"Hello?"
"Hello, is this Captain Chen Muye?"
"This is he."
"We encountered a problem while clearing the battlefield at the Second High School."
"What kind of problem?"
"When we were recovering the Nanda Snake Demon's corpse, we found that its head... is missing."
In the passenger seat of the van, Chen Muye frowned slightly.
"Missing?"
"Yes, we searched the entire site but couldn't find its head."
"Did a student hide it?"
"That's unlikely. We searched them thoroughly and found nothing. We suspect someone may have taken its head and escaped from the auditorium before we arrived."
"The Zone of No Fear should still be shrouding the school. They won't be able to get out," Chen Muye said calmly. "Broadcast *Dream Whisper* across the entire campus. Erase their memory, and without it, they'll deliver themselves to us."
"Understood."
After hanging up, Hong Ying asked curiously, "Captain, what's the matter?"
"The Nanda Snake Demon's head is missing. Someone might have stolen it," Chen Muye replied. "But it's not a big problem. We'll find it."
Lin Qiye was stunned for a moment. He frowned slightly, gazing out the window.
Could it be him...?
**Thud!**
An Qingyu, attempting to climb over the wall, was forcefully bounced back to the ground by an invisible barrier. Gritting his teeth, he got up, slung his backpack over his shoulder, and stared at the unseen obstacle.
"The invisible barrier is still here. They might have already noticed the snake demon's head is gone..." he muttered.
His eyes gleamed as he thought for a moment, then dashed toward the sports field.
If he couldn't escape, he would hide. He didn't believe the barrier could last forever. As long as he stayed hidden until they left, he could make his way out!
An Qingyu ran to a secluded corner of the sports field, uncovered a manhole lid hidden in the weeds, and heaved it aside.
A foul stench immediately assaulted him from the sewer below!
Suppressing the urge to vomit, An Qingyu adjusted his mindset, jumped down with his backpack, and replaced the cover.
The dark, damp sewer reeked from all directions, nearly suffocating him. He gritted his teeth, clutching his backpack, enduring the unbearable stench.
Even in the darkness, his eyes shone like stars.
Suddenly, a melodious tune echoed from above. An Qingyu's pupils shrank abruptly.
In a trance, he seemed to hear a whispering voice in his ear, pulling him into an uncontrollable drowsiness. He was on the verge of falling into a deep slumber...
But just then, a strange force surged from his heart like a cool spring, washing away all the whispers and dreams!
An Qingyu's eyes snapped open, his clouded gaze now crystal clear, replaced with an unshakable lucidity.
A faint, grayish sheen subtly coated his pupils.
Now, he was more awake than ever.
He stared blankly ahead, then looked down at his hands.
To his eyes, his body seemed like an intricate machine. He could see each part working, every detail laid bare, comprehending the principles behind their operation.
He understood how he blinked, how he breathed. He was like a master watchmaker peering through a magnifying glass at the intricate workings of a clock.
Never before had he known his body so intimately.
Suddenly, a thought struck him. He quickly unzipped his backpack and pulled out a severed head.
The Nanda Snake Demon's head.
Under his gaze, this mythological creature, which defied modern scientific understanding, was deconstructed into gears, mechanisms, and screws...
Yet, at his current level, he couldn't fully decipher it.
Reaching into his backpack's compartment, An Qingyu retrieved a sharp fruit knife.
He held it like a surgeon's scalpel, his eyes locked on the head. Then, without hesitation, he stabbed into its skull!
He struggled to pry open its cranium.
He was dissecting it. He wanted to understand... what was inside the head.
As his movements grew faster, his eyes burned brighter, and his body began to tremble with excitement.
In the dark, reeking sewer, a frail teenager wielded a knife with a maniacal grin, slicing into the grotesque head. His voice echoed eerily in the gloom.
"So that's it...
That's it!
I see it now!
This is how it works...
Fascinating...
So fascinating!!"
"Where... am I?"
In a dim cell, Li Yifei slowly opened his eyes.
He looked around in confusion. As he tried to stand, fragmented memories surged like a tide into his mind.
Crying out in pain, he stumbled back to the ground.
An Qingyu firing a gun. Himself being knocked unconscious by Lin Qiye. The Nanda Snake Demon lurking within him awakening, and a fierce battle ending with Lin Qiye severing its head...
He stared at his hands in disbelief, his voice trembling.
"I... I'm the Nanda Snake Demon... How could this be? I killed them!"
In his mind's eye, he saw the students slaughtered by the snake demon's offspring, the blood-soaked floor etched into his memory as a haunting nightmare.
"No... no..."
He knelt on the ground, his face contorted in anguish, groaning in torment.
Suddenly, his eyes morphed into sinister vertical slits. Rising to his feet, his expression turned cold and emotionless.
"Pathetic weakling."
One of the Nanda Snake Demon's arms grew scales, and it grabbed the cell bars, attempting to twist them apart.
Immediately, complex runes surfaced on the cell's structure. A terrifying force repelled the demon, slamming it against the wall before it collapsed to the ground.
The snake demon glared at the bars, hissing venomously, its gaze icy.
The moment it touched the bars, fragmented information about the cell flooded its mind.
It didn't know where it was, but it understood one thing:
Its life or death rested in the hands of one person.
The master of this place.
As it brooded, steady footsteps echoed from the corridor. Its slitted pupils contracted as it crawled toward the bars, peering into the darkness.
A figure grew clearer in the dim hallway.
A boy in a lab coat, hands in his pockets.
The moment it saw his face, the Nanda Snake Demon's body trembled!
"You?! How can it be you?!"
Lin Qiye stood before it, expressionless, raising an eyebrow.
"Surprised?"