Gao Ming crawled out of the fire with glass shards in his palms. Without any summoning, the God of Flesh and Blood gathered beside him. God picked Gao Ming up and ran towards the exit.
At that moment, Gao Ming noticed something strange. The spider boy was purposely letting him go. He was powerful enough to stop the God of Flesh and Blood. If he did something, Gao Ming would be crushed to death by the other Unmentionables.
The mist around Gao Ming had returned to normal. The eye in the mist glanced at the spider monster, and then another eye appeared. Then, there was a mouth covered in scars. This was the sole Unmentionable that had revealed a true part of his body. His lips moved, and he uttered a word at Gao Ming, Seal.
Nothing changed, but the God of Flesh and Blood howled. His eyes were dominated by hatred and anger. His body shrunk as his power weakened. Even his connection to Gao Ming dwindled.
Every human and ghost that lived in Han Hai was bound by certain rules. Only the outsiders had a real chance at leaving Han Hai. The eyeball’s main target was the God of Flesh and Blood. They seemed to have a history before the collapse of the shadow world. Gao Ming was merely the collateral damage.
The God of Flesh and Blood slowed down. He seemed to realise that he couldn’t leave with Gao Ming. He focused his power on Gao Ming’s arm and formed a thick blood cocoon around Gao Ming. Then, with a final toss, he shoved Gao Ming towards the tunnel exit.
Gao Ming’s everything was forcibly sealed up. He, who was hidden inside the blood cocoon, turned around in the mist.
Everything was fading away. The students, the monsters from the east city and the Unmentionables hidden in the mist.
His body landed on the ground, cushioned by the blood cocoon. The weak light filtered through the mist to shine on his body. The tunnel exit was only a few steps away, and this small distance was hard to cross.
Even with the protection of the blood cocoon, Gao Ming’s body almost shattered from the collision. There was nothing more despairing than dangling hope before a crippled man. He could see but could not reach it.
“If I die again, will I wake up on the bus on the night of the Hungry Ghost Festival?”
Gao Ming didn’t know the answer. He tried to climb up, but the presence of the Unmentionables appeared behind him. They dismembered the God of Flesh and Blood. As they tried to approach Gao Ming, a blood-red chain suddenly shot out from outside the tunnel to curl around Gao Ming’s arm. The chain was similar to Gao Ming’s chains in the torture room, but it was also essentially different. The chain was blindingly red and was covered in sin.
The place where the chain touched Gao Ming’s skin burned with ugly scars. Then, the chain dragged him out of the tunnel. The mist slowly turned back to normal. The moment Gao Ming exited the tunnel, he used his last bit of strength to open his eyes. The power of the past and future enabled him to see the truth. The night was split into two, with Hen Shan as the boundary. One side was normal, and the other side was where Han Hai was. However, Gao Ming couldn’t see any buildings. Han Hai was a giant cemetery covered in a thick aura of death!
Everyone’s life at Han Hai was fake. They were souls trapped in graves. There were a few humans who accidentally stumbled into the cemetery.
“Lu Zang is right. No wonder Han Hai has so many death portraits. They are already dead!”
The Seal word chanted by the Unmentionable entered Gao Ming’s body. After the God of Flesh and Blood was sealed, he was powerless. The only thing Gao Ming could do was to hide his memory in his torture room and memorise the few Unmentionables near the tunnel.
“The eye in the black mist, the unknown monsters that turned the big ghosts into flower petals, the spider with the door and the final tombstone that appeared. They appear to come from different forces. After I recover, I need to find a chance to visit them.”
Gao Ming was dragged away. It would be wrong to say he had escaped fate’s cage because part of his memory in Han Hai had been sealed. His soul hadn’t found true freedom. His constitution couldn’t resist the seal. Gao Ming used his lingering spirit to wrap up the last bits of his memory inside the torture room. Then he fainted.
In the dark, Gao Ming sensed intense fighting beside him. His body was slathered in sin and blood. The person who helped him had to abandon him and join the fight.
Gao Ming had no idea how the battle ended. In his semi-consciousness, he only heard 13, fate, Lu Zang, ghost in the grave, recover everything. He had no idea what they meant. However, one thing was certain. He had reached the real truth outside of Han Hai.
Pain came from everywhere. It felt like he had just woken up from a long nightmare.
Gao Ming opened his eyes to a small slit. He saw the white ceiling and smelled the disinfectant. He believed he was in a hospital.
The medical device beeped. Someone hurried over from the corridor. The sick room door opened, and people entered.
“This is a miracle! Go and get the doctor!”
The voices crashed into his brain like waves. The intense pain caused him to faint again. The ticking of the wall clock sounded like water dripping to his brain.
The night faded away, and the sun shone on his face. Gao Ming felt someone moving his body. He opened his eyes blurrily. He confirmed that he was in a hospital. He was alone in the large sick room.
“Teacher Gao, you’re finally awake. You scared me so much yesterday night. I thought you were gone from us.” The female doctor was very young. Her tone showed that she respected Gao Ming a lot.
“Teacher Gao?” In Gao Ming’s impression, no one had called him that before.
He tried to remember it, but his brain was blank. He couldn’t recollect many crucial memories.
“You just woke up. Don’t need to hurry to remember stuff. Take it slow.”