Chapter 20: Dreamscape
Chapter 20: Chapter 20: Dreamscape
The two regrouped with the main crowd on the sports field.
Eight unconscious female students were already lying on the ground. Fang Chen laid Zou Shuyao down next to them.
Wang Mang could no longer afford to focus his Cultivation solely on treating Liu Rui. He and the other teachers were running themselves ragged, desperately trying to manage the chaotic scene by bandaging and comforting the injured students.
Fang Chen immediately stepped in to help, carrying supplies and maintaining order.
After nearly half an hour of frantic effort, the fires were finally brought under control, and the scene stabilized.
Wang Mang panted heavily, unable to hide the grief on his face. He lowered his voice and told Fang Chen, "We’ve got a preliminary idea of what happened... The source of the explosion was Class Seven of the third year.
"The entire roof of the classroom was blown off," he continued, pointing at a section of the rubble, his voice hoarse. "The students inside... there were no survivors. The neighboring Classes Eight and Nine also took heavy damage. Casualties are... over fifty percent.
"Alas... these were kids who were just about to graduate. How... how could something like this suddenly happen?" Wang Mang closed his eyes and shook his head in agony.
Fang Chen listened in silence. Knowing that any words of comfort would be pale and useless right now, he simply sat quietly to the side, watching the shaken, weeping, and numb students around him.
Wang Mang caught his breath and asked, "Is everything handled on your end?"
"Yeah, we all made it back safely," Fang Chen replied.
"That’s good..." Wang Mang sighed. Remembering something else, his tone grew even heavier. "Sigh. I heard there was a girl in Class Four who also lost consciousness. No one noticed her at the time, and by the time the rescue team went in... it was too late. She’s gone..."
Fang Chen keenly caught onto an anomaly. "Wang, have you noticed something? It seems... everyone who fell unconscious is female."
Wang Mang abruptly sat up straight at those words, his gaze sweeping over the nine students lying on the ground. Every single one of them was a girl!
"You’re right!" he gasped, startled. "I didn’t realize it until you mentioned it! Liu Rui from our class, these two from Class Five, and all the rest of them... they’re all girls! What... what could be the reason for this?"
Fang Chen looked at him and suggested, "That’s easy enough to figure out. If we wake them up, we might be able to get a clue."
Wang Mang immediately nodded. "Alright!" He stood up and called over several students who had already reached the True Martial Realm and possessed True Qi. "Yuan Xiao, Yu Yongxiang, Gong Ruocheng... get over here!"
He spoke to them rapidly. "I am going to teach you a Technique right now. Use your True Qi to help these unconscious students sort out their chaotic Qi and Blood, and stabilize their Heart Spirits. You don’t need to do anything profound; just guide their Auras until they are smooth and steady! Come, follow my instructions!"
"Yes, sir!" Fang Chen and the others replied in unison.
A few nearby students helped sit the unconscious girls up into a cross-legged meditating posture. Fang Chen and the other True Martial Realm students sat cross-legged behind them. Following the Technique Wang Mang had just taught, they began Concentrating Spirit and Calming Qi, placing their palms against the girls’ backs or shoulder blades.
Fang Chen slowly channeled his True Qi into Zou Shuyao’s body, guiding it along her meridians.
He could clearly feel that her internal Qi and Blood, which had been tangled like a ball of yarn and surging backward, was being smoothed out bit by bit under the guidance of his external True Qi, returning to its normal circulatory path. The cold, obstructive sensation coiled deep within her Heart Spirit also gradually loosened and faded as her Qi and Blood calmed.
As the minutes ticked by, a trace of color gradually returned to Zou Shuyao’s pale face, and her breathing grew steady and strong.
All the surrounding students watched the scene nervously, murmuring among themselves.
"My god, what is going on here?"
"That explosion and fire just now were terrifying. I thought the Alien Race had invaded!"
Just then, Fang Chen sensed Zou Shuyao’s body tremble slightly. He immediately increased his True Qi output for a final push, attempting to completely shatter that last bit of obstruction in one fell swoop.
"AHHH!" Zou Shuyao snapped her eyes open and let out an ear-piercing scream. "Don’t touch me! Get away from me! AHHH!"
Fang Chen immediately withdrew his hands and reined in his True Qi, ending the Cultivation process.
However, as if she were still immersed in immense terror, Zou Shuyao flailed her arms wildly and continued to scream and cry. "AHHH! You pervert! You monster! Don’t touch my body! Get lost!"
Teacher Liu, the homeroom teacher of Class Five, hurried forward, explaining with both embarrassment and anxiety, "Zou Shuyao! You’re awake? Calm down! That was Fang Chen, the class president of Class Two. He was just using Cultivation to help you regulate your breathing and stabilize your Qi and Blood. He didn’t do anything to you!"
But Zou Shuyao remained completely hysterical and traumatized. Refusing to listen to a single word, she merely clutched her head and shrieked, "Get lost! All of you, get lost! Stay away from me!"
Some nearby students couldn’t bear to watch and spoke up in Fang Chen’s defense.
"Tch, talk about biting the hand that feeds you! The class president kindly expended his True Qi to help her, and she actually curses him out!"
"Yeah, look at her. Has she completely lost her mind?"
Fang Chen himself found it baffling, but he caught onto the key words in Zou Shuyao’s outburst. "Monster." "Pervert."
"Something’s not right," he immediately realized. "Her words aren’t aimed at me. It’s more like... she’s yelling at something in an illusion or a dream. She hasn’t fully woken up yet."
A short while later, Wang Mang and the other students performing Cultivation successively finished their breath regulation.
Although the other female students who woke up didn’t react quite as violently as Zou Shuyao, their faces were all stricken with terror. Some sobbed quietly, others stared blankly with eyes full of fear, while some gnashed their teeth, yelling angrily and even threatening to chop someone up. Their emotions were incredibly unstable.
The homeroom teachers and their close friends rushed forward to comfort them.
It took about ten minutes before the awakened girls seemed to truly realize they were back in reality, and their agitated emotions finally began to slowly settle down.
Suddenly, Zou Shuyao, who had been struggling and crying fiercely all this time, seemed to have exhausted all her strength. Or perhaps she had finally recognized the familiar teacher and environment in front of her. Tears of grievance, terror, and lingering fear burst forth like a broken dam. She threw herself into Teacher Liu’s arms and began to wail, her body trembling non-stop as she sobbed.
Teacher Liu gently patted Zou Shuyao’s back, comforting her in the gentlest tone possible. "Yaoyao, it’s okay, it’s okay... Did you have a nightmare? It was all fake. Everything is fine now that you’re awake. There, there..."
Zou Shuyao shook her head vigorously, her face streaked with tears and her voice filled with intense lingering fear. "No... Teacher Liu, at first, I also thought it was just a terribly scary dream... But, but I saw them! Li Mengqi, Wang Lu... they were all in that dream!"
Teacher Liu paused in surprise. "You mean...?"
"Yeah!" Zou Shuyao choked out a confirmation. "They all appeared in that dreamscape, and we all fell unconscious in reality...
"I-I feel like it wasn’t just a simple dream at all! Because..." She gripped her collar tightly, her knuckles turning white. "The feeling... it was too real! Every single detail, every... touch... none of it felt like a dream!"