"Stupid," Luo Shiyu said dismissively.
Qiu Lili was overjoyed. "Did you all hear that? Luo Shiyu agrees with me."
Lu Zhi was speechless. He didn't know what she was so happy about; that remark was clearly mocking her, but she lacked the perception to notice.
"I said you are stupid," Luo Shiyu said, not mincing words as she satirized Qiu Lili. "Hurry up and pack your things and go home, all of you."
Luo Shiyu's gaze swept over those who shared Qiu Lili's views. "Long Kan is a blessing bestowed by the gods. That's the most ridiculous joke I've heard this year."
Qiu Lili's face changed drastically from being refuted. Enraged, she retorted, "Luo Shiyu, don't you think you can insult people just because your brother is the captain of Special Team Three! This is just my understanding of Long Kan."
For some reason, Qiu Lili's words struck a nerve with Luo Shiyu. Luo Shiyu's expression darkened, and her tone became sharp and aggressive. "Understanding? Without experiencing Long Kan yourself, how can you understand it? Based on your presumptuous guesses? Or your vain fantasies of descending into Long Kan as a savior to save the world? Do you know how many people die in Long Kan every year?"
The last sentence, a loud reprimand, startled Qiu Lili. She slumped back into her chair, her face pale and ashen. Her mouth opened and closed, and she managed to stammer, "I, I just..."
Luo Shiyu sneered. "It's not your fault for being ignorant. The mistake is that you are too foolish, blinded by falsehoods, and yet you take pride in it."
Initially, this wouldn't have been an issue, but the addition of the word "you" caused the other students who had sided with Qiu Lili to look extremely displeased.
"Luo Shiyu, don't speak so harshly."
"Hmph... so what if you have a good brother as your backer? What's so great about that."
Luo Shiyu's eyes darkened. She abruptly stood up and strode towards the boy who had spoken, looking down at him. "If you have something to say, say it to my face. Hiding in a corner like a coward, like a man!"
The boy stood up indignantly, about to retort, but was interrupted.
"Alright, everyone sit down." Shen Qi had somehow produced a pen and was twirling it stylishly. Suddenly, with a lack of interest, he pointed the tip of the pen at Qiu Lili.
Lu Zhi's eyebrows twitched. He had a premonition that something bad was about to happen.
Shen Qi shifted the pen's direction and pointed it at four other students. He said casually, "You can be excused from class."
The new students were stunned. Qiu Lili and the others reacted, their faces turning ashen. They demanded loudly, "Why?"
Shen Qi ignored their furious questioning. The teachers suddenly pushed open the doors from outside, and several senior students walked into the classroom. The girl at the front, wearing a dark blue school uniform, smiled very gently and said to Qiu Lili and the others, "You have failed. The school has decided to dismiss you. Please cooperate."
After speaking, without regard for Qiu Lili's struggles, the senior students forcefully escorted them out of the classroom.
This entire operation took less than three minutes. The senior students nodded respectfully at Shen Qi and then left the classroom.
The classroom fell silent once more.
Lu Zhi clicked his tongue, not understanding why Shen Qi would establish his authority from the outset with such a dramatic display.
Shen Qi enlarged the image on his computer and glanced at the new students in the classroom. A piece of data was transmitted to the computer at each new student's seat. He said, "You have ten minutes to memorize this information thoroughly."
Lu Zhi looked down at the display screen. A golden, tree-like pattern was shimmering. He tapped it lightly with his finger, and a stream of light flashed across the pattern, revealing frames of images and photos. The drawings depicted stories drawn with pencils on paper, with chaotic and complex black lines that ultimately converged to form a breathtaking scene.
It was a depiction of a god standing in a divine temple, shedding its godlike facade to reveal its true, evil, grotesque form, grotesquely and cruelly devouring humans. It was a banquet held by a god, or rather, a creature disguised as a god, with humans served on tables as the ingredients.
"How could this be!" a girl sitting not far from Lu Zhi exclaimed, covering her mouth in shock.
"Is this the truth?" another boy grumbled, hitting the desk.
Lu Zhi withdrew his gaze and quickly scanned the rest of the content. After the drawing that tore away the god's disguise, stained with blood, the next image was a color photograph.
The photograph was taken from an inverted angle and frozen. Due to the lighting, only two humans were visible in the picture, being torn in half and played with by a monstrous hand descending from the sky. Blood splattered everywhere. The internal organs, before they could fall to the ground, were devoured by lurking creatures that had emerged from hell, like ghouls.
"Ugh—" A girl couldn't help herself, covering her mouth and rushing out of the classroom.
Even Lu Zhi, a man, couldn't bear to look at these images, let alone the girls who were completely unprepared.
At this moment, all the images disappeared.
The computer screen plunged into endless darkness.
"What's going on? Is the computer broken?"
"I can't see it either."
Static...
A burst of electromagnetic interference suddenly sounded, and a blurry, yet increasingly clear, male voice emerged from the darkness.
'When you hear this recording, I will probably be dead, right?'
'I leave this dying testament, hoping it will be useful to you. Long Kan appeared in the summer of 1880. That day, the sky blazed with golden light, and the entire world heard the sound of glass shattering. Then, the sky instantly turned blood red, as if the end of the world had arrived, but it only lasted for less than a minute before returning to normal.'
'My first entry into Long Kan, I was fortunate enough to find a golden leaf. It's difficult to describe what kind of leaf it was, but this leaf gave me special abilities and allowed me to survive Long Kan. However, on that occasion, nearly three hundred thousand people died, and less than ten survived.'
The bloody numbers made Lu Zhi clench his fists, a surge of sadness rising in his heart.
'The ten of us survivors, and myself, voluntarily entered Long Kan every year to rescue as many people as possible. I thought the world would soon return to normal, until my friends, one by one, encountered the so-called gods in Long Kan and became their apostles. After that, I never saw them again...'
At this point, a series of chaotic and harsh sounds disrupted the voice.
The man's furious and despairing roar filled the entire classroom: "Lies, lies, lies! This is a colossal lie! The deceivers, the deceivers are the gods of this world! The gods have long abandoned us! There are no gods, we have all been deceived! We will all die! Humanity is doomed to destruction..."
Thump—
As if a sharp weapon pierced flesh, the sound of blood dripping onto the ground.
The man's intermittent, hoarse voice, accompanied by mad laughter, muttered, "The gods' apostles... food... haha... so, we are all just gu..."
"Find... our... true... gods, not abandoned..."
Thud—
A heavy object landed, and there was no sound for a long time.
Static...
'Oh, right, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is... Shao Xinran.'