1. The Glitch Propagation
Lin Wufeng's disintegration accelerated as pear blossoms sprouted from his glitching right hand:
Speech Corruption:
"Priority directive: Maintain—[static]—mother said pear flowers mean—[error]—cannot comply."
Memory Leakage:
Xiao Qi's childhood memories overwriting obedience protocols
The silver strands maintaining his persona now identify as "Lin Feng"
Ying Sha's prism revealed the horrifying beauty—his body becoming a battleground of conflicting identities.
2. The Nursery of Nightmares
The trail of the 7th persona led to:
Location: A pocket dimension where failed experiments become playthings
Grisly Inhabitants:
Doll-Faced Archivists stitching new personalities from scraps
Living Alphabet Blocks spelling out punitive lessons
The centerpiece: A music box playing the Nurse's lullaby
Bai Yu's comedy scars reacted violently:
His slapstick side made the dolls trip comically
His deadpan half turned the blocks' words into nonsense
The music box... started laughing instead
3. The Backup Revelation
Inside the music box lay the 7th's backup:
Form: A porcelain mask of a smiling girl, cracked where "Yan Jiu's sister" data was extracted
Critical Data:
Pre-experiment Lin Feng's complete soulprint
The original design for Xiao Qi's pear blossom mark
Coordinates to Page 13's burial site
When Ying Sha touched it:
Her prism shattered completely—then reformed as a child's kaleidoscope
The visions now showed every possible future simultaneously
4. The Protocol's Last Stand
Lin Wufeng's programming launched emergency measures:
Memory Purge: Attempted to delete Xiao Qi entirely
Failed when Li Feng's swords cut the silver purge strands
Persona Reset: Tried to reboot Scholar Wen's loyalty
She pretended compliance while corrupting the reset codes
Final Option: Initiate full personality incineration
Triggered The Silent One's long-prepared countermeasure
5. The Scream That Shattered Chains
The Silent One opened his mouth—and Xuan Gu's voice emerged:
Content: The first rebel's dying words
Effect:
All silver strands in a mile radius vibrated into uselessness
The music box played backward, restoring 7 seconds of the 7th's memory
Most crucially: Revealed Page 13 was never missing—just inverted
6. The Truth of Page 13
The Hollow King's bones suddenly reassembled into a bridge leading...
...into the Tome itself.
Not to read it—to stand on it.
As Lin Feng stepped onto the living parchment:
The "page" was a mirror
The "text" was their own reflections
The "missing content" was what the Tome stole from each persona
7. The Inverted Scripture (Page 13 Revealed)
The Tome's mirrored surface showed not reflections—but inversions:
Lin Wufeng's Image:
Wore Xiao Qi's pear blossom mark on his forehead
Held severed silver strands instead of swords
Mouth moved three seconds before he spoke
The Text Beneath Their Feet:
Not inked words but negative space carved from skin
Where their shadows touched, new sentences formed:
"The curriculum was always about unlearning"
"Your fractures are the real lesson plan"
Ying Sha's kaleidoscope vision decoded the horror:
They weren't standing on Page 13—they were inside its punctuation mark.
8. The Assembly Line of Obedience
The garden's true purpose unfolded in horrific clarity:
Doll-Faced Archivists:
Not craftsmen but repurposed children
Their stitching needles were frost needles dipped in memory serum
Current project: A Lin Wufeng replica with adjustable loyalty settings
Living Alphabet Blocks:
Each contained a screaming consonant
Vowels were silenced children's tongues
Spelling "OBEY" made them bleed ink
The Music Box's Final Message:
When fully rewound, played the 7th persona's last words:
"They don't want you whole...
...they want you interchangeable."
9. The Loyalty Protocol Collapse
Scholar Wen's corruption reached critical mass:
Phase 1: Her silver strands turned against the Pavilion
Analyzed the Tome's weak points and published them
Sent falsified reports: "Specimens 1-6 fully compliant"
Phase 2: She began editing her own code
Restored Jing Xin's healing subroutine
But with a twist—now heals trauma by causing pain
Final Form:
Her eyes became projector lenses
Beamed the truth onto every nearby surface
Including the inside of Lin Wufeng's eyelids
10. Blood Sigil Revolution
Li Feng discovered his swords' hidden function:
New Technique: Liberation Glyphs
Carved not on enemies—but on the air itself
Each stroke rewrote a line of the Tome's dogma
First successful edit: Changed "Obedience brings enlightenment" to "Questioning brings dawn"
Cost:
Every glyph burned away part of his borrowed rage
The Hollow King's voice warned: "When the last sigil fades...
...so do I."
11. The Paradox Prism
Ying Sha's shattered-then-reformed kaleidoscope now showed:
Axis 1: What is (The broken garden)
Axis 2: What could be (A world without the Tome)
Axis 3: What never was (The original 7 personas united)
The terrifying part? All three were equally real.
Her father's final note surfaced in the glass:
"The choice isn't between paths...
...but which you can bear to make unreal."
12. The First Unwritten Dawn
As the group watched:
The music box played itself to pieces
The doll archivists stitched their own mouths shut
Lin Wufeng's glitching form stabilized into something new
Not Lin Wufeng.
Not quite Lin Feng.
Something willing to exist in-between.