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I always have a bad feeling, like something is always watching me.

Then, they finally arrived at a gate. Here, Li Ge saw familiar characters—the crooked, illegible script of the Holy Empire, which he could recognize even without the system's translation module.

"Blood test certification... What kind of ancient design is this? It's impossible for it to recognize you after you drip blood, right?" Li Ge complained, but then looked at her parents.

"How about I give it a try?" The father immediately pulled out a small knife from somewhere, ready to stick out his arm and cut himself.

Once inside the tower, the temperature gradually warmed up, probably reaching around five degrees Celsius.

"Forget it, let me do it," Li Ge immediately stopped him, fearing something might go wrong. He could quickly replenish any blood he lost, unlike his ordinary parents who didn't have that ability.

He immediately manipulated his spiritual power, transforming it into a thin needle that he pricked his finger. Then, he flicked a drop of blood onto the gate. Instantly, his blood merged into the stone gate.

This blood-dripping door-opening trick... the designer of this thing must be an absolute relic of the past. I can't believe such a design even exists! He suspects the designer was some ancient nerd who loved reading all sorts of fantasy adventure stories thousands of years ago...

"Buzz!"

The door was opened.

Li Ge and his group: "..."

It really opened like that? How did it determine that its own blood could pass through?

Li Ge was completely baffled.

"Never mind, let's go in and take a look," Li Ge said.

……

On Xiaoye's side, after they used the system to translate the text above, Daphne first flicked out a drop of blood.

Then, the stone gate did not react at all.

“That’s not right…” Daphne was immediately puzzled.

"I'll give it a try. If I can't, I'll release Yilian and see how it goes," Xiaoye thought. She reasoned that she had done genetic matching with Li Ge, and this was Li Ge's hometown. If Li Ge could do it, she should be able to too.

As for calling out Yilian, that's because Yilian has Li Ge's DNA inside her. Don't misunderstand, it's because Yilian previously served as a living preservation chamber, storing Li Ge's organ fragments for a long time. If you asked her to forcibly gather those remaining DNA fragments, it would probably be no different from Li Ge directly throwing out his own blood.

However, the moment Xiaoye flicked the blood onto it, the stone door opened.

"Wait, what's the principle behind this? Isn't this magic?" Daphne immediately exclaimed.

"I suspect this isn't a magic test, but a genetic test. As for the criteria for genetic testing, we don't know yet..." Xiaoye shrugged.

Xiaoye thought to herself, "It might really be because of genetic compatibility."

……

Inside the stone gate was a vast, empty space, and a dense array of magic circles that permeated the entire space.

Within the magic circle were countless wandering runes, like code coded by a computer engineer, seemingly operating according to some kind of pattern. Seeing this, Li Ge felt a chill run down his spine.

In traditional school subjects, are those who learn barrier techniques and array formations like they're writing code from scratch? Are these spell runes the computer language of the magic side?

He glanced at it briefly and estimated that there were at least tens of thousands of lines of runes here.

Fortunately, we didn't add traditional subjects before...

Li Ge grumbled. The next moment, he saw a figure slowly appear at the very center of the formation. The figure looked at Li Ge and actually showed a delighted expression, reaching out his hand and asking, "Yo, junior!"

Li Ge: "?"

Li Ge: "!"

real or fake?

He recognized the man from the photo; it was Ethan, the captain of the hero squad!

In other words, this tower and this barrier were all set up by him.

That's not surprising, that's not surprising...

So that's how it is. Why did the system show that this barrier was set up with clearly professional techniques? And why could his blood open the gate...?

And why was that access control system so outdated and cringeworthy...?

So it was all because of you, you old fogey?

It was a young man wearing a mask. After greeting Li Ge, he suddenly turned to his parents behind him and said, "Long time no see, Li En. Look, we've held on for another seventeen years."

At that moment, Li Ge was greatly surprised.

He turned sharply to look at his parents behind him, and then, in the next moment, his parents said calmly, "Yes, we've persevered for another seventeen years..."

In that instant, Li Ge felt as if a strange net had enveloped him. He looked at Ethan, the senior in front of him, and then at his parents behind him.

Illusion? When?

Li Ge even wondered if she had eaten too many mushrooms and was hallucinating at that moment.

And at this moment, looking at his young parents, he suddenly felt that they were completely different. If they were just innocent and naive college students before, in this instant, they seemed to have received some kind of memory and began to become weathered and mature.

"Hey, so you called for reinforcements, junior? Once you get into the school, they should notice something's wrong and send someone over. So, who did you call?"

Senior Ethan seemed a bit of a show-off; he kept saying nonsensical things and acted somewhat erratically.

I don't know if it's because he's been isolated here for too long and is eager to find someone to talk to, or if this is just his personality.

as well as……

"Help... The vice principal originally wanted to come, but he was rejected by the world's consciousness. Then my teacher came too, but I don't know where he is..." Li Ge complained.

"Ugh, how can the world's consciousness be so wicked?" Ethan immediately complained.

Then, he immediately knelt on the ground, and his entire demeanor seemed to change.

Li Ge: "..."

What an abstract senior.

Li Ge felt that in the realm of abstraction, this person was no less capable than himself!

"By the way, where's your teacher?" The senior suddenly leaped up in front of Li Ge, startling her. Then Li Ge realized that he was just a projection, having completely passed through her.

Yes, it was just a projection, not even a soul. Li Ge couldn't even sense any spiritual particles.

"I can't find him!" Li Ge was also wondering where Abaddon had gone.

They arrived together, but after landing, Li Ge had no idea where Abaddon had gone.

It's impossible for someone to drag me over to be paired with someone else, right?

Then the senior student immediately said, "I almost forgot to tell you the important thing. I'll take you to see a place, and then you'll know everything."

Then, guided by the projection, Li Ge arrived at another level of the tower. After opening the door, Li Ge was shocked to see four corpses.

To be more precise, it should be described as a skeleton, a bare, white skeleton with no flesh or skin left.

“Uh…” Li Ge was speechless.

“Hey, look, this is my skeleton, this is my wife’s, and these two are your parents’ skeletons.”

"I've been waiting here for too long, I can't take it anymore, brother. Seventeen years ago, I sent a distress signal to my brothers here, asking them to call for help, but back then it was just a young couple who came. Seventeen years later, talents from the academy have finally arrived!"

“But there was no other way; once they came here, there was no going back. I could only prevent them from becoming vessels for that monster. After they made their decision, I stripped them of all organic matter and made them go to jail with me.”

"I'm so unlucky, I really had bad luck to pick such a powerful boss. Okay, I messed up!"

"My dear friends, it's not that I've ruined you, it's this chaotic world that has ruined you!"

"Oh, I'm sorry. It seems I'm the one who killed your parents. Do whatever you want with me... I'm done. But without your parents to support me for these seventeen years, I feel like I can't hold on any longer."

"And finally, thank you for not throwing away this bizarre mask yet." The next moment, a clown mask exactly like Li Ge's appeared on the senior's face.

Chapter 307 The Senior's True Identity

At that moment, Li Ge's mind suddenly went blank, as if it had exploded.

He understood; he gradually came to comprehend everything. At that moment, Li Ge slowly removed the mask from her face.

He glanced at the clown mask, then at the mask on Ethan's face...

"Hahaha, this is my mask!" the senior laughed happily. "Its real name is 'The Fool's Mask'. Actually, this Noble Phantasm isn't mine; it was given to me by someone else. Later, when I discovered that this thing had devoured the Noble Phantasm that originally belonged to me, I cursed it out."

The senior student explained, seemingly very happy: "But later I really liked it. So, I gave this to your parents as payment for helping me through the last seventeen years."

"Finally, it fell into your hands. And then, seventeen years later, you brought it to me. I was truly moved."

The senior student smiled, and it seemed like he was about to laugh until tears streamed down his face.

However, looking at the projection in front of her that had no spiritual particles whatsoever, Li Ge only felt a sense of unease.

"You're not Senior Ethan, are you?" Li Ge asked directly.

In that instant, the senior, who had been very outgoing and even a little mischievous, fell into absolute silence.

At that moment, the air seemed to freeze terrifyingly. He stared intently at Li Ge, his expression behind the mask seeming to ask, "When did you find out?"

The blinding golden eyes, like high beams, were ignited. The yellow and purple pupils stared at the projection and said, "First, you have no spiritual power."

"Secondly, it doesn't devour your Noble Phantasm; instead, it forcibly fuses your Noble Phantasm with the mask."

"And thirdly, senior, your performance was too fake."

Fourthly, Li Ge couldn't see any labels on him.

At this moment, even without using his extraordinary wisdom, Li Ge could tell that the person in front of him could not possibly be Senior Ethan.

The atmosphere around him was no longer joyful, but fell silent, gradually emanating a deathly aura, and finally a sense of relief.

"So, no matter how much I pretend to be like you, I'm still not you, Ethan..." he said slowly at this moment.

Then, Li Ge saw a wristwatch emitting its last light on the wrist of Ethan's corpse. The figure before him vanished, and Li Ge realized that it wasn't a soul at all, but simply a projection.

No wonder Li Ge couldn't see anything. So that's it, it was just a projection, and the source was... the system!

The school will tailor-make a silent companion for each person, someone who will accompany them throughout their lives from the moment they enroll.

It helps scan the corresponding magic array, constantly scanning your body data and displaying your physical condition and all current panel information. It follows you like a ghost, but it never takes over any functions or gets too much of your attention.

At this moment, Li Ge fell silent.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to lie." Ethan's voice came from his watch. Although it was an electronic voice, it carried a deep sense of fatigue.

For a moment, the atmosphere was extremely silent.