Chapter 14: Chapter 14: Youth Palace
The moment he said it, everything clicked into place for Zhang Wenda. If the Youth Palace was truly what he thought it was, then all the rules and anomalies in Old Ding’s guide made perfect sense!
Why couldn’t there be any living things in the Youth Palace? Because it was a dead thing. The presence of any living creature signified an anomaly! Whether it was other subterranean scavengers or the Youth Palace itself, it meant big trouble!
Why did five black Go pieces in a row signify danger? Because they were the Youth Palace’s eyes. Eyeballs that should have scattered upon death were reforming, which meant the Youth Palace wasn’t completely dead!
There was no longer any fear or unease in Zhang Wenda’s eyes. He knew this was just a theory—he could be right, or he could be wrong.
But in this desperate situation, it represented more than just a possibility. It represented their only hope of survival!
After hearing Zhang Wenda’s explanation, Glasses looked at him nervously. "You mean... we can go back?"
"That’s right! We can go back!" Zhang Wenda declared, his voice firm. "If the Youth Palace is some kind of entity that undergoes a whale fall, then all we have to do is kill it! Just kill it! A second death will trigger the whale fall again, and we’ll be returned from hundreds of meters underground back to the surface!"
’Where’s the heart? Which classroom is most like the Youth Palace’s heart?’
Zhang Wenda quickly scanned the rules for every classroom, then glanced at the red strip on his forearm. ’If I can just find the Youth Palace’s heart, with my current strength, I could crush it instantly!’
Looking at the descriptions and rules for each classroom in the guide, he felt more and more that each one was an organ of the Youth Palace.
The five black Go pieces were almost certainly the Youth Palace’s eyes, and the large pit in the calligraphy room seemed to be its stomach or intestines.
However, after a quick scan, Zhang Wenda couldn’t find any classroom associated with a heart. He was momentarily stumped.
"Haozi, the brain." A thin finger reached out, pointing to the Model Airplane Room. It was Glasses’s finger. "I like to read for fun. A book I read said that only the brain experiences emotional overflow. This place has to be the brain."
Hearing this, Zhang Wenda shot him a grateful look. This was a huge help! ’If I can’t find the heart, attacking the brain will work too!’
He said gratefully, "Thanks! What’s your name?"
Glasses was taken aback. "I’m your deskmate."
But Zhang Wenda didn’t hear him. He was already on his feet, tucking the Youth Palace guide under the armpit of his broken arm and holding the flashlight in his other hand. He charged resolutely toward the Model Airplane Room.
"Glasses! Keep them safe! I’ll be right back!"
Twenty seconds later, Zhang Wenda threw open the door to the Model Airplane Room. A black, pain-filled gas flooded out, and the intense agony forced him to one knee.
He was in immense pain, but perhaps because the repeated attacks from the rules had increased his tolerance, he actually managed to struggle back to his feet.
Zhang Wenda staggered toward the wall that had been secreting liquid happiness. It was no longer secreting fluid; instead, small, solid spheres now clung to its surface.
Reaching the wall, Zhang Wenda didn’t hesitate. He raised the flashlight with his one good hand and slammed it down hard. With a flash of red light from his arm, the flashlight smashed straight through the wall.
Immediately after, as if a pipe had burst, a brown liquid spewed out from inside, dousing Zhang Wenda completely.
As the liquid covered his entire body, a wave of sadness instantly washed over him. The sorrow was so intense that it even overpowered the pain.
Soaked by the liquid, the pages of the Youth Palace guide quickly became drenched. The little drawings of Old Ding next to each rule rapidly blurred into smudges.
As the drawings of Old Ding in the guide blurred away, everything around him began to twist and change rapidly.
All the model airplanes began to stretch and intertwine, hanging from the ceiling and pumping like blood vessels.
When all the Old Ding drawings in the Youth Palace guide were completely smudged, the Model Airplane Room had transformed entirely. The wall that was supposed to secrete liquid happiness had become a twitching wall of flesh.
Zhang Wenda had no time to consider why any of this was happening.
He didn’t dare stop, not even for a moment to wipe the sweat from his brow. He raised the flashlight again and, with savage determination, began wildly striking the wall of flesh.
Empowered by the red light, Zhang Wenda’s strength was immense. He easily tore open the fleshy wall, ripping a large gash in it.
Without a second thought, Zhang Wenda dove through the opening, desperately searching for the brain that secreted liquid happiness.
The fleshy wall was thick and long. Zhang Wenda finally felt as if he were crawling inside the stomach of some great monster.
Thankfully, boosted by the red light, Zhang Wenda kept pushing his way deeper, braving the pressure with only one good hand.
Inside the fleshy wall, it was hot and sticky, and difficult to breathe. Zhang Wenda felt like he was about to suffocate.
But luckily, as the wall had turned to flesh, the gaseous pain and liquid sadness had vanished into thin air, as if they had never existed. Their effects on him were gradually fading.
With a sickening sound of tearing flesh, Zhang Wenda, covered in blood, fell out of the fleshy wall.
Sprawled on the ground, he looked at the crimson surroundings and laughed. He was finally out.
But before he could even catch his breath, he heard a strange sound. He scrambled to his feet and aimed his flashlight in that direction.
It was a space roughly the size of a soccer field. There was water in the distance, and in its center, a triangular, transparent chunk of flesh floated in the air, pulsing faintly. A long, black spike pierced it, and liquid was constantly secreting from it and dripping down.
It was no longer hot in this place; on the contrary, it felt cool and refreshing. Zhang Wenda didn’t know where he was, but he understood one thing: that object in the distance, even if it wasn’t the Youth Palace’s brain, was one of its vital organs.
He didn’t care if it was the brain or not. He just needed the Youth Palace to die.
Glancing at the red scar on his arm, now only a third of its original size, Zhang Wenda wiped the sweat from his face with his forearm and stepped into the water, heading toward the triangle.
He had only taken a step or two when he felt something was wrong. A sliver of pain emerged in his mind.
The pain was so intense he could barely walk.
But he soon realized the location of the pain was strange. It was different from the effects of the gaseous pain.
The gaseous pain had been an agony that wracked his whole body, but right now, the most painful spot was his head.
His head felt as if a chopstick had been viciously stabbed into it. When he saw the long, black spike in the distance, Zhang Wenda instantly understood. ’This isn’t my pain. This is the Youth Palace’s pain!’
And amidst the pain, fear began to well up inside him. ’This isn’t my fear, either.’
At that moment, Zhang Wenda suddenly recalled a rule he hadn’t understood before: why you had to leave immediately and tell a teacher if you experienced uncontrollable emotional changes in the Model Airplane Room.
’So that’s it! If you felt emotions you couldn’t control in the Model Airplane Room, it meant they weren’t your own emotions at all! They were the Youth Palace’s emotions! It meant the Youth Palace was still alive, and you were emotionally in sync with it!’
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