Darkening Makes You Three Times Stronger

The laughter was soft, yet in these ruins—so dead and silent, so utterly frozen in time—it was unnervingly clear.

Wang Shuo took half a step back and stared at her. His instincts told him that this girl had become extremely dangerous.

An Changqing’s brow furrowed even more deeply.

“Yuehe, don’t be like this. What happened?”

Su Yuehe slowly raised her head. Her gaze passed over An Changqing and swept across everyone present before finally settling on the diary in Chen Guan’s hands.

“So that’s how it is.”

So she had never been an esper at all. She was just an ordinary person.

So she had never been a genius. She had merely been living a lie.

Su Yuehe’s lips moved, the breath that escaped them so faint it was almost inaudible.

Her hand was still suspended above the photograph, her fingertip trembling unconsciously in midair.

So the talent she had always been proud of… had been stolen.

So every bout of weakness, every time she had pushed herself past her limits since childhood, had not been because she was unable to control her power.

It had been because her ordinary body was desperately struggling to survive.

She knew that Lu Ming’s research was related to grafting supernatural abilities. She just had never imagined that she herself was the first product.

An Changqing reached out, wanting to touch her, but he did not dare.

Even the people from Yanjing Academy could see that something had changed in Su Yuehe. How could he possibly fail to notice?

“Yuehe, don’t be like this. Let’s leave first. Whatever it is, we can talk about it after we get back.”

There was a tremor in his voice that he himself had not noticed.

Wang Shuo had already led several other students toward the entrance. They watched Su Yuehe as if she were a bomb that could detonate at any moment.

Long Ao positioned himself beside Chen Guan, the invisible force around his body already beginning to circulate. He could sense the threat.

It was not a threat in terms of power, but one on a psychological level. He had never imagined that one day he would sense such fury coming from Su Yuehe.

Su Yuehe’s gaze moved away from the photograph and slowly swept over her own hands, as though she were looking at something that did not belong to her.

“A perfection built from lies.”

She repeated the words from the diary in a low voice.

Then she raised her head, her gaze passing over everyone before finally landing on An Changqing.

Faint crackling sounds filled the air, as if countless invisible electrical charges were colliding.

Dust and fragments of stone on the ground began to tremble, then slowly floated into the air.

An indescribable force spread outward from her as its center.

Behind her, countless ghostly blue motes of light gathered in midair, condensing into two enormous, twisted characters.

[Shatter]

An Changqing’s expression changed drastically. He could sense the will contained within those two characters.

“Yuehe, calm down!”

He shouted and charged toward her without hesitation.

But a figure moved faster than he did, stepping between him and Su Yuehe.

It was Chen Guan.

He took a step forward, blocking An Changqing’s path, and looked at the girl shrouded in blue light.

“Do you remember our deal?”

Chen Guan’s voice was steady, exceptionally clear in this space on the verge of collapse.

“When the truth comes crashing down on you, you must trust my judgment unconditionally—not your own feelings.”

Su Yuehe’s laughter stopped.

The light in her eyes flickered violently as she stared at Chen Guan.

The two characters trembling behind her shook violently as well, their light flashing between brightness and darkness, illuminating her pale, conflicted face.

[The power-up I wanted wasn’t “turn evil and become three times stronger,” okay?!]

[Her Wordcraft has gone berserk. We’re all screwed if this keeps up.]

[Why did she suddenly go berserk? Hasn’t Su always had the most stable mental state?]

[She must have been affected. The diary mentioned Astaroth—and the true owner of the Wordcraft is here too.]

[Don’t turn into Liu Xiao the Second. Astaroth, you’ve committed countless atrocities. I’m writing this in blood: I support Lord Bael unifying the demon realm.]

Baal, who had been the subject of everyone’s hopes in the barrage, burst into wild laughter inside Chen Guan’s mind.

“Heh heh heh! That’s it! Her soul is tearing apart. That power that doesn’t belong to her is devouring her despair and pain! Let it run wild! Let the little girl tear everything here to shreds!”

Chen Guan ignored him and simply continued watching Su Yuehe in silence.

Before Su Yuehe could respond, the two trembling characters behind her suddenly expanded and contracted.

The next moment, the light exploded.

The two words “Shatter” transformed into an invisible shock wave that swept in every direction.

The entire ruin, frozen in time, began to shake violently. The surrounding scenery flickered like a mirror on the verge of being smashed to pieces.

The shock wave released by the characters swept across the camp.

The edges of the canvas tents began to skip frames.

The coffee cup on the table repeatedly shifted position. One moment it was still on the tabletop; the next, it was embedded in the ground.

Huo Qixing cried out anxiously, “Time is coming apart!”

An Changqing turned sideways and shielded Su Yuehe, his sword tip scraping the ground and drawing an arc of light.

“Tell me clearly. What will happen?”

“This isn’t a complete space. It’s only a fragment of the past that’s been locked in place.”

“We’ll be thrown into the turbulence. If we’re lucky, we’ll be dumped somewhere in the Northern Frontier. If we’re unlucky, no one will even find our bodies.”

Wang Shuo’s expression grew even worse when he heard that.

“Are your missions always this exciting?”

He had long heard that the people from Huaxing were all walking disasters. Before, he had scoffed at the idea. Now, it seemed he had been far too hasty.

Long Ao grabbed him by the back of his collar and dragged him half a step backward.

“Shut up and save your strength.”

Wang Shuo stumbled as he was pulled, his face full of despair.

Long Ao stared at the ground by his feet and snorted.

“You idiot. Take one more step and there won’t be any ground left beneath you.”

Wang Shuo looked down and finally realized that a section of the frozen earth had silently vanished just ahead of his boot. Beneath it were only rings of swirling, ghostly blue patterns.

Cold sweat broke out all over him. He immediately pulled his foot back.

“Thanks.”

Long Ao snorted.

“Don’t mention it. Just remember not to badmouth me when we get back.”

Another Yanjing Academy student suddenly screamed. The image of the camp beneath his feet rolled open, and his entire body began to sink into it.

Long Ao turned and took a step forward. He thrust out an arm, seized the student by the collar of his protective suit, and, the veins on the back of his hand bulging, hauled him bodily back from the edge of the opening.

The student rolled onto the ground and could not even manage to crawl, gasping heavily for breath.

Long Ao’s face darkened.

He had to save one person, then another. Could these people not take care of themselves for even a moment?

An Changqing did not turn around to watch Long Ao rescue everyone behind him.

The light on his sword flickered. The formation patterns of his Shrinking-Into-Inches technique had only begun to emerge beneath his feet when they were scattered by the chaotic blue radiance.

He clenched his back teeth.

“Shrinking-Into-Inches is being disrupted.”

Qin Wu helped the student to his feet and asked urgently, “An Changqing, can you still get us out?”

The blue light had shaken An Changqing’s sword-wielding wrist numb, and the radiance on the blade was fading inch by inch.

There was already no doubt about the answer.

Huo Qixing pulled out a white talisman.

“The spatial-temporal coordinates here are in chaos. The entrance has been rewritten by the Wordcraft. To return the way we came, we need a stable anchor point.”

Wang Shuo gripped the signal mast they had brought in the vehicle, his throat tight.

“What’s an anchor point?”

“Idiot.”

Huo Qixing spat out the two words, having no time to explain.