Chaos greeted Jiang Qing’e’s implied accusation, and suddenly the students were looking at each other with doubt and fear in their eyes.
The students started to edge away from each other, and soon enough there was good distance between each squad, and even among squadmates.
Although they did not know if the Heavenly Disaster Class Other Jiang Qing’e kept talking about was real, it couldn’t hurt to be safe, right?
The seniors knew how horrifying the Umbra Cave could be.
Nightmares beyond imagination.
“Senior Jiang, you’re just causing chaos!” Song Qiuyu accused her.
Jiang Qing’e ignored this. She instead turned to the students and smiled.
A bright and radiant smile that took their breath away.
Many eyes widened in surprise. And then, infected by her charm, they smiled too.
They quickly suppressed their smiles—it was embarrassing after all.
But…
Not everyone could stop smiling.
A few among the crowd smiled wider and wider, until their jaw muscles strained and tore under the pressure.
Maniacal grins on bloody faces.
Splash! “Roar!”
Teammates turned on teammates, struck dumb by the sudden changes. Screams sounded out.
Amidst the screaming, mad laughter, and suddenly resonant power was flying back and forth as the maddened students started to attack everything in range.
The entire scene dissolved into chaos.
“Don’t panic! Work together! Subdue them!” Li Luo shouted above the din.
To their credit, the Astral Sage College students recovered quite quickly. They rallied promptly, and soon, concerted attacks were being put together to take down the corrupted students.
A few brief but bloody moments later, those students were lying on the ground, heavily wounded.
The students were still reeling in shock. They had not suspected that their own friends had already been corrupted, so stealthily and on such a large scale.
Li Luo hopped down from the raised platform they had been standing on, sauntering up to Song Qiuyu, who was gaping like a fish out of water, her hand pressed hard over her mouth.
“Put your hand down. And give me a smile,” Li Luo told her.
Song Qiuyu glared at him. This bastard was taunting her.
“If you don’t dare to smile, I’ll have to suspect you’re corrupted. Then I’ll have to attack,” Li Luo said, casually unsheathing his shortswords and giving them a few test swings.
Song Qiuyu looked around to her friends for help, but they were more leery now. In such strange times, they didn’t think Li Luo was joking around.
She removed her hand and bared her teeth in close resemblance to a smile. “Happy?”
“According to our findings, smiling might help expose the seed of corruption within a person. You are a prime suspect because of how opposed you have been to us so far. I would like you to smile for a full hour to be sure,” Li Luo said gravely.
Song Qiuyu froze. An hour?
She glared angrily at him. He had to be kidding.
Li Luo ignored her and turned to the other squads. “Are you convinced now? Ordinary corrupting illusion realms are not this dangerous.”
They muttered in agreement.
“Now is not the time to panic,” Tian Tian called loudly. “We should secure this purified spot and see to our own defenses. We might be able to stand against it. Our mission here is to buy time for the school to get word and send us reinforcements.”
Everyone nodded, heartened by the plan.
“Senior Jiang, we’ll do anything you say!” one student called.
“That’s right. Senior Jiang, you’re the leader in the Three Star Hall, and according to the school rules, you can assume the mantle of overall commander in emergencies. All of us will obey you.”
More and more voices called out in support of her leadership, convinced by her reputation.
Jiang Qing’e had no interest in titles, but there was coordination of forces to be done, and she could do it.
She shared a quick look with Li Luo and then stepped forward. “Place the corrupted students near the stone tower. The purified light will cleanse them.
“Place mirrors at all the entrances to the purified spot. All entering students must maintain a one-minute smile before they can enter.”
The thought of students smiling into mirrors for a full minute would usually be a pretty comical thought, but not when the sight of bloody cheeks and lop-sided mania was fresh in their minds.
They shuddered instead.
“Li Luo was right—smiles might well be the trigger for the seeds of corruption. Still, I suspect it is only a superficial trigger for those not seriously corrupted. In any case, it’s a good first pass,” Jiang Qing’e warned.
They nodded seriously. Seeds of corruption could indeed be buried deep. The Heavenly Disaster Class Other was going to be troublesome enough. They had to make sure their own teammates were at least on their side.
Next, Jiang Qing’e divided them into sections and allocated work to bolster their defenses. She was relieved to see them hurrying off to fulfill their tasks. Things were finally moving in a good direction.
They had done all they could now. All that remained was to hope that the Heavenly Disaster Class was going to spend more time roaming outside.
Given how Others usually worked, it would probably lead an entire horde of Others to attack them all at once.
Tower defense in real life.
Now Jiang Qing’e was the overall commander, and that changed the dynamic here. They were preparing for war now.
At the entrances, squads were still streaming in, and naturally there were some arguments over the strange new security measures. But after the first corrupted student was exposed, there were no more arguments.
Gradually, the student numbers swelled to a respectable size, and all of them had cleared the smiling test and were now put to work.
Li Luo and Jiang Qing’e were standing on top of a tall tower, surveying the horizon. In the half a month since the purging mission had begun, much of the black mist had cleared away.
But the blackness in the distance still left them uneasy.
“Qing’e,” Li Luo suddenly said, “why do you think a Heavenly Disaster Class Other has made its way here?”
She looked at him in surprise. “What do you suspect?”
He shrugged. “Just a feeling… Heavenly Disaster Class means Heavenly Dipper General, right? Not even the Seven Astral Pillars could deal with it safely.”
“Afraid?” she asked, reaching out to put a comforting hand on the top of his head.
“Don’t worry, I’ll protect you.”
Li Luo huffed. “One day I’ll be able to do that back to you.”
Amusement arose in her eyes.
“Do your best. I’ll be waiting.”
She pulled out the map to study it as part of her routine, but Li Luo saw her eyes widen in alarm.
“What’s wrong?”
She pointed to an area on the map.
“A level two purification tower we reactivated before. It’s been corrupted again.”
Li Luo looked to see where she pointed. Indeed, one of the glowing towers from before had gone dark again.