Chapter 5: Shadow

The end of school arrived quickly, and the classroom instantly became noisy.

Su Wanyue remained seated, her fingers tapping unconsciously on the desk.

Her current fake identity was a boarding student, but at the moment, she wasn’t in a hurry to return to the dorm.

“Su Wanyue.” A gentle voice sounded beside her.

Su Wanyue looked up and saw a female classmate standing in front of her desk.

“Teacher Chen wants you to go to the office. She said she still needs to confirm some enrollment documents for the transfer student.”

Su Wanyue nodded and stood up to leave.

She walked through the gradually emptying hallway and pushed open the office door. 

The teacher’s office was empty, with only the sound of rain echoing indoors.

Just then, she heard the sound of the door lock clicking shut behind her.

Su Wanyue didn’t turn around. 

Her body moved before her mind, dodging to the side.

An arc-like flash streaked past her, splitting the desk behind her in two.

“Teacher Chen.” Su Wanyue spoke, her voice steady, “This is a society governed by law. It’s probably not appropriate for you to be holding a restricted blade against a student.”

“So you’ve been replaced too?” Chen Ye’s voice was soft, but filled with killing intent.

Su Wanyue suddenly leaped forward, twisting in midair, and condensed a black orb of light at her fingertip, shooting it at Chen Ye.

But the orb dissipated just before hitting Chen Ye.

Seeing this, Chen Ye relaxed her wrist and slowly sheathed her katana.

She casually pulled over a chair and sat down, then spoke unhurriedly: “How does it feel to attend class on the first day at this school? Made any new friends?”

“Hey, hey, don’t treat me like a kid. And I’m not good with children anyway.” Su Wanyue said helplessly.

“Miss Wanyue, you look about the same age as them.”

“…Want to keep fighting? I’m game.”

“I surrender, I surrender. Just joking.” Chen Ye raised her hands in a gesture of surrender.

“Seriously, we’re practically the same—both have arms and legs. Why are you witches born at the Brightmoon level? The gods really are unfair.”

“Miss Chen Ye, please stop saying things that ruin your character.” Su Wanyue frowned.

“Right now, I’m not the captain of the Jianghai City Hunter Association. I’m just a dedicated teacher doing her job.”

“Let me tell you, being a teacher is so exhausting. Even though I prepared thoroughly, I barely managed to get through today’s lessons. And the students still found mistakes—honestly, I almost slipped up…”

“Smack”

Su Wanyue delivered a chop to Chen Ye’s forehead.

“Ow, what are you doing?” Chen Ye flinched, instinctively raising her hand to rub her forehead.

Su Wanyue felt a pang of regret. 

She really shouldn’t have agreed to be this person’s partner.

“Since we’ve confirmed each other hasn’t been replaced, let’s exchange information quickly.” Su Wanyue said.

Then she told Chen Ye everything that happened in the classroom today.

“So, you encountered that witch? And now our goal is to find the entrance to that world left in this world?” Chen Ye asked.

“You could say that.”

“Then let’s go investigate this school’s urban legends.”

“Why?”

“Think about it. In novels, the truth is always in the school urban legends.”

Su Wanyue rubbed her forehead helplessly.

“Just tell me the information you’ve gathered.”

Chen Ye slowly took out a stack of documents from her bag and placed them gently on the desk.

“According to my investigation, the construction of this school seems to have been funded by the military.”

The military?

In Su Wanyue’s memory, ever since humans learned to resonate with Soul Weapons and become Hunters, the military had gradually stepped back to the second line.

There was no other reason: modern firearms simply couldn’t cause substantial damage to Erosion Beasts.

Only by using the power of a Soul Weapon could Erosion Beasts be completely eliminated.

“Furthermore, there have been reports of missing persons at this school, but they’ve never been taken seriously.” Chen Ye added.

Su Wanyue and Chen Ye fell silent for a moment, then simultaneously shouted their shocking guess:

“Are they using the students here for human experiments?!”

***

Su Wanyue left the office and walked through the empty school.

The school was already pitch black.

If she hadn’t been delayed in the office for so long, Su Wanyue would have wanted to investigate the school more. 

But wandering around at this hour would be too suspicious.

“Why is the student dormitory built in such a remote place?” Su Wanyue complained.

The entire campus of No.1 Middle School was enormous, with many buildings clustered near the school gate. 

But the student dormitory seemed deliberately placed in a very remote corner.

Just as Su Wanyue was about to enter the girls’ dorm to rest.

“Idiot, look over there. There’s someone.” Serafica suddenly appeared beside Su Wanyue, warning her.

Su Wanyue turned and saw a middle-aged man standing under a streetlamp. 

His figure was stretched a bit bloated under the warm yellow light, exuding an indescribable strangeness.

“Who are you…”

The middle-aged man slowly turned at the sound, his gaze landing on Su Wanyue.

He was thin, with gray and somewhat messy hair. 

His murky eyes held an indescribable weirdness and fatigue.

Su Wanyue thought he would leave, but he unexpectedly stopped in place, as if he was there specifically for her.

After a moment of silent stalemate, the middle-aged man finally spoke: “The new transfer student, Su Wanyue, right?”

“Don’t be afraid. I am the principal of this school, Li Zhengming.”

The middle-aged man slowly lowered his eyes and continued.

Su Wanyue didn’t reply.

“Have you come to investigate the missing persons at the school?”

“You know about it? Then why do you allow the situation to worsen?” Su Wanyue didn’t bother to question how he knew her purpose, and instead followed his lead.

“They brought this upon themselves!” Li Zhengming’s tone suddenly rose.

“This school was never built for education—its sole purpose was to fulfill their shameful schemes. And this place has become their graveyard.”

Su Wanyue frowned even tighter, ‘What kind of riddle-speaker was this?’

“Leave this place. No redemption is needed here.” The middle-aged man’s voice was as hoarse as iron rusted by time.

As he finished speaking, his figure began to change, transforming into a wisp of shadow that quickly merged into the darkness on the ground.

Within a few seconds, the figure vanished completely.

“Is he an Erosion Beast?” Su Wanyue turned to Serafica and asked.

“I can’t sense any magic from him.”

“Then what…” Before Su Wanyue could finish, she was interrupted by Serafica’s laughter.

“Haha, idiot. Didn’t you say that witches are dangerous to humans? In my opinion, you humans yourselves are the cruelest beings to your own kind.” Serafica let out a mocking laugh.