Chapter 425: with translation of chapter title

When the Giant Saw Blade came down, Chen Yao's mind went completely blank.

It wasn't the literary description of "thoughts scattering into void"; it was a real, physiological shutdown. Her pupils dilated to the maximum, and on the retina only that rust‑stained, mottled blade surface remained, rapidly magnifying; her ears heard nothing, not even her own heartbeat.

Death was too close. So close that she could smell the rotting protein odor from the molar lodged in the gap of the Giant Saw Blade.

Then someone grabbed her collar.

The force was brutally unreasonable. Her whole body was ripped from the ground, her spine instantaneously bearing a pull far beyond physiological limits; her cervical vertebrae cracked with a crisp snap, and three stitches at the back of her school uniform's collar snapped.

Lu Yu.

He didn't "pull" her. He treated Chen Yao like a sandbag, swinging her with his right arm as if it were a hammer swinging a chain ball, flinging her whole body away from the Giant Saw Blade's impact point.

The blade's edge brushed past Chen Yao's crown.

Distance: three inches.

The sound of the decapitating Giant Saw Blade striking the ground wasn't a "clang" but a muffled, sickly "psst"—the crushed stone surface at the point of contact didn't shatter; instead it rolled outward like melted butter, revealing a surge of dark‑red sludge beneath.

Chen Yao was thrown four meters away, her back slamming into a collapsed corridor column, the air in her lungs squeezed out completely. She opened her mouth, a huffing rush of air escaping her throat, and saw stars everywhere.

But Lu Yu gave her no time to catch her breath.

He rushed over, yanked her wrist in one grab and ran. He was so fast that Chen Yao's feet were almost dragged, skidding across the ground.

"Each time it attacks, the Rules enter a cooling vacuum!"

Lu Yu's voice came from ahead, hoarse and urgent, carrying the coarse, grainy rasp of a blood‑engorged throat.

"Step on my footprints, run!"

His footsteps struck the broken stone, producing a crisp rhythm. He wasn't running blindly; each footfall was calculated—he avoided the dim‑colored patches on the ground, deliberately stepping on the hard zones where exposed Reinforced Steel Bar met concrete blocks.

Behind him, that amalgamated limb mass was pulling the Giant Saw Blade.

The process of pulling the blade took about four seconds.

Lu Yu glanced back, abruptly changed direction under his feet, and, still gripping Chen Yao, plunged headfirst into the left‑hand half‑collapsed residential ruin.

"Three—"

He was counting.

He was counting the cooling time.

As they passed through the First Floor lobby, a load‑bearing beam overhead emitted a cracking sound. The beam was covered with gray‑green mycelium, and the broken cross‑section oozed a viscous black liquid.

Lu Yu didn't dodge.

He had calculated the beam's falling trajectory, and 0.3 seconds before it struck, he and Chen Yao slipped through a gap. The load‑bearing beam crashed down behind them with a roar, the rising dust filling Chen Yao's mouth.

"Six—"

The second cooling cycle.

The entity chased after them. It didn't use a doorway. Its body squeezed directly out of the wall—dozens of severed limbs wormed out of the brick gaps and reassembled on the interior side of the wall. Six ears turned in unison, locking onto the sound source.

The Giant Saw Blade was raised again.

Lu Yu turned right, sliding Chen Yao into a gap barely half a person wide. His back pressed against the left wall, and he shielded Chen Yao on the right with his body. The two were packed together, their breaths interleaving.

The Giant Saw Blade came down from above the gap.

The blade sliced through the upper half of the left wall; shattered bricks and debris rained down on Lu Yu's shoulder and back of his head, and a concrete block embedded with Reinforced Steel Bar scraped across his brow, instantly coating half his face with blood.

But the blade was jammed by the width of the gap.

Seven seconds.

Lu Yu dragged Chen Yao out through the other end of the gap, never stopping his feet.

"Everyone—run south!" He shouted at the scattering students, his voice cracking, "Follow me!"

Li Xiang, who had crawled out of some corner, had snot and tears smeared across his face, his legs weak as noodles, being hauled forward by the arm of a thin, tall boy beside him. Five or six other students followed behind, crying and shouting, unable to even notice that their shoes had fallen off.

When the Giant Saw Blade fell the third time, Lu Yu took advantage of the massive shadow cast by a collapsed building.

He discovered a pattern—the entity's targeting accuracy decreased within shadowed areas. It wasn't invisible; the tracking calculation deviated by about two meters.

Two meters.

Between life and death, two meters is the distance between heaven and hell.

The Giant Saw Blade struck at a point 1.8 meters to their left. The blade wind lifted debris that hit Chen Yao's face, carving two thin blood cuts.

But it didn't cut her.

Chen Yao kept running.

She could no longer recall the last time she had run like this. The wound on her knee bled, each step tugging at torn flesh; the school uniform's pant leg was soaked with blood, the fabric sticking to the wound and pulling caused a sharp pain each time.

But she didn't scream.

She stared at the blood‑splattered figure ahead.

A thumb‑wide piece of Reinforced Steel Bar protruded from Lu Yu's left shoulder, lodged there when the shattered bricks struck; with each step, the exposed bar wobbled, blood trickling down his school uniform sleeve, leaving a intermittent dark‑red trail on the ground.

He didn't look back.

But the hand he held onto her never let go.

The force remained that precise, neither light nor heavy—pinched between the radius and ulna, it wouldn't let her break free nor crush her bones.

Something inside Chen Yao's chest was jolted.

Very light.

So light that she herself wasn't sure what it was.

Meanwhile.

Federal Weird Investigation Bureau headquarters.

Su Ming stared at the holographic projection before him, his pupils shrinking to needle‑point size within three seconds.

On the satellite thermal image of the B-09 quarantine ruins, the green area originally marked "C‑level harmless" was being devoured by a thick black mass at a visibly rapid rate.

It wasn't a signal loss.

It was that space itself that disappeared from the satellite's observational dimension, turning into a pure, absolutely black hole that reflects no electromagnetic waves.

Su Ming's fingers pressed three keys on the console.

Maximum‑level alarm.

Red lights filled the entire floor, and the alarm shrieked so sharply it could make a person's tooth roots tingle.

"B‑09 Weird Domain revival!" His voice was even, but his speech rate was twice normal, "There are thirty‑two Gui Ce Yuan Elementary Department students inside, three guard agents. The TR‑07 detector did not trigger a warning; the Weird Domain skipped all known pre‑revival stages and entered an active sealed state—communication channels are cut."

"Immediately prepare rescue resources!"

After speaking, Su Ming's gaze turned gloomy.

Based on experience, Weird Domain revival has two possibilities.

The first is that another Weird Domain appears within an already neutralized Weird Domain, re‑activating it.

The other… is that a powerful Weird entered this Weird Domain.

Re‑activating it.

Three thousand four hundred kilometers away.

Below the Yunhu Technology Industrial Park, Eden Garden headquarters.

The holographic projection before Chen Shao exploded in the same second.

It wasn't a system failure; it was his internal Dominating Demon Eye, at the instant it received a broken rescue signal, releasing an uncontrolled psychic field that tore the entire projection wall and the Reinforced Steel Bar concrete partition behind it into fragments.

The ceiling three levels underground developed spider‑web cracks, and dust fell in a rustle. In the Corridor, two on‑duty officers were flipped to the ground by the shockwave, their ears and noses bleeding simultaneously.

Chen Shao knelt on one knee on the shattered floor, his right hand tightly covering his left eye.

The Demon Eye spun wildly in the socket, the sclera filled entirely with scarlet blood vessels.

His mouth opened.

"Yao Yao… how could—"

Xu An stood at the far end of the Corridor, his sutured lips showing no expression. Yet his right hand, hanging at his side, already grasped the Red Wood Ruler.

Three‑level underground air‑defense shelter.

After Lu Yu pushed the last two students inside, his legs gave out.

He braced against the doorframe, slid down half its length, then gritted his teeth and stood. The Reinforced Steel Bar on his shoulder scraped the metal of the doorframe, emitting a harsh screech; he let out a muted hum, his facial expression twisted briefly, then he forced it out.

The half‑meter‑thick lead door was pushed upward by his full body weight. The hinge, long neglected, let the rusted latch scream metal‑splitting under the massive force, then with a "clack" the bolt fell back into place.

The shelter was pitch black.

The air was filled with a choking smell of mold and centuries‑old dust. Lu Yu, leaning against the door, slid to sit on the ground; his chest heaved violently, each breath a coarse whistling.

The surviving students were scattered in the darkness. Li Xiang curled in a corner, the sound of his teeth chattering audible. A lanky, thin boy hugged his knees, his head buried in his arms, his shoulders twitching. Three girls huddled together, too afraid to cry loudly, only intermittent sobs leaking from their noses.

Thirty‑two students.

The ones who ran out, plus him and Chen Yao, total nine.

Chen Yao sat two steps away opposite Lu Yu.

In the darkness they couldn't see each other's faces, only hear breathing. Her breathing was steadier than the others, but a bit rapid—not fear, but adrenaline still lingering.

She opened her mouth.

The camouflage Mask, which had been worn since the first day of enrollment, precise to an invulnerable degree, finally showed its first crack in this absolute darkness.

She wanted to ask him.

Her lips moved, but before any sound could emerge from her throat—

"Sss—"

Everyone's breathing stopped in the same instant.

The sound came from outside the lead door.

Nail scraped across the metal surface.

It wasn't a violent impact nor brute‑force breaking. It was that primal, scalp‑splitting sound—ten nails slowly, inch by inch, scraping the lead plate from top to bottom.

"Sss— sss—"

Then Lu Yu's back felt an impossible sensation.

The lead door was deforming.

The half‑meter‑thick lead sheet bulged inward from the outside, like clay pressed by fingers.

The protrusion formed a human face.

The forehead, brow ridge, nose bridge, jaw—contours gradually clarified.

It was Fang Ming's face.

The team‑leading teacher who burned through a twenty‑three‑year lifespan and had half his body erased, his face was slowly taking shape on the half‑meter‑thick lead sheet.

The corners of his mouth were upturned.

He was smiling.