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Ryan
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?