Chapter 884: Red
Translator: Lonelytree Editor: Millman97
The rooftop of the lab building was closest to the sky; it was somewhere you could touch the other world with your hand. The normal school had started to change. More students turned into blood vessels and ugly monsters. They wailed at the once quiet school. They, who had gotten used to the beauty, did not expect the pain that they had once been through.
Every second the blood mirror loomed over the school, there would be more crumbling blood vessels. The memory that it contained would disappear, and the trace of its owner would be wiped away. Irreversible collapse was occurring on the two campuses. As the owner of these campuses, the painter was standing on the rooftop of the lab building. He picked up the canvas, and instantly, black-reddish blood appeared on it.
“You wish to kill me?” Chang Wenyu dangled her legs at the edge of the building. “You have gained the approval of half of the students at the school, but you have no control over the other half. If you kill me, the school’s consciousness will be swallowed by that city.”
“I have never killed anyone, but many have died because of me. I used this canvas to record their last moments and occasionally took it out to admire it.” The painter gripped the edge of the canvas, and his pale fingers were covered in undried blood. He did not seem to care what Chang Wenyu said. He was talking to himself, saying what was on his mind.
“You have not killed anymore?” Chang Wenyu opened her arms and crossed her hands. “You will always find excuses for your actions—that is what I hate most about you.”
The stench of blood thickened on the rooftop and Chang Wenyu stood up. Fire burned in her eyes. “Do you know why I returned after successfully escaping from this place?”
The painter shook his head lightly.
“I saw the family of the students outside the door. They were guarding beside the unconscious students, waiting for them to come home.” Chang Wenyu stood at the edge of the building. The reflection of the blood world was above her, and the crumbling campuses were below her. “But I know that’s impossible. The door has bound them. It looks like salvation, but in reality, it has only pushed them into deeper despair.”
The black hair was lifted by the b.l.o.o.d.y wind. Chang Wenyu’s right eye was pulsing with a red light, and her hollow left eye socket had black blood leaking out from it. “So, I returned. I can’t save all the students here, but I can ruin the door and bury all of you with it. I do not wish for what happened to us to happen to anyone else.”
Blood bloomed on her dress, and the expression on Chang Wenyu’s face turned maddened. “I will stop at nothing to destroy this place.”
“But can you do it? After losing the school’s approval, you will weaken. What you have learned at the school will be returned to it.” The painter’s voice was even like he was asking whether she had eaten her breakfast or not.
“I do not need the school’s approval, as long as someone approves of me at the school.” The atmosphere tensed. Chang Wenyu was prepared to fight the painter.
“It’s a good thing to have your own persistence, but why would you attract the ghosts from the city?” The painter looked past Chang Wenyu at the red city beyond the school. “Fighting for the school’s approval to become the new door pusher is something between us. Why would you drag them into it, or are you still afraid of me?”
“I know that you will not make the same mistake again, so I only have this chance. Before you become the new door pusher, I have to destroy this place.”
“Destroying the school’s door, attracting the ghosts from the red city, contacting every Red Specter who has once resisted me and has the qualification to become the door pusher, is that the entirety of your plan?” The painter’s finger nudged the canvas. “Actually, I’m curious, how did you open the school’s front gate? All the Specters are limited by the school’s consciousness. No one should be able to get close to the gate; that is one thing that I do not understand.”
“Specters will be targeted, but the living will not.” Chang Wenyu wiped away the blood that flowed out of her left eye. “I’ve been looking for the door pusher’s left eye—it has been hiding outside the door. I’ve waited so long for this day. After all, it was he who pushed open the door. Only his eye can trick the school’s consciousness. So, I had a living person possess the door pusher’s left eye and push open the door.”
Blood flowers were blossoming on Chang Wenyu’s dress. This Greater Red Specter was showing her true form. But probably because she was inside the campus created by the painter, her power was limited.
“It’s taken several years to build this heaven on top of a cemetery, but you have used several years to figure out a way to destroy everything.” The painter sighed. “Looks like I shan’t have any hope in any of you. To focus on what I need to do, the only way is for all of you to shut up.”
“Stop lying to yourself. No one will be able to create heaven. You are merely decorating h.e.l.l.” Chang Wenyu stood at the spot closest to the sky. Her dress had changed almost fully red. “Painter, when I first met you, I knew that the school’s consciousness would approve of you because, in this school, only you believe that it is not a cage of despair behind the door. But I did not antic.i.p.ate the day when you would have control over almost everything.”
This time the painter did not reply. His pale fingers were moving on the canvas.
“What are you doing?” Only Chang Wenyu’s heart had not turned red.
“I am painting.” The painter raised the broken canvas. “I like to paint how they look like before they die.”
On the broken canvas, there was a woman in a red dress. One of her eyes was ruby red while the other had been dug away, leaving behind a black hole.
“How do you think she wants to die?”
The painter used his b.l.o.o.d.y hand to pierce at the woman’s heart in the painting. Chang Wenyu collapsed backward at the same time, laughing madly.
“Then, why do you think I came here to waste time with you?”
In the laughter, Chang Wenyu morphed into a blood flower. Her body collapsed into numerous blood vessels. The spot of her heart remained in the air, and the rest of her body was dyed red.
“You know my power, so you’ve hidden your heart away?” The painter looked at the painted Chang Wenyu. “She lost her body but has wasted one of my paintings…”
The painter ignored the b.l.o.o.d.y dress in the air and turned to the front gate. In the blood fog, a new threat was approaching from the red city.