet.
Lin Yi was drawn into Painter No. 3’s Nameless Painting, where a vast, eye-like world and its whispers nearly trapped him before he escaped. After reading Painter No. 3’s warning in The Crime of Faceless, Lin Yi watched the paintings fade and glimpsed a figure resembling Liangzi in the final image.
Lin Yi struggled to explain why Painter No. 3’s old painting seemed to show Wei Liang, then encountered books filled with dangerous dreams and contamination in the Bookshelf Area. Jin Jiuyao later showed Lu Zhao a stack of blank books that Lin Yi had appeared to read, leaving Lu Zhao with a troubling clue.
Lu Zhao explained that the disappearing books were likely Edicts, or Yin-Yang Books, and suspected their information vanished as soon as the books were opened. As the group prepared to return to the Dormitory, Lin Yi considered using the books to learn more, but his plans were complicated by the dangerous Corridor and his remaining obligations.
As the abnormal rain intensified, Lin Yi prepared to leave the library and noticed Jin Jiuyao was trying to approach him for a book. Lin Yi engineered a book swap that gave Jin Jiuyao two books he wanted, while Jin Jiuyao and Chen Xue later wondered why the exchange had gone so smoothly.
Chen Xue was struck by a supernatural force after opening an old book, and the group reconsidered whether Lin Yi truly existed. Lin Yi left to meet Teacher Lin, while Chen Bing stayed behind to question Wei Liang and ended up knocking him down after he mistook her for Lin Yi.
Chen Bing returned from speaking with Wei Liang without learning anything useful, while Lu Zhao considered negotiating with the Head Teacher as the Campus’s distortions failed to reset. Lin Yi left the classroom and found himself surrounded by the Forest of the Dead’s Steles, which began chanting a corrupted version of his identity and location.
Lin Yi realized the Forest of the Dead's Steles was using a time vortex and his identity chant to anchor his location and infiltrate the classroom. He left Group B Class 2 and interrupted the Steles' chant with a different student's identity, though their attack had begun again around him.
Lin Yi escaped the Forest of the Dead's Steles by deceiving it with Song Rentou's identity, then sought refuge in Head Teacher 040's office. As Head Teacher 040 warned him about the dangers of returning to the Dormitory and asked about the four newcomers, Lin Yi wondered whether she had anticipated a conflict.
Lin Yi told Head Teacher 040 that Lu Zhao’s team was unstable because Jin Jiuyao, Chen Xue, and Chen Bing had all been contaminated, and he explained how his shadow may have brought Grinning Angels into the classroom. Head Teacher 040 considered how to give the four a chance to survive the Gray Fog Invasion, but ruled out pairing them with Lin Yi, who warned that they might die even faster with him.
Lin Yi left the Teaching Building with Wei Liang and Wei Shan to travel through the storm, relying on Wei Shan’s eerie umbrella and the Streetlamp Poles for safety. As they headed across the Campus, strange sounds and creatures followed them through the rain.
As Lin Yi, Wei Liang, and Wei Shan crossed the stormy campus, Grinning Angels began dragging Lin Yi into his shadow. Lin Yi realized their grasping arms were physical and summoned the Big Steel Saw to attack them.
Lin Yi escaped the Grinning Angels by sawing off the arms gripping his legs, then discovered his wounds could regenerate and that his saw had absorbed some supernatural power. He and Wei Shan and Wei Liang encountered the Forest of the Dead’s Steles surrounding Lu Zhao and his companions, and Wei Shan prepared the severed Grinning Angel arms to help them.
Lin Yi, Wei Shan, and Wei Liang approached the streetlamp pole surrounded by the Forest of the Dead's Steles, while Lu Zhao's group fled toward the Dormitory after a Grinning Angel targeted Chen Xue. The Steles turned toward Lin Yi's trio when Chen Xue shouted for help, leaving Lin Yi reaching for his weapons.
Lu Zhao and the others were caught in the Forest of the Dead’s Steles as its chanting impaired their minds, while a Grinning Angel’s shadow appeared behind Lu Zhao and Chen Xue. After Lu Zhao killed an Impersonator Classmate with a mystical Fire Axe, the survivors reached a streetlamp’s light, where Jin Jiuyao began muttering an unfamiliar word as the steles closed in.
Lin Yi, Wei Liang, and Wei Shan escaped through the Forest of the Dead's Steles by pretending they could not see it, then reached Chen Xue and Lu Zhao's group beneath a streetlamp. Lin Yi considered letting the four follow them, and a possible solution occurred to him.
Lin Yi led Lu Zhao, Jin Jiuyao, Chen Bing, and Chen Xue away from the Streetlamp Pole at Teaching Building-023, using a mystical-rune chain to guide them through the Forest of the Dead's Steles. They reached the Streetlamp Pole at Teaching Building-001, where Lin Yi ended the escort and refused to continue with them.
Lin Yi led Wei Liang and Wei Shan into the more dangerous Dormitory Building area while Chen Xue and her companions remained beneath a Streetlamp Pole, where the Grinning Angel trapped them in a deadly curse. As Lin Yi pressed on to rescue Maozi, Wei Liang began shutting down and the storm intensified, leaving their Umbrella close to failing.
Lin Yi and Wei Shan struggled through the storm toward the Dormitory Building, where Wei Shan discovered that the road had been stretched and Grinning Angels were emerging from Lin Yi’s shadow. Lin Yi realized Wei Liang’s unconscious state had removed a suppression on the Angels, and he fled with Wei Liang on his back as the danger closed in.
Lin Yi and Wei Shan raced toward the Dormitory Building while Grinning Angels and the Forest of the Dead's Steles closed in, only to find the supposed building was actually the enormous Forest of the Dead's Steles. As Lin Yi fought to cut through it, he recognized a connection between the Alien Angels, their physical sizes, and the Snake Nest.
Lin Yi escaped the Forest of the Dead's Steles with Wei Liang while Wei Shan stayed behind to hold off the creatures pursuing them. On the way to the Dormitory Building, a Proto-Type Ashes Apostle trapped Lin Yi and forced him to gouge out his eyes, after which he began to understand its fragmented words.
Lin Yi was nearly drawn into the Proto-Type Ashes Apostle’s grasp before the Convenience Store Owner rescued him and sent him back to the Dormitory with Wei Liang. Meanwhile, Mountain Man fled across campus in his Exoskeleton Armor, pursued by a Wrathful Angel and Grinning Angels, and faced an attack from the Wrathful Angel’s thrown staff.
Mountain Man escaped the Angel Sculptures only for the Security Guard to pursue him to the Campus boundary, where the school bus driver threw him off the bus. The chapter then returned to Lin Yi, who was riding a violently shaking elevator in the Dormitory Building with Wei Liang on his back.
Lin Yi reached the fourteenth floor and crossed the fog-filled corridor toward Dormitory Room 1414 while carrying the unresponsive Wei Liang. After distracting the impersonators with the Feather Pupil, Lin Yi checked on Wei Liang and heard him speak, leaving his condition uncertain.
Lin Yi and Wei Liang reached their dormitory, where Lin Yi discovered that his notebook had transformed its writing into ancient mystical runes. As Lin Yi showered, strange sensations and a voice calling his name emerged, while Tian Bufan, Wei Shan, and Kuai Hongji were still racing the dormitory curfew.
Lin Yi reunited with Tian Bufan, Wei Shan, and Kuai Hongji in the Dormitory and learned how they had survived the storm. Tian Bufan revealed that their group had come to Campus on a secret mission for the Authorities, but had only begun explaining the mission’s purpose when the chapter ended.