Sunday 11 November 2012

UL: Volume 2



This volume was brought to you by AnmesicCat, Masadeer, and Yeenie.
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Chapter 1 : School Starts!

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Location: Taiwan
Time: 6:20am

I received the school uniform on the last day of the school holiday.

It was white in color, with a tie half white-half blue. It also had a few stripes as decoration, and a couple of things such as badges, to differentiate the grades.

I've seen the school badge on senior's clothing before, but mine was a normal silvery blue school badge, whereas senior's one was a gleaming pure gold badge, making it look really cool.

Both the long sleeved, and short sleeved clothes were of the same color. The pants were the typical dark blue student pants, as well as a dark colored jacket. The whole design looked really neat. Compared to the other high schools, this one looked much nicer. As what my sis had said, the school might have spent a lot of money on just the design costs.

However, there was something I've found to be rather strange. Although the whole uniform set had arrived, but why was the sportswear missing?

"That's because sports clothing is an unnecessary item." Senior, who had already arrived one step ahead of me, was leisurely holding on to his lunchbox while sitting on the train station's waiting area. As soon as he saw my arrival, this was the first thing he said to me, "In the past it still existed, but it was abolished because the consumption rate was too high. For every class period, on average, a few pieces of clothing had to be replaced. As for the school uniform, it's still being used, since it will affect the school's reputation and integrity."

So this means, if the school didn't care about its reputation, the uniforms would have been abolished long ago too, correct?

"Morning, senior." Already being used to senior tapping into my mind, I picked a place on the other side of the bench to sit down.

"I've already said I have no interest in listening to your nonsense." Senior snorted and threw the lunchbox his was holding at me, "Take it."

"This is?" Opening the lunchbox, the inside was stuffed with a few sushi rolls. Since directly rushed out of my house, without eating my breakfast and, my tummy immediately started growling. Due to my ma not being able to wake up to make breakfast today, she asked me to buy something nearby to eat, however, I was rushing to the train station and forgot about it.

"Can't even discern if the thing is eatable, has your brain stopped functioning already?" Senior, whose mouth was still poisonous, said coldly.

Seemed like this was his treat for breakfast.

I automatically analysed his words. To be honest, I have not seen this food being sold anywhere nearby. The ingredients of the sushi rolls were nicely wrapped; there was shrimp and meat, and it looked really delicious.

"Senior..." Now, I was worried about one thing.

"What?"

"The fillings won't suddenly come back to life, will it?" I was very afraid that, while eating halfway, the shrimp will jump up, or the meat will combine together, turning back into a pig and rushing out. Towards a live zombie sushi, I can only say thanks, but no thanks.

"...Do you want me to kick you or beat you up?"

I felt that senior's leg was currently feeling itchy and was looking for something to kick, and that something was me, "Uh... pretend I didn't say anything."

Sometimes, humans tend to look for their own deaths. I can definitely comprehend the meaning of those words.

***

I felt a little strange, since one just needs to get hit by the train, and they will immediately arrive at the school. So why was the shuttle time written on the manual so early? Half past six.

"It's more likely to be vacant at this time." Crossing his arms, senior explained, "Every time the school arranges the shuttle time, they will first detect the right timing. Otherwise, it'll likely to cause a commotion if someone jumps down onto the train track everyday."

'So you guys realize this as well! And you guys would still go as far as to place the door anywhere you please!' This was the first thing that came to my mind.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay in campus?" Looking at the filled-up student information, senior asked, "It's almost filled up already, even if you regret it later, you won't be able to rent a room anymore."

I nodded, "The transportation is so convenient, even if I don't stay there it shouldn't matter, right?"

Senior revealed a sneer, "As you wish. Tong Lang."

A line of smoke drifted past my side, and in a blink of an eye, I saw that a small ghost child had already appeared in front of senior, floating in midair, "Morning, Black Robe." Then he saw me, "Morning, Chu Ming Yang."

"Uh, morning." Looking at the ghost child, I still felt rather nervous. In my head, there was always the scene where his mouth was large enough to able to swallow an elephant.

Apparently, the ghost child didn't have much of an interest in me, so he promptly turned his head towards senior, "What can I do for you?" He held his hands out, and his long sleeves were slightly floating about.

"I need your help to send this over." Senior handed the student data to the ghost child.

"Alright."

Then, my nightmare came to life. The ghost child opened his mouth, and using less than 0.1 seconds he swallowed the student information. His stomach led to another dimensional space.

"It has safely arrived at its destination." The ghost child answered after a few seconds.

"That will be all, thank you."

I heard the rumbling sound of the train entering the station and also saw senior standing up, so I knew our train had arrived.

"You are welcome, I wish you two a good day." Then the ghost child turned into smoke, floated past me, and disappeared.

Senior looked at me and smiled. "Let's go."

He said that, the moment the train was about to reach the place where the train stops.

It's time to hit the train.

***

Seriously, even if one already knew they won't die after getting hit by a train, the feeling was still very strange.

"Stop trembling, you better jump down right now!" Senior, who was standing behind me, saw me dilly-dallying, and finally gave me a kick from behind.

"Whoa!" I had yet to cover my eyes, when the train arrived in front of my eyes, and then it ran over me. It was a very intriguing feeling. Uh, it should be. I couldn't feel anything at all.

"Stop day dreaming." One punch on top of my head, and senior said, "We've arrived."

In less than a few seconds, after I'd refocused my eyes to see clearly, the huge school gates appeared right in front of me.

A really spectacular sight, indeed. The entire school gate was made of engraved stones, which were actually slightly transparent white jades. Along the edge of the opened round gates, were some strange words I wasn't able to read. And there were also the statues of white Elves.

Why was I was so sure that those were Elven statues? The reason was very simple, the statues have similar features to those snow-white Elves in the movies. There wasn't anything special about them at all.

About a dozen huge Elven statues were arranged at the left and right of the door, each holding on to Western-styled weapons, looking rather murderous. But then again, they also gave off a rather dreamy and comfortable feeling.

This was the first time I saw the school gates, because I fainted the last time, I was carried in, and wasn't able to see what they looked like.

"These are the gate guards." Senior said as an introduction, "If any problem occurs outside the walls, they will take care of it."

Staring at the Elf statues, I nodded.

Even if the statues really came to life, started chasing and murdering people, I think I definitely would not be surprised.

"Good morning, both of you."

Just as I was going to follow senior into the school, one person... I think it's a human, walked up to us.

So to say, the people here are all fluent in Mandarin? Each and every one of them spoke so fluently, without an accent.

The person had long and pale golden hair, slightly curled at the end, a foreigner's facial features (I don't know from which country), blue eyes and pale skin, looking kind of like some traditional type of Elf.

Incidentally, his ears were pointed, and he looked really good. Rather, very clean, making him seem quite like an Elf. Obviously, he was a male.

"Morning." After he finished his greeting, senior then turned around and introduced us, "This is Zachary Dilio, and I'm sure you won't be able to remember his full name, so if you are free you can go and ask him yourself."

His full name must be a really long string of words.

"I know this person, heard of him a few days ago." Just as senior wanted to introduced me, but the person, himself, spoke first, "You can just call me Zachary, nice to meet you, Yang Yang."

For some reason, my nickname was unknowingly spreading around in the school.

"Zachary is the head of the accounting department of the school."

I took one step back, eyes wide opened. 'He was the one who sent me the bill!?'

"Next time, please do not simply blast things in the human world, because the effort used to take care of it is much higher." Zachary patted my shoulder and said with a heavy tone, "Even before you've officially started attending school, you've already been sent a damages bill; you are the second one, right after him." He glanced at senior, who snorted with disdain.

Senior also blasted a park before?

"I'm not as idiotic as you to blow up a park!" One punch behind my head, senior growled at me.

"Ah, ah, about two or three days before school started, he went and battled with a level three Demon Spirit King alone, in the end, with one hit, he smashed the Vampire clan's important historical relic and base. He also had to alert the school's director to come forward to solve this problem, before the other end was willing to let it go." Smiling, Zachary crossed his arms, it seemed like he had a habit of prodding on another person's flaw, "But that Demon Spirit King was something with a high bounty in our society, so after deducting the compensation, he was still able to earn some money from it."

"Long winded." Senior impatiently glared at the head accountant, "Go back and count your money."

I looked at senior and then at Zachary, I kept feeling that these two people were quite familiar with each other.

"Ah, ah, youngsters should not have so much anger." Zachary smiled elegantly, "Well then, I still have things to do. Yang Yang, if there's anything you need, you can just come to the Accounting Department and find me."

"Okay, thank you." I immediately bent my head, as thanks.

When I looked up the second time, Zachary had already disappeared without a trace.

"You'd better off having fewer dealings with that guy." Senior, who was obviously in a bad mood due to having his exploit exposed, said with a lousy tone, "If there's no problem, don't go to the Accounting Department."

I guess I won't have any reason to go there?

***

Half past six.

I habitually looked at my watch, and then looked up. From the school gates, one would usually be able to see a big clock hanging at the top of the school hall. I wanted to compare the timing of the human world and this world.

"Don't look up!"

However, senior's warning was a little too late. The moment I looked up, I saw a big clock. That's right, it was a clock that sudden grew really big.

"Whoa!!"

The clock fell down, the clock fell down!!

The whole clock fell off from its frame, and I even saw its abnormally sharp edge. 'That's not right! When did I start looking at its edge, and for what reason!?' I felt my legs becoming weak, couldn't get away.

At that moment, I suddenly thought of one manhua where someone used the falling of a big clock to commit a murder, splitting the person in half. And now, it seemed like it was my turn to experience how it feels...

As I prepared to greet my grandma (who was always waving from the clouds), there was a force that suddenly pulled me backwards. The force was so great that I thought the person wanted to rip off my collar from behind.

Then, the big clock landed right in front of me, issued a loud noise, and it dented the ground, before getting stuck.

It was really huge, it was even taller than me.

"Are you an idiot!" Senior, who was the one who pulled me by my collar, withdrew his hands. Using his red eyes to glare at me as though he was looking at a retard, "Wasn't it written on the first page of the school manual that you're not supposed to lift your head to look at the clock?!"

Uh, I remember now, seems like there really was such a thing written there. Because the school's clock loved being admired, it wanted you to have an even better look...

I stared at the killer clock, half-inserted into the ground, right in front of my eyes. Damn it, this is really too clear!

Wait a moment. I... seemed to have seen the black numbers on top starting to wriggle around.

The black numbers with its white base, and at the top, the numbers were wriggling around like worms. Suddenly, the hour hand, minute hand, and second hand were chaotically flinging around, all tied into a bow at the middle.

'What kind of rotten clock is this?!'

"Stop day dreaming, you're still looking and not running away." Senior smacked me behind my head, issuing a warning.

'Run?'

Wasn't the clock already stuck in the ground...

...

I take back my words.

The narcissist clock, with its chaotically twisting numbers, was wriggling. Slowly, I saw it climbing upwards little by little from being stuck in the pit on the ground. Then, my hair followed suit and stood upright.

According to experience, when the clock finally climbs out...

"Hurry and run!"

Just as senior roared, that clock used less than half a second to suddenly bounce up from the pit and then it aimed its sharp edge at me.

"Whoa—!" A bright shiny object started chasing me.

Try imagining being chased by a big kitchen knife, probably it's that kind of feeling. I can feel the chill from the sharp edge of the killer clock, and also the terrible sound of its rapid rolling.

"Don't chase me, don't chase me!" Running in a hundred meter race early in the morning, my heart can't take this! But it's weird, why didn't it chase senior?

"Chu, come back here!" Senior who was still standing at his original spot yelled at me.

'Come back?' Not understanding why senior would ask that of me, I turned around and immediately rushed back towards the same spot.

The killer clock braked, turned around, and continued rolling behind me, chasing crazily.

I saw senior taking out a small little object, it looks like a little gem, probably about the size of a soybean. He then placed it on his palm, "Creature who formed a contract with me, allow the destroyer to witness your form."

Although the incantation senior chanted was not in Mandarin, but for some unknown reason, when I heard those words, and it entered my brain, I was able to understand the meaning of those words.

Just as I was using the fastest running speed I could muster in my life, the exact moment I ran past senior, I heard the sound of the killer clock suddenly stopping, with a very sharp "ga" sound.

When I turned my head, I saw senior holding onto an ancient Chinese spear.

There was some difference in comparison to the one made from explosive charm the other day, but generally, the style and shape was similar. However, this one was silver with many blood red totems and incantations printed on top; the whole thing looked extremely treacherous.

"This is an Illusionary Weapon, it is the most important thing we use during work." Holding on to the spear with one hand, senior threw a blue soybean... Uh, I mean a little blue gem to me.

I looked at the tiny object; it was as blue as the sea. In the middle, was a crystal, and there was an unreadable word written on top.

"Still not going back to your spot!" Using his spear to block the clock, senior growled. I obviously saw the killer clock shivered twice, then it swayed twice, very reluctant to go back, "I'll cleave you into two!" Last warning.

It turns out that clock also knows how to act accordingly depending on its opponent. The clock used less than one second to roll up, loosen itself, and then it bounced upwards. Very well behaved, hanging inside its own frame. I felt like I saw black lines covering the clock's face.

There was a black object that fell on the floor. I bent down and picked it up; it was a number "6", which seemed to have fallen off from the clock. It was constantly wiggling, which feels like I was holding onto a worm.

"That clock seemed to have a good impression on you." Senior said, after putting away his spear, "You can keep that object, it might come in handy in the future."

"Come in handy?" I looked suspiciously at the constantly wiggling number, with the sudden urge to break it into two.

"That clock is called Time Reversal. It was collected back from somewhere by the school directors, a rare, live clock."

I'd already paid a visit to the live clock, but I still followed senior's instruction. Taking out a pencil case from my backpack, I threw the number inside, "That's, if I was chopped by that clock... I most probably would have kicked the bucket, am I right?" I looked at the huge hacked out pit, very afraid that one day I would forget about this and lift my itchy head to look at the big clock again.

"Of course you would've kicked the bucket." Senior gave me an affirmation, "But don't worry, Tyre will greet you nicely."

I finally remembered why the name, during that phone call, was so familiar. It was actually the assistant's name, "No way!" Once the assistant was mentioned, I would recall long line of corpses. I definitely do not want to become one of them.

"Then you'd better learn what you ought to learn and well, or else you'll check in to meet Tyre very soon." Senior exuded an expression of someone waiting to watch a good show, and then he raised his leg and started heading towards the school building, "Hurry and keep up, I'll bring you to your classroom first."

I remembered the classrooms that were running around, so I resigned to my fate and followed to keep up. Just as I started to move away, I heard a strange sound. Turning around, I saw something I shouldn't have seen.

A part of the ground, with the big hacked out pit, suddenly started moving, as though there was an invisible hand pulling the skin of the ground. And then in less than a few seconds, the ground had unexpectedly healed itself.

Looks like, next time, I not only have to be careful of the live clock falling down from above and chopping people up, I also have to be careful of the ground below me, which might one day be in a bad mood and starts eating people...

***

"Basically, the classrooms will be in their usual spot in the morning, before the classes start."

Senior took me into a huge and broad campus, and went through several levels. We then arrived at a white building, words that I couldn't read were written on top of it. All around the buildings were similar huge Elven statues standing guard, as though they were protecting the school grounds.

He led me to the fourth floor, and since it was still early, the corridors were very quiet without a single trace sound, "When the students have all entered the classroom, only then will the school gates close and these classrooms will start to go for walks; depending on their mood." Senior walked for quite some distance before he stopped in front of a door.

If the classroom we chased the other day had to be described as going for a walk, I'll have no choice but to agree to the opinion...

"This is your main classroom."

The moment the door was opened, I seemed to have heard a very subtle and strange sound. I guess I was thinking too much, and immediately threw it at the back of my mind.

The inside of the classroom was very normal, exactly as I saw a few days ago, which was a typical classroom with tables and chairs, and there wasn't any extra strange decorations either.

I secretly sighed a breath of relief in my mind.

In fact, I was rather afraid that as soon as I opened the door, a Jurassic Park would be there waiting for me.

"For special classes, there will be a teacher to bring you guys over there in the beginning, so you don't need to worry. Also, after I've finished my classes, I'll come by to see if there're any problems. If there is anything you need, you can contact me with your cell phone." Entering the classroom, senior skillfully turned on the air conditioning.

After one second had passed, the entire classroom instantly cooled down.

Isn't this is too Godly?

This school's air-conditioning function is really good, such an energy saving and time saving component, I wonder if the students can request to order it?

On top of the desks, were our name tags. I immediately found the desk with my name written on it and then put my bag on the chair, "Senior won't be having classes here?" As soon as I asked the question, I felt I was asking nonsense.

Sure enough, I was given a cold glare, "I've to go to my own classes. It's impossible for me to be by your side 24/7." He crossed his arms and said, "A guide only lasts for a month from the start of the school, next month onwards, you'll have to get used to going to school by yourself."

...

I was speechless.

So this means that from the beginning of next month, I'll have to always be mentally prepared to enter the afterlife...

"If you are free, you should find Mikayla more often in order to practice using an Illusionary Weapon." Senior, who was totally aware of my thoughts, took out a piece of folded paper from his pocket and threw it to me, "Mikayla is an old student, who came from our school's lower grade, so she is fully aware of all the situations in this school. There are also quite a number old students who came from lower grade in your class, if you have time, ask your classmates for advice."

'Old students from lower grades? No wonder Miao Miao seemed so strong, completely different compared to me, who was an amateur.'

"Oh right senior, where is your classroom?" As soon as I discovered that senior will not continue to guide me after one month, I had a sense of panic.

Senior straighten his finger pointing above at the ceiling, "On top, second grade's division, it's very easy for you to find me." He smiled, but it was an unusual kind of smile, "Because in the whole second grade, I'm the only black robed one."

So to say, in the second grade's division I can simply grab anyone to ask where is the senior in black robe and I'll definitely be able to find him? It felt awfully amazing.

"You still remember how to use the explosive charm, right." Taking out two explosive charms, which I had previously turned it into a bomb, from his pocket. Senior gave me a warning look, "Stop thinking nonsense. You can hold on to these two first, so if you chance upon something again, you can use them to block for a while."

I took the explosive charms, feeling a little nervous. After all, I'd seen the enormous power of the bomb, so now it was equal to carrying two bombs with me, making me feel rather creeped out.

"Good morning!"

A vibrant voice was heard with the sound of the door opening, I saw Miao Miao standing outside the door, "Senior, Yang Yang, good morning." As usual, she was still smiling sweetly and cutely. She was wearing a girl's uniform which had a white base with red tie, matched with a kilt, looking very lively.

Senior nodded at her, "It's almost time for me to report back to my classroom. Have to trouble you to help take care of Chu."

"Of course." Miao Miao nodded firmly, and then bounced over to my side, "Miao Miao will get along well with Yang Yang, right."

"Nn." I nodded as well.

"Well, I'll see you later." Senior walked out of the classroom.

The classroom door closed.

"Yang Yang, what's that on your hand?" Attracted to the piece of paper I was holding, Miao Miao asked curiously.

It's only then that I remembered I have not read the paper senior had given to me. I quickly unfolded the piece of paper, and looked at what was written inside.

It was a piece of paper where a table with few rows of were drawn on it.

A piece of paper with the school's curriculum arranged nicely; even the days and the sessions have been well organized. On top, were also some notes which showed the courses that could be selected by grade one students.

The regular Mandarin words were written especially just for me to read.

"This is senior's timetable." Miao Miao looked at the neat rows of words, her eyes started shining brightly.

Looking at this detailed curriculum information; to be honest my eyes became a little blurry.

Does senior actually hate me? Or...?

Back to top
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Chapter 2 : Classmates

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Location: Taiwan
Time: 6:50am

"Yeah, senior gave you an Illusionary Weapon."

Miao Miao was soon attracted to the thing I was holding in my hand; the blue soybean. "Seems like this item is a water attributed one; it's really hard to find such a pure color."

I looked at the soybean in puzzlement, "There are differences? Could this be something senior doesn't need?"

"That's impossible, pure Illusionary Weapons get very high bids in the market. I do know senior has four pure colored weapons, but I've only seen him using an ice attributed weapon." Miao Miao explained, "Basically using an Illusionary Weapon is very taxing towards one's physical and mental strength, so not everyone can actually use them. Also, to use an Illusionary Weapon, one must first sign a contract with the elemental Elf before the weapon can materialize. Since senior gave you this, this means the weapon hasn't been used, because after signing a contract, it's impossible for a second person to use it."

Miao Miao's words made me rather confused.

In any case, summarizing it would mean that, this grain of soybean was new and has not been used before, and it's possible that this gem... correction, for this water elemental weapon, before I can use it, I'll have to first sign a contract with it. Let's keep it this way for now.

"Then how am I supposed to use this?" Playing with the blue soybean, I inquired curiously.

"Just like this." Miao Miao took a bean-like bead from the necklace on her neck, it has the color of one between yellow and green, just like that beautiful water color dipped inside a cup of water, "Creature who formed a contract with me, allow the learner to witness your form," In the middle of the two-colored bead, there was a similar text I was unable to read, and it slowly brightened up.

I saw the light, which was like a little sphere rapidly spinning inside the bead, slowly emerging.

And then as if it was a soft fabric, a palm sized little person slipped out and stood on top of Miao Miao's palm, "This is the Elf of my prairie element, Evening Flying Claw." Then with a 'poof', it disappeared in the air and returned into the bean bead, "If you want to conjure your Illusionary Weapon, you must first, set up a shape for it, and then use your blood to determine a contract. Only then will the Elf reply to sign a contract with you."

Set up a shape?

"How do I set it?" I looked at the blue bean, completely unable to understand how to use it.

Miao Miao said really clearly, but what I heard was really confusing.

"Use your mind to set it."

...

That's a really rotten and abstract answer.

However, talking about weapons, I would think of the spear senior had used, which had some transparent whitish part and red words printed on top. As expected, one look and one will be able to know it's something senior uses; even his weapon gives off such sharp and fine feeling.

Me, on the other hand, even the explosive charm would turn into a big black spherical bomb.

I've decided it'll be better if I do not use the Illusionary Weapon for now. Just in case, by any chance, my mind would think of a big blue water bomb. I think this time, senior would definitely directly strangle me to death, once and for all.

"Yang Yang, there is an expert in handling Illusionary Weapons in our class, when he arrives, I will introduce you guys to each other." When Miao Miao saw I was rather reluctant to use it, she patted my back while smiling, "The usage of an Illusionary Weapon is harder to learn compared to an explosive charm. There's no one who knows how to use them from the start."

I knew she was trying to comfort me. "I understand, thank you." There was no need to talk about Illusionary Weapon, when I couldn't even properly use an explosive charm.

Just as the both of us, each have our own understanding of the bean, the classroom's door opened with a 'swish' sound.

A Four-eyed Frog came in.

* * *


"Morning."

The Four-eyed Frog spoke first.

The Four-eyed Frog was wearing black-rimmed glasses. Similar to me, he had black hair, black eyes, and there was nothing special about his looks. His bangs was covering half of his eyes, looking rather gloomy. He gave off a feeling like those legendary, extremely smart and keen nerds.

"Chifuyu, morning." Miao Miao obviously knew this glasses guy, as she happily beckoned to him, "This is Yang Yang, the new student who didn't come to report to class the other day."

After putting his bag at his seat, the glasses guy slowly walked over and then stood beside us and started sizing me up, "The new student whose guide is that black robe?" A rather shocked expression was revealed behind that thick glasses, "And I thought it will be some really powerful guy, but he really doesn't look like much."

I'm sorry, I've always never looked like much.

"Hello classmate, I'm Chu Ming Yang, nice to meet you." In order not to break my image in the class, I'd better greet him first, "This is the first time I'm entering this school. In the past I've never come to... uh, this world before, therefore I would most probably be troubling you guys in the future."

"Yang Yang is completely new in this, he only found out about our matter after enrolling here." Miao Miao stood beside me and helped me to explain, "Oh right, what is Ryan's transportation schedule? Senior gave Yang Yang an Illusionary Weapon. I want to ask Ryan to teach Yang Yang how to use it."

"Ryan has work today and will be coming in late." After he answered Miao Miao, the glasses guy turned his head back towards me, and this time his interest in me had significantly increased, "Hello, I'm Chifuyu, Yukino Chifuyu."

That's a pretty long name, "Yukino?" At first I thought he had the same origin as I.

"Chifuyu's hometown is Japan, and his family name was still being used even till now, but he is currently staying at a place thousands of miles away from there." For some reason, Miao Miao seemed to be extremely happy, "Their family had recently started to invest into jobs similar to ours. Chifuyu is the fourth generation."

So he also has a family background.

I suddenly felt that I couldn't mix with these people, because everyone already knew of this school long before he did; it's only me who was an amateur, who had somehow rushed in here courting death.

"Don't worry, all the courses in this school are taught from scratch. If you have the potential to be picked by this school, you will definitely be able to learn these things." Chifuyu said to me, his tone was a little flat but it was fairly gentle, he should be someone who was easy to get along with, "You'll get to meet Ryan later on. Ryan enrolled in this school during primary, in the past he was just like you; he couldn't understand what's going on. Now, he is regarded as a freshman who is highly proficient in using Illusionary Weapons. Many students from higher grades and even teachers would ask him questions regarding this area."

After he said that, I felt a little more relieved. After all, the senior, who was acting as my guide, was awfully strong, making me feel really frightened.

Now that I'd heard there were people like me, who suddenly entered the school and became strong, for some reason this really made me feel relieved, "I still do not really understand this school..."

"Yang Yang, you don't have to worry about dying." Miao Miao immediately saw through my concerns, "Haven't you already met Assistant Tyre? Even if you died inside this school, the medical team will immediately resurrect you."

Resurrect? Now that she mentioned it, I seemed to have heard senior saying the same thing.

"The mortality rate of this school is really high, but there has not been any real death." Pulling out a notebook, Chifuyu flipped through a few pages, "I've heard that when this school was created, the directors had already made a contract with all walks of life, as long as the person died in school, he or she can make a complete resurrection. However, this is only limited to inside the school grounds. So if you died outside the school, there's no way to save you."

"Yeah?" Then the long queue in the corridor I've seen before... were actually waiting to be resurrected?

Chifuyu lent me his notebook to have a look at it, "The current medical team members are all from the Phoenix Clan; having the ability to bring the dead back to life. I've also heard that someone as powerful as Assistant Tyre, even if you went out of the school perimeter and wasn't protected by the contract, as long as you didn't die too outrageously until even your ashes cannot be found, he could still revive you within a certain time limit."

I flipped through the notebook. Sure enough, there was a part which has records of the things regarding the health care center.

That wooly aborigine was actually very powerful. I absolutely had no way of matching that person with his ability.

"Miao Miao is also a part of the medical team, oh!" At one side Miao Miao suddenly raised her hand and chipped in, "Yang Yang, I can immediately help to treat you, too."

Medical team? Isn't that supposed to be the Phoenix clan.

"You're in the medical team... someone from the Phoenix Clan?" I looked at her suspiciously, and she nodded her head firmly, "Your family mount is a big cat?" Miao Miao nodded again.

I didn't continue to ask questions. What I wanted to say was, your family is White Cat King's source of food? Actually rearing birds and cats together!?

"I can tell you the reason for this." The glasses guy pushed back his glasses, issuing a sharp glint, "Thousands of years ago, the Cat King ate a member of the Phoenix Clan, and thus was cursed by the Phoenix. So now you can see a cat running around with a bird riding on top."

So that's what happened! This was the end result of having an itchy mouth.

"I'm good friends with Suya!" Miao Miao started chasing and beating the glasses guy.

Just as the two of them were fooling around, for some reason I suddenly felt a chill behind me, a coldness that felt like pieces of ice were being smashed behind my head.

Of course, if there were pieces of ice almost crashing into you, would you not avoid it? My answer is: If it's me, I'll definitely avoid it!

So I immediately tilted my head reflexively to avoid it, regardless of whether there really were pieces of ice behind me.

Then I saw a hand, to say it more accurately, it was not a human's hand, but was some sort of beast's claw and it was horribly almost as big as my head.

"Whoa!!"

Hearing my cry, Miao Miao and Chifuyu, who were originally still fooling around, stopped at the same time, "Yang Yang!" Miao Miao was the first one to rush towards me and pulled me away.

Turning back, I saw that the claw did not belong to a beast but a person.

A person who looked around the same age as me, wearing a student's uniform but he gave off a feeling of a gangster, the uniform was also worn casually, and he was even wearing flip-flops.

I suspected he was same type of people as those visitors who came to Taiwan wearing Hawaii shirts.

* * *


"Morning, fellow students."

The person wearing the flip-flops opened his mouth with a gangster-like accent; he was also chewing on something that might have been a chewing gum. His short, strange, and bright multi-colored hair was combed upwards, held up with hairspray.

Looking at it, it was a very... indescribable wonder. The beast claw was stuck on his hand.

'He's not a human!?'

This was the only recognition in my confused mind. He was a beast man... Feels like an adjective to insult someone.

"School gangster." It was very obvious that Chifuyu did not have any good impression on this colorful rooster head. To be truthful, it was also the same for me. Then, I fully experienced the feeling of what senior had said about Class C being the last class.

"Nerd, are you courting death?!" The five-colored rooster head became angry. I saw his beast-like hand shaking for a moment, just as though the muscles were being twisted, and then after a few seconds, it shrunk and turned into a human hand.

"Towards someone who attacked first, I have a very good reason to return the favour." Chifuyu who totally disliked him was clearly being provocative. He didn't act like his calm and well-behaved glasses guy appearance.

I currently wanted to run out of this classroom.

"If you want to fight, then come on!"

"Who's afraid of you."

In my entire life, I think I was the most courageous at this moment.

"Don't fight!" I rushed in between the two of them who were going to go at it at any moment and forcefully shut my eyes.

What are we going to do if the guys started fighting, turned the classroom's mood sour, and it might just decide to drag us out and grind us!

I'd rather resurrect after being blasted by two people, rather than resurrect after being crushed into pieces by the classroom.

When the glasses guy and the five-colored rooster head saw me rushing in, both of them were stunned for a moment, the two of them did not make any move.

"Even someone who doesn't know cigam knows that one should not fight in the classroom... If you guys want to fight go outside and fight. At most you will be considered as an intruder and be removed by the guard." A leisurely voice floated over from the other side.

Not knowing when the fifth person had appeared inside the classroom.

It was a girl with very long hair. The length of her hair was up to her thighs. Her hair was brown with a pair of beautiful brown eyes; looking like the quiet type of girl. Her hair was fine and straight. As she moved, faint waves were created, "If you want to continue fighting, as the class rep, I will not sit by idly."

Class rep?

Seemed like on the day of the orientation, which I've missed, even the student body had already been chosen.

"Olivia, good morning." Miao Miao greeted the class rep.

The five-colored rooster head snorted loudly and obediently walked back to his seat. I think he was very afraid of the class rep in certain aspects, so he didn't dare utter a word of complaint.

"Good morning, Miao Miao, Chifuyu, and also Yang Yang." The girl, who was addressed as Olivia, revealed a pretty and elegant smile, making one feel very comfortable, "Yang Yang, you didn't make it the other day, so you wouldn't know. I'm the class rep of Class C, Olivia Skien. If you encounter any problem in class, you can come to me."

"Alright, thank you." I hastened to remember the name of the class rep.

"Yang Yang, you have a cell phone right?" Olivia snapped her fingers and in an instant, I saw a cell phone appearing in her hands. For some reason the cell phone looked really familiar.

'Isn't that my cell phone?!'

"Miao Miao also wants to enter!" Bouncing over to Olivia's side, Miao Miao kept saying she wanted to input her number into my phone.

Nn, how should I put this... Seems like my classmates are really very unorthodox.

"By the way, enter Ryan's and my number in, too. It'll be useful for you." Chifuyu said and then he went back to his seat. His seat was a few rows away from the five-colored rooster head, both of them glared at each other from time to time.

"I've helped you guys to enter your numbers already. Yang Yang if you have any problems, you can look for us directly. We will try our best to help you out." Olivia said and smiled at me, making me feel very comfortable.

In fact, that cell phone is not mine... And also it has not been charged for a very long time.

Talking about this, I suddenly thought that if senior will keep on lending it to me, I should go and buy a charger first. Or else, one day, in a life or death situation, it might suddenly ran out of battery, and that would be really unlucky right?

According to my degree of bad luck during the previous years, this was very likely to happen. After the few of them had played with it for a while, Olivia snapped her fingers again and then the cell phone disappeared.

Inside my pocket, I felt the cell phone had automatically returned to my side. This trick is very useful. I think I would really want to learn it.

After seven o'clock, the students came one after another, but acted very differently compared to Chifuyu, Miao Miao, and the others who were very warm. Most of them arrived and without greeting anyone, heading straight for their seats, and minding their own business. I also didn't want to bother the others. After she had finished her greeting, Miao Miao also went back to her seat.

I noticed that there was a white cat on Miao Miao's seat. Nn... it shouldn't be the same one as the one I'm thinking of?

The number of students in this class was considered very few, at least it was fewer in numbers compared to the class I was studying at during my previous school. My previous class had fifty-five students, and so far this class had fewer than twenty people. Also, there were a lot of empty seats; seems like there were still a lot of people who were either late or had already died outside...

The class was very quiet. In fact, it's so quiet that it has reached a certain something called as horrifying extent.

And I felt that this class seemed to have some kind of murderous feeling to it, to put it simply, I felt the class doesn't seemed to be as easy to get along as I'd imagine. A lot of them were privately glaring at one another, as though they were ready to fight at any moment.

Turns out, this situation does not only apply for only Chifuyu and the five-colored rooster head. Especially the five-colored rooster head, he was obviously hated by many people. They were glaring at him throughout the entire classroom.

"You are the student who didn't arrive the other day, right?" The student in front of my seat turned around. He was around the same age as me, a short curly-haired foreigner with blond hair and blue eyes, had a rather rounded face with some freckles, but felt easy to get along with, "You'd better not get involved with the one with spiky colorful hair, he has a bad reputation in our world."

'Bad reputation?' I suddenly thought of the beast claw from just now, "A gangster?"

Both of us lowered our voice considerably, only allowing each other to hear what had been said.

"It's a lot worse than that." The round faced teenager said, "His family does assassination jobs. As long as there is money, they will betray their skills to kill. So a lot of people look down on them."

'Assassination?'

At that moment, in my mind was the five-colored rooster head wearing Japanese ninja clothing, while walking on the wall looking really awkward.

I think it should look really like a colorful sphere glowing in the dark.

* * *


With a 'swish' sound the door was pulled open.

A man came in. A man whom I think was not a student.

"Dear students, good morning."

Looks like it's the teacher, the student in front of me quickly turned back, and then all around the students, who were each doing their own things, looked up front.

He's a very tall guy; I guess he must be over 200 centimeters, his head was almost touching the ceiling. He has the height very useful for a game of basketball.

"Looks like today there are still a lot of students who are late." Looking at the one-third of the seats that were empty, the teacher exhaled.

He looked rather wild and rough, also had a foreigner's facial features. With a rather robust build, he should be the type who works out regularly. He was bald, that naked head, which gives off a sharp glint, had some strange black totems on it; he was wearing punk styled clothing, giving off a feeling as if he was some kind of high level person in the underground world, the type of experienced fighter where one punch from him would kill off a bunch of people. And he's also an African American.

I finally found out something was not right. If senior and Miao Miao used Mandarin to converse with me, I'm still able to understand that, but just now when I was conversing with Olivia, whom I've yet to get acquainted with, and also that round faced classmate, I had also understood what they had said, making it feel rather weird.

I carefully looked at the lips of the teacher who was on the stage. I was right, he wasn't speaking in Mandarin, but I can actually understand him.

"I believed all of you have seen me before on the first day, I will be your homeroom teacher whom you will be seeing until the day of your graduation. I'll be seeing you guys every morning on early self study day. Those of you, who came from the lower grade and have a bad record, better take note of it. I'll also be paying careful attention of you guys, if you want to do anything funny, then do it outside of school. Even if you died while fighting, there will not be anyone who would care about it. You are prohibited to fight in class or school grounds, wasting the medical team's resources!"

Speaking in such an imposing manner, the homeroom teacher left such harsh sentences on the first day of school, "Don't think of challenging your teacher. You should all know that your teacher is not an object you can challenge, but after you guys have qualified as a black robe or grew some hair after graduation, you will be very welcomed by your teacher to come back anytime to gunny sack me for revenge."

'Whoa... he is a weird teacher. Not only is he bald, but he also wished for his students to come back and beat him up.'

"If there are no problems, then that's all for today." The homeroom teacher clapped his hands; a very loud sound echoed around the classroom, "Incidentally, your teacher is also teaching "Study of Outside Kind". Those who chose this elective, you have a dog's luck, but those who didn't choose this, you had better take note of this. How dare you not choose your teacher's elective? You'd better watch out!"

I was feeling very scared, because I didn't write his course in my list of electives. No matter how I looked at it, the name of the course felt like it's a course for researching aliens, who would want to choose that?!

"Teacher." Miao Miao raised her hand, and stood up after the teacher had nodded, "I'm very sorry I did not choose your subject."

'Miao Miao! Aren't you being too honest!?'

The homeroom teacher narrowed his eyes and stared at Miao Miao for a long time, "You are part of the medical team, and medical team has additional lessons for Study of Outside Kind, so teacher will let you off."

"Thank you teacher." Miao Miao happily sat down.

This time, it was Chifuyu who raised his hand. Now I suspect that these guys were deliberately looking for trouble with the teacher because just now the teacher's cough sounded too unnatural.

"I didn't choose that elective too." Very neat and clean, the glasses guy pushed his glasses back issuing a glaring reflection with a 'ting' sound, "The classes for Study of Outside Kind and Mantra clashes, and I think we should start from the basic Mantra first. Anyway it's not too late to learn Study of Outside Kind in our second year."

It was very obvious that Chifuyu was challenging the teacher. The glasses guy looked like someone who is easily pissed, but his expression didn't change at all.

"You are the fourth generation of Yukino Clan right." Surprisingly, the homeroom teacher wasn't angry, and he even grinned, "Yukino Clan is a strange clan who is dedicated to using their brains and not their body."

...

Now, it's the teacher and student provoking one another.

I dearly wish to hold onto my head and scream. What's with this stormy atmosphere?!

"From the beginning of the first generation, the number of people coming to our Yukino Clan with their problems has already far exceeded the number of students in this school. Let's hope that there won't be a day where teacher will be requesting help from Yukino Clan." Immediately snapping back a reply, Chifuyu pushed back his glasses and then he lazily sat down.

The teacher shrugged, he didn't seem to take any offense. But from their conversation, it made me think that Chifuyu's household should be somewhat similar to a library, because many people will go to his family to solve their problems.

"Well then, let us all welcome the future chief of the Yukino Clan as a fellow student in our class. Next time if you all have any problems, you can go and ask Yukino, and he will give you the answer." The teacher started clapping his hands, and the students below sporadically followed and clapped.

"There's nothing remarkable about Yukino Clan, who still lost to our Rogeria Clan." The five-colored rooster head snorted disdainfully.

Oh, seems like their family had been an adversary for a long time, I totally understand now, why the both of them had a mutual dislike towards each other.

"That's enough the both of you." The teacher clapped his hands once again, the sound pressuring over the both of them, "Class C has always been the hardest to settle, now that your teacher has seen it, I also felt that this is true. But not to worry, your teacher will not show any weakness, every one of you let's unleash your youthful vitality! Yeah!" He clenched his fist and raised it towards the ceiling, only lacking in the fact that he wasn't running towards the setting sun.

...

Yeah, your freaking head. This teacher is mad.

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Chapter 3 : Ryan

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Location: Atlantis
Time: 9:00am

"Ryan is a weirdo."

Around nine o'clock in the morning, since it was the first day of school, there were no classes. As soon as the clock struck twelve, the students were allowed to go home. So this period was free time, which allowed students to have a look at their elective classrooms.

Miao Miao and Chifuyu, who were very familiar with this place, dragged me through a few corridors, and then we entered the students' restaurant.

The restaurant was very huge, so huge that a few thousand students could easily fit inside it. It's much larger compared to my previous school's field. All around, students could be seen idling and chatting.

The decorations inside were rather strange; it felt like a tropical rainforest greenhouse, surrounded by tropical plants. There were even chameleons crawling on top of the transparent high ceiling.

In the middle of the restaurant was a large pool fountain, and in the middle of the pond was an extremely beautiful and lifelike sculpture of a mermaid.

Miao Miao and Chifuyu sat down somewhere near the fountain.

"Sometimes when we don't talk to him, he would start floating, like a will-o-the-wisp and ignore you. But if he likes you, he will become very talkative." Taking advantage of Chifuyu's absence when he left to get food, Miao Miao said, "But he is quite easy to get along with, so you don't have to worry too much, Yang Yang."

Someone who floats like a will-o-the-wisp and easy to get along with? I'm feeling doubtful, extremely doubtful.

"Chifuyu and Ryan are good friends, and also good partners. If you have any questions, you can ask them, they will answer you." Miao Miao added another sentence.

Speaking of Chifuyu, in fact I was rather curious about the conflict that happened earlier, "I would like to ask if Yukino Clan and the five-coloured... No, I mean and the Whosever Clan had some kind of dispute?" I almost blurted the five-coloured rooster head's nickname. If they really had a bad past, then next time I cannot just rush in to stop them anymore; it's rather scary.

Sometimes, when people are more ignorant, they would have a happier life.

"Someone already told you that." Miao Miao raised her eyebrows, and after confirming her friend was currently still getting his food, she turned around with a serious look, "You'd better not mention this in front of Chifuyu, he will get mad."

I nodded, he even dared to challenge the teacher, so I understand the good intention of Miao Miao's warning, "I understand."

Miao Miao sat upright, and exhaled, "Chifuyu is from Yukino Clan, a clan that deals with prophecies. According to his family's legend, in the ancient times, they were the descendents of God, but as for which God, due to this being someone's family secret, just wait till Chifuyu is willing to tell you and he will naturally do so."

A Clan descended from a God and deals with prophecies? I found it really hard to associate the nerd with thick glasses together with these terms.

"And then the guy who looks like a juvenile delinquent is from Rogeria Clan, a clan extremely notorious for work in assassination."

A family which deals with prophecy and a clan of assassins? Wait a minute, I felt like I just touched some clue.

"Could it be because...?" According to the plots in manhuas and light novels, there was only one reason why the both of them are against each other.

Miao Miao nodded heavily, "Chifuyu's grandfather was killed by that juvenile delinquent's dad. Because there was a politician who issued a godly price for the assassination of his grandfather, their clan accepted the job."

It's indeed a family grudge.

"Miao Miao, come over here to help me carry some back." From far away, Chifuyu cried out and then Miao Miao replied yes and immediately bounced over there.

The kitchen table that issued food was quite a distance away from here, if it was me, I would have to start running a meter race. But Miao Miao had already appeared beside Chifuyu in the blink of an eye.

Looks like they ordered a lot of things. I'm a little worried about my wallet, although I had just received a rather high income.

Honestly, I did not dare to let my mom know I had some money. Otherwise, she will pressure me for the truth and then after she learns the truth, she won't be able to take it and will do something unimaginable. I shivered at the thought.

I saw the two of them holding on to food stacked up higher than mountains, and immediately stood up, thinking of going over and helping them, when I noticed there was a strange sight.

There was something wrong with the mermaid sculpture!

This discovery was like a siren that resounded directly in my mind. In order to test and see if I was right, I jumped one step to the left, and mermaid's eyeball suddenly turned to the left, I jumped to the right, she turned to the right.

That's scary. It frightened me to no end...

I immediately tried to recall if there was anything written about the mermaid in the school manual.

Just as I was digging through my mind and found nothing, I saw a chameleon that was supposed to be on top of the ceiling, falling down directly on top of the mermaid's head.

A horrible thing happened. The mermaid suddenly widened her white sculptured eyes, opened her mouth, and she swallowed the chameleon. It all happened in less than two seconds. It felt like I had just watched a short clip of a man-eating flower swallowing its prey.

Why does the sculpture have teeth!? And also, very sharp and pointed beast-like teeth!

* * *


I heard someone beside me saying, "Spit it out."

"Spit it out, or else don't blame me for what I'm going to do next." There was one guy standing behind me, using a gloomy tone to talk to the mermaid sculpture.

He looked a little like a tramp, and for some reason his new uniform had turned into a lump of crushed pickles on his body. It's a completely new uniform!

Middle length grayish blue hair was scattered all over his body; in total disorder without being arranged properly, covering half of his face. Although I'm unable to see his face, I can vaguely see some grayish blue colour penetrating through his hair, sharply glaring at the mermaid sculpture.

A tramp, a tramp appearing inside the school!? It's not a worker right?

The tramp glared at the mermaid who refused to spit out the chameleon. This reminded me of the relationship between a nepenthes and a fly.

"Creature who formed a contract with me, devourer to witness your valor."

I saw the tramp taking out his illusionary bean in less than one second, not intending to continue negotiating with the mermaid sculpture.

In some ways, this type of threatening and impulsive character was really similar to a certain someone I know!

It was a black illusionary weapon, I couldn't tell what strange element it was, then the tramp firmly held on to the knife which separated into a two knives. The two knives were mysteriously black, and on top was engraved with paintings of gold totems and lines.

As soon as she saw the tramp taking out his weapons, the mermaid sculpture immediately opened her mouth and spat out the chameleon, and with a dong sound, the chameleon, who was totally confused and didn't realize it was almost got digested, fell onto the side of the pool and quickly ran away.

Only then did the tramp sheath his weapons.

"Last time it was a dolphin sculpture, now it became a mermaid sculpture, who was the one who smashed the dolphin?"

He seemed to be talking to himself, and the topic he was talking about was something I felt I couldn't contribute towards.

The tramp turned around, the upper half of his face was covered by his hair, but I was pretty sure he was inspecting me, so I started inspecting him too.

He was a very tall person, probably one head taller than me. Should be about a hundred and eighty centimeters, right? He hunched his back a little, and his completely messy hair looked rather dirty. The supposedly new uniform was crumpled really badly just like marinated pickles, the very disgusting kind at that.

Looking at his overall appearance, I only had one conclusion: He is still a tramp.

Both of us had finish inspecting one another, and the tramp spoke first, "Looking at your badge, you are a student from Class C?"

Truthfully, after hearing "Class C" for such a long time, it's really starting to sound like some sort of nickname to western cowboys.

"Uhh, that's right." I actually wanted to see which class he was from, but he only wore the grade badge and not the class badge, so there was no way to tell.

The tramp suddenly stretched out his hands, and before I had the chance to escape, he heavily put both his hands on my shoulders, "Hello, fellow classmate."

'Huh? Classmate?'

There's even a tramp in our classroom, this is extremely phenomenal.

"I never thought I would encounter someone from my class so quickly, just now I went to the classroom, and there wasn't even half a person inside. Just in time, let's go and eat together." He said, without waiting for my reply, he grabbed my collar and dragged me in the other direction.

The tramp was really strong! For a moment, I was almost strangled to death by the tightening of my collar.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait... my friends..." Far away, I saw Chifuyu and Miao Miao holding on to the food and was on their way back, but I was being dragged further and further away. The tramp apparently had his ears covered by his hair and couldn't hear what I said. I was then dragged out of the restaurant this way.

Wait a moment, wasn't he going to eat!?

"Where are you going?!" I grabbed onto my collar to stop myself from being strangled to death, and when I could finally let a word in, I asked the question, terrified.

Only to see the tramp walking in front, slightly turned his head back and lifted his hand. It's only then that I noticed he was holding on to a big paper box with the restaurant's name. It should be something he got from the restaurant, "Go and find a place with a scenic view and a positive atmosphere to eat."

Scenic view and positive atmosphere! It's not like I'm your underling! At the moment, I wanted to scream for help.

But then again, if a guy was dragged by another guy (and both were classmates) and then starts screaming for help while not being able to break free, it would be really humiliating.

"We've arrived."

After walking for some time, my collar was abruptly released. I immediately stood upright and then started looking around.

If I knew earlier, I wouldn't have looked.

"Whoaaahhh—!!"

He brought me into a cemetery.

* * *


"Damn~noisy~"

A very dragged out voice, a combination of the voices of many people at the same time.

"Alright, let's eat." He found a flat piece of rock and sat down, the tramp didn't even take any notice of the strange noise.

"How can anyone eat in this kind of place?!" I was in the verge of having a nervous breakdown. Why was there such a freaky cemetery inside the school!?

We were surrounded by many unknown blue and reddish gold will-o-the-wisp all around, this place is considered as a place with scenic view and positive atmosphere?

The tramp finally realized I was shivering. After he opened his lunchbox, he put it aside. I saw several rice balls of different colours fully stuffed into his lunchbox, as well as some sauce, "I'm sorry, because I have a little job here later on, so I thought since we are classmates, I brought you over to increase the number of people to make it merrier."

Increase the number of people?

According to the experience of being in this school, no matter what they say, I'd better make careful considerations first, "What is your job?" I saw a reddish-gold will-o-the-wisp drifting towards me and quickly moved out of the way.

He kicked at the ground covered with weeds, "This place."

'Cemetery?'

"Why does the school have a cemetery!?" This is also something I couldn't understand.

Who's willing to have their graves inside a school?!

"There's no cemetery in the school." The tramp picked up a big green rice ball and passed it to me, "You don't hate spinach right?"

"I'm fine with it." I took the rice ball, and while dodging the will-o-the-wisp, I moved against the side of the big rock, "If there is no cemetery in the school there why are we inside a cemetery?"

In fact, I probably wouldn't be surprised if an underground prison exists. I found my ability to adapt was gradually getting better and better.

"This cemetery doesn't belong to the school. This is the Demon Clan's cemetery. Due to the time warp that occurred a few days ago, their cemetery was thrown into our school. The job I've accepted is to send the cemetery back." The tramp took a red rice ball and put some sauce on it, he then speedily started gobbling it down, "Lately there are time warps everywhere, so troublesome."

Staring at the sauce, I was rather curious what kind of rice ball sauceit was.

Probably noticing my sight, the tramp picked up the sauce and moved it towards me, "Want to try it? This is a plum sauce my client gave me. I've heard they boiled plum and dryad for forty-nine days, and it also contributes to skin-care."

After I finished listening to him, I immediately back down, "No thanks." Now I'm rather afraid of the ingredients of the rice ball. The tramp shrugged, continued to eat.

"Ignorant~little~brats~which~clan~are~you~from~"

That strange integrated voice resounded again, very very slowly, with an average of seven seconds a word.

"Want to have another rice ball? The restaurant's sticky rice dumpling is very popular, every time it comes out, it doesn't even last five minutes before it gets sold out." The tramp disregarded the strange and slow voice, and stuffed a yellow rice ball into my hands, "This meringues rice ball is very fragrant. There're pork inside, it's the number one rice ball."

This person is a fan of rice balls...?

"How~dare~you~trespass~in~this~forbidden~area~"

"Ah... classmate, is it really alright to ignore them?" The strange voices made me rather scared, especially when the will-o-the-wisp had thoroughly surrounded us. No matter how fragrant the rice ball was, I currently don't have any appetite to eat.

The tramp waved his hand, "Don't worry about it, normally the will-o-the-wisp takes about ten plus minutes to finish one sentence, just let it talk in its own pace." Then he picked up the third rice ball.

Was that the problem? I saw the will-o-the-wisps freaking out, and was starting to madly burst out in fire. This was the so-called using your life's energy to burn yourself? What a spectacle.

However, in this kind of environment, I really did not have the appetite to continue eating. Not only had the will-o-the-wisps been warped together with the vast cemetery, they filled it with gloomy energy. We were also surrounded by them, and they spoke at the same time. Would any normal person have any appetite to eat then?

I think probably the tramp beside me would be the only one who's able to continue eating.

That aside, I can't find a place to put this rice ball, "I'm sorry but can I eat this later?"

The tramp looked at me and patted his big paper box, so I quickly put the golden rice ball inside at one corner of the paper box. Inside was more than half empty; there were about four to five of those rice balls that were about the size of two fists.

"Alright, the rest are all yours." He patted his hands and stood up.

"What?" 'When did the rest all became mine?'

"Then let us get started." The tramp said, and then he took out a necklace from his pocket.

I got a good look at it, it's a variety of different colored illusionary weapons.

* * *


When the tramp made an action, I simply wasn't able to see clearly if he had already done anything. However, after a gust of wind blew past, the will-o-the-wisp had already disappeared.

"That's it?" I looked at the empty and open cemetery, and there wasn't even an echo of any voices remaining. Only the cold chilly wind continued to blow non-stop.

"Of course not." The tramp removed one red gem bean from his necklace, and the top of it was mixed with a little yellow, "Creature who formed a contract with me, devourer to witness your madness."

I felt the temperature around rising, and then I heard a loud noise merging into the ground.

A pair of bloody knives were stabbed into the ground, looking as if it was incinerated in flames. A crackling sound, the grass and soil all around the blade were all burned till they were charred and then only the ashes of the annihilated remained. A dazzling and fiery pair of knives.

A slight wind appeared at the edge of the knife and then the ashes were rolled up and flames were lit.

"Thermal Dragon, let's go." Taking out a string from his pocket, in just a moment, the tramp tied up his messy grayish blue hair that was previously spread out behind him into a ponytail. Because he had his back towards me, I couldn't see his face hidden behind his long hair, "Once again, opening the entrance to the spirit world and throw the cemetery inside is the main point. You need to be careful."

Wait a moment! He said to open what and throw what!?

"Can I take my leave first?" Why was it that I was somehow dragged into a cemetery, and also have to witness the opening of some freaking world? I've had enough.

"No, if you step out of this cemetery's perimeter, you'll be attacked by spirit ghosts." The tramp had his back towards me, and said very seriously, "I've already built a triple layered barrier, so if you go out now you will easily become a target."

Who was it that brought me in here?! I had the sudden urge to stuff the explosive charm into his mouth and let it detonate.

"Wait a while more, we need to wait for the person who breaks the space to arrive." Fully alert, the tramp who was holding onto the knife's handle, said.

Who do we still have to wait for?

A whiff of smoke grazed past me.

Ah? Such a familiar scene.

Then a cloth with oriental totems printed on it was like a typical flower opening right in front of me, piece by piece. Softly, the cloth was then hanging in midair, surrounded by a thin smoke.

"Hey, Tong Lang." The tramp, who seemed to be very familiar with it, waved his hand but he still didn't look back because in front of him, a clump of unknown dark fog was slowly gathering.

I took one step back, while screaming in my mind.

The ghost child suddenly appeared in front of me.

"I offer my greetings, white robe." The ghost child was floating less than thirty centimeters in front of me. I keep feeling his clothing, which was fluttering on my face. There was a faint and clean scent, but I couldn't tell what scent it was, "I've brought information of the destroyer of the boundary, please wait for a while. He was delayed by a sudden incident."

"Okay, I understand." The tramp responded.

Both of them seemed to be talking in riddles, I didn't quite understand what they were saying.

Seemed like someone was coming?

"Chu Ming Yang please stand at your current spot and don't move." Looking at me, the ghost child suddenly pulled out a white piece of charm from his arms, the miraculous thing was, his hands were still inside his long sleeves, so he grabbed it through his clothing and also it didn't drop at all. Ghost child, you are too powerful!

"Moving time, under the cause of light and shadow, connect with your starting point."

A silky golden light suddenly appeared from the white charm, as if someone was pulling at the other end. The thread straightened, linking to the central of the slowly gathering dark fog the tramp was observing, and was then swallowed by that bottomless fog.

"Is the landmark of the spirit world determined yet?" The tramp looked at the straight piece of gold thread, and then I heard him softly chanting something, and then he waved one of the flaming knives gently touching the top of the thread, "Surge forward, Thermal Dragon, Crest of Flame." Then the gold thread was instantly ignited, and a violent, raging fire directly heading towards the clump of black fog.

I heard a sound. Not a sudden loud sound but a muffled sound, coming from the ground I was standing on.

"May I ask what are the two of you trying to do?" My intuition told me this sound coming from the beneath earth sounded rather like an earthquake, had something to do with the tramp and ghost child in front of me.

"I'm currently linking the path of the spirit world to this place." The ghost child said.

"I want to split the path into a wider one and then the barrier can be dispelled before sending the cemetery back." Said the tramp.

Very good, I totally don't understand what they had just said.

"We have to wait until the barrier destroyer arrives before we can break the barrier." The ghost child pointed towards the black fog as he told me, "What we were doing is actually linking the two paths, so the path wouldn't be broken during the delivery process."

I stared at the group of black fog that was slowly enlarging. I didn't know why but I suddenly had a really bad feeling. The so called path was a path that leads to the whatchamacallit spirit world.

Then... it means something over there can come over here too? Suddenly thinking about this, my whole body started feeling the chill. I guess this won't happen right? But for some reason, I felt this was possible.

According to the so-called manhuas and games, at this time, there should be a demon monster rushing out from the black fog, and the brave warriors would fight till they were bloodied, type of storyline.

Just as I was day dreaming, I wonder if it I saw an illusion. I saw the black fog severely shaking for a moment. Then the ghost child also shook for a moment.

"How could it be!?"

The tramp issued a voice full of disbelief and surprise, "That's impossible, it shouldn't be possible."

Before I got to understand what he was 'impossible'-ing about, I heard a beast-like call... That's not right, I heard a sound like a beast's roar coming from inside that group of black fog.

With a 'shiiin' sound, the gold thread connected to the white charm snapped.

Suddenly pulling out the other red knife that was stabbed on the ground, the tramp jumped back a few steps, and stood in front of me, "Damn, a problem occurred." He said, and I was immediately afraid until my heartbeat increased in speed, "Starting from now, stay behind me."

At that moment, I had a doubt. He already knew I didn't know how to use the so-called ability?

"Entering highest level of danger." The ghost child suddenly floated up quite some distance away. I saw his sleeves hanging at his side, and the white smoke was long gone, "First priority is to protect."

'Protect? Protect who?'

I had yet to get answers for the pile of questions in my head when the ground suddenly started vibrating fiercely. It started shaking up and down for some time, and I almost couldn't stand upright.

Rumbling sound was approaching from a far, and the whole ground continued vibrating. The tombstones were collapsing one after another. When it fell to the ground, it broke into pieces. The scattered ashes were gradually being blown away by the cold wind. The whole cemetery immediately became hazy making it hard to breathe.

"Cough, cough..." I breathed in a mouthful of the cemetery's air, choking my entire throat, so painful.

Then, the surrounding quieted down, and my cough became very obtrusive.

"Ignorant~little~brats~" A very slow voice, but it was loud like thunder.

After the rumbling, a half rotten palm appeared in front of us. About the size of a person, a purplish-black smelly meat still dripping blood was still attached to the palm, which suddenly shot forward from the other side of the black fog, randomly grabbing at things around the black fog.

I felt my breathing stop.

"A spirit ghost from the channel."

At that second, at the side of the tramp's face, the corner of his lips could be seen curving upwards.

'He's smiling?'

I didn't have the time to shift and give his face a better look, before giving him a tight slap, because there was another gust of wind that appeared behind me.

I was unsure of when, but someone was suddenly standing at the entrance of the cemetery.

"Such a great scene, right, Ryan."

He was Ryan?

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Chapter 4 : Kitty Shuttle

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Location: Atlantis
Time: 9:55am

"If the heart can speak, then it speaks the words of an incantation."

I was deeply impressed by this sentence due to what happened a long, long time ago... after I've met him and before we parted.

The last sentence from the person whom I'd considered as my most important person.

* * *


Standing behind me was my other classmate.

"Ryan, so you were actually together with Yang Yang." Chifuyu, who appeared without any sound, stared at me with eyes wide opened, I stared back at him, too, "I was with Miao Miao searching high and low for him for half a day. We thought he was swallowed by the mermaid sculpture!"

I wasn't swallowed, and also, the thing it was swallowed before had already been spat out.

"I saw he was discarded by the side of the road, so I simply retrieved him." The tramp... should be called Ryan now, replied towards his companion.

Wait a minute! What do you mean by discarded by the side of the road, and retrieved him!?

I felt like swinging my fist down on his head. I didn't agree with coming here, boss!

"Oh I see." Chifuyu actually acknowledged it.

Then Ryan, who had his back towards me, turned around.

Mom, he has completely changed. Just like a magic shape shifter.

After he had tied up his messy hair, his pair of blue eyes were exposed to the atmosphere, so sharp that they seemed like blades. The air across the edge of the blade seemed to have been cut as he blinked his eyes.

He had an equally sharp face. It was hard to describe but, there was a certain degree of handsomeness to it. Now, it was rather difficult to associate him together with the tall and slightly stooped tramp from earlier.

"Ryan Scar." Stabbing the knife in his hand into the ground and ignoring the rotten palm, which was slowly crawling out, Ryan actually extended a hand of friendship towards me.

You should at least take note of the time and place for this!

"Chu Ming Yang." But still, I reached out my hands to shake his.

I wonder if it was because there was an addition person, Chifuyu, I suddenly felt this place wasn't as horrible as it was moments ago. The psychological law of having more people makes one feel more at ease?

At one side, Chifuyu inspected the spirit ghost's hand slowly stretching out from the black fog. With voice full of doubt, he asked, "You guys already connected the path, how was it that this thing appeared?"

After connecting the path, this kind of thing was not supposed to appear?

"I've no idea, but according to the records, there is a one chance in a hundred chance for it to appear when opening the path." Ryan was actually in high spirits, pulling out the dual knives from the ground, he drew a circle and let them hang by his side.

One chance in a hundred?

I was very embarrassed to tell this two people, who were thinking hard trying to come out with a solution to this problem, that it was most likely thanks to my bad luck they had met with such a wonderful one percent chance. After all, I'm someone who will run into bad luck even if there was a one in a million chance of it happening.

"Measuring spirit ghost's strength, expanding the area for the barrier." The ghost child who was floating at the top said. I wasn't sure if this was an illusion, but I vaguely saw something shining shot out into the sky with him as the midpoint, drawing a huge bright mist with it, and covered the entire vicinity.

An illusion as well as my eyesight becoming worse?

Without giving me time to think too much, the second I set my sight back towards the black fog, a huge head squeezed itself out from inside. It was about the size of a one storey building, and its half rotten face just had to be facing me. It then exposed its teeth with black bloodied gums and roared.

A very smelly and rotting odor.

I started to feel extremely dizzy, with my eyes turning into a "@.@" look.

"Yuu, you'd better stand behind with Yang Yang." Pulling out the dual knives on the ground, this time, I finally noticed the pair of knives seemed very heavy, because the tra... no, it's Ryan, put down the knives without using any force, but the knives were firmly stuck, deep into the soil, and the depth was unknown.

Chifuyu turned around and handed something to me. I took it and gave it a good look; it was a small triangular piece of paper with an unknown red text on it, "This is?" Don't tell me this was a paper to curse someone, type of item.

"You still don't know how to protect yourself, use it first." Chifuyu said to me, "Amulet of the Dragon God, disburse favorable articulative motion, 137 point to the ground, Move!"

By the same time he finished chanting, I found that my surrounding seemed to have quieted down. The smelly odor, ashes, smoke, and etcetera had all disappeared, replaced by a type of grass-like fresh air all around me.

"Amulet of the Dragon God, disburse favorable articulative motion, 246 soar into the sky, Seal!"

I heard the ghost child above follow suit. But after a long while, I saw another strange light, which then surrounded me, like little bits of starlight.

"Sure enough, even Tong Lang knows this." Chifuyu lips curved into a smile and turned his head away.

Ryan, who pulled out his dual knives, had already started walking towards the spirit ghost who had already have half of his body out of the black fog.

Even if I could not smell the bad odor anymore, the ground was still violently shaking.

"Ignorant~little~brats~" The spirit ghost was still continuing his slow and loud sentence.

At that second—

"You're ignorant yourself!" Ryan's dual knives was a like a meteor drawing past, then the huge rotten head fell to the ground.

... That's it!?

* * *


I widened my eyes, stunned. The huge head fell on the ground with a "thud", and died.

That's it!? That's a little too simple, right?!

"Yuu! Yang Yang! Careful!"

Just as I was in a trance, the head that dropped to the ground suddenly enlarged right in front of my eyes. In less than half a second, the rotten face turned savaged and terrifying. The mouth was open until the bottom of its ears, and I could almost see the rotten bones under the rotten meat; so distinct that it almost made me puke.

However, it didn't get to hit me in the face. I clearly heard a "clang" sound. The huge head seemed to have collided into something and was repelled.

"Creature who formed a contract with me, allow the attacker to witness your form." Chifuyu smiled. Rather similar to Ryan's, I saw him taking out a silverish-white gem bean with black wordings on top, and suddenly a gust of wind came rolling around us, "Swaying from side to side, pass through point 145, Fly and pierce."

To be truthful, due to Chifuyu having his back towards me, I seemed to have vaguely saw a shining bow and arrow. After he had finished chanting his should-be-an-incantation, a sharp wind penetrated the forehead of the huge head. With black blood squirting out, the head was knocked back into the dark fog.

Then, Ryan waved the dual knives, savagely engulfed in flames, and inserted them into the black fog, burning the spirit ghost's huge body.

I don't know if I should say the scene was terrifying or glamorous.

The flames were burning all around the cemetery, but not even one of the gravestones was burned. It was only ceaselessly burning the spirit ghost, until only his bones were left, which then turned into ashes. The ashes scattered in the wind, but didn't enter the area of the barrier around me. Then, the black fog dispersed.

I saw a vast expanse of stone ground, like a distorted picture, appearing at the place where the black fog had just disappeared.

"Ryan, only fifteen minutes left." Chifuyu shouted, all around us was gray dust, and the dispersed black fog floating around.

"That's enough." Ryan raised his dual knives up high, looking like a pair of Meteor's wing.

I didn't get to continue looking at it, because Chifuyu covered my eyes, "Yang Yang, don't look at what's about to happen next." His voice was rather soft, or perhaps it was the surroundings that were too loud.

I heard something not a human's voice but a beast's roar. I also heard screams and wails, and if the barrier wasn't there, I think would have been some smell surrounding me when the wind blew.

After a few seconds, it quieted down. Chifuyu put down his hands, and the place I was currently at, was not the cemetery anymore. To say correctly, it's was a garden, a huge garden full of blooming white flowers.

In the middle of the garden was an Elf statue, but it was not holding onto any weapons. It was sculptured in a sitting position in the middle of the white flowers, smiling.

I suddenly had a better understanding of Ryan saying it's a scenic view and a positive atmosphere. There were also butterflies all around.

"I'm sorry, because just now I was going to cut open the spirit world, and I was afraid it might hurt your eyes." Ryan walked over to us, and his dual knives had already vanished.

After smelling the abundant floral scent, I subconsciously realized the barrier should have already been dispelled.

The ghost child drifted downwards, floating in front of us in mid-air, "Time taken was less than expected. I would like to return and report this first." He then turned into smoke and disappeared beside me.

In fact, I can probably guess what had happened. When my eyes were covered, they probably wanted to link the spirit world, and with the right timing, throw the cemetery back. Then according to all the common storyline, my level wasn't enough to look at those things yet.

"Just now that disburse-whatchamacallit?" I looked at Chifuyu who was standing beside me, he seemed to be waiting for Ryan, and that person had let down his hair to cover up his face again, turning back into a tramp. I could not find any traces of the valor from earlier.

"It's the words of our clan." Chifuyu told to me, "Words can change into spirit and gather energy. It's something all oracles needs to learn.”

To be truthful, it was similar to a tongue twister. I think if I were to learn it, sooner or later I'll probably bite my tongue and accidentally commit suicide.

"You can keep the charm by your side until you've learn how to use your ability, then you won't be needing it anymore."

I nodded, putting away the object Chifuyu gave me.

Ryan walked over to us, "There's no leakage over here, should have been completely taken care of." He looked at me and nodded, "You've worked hard, classmate."

Worked hard on what!? I was only feeling extremely scared the entire time!

It was definitely not my idea to be dragged here; in my heart I felt my stomach full of XX, but I felt rather embarrassed to say it out loud.

A really inexplicable morning.

* * *


When senior found me in the canteen, it was around 11 o'clock.

Ryan and Chifuyu seemed to have something going on, so after the both of them took me to the canteen, they left together.

Currently, the people inside the canteen were students I didn't know walking around, I heard Miao Miao had also recently left school due to work.

"You really are just like a puppy." As soon as senior stood in front of my table, the first sentence he said was this, "Next time, want to write a “bring me home” sign and stick it on the table?"

I wrinkled my face, tired, can't be bothered to deal with him. I felt that, in less than one day, I was already starting to regret entering this school.

"I heard Ryan and the others accepted a school job today, and you were also there." Senior said with an affirmative tone, "It can be considered as practical, that kind of scene wasn't much."

He totally didn't think of the possibility I could have been killed with one hit by the spirit ghost.

"Don't worry, with Ryan and Chifuyu present, you won't have the chance to die. The worst case scenario for you is to be heavily injured with broken limbs, but it wouldn't take too long to fix you back up." I wasn't sure if senior was trying to comfort me or not.

"They are both very strong." I mumbled, once again I experienced the difference between me and others.

"They're not bad. Ryan is already qualified as a white robe, and should be considered as one of the highest-level students in your class." Senior stood up as soon as he finished saying this, and when he came back, there were two extra cup of beverages on his hands, he put one of the cup in front of me, "This is carbonated juice, freshen yourself up."

Up till now, I still couldn't understand the level of the colored robes, but according to what they have said, I should be able to understand it one day.

It was an ordinary white mug, with a bunch of white bubbles foaming on top. The bubbles suddenly disappeared, and appeared again, just as though there were a lot of gas in the drink.

Taking a glance at senior's cup, very good, he was drinking an ordinary looking brown tea.

Looking at the bubbling cup, I suddenly thought of the show on TV where a witch was cooking her potions. Basically, the thing she was cooking looked almost similar to this cup, as both of them kept on bubbling.

"Feeling suspicious?" Perceiving my doubt, senior stretched out his hand, taking my cup and then drank a mouthful.

His face didn't turn purple, nor did he scream and then topple backwards. I guess there shouldn't be a problem then.

With a "thud" sound, the cup was back in front of me. I picked up the non-stop bubbling drink and drank a mouthful.

"Sppfft!" It's sour, it's completely sour!

"Feeling refreshed, right?" Senior smiled while drinking his beverage.

He actually drank such a sour drink without even changing his expression!

"Cough, cough..." The sour gas rushed directly to my brain, and my whole body was completely awake due to the sourness.

"I forgot to mention this, but that’s lemon flavoured carbonated juice."

You deliberately neglected to mention this!

Senior exchanged the two cups; in front of me now was the cup of brown beverage. He even took the lemon carbonated juice and continued drinking it without batting an eyelid.

This cup tasted much better, at least it was sweet, with a taste of honey, just like some honey flavoured tea.

"Yagen... I know you want to ask for the name of this drink. The honey is made by some spiritual beast, different from the honey you get from bees. There will be a tea flavor when brewing it, and there's also the sweet fragrance from the honey." Senior continued drinking the cup of lemon carbonated juice without wrinkling his forehead.

So originally this wasn't honey from bees. I didn't try to imagine the appearance of the spiritual beast in my mind, because I was afraid I won't be able to continue drinking the beverage.

After a period of time, just as I had finished drinking my beverage, senior also put down his cup, "It's almost time. You shouldn't have any classes in the afternoon, so I'll bring you to the campus shuttle transport."

Honestly, I'd always known of the existence of the school transport in this school, and in the school manual, it was also written that no money was needed when taking the school transport, providing the students a free ride home.

If we threw aside the mess and chaos in this school, I feel this school's welfare was actually not bad.

Even eating inside the canteen was free of charge — this was what senior told me earlier because he had asked in passing whether I wanted to stay for lunch. I rejected his offer. What I needed the most was to go back to the warm embrace of my home, to better soothe my battered young mind. And also, Ryan gave me a rather big box of enigmatic rice balls, I thought those were more than enough for me to eat.

"Then, let's go." Senior stood up first, and I followed suit. One after another, we walked out of the canteen.

There were actually a lot of people in the school, coming and going, students wearing uniforms were everywhere. There were those who were much older than me, there were also those who were much younger. Then I remembered this school had recruited students from primary to university. Even if there were only three classes in each grade, the total amount of students would be quite high, too.

"Just now, Chifuyu mentioned something about words that change into spirit, I didn't quite get it." I didn't know why, but I vaguely felt this was something I should know, however, I had no clue why I had to know this. Still, I tried asking senior, who was walking three steps in front of me, about this.

Senior paused for a while, turned around with a surprised expression, and then he suddenly brought up a cold smile, "Indeed, you should start learning from there... It is something really urgent and relevant to you."

Didn't quite understand what he had just said, his words sounded like a riddle.

The two of us stopped right in front of an Elf statue.

"Words can be changed into spirit, it's a type of spiritual language, but not entirely." Senior said, "Binding a person, an object, or something else with words. You didn't use my name, but the form of addressing stopped me in my tracks, that is one type of spiritual language."

I listened until I was totally confused.

"This is... something used in everyday life by everyone, but won't cause too much of a harm."

Name is a type of spiritual language, I had a little impression on this, because this appeared in manhuas before.

"Use your imagination, listen carefully with your mind, and then carefully think with your mind. The spiritual language is then spoken through your mouth, this method will allow the effect of spiritual language to become even more powerful."

"Won't this mean everyone knows how to use it?" I don't understand, according to what he had said, everyone uses spiritual language every day, then wouldn't everyone be able to become the same as Chifuyu and the others?

"Let's put it this way, most people unintentionally used the divinity of this language. He called your name causing you to stop, but it won't hurt any part of your body." Senior frowned slightly, as though he was trying to think of a relatively simpler and easier way to explain it to me for me to have a better understanding, "But, those who genuinely have the power of this language, can turn a spirit into a real person. They can also can call your name and take away your life. Chifuyu and the others are rather similar to this."

I stared becoming dizzy while listening to the explanation.

"Let's stop here for today." Senior revealed a small smile, ending this topic, "Let's go, you still need to get back home."

Then he continued on walking.

* * *


I'm getting more and more confused about this school. It's a total mystery, I'm being very honest. This school itself is a big question mark.

Parked at the campus shuttle transportation area were not cars. They were the most mysterious thing I'd ever seen.

I saw a goldfish drifting pass right in front of my eyes. The big eyed goldfish looked very familiar, so familiar that I had an illusion I'd seen this before in some animation. Just that this one in front of me was a magnified version, almost the same size as a bus.

Then, a piece of leaf floated past, I wasn't sure if I saw wrongly, but there were actually people riding on top of the leaf.

"What are those?" I opened my eyes wide, staring at senior.

"Shuttle transportations." He as a matter of fact.

‘What kind of shuttle transportations are those!?’

I saw that all of them didn't even have the shape of a car. There were lots of goldfish drifting past... Wait a moment! What the hell was that pink pterodactyl that just flew by above?!

"These are all special transports for this campus, which were either collected or created by the three directors of the school." Senior was already used to this, he was actually moving naturally about around a bunch of weird objects, totally unafraid of being run over.

I nervously followed behind him, a huge trilobite suddenly moved past beside me, someone was waving at me on top. I once again heard the sound of my nerves breaking.

"Which one do you prefer?" After he brought me to the shuttle transportation station, senior asked.

Looking around; basically I didn't like any one of them. However, I had to choose one, or else I won't be able to go home, right? No matter what, even if I'm beaten to death, I won't choose the goldfish and the leaf. Those two things were extremely strange. Then I saw it, a kitty shuttle parked at the corner.

I was stunned.

Nn, just like the one you are imagining right now. Those who have seen "My Neighbour Totoro" should know what this bus looked like. And this bus was just right in front of me. The huge cat eyes just so happened to be looking at me as well. There were some discrepancies with the appearance and shape of the cat; this one didn't seemed to be the same type of cat as the one in the animation. The ears were very big, similar to the type of cat which was currently very popular... I forgot the cat's name and place of origin. Anyway, it was a cat shuttle swaying around in the corner.

Looking at the whole area, this was the one which looked most normal (Probably because I'd watched too much anime that I became used to it already).

"You want to ride that one." Senior clapped his hands once, and then the cat suddenly rushed over to us, stopping right in front of us.

I started fantasizing, the kitty shuttle being very soft and comfortable, lots of girls would be wishing they could ride on it. Now I suddenly really wanted to ride the kitty shuttle.

The huge cat meowed twice.

"Go in." Senior placed the box of rice balls into my hands, and then he pushed me up to the open door of the kitty shuttle, he said, "You better not puke inside, otherwise the cat shuttle will throw you out."

I had yet to understand what senior had said, when the shuttle's door closed. The kitty shuttle seemed to instantaneously move forward with the speed of a Mercedes. Senior's face immediately disappeared before my eyes. I finally understood the meaning of his words. The beating internal organs told me the answer.

"This can't be happening..."

A regular "boom, bang, boom, bang," noise resounded in the car, it was definitely not some music, but the resounding noise of the beating and squirming of internal organs. I even saw a very thick blood vessel right beside my feet. Warm blood red liquids were surging through it, and then it continued flowing to the inner parts of the soft internal organs.

Everything... was just like the models of internal organs in biology class. The only differences were this was real; able to move, and very much alive.

There was a drop of blood which fell from above me and landed on my shoulder.

The soft fluffy chairs had already disappeared and were replaced by soft and beating internal organs. This was really a very realistic version of a kitty shuttle's feature.

I know what I was supposed to do right now.

Because I'd been hearing a similar nerve breaking sound that kept screaming inside my mind which sounded like some devilish music.

"Let me down——!!!"

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Chapter 5 : Insect Planet

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Location: Atlantis
Time: 11:25am

After three days, I finally couldn't take it anymore. That damn wildcat bus!

In fact, we barely started on any classes this week. It was mostly the teachers and students getting to know each other, and then we were left to do whatever we wanted. I heard we would only officially start classes at the beginning of next week.

This school was really carefree. Just like this, the teachers got their hands on the pay for one week of teaching.

"School accommodation?" Senior stared at me with surprise, as if he didn't expect me to suddenly bring out this issue.

"That's right, my mom had also agreed to this, so I wanted to ask if it was still possible to apply for school accommodation." Actually I wasn't too optimistic about this, because I knew I should have taken care of the application for school dormitory before school started. At that time, since it was so close to my house, I thought there won't be any problems. A cat shuttle ruined my final happiness.

Try imagining it, it's already very pitiful one had to get hit by a train everyday to get to school. And when leaving after classes, they'll have to squeeze in together with a cat's internal organs. I think after three consecutive days, my mind had already been subjected to some degree of trauma.

We were currently at the long corridor of the second grade classrooms. Today, after my fourth period, I hurriedly escaped. Else, Ryan would definitely drag me to a place with scenic view and positive atmosphere to eat rice balls, and God knows I'd already eaten rice balls for three days in a row. Now, whenever I see a rice ball, I wanted to throw the rice ball at him.

Lifting my head to look at senior's class plate, tsk tsk, senior really is senior. On the plate, was written "Grade 2 Class A".

I had also heard there weren't many black robes in this entire school and, out of the entire second grade, senior was the only one. He was also in Class A. It was obvious this person had become so strong that he was currently at the level of a non-human.

"Do not interfere in my thoughts with your nonsense, while I'm currently helping you think of a way to apply for the accommodation." Senior smacked me behind my head.

No one asked you to listen! I grabbed at my head, feeling very aggrieved.

Senior frowned and thought for a long time, "The school's dormitory was already full the day school started. I don't think there's any place left for you to stay..."

"Ah, then there's no need to especially find one for me." In fact, I simply wanted to try my luck.

"It's alright, wait for me for a moment." Senior went back into his classroom and said something to one of his classmates.

No matter how I looked at that guy, he seemed very familiar, as though I have seen this person before, but I didn't have any impression of it.

Then senior came out with his backpack, "I took a leave of absence in the afternoon and I'll take this opportunity to go to work, so come with me."

I need to observe someone at work again!? I took two steps back.

Senior narrowed his eyes and looked at me coldly, "I called you to follow me to the management office to handle your dormitory matters. Also, to check whether there are any students who didn't want to stay in the dorm and wants to cancel their application." He brandished his fist and knocked my head with it.

"Oh..." It was extremely painful.

I followed senior, who was walking on the long corridor. All around, students who were standing or sitting down were all casting their gazes on us. I wasn't sure how to describe those gazes. They was different from Miao Miao and the others' which were purely full of worship and admiration.

Although there were still a small number of them with the same kind of worshipping gaze, a large number of them were not so. There were even some people, who were brazenly snorting with disdain, giving off the "he's not all that impressive" type of feeling.

Until we left the building of the classrooms, only then did senior suddenly turn around.

"You don't have to care about the implication of those gazes." He said without changing his expression, as though those gazes were not directed straight at him, "Sometimes things are like that. It's not possible to be in a place where there are no competitions, nor is it possible to have no one with their own self interests. If you want to go and understand each and every one of them one by one, it'll be endless. As long as it's a creature with intelligence and has its own individuality, this is how it'll end up."

"Oh." I nodded, not completely understanding what he had said but I also felt it would be better if I didn't think about the expressions those people gave off.

A type of competition, no matter where we are, it will always be there. So I just followed behind him.

The school was really huge, the roads were really long and there were also lots of them. Damn it, even if you have nothing better to do, why do you need to build the school campus this way!?

From the first day of school, I've never seen the edge of the school, or maybe there is no edge to this school?

"The school's edge... One day you'll be able to see it, because it doesn't exist here nor anywhere else."

Senior's words made me very confused again, then where's it?

But since he said that I'll know it one day, then I'll just wait for that day. I'm not an assertive person, especially if it was regarding this school. Do not insist to know too much, and it would make me comparatively less unlucky. This was the lesson taught to me in these few days of schooling.

I followed his footsteps, and then stopped in front of a building. The building was completely different compared to the other buildings. It was a crystal tower.

* * *


"This is Kenner Tower, the place of the congregation in regards to all school affairs."

The crystal tower reflected sunshine into my eyes, causing it to hurt, as though a bunch of needles were poking my eyes.

Senior directly stepped into the tower's entrance, and I hurriedly followed.

A cool and indescribable aroma immediately came from within the tower, making one feel very comfortable. I immediately thought this type of flavor was similar scent coming from senior's body; soft and very sweet.

What caught my eye was something that suddenly moved past me. Oh, it's not a thing, should be a person... It was the right way to put it. A very beautiful man; his body seemed to emit a faint light, or maybe it was his clothes that was emitting light. He had pointed ears.

"Restua." Senior slightly bowed in front of that person, as though he was saluting, which was rather interesting to me. Never thought senior would actually be so polite. Then, I was fiercely glared at by a pair of red eyes.

The very beautiful man also nodded at senior slightly. I noticed his hair was pale gold; very beautiful, and a little different from Zachary's. Because his hair would emit a faint light whereas Zachary's hair didn't. He also had a pair of tranquil green eyes, just like a gem.

"I rarely see a Black Robe personally coming in here, is there anything I can do for you?" He spoke as though he was singing; very fine and soft, extremely nice to listen to, and it felt like a lullaby to me.

"I'm looking for a room, because someone decided he wanted to stay in the dorm at the very last minute." Senior directly explained his purpose for coming here, "This is Restua Laurin, the Cat Eye of the Light God. He is responsible for matters regarding the students' accommodation here." He introduced the beautiful man to me.

"Hello." I quickly did a 90 degree bow. I wasn't sure why I did this, but I just did.

"Hello, young student." Restua nodded at me, and then he revealed a smile that seemed to be able to mystify others, "This is really bad, the rooms are not very adequate. We even went to find another dormitory, but it's already fully inhabited..."

I felt as though he spoke while rapping.

Using a force that wasn't light nor heavy, senior knocked my head. He obviously already knew what I was thinking.

"Why don't you bring this student to stay at the Black Robe's residence temporarily?" Suddenly hitting his palm, Restua smiled elegantly as he said to senior, "I guess if you're there, there won't be any problems allowing this student to stay. I'll allow you to break the rules once, due to the problems of having inadequate rooms."

His expression seemed say he came up with a very good idea, but senior's expression was the complete opposite.

I was thinking... the Black Robe's accommodation has some... reason a normal person won't be able to live there?

"Well, since you've already said it's fine, so be it." senior nodded, seemed to have agreed.

Then I was sold off?

"Don't worry, young student, being by Black Robe's side, you will be able to learn a lot more, just like Black Robe who was once beside a certain "someone" in the past." His smile did not diminish even a little as he patted my shoulder, "You will understand this in the future."

I finally understood why I thought something was odd. Restua's way of speaking was very similar to how my grandpa spoke to me. Like the tone of an elderly person.

"Then this is his information."Senior passed him a folder.

That's weird, when did I give my information to senior? I don't know, but since senior was so resourceful, he must have his own methods. Nn, then if he can't find a job after graduating, he could find jobs such as being a hacker or something similar...

Red eyes glared at me again. I've already told you, if you don't want to listen then don't listen!

I took two steps back. With Restua here, it seemed like senior won't be so blatant in beating me up.

Oh? He found his natural enemy!?

"Chu, you better watch out." Just as though he was handling some procedures, senior turned his head and spoke a sentence that could cause one to shudder in fear.

After a period of time, I seemed to have heard a faint laughter coming from Restua.

"Then, that's it." He said, "Let us meet again next time, Black Robe." He nodded at senior, turned around, and walked back into the internal part of the crystal tower, until we were completely unable to see his figure.

In the air was still that fragrant aroma.

"He felt like the Elves in a picture album..." Looking at Restua leaving, for some reason these words naturally emerged from my mouth.

Senior turned around and looked at me, he seemed to be smiling yet it seemed like he was not. "Restua is originally an Elf."

"Ah!?"

Lies!

* * *


Restua is an Elf? Then Zachary is also an Elf?

"That money ghost is not." Senior looked at me and walked out of the crystal tower, I immediately followed, "You are not coming with me to work, right? Then you can take the shuttle back immediately."

He was trying to get rid of me.

"I want to go and take a look, can I?" For some reason, what Restua had mentioned earlier had been hovering around in my mind. The lingering feeling was making me mindful, but I wasn't sure what I was mindful about.

Senior revealed a cold smile, "A Black Robe's job is different from Ryan's and the others. It's very dangerous." He especially emphasized on the word dangerous, making me want to retreat.

"But I want to take a look." Sometimes people are itching to die.

"... Do as you wish."

I don't know if senior was unhappy about this, but he just kept walking in front. I can actually go back in the afternoon, but something called 'curiosity' was making me follow senior, and I couldn't care if I would be killed off like a cat.

Leaving the perimeter of the crystal tower, senior directly took me to the school gate. "I want to go directly to the destination of my job. You better stand still and do not move around."

Giving me a warning in advance, I saw Senior taking out a white charm... A white charm again. Why was it that Senior seemed to love using charms? Could it be he was majoring in Taoism? The one that waves the bells!?

"Don't force me to beat you up." Senior gave me a final warning.

He then loosen his hand. The moment the white charm touched the floor, a huge glowing magic array immediately appeared.

Now even the magic arrays are automatically drawn? This is so advanced. I praised in my mind.

"If you don't do this, then when you are besieged by monsters, you still want to take out a piece of chalk and slowly draw on the floor, eh?"

I had to admit that what senior said made sense.

"This is a teleportation incantation. We insert incantations into things we are familiar with, such as a paper charm, or some sort of weapon." Senior walked to my side and passed me another white charm, "I've set it so the instant the charm lands on the ground, the teleportation incantation will then be drawn."

I remember now, I seemed to have been teleported before once, too. But during that time I didn't see senior using a charm.

"I normally don't use this. This time, it's for you to observe. You better remember how to use teleportation properly." Senior raised his sight and glared at me, "This is one of the basic ways to move around in this world."

"Oh." I carefully put the white charm away and gently rubbed my nose, not daring to think of any more nonsense.

The round shaped incantations around us started glowing, reflecting on Senior's body, I've always felt that Senior was similar to the elf just now, as his body seemed to be glowing.

I suddenly felt that elves are actually huge light bulbs, cos they will emit light.

"Teleportation Array, bring us to the place that we ought to go." Senior, who had already decided to ignore my delusions, stood in the middle inside a place that looked like a square frame and chanted an incantation.

I quickly took out a pen and paper and started taking notes. I knew this thing would be something I will absolutely use in the future. To use when I'm running for my life.

In the blink of an eye, we weren't in school anymore. All around was darkness; this was a wasteland with lots of rocks. If you really want me to describe it, go watch movies where demon beasts appear on a desolated area; an alien planet, then you'll know how it looks like.

The magical array on the ground had disappeared, and a white charm appeared, returning to senior's hand.

So this thing can be recycled and reused again! That's so convenient!

"Do not simply run around sightseeing in this place. This is a valley, the place of the rock's life." Senior warned me while inspecting the surrounding area, then he took out a small black box around the size of a palm from his pocket. It looked very familiar, like a little compass, but not a compass. There was nothing on top of it, only four colours of some unknown words and a thin pointer.

I curiously stood beside him and observed. Noticing my sight, senior suddenly loosen his grip, "Hold on to it."

The compass with four words fell into my hands. I was shocked and hurriedly held it up, "This is a guiding tool, hold on to it; think inside your mind. Point out the unnatural things in this area."

I froze for a moment. The most unnatural thing in this area would probably be the two of us.

"Hurry up!" Senior glared at me.

Shivering for an instant, I held onto the strange black box and started thinking... Who cares if you are something unnatural? As long as something is wrong with you, I better hurry up and give him a response!

Unsure of whether I was unlucky enough or it really worked, the box on my hands shook twice.

"Ah!" It can move!?

"Don't let go!" Senior issued a warning, "That thing is very expensive."

I wanted to cry, he passed me an expensive moving object. Now I'm afraid the black box would then grow a mouth and bite me.

After a couple of vibrations, the box began to glow, the four words were glowing. In an instant, a ball of light burst open, turning into hundreds of strings of light shooting out throughout the whole area.

"So many?" Senior issued a doubtful sound.

What's so many? What were the things that's so many!?

"Rock eating insects." Senior took out something else from his pocket.

I now suspect his pocket was an extradimensional treasure bag... Wait a moment! What did he just say? Rock eating insects?

Suddenly something called a sea cockroach surfaced inside my mind, one that can always be seen at the beach, followed by the eggs of apple snails in the drain.

"You definitely failed your biology." Senior sighed.

"I did not. Every time, I got fifty-nine marks and the teacher would give me one extra mark." I refuted.

It was really weird, I consecutively got fifty-nine points for three years, and even my teacher thought I was trying to make a fool out of him. But for the final exams, I remembered I passed. The one and only time I passed, the teacher dissolved into tears, because he suddenly found the light in his life.

* * *


"They're here!" I had yet to understand the meaning of senior's words. Something started to creep up at the place where the lights were pointing at.

Senior took the box from my hand, covered it and put it back inside his pocket, "Take out the thing Chifuyu gave you."

He's a God! He actually knew Chifuyu gave me something! I began to wonder if there was a peeping device the size of a small pin hole somewhere in my body.

"I'm not interested at peeping at you!" Senior glared at me, and I obediently took out the small charm.

"Come alive and listen to me, Amulet of the Dragon God, disburse favorable articulative motion, through heaven and earth, be brave and impenetrable." He bit his fingertips and then he left a print on top of the small charm, "Your owner is, Chu Ming Yang."

I saw the whole charm changing from white to blood-red, then a golden eye suddenly appeared at the place where it originally had text on it.

"Whoa!" It became a small cursed charm! My first action was supposed to be, throw the charm onto the floor and step on it three times.

"Don't you dare step on it!" Senior's tone was implying that if I stepped on it, he would chop my leg off. Of course, I immediately shrunk with fear.

The golden eye looked at me from the top of the small charm. At that moment, I had an urge to poke it with my finger. It was extremely disgusting!

Why was it when I read this in manhuas, I didn't have this kind of feeling!? If Chifuyu saw the thing he gave me turned into this, I wonder if he will come and strangle me?

"Alright, it's time to start the game." Seems like senior had already finished what he wanted to do. Senior licked off the blood on his fingertips and displayed a cold smile.

Game? There was something called chills, and they slowly crept onto my back.

Before I can react, I saw we were surrounded by something crawling, which suddenly flipped upwards. Abruptly, the rocks chaotically rolled around, creating thunderous sounds everywhere.

Rock eating insects? How hard was it to deal with these insects? Won't spraying them with insecticide solve the problem?

Three seconds later, I overthrew my own reasoning.

"Whoaaahhh——!!!"

A huge group of black cockroaches surrounded us. That wasn't right, they weren't cockroaches. They were something that looked like black insects, about the size of a one-storey building; issuing a rustling sound.

Senior, who was already very experienced, had already covered his ears, waiting for me to finish screaming.

There were a few dozen of those insects, surrounding us. I suddenly remembered a movie I had watched before, Starship Troopers, or was it called some other name? Don't quite remember. There were also a bunch of insects in the movie, as big as these, and they killed humans.

"These insects also kill humans." Senior started to gloat, "Because they only had rocks to eat, but now, there are human meat." It was taken for granted they would definitely prefer to eat meat.

I started to regret coming here. Mama... I want to go home...

"Creature who formed a contract with me, allow the besieger to witness your ruthlessness." Senior took out his illusionary bean, and in the next second, I saw a silverish, almost transparent, spear appearing in his hands.

Spear?

In that second... In fact, I shouldn't have thought of this but, I really thought of the spear turning into a cockroach skewer.

Senior turned around, I knew he wanted to beat me up even without him saying anything.

"You brought the explosive charms, right?" He asked. I was surprised, he actually didn't beat me up?

"Yes, I did." I had placed all the things inside a small box and kept it by my side.

"Take it out and use it."

"Ah?" The first thing I thought of was the forever brand big black bomb.

"If you dare to materialize another bomb, I'll bury you here." Senior saw through my thoughts said such ruthless words.

We were left no more chance to talk, because a bunch of insects started issuing a sharp sound while rushing at us.

Senior's movements were a lot faster compared to them; the silver spear cut the nearest insect into two in a split of a second. Bluish green liquid splashed all around, splashing onto the ground.

A terrifying thing happened, the second the liquid fell onto its companions, I actually saw its companions corroding. It was even more toxic than aqua regia!

OOOH GOOOOOOODDD!!!

It was the extremely distorted version of Munch's Scream reappearing in my heart. What was even more frightening was that senior, he actually did not even wrinkle his brow. He stepped on the huge cockroach's shell, jumped up, and rushed in to cut down the second one.

In just a few tens of seconds, the nimble Senior, who was moving back and forth, had already cut down about a dozen cockroaches. They were all lying on the floor leaking liquid. The strange thing was, the cockroach's liquid would corrode its companions, but it didn't corrode even a singly tiny rock or ground.

"Don't step on it!" Senior suddenly stopped his attacks and yelled at me. I finally noticed that those liquid had already appeared as a green water puddle beside my feet, "It will corrode any living thing that moves."

Any living thing that moves? I was suddenly very astonished with the fact that I can move! I most definitely can move!

As soon as I saw the green liquid flowing over, I quickly took two to three steps back. With a "thud" sound, I bumped into something. Something furry, and it twitched twice, so I lifted my head and looked up.

"Whoa!" I bumped into a huge cockroach! It was fuming, with its cloudy yellow eyes looking down at me.

The cockroach didn't even give me the time to finish screaming. It lifted its leg and stabbed directly downwards, aiming at my head! This time I'm really going to die! I'll be the first one to be turned into skewers by the cockroach!

Forcefully closing my eyes, I waited for the arrival of my grandma. But suddenly, I heard a "thud" sound. A very familiar sound, just as if I'd heard it before not too long ago, and the pain penetrating through my head that I was waiting for didn't appear.

What happened? I covertly opened my eyes with a small slit.

The cockroach's leg bounced off; it bounced off about fifty centimeters before reaching me. However, it apparently didn't give up and several successive "thudding" sounds reverberated above my head. I saw some white sparks and the cockroach's leg bouncing about above my head. There was a voice telling me to look down, so I looked down at the talisman with an eye. The eye was half closed, giving off a bored expression as though it was going to yawn at any moment.

The amulet was protecting me?

"Bursting fire, heed my thoughts and drive my enemies away." Senior, who was rather far away, seemed to have found out about my predicament. He took out an explosive charm and chanted the maxim for courting... I mean, chanted the incantation to activate the explosive charm. I saw another spear appearing in his left hand, "Chu, move aside!"

As soon as he finished what he wanted to say, the spear flew past right above my head, directly piercing the huge cockroach. The momentum caused it to be pushed back really far, until it was nailed onto one side of a rock and, a loud explosion immediately resounded.

I saw the cockroach being blown into pieces. The pieces of meat, internal organs, and what not, were splattered all around, falling onto its companions and corroding away a whole lot of cockroaches.

"Chu, use the explosive charms!" Senior reminded me again.

Alright, let's try and use the explosive charms.

I looked at the charm on my hand, and as soon as I thought of cockroaches, I imagined slippers. My mother always used slippers to whack cockroaches, but I don't want a slipper as a weapon...

Oh right, when there are cockroaches, my grandma will also spray them with insecticides. When it comes to insecticides, it's actually a pretty decent thing to use. Even if the cockroaches will fly, spraying it will cause it to fall down.

Just as my thoughts were flying very far away, a heavy object materialized in my hand, bringing back my attention to it.

A can of insecticide was in my hand. A black can of in-sec-ti-cide. Looking up at the sky, I suddenly felt my thoughts were very deprived.

"..." Senior was silent.

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Chapter 6 : Identifying Weapons

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Location: The plane to Finsect (My speculation)
Time: 1:05pm

"Chu, I already... don't want to say anything." Senior said as he rubbed his forehead. He had totally given up hope on the insecticide.

"I understand." But then again, it was lucky that the thing that appeared wasn't a slipper. I should be more willing to hold onto a can of insecticide rather than holding onto a black slipper. This was probably the only lucky thing that happened in all of my unluckiness.

I was wondering; if on my hand, wasn't an insecticide but a big slipper, maybe Senior would use the slipper and directly whack me to death right here, right now.

"I would, I would most definitely use the slipper to whack you to death, and then bury you here." Senior absolutely affirmed my thoughts, and also helped me to do the after-the-event clean up, "That is, if you turned the explosive charm into a slipper."

I understand now! So slippers and bombs are actually Senior's taboo! The current situation was, two thirds of the cockroaches were already dealt with and there were still a few running about around us, seeming cautious of senior. Their movements were constantly emitting rustling sounds, causing me to feel rather annoyed.

A silver light flashed in front of my eyes and senior was already standing in front of me. He stepped on the green puddle, but seemed like there wasn't any problem.

"You ought to go to the library to read up more often." He took out a whole stack of nicely folded explosive charms from his pocket and gave them to me, "And then practice." The last few words were said through gritted teeth. I guess the two consecutive "explosive charm accidents" had almost caused senior to go mad.

"Okay..." What else can I say? I look at the stack of explosive charms on my hand; there were about a dozen sheets.

Around us, there were still a few huge cockroaches that didn't want to give up and started approaching us. After senior finished giving his advice, he opened his palm. I noticed the illusionary weapon had already vanished from his hand. He then took out another small silver box, "Let's continue the topic from a few days ago."

I had yet to understand what he meant.

Senior opened the small box, inside was a very very small tetrahedron crystal stone; glowing faintly, looking extremely beautiful, and it reminded me Restua, the Elf, in the crystal tower.

"How many rock eating worms left?" Senior looked at me and asked. I wonder if it was an illusion, but the stone looked like it became brighter when he asked the question.

"Uhh..." How many? I lifted my head and looked around for a bit, "Eleven of them." I think it's not an illusion because as soon as I spoke, the crystal brightened up even more.

"How many of the remaining cockroaches do you think I can deal with?"

"All of them." This was an affirmation, I felt that the rest were not a problem for Senior.

"If it was you, how many can you deal with?"

Uhh... if it was me... "Not even one of them." I saw senior furrowing his brows, very unsatisfied with my answer.

"Spiritual Language is a Cigam that dominates over the thoughts of living creatures. It also contains the soul of a type of secret language. What do you wish to happen to the rock worms after three seconds?"
[T/N: Cigam is Magic spelt backwards.]

Wish to happen? I seriously thought about this for a moment. "It would be best if they all just disappear."

Senior smiled, I couldn't tell what kind of smile it was; it was a little different from his usual smile. He was smiling, but his expression didn't look like he was smiling.

I saw a cockroach had unknowingly appeared behind senior; holding up its leg, it was planning to take a stab at us, "Ah...!" I wanted to let senior know.

But it all ended there.

"Three, two, one." Senior closed his eyes as he chanted, and I saw the crystal stone in his hand exploded. The tiny shiny fragments of the crystal turned into powder and fell all to the bottom of the box.

All the huge cockroaches started wailing. And suddenly disappeared right in front of my eyes.

Senior opened his eyes and flipped the box upside down, the sparkling powder flowed with the wind, falling on the ground and disappeared.

"This is basic spiritual language." He said.

* * *


I didn't quite understand what just happened, or what senior had said. All around, was silence; there was nothing there.

Senior simply threw the box on the ground, patted the dust off his hand, "This is your wish from the bottom of your heart, and through a sacrificial item and a medium, it turned into a type of incantation."

"Incantation?" The one that caused it to completely disappear?

"That's right, it's an incantation for spiritual language." Senior stretched out his hand, took out a notebook from my bag, and started writing a few things on it without my consent, "Nn... You'll only be able to learn some of these things in second grade... Forget it."

I saw him writing, a whole page full of words.

"I used to read manhuas and light novels, and most spiritual language user should be... They need to have a fair heart, correct?" To say this in a better way, I read a certain book before, where the spiritual language user was a doll, and was almost unable to think by itself.

Senior looked at me, "How could it be completely fair without mixing feelings in?" He smiled, totally disagreeing with me, "The interesting thing in spiritual language, is that you need to find the suitable timing in a period of time. Then, and only then, will it happen."

Finding a time in a period of time? I felt dizzy. Completely couldn't understand.

"For example, there are two cups, one is empty, whereas the other one is filled with water. If you wanted to poison one of the cups, you'll naturally pour it into the cup filled with water. And if you wanted to use spiritual language on a certain object, the object would naturally be something that exists." Senior threw the notebook back to me, "If your spiritual language says to curse a certain someone, but you can't curse someone who doesn't exist, in that period of time, the suitable person, thing and matter, thus the forming of the foundation is completed."

I scratched my head, not really understanding but seemed to understand it a little.

"Inside the time period, we have yet to know what will happen. Just like the rock insect from just now; you know they will be killed by me and won't exist in this world, but it's also possible that they will continue living. After choosing one from the two possibilities, your spiritual language said they will disappear, so they disappeared. This is a foreseeable future spiritual language." He lifted his hand, pointed at the remaining green liquid on the floor and said, "Within the period of time, this is reasonable, so the spiritual language propelled that time to happen, causing all the insects to be eliminated, thus the spiritual language is completed."

"I... don't really understand." Basically, I totally don't understand, and listening to the explanation caused me to feel completely dizzy as though I was floating. Their levels are too high.

"Never mind, the firmer the thought of the spiritual language user, the easier it is to exert its function. While the wavering and easily affected user would cause it to be ineffective. You just have to remember this first for now." Senior then ended the topic.

Fortunately he ended this topic first, otherwise if he continued talking about this, I think I'll most definitely fall asleep.

I nodded, I finally understood his last words.

Just when I thought senior wanted to head back, his cell phone rang and mine followed suit. It's not a phone call, but a message.

Pressing the buttons twice, I opened the message to take a look. On top, was an enigmatic message:

"Eradicated eleven rock insects, below is..." I opened my eyes wide, and saw an astronomical number.

"Sent by the accounting department, it's the reward for this job." Senior, who was already used to it, put his phone away and, he seemed to have suddenly thought of something, "I've forgotten about it, I still haven't brought you to apply for a universal account. Let's do it this way, the earliest you would be able to move into the dorm would be Sunday. After you've moved in, I'll help you to apply for these things."

Universal account? "Will a post office account do?"

"..."

"I'm sorry, just pretend I didn't say anything."

It was obvious senior was planning to pretend I didn't say anything, too, "On the last mission, because you didn't have a universal account, the money ghost had to send a check to you. The universal accounts here are basically usable everywhere throughout the whole world, compared to the... post office account, it's a little better."

I remembered that check, in the end, I took it to the bank to cash out and it really worked. It's just that I've never seen a similar kind of banknote before. So I guess, the whatchamacallit account senior mentioned should be something similar to this.

"I'll ask the money ghost to pass a check to you this time. In a few days, after your account is opened, you can slowly put your money in the bank."

Suddenly, I was very curious about the amount of money senior has in his account. It should be astronomical, I guess?

"It's a number you can never reach at the moment." Senior added.

Nn... how do I put this. I know senior has always been able to listen to my thoughts. To put this in a simpler term, it's just like the principle of an antenna and a radio, but this matter is only known to the two of us.

Did senior never think that... while I was thinking and he was talking, it'll look like he was talking to himself...?

And then I was murderously glared at by a pair of red eyes.

"Ah, damn!" In less than a second, the familiar shoe sole appeared right in front of me again.

* * *


And so, it was Friday.

"Spiritual language?" I asked. Just as the morning classes ended, Miao Miao, Ryan, and Chifuyu dragged me to the restaurant.

"This one, you'll need to ask Chifuyu." Miao Miao was the first one to push the question onto someone else.

"He's the only one who can explain this." It's said that Ryan, who was only good at using illusionary weapons and bad at everything else, carried four cups of drinks. I secretly glanced at the tray for a while, and fortunately there was no carbonated drink.

Then, everyone turned their attention towards Chifuyu, who was sitting upright. His sitting posture had always been really strange, very straight and upright just like a soldier. Miao Miao said it was due to occupational hazard, something he trained while he was at home. Could it be the what, what oracle extremely trains one to sit upright?

I saw him pushing back his black rimmed glasses, issuing a glaring reflection with a "glint" sound.

"The so-called spiritual language, which is in the time we can perceive..."

"Stop!" I raised my hand to stop him from continuing, "Pretend I didn't ask any question." As soon as I heard the beginning of his explanation, I already knew what he was going to say.

If it's too long, I'll fall asleep. If it's too deep, I won't understand. So it's still better to wait until the day when I'll naturally understand this.

Chifuyu clicked his tongue.

I suspected maybe no one had ever asked him that question before, and while he was just about to start his big speech, he got interrupted by me.

"Yang Yang, if you wanted to find out about these kinds of things, you can go and have a look at the library." Miao Miao suggested and she pushed a drink in front of me, it was a silverish-white drink that looked similar to milk, "In the student's library, there are books from all around the world, and there are also some which were found from another world. I guess it's possible for you to find your answer there."

"Where is the student library?" Senior seemed to have said something similar, but due to the school being so huge, I simply couldn't find the where the so-called library was.

"Inside the crystal tower... Uhh, actually the crystal tower is very conspicuous, you should be able to find it easily. There is a glass maze building nearby the crystal tower, and that would be the one."

I have yet to tell Miao Miao that I'd already been to the crystal tower, and also encountered the Elf.

"Glass maze building?" It was the building that caught my attention when I was in the crystal tower.

"It's a maze, so when you enter it, you'll need to be careful because there are strange things being reared inside." Chifuyu told me, "You must bring the talisman I gave you, this way, there won't be any problems."

Your talisman had already turned into a bloody enhanced version. However, I didn't have the guts to tell Chifuyu that.

"Furthermore, beside the glass maze building, there are another three libraries, where only white robes, purple robes, and black robes can enter. Yang Yang you need to pay a little more attention and not go into the wrong one." Miao Miao was drinking her beverage as she told me, "Only people qualified for robe level are allowed to enter the other three buildings."

"What will happen if I accidentally entered?" I was more curious about this matter.

"Directly killed, regardless of the reason." Ryan's sentence caused me to turn into a statue.

"That's a joke." He used such a non-joking and serious expression to joke with me. I so wanted to beat him up right now.

"If you stray into the white robe's library, you will be chased by rocks. If you stray into the purple robe's library, you will be chased by turtles. And if you stray into the black robe's library, it will set dogs and cattle after you." Chifuyu said while shifting the position of his glasses.

What, what, and what!? That didn't sound too terrible, but I still wrote these down on my notebook.

"There is a librarian in the glass maze, if you wanted to look for any book, you can directly ask him. He is a really nice person." Smiling slightly, MiaoMiao gave me a lifeline, the librarian has all the knowledge of the books in his palm, he can certainly help you out."

I nodded firmly, "Thank you."

After moving into the dorms, I'll have lots of time to go to the library, and then I'll take my time to have a look at some stuff. Wait a moment. At the mention of the library, I thought of something else, "Ryan, can you do me a favor?"

Ryan, who was eating his desert, gave me a puzzled look, "Say it." But his reply was very straightforward.

So I took out the blue illusionary weapon gem senior had given to me. It was still the same as it was the other day; very blue and absolutely beautiful, just like the color of seawater.

When Ryan saw the stone, he was completely stunned.

"Yang Yang wanted to know things related to this illusionary weapon, so he can successfully activate it." Miao Miao, who was sitting on side side, said to him.

"Ryan?" Chifuyu called out, and then we all noticed that Ryan had an extremely dumbfounded expression, we asked, "Is there a problem with this weapon?"

Ryan finally snapped out of his trance, and noticed that all of us were looking at him, "No, it's nothing. Yang Yang, this is... something senior gave you?" His tone was full of doubt.

"Nn, Senior gave this to me on the first day of school." I didn't understand why Ryan looked so shocked.

He picked up the gem, repeatedly looked at it a few times. He then took out a leather roll from his waist and opened it. Inside, were many small tools I've never seen before. Ryan used these small tools and examined the gem. He really looked like an expert appraiser.

Only after a long period of time, did Ryan put his tools down, I thought he had already came to a conclusion.

"Yang Yang, I think even I can hardly teach you how to use this illusionary weapon." Ryan looked at me; his blue green eyes had an indescribable treachery in them, "It's very rare to even see a pure type weapon, especially this type... a royal weapon."

"A royal weapon?"

"How can that be?"

"Is that true?"

Three of our voices overlapped with each other.

"Could it be just a typical pure type weapon?" Chifuyu grabbed the gem from his friend's hand and inspected it, "Many pure type weapons look almost like this, royal weapon... That's impossible."

I can't understand the so-called pure types and royal weapons, but looking at their shocked expressions, this gem must be really important.

"A typical pure type weapon should be smooth and clear, but Yang Yang's has a royal marking inside." Ryan pointed at the ice crystal marking inside the gem, "This is the marking of a royal weapon. Even I have not used this before." He took out his necklace, and sure enough both inside and outside, the pure colored gems were clean and smooth, with not even a tiny bit of marking.

So, senior gave me a royal weapon?

"Last time I saw another royal weapon, it was senior's. But I never thought he would give Yang Yang the same thing." Miao Miao looked at the gem and as though she was full of admiration, she said faintly, "Yang Yang you should have seen it before, too, because senior only has one illusionary weapon."

I remember now, that silver spear.

"Senior's weapon is an extremely high level weapon, but for a black robe to have that type of weapon is something taken for granted." Ryan coolly said, "His illusionary weapon is a fire and ice royal weapon, it's a weapon with opposing elements."

Fire and ice? A combination of naturally opposing elements? But it really is something senior will use. It seemed like a very fine, and somewhat crazy type of mystifying weapon.

"It's probably the one and only opposing elemental weapon in our school." Chifuyu responded, "The appearance of an opposing elemental weapon is not documented in any books, and senior never told anyone about the origin of the weapon. So we thought it should be something related to his background. However, no one knows where senior came from either."

I think, he should be from another planet.

"Back to the topic." Ryan coughed twice to cleared his throat, "I think Yang Yang's illusionary weapon should be a Neptune Royal Weapon, a weapon with water attribute."

Water attribute? I looked at the gem lying on the table as I kept repeating this in my mind.

"Royal weapons are a little bit more difficult to activate. Yang Yang, you must definitely properly consider the type of weapon you want before you try to sign a contract with the Elf, especially since the Elves of royal weapons usually have bad tempers. You need to take note of these problems." Ryan picked up the gem and placed it on my hand, "If you don't dare to use it, I can give you a substitute first." While saying that, he took out a similar blue gem from his necklace, but there were some white pattern mix on top.

I pondered over senior's intention of giving this to me. Since he will give this to me, this meant I should be using this gem, so I turned down Ryan's offer, "It's alright, I'll first give this a go." I was thinking that maybe senior was hoping I can make a breakthrough, right?

Ryan smiled and stored gem on his hand, "Alright, then that should be all."

"Yang Yang, do your best!" Miao Miao clapped her hands and said. She looked really happy, "We will definitely help you." She then held out her hand.

"Looking forward to the shaping of your weapon." Ryan put his palm on top of Miao Miao's palm.

"Anything you don't know, we'll teach you." Chifuyu also stacked his palm on top, and then all of them looked at me.

I laughed and followed suit, stacking my palm on top of theirs. "I will work hard."

Thus, all of us laughed as one.

""""Do our best, do our best, let's all do our best together!"""" We shouted really loudly, the people nearby all turned around and looked at us.

That right, I will work hard, until I can become someone who qualifies to belong here.

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Chapter 7 : The Black Robe Residence

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Location: Taiwan
Time: 11:30am

It was Sunday and I had already packed all the necessary things to stay in the dorm.

"Your senior said he is going to pick you up?" Chu Ming Yue, who was standing at the side of the door, asked lazily, and on her hand was a cup of fruit tea, looking extremely relaxed.

Your little brother is stuck between a rock and a hard place, and you're still in the mood to drink tea! "He called earlier to say he probably needs a little more time before the car will arrive."

Speaking of calls, he called the strange cell phone. But up till now, cell phone still didn't need to be charged, what the hell?! Wait a moment, a car?

My first thought was that wildcat car. If it were that car being sent here, I won't go even if I'm beaten to death.

"Take it." My sis handed me a snack box, "Someone sent this earlier."

I took it, and as usual, it was a desert box. After staying in the dorm, I guess there would be no one who would help my sis to consume her snacks anymore.

"But the dorm is very close, so I'll still come back during the weekends." Come on, I'm also very reluctant to leave home, if it wasn't for that wildcat car... *Sob, sob*, I hate that wildcat car!

"I thought you would say you would be doing jobs during the holidays and won't be coming back." My sis sipped her tea while glancing at me with her beautiful eyes.

In fact, I didn't even need to wait for the holidays, I've already started to take on jobs. In addition, I had mysteriously completed two jobs, and I currently have the check I had just received inside my bag. On top of it all, it had a fine print of, for me, what felt like a horribly astronomical number.

"Haha..." What else can I say? I pulled up the last zipper of my suitcase. In fact, I didn't bring much stuff: three sets of school uniforms, the uniform's jacket, some casual clothing I normally wear, and a few books. There was nothing else besides those.

No matter how strange it was over there, I think some daily necessities should be available to be bought. Senior also told me before that new blanket and pillow will be provided by the dorm, so bring as little as I possibly could.

"Yang Yang!" My mother's voice came from downstairs, "Someone is looking for you!"

Someone is looking for me? Feeling suspicious, I hastily ran downstairs, and saw my mother giving off an ambiguous expression.

"Ah, ah, you little rascal. You're pretty popular, eh?" She lightly jabbed her elbow into my side while smiling strangely.

I recognize this smile, the last time when Miao Miao came over, she smiled in the exact same way. Could it be that Miao Miao came again!?

I quickly hurried to the anteroom. Someone was standing there, and it wasn't Miao Miao. He was wearing a typical casual shirt, and a pair of jeans below; a very normal way of dressing up. On his head was a cap, covering up a large amount of his face, showing only the very white skin of his chin. His long black hair was also tied up into a bundle.

Who? I started to shift gears around my mind, however, I couldn't remember getting acquainted with this person.

My mother was hiding behind, peeking at us. "Uhh... is..."

"Took you long enough to pack up." The person was faster at opening his mouth, and then he took off his cap.

I opened my eyes wide, totally shocked. Under the cap was senior's face. He actually dyed his hair black! The hell!?

With a "flop" sound, the cap was thrown at my face. With this, I was even more sure he was senior.

His eyes were black, lacking the normal pressure from his reddish glare, "Do you want your whole family to become curious about the people in school?!" He tugged my ears and said with lowered voice.

I understand now, he was in a disguise, just like a chameleon being camouflaged in its environment.

That's true. If Senior came in with his usual looks, I think my mother won't just be curiously ambiguous, she would most definitely make a fuss out of it. She would grab me and interrogating me.

"Chameleon, yourself." Senior removed his hand and stood upright, and politely greeted my mother, "Hello aunty, I'm Chu Ming Yang's Senior. I'm here to help him with moving into the dorm."

My mother immediately jumped out, but I think she was a little disappointed because senior was not a female senior.

"You're Yang Yang's senior, and yet, you're even helping him move. My house's little brat is really troubling you so much." But my mother quickly recovered her feelings and smiled, "Have you eaten? Aunty is cooking right now, would you want to come in and sit down?"

Senior curved up a perfect smile, but his smile was very business-like, somewhat similar to those commercial counter lady, "No need to trouble you, aunty. The driver is waiting outside." And then he glanced at me.

"That's right mom, then I'll be going to the dorm with senior, I'll have my lunch outside." I knew senior was very impatient, who knows if he would suddenly release dinosaurs to chomp on people. Thus, I hurriedly grabbed onto the luggage I had prepared, put on my shoes, and jumped down to the anteroom, "You, father and sis, don't miss me too much."

But I will miss you guys, I will miss my home; warm with no mental stress.

I heard my mother saying, "Have a safe trip!"

* * *


The weather during that day was very clear. I followed senior out of my house, and saw a white SUV parked in front of my house. Fortunately, it wasn't the wildcat car. I secretly rejoiced.

"Hello, dear student!" On the seat was the assistant. On the driver's seat was actually the assistant!? The wooly lion!

Senior turned his head away, and I definitely heard a "pfft" sound; he actually laughed!

"Get inside the car, quickly." He opened the door, kicked me in, and sat at the seat beside the driver.

I didn't expect this car to be so ordinary; internal organs and whatnot were not present. Thank God, thank God. I was really scared that as soon as I climbed into the car, internal organs would appear. That would really make me want to scream.

The assistant looked at me through the rear-view mirror, "Don't worry, my driving skill is very good, especially with this type of ordinary car, which is similar to a toy car."

Boss, then please do drive this toy car with care. I'm very afraid this car would suddenly fly in the sky, burrow into the earth or whatnot.

"This car can't fly." Senior, who was sitting in front, had already turned his hair back into its original look, this reminds me of some kind of... uhh, insect, "But if you continue thinking nonsense, you'll be the one who will immediately fly."

I know, you'll send me flying with your kick.

"Uhh,... how are we going to get to school?" The only way I knew to get to school was to get hit by a train, and the operating hours was only during the mornings.

"Rather than going to school, don't you think we should take advantage of this nice weather, and go for a ride?" The assistant was smiling so happily for some reason.

I had a really bad feeling, especially when I saw senior, who was at the front seat, adjusting his seat belt. This can't be right!?

Just as my mind went blank, the assistant really stepped on the accelerator! He stepped on the accelerator on a residential street!

At that moment, the first thought that came to mind was: fortunately there were less people on the street since it was an off day. But this was not the problem, ahhhh—!!!

I saw the speedometer rising up from sixty to a hundred and thirty. However, the most terrifying thing the fact that the maximum limit on the speedometer was actually one thousand.

Wait a moment! A thousand kilometers!? A thousand kilometers per hour!? What kind of damn car is this?!

"In my younger years I rushed towards the sunset~~" The assistant was actually singing! And his singing sucks!

"Chu, why are you not sitting properly?" Senior, who at the front, turned his head around and saw me tightly hugging on to the back of his seat, like a koala.

Because I'm very afraid of being flung out.

"There are seat-belts in the back seat." Senior reminded me, it's only then that I noticed the two straps bouncing about. I immediately struggled towards the seat and tied myself onto the seat.

"Mmmmmmmmust you drive so quickly?" I almost bit my tongue because the car suddenly braked and did a sharp turn.

"Tyre is a fan of racing." Senior was very calm, I suspected he often rides in the assistant's car, so he was already numb towards this speed.

"Ahaha, you don't have to put it that way; I'm the messenger who pursues love and speed." The assistant flirtatiously winked at the both of us and continued, "Just the same way I admire the beautiful Highness and the cute Yang Yang."

I saw senior's vein popping out, I suspected that if we weren't in a car, he would most probably have given him a kick. So to say, from the day I was born, this was the first time being complimented as cute by a lion hair. But at that second... I felt like vomiting.

When I finally brought my attention back to the situation, the SUV was already speeding on the coastline. That's not right, coastline!? When did he reach the seaside!?

"Still haven't had enough yet?" Senior's tone had already become very impatient, so the assistant turned the steering wheel, "Alright alright, that's it, we'll go out for another ride next time." He said regretfully, as though he still wanted to speed up for another run.

There won't be a next time! My whole body was stuck to the seat, as I thought to myself.

I suddenly saw senior pressing the button to roll down the window, took off his seat belt, and sat on the window. The sea breeze blew his silver hair into a mess, looking like silvery waves.

"Dear student, you need to sit well." I had yet to understand the meaning of what he had said, when he suddenly hit the emergency brake and the steering wheel sharply turned to the right— Rushing towards the sea!

"Ahhhh—!!!" I don't want to jump into the sea to commit suicide!

Surprisingly, senior did not get thrown out, and was sitting very securely. From the pocket of his jeans, he took out a small yellow crystal-like object, "Five seconds before teleportation. Four, three, two, one!"

Then the SUV drove into the water.

I heard the screams of the visitors at the coast. Outside the windows of the SUV, the space started twisting. This allowed me to realized we were heading straight to school.

But... Do you really need to take it to such a spectacular scale each and every time!?

* * *


When I opened my eyes for the second time, we were not at the beach anymore. The car stopped in front of a building, that looked like a medieval architecture.

Although I called it a building, it looked a bit like a tower, but also looked a little like a belfry. There was a very ancient type of feeling portrayed on it. It was occupied a very large amount of land. It seemed like it was big enough to build a luxury mansion there, and the building was around four or five stories high. It also had a sharp pointed top, and big clock.

I don't know why, but this big building made me think of something that always appeared in the movies... The place where killer ghosts came out from!

Senior and the assistant had already gotten out of the car. All around the building was a small garden, looked like the type of small garden in a western-style house, the type where roses will bloom there, but unfortunately, the flowers planted here weren't roses, seemed like I've never seen this type of flowers before.

"We've arrived." Senior walked over and opened the door to the back seat, "Come down quickly, and stop daydreaming."

I immediately held on to my luggage and jumped out of the car. Taking a closer look, the building made me feel even more pressured; the imposing feeling was very strong.

"Don't forget, you owe me one." The assistant smiled, patted Senior's shoulder, and went back into the car, "I'm going back to work, see you again, dear student."

"Oh, see you." I waved at the assistant. If you'll be driving again next time I see you, I'd rather not see you again.

Senior walked over here, "This is the black robe's only dormitory, Black Vine Dorm." He looked at the tower, and continued, "Of all the dormitories, this is the one is with the least amount of people living in it. Also, the place where the most people cannot get near to."

His explanation made me very scared. No matter how I looked at the tower, it looked like a haunted mansion. Extremely scared!

For some reason, this place felt very chilly. Even when I'm standing far away from it, I could feel a type of sinister energy drifting over. It was obviously very sunny just a moment ago, so why was there not even a ray of sunlight here!

All black robes live in a demon collecting and distributing center, right!?

Senior gave me a punch behind my head, "What nonsense." He then walked up ahead by himself.

I quickly followed him. After taking just two steps forward, I stopped. The door... There was a face stuck on the door! That's not right, there really was a face stuck on the door. There wasn't only one... but a large number of them!?

I saw many faces appearing one after another on the black glass door in front of senior, as though they were being forcefully crammed together, with varying expressions. There were faces, but there was no body!

I took two steps back.

"It's here again!" Senior's tone was full of disgust.

What, what is here again!? Just as I was about to turn around and flee, I saw... a face coming off the glass door, heading straight for senior!

"Charles!" Just as if he was swatting at a mosquito, senior gave it one slap, and smacked the face back into the glass. I witnessed the face being crooked towards one side, along with its eyes, nose, mouth, and whatnot, becoming totally deformed.

"Charles!" Senior used one leg to kick the glass door open (I was under the impression that he did not want to use his hands to touch those faces) and roared.

The well-kicked face was completely flattened down. I suspected senior's habit of kicking people was probably nurtured here.

Just as senior roared the second time, I faintly heard the sound of someone running, and someone suddenly appeared at the door.

A very pale person who didn't look much different from a corpse.

He had short brown hair, and it looked like it was set with a very strong hair gel... *Cough* Well you know, his whole hair was combed backwards, glaringly shiny, that kind of hair. The shriveled face had a pair of sharp khaki eyes, that kept moving about. He didn't feel like he was a normal person. He was wearing a black robe similar to the one the senior usually wears.

I suddenly understood the saying "Not everyone would look good wearing nice clothing."

When senior was wearing the black robe, he was very handsome, absolutely handsome. But when I saw this guy wearing the black robe, I suddenly thought he was actually wearing a black plastic garbage bag, the one we always use to put garbage in when we are preparing to move to a different house.

"I've said before: if you continue to place your collection of souls carelessly, I'll burn the whole damn lot of them!" Senior's tone was extremely crude. Beside him, there was another face trying to get out, but was given a punch and it retracted back inside.

Collection of souls!? I stood at the same place with my eyes wide opened. Just now, I didn't hear wrongly, did I?

"Gaaaa... I'll immediately put them away, immediately put them away..." The big black garbage bag seemed to be very afraid of senior, shrinking behind the glass door.

In a short moment, all the faces on the glass door had disappeared. Senior turned around, looked at me, and said, "Chu, come in."

I knew I was going to die. This building was definitely not an ordinary place. Without any choice, dragged my feet, one step at a time, towards the path of death.

God, please bless me so that I'll be safe. Even if you can't bless me, you still must bless me!

* * *


The dorm's hall was a lot cleaner than I had imagined. The faces on the glass door had me thinking that as soon as I enter the building, I would most probably see a running skeleton waving its hands at me while rushing past or something similar, and thus, I had prepared myself mentally. However, I never thought that as soon as I entered, there would be nothing inside, even the black rubbish bag from earlier had disappeared without leaving a trace.

This was the first floor hall of the Western building. From here, I could see the long, big, and beautiful staircase. The high ceiling reached up all the way to the third floor, with a huge crystal lamp decorating the highest point; the type seen in movies. It was that kind of extremely gorgeous and luxurious item.

Inside the hall, there was a sofa, and some tables and chairs. Further ahead on the walls, were paintings, some pretty pastoral paintings, and portraits. There were also animal paintings, giving off a very warm feeling.

"This is the common hall. On the first floor, there the a kitchen and warehouse, the dining room, and a few small rooms, but the rooms are saved for... people to live in."

'Those dots absolutely had some problems!' I was screaming in my mind.

"From second floor onwards, there are six rooms in each floor, up until the fourth floor; a total of eighteen rooms. There are currently fifteen black robes, so there are still three empty rooms. Each floor has some ancillary social centre, small library, etcetera. You'll understand as soon as you see them, and bathrooms are available in each room; no sharing." Senior first gave me a simple introduction, "Each and every one of the black robes has their own different habits, so I suggest you better not loiter around."

I definitely would not loiter around. Basically, I'm very hesitant to even stay here. I have even started to doubt whether or not my decision was the right one.

This place looked like a place Vampires or some other demonic aristocrats lived in... There might even be screams, and sounds of whipping and torture every night. Thinking this, I involuntarily shivered. However, I soon noticed something, "What about fifth floor?" I remembered seeing it was a five-storey building earlier, and on top was a pointed triangular roof. It should be where the attic was located.

Senior turned around to look at me, "You can't go to the fifth floor and above, there are no stairs going up there."

I shouldn't have asked.

"I live in a room on fourth floor. The three empty rooms on that floor, so you can pick one of them to stay in later." Completely ignoring my thoughts, senior continued, "The other two people living on fourth floor are very easy to get along with, as long as you don't break their taboo."

I took two steps back.

"I'll take you to see your room, let's go." Without giving me a chance experience a slimmer of regret, senior walked up the stairs.

Very hesitant, extremely, extremely hesitant. I was very hesitant as to whether I should follow him up the stairs. Suddenly, I saw the statues beside the stairs, they should be made of copper, something that always appear inside the movies; the two knightly statues were placed each on each side.

That's strange, were they there before? Why did I not notice them when I entered earlier?

However, what felt strange wasn't the copper statues, it was the paintings. The paintings all around me seem to feel... a little unnatural... For example, the portrait of a girl to my left...

"Gaaaaaaahhhhhh—————"

The second I turned my head around, the girl inside the portrait suddenly opened her mouth wide, with her whole face covering the entire painting, and screamed at me!

"Whoaaaaaahhhhhh—————" Mom, oh mom, oh mom, oh mom—!!

The black glass door behind slammed shut with a "bang". I didn't even dare to look back. I started scrambling up the stairs.

This was a haunted house! This was definitely a haunted house! I want to go home!!!

* * *


"Which hundred meter race are you participating in?" Stopping at the end of the flight of stairs on fourth floor, senior looked at me with a skeptical expression, who was awkwardly panting like a dog.

"There's something, there's something, there's something, there's something, there's something strange——" I started shouting hysterically.

Red eyes glanced at me and then looked away, "There're a lot of them, but after looking at them for a long time, you'll get used to it." He then walked towards the corridor.

A lot? What do you mean by a lot!? I quickly rushed toward senior, closely following him.

The corridor was very long; on one side, there were arched tall windows, whereas on the other side, there was a gallery, where most of the decorations were either plaster, or copper statues, and a small amount of paintings.

"This is my room." After walking a set distance, turning at the third junction of the corridor, there's no more path ahead, senior stopped. However, there was a silverish white door, with an unknown decoration hanging on it. It looked somewhat like a bird.

Then, he continued onwards. While walking, I felt the decorations in the corridor seemed to have come alive... Every strand of hair on my body stood up.

"This room is available." After walking for less than ten seconds, we stopped for the second time, after turning at the corridor there was another room, a dark blue door with nothing hanging on it, "The layout of all the rooms are the same, you can take a look before deciding which room..."

"I'll stay in this room!" Without using even two seconds to consider, I immediately decided.

Because this room was the nearest one to senior's room. If anything were to happen, it would be easier for me to get help.

Senior gave me an understanding look, "Alright." He took out a key from his pocket; it was also dark blue in colour. He unlocked the door, and passed the key to me, "This is the key for this room, keep it properly, it'll be troublesome if you lose it."

I looked at the object in my hand, it was a tetrahedron shaped key, the handle was decorated with small pieces of gems, and it looked really beautiful.

"The basic necessities have already prepared." Senior opened the door and went in.

To be truthful, the interior of the room was extremely normal, but extremely broad. As soon as I entered, it felt really huge. There was one table, a set of sofas. There was even a television, bookcase, and whatnot. There were also two other doors at both sides of the walls, "This is the bedroom." Senior similarly opened another door, inside was a large bed. On top, was a set of new pillows; it looked very soft and very comfortable. There was also a large wardrobe. He pointed at the other side of the door, and said, "The other side is the bathroom."

If this was not a haunted house, this room could be called as a completely luxurious single-bedroom residence.

"I remember there is a notebook inside the bookcase. The internet here is already connected properly, so you are free to use it."

Truthfully, this dorm is really too good!

I put the luggage on the sofa, and walked around the area, when I remembered that senior still hadn't opened the bathroom yet, so I thought of opening it to take a look.

I'm not sure who said this, all the tragedies occurred due to having an itchy hand. Which was referring to people like me.

As soon as I opened the toilet door, I immediately regretted it.

"Whoaaaaaaahhhhhhh———!!!"

Inside the bathroom, on the wall, there was an upper half of a human body embedded in it. However, the main point was... he was biting onto a shower head.

Which pervert built this dormitory!?

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Chapter 8 : The Five-Colored Rooster Head’s Challenge

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Location: Atlantis
Time: 7:10am

"So you're living together with Senior!"

In the early Monday morning, before I'd had enough sleep, I was drowsily awakened by a phone call, and was invited to go for breakfast. Currently, I am sitting beside Miao Miao who suddenly issued an unbelievable remark.

"Spfft!" Ryan almost spat out his rice ball.

On the other side, although there was no sound coming from Chifuyu, from the way he was pounding his chest, it seemed like he choked on his food, too.

"We're not living together, but due to the lack of dorms, I'm temporary living in the black robe's Black Vine Dorm." I refuted in less than a second.

Who wants to live in that haunted house?! I barely slept the whole of night, fearing the human model biting onto the shower head in the bathroom would rush out and bite my head, instead! The person who set up the model there was really ghoulish!

"I'm so jealous..." Miao Miao's eyes were shining while staring at me.

"Then, let's exchange our rooms." I believe there was no other dorm scarier than the haunted house.

Miao Miao shook her head, "I would love to do that, too, but it's impossible. Other than the black robes and exceptions, no one can enter." Her small face was full of disappointment, and then she sighed.

"Black Dorm... short for Black Vine Dorm, the management there is a whole lot stricter than the other dorms, so even if we wanted to go, we won't be able to." Chifuyu said to me, and then picked up the last piece of jam bread from the plate, "Similar to Ryan's White Tendril Dorm, basically as long as it's a dorm for the robes, it's very difficult to even pay him a visit, but it also depends on the manager's temperament.

"White Tendril?"

"That's the white robe's dorm, the purple robe's dorm is called Purple Bramble Dorm, and for ordinary students, it's called as First Thorn Dorm, Second Dorm, and so on, using this method to name the dorm." Miao Miao smiled, "Odd numbers are for the female students whereas even numbers are for the male students. Both me and Chifuyu are staying in the Thorn Dorm."

The dormitory actually has this type of difference, I nodded and noted it down. The big plate on the table was already empty, it was time to conclude our breakfast.

"The first class is Basic Magic Arrays, Nn... Ryan is not taking this course with us, right?" Miao Miao glanced at her timetable and asked.

Ryan shook his head.

I think it was probably due to his level being different from us, so he didn't need to choose the same elective as us.

"He chose another one, a special course for white robes." Chifuyu finished the rest of his milk, and wiped his mouth, "Let's attend this course, just the three of us."

Special course? This reminded me of senior who didn't seemed to attend many classes. Was he taking special courses, too?

"I'll take my leave first, my class starts twenty minutes earlier." Ryan stood up, grabbed his bag, and hurriedly left.

From behind, his back was still hunched. It was different compared to the person whom faced the spirit ghost the other day.

Not long after Ryan had left, it was also almost time for us to leave the restaurant. It was then when I remembered I had forgotten to take something from the dormitory, damn it. This morning I woke up in a daze, and I had totally forgotten about it, "You guys head to the classroom first, I want to go back and get something. I'll catch up to you guys immediately." I had forgotten my phone in the dorm.

"You need to hurry then." Miao Miao said to me, "Magic Array class is held in the specialized classroom. I told you this before, you won't get lost, right?"

Last week, although it was only half day class, the teachers took us around to have a look at each of the classrooms, so I remembered where it was.

"No problem."

* * *


When I had rushed back to the dorm, it was already around half past seven. My first lesson was set to start at seven forty, so there was still ten minutes for me to rush there.

As soon as I stepped into the hall, my whole heart was beating quickly. "Namo Amitabha*, please all of you Madams, Sirs, Misses and Misters, please don't make things difficult for me... I just came back to get something..."
[T/N: A phrase in Buddhist's chants, praying homage towards Amitabha.]

I didn't dare look around as I ran up the stairs. Until I had reached the fourth floor, nothing actually happened. Lucky, today was really a lucky day. But I'm very experienced in this; a period of time where I am lucky never lasts long.

Just as I reached the fourth floor and was planning to continue rushing into my room, in the middle of the corridor, a dark green door suddenly opened and someone dressed in black came out of the room. It was the same straight black coat senior always wore.

"Nn... you..." The person was stunned for a moment. For a moment, he was making an expression of someone who he looked like he was thinking of something, and suddenly remembered something. "You are the person he brought in, the first ordinary student to stay in Black Dorm."

Alright, I'm very ordinary. But the ordinary me is rushing for class, "I'm sorry, I need to go back to my room for awhile." I was anxious to get back the phone because senior said I need to take it with me no matter where I go.

That person stood at the same spot, looking at me rushing away. When I got the phone from my room and went out to the corridor, he was already gone. A very mysterious person.

I gave it my all to rush out of the dorm and the second I stepped out of the building, the black glass door automatically slammed shut with a bang. I felt that one day I'll be crushed by that freaking door.

Then I braked. Someone was blocking the path exiting the dorm.

It was the five-colored rooster head whom I've not met since the first day of school. And the strange thing was, his chaotic five-colored hair was actually different; it had turned into another five different colors, and it gave an even more vivid feel to it.

I didn't do anything that will cause him to block my way, right? I think he might be here to block someone else.

"Hey, stop right there!" The voice of the five-colored rooster head was like a roar from hell. And I, started to run for my life.

Who would stop?!

I was only lucky for two seconds, the colorful rooster head suddenly appeared in front of me. It was thanks to my sudden deceleration that I didn't immediately crashed into his head. Only God knows what would happen if I had crashed into a head that looked like a five-colored steel brush.

"Why did you run?" He uttered the sentence all delinquents would say when they are blocking someone.

I gulped, "No, I'm late for class." I do not want to stay here and spend time with you. The five-colored rooster head obviously didn't plan to let me go, he was blocking the path right in front of me.

"These are the only possessions I have with me, please let me go." I cowardly fished out my bag and offered it to him. You need to know that in manhuas, light novels, TV shows, and movies, the main characters, who was not afraid of the power of the evil doers, came forward to resist them. These are all lies. When a professional Assassin blocks the path in front of them, I'd like to see which main character would dare to give him even a punch and starts yelling about "justice always prevailing over the forces of evil".

He glanced at me, and snorted disdainfully, "That's not even enough to fill the spaces between my teeth."

...I'm sorry, I'm poor. Are you satisfied now?!

"Come with me."

He uttered the number two standard sentence delinquents always use. The next thing that's probably going to happen can easily be imagined; to be dragged to a place where nobody is around, get beaten to death, abandon the corpse, and the like.

I dragged my steps, extremely unwilling to follow him. After walking two steps, the five-colored rooster head suddenly turned around, and noticed I was still at the same spot, "Don't worry, I'll only kill people if there's money involved, and the money you have is not even enough to buy your own life."

...I'm actually not considered as cheap? I took a deep breath, but could only bite the bullet and follow him.

Circling past the Black Dorm's area, he kept walking straight without stopping towards the other side of the campus.

To tell the truth, I have yet to finish exploring the school grounds. I've never been to the place he brought me to, but it should be some sort of a flower garden. All around, there were tiny yellow flowers I have never seen before. I even heard the sound of a fountain somewhere nearby, and from here, I could also see the traces of other buildings where classes were being held.

The five-colored rooster head finally stopped in front of a pavilion; the landscape behind the pavilion was a fountain and a small bridge. It's only then when I realized we had reached the edge of the garden. Inside the fountain was a mermaid sculpture.

"What is your relationship with the four-eyed nerd." The five-colored rooster head suddenly asked.

"Uhh... just normal friends." I guess that's probably it, but truthfully, from the start of school until now, we haven't been acquainted for that long of a time. Even if I wanted to say we were super close friends, I couldn't make myself say it out loud.

"Which kind of normal?"
"The ordinary kind of normal."

After three seconds, the five-colored rooster head appeared to have given up on getting the answer.

"That's right, may I ask for your name...?" I can't really just call him as the five-colored rooster head, right? Although I really wanted to, I know the moment I say out loud, I would be murdered.

He looked at me, "Ziray... Ziray Rogeria."

His name didn't really match with his looks. I still feel that "five-colored rooster head" would be easier to say. At least one would know who it was referring to as soon as it was said.

"Well then, classmate Ziray, do you still have any more questions?"

The moment I asked this, from a distance... an unknown beast howl could be heard. I knew it was. The school bell had rang, because on the first day, I was really frightened by it.

Then, there was several sounds of clashing heavy objects hitting the ground, causing the ground to shake.

Well, looks like I'll have to go and chase down the classroom...

"You know, our clan has a bad relationship with the Yukino Clan, right?!" The five-colored rooster head directly went to the main point.

"I know." I resigned myself to my fate and nodded. I knew since the first day of school.

"If the four eyed nerd continue to take on the position of the Yukino Clan, there will be a day when someone from my generation will have to kill him." The five-colored rooster head did a throat slitting action.

I took one step back. He came to find me to listen to his lecture about his declaration to kill someone!?

"But of course it will be on the condition where someone would pay us to kill them." The five-colored rooster head was very satisfied with my shocked expression, "You know what his family does for a living? If they don't want to continue being killed by us, ask them to use their whatchamacallit prided prediction to see into the future." He said as he patted my shoulder.

Wait... Wait, wait... He looked for me to tell me all this...? For what reasons?

"You really are not someone from this world; for you to not feel anything towards both our clans." He snorted twice with an expression rather hard to describe. Smiling while not smiling, he looked rather evil.

Now, I don't know what I was supposed to say, and I didn't have the chance to continue talking.

"Then Mr. Rogeria from this world, why do you have to make things difficult for a student who is in a hurry?"

Thanks to someone else's voice, the five-colored rooster head's expression changed. We didn't discover that there was someone so close to us, and had even listened to our conversation for quite some time.

There was a person standing on the surface of the water, just in front of the mermaid sculpture. He wore a straight black coat. Not too long ago, I just saw him coming out from the dark green door. He was a black robe.

* * *


"Classes had already started, and the two of you are still here."

I noticed that this black robe seemed non-human, too. He had blond hair, vaguely similar to Restua because his hair seemed to be glowing, too. His blue eyes stared straight at us, which was rather sharp.

"Hmph... Mind your own business." The five-colored rooster head expressed obvious dislike towards him.

Then the black robe slowly walked on water towards us, dexterously jumped, and landed beside us, "Of course it's my business, this some morning. Before this student's guide went out to work, he had already entrusted me to pay attention to this person." His face was perfect, but it didn't have the dreamy look Restua had.

Senior asked him to help look after me? I suddenly remembered I have not seen senior today. I thought he had overslept again.

"Andy from the Wood Angel Clan, you had better not barge into our business, since it has nothing to do with you." The five-colored rooster head's tone was very rushed.

Wait a moment, an Angel? Wood Angel!? After an Elf it's an Angel? And the Angel is living in the black haunted house? Could there be any mistake!?

I was feeling rather faint. This school was really not lacking in wonders.

"I've already accepted this request, so this matter is not something that has nothing to do with me." Andy was still smiling, and then I realized the difference between him and Restua. Restua's smile would at least make anyone nearby feel very comfortable. However, for some reason, when the Angel smiled... there was no feeling behind it. It was as though he was wearing some kind of mask.

He also hated the five-colored rooster head very much. That, I was very certain of.

"You want to have a go at it?" The five-colored rooster head's tone worsened.

"Why not?" Andy seemed like he would gladly accept, "I'll let you understand your stupidity for challenging a black robe."

'Who was it that said Angels were peace-loving creatures? Who was it!? Who was that ended up saying it!?' I held onto my head while screaming in my mind.

There was not even a slighter of kindness in this Angel, nor was he peaceful! I also realized he was intentionally being provocative, intentionally wanting to start a fight!

"What's so great about being a black robe?" The five-colored rooster head seemed to be the type of person who loves fighting. He made a gesture by pointed his little pinky downwards, "Everyone knows that you took about a hundred years before you got your black robe. With that amount of time, who wouldn't be able to do it? More than half the people in your dorm are much stronger than you!"

Can you just shut up!?

I noticed that Andy's smile had vanished from his face. The faint glow from earlier had already faded away. He looked like the calm before the storm.

But I certainly didn't miss what was just said a moment ago.

A hundred years? This angel took a hundred years to pass as a black robe? Then how long did senior take? Wasn't he only older than me by one year!?

This Angel studied in this school for a hundred years? Then how long do I need to study here before I can graduate?

I suddenly felt that my future was filled with darkness. If an angel studied here for a hundred years, then I would probably study until only my bones and ashes were left, and still wouldn't be able to graduate, probably. Don't tell me I need to study in this freaking school for the rest of my life? This can't be happening!?

"Rogeria Clan's reputation had always been really poor, even if I teach you a lesson right here, I believe everyone would be really happy." He took out a long knife. Andy had already stopped smiling; looking really serious, so serious that it was absolutely frightening.

He glanced at me, and I shivered. If you guys want to fight, then please go ahead. Don't drag others to die with you, alright?!

"Very good, I've longed to beat up an Angel." The five-colored rooster head's hand suddenly contracted, muscles stretching, just like the first day that I saw him. Distorting in less than a second, his right hand had already turned into a huge beast palm with claws, black fur covering his entire arm. It looked horrifying.

I took two steps back, and another two steps back, and continued to take another two steps back.

Do your best, almost out of the pavilion already! But then everything just had to happen so unexpectedly!

I don't know who started it first, in short, with some banging sounds, the five-colored rooster head and Andy had started to fight.

I can't describe what had happened because the most important thing I needed to do right now, was to hold on to my head and escape! You have to know that when two non-humans start fighting, the people on the sides are the ones who will get killed. In less than five seconds after I ran out of the pavilion, I heard a loud explosion. The pavilion that originally looked really solid, had collapsed.

My whole body started to exude cold sweat as I sneak a backward glance. Oh God, oh God! The whole pavilion had been smashed into bits and pieces! I don't want to play anymore!

If you guys wanted to fight, why does it have anything to do with me. Why was it that I have to mysteriously get involved with two bulkheads, who turned violent and started fighting?!

Just as I continued to escape from the place, a cold wind rolled over, and then I heard a "ping" sound. Less than one centimeter in front of me, a deep and long knife mark had appeared. The flowers in the garden were cleaved, and then the pieces of flowers started falling on behalf of my tears.

Senior... next time, even if you wanted to find a replacement fighter,... you really shouldn't find this type, alright...?

Now I can't leave, nor can I stay. Behind me, the two people, who had mysteriously started fighting, were still very heated up. Normally in manhuas, the protagonist would now rush in there to stop them, and use righteousness to influence them. In the end, two companions will be added to the list. But in reality, it wasn't as perfect. I believe if I were to rush in there to stop them, there will only be horrible screams, screams issued by me, and then I'll be chopped into pieces of meat. In the end, this movie will have a premature END.

Just as I was shivering and was planning to continue with my escape, there was a force grabbing onto my collar, and started running.

"Whoa!" I saw a beast arm grabbing onto my collar.

The five-colored rooster head gave me a weird close-up smile, "Can't win, escape quickly." Then he dragged me while running away.

If you know you wouldn't win, so why did you go and provoke him?!

"Stop right there!" Andy was murderously chasing us.

"Who would listen to you?!" The five-colored rooster head turned around, showed him his middle finger, dragged me, and ran even faster.

Then I saw it, he was laughing! He was actually running away while laughing!

"It's very interesting right!" He said some baffling word, "What is?" I think I was not running anymore. I was being dragged while flying behind him.

"Did you see the Angel just now? He was full of elegance and nobility. Now, he became so demonic. It's hilarious."

You got him pissed off and now he's murderously chasing after us just because you wanted to see his facial expression of having cramps and becoming twisted?

I had a feeling there were a dozen black lines falling down from the top of my head. I wasn't sure whether the five-colored rooster head is a good or bad person, but I can confirm he was someone whose head had a defect.

Andy was still behind us in hot pursuit.

Having been dragged off while on a run, I was so confused that I didn't even know what my current location was.

"Sheesh, it's so difficult to lose him." The five-colored rooster head was cursing as he continued running.

Wait a moment, lose him? I remember senior gave me something, that whatchamacallit basic teleportation incantation. If I wanted to lose Andy now, and the place I wanted to go the most was the Magic Array classroom, because we were already half an hour late for class.

Just as Andy almost caught up to us, I threw the white charm on the floor and saw a huge glowing array. Andy, who seemed to be startled, stopped on his tracks.

I saw his face started turning into a blur.

* * *


With a thud, I fell on the ground. Falling down together with the five-colored rooster head.

"It hurts..." While I was still feeling dizzy, I held on to my head that hit the floor, sat up, and was stunned.

Everyone in the classroom was also stunned. The teacher for the Magic Array class, who was flipping open a textbook on the stage, was also stunned. In just a moment, not a single sound could be heard in the classroom.

"Damn you, what the hell was that thing earlier?!" The five-colored rooster head, who has yet to understand our situation, was roaring while trying to get up. I so wanted to immediately cover his mouth. Then, he also realised this strange situation.

The teacher was the fastest to react, he lowered his head to look at the magical array that was still shining brightly, and coughed twice, "Seems like today, we have two late comers who brought such a beautiful teleportation array." I saw his white goatee twitched, and continued, "Then, would the two of you please draw thirty of the same magical array before you go back home and hand it to me."

The whole class started laughing. I currently wanted to dig a hole and hide. This was not the worst.

In the whole class of laughing students, there were two people who didn't laugh, one was a dumbfounded Miao Miao, and the other one was Chifuyu.

At that moment, I saw it, when I fell together with the five-colored rooster head, his whole face blackened.

Maybe, today was actually a terrible day.

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Chapter 9 : Sound of the Elf

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Location: Atlantis
Time: 3:10pm

I was ashamed to even look at Chifuyu. And for the whole of today, he didn't say or ask me anything. He pretend as though nothing had happened. Basically I would prefer he took a whatchamacallit explosion charm and vent it on me.

Someone said a dog that doesn't bark will bite. Chifuyu was currently in the same state as a dog that doesn't bark, making me really scared.

We didn't have lunch together, because the five-colored rooster head and I was called to the Magic Array course's classroom for a lecture, and after coming out from there, because of our elective classes being different in the afternoon, we didn't get to meet up at all.

Maybe this might still be relatively better, I currently didn't know how to talk to Chifuyu.

"Hey!"
How should I explain this to Chifuyu...

"Hey!"
I didn't hear anything.

"You'd better stop right there!"
I didn't hear anything at all!

"Damn it, I said you'd better stop right there!"
Hurry and escape! I don't know anything!

Suddenly, the second I wanted to pick up my speed and flee, my collar was firmly held, almost strangling me to death.

"How dare you ignore me!" The five-colored rooster head had already caught up with me, used an abnormal strength to grab hold of my rear collar, and said with a ferocious tone.

You already know I'm ignoring you, so why are you looking for me!?

"Hey, where are you headed to?"

Before I could even open my mouth, the five-colored rooster head had already raised his first question, and then he loosened his grip.

"Library." I took two deep breaths. When I was strangled earlier, white clouds and small flowers appeared in front of me. My collar almost sent me on my way to heaven, "To find the thing the teacher wanted us to draw."

Due to my bad luck, I was always writing sentences as punishment. However, this was the first time I was drawing a magical array as punishment.

Who the hell would know how senior's array looked like? I thought that maybe if I go to the library to look for it, I might be able to find something? I do vaguely remember how it looked like, and if I compared it with the books, maybe I might be able to find it.

"Alright then, I'll follow you there." The five-colored rooster head said heroically.

...

"What's with your expression!" He looked at me with narrowed eyes.

"Nothing, I just felt that this world is full of wonders." My ears should be clean, I didn't hear wrongly, did I? The five-colored rooster head wanted to go to the library!? I think it's going to start hailing soon.

"Hmph, hmph..." The five-colored rooster head issued a strange laughter.

"..."

"Lend me that teleportation charm you've used earlier." The five-colored rooster head rested his hand on my shoulder, and stretched out his claws.

I unwillingly passed the white charm to him. Luckily, the teacher did not confiscate back in the classroom; the luckiness in all these unluckiness. Or else, I could probably imagine how senior would deal with with.

After getting the charm, the five-colored rooster head moved his hand away, and threw the white charm on the ground. In less than two seconds, I saw the glowing array being redrawn on the ground.

"Pen and paper." The five-colored rooster head held out his hands towards me.

'You don't bring pen and paper to classes?' Although I grumbled in my mind, I still obediently took out my notebook and passed it to him.

The five-colored rooster head casually turned to an empty page, narrowed his eyes, and he quickly drew on the notebook, "This should be it." He threw the notebook back at me, collected the white charm from the ground, and passed it back to me.

On a page of the notebook, was a hurriedly drawn picture of an approximation of the array.

"I've never seen this array before, I think it's a mixture of a few different arrays, let us go and research which type of arrays were mixed in there, so it'll be easier to draw." The five-colored rooster head put his hand on my shoulder again.

Can I say he drew it because he was trying to help an amateur like me?

At that moment, I realized that the five-colored rooster head might not be such a bad person.

"After you've finished researching, you can lend it to me. I'm too lazy to look at those fine words."

You're really good, you damn dead rooster! So you just wanted me to search for the arrays, so you can easily draw it, right?! F— you.

* * *


The library was located behind the crystal tower. In fact, wasn't it a little skeptical for the library to be here from the start? It looked really distinct, but the last time I came here with senior, I didn't realize there was such a shiny object called a "glass house maze" nearby. Was it really originally here from the start!?

Standing in front of the maze, the five-colored rooster head placed his hands on his waist, with flip-flops that seemed to be almost falling off, were dangling on his feet.

The wall of the maze was really high, about three stories high.

"Ah, ah, I haven't been here for a while." The five-colored rooster head stretched, and said suddenly, "I wonder how much of the layout inside has changed."

Wait a moment? It will change!?

"I think I'd better go back and ask senior first." In less than three seconds, I immediately took a few steps back and turned around.

"Hey, hey, we're already here, don't leave now. I'll look after you, let's go." The five-colored rooster head grabbed onto my collar and forcefully pushed me into the maze.

As soon as I took my first step inside, I smelled the stench. What kind of freaking smell was this!?

Inside the maze... It looked nothing like a maze! It was extraordinarily wide, the entire path would be able to fit five to six people walking side by side. All around, there were mirrors, even distorting ones. The five-colored rooster head, who was standing beside me, became an extremely tall and wide five-colored alien.

There were grass on the ground, and the next thing was... F—! Who made that?! The next thing was actually a mountain of swords! And on top of it, were pots and pots of orchids!

"I'd better not go." Black lines were hanging on my face. When I saw the mountain of swords, I don't want to go anymore. Next thing I know, there might also be a mountain of knives, mountain of needles, and so on. What kind of sick joke was this?!

The second I turned my head back, there was a whitish object floating past.

...I can't see anything... I didn't see anything at all...

The five-colored rooster head stretched out his hand and carried me back, "Once you've entered, you can't leave unless you've finished the whole journey." He smiled really happily for some reason.

Unless I've finished the whole journey... Unless I've finished the whole journey... I wasn't certain I would be able to finish the whole journey? I'm as good as dead thanks to you, you damn rooster head.

"Don't worry, with me here, there won't be a problem." The five-colored rooster head patted his chest, and I saw his right hand turning into a huge beast claws again, "Let's go, let's go, I'll use my strength, and you'll use your brains. Later when we're inside you'd better work hard on researching."

In the end I'm just the book slave, right?

At that moment, I was dragged backwards by the five-colored rooster head. His beast claw grazed past my face, and in a blink of an eye, the white skeleton I saw was running around at the entrance just a moment ago, was smashed into powder on the spot. His claws were still hooked to the head, wasn't smashed into pieces. The head was swaying right in front of me.
The head, turned around... and suddenly started to laugh at me; Kakaka.

"Yang! Nose!"

The five-colored rooster head called out, and I reflexively placed my bag in front of my face. That skull's mouth bit my bag, "Whoa—!" I immediately threw my bag onto the floor, "Nooo! Wait a minute!" My backpack!

As soon as the skull fell on the floor, it rolled away, biting onto my bag, and continued rolling away.

"Give it back to me!" I held onto the strap of my bag and pulled it up, and in the end, the skull bounced up, loosened his mouth, and flew straight at my face.

The five-colored rooster head's movement was even faster. With his beast claw, he turned the whole skull into white powder, "You should pay attention to this, this thing doesn't have any flesh, so it likes onto bite other people's flesh to use as its own."

...Before he explained, I had, infact, I wanted to ask what it would turn into after biting someone.

"This is rather easy." The five-colored rooster head bent down, inserted his claw into the turf, and with a whoosh, he lifted the whole piece of the turf and placed it over the top of the mountain of swords.

Uhh, does this consider as vandalizing the school's properties...?

The second the turf came off, the both of us were stunned.

OH GOD!!!

Under the turf were mealworms! It was everywhere, thousands of them squirming about!

"Ahaha... never thought there would be blood-sucking worms." The five-colored rooster head didn't think he had done anything wrong.

Blood-sucking worms... What I want to do right now is to scoop up the worms and throw them onto the rooster's head, to let the worms eat up all his hair.

However, this wasn't the most terrible thing. I don't know when, but the stench was getting stronger and stronger, making me feel rather nauseated, "What's with this strange smell..." I started feeling dizzy because of the stench.

The five-colored rooster head extended his finger, pointing downwards. The smell of the worms?

"You knew there were worms underneath and you still lifted the turf!?" I wanted to freak out.

"I wanted to say they might be below the mountain of swords." The rooster head shrugged, "But seems like I guessed wrongly." He took out a small bottle which looked like those bubble container, opened it, and then poured the white liquid inside onto the worms were under the turf.

In less than half a second, gold reddish flames burst out right in front of me.

"But these worm can be roasted with fire."

...Alright. I noted this down!

Looking at the mirror covering the sky, I suddenly felt like sighing. Why was it that I need to work so hard for a book...? This world is really so full of wonders...

"Come on, let's head to the next station!" The five-colored rooster head, who was obviously having the time of his life, dragged me and started moving forward. After being burned by the fire, not only the worms, but even the mountain of swords were reduced into ashes.

If we need to pay for this, I wonder if Zachary would send the bills.

* * *


However, the catastrophe didn't last for too long.

Just as the five-colored rooster head cheerfully wanted to continue on towards the next checkpoint, I vaguely smelt a fragrant scent, a very familiar scent; a scent I had smelled somewhere before.

"Ah, he is actually here?" The five-colored rooster head looked very surprised. His beast claw twisted and turned back into its original form, "Sheesh, it's been so long since I've come to the library, only the maze was interesting, but now I don't even get to play anymore."

You came to the library not to read books but to play in the maze? A drop of cold sweat fell from the top of my head.

I soon understood the meaning of his words. The answer was the thing that we saw after we turned at the corner.

There was a huge tree, a tree with human face. Several of its roots were coiled on the mirrors on the wall and some of the roots were buried underground. What made me feel glad that I didn't have to go face to face against this tree were the blood stains all around the trunk of the tree.

I didn't know which martyr students, who were on their way to the library, were sacrificed.

...Why was there a killer tree inside the library...

The person standing in front of the tree turned around. It was obvious he knew of our presence, "Nn, two young students." He smiled, a very elegant smile.

I glanced at the killer tree, which looked really stiff as though it had been coated with glue. I suspected its roots were supposed to be moving about.

Standing in front of the stiff tree was none other than, "Restua?" Honestly, I was rather surprise to run into him here, especially when the background was actually a dead stiff killer tree.

The dark green eyes looked at me, he was smiling as usual, but it looked like his face had cramped up and was then fixated as such, because from the first time I saw him until now, he still had the same expression.

"Young student, you're not together with black robe today?" He asked a question, however, one could tell it was nothing but bullcrap.

"Uhh, senior has work today." And he even found a crazy, violent angel, as replacement. But I was able to lose him in the end.

"Both of you want to go to the library?" Another bull crap question.

"It's just so happen that I need to go to the library, too. Let's go together." Restua extended a helping hand.

"No need..."

"Great! Let's go together!" I quickly interrupted the five-colored rooster head. I knew what he was going to say: he definitely wanted to say something like "no need for you to follow us, we can go by ourselves", but after experiencing the turf and mountain of swords, I had completely lost all confidence in him.

He definitely just wanted to have fun! Nine hundred percent!

Restua smiled slightly. The strange thing was, the five-colored rooster head actually did not create any trouble for him, not even uttering a word, he just kept quiet and walked behind us. So he also knows how to act according to who he was going to go up against?

"I have also not been to the library for quite some time. I never thought there would an additional tree here." Restua was walking in front of me; walking while smiling, "Earlier, I was also shocked, because I wasn't acquainted with that tree, so I could only subdue it first."

'Acquainted? You're acquainted with what!? You're acquainted with what in this maze!?'

With eyes wide open, I looked at Restua who was walking in front. There was a feeling of maybe he's not as simple as he portrays outer smiling self to be.

"The layout of the things inside the maze will change every week." The five-colored rooster head rested his hand on my shoulder and said, "That person had already familiarized himself with all the things inside the maze." He softly whispered right beside my ear.

...Was he too idle? I don't know why, but I suddenly had a misconception that Elves were very idle beings. And he even mentioned subduing something? How did he subdue it? Why did that tree become dead stiff!?

Just as I snapped out of my trance, the five-colored rooster head had already rested his hand on Restua's shoulder, and the two of them were whispering about something, but they were using another language I didn't understand.

He was currently doing something that I was not able to do. I was very jealous that the five-colored rooster head could naturally rest his hand on an Elf's shoulder.

But having said that, isn't our journey going on too smoothly? I felt that it would only right if a little something were to happen. While I was thinking about it, the two people who were walking in front of me suddenly stopped.

"Nn, another new one?" Restua slightly raised his head. We were surrounded by mirrors all around, and our figures reflected on the mirrors looked rather twisted.

"Let me handle this alone." I saw the five-colored rooster head brimming with excitement.

Restua, I beg of you, handle this before he starts doing anything! When I was about to say it, my entire vision suddenly turned upside down. The ground became the ceiling and the ceiling became the ground, and the other two people were still standing on the ceiling.

"Whoa!!!" The one who was upside down was me!


* * *


"It's here!" At that moment, the five-colored rooster head looked like a dog who saw a bone getting thrown at him. In the next second, I even suspected he would blast me off together with that thing. The thing that was grabbing onto my leg was an octopus.

Why was there an octopus on land!? Who left the octopus here!? And it was even a pink octopus!

"Ahhhh——!" I almost had a head hyperemia, feeling completely faint. Just as my soul was about to leave my body, I saw the octopus opening its mouth... If that was its mouth! Why are there teeth inside the octopus's mouth! And they were the teeth of tiger's! What the hell is this octopus!?

"Don't move!" The five-colored rooster head caught up to us. The octopus's legs were stuck on the mirrors while it moved backwards. It was actually moving backwards while sticking on the ceiling, that's a pretty skillful action!

Restua also caught up to us.

I was feeling rather nauseated, being held by an octopus. While dangling left and right, it really made me want to puke.

When I saw the front brightening up, I thought it was the usual illusion of my grandma coming around. However, the light wasn't the light from heaven. It was a faint silver spot of light.

Restua, who had overtaken the five-colored rooster head, did a perfect jump; with one hand holding onto my shoulder, he hung onto my body. The weird thing was, I didn't feel any weight at all, "Please bear with it for a little while more." He was still smiling when he said that, then he continued hanging onto my body. His sight was on the pink octopus that was stuck on the ceiling.

When the Elf came closer to me, the fragrant scent became stronger, and was even more similar to the smell that was often on Senior's body; very gentle and hard to describe, kind of similar to the sun.

The octopus suddenly came to a halt, heavily swayed once, and it stopped moving.

I slightly lowered my head to look at Restua, whose mouth was slightly opened. It looked like he was talking, but then he wasn't. Maybe in the next second a beam will shoot out of his mouth!?

I suddenly felt my feet being let go. The octopus suddenly loosened his thick leg, and before I could even scream, I had already fell down. Restua, who was firmly holding onto me, was already standing on the ground, "Are you alright?" He used his hands to pat off the dust on my clothes.

"I, I'm fine." I imagine my face being really red. So as soon as he retrieved his hands, I immediately backed away.

"Now that you've turned that thing into this, how am I going to play with it now?" The five-colored rooster head walked over to us, took a look at the ceiling above, and complained.

I followed his line of sight and looked up. I was stunned.

The pink octopus became similar to the tree found earlier; stiff and not moving. However, it was still glued on to the mirror on the ceiling above, with its mouth open wide and full of teeth.

"He would be able to move again in a few minutes, it didn't cause any harm to its life and safety." Restua gave an irrelevant answer and then smiled again. He smiled again!

"How did you do that?" I looked at the stiff octopus, feeling very uncertain. Coat it with glue?

The five-colored rooster head came over and rested his hand on my shoulder, "No one but Elves can learn how to use that; sound of vibrating the air." He clicked his tongue twice and looked at the stiff octopus, with a very strong feeling of wanting to challenge it, "Roughly, like some sort of wavelength we won't be able to hear; moving through the air and paralyzing the thing he wanted to paralyze."

Sounded like the ability of something that paralyzes its prey and then eats it after.

"I only requested them to stop moving." Restua said.

"If the wavelength is just right, I heard it could directly destroy the opponent's head." The five-colored rooster head said.

...In fact, Elves are biochemical weapons, right!?

"We won't do those kind of things." The Elf retorted.

That's to say, you Elves are in fact able to do those kinds of things, right? I suddenly felt that if I don't have any business with them, it would be better for me to stay away.

"Ah, ah, with Restua here, I won't get to play at all." The five-colored rooster head regretfully stretched his body, and I heard some enigmatic cracking sounds, "Then I won't be going to the library anymore, lend it to me after you've found it." He waved and headed back towards the place where we came from.

I froze on the spot. He really came just to play in the maze? ...That's not right, wait a minute... Just now, who was the one who said that once we entered the maze, we can't turn back!?

Damn you five-colored rooster head! You liar!

* * *


"You don't look too happy." Restua was still walking a small distance in front of me.

No, I think I was the one who was deliberately keeping a distance, "Not much, it's just my friends..." I don't know why, but when I looked at Restua I had the urge to tell him everything. And thus, I did; regarding the five-colored rooster head and Chifuyu.

Both of us had unknowing stopped walking. He hesitated for a while, as though he was thinking about something, and it seemed like he wanted to tell me something, "I think maybe your friend are actually not as mindful about it as you think he is." In the end, it was all he said before he started walking again.

Chifuyu doesn't mind?

It seemed like he was very mindful about this. I could clearly imagine the expression on face if he sees me together with the five-colored rooster head. Surprised, stunned, and also traces of being betrayed.

I knew of the same horrible feeling, because I had also gone through the same thing many times. After everyone had confirmed I was an unlucky person, including my closest friend, I became the mockery and betting object of their mouths. They would also mix together with the people I hate, and when I saw it with my own eyes, I felt really uncomfortable. I think that's how Chifuyu felt, too. And thus, after the Magic Array class had ended, he left in a hurry, very different from usual where he would stay back and explain this and that to me.

"But I think... he was be very mindful about it." I followed Restua and mumbled softly.

Then he stopped, it was only then that I realized we had already arrived in front of a big glass door. The transparent door was full of drawings and words I couldn't read. I guess we've reached our destination.

Restua turned around and smiled at me, "Guys are not so narrow-minded." Then he pushed the glass door open. At that second, my eyes hurt a little. I wanted to cry.

The person we were discussing was standing at the entrance of the library, looking like he was on his way out. In his hands, was a thick ancient looking book, rather dusty, with a white thick cover and gold text.

Ryan was following right behind him. When he saw me, he was also stunned for a moment and then he curved up a smile.

"This fella said you definitely won't know how to draw senior's teleportation array, so he spent the whole afternoon looking until he found the book." He said and patted Chifuyu's shoulder, "Both of us also skipped our classes in the afternoon, so how are you going to repay us?"

How can I repay them?

Chifuyu shifted his black glasses issuing a glaring reflection, "Anyway, it's not like we'll die if we missed a few afternoon classes."

I was suddenly feeling very thankful that the five-colored rooster head had left earlier.

Speaking of the five-colored rooster head, I suddenly thought of the Restua, who came together with me. I wanted to thank him. Perhaps he was right, or maybe the people in this school will always be special.

I turned around and was stunned. There was not even a trace of the Elf?

He had already left.

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Chapter 10 : Library

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Location: Atlantis
Time: 3:32pm

This was the library?

After Restua had left, I felt like inspecting this library hidden inside the maze, since this was the first time I've been here.

Uhh... how should I describe this, I felt this place didn't quite look like a library—the sound of the water gurgling past could be thought as an apparition or even music being played. And my eyes suddenly seemed to have seen something out of place. There was a huge coiling tree standing in the middle of the library; I couldn't pretend my eyes were merely having convulsion.

There were no bookshelves all typical libraries should have, nor was there any place where books can be placed. Inside this large space, the ceiling and the edge of the library could not be seen. There was only a huge thousand year old tree. Unlike the common banyan tree or pine tree, it was a huge tree I don't recognize. The tree pierced through the sky, and I couldn't see the top of the tree. What made me surprise was the tree being slightly transparent crystal green, and I can vaguely see the tiny water veins pumping water up the tree trunk.

There was a white staircase circling up the tree trunk, with roof covers, and there were also people walking up and down. Lots of Spanish moss was hanging down acting as a curtain. With just one look at it, one can see this tree have existed for a long time.

The surrounding air was very fresh, because we are in the forest, right...?

...Where did this forest come from?! Wasn't I supposed to be going to the library?

"Yang Yang, this should be your first time coming to the library, right?" Holding onto the white based, golden edged, thick book, Chifuyu looked at me, who was completely stunned, and he smiled with confidence.

I nodded my head. In fact this is not a library but a botanical garden, right?

I even saw a person holding onto a book while sitting on a swing made out of Spanish moss, flipping the pages while attentively reading the book.

This place really is the library. There's no mistakes, right? But why were there were no bookshelves for people to search for books?

There were several pavilions, two-storey rooms, and etcetera, around the huge tree. And inside, there were comfortable seats prepared. There were people who came down from the stairs, holding onto a book, and directly went in there to find a place to quietly read their book. Other than the natural sound of water, birds singing, and also the fresh air in the surrounding area, everything seemed to be very peaceful and quiet. There were even some people who fell asleep on their seats just like that.

It felt like an extremely wonderful resort, and it even comes with a forest, allowing one to relax and unwind oneself.

"Welcome to the library." A voice drifted over from behind me. I immediately turned around and saw a small child standing behind me. But then again, was there someone behind me earlier?

There was a child of about seven or eight years old. I couldn't determine if the child was a girl or a boy, however, I was able to confirm in one second was he or she was not human. How should I put thi... If one were to see a normal looking child with suspicious fur on his head and a furry tail behind his back, one would definitely have the same exact thoughts as I do. The child was wearing a blue Japanese styled kimono, brown hair braided at the back, making his head look even smaller and his ears more prominent, "I'm the librarian here, Acker Lily. If you have any questions regarding the library, I can help you out." He blinked his golden kitty eyes while as he said happily, and constantly wagged his tail.

The name sounded like a name for a little boy, "Uhh, little boy..."

Before I could finish my sentence, I was smack from behind by Ryan, "She's a girl."

Yeah?

"And Lily is at least three hundred years old." Chifuyu added this sentence in passing.

Turns out she was an old woman.

"Hateful, how could you guys so casually reveal someone else's age." The kitty child held onto her face and twisted her little body shyly. Then, she hit Ryan's thigh (because her height was only up to his thigh), "A girl's age is a secret."

"That's no longer true for you since a very long time ago." Chifuyu pushed back his glasses, pouring a bucket of cold water.

"Little kid from Yukino Clan is really not lovable at all." Instantly changing her expression, Lily snorted and glared at him with her evil looking golden eyes.

"Right, right, since everyone says that anyway." Chifuyu, who didn't seem to care about it, turned around and then he passed the book he was holding to Ryan, "Yang Yang, since you are already here, want to take a look at the library?"

Honestly, I still don't understand how this place was library. In my eyes, this place was just like a huge botanical garden.

"Of course!"

* * *


When I started walking up the stairs, it was only then that I found out this place was actually very spacious, and abundant with people.

Not to mention on the ground, there was even something that looked like bubbles floating in midair, and the tree, with its branches spreading out, was also scattered with several seats. Almost all the seats were already taken by the students, some were around the same age as me, some were a lot younger, and also there were also those who were older. I think these are all students from different grades.

"You must feel it's weird for there to be no bookshelves here, right?" Chifuyu took me up the stairs for a certain distance before he halted. At one side of the tree there was a hole, a rather big hole, the kind of size able to fit a baby inside. Basically, while we were going up the stairs, every once in a while I'll see this type of hole, some of the holes had people standing in front of it while some did not. And I certainly don't know the reason why those people were standing in front of those holes.

"Nn." I looked at the hole in the tree; no matter how I look at it, I still don't know what was it for.

"You've heard of a Wisdom Tree right."

I do know of this, this term appeared in a certain light novel before.

"This is the Wisdom Tree." Ryan patted the side of the tree and said.

"Ah?" Lies!

"Your expression is really weird." Narrowing his eyes, Chifuyu then pushed back his glasses and continue saying, "The Wisdom Tree's roots goes through another dimensional space and reaches out to the entire world. As long as it's a book you can think of, you can find it in the Wisdom Tree."

I was surprised as I stared at the tree that pierced through the sky, with a type of magical and wonderful feeling.

Chifuyu put his hand at the side of the tree and closed his eyes. After a few seconds, I heard a loud thud. A thick black cover book appeared inside the hole in the tree, on top, was a few large words I couldn't read, "You just have to think about the thing you want to search for in your mind, and the Wisdom Tree will help you to analyze and find the book most suitable for you. And if the area of the search is relatively large, then there will be several books at once." Taking out the black book, Chifuyu continued, "Remember to return the books after you are done with it, or else you will receive... retribution."

"... I understand." I didn't really want to ask what the retribution was. In short, I'll just have to return the book like a good boy and then everything will be fine.

"Since Yang Yang is already here, I guess we'll just analyze senior's teleportation charm here, if there are any problems, it'll also be more convenient to immediately look for other information." Chifuyu glanced at me, I immediately nodded quickly. In short, it would be for the best if there was someone who could help me out, or else if I had to look for it alone, I'll probably search until I drop then, and I still wouldn't be able to find anything.

After walking down the stairs, Ryan, who was one step ahead of us, found an empty Chinese-styled pavilion. On the first floor, there were a few female students who were already there reading their books. While the second floor was empty, on top was a low table and earthen chairs. On both sides were small cupboards where pens, papers, and some necessary tools were placed there; this was extremely well prepared.

Placing the thick book in his hands onto the table, Chifuyu dragged a few soft pillows over and threw one at me, "Oh right, did you sketch out the shape of the teleportation array?"

Shape of the teleportation array?

"Ah!" The five-coloured rooster head sketched it.

I handed the notebook to him, and at the same time, I also passed him senior's teleportation charm.

On one side, it seemed like Ryan wasn't planning to participate in our discussion. He was holding on to a book and was in the midst of working hard. I secretly glanced at the book title... Incantation Arrays for Beginners? What kind of strange book is that?!

Wait a moment, wasn't Ryan qualified as a robe level?

Chifuyu opened the book to a certain page, and after noticing what I was looking at, he explained, "Ryan is only strong in using illusionary weapons, but fails in other areas."

Uhh... that's really miserable.

On the page Chifuyu turned to, there was a reduced size of a diagram of an array, which was around eighty percent similar to senior's, "This is the basic teleportation array. After familiarizing with it, many people would make use of this as a base and will add in extra modifications. The teleportation charm senior gave you also falls in this category." He took out the notebook to allow me to compare.

Indeed, there were only a few parts were different. The diagram on the book was very clear, but due to the five-coloured rooster head only sketching out an approximate, I couldn't immediately make out the modified parts.

"The teleportation array will remain there for about ten seconds when it's in an idle state, but when I saw yours, the duration of its appearance was even shorter. I think it's made that way to prevent the enemies from chasing after you during a fight. Senior had slightly adjusted the time the array will remain before activating. In an idle state, it would appear for only a few seconds." Chifuyu placed the teleportation charm on top of the table, and then lightly tapped it with his fingertip, "Teleportation Charm, for a period of time, stay stagnant at the place where my finger points."

A faint light shot out from Chifuyu's fingertip and expanded outwards. In about a thirty centimeter radius, a reduced size of the teleportation array was slowly rotating on top of the table. "This is the basic array for the light and shadow incantation. There are also contracts with the Water Elf and Earth Elf within." With a pen and paper on one hand, Chifuyu raised his idle left hand and quickly drew the complete teleportation array on the white paper.

Inside was mixed with a lot of totems and text I couldn't read. It was several times more detailed compared to what the five-coloured rooster head had drawn.

The small array was just slowly rotating, and I took this opportunity to compare it with the diagram on the book. Sure enough, there were lots of differences, but the main lines were very similar.

"The time where light and shadow interlock with one another, moving the protection of earth and water. This is a type of teleportation array are prepared for a battle." After two minutes, Chifuyu removed his fingertips, that light array immediately disappeared. And on the white paper, there was the exact same diagram drawn, "Seems like senior's knowledge is very wide. He can actually modify a basic array this way." He began praising the senior whom he worshiped.

"Yang Yang, you can first try to memorise the basic array." Chifuyu guided me to try drawing one time on the notebook, "Basic teleportation array is drawn with the basic light and earth elements. Look here, this symbol here is the earth element's symbol..."

So to say, it's rather easy to draw the basic array. It was quickly completed, because the lines weren't so complicated, and there weren't too many lines. So after Chifuyu's detailed explanations, I could approximately remember the whole diagram. It was just like remembering an oracle bone script.

Finding a common ground made me feel rather happy, Magic Array wasn't actually very difficult to learn.

However, there was another question that came to mind, "Oh right, how do you keep this array in a charm?" I guess it can't be that one would need to directly draw it on the charm, right? The charm's so small, it can't be that we would need to use a magnifying glass to draw?

"It's very simple, most of the arrays can be kept this way, but there's no other way for the larger arrays." Chifuyu took out a chalk-like object from his backpack. He cleared up a small empty space nearby, lay on the floor, and quickly drew up a basic teleportation array.

That... wouldn't we get scolded if we drew graffiti on the floor?

Putting the chalk away, Chifuyu stood at the middle of the array, "Yang Yang, you need to remember this. It's not difficult to draw the array, but it's difficult to meet the conditions to initiate or keep the array. You have to coordinate with some hymns, charms, materials, etcetera.

Ah? I suddenly felt Magic Array was difficult again.

"The first initiation would be more troublesome, but it's not so bad after it's kept inside the charm. Just like what you did before, you'll only need to throw it and keep it." After saying so, he bent down, and placed his right palm in the middle point of the array, "Interlocking time of the light's shadow, the power of the earth that moves the world, come forth with my incantation, go along with my incantation. East lands, South dissipates, West flows, North protects; come and go according to my wishes." Just as Chifuyu closed his eyes and finished chanting, I saw the array on the ground slowly emitting a faint light. The whole totem on the ground floated and slowly started rotating.

Then he stood up, and took out a white charm from his pocket, "Return to where it belongs." He loosened his hand and the white charm fell down. The entire array stopped moving, disappeared suddenly in less than two seconds, and the white paper drifted upwards back into Chifuyu's hand.

The totem on the ground completely disappeared.

"Just like this, the making of a teleportation charm is done." Chifuyu smiled as he lifted the charm in front of me.

* * *


Nn... how do I say this? I had always felt it was very simple when they are the ones doing it, but when I tried to do it, it was extremely difficult. This really is the difference between our level.

"Learning Magic Array consists mostly of only memorizing. After memorizing it to a certain extent, you'll then master the application. Lastly you'll be able to develop more of your very own Magic Array." At one side, Ryan suddenly spoke, causing me to be truly shocked.

He was actually still here, so to say, I completely forgotten about his presence! In any case, I heard you're not really good at this either, boss.

"Since we've already found the style of the array, Yang Yang, you can follow this and draw it out for the teacher. There shouldn't be any problems. Inside are some more detailed patterns, but if you don't understand them, you can look into this book. All the patterns of senior's array can be found inside." Chifuyu closed the white based, golden edged, thick book and then handed it to me.

"Thank you!" He really is a great guy.

There was a few seconds where I was really touched. However, I knew I still owe Chifuyu an explanation.

"That... Chifuyu, I still have something I wanted to tell you." I knew I still owe an explanation for why I was together with the five-coloured rooster head.

On the side of the room, Ryan suddenly stood up, "I'll go and get another book." He closed the book in his hands and went down the stairs. I wasn't sure if this was intentional or just a coincidence.

In fact, he didn't need to purposely leave, because he did not give any sense of existence, rather similar to the air.

After Ryan had disappeared down the stairs, Chifuyu lazily leaned against the soft pillow behind him, pushed his glasses up, and then looked at me, "Say it." I guess he also already knew what I was going to say.

Maybe he really didn't mind, but I don't want to leave this unpleasant misunderstanding as it is. This was the first time that I really wanted to treat people who were acquainted with me in this school as true friend, unlike the past where it was only superficial relationships.

"I wanted to clarify the matter about Ziray with you." Gulping, I saw that Chifuyu didn't show any unusual expression, so I could only bite the bullet and continue, "I really went back to get my cell phone, and when I came out, for some reason he was outside blocking my path..." Basically I thought I was going to die.

"Blocking your path?" This time it was Chifuyu's turn to become confused.

Alright, I know I don't look like the type who would become a target to get assassinated, but you don't need to show such an exaggerated expression!

"Ah... he said he wanted me to pass on his message to you." I had almost forgotten about it.

"Message?"

"Nn, he said that if you continued to take on the position of the Yukino Clan, there will be a day when someone from his generation will have to kill you." Honestly, I don't really know much about their feud and disputes, so I used a slightly more discrete tone to continue, "There was something about your family dealing with divination and the like, and if you don't want to die, you should avoid it or something like that." I think that's what he probably meant.

Chifuyu narrowed his eyes and was silent in his own thoughts for a period of time. Then he suddenly snorted and sneered, "Didn't expect the Rogeria Clan to actually give me an advice."

That was an advice? Because the five-coloured rooster head spoke arrogantly, so it sounded more like a threat to me.

"But he made a mistake. My clan is a clan of oracles not a clan that deals with divination. That delinquent certainly does not have a brain." This was the conclusion Chifuyu said coldly.

"Ah? Aren't they the same?" Basically I felt they were almost similar...

"A clan of oracles is more inclined towards working with spiritual language, whereas divination is considered as an additional source of income. There are also prayers etcetera, etcetera, but the main objective of our clan is spiritual language and not divination. There are many people who are mistaken about this." After giving me a little explanation, Chifuyu scratched his head, "His advice was given in vain, because the fact that I'm the next successor to Yukino Clan can't be changed."

"Yukino Clan only has you as the only child?" I thought that this type of clan would give birth to a whole batch.

Chifuyu froze for a moment, and smiled slightly, "Nope."

"I still have some relatives." He paused, and then continued maybe it was inconvenient for him to mention this.

During this conversation, I was rather surprised he didn't seem to have such heavy hostility towards the five-coloured rooster head, "Do you hate Ziray?"

"What do you think?" Chifuyu smiled again, making me unable to guess at all.

"It feels like you really hate him." After all, his family member was murdered.

"A little, but it has nothing to do with our families' dispute." Pushing his glasses, Chifuyu gave a very incredible sentence, "I personally dislike him."

"Ah?" Not because his family member was murdered?

"Relationship related to work. Even we ourselves have killed before. In truth, we can't really resent others. Anyway, once a person died, it just meant life has come to an end." He spoke in a really open-minded way, as though he didn't really value life, "So I'm not prejudiced against Ziray, it's just that I really hate the delinquent type of people. Every time I see him, I want to give him one tight slap, should be something like that."

Wait a minute, then this means that... what others speculated about their family hatred was actually incorrect? The main reason was merely because you dislike him...? Then the five-coloured rooster head thought you hated him, so he dislikes you?

What the hell are these two people trying to do?!

I had a sense of having my energy drained after I found out the truth.

Chifuyu pushed his glasses, "I also don't oppose of you befriending him, as long as you don't get killed off by him."

"Uhh... I'll try my best." I'm also very scared of being killed off by him.

"Don't worry, if you kicked the bucket, both Ryan and I will help revenge you."

"... Then let me say my gratitude first." Otherwise what else was I supposed to say?

In short, even if I kicked the bucket, there would be someone to help me to take care of my funeral, right?!

Our conversation came to an end, and the whole pavilion suddenly became really quiet.

"Actually, before coming to the library, Ryan was guessing if you would bring this up or not." Leaning against the soft pillow, Chifuyu had almost half of his body buried in it, "Although I didn't have many friends, there are very few people who would speak so directly, like you."

Was that a compliment? I'll just pretend that it was a compliment.

"In my clan's territory, there are too little people for me to make friends with, so when my mom sent me to school, she was probably having the same thoughts." Chifuyu sat up and stretched out his hands above the table towards me, "I swear with my true self, no matter when and where, I will treat you as a friend, and will treat you sincerely."

I froze for a moment, in fact this is too serious... So to say, this was also one type of spiritual language? Can't simply lie to your friends, this felt rather nice.

I listened to the sound of the water flowing inside the library, listened to the sound of the tree absorbing the water, listened to sound of the librarian softly teaching the new students about the things they should be aware of about the library, everything was just so natural.

Then I also stretched out my hand and shook Chifuyu's hand, "I'll be in your care in the future."

Perhaps, this is the first time I officially made a friend this way? It felt good.

Just as everything was so touching, there was a sudden burst of screams piercing through the quiet space, and I saw a lot of people looking at the surrounding area. Lily, who was downstairs, quickly rushed over.

"Seems like there was someone who forgot to return a book." Unsure of when he came back, Ryan opened his mouth, immediately freaking me out.

Dude, you really come and go without a trace. Wait a moment... what did you say? Someone forgot to return a book?

I followed and looked at where the commotion was. There was someone struggling beside the Wisdom Tree. Lily was standing at one side, not really sure what she was trying to do but it looked like she was trying to communicate with the tree.

"Yang Yang, you must always return the book you borrowed, or else that will happen to you." Chifuyu coolly told me. Such a nice coincidence that there was a living example.

Over there, I saw a person who had his whole hand bitten by the hole in the tree.

...The wisdom tree also serves as a lie detector?

I've decided, it would be better not come here so often especially when I have no business here.

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