1. The Serum Purge
The rust consumed Lin Wufeng's golden threads completely—unleashing his true meridians:
Manifestation:
Cyclones erupted from his pores, scouring away Pavilion-branded qi
His black hole pupil expelled decades of doctored memories
The wind carried his mother's original lullaby in a language even he didn't know
Side Effect:
Every exhale aged nearby objects (hall monitors became dust mid-sentence)
His shadow detached, becoming the silhouette of a woman (his mother's lost spirit?)
2. Surrealism as Survival
Bai Yu's merged comedy styles warped reality:
Slapstick-Deadpan Fusion:
Hall monitors tripped into literal punchlines
The furnace deadpan-screamed as its flames turned into rubber chickens
Even time stitches developed laugh tracks
New Technique: "Fourth-Wall Cannibalism"
Ate the concept of grading rubrics
Digested them into nonsense limericks
His skeleton now cast cartoon shadows
3. Vertical Time
Ying Sha's misassembled prism revealed terrifying dimensions:
Axis 1 (Past→Future): The standard timeline, now littered with serum vials
Axis 2 (Future→Past): A reversed flow where effects preceded causes
Axis 3 (Vertical): A stacked reality showing all versions of a moment at once
When she focused on Lin Feng's birth:
Layer 1: A healthy infant with wind-shaped birthmarks
Layer 47: The Celestial Pavilion's midnight kidnapping
Layer ∞: Something peeling open the sky to insert the serum
4. Classmate Confession
The recovered draft's hidden colophon read:
"Co-authored by Mu Lian & Ying Hai
(Submitted for Ethics Examination - FAILED)
(Reason: 'Cultivation Cannot Afford Compassion')"
The truth unfolded:
Instructor Mu and Ying Sha's father were peer researchers
Their falling out came when Mu stole the empathy studies to create...
...the first compliance serum (using Ying's own wind-meridian models)
5. The Wind Spirit's Wrath
Lin Feng's unleashed power had an unexpected ally:
Entity: The primordial wind his mother once worshipped
Form: A woman-shaped storm with serum needles for teeth
Goal: Scour the Pavilion's sin from history's fabric
Its first act:
Erased every instance of the name "Wufeng" from documents
Left the characters blank where they appeared
The blanks began bleeding pear blossom sap
6. The Loophole of Laughter
Bai Yu discovered surrealism's secret strength:
Absolute Nonsense: When he declared "Grading is a triangular emotion"
The furnace tried to compute it and cracked in half
Silver strands tied themselves in Möbius strips
Even the wind spirit paused to say "What?"
Critical Weakness: The system couldn't process illogical assertions
Every absurd statement unwrote a Pavilion rule
His skeleton now spontaneously developed new comedy genres
7. The Prism's Price
Ying Sha's vertical vision came with consequences:
Memory Overload: She recalled every version of her father's death
Time Bleed: Her hands aged and de-aged randomly
Epiphany: "The needle isn't to change time...
...it's to choose which time survives."
8. The Erasure of Wufeng
The wind spirit's purification reached metaphysical levels:
Historical Records:
Scrolls mentioning "Lin Wufeng" now showed wind-eroded gaps
The gaps pulsed with phantom memories of the stolen name
Attempts to rewrite them resulted in paper cuts that bled pear sap
Personal Effects:
Lin's old Frost Moon Sect robes unraveled stitch by stitch
His golden threads rusted into oblivion, taking serum commands with them
Only the pear blossom mark remained—now glowing with storm energy
Cognitive Impact:
Those who knew him as "Wufeng" experienced violent deja vu
The nurse-puppet's logs now read "Specimen [REDACTED BY GALE]"
Most terrifying: Lin himself couldn't recall ever being called Wufeng
9. Absurdity as Armament
Bai Yu's comedy evolution reached weaponized levels:
New Techniques:
"Non-Euclidean Punchline": Jokes that geometrically confused enemies
Hall monitors walked into imaginary doors that became real upon impact
The furnace's flames got stuck in comic strip panels
"Metafictional Hook": Attacks that referenced their own fictional nature
Silver strands got trapped in footnote labyrinths
One strategist was erased by his own backstory contradictions
Physical Changes:
His ribs formed a stand-up comedy club in his chest cavity
Kidney scars hosted open mic nights for his organs
His spine became a scroll of anti-logic
10. The Weight of Infinite Truths
Ying Sha's vertical time prism imposed brutal choices:
Layer 47: The kidnapping timeline where her father died protesting
Layer 12: A branch where he joined Mu Lian and perfected the serum
Layer ∞+1: The horrific discovery that all layers were experiments
The prism's weight manifested physically:
Her crystal eye sank deeper into her skull with each layer viewed
Her hair turned white where temporal radiation leaked
She could now pluck objects from different layers—but at the cost of:
Borrowing: The item disappeared from its original timeline
Stealing: Someone in that layer forgot it ever existed
11. The First Serum Sample
The Cloud Soaring strategists unveiled their ultimate weapon:
Container: A frosted vial labeled "Batch 0: Mu & Ying's Original Formula"
Contents: Unlike later versions, this serum sparkled with compassion
Revelation: The empathy wasn't removed—it was inverted into obedience
When exposed to Lin Feng's storm:
The liquid wept before evaporating
The tears formed tiny protesting wind spirits
Their whispers revealed: "The thirteenth fracture was Ying's idea"
12. The Storm's Hunger
Lin Feng's unleashed power developed autonomous agendas:
Target 1: Every remaining osmanthus cake fermented into vinegar
Target 2: Celestial Pavilion's architectural blueprints took flight as kites
Target 3: Most dangerously—it began eroding the Tome's punctuation
Effects of the last:
Sentences unended
Ritual chants lost their full stops
The Hollow King's warnings became run-on thoughts
13. The Choice at ∞
Ying Sha stood before the prism's ultimate layer:
The Core Truth:
Her father had volunteered as the Tome's first test subject
The frost needle was his invention to limit the damage
The "thirteenth fracture" was a safety valve—not a flaw
The Sacrifice:
Choosing this truth would collapse all other layers
Lin Feng might never have rebelled
Bai Yu's comedy could unmake itself
The Alternative:
Preserving the paradox meant eternal experimentation
The silver strands would institutionalize suffering
But their current selves would remain intact