Chapter 45: Paper Illusion
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

When he heard the sudden clamor, Zhou Bai shot up from his bed. He looked in the direction the sound came from but saw the wall was completely undamaged.

However, Zhou Bai didn’t let down his guard at all, because the moment he heard the sound, a strong stench suddenly filled the room, making him extremely alert.

Zhou Bai’s first thought wasn’t to fight. Instead, he walked over to his door and wanted to go outside.

After all, this was Donghua Tao Academy. If he encountered some monster, the best retaliation was to call for help immediately.

But when Zhou Bai put his hand on the doorknob, his heart skipped a beat. The door was locked.

Zhou Bai used his primordial spirit power without hesitation. He smashed the wooden door with a strength that could overturn a small car. But with a loud bang, the wooden door remained in place, completely undamaged.

“That’s impossible!” he exclaimed. “Given this wooden door’s quality, my primordial spirit power should be able to break through it instantaneously!”

Zhou Bai widened his eyes, and all the power in his body burst. His bones shook, his muscles twisted, his body collided into the door again with primordial spirit power.

With a loud boom, the door continued to remain unmoved, but his body was nearly numb from the impact.

Theoretically, after he made such a big commotion, someone should have come.

But it remained tranquil inside the room and even in the corridor outside, as if he were in an alternate world, completely isolated from the outside.

Zhou Bai frowned, inspecting the situation inside the room.

This is bad, he said to himself. This sort of measure is probably way beyond the range of what I can fight. Li Xiuzhu is so unreliable. I hope he’s just late and not standing me up.

At that moment, the stink in the air got stronger and stronger. Elsa suddenly started barking loudly in the direction of the bathroom door.

Zhou Bai turned to look in the direction of the bathroom. The students at Donghua Tao Academy had living conditions that were all pretty good. They each had an independent bathroom in their rooms.

But seeing Elsa bark wildly like that, Zhou Bai couldn’t help suspecting something was hiding inside the bathroom.

Just as he was thinking that, he heard a loud thump.

The closed bathroom door shook.

“Something’s in there!” Zhou Bai’s heart skipped a beat. He shouted to Christina, who was curled in a ball in his mind, “Stupid cat! Hurry up and wake up! Something’s really wrong here!”

But Christina was unresponsive. She was still curled up in a ball, floating in Zhou Bai’s mind.

But the pounding on the bathroom door got louder and more urgent, as if something was ramming against the door, wanting to enter from the bathroom.

Zhou Bai hastily pulled Elsa behind him. His brows furrowed as he quickly thought of a plan to deal with the situation.

“No, this sort of measure of completely isolating my small room is too peculiar. It’s way beyond my current level. Against measures like this, I have no way to retaliate…

Wait…no way to retaliate? Zhou Bai’s eyes narrowed as he thought, If they can manage something like this, killing me would be like slaughtering a pig. Then why are they being so roundabout and scaring me by ramming things? They could just kill me with a single Tao technique.

Unless…they’re not as powerful as they seem.

Zhou Bai gradually calmed down, thinking about the things he’d learned recently.

“All Tao processes can be traced,” he said.

Zhou Bai tried to perceive the changes in Spark around him according to the methods described in the basic textbook materials.

Formless, colorless ripples glimmered in his eyes. When he looked at the entire room again, he found that everything he saw had a hazy veil over it.

“No…” Zhou Bai glanced at Elsa and realized her body didn’t have a single hint of Spark. She looked like an ordinary dog.

“Something’s off. Could this be…a delusion?”

He recalled the delusion during the second round of the entrance exam. In order to prove his suspicion, Zhou Bai lay down on the floor.

Theoretically, it should be past midnight now. If I lie down, Laziness should increase, but…

Zhou Bai saw that Laziness didn’t change on his board and came to a realization: It’s really just a delusion. I can’t even tell if I’m lying down or not without the board. It looks like it’s a very powerful delusion.

Zhou Bai raised an eyebrow. The basic textbook materials also explained delusions.

So-called delusions are ways of using Spark to affect sensory perception.

Whether it is a delusion or not, I just have to make a judgment.

Zhou Bai operated his primordial spirit, directing his power to sprawl out of his body. He immediately felt the difference.

Primordial spirit power can directly perceive Spark.

Zhou Bai used primordial spirit power to touch the surrounding matter. He immediately felt the air was brimming with lively Spark, way exceeding the room’s normal conditions. They even distorted his primordial spirit power’s senses.

So it really is a delusion. Zhou Bai looked at the bathroom door that was getting quieter and quieter. Then are all these measures just to terrify me?

As he contemplated, Zhou Bai became calmer and calmer. He saw the ramming against the bathroom door slow down too, then finally stop and cease to move.

Zhou Bai let out a sigh of relief. “Seems like I was right.”

The next moment, Zhou Bai felt the entire world shake, followed by waves of swaying. He intuitively closed his eyes.

“Zhou Bai? Are you awake?”

Zhou Bai opened his eyes and saw Li Xiuzhu standing in front of him with an overcast expression. He had a deep frown on his face.

“You’re here?” Zhou Bai said. “I was just pulled into a delusion before. I…”

Li Xiuzhu said, “I know. I stopped them; that’s why the delusion you were in got resolved.”

“Them? The person next door?”

Li Xiuzhu nodded. “I suppose. You’ll understand once you take a glance.”

Zhou Bai froze for a moment. Li Xiuzhu didn’t appear to be in a good mood.

He walked out of the room and looked at the room next door. He saw the door to that room was now open. A crimson light shot out of it, illuminating Zhou Bai in red.

A stench hit their noses. Zhou Bai finally knew where the smell from before came from.

When he walked into the room, Zhou Bai saw red paper charms stuck all over the wall. Bright red blood glimmered on the paper charms. They were the source of the red light.

But what was most eye-catching was a young girl “stuck” to the wall.

As he saw the young girl’s appearance, Zhou Bai’s heart skipped a beat.

He saw the girl’s face was incredibly pale, as white as a sheet of paper. And from her neck downward, her skin got paler and paler, until it looked completely unnatural, as if it were made from paper.

But a stench came from her body, like the smell of something that had been rotting for months.