Chapter 648: Sheep and the Raven

Not long before the Mutation outbreak—

A night rain made the air fresher, and it did not hinder today's activities from proceeding as scheduled; banners at the roadside printed the event names and slogans of various clubs, while the speakers played upbeat pop music.

Bai Mu Yun stood in the back row of the audience seats beside the clothing display area, holding a paper bag printed with the club's logo, which contained a bottle of water and an event handbook.

He only realized upon arriving at the venue that the outfit he had designed was actually placed in the middle of the exhibition segment, firmly occupying the stage's center position.

After being made into a physical garment, the outfit turned out better than he had imagined; the waist's tightening presented a smooth line as the model moved.

The deputy department head squeezed through the crowd, holding a form and a pen, and handed the form to Bai Mu Yun.

"Your design won first prize! The judging panel especially liked your design style—wild and flamboyant; they said it was very innovative."

She was pleased with Bai Mu Yun's achievement and did not stint on her praise.

As she spoke, she also shoved the pen into Bai Mu Yun's hand: "Fill in your major class and student number; later we'll submit it to record honor credits, and we'll even hold a special meeting to award them!"

After Bai Mu Yun took the form, his hand suddenly paused.

He remembered Yang Yixie's major class and student number; the problem was……

A special meeting to award them?

Actually, in university, substitute teaching and helping others brush up credits counts as a gray-market business; most students, even if they know it's substitute teaching, won't ask further—as long as someone shows up, it's fine.

Originally Yang Yixie had this idea: let Bai Mu Yun, when idle, earn some credits for him, and also sit in on some design-major courses—killing two birds with one stone.

But if this list were submitted upward, letting Yang Yixie know that his original plan to just coast had accidentally earned him recognition—and even stirred up trouble……

"Isn't this inappropriate?" Bai Mu Yun tried to decline.

The deputy department head stood beside him waiting, saying, "It's fine; your design style is so unique and striking that nobody objects."

Bai Mu Yun was about to casually make up an excuse to get by, just as he was about to speak, his eyes narrowed slightly.

"Zila—"

The microphone seemed to have been knocked over, emitting a huge, piercing noise, but nobody rushed to help it first; a sudden dizziness left most people dazed for a moment, not reacting to what had happened, before they heard the sound cut off and replaced by a sudden alarm.

The deputy department head immediately stood up; Bai Mu Yun casually put the paper bag and form together on the nearby seat, then scanned the surroundings.

Not far off, teachers and student council members were already organizing an assembly for evacuation; the deputy department head tiptoed to check the situation, then hurried back and said.

"It seems something happened; the teacher told us to gather over there."

Several people didn't even have time to gather their belongings; everyone dropped what they were doing and rushed over.

They didn't know what had happened, but Bai Mu Yun clearly felt a sudden surge in the concentration of Mutation factors around him; originally, because his own Mutation factor was insufficient, the repair work on this body had been pitifully slow, only speeding up after he appeared in Tianmian City.

But at this moment, it was as if his speed had been directly doubled.

Although it hadn't yet reached the terrifying self-healing speed when the Aberrant Species Core was still present, his strength recovery also accelerated considerably, and this environment actually made him feel comfortable.

Just……

Rather than the recovery of his abilities, he would rather keep things as they are.

In the distance the sky was immaculately clear and azure, but at the edge of his vision a few tiny things were slowly drifting down.

They were feathers.

Unlike the light, fluffy feathers of birds, these had harder edges and darker colors, resembling the tip of a wing from some creature larger than ordinary birds.

Bai Mu Yun stepped forward a few paces, picked up a feather, pinched its base and twirled it; at first glance the color looked black, but on closer inspection one could see that under the light's refraction it emitted a bluish-purple sheen.

……Molting season?

The feather contained a trace of Mutation factor, very likely coming from one of his deceased acquaintances.

Really, foolish birds have foolish luck; he died once before arriving here, while a certain stupid crow stubbornly survived until the war ended.

Bai Mu Yun narrowed his eyes, slipped the feather into the inner pocket of his coat, then silently left the crowd and walked toward the direction the feather had fallen.

After Bai Mu Yun entered the teaching building, he had already pinpointed the exact location of that familiar scent—directly above him, near the top floor.

That crow still loved high places as much as ever.

However, the teaching building had an elevator, so Bai Mu Yun didn't need to climb stair by stair; when he pushed open the iron door to the rooftop, the wind blowing in carried the cool dampness after the rain, mixed with the distant alarm.

The rooftop's view was wide open, but only one person was in sight.

Lu Mu stood on the low wall at the edge of the rooftop, his back facing Bai Mu Yun's direction; even hearing the commotion, he did not turn around.

The wind lifted his longer hair ends; his body leaned slightly forward, as if he could step forward and jump down at any moment; his hands hung at his sides, huge wings spread behind his back, though Lu Mu usually preferred to keep his wings folded.

"……What are you doing standing there?"

Bai Mu Yun spoke; Lu Mu gave no reply.

Bai Mu Yun wasn't worried that Lu Mu would fall off, after all his two large wings weren't just for show.

Bai Mu Yun frowned slightly, took two more steps forward, and spoke again.

"Lu Mu."

Lu Mu maintained that stiff posture, merely curling his fingers extremely lightly at his sides, then relaxing them again.

For Bai Mu Yun it had only been a little over a month, but for Lu Mu it had been over a year since his death; over a year's time, could it have changed Lu Mu this much?

Still silence.

"……Did you take the wrong medicine?"

Bai Mu Yun had already reached Lu Mu's side; in the past, he didn't even need to specially run upstairs to find him—when Bai Mu Yun arrived downstairs, Lu Mu would sense his presence and immediately fly down to meet him.

Neither of them had any intention of hiding from the other.

Lu Mu finally moved; his body tensed, his right wing flicked, and a barrage of feathers like flying darts shot all at Bai Mu Yun; Bai Mu Yun had sensed something amiss early on and dodged in time, the attack barely grazing past his face.

Bai Mu Yun had thought he had "come back from the dead"; even if a crow mistook him for someone crawling out of hell to seek revenge, that would have been acceptable, but he never expected to see such a scene.

Lu Mu's eyes were originally brown, but now they flickered with a phosphorescent green glow—clearly someone had tampered with them.

Ying Guang Lu……

Bai Mu Yun gritted his teeth.