Shan Hetian seemed to sense Li Jun's thoughts; his face suddenly began to contort, the mocking smile gradually turning bizarre, his skin appearing stretched and terribly deformed.
Immediately following, black poisonous stingers actually grew on his face, and his entire body slowly transformed into a giant Poisonous Scorpion!
Li Jun's heart felt as if it were fiercely squeezed by something, beating wildly without stopping.
He turned his head to look around and discovered in horror that the faces of the other students were also rapidly twisting and deforming.
"Su Shuai! You..."
"Ah, Deng Meng, don't come over here!"
Every single student had turned into a Poisonous Scorpion, their sharp stingers and claws glittering in the sunlight.
"Tutor, save me! Tutor!" Li Jun frantically reached out to grab Tutor Ding's arm, trying to find a shred of security.
However, Tutor Ding's arm felt clammy, cold, and disgusting.
Li Jun suddenly looked up and discovered that the contempt on Tutor Ding's face was gradually turning into a terrifying Ghost Face, with black blood constantly seeping from it, his eyes staring fixedly at Li Jun, as if wanting to tear him to shreds.
"Ah!" Li Jun suddenly roared, and the School instantly turned upside down; everything around shattered and collapsed like an Illusionary Realm, the scene before him becoming a barren wasteland, surrounded by endless darkness, enveloped by a suffocating sense of despair.
"Hiss hiss hiss!" Several giant Poisonous Scorpions suddenly darted out, baring their fangs and brandishing their claws as they pressed in on Li Jun; their stingers flashed with cold light, seemingly ready to pierce Li Jun's body at any moment.
"Run!" Li Jun's body reacted under extreme fear; he turned and fled, desperately trying to escape the pursuit of the Poisonous Scorpions. However, the scorpions' speed increased, and the clicking sound of their claws grew closer behind him.
He kept running, not daring to look back. Above his head, Tutor Ding's Ghost Mask suddenly appeared, growing huge like a cloud, obscuring the sky, following closely behind Li Jun and emitting sharp, piercing laughter.
"Hee hee hee!" The Ghost Mask roared, sneering, its cavernous mouth opening wide to suddenly suck at Li Jun; the immense suction force seemed intent on tearing Li Jun's soul from his body.
Li Jun saw his own body beginning to become weak and transparent, his palms growing lighter, as if his soul was being devoured bit by bit by the Ghost Mask.
A sliver of hope faintly arose in his heart. "This must be a dream, it must be a dream!" He prayed internally, desperately wishing to wake up quickly and return to the fields of the Lotus Pond to continue his daily life; even doing the hardest Farm Work would be better than facing these bizarre things.
However, reality did not grant his wish. At the moment he prayed, the huge, ferocious Ghost Mask suspended above him became more solid and powerful; it drifted out like a phantom, driven by the instinct to hunt, swooping towards Li Jun with a whistle. The greed and malice brought by the Ghost Mask were almost tangible, washing over him, causing Li Jun to tremble all over, his hair standing on end, his heartbeat nearly stopping.
Just as the Ghost Mask was about to close in, a dazzling Silver Light suddenly descended from the sky, instantly striking the Ghost Mask and shattering it.
The Ghost Mask dissolved into wisps of Blood Mist in mid-air, scattering away. Yet, strangely, this Blood Mist did not dissipate but condensed again, transforming into a fiercer Ghost Face that attacked Li Jun once more.
The exhausted Li Jun, already under the Ghost Mask's oppressive might, had his consciousness scatter, his limbs going limp on the ground.
As the Ghost Mask moved to approach again, several beams of Silver Light flashed simultaneously from all directions, like sharp blades, piercing the Ghost Mask again and tearing it to shreds.
At this moment, a giant silver Pinecone suddenly materialized in the air. The Ghost Mask reformed once more, but the Pinecone crushed down upon it.
The Ghost Mask let out a miserable shriek, twisting and deforming under the Pinecone's pressure, before shattering and being completely annihilated by the Silver Light released by the Pinecone. This time, the Ghost Mask was utterly ground into powder, unable to reform, with even the last trace of Grievance dissipating into the air.
The Pinecone slowly descended to the ground. Li Jun was sprawled on the floor, having already lost consciousness, his body weak and unable to move.
The Pinecone emitted a faint sound, releasing a strange power.
The Spiritual Light that had been swallowed by the Ghost Mask began to condense around him, returning to Li Jun's body.
His body, which had been nearly transparent, slowly began to solidify, and his soul gradually regained its strength.
But those Poisonous Scorpions were not deterred by the Pinecone.
They hesitated briefly, hissing, and instinctively lunged at Li Jun, intending to tear him to pieces in one go.
But this was all in vain.
Silver chains suddenly appeared on the surface of the Pinecone, shooting out rapidly to firmly bind two giant Poisonous Scorpions.
"Hiss-chhh—" The Poisonous Scorpions struggled desperately, letting out painful roars, their stingers waving incessantly, attempting to break free from the restraints.
The silver chains suddenly tightened, twisting violently, instantly tearing the scorpions' bodies in half; green venom sprayed out, emitting a pungent odor...
And all of this happened within Li Jun's consciousness, just like a dream.
The real Li Jun's eyes slowly regained focus, and his previously dim vision gradually cleared.
He suddenly opened his eyes and found that he was still alive, his heart still beating in his chest.
He gasped for breath, filled with terror internally.
"This... was just a dream?" Li Jun looked blankly at the scene before him; the sense of dread from the dream still lingered in his nerves.
When he looked around again, the scene before him made him freeze—in reality, the Mountain Valley was strewn with corpses, the smell of blood permeated the air, and scorpions covered the ground, gnawing on the bodies, emitting eerie hissing sounds; this was real.
Surprisingly, the surrounding Poisonous Scorpions avoided him, as if something about him kept them from approaching.
"I'm not dead yet?" Li Jun's head throbbed painfully, his skull feeling as if it were being severely compressed by something; his body could not move.
He looked up and saw that the Old Man in Hemp Clothes was still sitting motionlessly not far from the Mountain Valley, as if he had turned into a stone statue.
Li Jun's eyes widened suddenly, his heart racing, "Old Man in Hemp Clothes!" Fear instantly flooded his mind; he remembered clearly that it was this old man who had last cast a spell on the Black Cauldron!
After briefly regaining consciousness, Li Jun was extremely weak; following the fright, he fainted again.
Li Jun was completely unaware that his entire body was now wrapped in fine silver chains, each chain engraved with strange Runes, faintly emitting a weak glow.
The chains clung to him tightly, like living things.
On Li Jun's chest, the Pinecone that had been hanging around his neck was gone!
The wound on his chest inflicted by the Masked Old Man had healed; only a large patch of bloodstains proved that the wound had existed moments before.
Inside his chest, a faint Silver Light flickered, seeming to flow within his body, making his breathing smoother, as if a strange power was reviving inside him.
Around him lay the corpses of some Poisonous Scorpions; those scorpions were now shriveled, leaving behind only husk-like shells, as if their Vitality had been completely drained by something.
The distant Poisonous Scorpions were still gnawing on the corpses of others, making squelching sounds, completely unaware of the abnormality concerning Li Jun.
After about half an hour, the silver chains coiled around him suddenly began to writhe, like living snakes, slowly crawling off Li Jun and heading towards the surrounding corpses.
The silver chains moved like Spirit Snakes, weaving between every corpse; instantly, the bodies on the ground began to make "Thunderbolt Thunderbolt" sounds, as if something inside them was breaking apart.
But when the silver chains wrapped around the Masked Old Man, the slumbering old man suddenly awoke; he immediately summoned the Demon Banner from the Black Cauldron, but it was too late; already extremely weak from casting a Secret Art, he was bound by dozens of silver chains, and these chains burrowed through his flesh!
"Wh-what in the world is this!" the Masked Old Man cried out in terror, but soon, his physical body also began to make "Thunderbolt Thunderbolt" sounds, as if something inside him was shattering.
Simultaneously, a string of emotions suddenly flooded into Li Jun's sleeping mind: sorrow, despair, pain, hatred, as well as excitement, delight, and enjoyment.
These emotions were the feelings experienced by those corpses in life; transmitted through the silver chains, these emotions impacted Li Jun's nerves like a flood; the pain nearly drove him to collapse—it was the Remnant Souls of those people being shredded and drawn into Li Jun's body by the silver chains.
"Ah!" Li Jun could no longer bear it and let out a heart-wrenching scream.
He unintentionally bit his tongue, but the pain in his tongue could not suppress this endless torment; the mixed emotions forcibly stuffed into his body still caused his head to split with pain, his vision went black, and he completely lost consciousness.
Just then, the Pinecone emitted a dazzling Silver Light again; this Silver Light emerged from Li Jun's brow, completely absorbing all those Remnant Souls.
And the silver chains spread all around, carrying a mysterious Rosy Cloud Light, retracted one by one into Li Jun's body; his skin began to emit a faint glow, and his body gradually became more solid.