Era of Magic and Martial Arts

Feng Yuhuai’s heart was pounding as if it was about to leap out of her chest.

Just a little bit more, just a tiny bit more, and she would have had her heart pierced again by that "man-eating" Bone Snake.

However, at the critical moment, the Bone Snake suddenly made a sharp 180-degree turn and retreated.

She, once again, was saved?!!

Feng Yuhuai was first stunned, then a surge of ecstasy filled her heart. A sudden epiphany flashed through her mind, as if she had reached some great revelation:

"Every time I’m at death’s door, I seem to turn misfortune into fortune, as if some great force is watching over me.

Could it be that I am truly a genius beauty specially favored by Destiny, just like those protagonists in novels who never die?"

It’s no wonder Feng Yuhuai would have such thoughts.

If it were you, having repeatedly danced on the edge of death and survived each time by the skin of your teeth,

you would probably also believe deep down that you are "the chosen one," with eyes shining brightly.

"So, if I am the chosen heroine, then the monster that saved me several times is..."

Feng Yuhuai looked with sparkling eyes at Mask·Zheng Hang, who emerged from the shadows again, her heart pounding uncontrollably.

"The male protagonist protecting me?!!"

Feng Yuhuai didn’t bother to think about why Mask hadn’t been devoured by the scientists.

That’s a problem for the scientists to ponder, not hers. She only knew that her heart rate had soared to 360, and for the first time in her life, she seemed to feel so clearly... the taste of love.

Then,

she saw her boyfriend being pierced right through by the Bone Snake.

There was no rippling of liquid, no shattering into fragments, nor did he revert back into a shadow falling into the water, but instead stood intact as if nothing had happened.

Then, about 0.3 seconds later, the intact shadow suddenly dissipated into nothingness, vanishing into the air.

No trace, no form, no substance!

It was as if a corporeal shadow... had turned into a truly formless shadow.

"Impossible!"

Zuo Bai blurted out in disbelief:

"You only have some traits of a shadow; you resemble a shadow but are not truly a shadow. You have tangible sensations, and yet you can dissipate into thin air?"

The dissipated shadow did not answer Zuo Bai’s doubts.

Instead, a shadow emerged again in the blink of an eye, wearing a faint smile.

Zuo Bai’s face darkened so drastically, it seemed water could drip off it.

Countless streams of data flashed across his retinas, and suddenly, he glimpsed that the Mask in front of him cast a shadow even in the filthy water.

"Shadows have shadows too?"

Zuo Bai couldn’t figure it out momentarily. The Mask before him, or rather the shadow, felt somewhat different from before, as if it had secretly switched shadows.

"I don’t care what tricks you’re playing. I’m going to devour you again, and let’s see if you can reappear this time?!!"

Zuo Bai coldly shouted, his wrist flicking, causing the Bone Snake to emit a piercing hiss, striking the water surface fiercely.

In an instant, dirty water splashed, dancing in the air like black pearls.

Simultaneously, within the Bone Snake’s vertebrae gaps, puddles of silver liquid exploded like detonated bombs, transforming instantly into countless writhing mouths, devouring the floating black pearls completely.

Yet, bizarrely, despite the splattered dirty water being devoured by the Bone Snake, the figure in the air remained.

Not only did it not disappear, but the shadow’s surface seemed to exude a thick ink, wiggling along the shadow’s outline, staining a faint outline in an instant.

Countless data streams flashed across Zuo Bai’s pupils, his intracranial chip performing high-speed analysis and comparison.

His pupils flickered with icy blue light, the usual rationality and calmness on his face replaced by rare panic.

"The shadow... spawned another shadow?!!"

The foremost shadow suddenly moved, shifting from stillness to motion, darting left and right at lightning speed, flinging the ink clinging to it into the air.

As the ink hit the air, it seemed like someone was tearing a layer of skin off your body but failing to pull it off completely, leaving strands of it stretched in between, forming stringy double images.

It appeared as though the original Mask, wearing a smile, every step it took created another Mask behind it.

And these Masks would turn left or right, overlapping with one another, silently forming a circle around Zuo Bai in the center.

Their gaits varied, their movements differing, yet all wore the same smile.

Can you imagine how eerie that scene would be?

Anyway, the countless spectators watching from in front of the television felt a chill creeping up their spines as they saw the image reappear on the static-filled screen.

This terror was different from the grotesque, man-eating monsters previously encountered in the school.

The former instilled a visceral fear, bloodthirsty and cruel, while the latter seemed to penetrate straight to the soul.

It was as if an unseen hand reached out from the screen, clawing at people’s backs, making them look over their shoulders, a shiver running through their souls.

In the center of the encircling Masks, Zuo Bai’s forehead broke out in cold sweat, his intracranial chip overclocking, wisps of almost substantial black smoke seeping from his scalp.

His neck stiffly turned, his single eye scanning the entire circle of Masks without blinking.

Were there dozens, or hundreds?

For a moment, Zuo Bai couldn’t count.

The Masks were packed too densely, overlapping front to back, like layers of black phantoms.

Moreover, as Masks continuously dissipated like smoke and vanished, new Masks silently appeared in the void in a blink of an eye.

And as Zuo Bai’s eyes turned to look, every Mask simultaneously turned its head, staring back with eerily crimson-tinged eyes set in pitch black.

In an instant, Zuo Bai felt his scalp tingle, a chill piercing through his soul.

In fact, had he not had that initial encounter with the Mask, had his thoughts not been misled by the prior shadow, he might not have considered the remnants at all.

However, the sensation created by the previous shadow was entirely different from a mere remnant.

It was as if his eyes had been prematurely clouded, tying his brain into a dead knot, leaving him momentarily dizzy and unable to come to his senses.

At this moment, he was like someone who had stepped into a trap meticulously devised by the Magician.

The countless Masks before him were merely illusions to bewilder the mind; the prior shadow was the decoy the Magician used to mislead him, deceiving his judgment.

The true Magician, however, transformed into an invisible "shadow," flitting between the Masks and the shadow, lurking unpredictably.

He stood boldly in front of Zuo Bai, smiling step by step as he approached.

Yet Zuo Bai seemed like a blind man, unable to see... his approach!!!