Rules-related weird stories: 4016.

Chapter 651 Advantages are also disadvantages
[The fragments of "Holy Sun" can indeed forge a true Apostle of Ashes... Hehehe...] The Mist Whisperer's laughter was extremely smug. [Go... follow the scent of 'Ash'... you will give me an answer...]

"No... I won't let you succeed..." The headmaster, now a "Primeval Ash Apostle," uttered a jumble of syllables. "Don't even think about it..."

"Go..." the Mist Whisperer chuckled eerily. "Go... everything is no longer up to you..."

The voice of the "Mist Whisperer" gradually faded, while the headmaster, in the form of a "Primordial Ash Apostle," uncontrollably departed from "Return to the Ruins"...

"[Squadron 01...]" the "Original Ash Apostle" murmured, "[You must find the compass... and finally... be able to destroy... the notebook... that's... the key to stopping... us...]"

His voice slowly echoed from the depths of the gray fog sea, crushed layer upon layer across layers and dimensions...

[Squadron 01... Ah...]

【01...01...】

[Found...the compass...]

【……destroy……】

【……notebook……】

[...the only...key...]

【01 ah…】

【01...】

However, no one noticed that beyond the blurry outline of the "Primordial Ash Apostle," there seemed to be a strange ring of cotton wool lingering around...

Those were ink stains, shattered into twisted characters from the broken humanoid sculpture, clinging to the "Primordial Ash Apostle," and slowly calling out along with his voice:

[Lin Yi, oh Lin Yi...]

[Lin Yi, oh Lin Yi...]

I don't know how much time has passed, but there's still another rhythm in that call...

[Lin Yi, oh Lin Yi...]

Take us back...

You said... you would take us back...

……

On May 12, X023, somewhere in the Gray Fog Sea, at an anchorage platform constructed from red streetlight poles.

While Lin Yi's will was undergoing hardships in "Return to the Ruins", the anchor platform was also constantly subjected to various kinds of attacks.

Tian Bufan's illusory figure floated between the anchorage platforms, like the only worker on an oil drilling platform, enduring the attack in the storm.

Around him, countless tattered pages resembled sacred scriptures, with the words on them magnified several times, like rings of stars encircling the anchor platform.

In the black sea surrounding the anchorage platform, the super nocturnal creatures, like schools of fish, were constantly ramming against the lampposts. They could hardly penetrate the interior of the anchorage platform or break through its boundaries. However, the shaking caused by the collisions was like waves washing over the anchorage, causing the entire anchorage platform to sway continuously.

"Thump—! Thump—!!"

The anchor point platform is teetering on the brink of collapse, while the handwriting industry is struggling to stay afloat.

But more threats continue to descend. Beneath the black sea, more and more enormous shadows gradually appear. If someone with thalassophobia were to look down at the sea from here and see the shadows growing ever larger beneath the surface, they would surely suffer a mental breakdown and become emaciated.

It resembled a wriggling, living creature, like a whale gently swaying its enormous fins, or a vast, living nest...

They slowly emerged from the water, revealing a pitted and uneven mountain surface that looked like it had been gnawed and eroded. They were full of geometric regularity, yet in areas where regularity should have been preserved, they shattered that regularity into a mess, making them full of a strong desecration of geometry.

It was a chilling feeling that could shatter cognition and rules. Just seeing a mottled corner of its enormous form emerging from the water was enough to cause a mental breakdown. The soul felt like it was being gnawed at by countless tiny insects, an unbearable itch that was utterly unavoidable.

Tian Bufan's form gradually became flickering, like a stereoscopic image with a poor signal, which could go out at any moment.

"Hurry, Lao Lin...hurry..." Tian Bufan muttered to himself, "These anchor points are starting to be exposed...hurry..."

After a while, as if sensing something, a glint flashed in Tian Bufan's eyes.

"Finally home!"

At the same time, a phantom vortex quietly appeared, and then, a twisted figure was "released" from the vortex like ramen noodles, transforming into the "Original Ash Apostle" as if it were cotton being fluffed.

"It seems... they're back..." Lin Yi, the "Primordial Ash Apostle," spoke slowly, his voice carrying a hint of joy at surviving a catastrophe. But before he could fully rejoice, he suddenly thought of the principal, and his mood darkened. "It's a pity... we couldn't bring the principal back..."

Tian Bufan's physical form vanished silently, merging into Lin Yi's will. At the same time, his voice slowly rang out: "Although we failed to bring back the principal, we did our best to leave behind enough hidden threats..."

Upon hearing this, Lin Yi, who was feeling somewhat melancholy, suddenly became excited: "Are you telling the truth?"

In his excitement, his Ash Apostle form uncontrollably released wave after wave of intense energy ripples outwards, causing terrifying waves to surge across the surface of the Gray Mist Sea.

"Calm down, Lao Lin," Tian Bufan quickly stopped him. "Your condition is too unstable, and the level of pollution you're releasing is too high. Let's get back to normal first."

"I want to, but what should I do?" Lin Yi asked.

Tian Bufan said, "Theoretically, it should be as easy as sheathing a sword."

"Uh...sheath your sword?" Lin Yi was taken aback.

"Imagine the feeling of putting away the hacksaw," Tian Bufan reminded him.

"I'll give it a try..." Lin Yi immediately looked for that feeling, and soon his form slowly changed again. Finally, like shedding his shell, he broke out of the illusory humanoid crystal and became the form of a will body.

"It's a success!" Lin Yi exclaimed excitedly, then immediately added, "Tell me about that hidden hand!"

Tian Bufan said, "Our notebook left him a way back, a path... one that even the 'Mist Whisperer' couldn't decipher."

Could you explain it in simpler terms?

Tian Bufan said, "The notebook contains the coordinates for returning. All the principal needs to do is unlock his understanding of that link at the right time." "I planned meticulously... When I discovered the existence of the 'Mist Whisperer,' I summoned the notebook from the 'Principal's Office.' We possess the power of the 'Holy Sun,' and the 'Mist Whisperer' won't let that go to waste. Therefore, he will definitely try every means to extract even a tiny bit from us."

“If the principal doesn’t cooperate, they will lose their coordinates, so our fragments become the only way for them to return.”

"I had this step planned out, so I added another step on top of that: when using the laptop to visualize the minions, I would cut off a portion of them and embed them into the black fog..."

"The 'Mist Whisperer' can definitely sense it, but distinguishing it clearly is not such an easy task."

"Moreover, and most importantly, we encountered a 'Primordial Ash Apostle' on campus, which means that our plan has actually succeeded."

"However, the principal infiltrated the campus at the wrong time, and in that state, he was not one of our own."

"A time paradox loop?" Lin Yi narrowed his eyes. "The 'effect' of the past is caused by the 'cause' of the present?"

Tian Bufan said, "Ashes can permeate time... therefore, many things cannot be easily judged. It requires both parties to reach a consensus within a key time interval in order to achieve the condition of being each other's anchor points."

"In short, the anchor point has been established, but it is not in the 'present,' nor in the 'past,' or the 'future,' but in... a certain moment."

"A point in time that resonates with you."

"Let's go, it's time to go back. Back to 'Star Prison'—no, back to the 'Principal's Office.' I've gotten what I wanted; now it's time to put the real plan into action."

"'The real plan'? That side quest I've always wanted to know?" Lin Yi asked.

“That’s right,” Tian Bufan said.

"Then I'll head back right away!" Lin Yi perked up immediately upon hearing this.

Tian Bufan quickly said, "No, we can't be impatient. We need to reverse all the steps we just did. We can't leave the anchor points here. We need to dismantle them all and put them back under the sea before we leave."

"Oh, you're right. I almost forgot. The anchor points can't be left behind." Lin Yi responded, and his sensory tentacles immediately penetrated the anchor point platform, gradually dismantling it along the network that had been built before.

Although setting up the anchor points was quite difficult, practice makes perfect, and the disassembly process was quite smooth.

After disassembling the object, Lin Yi sensed the thin thread extending down from the star trail.

When he focused all his attention on that thin thread, the whole world seemed to bloom from that point like a giant flower stamen.

"Splash splash splash..."

Countless images flashed before his eyes like torn pages of a book. Finally, he found the coordinates of the star trail buried deep within those images—"4-0-1-6".

"Young Master Tian, ​​let's go!!" Lin Yi shouted in his heart. The next moment, he followed the thin thread and merged into the coordinates of the star trail. At the same time, the countless words and notebook pages made a continuous "rustling" sound as he disappeared into the star trail...

Just before Lin Yi disappeared, Tian Bufan threw out something...

It was a pitch-black object, exuding a forbidden aura. After it appeared, it quickly fell into the black sea, floating halfway out like a discarded plastic bottle.

It was a section of the "butcher's" spine.

As Lin Yi disappeared, the gray fog sea gradually returned to calm, leaving only the streetlights with red painted numbers surrounding the "Butcher's" spine, drifting slowly and erratically beneath the surface...

……

On May 12, X023, at 2:33 AM, in the "Principal's Office," Mao Feiyang was observing the countless images that had formed after the wall cracked.

Suddenly, a dark vortex appeared on one of the images corresponding to the black sea. Immediately afterward, the bird's nest lamp on the top of the principal's office and the "Star Dream Crystal" trembled at the same time. Endless stardust fell from the bird's nest lamp, and the "Star Dream Crystal" began to float with wisps of thin mist. These two forces seemed to have a spirit and surged toward the vortex.

The next moment, a "whoosh..." sound rang out from the vortex, and countless sheets of paper flew out from it, fluttering around the "principal's office" like a flock of birds. From the pages, Lin Yi's will was popped out like a piece of chewing gum.

"He's back!" Mao Feiyang's gaze sharpened, but just as he was preparing to welcome Lin Yi's will, another vortex suddenly appeared in the vortex. A door opened, and a hazy gray mist spread out inside, dragging Lin Yi, who was about to return to the "principal's office," back inside at an extremely terrifying speed.

"This is...?!" Mao Feiyang's eyes widened in shock as he stared at the hazy gray mist. "It's started? So quickly... Uh—!! Oh no!!"

He suddenly arched his back and squatted down on the ground, holding his head in his hands and hissing in pain, his body convulsing uncontrollably.

His eyes turned a hazy gray, as if they were blinded by a sky full of yellow sand; all he could see was a gray world...

……

Just before Lin Yi's will was about to reach the "Principal's Office," he was dragged back into some kind of vortex by the gray mist. However, he himself was unaware that he had almost returned to the "Principal's Office," and only thought that he was still on the path of the jump...

He remained in this gray world for a long time until Lin Yi realized that he had lost the coordinates of the star trails in his perception, and only then did he begin to realize the seriousness of the problem.

"Young Master Tian? Young Master Tian... are you there? Are you still there?"

He called out softly, but Tian Bufan did not respond.

Lin Yi's heart sank to the bottom.

"This is where……"

"This is where?"

He drifted and got lost in the gray fog, not knowing how much time had passed. The gray world turned into a dark world, and neither his sensory tentacles nor anything else could extend outward from the darkness.

Time and space seem to lose their boundaries here.

Lin Yi's mind was initially clear, but after remaining conscious for an unknown period of time, he finally became exhausted and drowsy, and then, slowly, his consciousness began to blur...

Just as he was half asleep, he began to hear the crackling of an electric microphone, mixed with some intermittent sounds.

"Sizzle... sizzle sizzle..."

“Red Star, please help me record this…”

"This... might be the last time I record this..."

(End of this chapter)