Lonelytree

  Millman97

  The Red Specters behind the door were teetering at the edge of life and death, so their senses were sharp and attuned. Even though the three underlings of the painter had been fighting with the other Red Specters from the School of the Afterlife, most of their attention had been placed on Chen Ge alone. Actually, including the painter, everyone was very curious. How did a living person like Chen Ge manage to have so many Red Specters listen to his orders? How did he manage to do that? What kind of power did he possess to accomplish such a feat?

  The unknown was always the scariest. The painter and his people did not go after Chen Ge directly because of this reason; they did not know anything about Chen Ge’s trump card. They stood there and saw Chen Ge growing stronger and stronger as more and more Red Specters gathered around the man.

  “The reason that you can control other Red Specters is inside your shadow?” The man with the blindfold wished to get some information from the change in Chen Ge’s facial expression, but to his disappointment, other than the added swiftness to his movement, Chen Ge did not show any unusual reactions, and his face was startlingly calm.

  Drops of candies landed on the shadow, and they slowly melted like fresh snow. Not just the man with the blindfold, but all the surrounding Red Specters started to feel a weak presence coming from Chen Ge’s shadow. This presence was slowly gathering itself like something was awakening from its dream, but this process of awakening was going to be very long.

  “I remember Mr. Bai once said that there is a special someone hiding inside his shadow.” Heavily injured, Zhou Tu, who hid at the back, commented on this like he was talking to himself.

  “Yes, I do remember Mr. Bai saying something like that as well.” Another student who had been brought over by Chen Ge from the eastern and western campus, Wang Yicheng, concurred. “Before leaving the two campuses, we felt that presence. But after leaving the campuses, the sense of the presence instead became less obvious and weaker.”


  It was unknown whether they were doing this on purpose or it was a pure coincidence, but the conversation between the two was overheard by the people around him, and that included the man with the blindfold who managed to hear them very clearly.

  “Your last trump card is hidden inside your shadow‽” The man with the blindfold had basically confirmed that Chen Ge only dared enter the School of the Afterlife in the form of a living human because there was something protecting him inside his shadow. In fact, he could push this speculation further and say that perhaps Chen Ge was just a puppet. Maybe the thing inside his shadow was the real mastermind behind the curtain. No one at the School of the Afterlife really knew what was inside Chen Ge’s shadow. Both the man with the blindfold and Lin Sisi had a very bad feeling about this. They did not think that Chen Ge’s shadow would be something to deal with.

  Coincidentally, at that moment, several teachers ran over from the end of the corridor of the education block. The leading person was Mr. Lei. When the Red Specters who guarded around Chen Ge saw the arrival of Mr. Lei and the rest of the teachers, they were quite relieved and happy. After all, they had interacted with each other before, and they were not actually enemies. However, what Mr. Lei said next completely shattered the hope of those Red Specters around Chen Ge.

  “There is a Top Red Specter hiding in his shadow! She is not weaker than the painter and Chang Wenyu. Furthermore, she is deeply related to this school! We have to stop him no matter what!” Mr. Lei and most of the staff at the school were on the same team as the painter. They were helping the painter manage the heaven that was constructed inside a nightmare.

  “Top Red Specter?” The three simple words appeared to have some kind of magical power that could shake everyone’s heart. Even the three Top Red Specters who were fighting non-stop, like it was the end of the world, temporarily stopped moving.

  “Chen Ge, do not disappoint me! You were able to hide until now! I knew I could count on you!” Her back and joined with the door already. Chang Wenyu, who was covered in wounds and had her lips split open, was laughing like maniac. Her blood red eyes were dancing with mockery. “Even if you kill me, neither of you are destined to get this door! The Red Specter who once destroyed this door has returned—the Specter who scares the door itself has returned!”


  The situation appeared to have changed in that moment. Chang Wenyu was roaring and yelling like she had lost her mind. The painter’s face was dark as the far side of the moon. The man in the patient’s outfit who was stuck in the middle controlling the blood fog was as confused as he could be.

  “Stop him. We need to stop him no matter what!” When the fourth Top Red Specter appeared, the balance would be definitely shaken. Other than the people who voluntarily followed Chen Ge, all the other monsters and Specters gathered to surround and attack Chen Ge. They ignored the Specters that hung around Chen Ge and placed their target on Chen Ge alone. They wanted to kill Chen Ge before the man had chance to summon the Specter from inside his shadow.

  “Stop them! We need to stop them!” Those Red Specters and students who initially followed Chen Ge were slightly shaken when they were cornered, but when he heard from Chang Wenyu that there was another Top Red Specter hidden in Chen Ge’s shadow, their confidence in Chen Ge returned practically instantly. They were both Top Red Specters, so Chang Wenyu did not need to lie. They felt like they had placed their bets on the right party, so they started to give it their all and sacrificed everything to protect Chen Ge to buy him as much time as they could.

  Blood swam about like sea. The expression of Chen Ge, who stood in the center of it, did not change; he just kept dropping the candies from the bag onto the shadow. His shadow was like a deep pool. No one knew what was hiding underneath. They could only see some trace of shadows. The candies disappeared one after another, and the massacre around Chen Ge reached its bloodiest moment.

  A large amount of blood squirted out from Lin Sisi’s gray fog, and one could even hear the blood curdling scream from Xu Yin. The Red Specters that surrounded the man with the blindfold all carried fatal wounds on them. They were slowly approaching a state close to death. The man with the blindfold utilized his power on them, but no one really cared; everyone risked the chance of being shattered into pieces to help Chen Ge buy as much time as they could. The inverted and disfigured monsters that came out from Mu Yang High School’s old well charged at Chen Ge at the same time. The students from the School of the Afterlife all volunteered to stand guard around Chen Ge, and they used their actions to win the school’s approval.

  “Painter, I bet you did not expect this, right? My last trump card is not even on me.” Chang Wenyu kept mocking the painter. She was trying to buy them, too. The door of the School of Afterlife had almost been consumed by the three-headed monster, and the cracks on the door had grown so big that it was almost impossible to fix it. The painter was not influenced by Chang Wenyu, but one could capture a trace of hesitance in his eyes. He stared at the shadow behind Chen Ge, and the last piece of ‘canvas’ covered by blood vessels silently appeared in his hand.

  The monsters from the old well and the blood fog cut open a path that headed toward Chen Ge, but any monster that tried to charge at Chen Ge would be stopped by the students. There was a low gasping voice that came from the crowd. The saliva that was radiating this horrible stench slid down the corner of his lips. A pair of evil, venomous eyes were staring at Chen Ge’s back. The four limbs crawled swiftly on the ground. The humanoid monster who ‘worked’ at the trash collection center was like a praying mantis that was hunting its prey. It borrowed the cover of the surrounding and jumped and weaved its way toward Chen Ge. It aimed for Chen Ge’s neck and then opened its mouth wide.

  BANG

  A woman’s skull blocked and landed on the strange monster’s face. She used her own head to stop the attacking monster, thus protecting Chen Ge from harm. As someone who was practically ‘forced’ to be there, she had done more than she was supposed to. Her blood dripped down her body, and the headless woman in the red dress half knelt behind Chen Ge. She was covered in wounds, and one of her arms had been pulled off. She was unable to recover on herself, and the other arm was holding her own head. The monsters continued to swarm forward. The headless woman’s other arm was pulled off, and the pale arm dropped on Chen Ge’s shadow. The black hair that was tied around her wrist slowly melted into Chen Ge’s shadow. At that moment, Chen Ge’s shadow seemed to become quite different. The few Top Red Specters at the scene all felt something. The three of them all turned to look behind Chen Ge at the same time.

  “She…… has awakened?”


  The smile on Chang Wenyu’s face froze, and the man who controlled the fog had a strong sense of alarm rising within him. Of the three of them, the painter was the calmest, and he stopped hesitating and came to a decision. Before anyone could realize what he was going to do, his eyes turned pure black, and he turned to look at Chen Ge’s shadow. His bloodied finger fell on the last piece of canvas.

  “This is not good!

  “Chen Ge! Shield you shadow from view!”


  Cries and orders came from the crowd. Chen Ge also subconsciously moved his body about. He lifted his head to look, and the painter was painting Chen Ge’s shadow!

  “The painter’s special power‽” The painter was using his last power on Chen Ge’s shadow. The School of the Afterlife, which was chaotic and crazy, suddenly experience a temporary lull. The match had been made. The painter could draw a ghost and strip away everything that was possessed by the ghost.

  There was a great limitation to this special power, but only the painter himself knew what kind of limitation that was.

  “It’s all over now……”


  Chen Ge and the painter became the focus of the entire school. On the painter’s canvas, Chen Ge’s shadow gradually became clearer, and the shape of the shadow was having the same change.

  “Even without seeing the real person, he can paint by looking at the shadow?” Chen Ge felt like something on his body had slowly been taken away. An existence that was intertwined with his own destiny was disappearing little by little.

  “Painting is just one of my powers. This pair of eyes can see the outline of the framework of destiny. I can follow the trail of destiny and paint whatever’s related to you.”


  Chen Ge’s shadow on the canvas kept on changing. Everyone’s attention was drawn by the painter, and Chen Ge’s hands involuntarily moved to his heart. The feeling was hard to describe. He knew very well that he was about to lose something important. He wanted to scream—he wanted to yell out that name at the top of his voice. The color of the shadow behind Chen Ge gradually faded, but the shadow on the painter’s canvas was getting clearer and clearer. Unable to breathe, after several long, tedious seconds, the shadow on the painter’s canvas finally changed , and it turned into the original shape of the Specter that was hiding inside Chen Ge’s shadow!

  The painter’s breath suddenly weakened, and everyone turned to look at the canvas that the painter was holding!

  On the canvas that was made from human skin was the picture of a weak, lanky body. There were many wounds left behind by nails and pins on his body. When the shadow on the canvas stopped changing, the shadow behind Chen Ge looked as if it had been thrown open. A small, shy shadow was standing next to Chen Ge. He hugged the sweet, milky candies in his embrace, and he was still munching happily on them. Only after several seconds did he realize that something was wrong. The candies in his arms dropped and rolled to the ground. The small shadow forgot how to chew. He shared a look with the painter and saw his own reflection on the painter’s canvas. The smoke-like body dispersed, as if being blown by heavy wind, and the small shadow disappeared like it had never existed in the world.

  “The scapegoat?” When the painter said this like it was an afterthought, the three Top Red Specters and the numerous Red Specters around Chen Ge were baffled. The Specter that was hiding inside Chen Ge’s shadow, the Specter that so many people were afraid of, was just a scapegoat that was not even a Half Red Specter‽


  “We’ve been tricked‽”


  The smile on Chang Wenyu’s face completely disappeared, and the faces of all three Top Red Specters darkened. At that moment, no one realized that Chen Ge’s torn shadow did not disappear fully. Instead, it started to spread to its surroundings like a widening sea of blackness.