The Devil’s Cage

Coincidence?

Are there that many coincidences in the world?

All coincidences were merely meticulously arranged events.

After ordering Bloody Mary to spread false news in disguise as one of the dead spirits, Kieran had decided to eradicate all the unstable variables in Sector 7.

It was natural that the high school where Ed Woong disappeared would be prioritized.

The danger that caused a Herder to go missing would probably be something serious, something even more dangerous than usual.

Bloody Mary also returned from its investigation with results.

It didn’t mean Bain did not search carefully at the high school, it was just that Bloody Mary had gifts that allowed it to be superior over Bain in certain aspects.

After ‘fulfilling’ many last wishes of the dead, Kieran’s attributes broke through the seals once more.

His Spirit was still stuck at B+, but the others, Strength, Agility, Constitution, and Intuition had reached C+ in one go.

Savouring the unusual enhancement in his body, Kieran quickly adjusted his condition with the breathing methods from [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art].

It wasn’t the first time Kieran ran into such an unusual condition, so he knew what to do.

More so, sending a great amount of dead spirits to the other place in the shortest period of time was part of Kieran’s plan for tonight.

…

The night on campus was quiet.

Without the energy and liveliness of the students during the day, the silence would send chills down one’s spine and cause goosebumps.

The school and library were such magical places. At night, they were completely different from the day, the spacious, darkness and silence converging, producing a very scary atmosphere, especially in certain rooms in the building.

Li Jiajia, as a first year high school student, had researched thoroughly the rumours of the school a long time ago, like the vanished 13th step of stairs, moving biology class model, etc. She had tried to encounter every rumour but the results were disappointing, like the rumours.

False! False! All false!

But Li Jiajia did not give up, hoping to get in touch with that mysterious world.

She hoped to borrow the power from the mysterious world to change her life, so here she was tonight.

She heard that three freshmen had disappeared while playing some supernatural games yesterday. The freshmen disappeared mysteriously, with no sight of them alive and no bodies found.

Even the police bore no results in their investigation, which was good news for Li Jiajia.

She wasn’t after the missing students for some ill-intentions, she hoped to prove herself by finding them and saving them.

Carrying her bag with all the tools she needed, Li Jiajia jumped over the wall and walked along the shadows to avoid security, walking into the upper year classroom, 1-4.

This classroom was where the three freshmen disappeared.

She carefully made her way to the rostrum and took out the tools she prepared.

A bottle of crow blood, a piece of mirror that was pried off from a makeup box, and nails, hundreds of messy nails in various shapes and sizes.

Li Jiajia poured the nails on the mirror, arranging them carefully so the nails covered the mirror entirely and then poured the crow’s blood over it.

She was looking forward to what would happen.

Her round almond eyes widened in the dark classroom, her hands holding the rostrum nervously, her nails starting to turn white from the pressing.

10 seconds.

20 seconds.

30 seconds.

…

Suddenly, a beam of light appeared!

“Aaarh!”

The nervous Li Jiajia was frightened, her ponytail swinging left and right as she jumped here and there, her eyes looking at the origin of the beam of light in horror but the blinding light prevented her from seeing clearly.

“What are you doing? Why are you still here after school?!”

The security shed his torchlight at Li Jiajia’s face, looking rather upset.

Li Jiajia pushed the torchlight away and regained her sight, looking at the security as she gave her excuse, “I forgot to take my homework, I’m just here to get some books.”

“Books? Are you 1-4’s student? I don’t remember seeing you here before!” the security looked at Li Jiajia with a doubtful gaze.

“I have a general face, hardly anyone remembers me.”

Li Jiajia was fortunate that she instinctively blocked her face with her bag, otherwise she will be kicked out of the school again, like the few times before this.

In order to quickly end the doubts of the security doubts and make sure she would not walk the same path again, she quickly ran to a random seat, pulled out a book, and put it into her bag.

The security guard watched her during the entire process.

“I-I’m a little scared, can you take me out of the school?” Li Jiajia put on her acting, showing a scared and weak face.

“You kids really… Fine, come with me.” the security guard sighed helplessly.

After that, he shed light over the corridor and walked out of the building.

“Remember, don’t stay behind this late next time,” said the security guard.

“Why? It isn’t safe?” Li Jiajia simply asked to brush him off.

“Yeah, bad things happened to the student before—before I took this job, there was also a student who came back for homework but in the end, she was found dead and her blood was sucked dry. So the school increased the security guards, from one to three, and even installed surveillance cameras. I spotted you two through the monitors, so I came to check,” the security nodded after a slight hesitation.

“Blood was sucked dry? Wait! Did you say two of us?”

Li Jiajia felt like she heard of the story before, but she reacted to what the security guard said.

She came alone, who was the second person?

She did try to invite her friend before but she realized she had none, she was alone during her search and also alone during normal times.

“Yeah, two of you! You and this quiet girl here,” said the security guard, he even shined his torchlight beside Li Jiajia.

Li Jiajia skipped a breath, she turned around slowly, but… there was nothing!

She even moved her hand over the space, and it was still nothing!

“Are you sure about this?” Li Jiajia asked.

“I am very sure! How can I be wrong! Last time I told him there’s someone beside him, he didn’t believe me, so he died. And now… you don’t believe me, do you want to die too?”

The security guard shook his head, his tone suddenly turning heavy and gloomy, slowing down and switching off the torchlight in his hand.

The moonlight shone through the window of the corridor, allowing Li Jiajia to have a clear look at the security guard’s face, which had turned rigid and green.

His kind looks were replaced by a menacing face.

Li Jiajia took a step back, but the security guard got closer, he looked down at her with a domineering manner, asking, “What color do you like? Red? White? Or blue?”

Li Jiajia had no intentions of replying, turning and running for her dear life but the seemingly rigid security guard ran quicker. He caught up with her in a few steps and forced her into a corner.

“What color do you like? Red? White? Or blue?” he asked again.

“I like black!” Li Jiajia said loudly and at the same time, she pulled out a talisman charm from her pocket.

The talisman charm was actually a wooden plank with carvings, the profound patterns or words written on it too messy to read but presenting a sense of mystery.

“Evil begone!”

Li Jiajia shouted loudly while pointing the talisman charm at the security guard.

The security guard stood there blankly.

“Effective…”

“Wrong! Wrong answer!”

Li Jiajia was on the verge of being overjoyed when she saw the expensive talisman charm work, she ought to heave a breath of relief but the security guard suddenly screamed, pulling out a knife from somewhere and stabbing her.

“Aaaarh!” Li Jiajia screamed, wanting to dodge the sudden knife attack, but without any kind of training, she couldn’t achieve anything.

All she could do was wait for the knife to stab her, so she closed her eyes.

Though… the anticipated pain did not arrive. She opened her eyes and she was stunned by what she saw.

She wasn’t in the school corridor anymore, but a humid underground room with many torches, yet it was still cold. Further away was some water source because there was water dripping.

The walls and floor were made out of bricks, moss filling the seams. She pressed her fingers on the moss and it felt slippery.

She wanted to move her hand away but she realized she couldn’t move at all.

A heavy force constricted her, freezing every inch of her body, she couldn’t even turn her neck.

‘What happened?’ She thought.

She remembered she was facing the unusual security guard and was being stabbed, but how did she get here? Li Jiajia had no memories of arriving in this place.

Dap, Dap, Dap.

While she was trying to remember, a series of footsteps sounded.

Li Jiajia wanted to have a look but the constricting force stopped her from moving, all she saw with her limited mobility and sight was a hooded figure.

She was then picked up and placed down.

She wanted to ask but the constricting force even silenced her, her hearing was fine though.

“Zazashi, Zazashi, Nashinazashi…”

Incantations?

Li Jiajia realized the situation quickly and the incantations sounded a little different from what she had studied before, this one worked!

She clearly felt her back getting hot, light starting to shine and the ceiling lit up.

A magic formation of a square enveloping a circle appeared on the ceiling. There were intricate patterns inside and it looked like liquid flowing.

Li Jiajia felt the evil and wicked based on a single glance. She felt disgusted from the bottom of her heart, like she was looking at a dead body or a rat.

She wanted to move and this time, she could.

The constricting force went away after the magical formation appeared, but… after she had a clear look of her surroundings, she got stunned.

She was surrounded by people, translucent people!

She herself was also becoming translucent. Sthe looked at her illusive body and then the man in hood.

“What are you doing! Stop! Stop it!” She shouted.

The hooded figure turned a deaf ear, drawing a sharp knife, a very familiar sharp knife!

It was the same knife from the security guard!

However, Li Jiajia was sure this man in hood wasn’t the security guard because she saw the security guard in the group of translucent figures.

The security guard looked dull and dispirited, standing there like a walking dead.

Step by step, the man in hood walked closer to Li Jiajia.

She wanted to dodge but the constricting force descended upon her again as the man waved his hand.

“Be my offering.

Witness my immortality.

You should be honoured.”

A voice came from under the hood.

Li Jiajia couldn’t tell how old the man was based on the voice alone but she was sure the figure was a woman.

Unfortunately, the woman lacked the tenderness in her eyes, the tenderness in all female’s eyes. What replaced the tenderness was menacing ferocity.

Li Jiajia wasn’t sure what was going on with the group of translucent figures, she wasn’t sure whether or not the woman killed them all, but she knew she would be the next to die.

“Help! Help me! Please, someone help me!”

Constricted, Li Jiajia prayed helplessly.

The hooded woman heard the prayers and laughed coldly.

“Prayers? Are they even useful? If they were, they wouldn’t have had to die in the first place. As do you.”

Li Jiajia looked at the hooded woman in anger after she heard the words.

The souls around her were the victims of the hooded woman, she killed them all!

“Don’t look at me like that. Isn’t reality always this harsh? Survival of the fittest? I am stronger than you, so I killed you, what’s wrong with that? Moreover, I’ve given you a choice! Remember the color?!” the hooded woman sneered.

“The colors decide the way you die. Death by stabbing, or bleeding to death, or even drowned to death! Look how merciful am I! But you, you chose black! Do you know what black color means? The night? No, the night has stars and the moon. Black mist? No, any mist will disperse eventually. The abyss? Some dwelled down there.”

“So, black color isn’t pure enough! You’ve chosen black because you are beyond saving!”

The hooded woman laughed frenziedly, she raised the knife up high and thrusted towards Li Jiajia and then…

Dong, Dong Dong!

Heavy and powerful knocks came from the ceiling.

Dust and little pebbles were shaken off by the force.

The magic formation even started to move out of place, and then, under the horrified gaze of the hooded woman, the sturdy brick ceiling crumbled just like that.

Kabam!

Bricks fell down like a waterfall.

Being translucent saved Li Jiajia from physical harm, looking up in a daze and seeing a black figure jump down with the raining bricks.

That longsword flew like a comet.

The flame burned like a dragon’s breath.

The hooded woman wanted to move away but she was also bound to the spot, the sword perforating her and the flame engulfing her.

“Aaaaargh! Black! The impure black!” the hooded woman screamed in agony.

Her voice got weaker and weaker and eventually went out of breath.

Li Jiajia saw that black figure walk over to the dead woman, pulling the longsword out and picking up the sharp knife.

Words then entered her ears.

“The night is beautiful because the stars and moon sets it off. The mist dispersed and the sun will shine. Life extends even into the bottomless, dark abyss. All purity is the essence of self-cultivation, black is an exception.”

The dirt on the sword was shaken off before Kieran turned around.

Flame burned in the underground, shedding light over the limited space.

Countless translucent souls surrounded him and showed an eager gaze.

The black got darker, darker than black.