Phoenix's Requiem

Chapter 336: Zhou Lin’s Sudden Insanity

The other wolves knew that their deaths were approaching. They completely gave up on running away and instead charged at the two Lin sisters with the goal of inflicting as much damage to her as they could before they died.

Not daring to continue taking the situation lightly, Lin Qingxue coordinated with Lin Qingchen to slaughter the rest of the wolves one by one.

“Sister Ruoyan,” she exclaimed, once she and Lin Qingchen had taken care of them all.

“Not bad,” Yun Ruoyan critiqued. “But it won’t do for you to become proud. These are only low-rank beasts, and if even half of them were mid-rank beasts, then it wouldn’t have been as easy.”

“Your combat capabilities are still far from your cousin’s,” Li Mo added. “At your cultivation, Ruoyan was able to handle a high-rank beast on her own.”

“Sister Ruoyan’s our role model,” Lin Qingxue replied, smiling.

There were about a dozen low-rank beasts and one mid-rank beast carcass here, so they had finished more than half of Li Mo’s task.

“Sister Ruoyan,” Lin Qingchen said, after they finished extracting the beast cores from their carcasses, “we still need two more mid-rank beast cores, and I’d like to collect them with Qingxue alone.”

Yun Ruoyan frowned and was just about to object when Li Mo interjected, “That’s fine. Meet us back by the shore when you’re done. We’ll be waiting there for you.”

Yun Ruoyan glanced at Li Mo, who shook his head. When Yun Ruoyan turned to see both Lin sisters staring firmly at her, she decided not to object. “Be careful,” she finally added.

“We’ll definitely finish the rest of the task quickly!” Both girls headed deeper into the forest, excited at being granted the freedom to work alone.

“Only if you leave them be can they grow,” Li Mo commented. “There’s nothing particularly dangerous in this realm, and the only reason we’re bringing them here is to improve their self-confidence and to diminish their fears regarding the otherworld. Yan’er, there’s no need to worry.”

After hearing the elders’ conversation, it was inevitable that the students would become fearful of what awaited them in the alternate dimension. Furthermore, given how many students had died in the expedition to the giant forest, some of the more weak-willed students had begun entertaining thoughts of retreating. This training was meant to relieve these students’ concerns.

Yun Ruoyan finally lowered her guard after hearing Li Mo’s explanation. None of the beasts on this island would pose any sort of challenge to Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo, so the two of them flew back to the shore, where the students would gather. Basking in her newfound skill, Yun Ruoyan flew in front of Li Mo on her own sword, making him yearn for the feeling of flying together with her.

“There are already students who are back!” Yun Ruoyan spied about a dozen students already gathered by the shore in surprise. Lin Qingchen and Lin Qingxue had dispatched the wolves rather efficiently, so she hadn’t expected that there would already be teams who had finished their assigned task—and apparently far earlier.

When Yun Ruoyan got closer, she saw that these students included the northern college’s Rong Yueshan and the southern college’s Guan Ruliu and Zong Yang.

The moment Yun Ruoyan landed, she noticed something amiss. Everyone looked toward her and Li Mo anxiously, but also as though a great burden had been relieved from them. Even Rong Yueshan, who hated Yun Ruoyan, seemed to turn excited upon seeing her presence.

“Master Mo, Junior Sister Ruoyan, something’s wrong!” Zong Yang and Guan Ruliu hurried to Li Mo and Yun Ruoyan’s side.

“What’s the problem?” Yun Ruoyan asked.

“Not long after we entered the forest, Junior Brother Zhou Lin suddenly went crazy!”

Yun Ruoyan looked all around and noted that Zhou Lin was absent.

“Where is he?” Li Mo asked.

“After he went crazy, he ran into the depths of the forest and vanished,” Zong Yang replied.

“What happened? How did he suddenly go crazy?” Yun Ruoyan frowned.

“It’s like this,” Guan Ruliu explained. “Junior Brother Zhou Lin started behaving erratically this morning.”

Guan Ruliu claimed that Zhou Lin was usually a reticent youth, but he had suddenly become a lot more talkative this morning. He had asked her all sorts of questions about cultivation, as well as what was going on between Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo.

Zhou Lin and Zong Yang were both late additions to the roster of new students, who weren’t particularly familiar with the training that the other students had experienced. In this sense, it wasn’t unusual for them to have questions about the training, so Guan Ruliu hadn’t found the sudden spate of questions concerning. However, the relationship between Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo was essentially an open secret within the academy; even if no one would speak directly of it, they all knew about what was going on.

The students from the other colleges would often gossip about Li Mo and Yun Ruoyan, but this never happened in the southern college. At the time, Guan Ruliu had lectured Zhou Lin for his indiscretion. Because Zhou Lin had accepted the reprimand gracefully and had promised not to repeat his mistake, Guan Ruliu thought nothing of the affair. After Zhou Lin’s sudden craziness, however, she realized how suspicious that interaction had been.

“Things were progressing very smoothly. We stayed together in the forest hunting a pack of low-rank beasts, but Zhou Lin suddenly began attacking me and Zong Yang,” Guan Ruliu continued, frowning. “Luckily, Zong Yang and I reacted quickly, and neither of us were injured. When he realized that we were now both on guard against him, he turned and ran deeper into the forest. Zong Yang and I followed his footsteps only to find a series of dead beasts along the way, both low- and mid-rank ones. They all died in a horrifying, macabre manner.”

Guan Ruliu stilled for a moment, and Zong Yang continued. “All the beasts had their head and body sliced open. Strangely enough, instead of taking the beasts’ cores, their brains and hearts had vanished.”

“Do you suspect Zhou Lin of killing those beasts?” Yun Ruoyan asked.

“We’re the only thirty people on this island, aren’t we? Except for Zhou Lin, I can’t imagine anyone else responsible for killing those beasts,” Zong Yang replied.

The bodies of high-rank beasts could be rare treasures, but low- and mid-rank beasts were primarily only sought after for their beast cores.

“It’s Zhou Lin!” Rong Yueshan claimed as she walked over. “Your southern college’s Zhou Lin has really gone crazy! He suddenly appeared out of nowhere and attacked us, wounding Pei Ziao and dragging him away!”

“Zhou Lin dragged Pei Ziao away?” Only then did Yun Ruoyan notice that Pei Ziao wasn’t within the gathered crowd.

“Zhou Lin never talks, so I always thought of him as a recluse, but he was a maniac!” another student added. “We were killing beasts on our own when he suddenly appeared and attacked us. Luckily, we were able to fend off his attacks, but a few students still suffered injuries.”

One of the wounded students extended an arm, revealing bloodied scratch marks.

Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo’s eyes both narrowed: they noticed a few skeins of dark energy surrounding the wound, the same energy that had been on Li Qianxiao’s corpse.

Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo both glanced at each other, their gazes serious. The… thing that had killed Li Qianxiao seemed to have snuck into this realm with them. Zhou Lin had likely been controlled or possessed by that mysterious entity, and this was why he had suddenly gone crazy.

“Oh no!” Yun Ruoyan suddenly exclaimed. “Qingchen and Qingxue are still in the forest, and they’ll be in danger if they encounter Zhou Lin!”

A red aura flashed by Yun Ruoyan’s feet as she soared up into the air, so quickly no one else could react in time.

“Yan’er!” By the time Li Mo called out Yun Ruoyan’s name, she had already flown off into the distance. A green aura flashed by Li Mo’s feet, and he was just about to give chase when someone suddenly pulled on his sleeve.

“Master Mo, you can’t go!” Rong Yueshan called out, tightly clutching onto his sleeve. With a pitiful tone that she had never used before, she exclaimed, “Master Mo, Zhou Lin brought Pei Ziao toward the south! Please save him quickly!”

Rong Yueshan pointed toward the south, but Yun Ruoyan had already vanished in the forest by the north.

Li Mo cast an icy glance at Rong Yueshan. She gulped, but continued clutching onto Li Mo for dear life. He swung his arm back with enough force that Rong Yueshan was blown into the air and flung about thirty feet back. After getting rid of her, Li Mo began flying in Yun Ruoyan’s direction, but he could see no sight of her.

“This damned woman,” Li Mo huffed. She was normally so mature and intelligent, but it seemed as though she would lose all her wits when it came to her family.

Despite landing in a heap, Rong Yueshan wasn’t injured. She slowly got up on her feet, then glanced at the direction in which Li Mo and Yun Ruoyan had vanished, a sinister smile by her face...