In the lightless darkness, the air was filled with the stench of death and decay, making it deeply uncomfortable.
A small flame ignited, illuminating the surrounding scene.
A mold-covered corridor, mottled walls, broken windows, neatly arranged desks and chairs, and the sign by the door stained with grime—[? Year ? Class].
This was… a school?
Jiang He had been prepared to fight in places like an abyssal cliff, but he had never expected to see such a scene.
Behind him stood two girls who had been transported together with him.
Among them, Xiao Xue swept her gaze across the surroundings in the firelight, her eyes also filled with surprise.
"Weren't we supposed to enter the Abyss? Why have we come into the mirrored city from our previous combat test?"
"This isn't the mirrored city, this is the 'Abyss.'" Chi Zhilei clearly knew more. She explained, "My father said that above the mirrored city's Abyss entrance, aside from the bottomless main tunnel, there are countless branch passages of all sizes on the surface."
"The depths of these branch passages contain countless small spaces that resemble real-world scenes."
"In these narrow spaces, there are many terrifying demons. Their appearances resemble figures from ghost stories, and they are filled with hostility toward humans…"
"Because of these signs, the instructors suspect that the 'Abyss' may represent the dark side of the real world, born from life's instinctive fears… These spaces are also reflections of different periods of reality, even including ancient scenes…"
"But at present, all of this is just speculation, so it hasn't been made public."
The dark side of the world? The embodiment of life's fears?
That seemed to make some sense.
The Bat Demon Jiang He had seen before looked strikingly similar to the "devil" depicted by the ancient Western church.
However, the Abyss first appeared with the birth of the Abyss Strait at the end of 1968.
That was far later than the time when the "devil" image had first appeared.
If it wasn't prophecy and coincidence, then it truly aligned with the instructors' theory.
Jiang He was just about to ask how far the instructors had explored…
At that moment, a faint friction sound echoed from afar.
The three immediately stopped talking, raising their vigilance.
They had entered the Abyss to hunt demons and complete actual combat training.
If they wanted to chat, they could do that afterward.
At this time, the three released their spiritual power. Not only did they rely on their five senses, but they also used their spirit to "observe" the world.
After the qualitative transformation of a D-rank Transcendent, spiritual perception greatly expanded. It not only enveloped the corridor classrooms but also spread outside the corridor and across three floors above and below.
Jiang He discovered that this was indeed an "anomalous space"—
Outside the corridor walls was not normal space, but endless rocky cliffs.
It was as though this teaching building wasn't built on the ground, but buried underground.
Moreover, the three floors above and below were identical in layout and style, as though copied and pasted endlessly, with no end in sight.
And within the "empty" classrooms, bizarre figures were hanging from the ceiling.
They resembled teru teru bozu, draped in gray-white tattered cloths, wearing smiling masks. Their eyes and mouths were pitch black and deep. From behind the walls, they silently gazed at the three.
The sound the three had just heard was from a distant classroom, where a "Smiling Demon" swayed and brushed against another.
"So many demons?"
To be honest—
Seeing so many silent, hanging Smiling Demons in the pitch-black classroom was truly chilling.
However, after Jiang He and the others were surprised, what followed was…
Excitement.
Afraid?
If they could make friction sounds, it meant they had physical forms that could be attacked normally.
What's more, even if they were spirits, the three Transcendents had no shortage of attack methods.
And since they had already recorded their life essence, they wouldn't die—and as long as they destroyed demons, they could gain materials and combat evaluation…
How could they possibly fear these pretentious demons?
Thus, the moment they detected enemies—
Jiang He moved his mind, directly drawing out a tarot card from the air and crushing it in his hand.
Tarot card "The World"—boost to all attributes.
Cards, come!
Beside him, Xiao Xue was a close-combat physical Transcendent. She had few buff skills, most of hers were passives and actives.
Though she usually looked quiet and demure, this time she was faster by a step. With a forceful stomp, she vanished from her spot and reappeared inside the classroom.
Hanging from the ceiling, dozens of smiling masks all turned in unison to face her.
She felt no fear at all, but instead whipped her right leg forward—
Her shoe and sock tore apart, but what appeared wasn't a delicate jade-like foot, but a shining blade!
Her B-rank talent, [Blade Limbs].
A close-combat physical talent that could transform arms and legs into indestructible blades. It had little complexity, only pure, extreme numbers.
Coupled with her S-rank path [Immortal], those numbers were pushed to the extreme. Countless flashes of blades appeared, and everything in the entire classroom was shredded to pieces.
Only the walls and floor remained unscathed, as though fused with the space itself.
Those Smiling Demons that had been cut apart, as their gray-white cloth was shredded, revealed what lay beneath their "bodies"—nothing but darkness.
These demons were actually composed only of heads, masks, and tattered cloths!
Yet the cloths did not scatter but automatically reattached, as though her previous strike had done nothing at all.
"Physical attacks ineffective, masks are the core, individual strength only D-rank—very weak."
Xiao Xue quickly assessed.
After a single test strike, she had already grasped their level of strength.
But their specific abilities were still unclear…
Just as that thought flashed through her mind, the Smiling Demons in the classroom moved.
Not only them, but also those on this floor, as well as several floors above and below, all began swaying. From beneath their smiling masks came bursts of laughter.
Mocking, sneering, ridiculing—piercingly harsh.
The laughter resonated together, forming a powerful vibration that reverberated throughout the entire space, making the three turn pale, their heads splitting in pain.
Amid the tearing spiritual agony, Xiao Xue realized.
These demons used spiritual attacks!
And they could work together for group attacks!
Right now, the three of them were like trapped beasts in a cage, besieged from all sides. Even if they cleared one classroom's demons immediately, it wouldn't solve the problem…
What to do?
As she racked her brain, a voice rang out.
「Silence」
With the release of a Word-Spirit, the laughter abruptly stopped.
The surroundings instantly fell silent—even echoes vanished.
Xiao Xue's spirit loosened.
Oh, right, they had a powerhouse in the team.
With an all-purpose Word-Spirit talent user around, why fear being countered?
In the corridor, Jiang He also let out a breath.
Fortunately, he had worked hard enough last week, and before his Word-Spirit talent disappeared, he had drawn over a thousand E-rank Spell Words.
Though low in rank, they covered every aspect… otherwise, relying on just eight innate Word-Spirits, he would not have been able to deal with this laughter.
Now, with the strengthened Spell Word effects—
No matter how the Smiling Demons tried, they could not make a sound.
Realizing this, they changed—
Their mouths drooped, their eyes slanted, brows furrowed, their color turning red.
In an instant, they transformed from "Smiling Faces" into "Angry Faces."
These Angry Demons swooped down from the ceiling like flying heads, baring their fangs, lunging straight at Xiao Xue as if to devour her alive!
At the same time, the demons from nearby classrooms, and even those on several floors above and below, all poured out and flew down the stairways, flooding the entire corridor!
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