Chapter 222: Disciplinary Committee Member

Dead silence.

A dead silence that can drive a person to madness.

In the air, the rich smell of blood mixed with the pungent sweetness of brain matter, like an invisible net, strangled everyone's throat.

Lei Hu's facial muscles twitched violently.

Warm liquid slid down his temple, and he couldn't tell whether it was blood or cold sweat born of fear.

He, Lei Hu, was the law and the ruler in this correctional center.

He had seen the disobedient, the ones seeking death or life, even the hardheads who, with broken bones, still dared to stare at him.

But he had never seen this… this thing beyond comprehension.

Killing without a trace.

No.

More terrifying than that.

This is divine punishment.

Fear felt like countless cold hands climbing from the soles of his feet, gripping his heart tightly.

But the instinct to survive quickly overwhelmed that fear.

He could not die here.

"Everyone, damn it, don't move!"

Lei Hu lowered his voice, growling like a beast cornered to the brink.

He swept the blinding beam of his flashlight back and forth across the faces of the trembling students before him, shaking like sifted chaff.

"If you want to live, all of you obey me!"

He grabbed the nearest skinny boy, lifting him up as if he were a chick.

"You, go ahead and scout, see what's outside!"

The boy, terrified, went limp, warm liquid leaking from his crotch, emitting a foul odor.

"No… don't…" he begged, crying, "Instructor, I don't dare…"

"Don't dare?"

Lei Hu sneered; the tip of the rubber stun baton in his other hand sparked with blue electricity.

Zila!

He hesitated not a moment, thrusting the baton into the boy's abdomen.

The boy let out a short, harrowing scream, his body instantly curling like a shrimp, collapsing to the ground, convulsing violently, foam spilling from his mouth.

And at the instant his scream left his lips.

Poochi.

Another soft sound.

The convulsing boy's head also exploded into a cloud of Blood Mist.

Silence.

The world returned once more to a suffocating silence.

Lei Hu's chest rose and fell violently; he understood.

Any slightly louder sound would mean death.

He glanced at the two headless corpses on the ground, then at the mute students before him, and a vicious thought formed in his mind.

He could not speak.

But he could force others to speak.

He strode to another student, pointing the stun baton toward the dark depths of the Corridor, then gesturing at the student.

The meaning was clear.

Go.

The student shook his head in terror, tears welling, but clamped his mouth shut, daring not to make a sound.

Lei Hu's patience ran out.

He lifted his foot and kicked the student's knee.

"Ugh!"

The student let out a painful grunt, losing balance and falling forward.

At the moment he hit the ground, his head also exploded.

Lei Hu, using this extreme cruelty, verified his hypothesis.

He smiled.

The grin looked especially feral under the flashlight's pallid beam.

He began to "clear a path" with this method.

With fists, with feet, with the stun baton.

One vibrant life after another, driven away, became a stone for scouting.

And in the Corridor outside, many terrifying things seemed to lurk.

A moment's carelessness could have someone dragged into the darkness.

The students completely broke down.

Driven by fear and despair, they surged forward like a flock of lambs headed for the slaughter.

No one dared to defy Lei Hu, for rebellion would instantly be met with a sound and a blast to the head.

Moving forward meant unknown terror.

Stopping in place, it's the demon behind.

And Xu An is among this flock of desperate lambs.

He watches Lei Hu's face, twisted by power, and watches his classmates turn into shredded flesh before his eyes, one by one.

He has no fear.

Only a cold calm that wants to tear everything apart.

He cannot die.

At least he cannot die like this, treated as a disposable, pathetic corpse.

Only if he alone escapes is there a chance to live!

When Lei Hu kicks a blocking student into the adjacent Storage Room, causing that student to be killed by something in the darkness, everyone's attention is drawn there.

Now!

Xu An, like a raccoon, crouches low and silently slips away from the crowd, darting into the darkness on the other side.

He does not look back.

The screams and explosions behind him become the soundtrack to his flight.

Xu An holds his breath and moves through the darkness.

At some point, he finds himself at the principal's office doorway.

The space here seems distorted.

The heavy red‑wood door hangs ajar with a crack.

A mingled scent of expensive incense and stale blood drifts out from the crack.

Xu An hesitates briefly, then pushes the door open.

The office is unlit.

But in the very center of the room, something emits a faint black vapor.

It is a Red Wood Ruler.

It floats silently in midair, hovering above the principal's expensive leather chair.

Thick, ink‑like black droplets fall from the ruler's tip, corroding the polished desk below into tiny pits.

Xu An recognizes the ruler.

Every student sent to the "Correction Place" has tasted its flavor.

It is soaked with countless people's blood and tears, bearing the deepest resentment of this hell.

And now, it comes to life.

It seems to sense Xu An's arrival.

The faint black vapor, like a shark smelling blood, swirls toward Xu An.

It feels Xu An's boundless hatred and tempts him.

Xu An's desire for revenge is amplified, and this desire seems to please the ruler.

Xu An realizes that possessing it might change his current situation.

—no matter what he eventually becomes.

At least he can take revenge, and he can survive from here.

He summons all his strength and grasps the cold, viscous body of the ruler.

Buzz!!!

The ruler emits a violent buzz!

Countless black threads burst from the ruler, like living things, racing along Xu An's arm and frantically drilling into his body.

They crawl beneath his skin like black poisonous snakes, covering his entire body.

Finally, all the black threads converge on his face.

The black threads turn into the sharpest needles.

One pierces his upper lip.

Another pierces his lower lip.

Then they snap together toward the middle!

The intense pain makes Xu An tremble all over, cold sweat instantly soaking his back.

He is in such pain he nearly faints, yet he bites his teeth hard and makes no sound.

His eyes reflect the deep night outside the window.

In those eyes, there is no pain.

Only a fervent, sacred rebirth.

One needle, one thread.

The black threads, like the cruellest tailor, stitch his mouth shut tightly.

When the final thread tightens, it forms a perfect dead knot.

Xu An lifts his head.

He slowly lowers the hand that holds the ruler.

Then he kicks off the shoes that bound his feet.

Barefoot, he steps onto the cold floor.

He is no longer the Xu An who was slaughtered by others.

He is the sole, supreme one in this Correction Place.

Disciplinary Committee Member.

At the same time.

First Floor Hall.

Lei Hu dragged a slashed leg, leading the only seven or eight remaining students, together with the principal and other teachers who joined midway, crawling and rolling out.

They succeeded!

They escaped alive!

At the far end of the hall, the tightly shut glass door was right before them.

Beyond the door lay freedom, the cool moonlight!

Lei Hu's face bore the ecstatic joy of a survivor after a disaster.

Everyone rushed toward the door as if gone mad.

But just when they were only a few meters from the door,

everyone all stopped in their tracks.

as if a petrification spell had been cast on them.

In front of that glass door leading to the path of life,

a slender figure stood quietly.

He was barefoot, wearing a gray prison uniform, and at his mouth was a shocking black suturing line.

Moonlight filtered through the glass, spilling onto his body, coating him with a cold halo.

He slowly raised the Red Wood Ruler in his hand, a ruler that everyone knew all too well.