Her cultivation slowed down a little, but even now no one could match her. Outside, it began to snow, which had been falling steadily for several days.

  In some places, it was already several feet deep. All students were required to shovel the snow so that it would not block the roads. The sect was located in a mountainous area in a generally cold region resembling the northern part of Scandinavia (however, the sect itself was larger). It was an extremely cold area, covered in snow for much of the year.

  The weather made her feel even worse; it was too cold for her to feel like doing anything. Getting up in the morning has become several times worse. Although she had to admit that even on Earth she had never seen such a winter. The snow fell constantly, and there was something charming about it. The snowy mountain scenery was beautiful, almost unreal.

  After all, the Island Mountain Sect was known as one of the most beautiful places on the continent and famous for its developed tourism industry. This was quite unusual among sects.

  Unfortunately, apart from the tourist, their sect did not have much. The land was barren and rocky, and only the least demanding plants could be grown, but even those were barely enough to sustain themselves. They did have some mineral resources, but these were low-grade ores. The entire sect was generally known as a nice but impoverished place.

  May wondered if staying in the sect would give her a promising future. Although escape would be considered treason and punishable by death, she may have no choice if she wants to advance further.

  However, those were distant plans for the future. For now, she had to go and prepare dinner. Today was Saturday, and she had to do work for the sect.

  May chose to work in the kitchen, which involved preparing food for the entire school. It was not an easy task, as there were over a thousand students, not counting teachers and staff. Besides her, there were over 40 other people working in the kitchen.

  First, they had to prepare breakfast. Of course, with so many people, they had to do it on a large scale. A huge pot, so huge that it was probably larger than her university dorm room. She threw in kilos of vegetables and meat. A warm meal was essential for breakfast, especially during a snowstorm. Soups were very common here and were eaten at any time of the day.

  At one point, May noticed that someone was missing from the kitchen. Her name was Chen Yun, and she always made everyone's time in the kitchen more enjoyable with her singing. She came from a family with a long tradition of performing on stage.

  She decided to ask the head chef about her absence. Normally, this would be unacceptable and only done in truly exceptional circumstances.

  “Miss Yang, do you know what happened to Chen Yun?” May asked curiously. Others also began to listen attentively; May wasn't the only one who was curious.

  “Yes... Apparently, she fell into a coma. No one knows why, and the academic doctor is helpless and still doesn't know the cause. It's a strange situation,” she replied.

  “In a coma?” She was surprised. Not many interesting things were happening at the academy. Unlike typical cultivation novels, this place wasn’t full of young masters or people looking for trouble. Most individuals were too tired to seek trouble, and besides, most people were cautious; after all, you never know who might rise to the top of society in the future.

  “Any idea what happened? Did she fall down the stairs or something?” asked one of the other girls working in the kitchen.

  The head chef simply shook her head.

  “No, apparently she didn’t show up for class, so someone went to her room and found her in bed. She wasn’t getting up. She was already in a coma.

  The situation was quite unusual, but May didn't pay much attention to it. After all, many things could have caused a sudden coma. May was able to think of many reasons for the coma: stroke, cancer, poisoning, or some kind of infection. However, she was not a doctor, either in this life or in her previous one, so there was not much she could do.

  Although she felt a slight sadness for the girl, she returned to her duties and forgot about it.

  The work in the kitchen was quite hard, but she still preferred it to cleaning animal pens or cleaning the entire school.

  Of course, as was the case at the academy, even though she had finished her work, she still had other classes. At 4:00 p.m., her spear lessons began. She didn't mind, but she always came back so tired that she could only make it to her bed. Most of the time, she didn't even bother to wash.

  The lesson was about to begin. She noticed that someone was missing again. This time it was a boy from the spear class. Not many people attended these classes, so it was easy to notice when someone was absent. It is also worth mentioning again that attendance was mandatory, even if you were shitting out of your ass and mouth.

  May noticed a group of people talking among themselves, and since there was still a minute or two before practice, she decided to ask them about it. It turned out that they were talking about the same subject.

  “Didn't you hear, May? Apparently, Jai is the fifth person... who got sick,” said one of the boys.

  “Yes. Apparently, no medications are helping, they're sleeping like the dead. They also have some skin changes,” added the girl next to him.

  Is it some kind of disease that causes coma? It sounds serious. It reminded her of a disease she had heard about once—African sleeping sickness caused by the tsetse fly. But it sounded a lot more dangerous.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  The spear lessons took place as usual, but you could feel the tension in the air. The teacher did not react in any way to Jai's absence. The students, including May, were slightly nervous and kept making very basic mistakes while learning how to use the spears, but contrary to what one might expect, their instructor did not reprimand them, as if he could understand their fear.

  May finally finished her classes and, as usual, went to her room. Although she was still slightly anxious, she fell asleep quite quickly. Her fatigue was stronger than her nighttime concerns.

  Another day had not yet dawned. May never woke up in the middle of the night; she always slept and never had nightmares. She had to cherish every minute of sleep, which she was so deprived of at the academy. But now it was the middle of the night. And she woke up. It was unnatural.

  However, she knew why. Her senses as a cultivator were heightened. Even more than others, considering her talent. And at that moment, she felt threatened. She glanced up at her window. She had the feeling that someone was watching her. The academy was engulfed in darkness, so she didn't know if anyone was there.

  She thought about using Qi Sensing, but she knew it was risky; someone could discover her. She couldn't do it.

  She lay still, afraid to make the slightest movement. Outside the window, a snowstorm swirled. Visibility was limited to a few meters.

  Is it my imagination...? No. Someone is there. What the hell am I supposed to do?

  She lay there for a few minutes, not knowing what to do. She still felt like she was being watched. To make matters worse, she felt like her whole body was itching and she wanted to scratch every part of her skin.

  Finally, she had had enough and decided to move slightly. Perhaps that person would notice and go away. She turned her hand slightly and began to scratch her leg. Then she turned to the other side.

  She felt a sense of relief.

  Very slowly, she got up and walked over to the window. No one was there anymore.

  Over the next two days, the situation did not improve at all, but rather worsened. More people have fallen victim to the epidemic. No one knew the source of this mysterious illness. May herself was slightly frightened; after all, she had no protection against disease.

  This was strange, as diseases were very rare among cultivators. Even though they were at the very beginning of their cultivation journey, they should still have been immune to at least most diseases. This proved that it was not just a common flu. In addition, it affected many quite strong people, so it was not trivial.

  However, with no other choice, May had to continue attending classes like everyone else. But while having lunch and sitting at the same table as Senlin, she noticed how strange she was acting.

  She hardly spoke at all and seemed somewhat withdrawn. It was not like the usually cheerful Senlin.

  “Senlin, are you okay?” May asked, worried that she might be another victim of the epidemic.

  “Yes, I just can't sleep because of this whole situation.” In itself, this wasn't strange; May herself was slightly on edge. However, even she didn't behave this way when someone was watching her at night.

  May knew Senlin as a calm and composed person. This wasn't like her. On top of that, she hardly ate anything. Everyone usually ate a lot after training sessions as they were extremely physically demanding, and considering that the cultivators ate a lot during this stage, her lack of appetite could have been caused by the infection. However, despite everything, she didn't want to admit anything. May, realizing that her behavior was suspicious, decided to follow her.

  Whenever she had free time, she watched her from a distance. She noticed that she always seemed nervous. As if she was afraid of something. However, she didn't do anything unusual. She went to the library, but clearly couldn't focus. In the end, May didn't discover anything through her investigation.

  Disappointed, she decided that perhaps she was simply worried about the current situation with the epidemic and May had temporarily concluded that it was a false alarm. However, everything changed when someone knocked on her door. It was Deng Zhifang. She let him in.

  “May... We need to talk.” He said, sounding concerned. May felt her heart beat faster.

  “Okay. Would you like something to drink?”

  “No, thank you.”

  Silence descended.

  “So what did you want to talk about?” she finally asked, breaking the silence.

  “I feel stupid asking you for help again, but... The thing is, Senlin and I recently received letters... With threats.”

  “Threats?” May asked, surprised, expecting something else.

  “Yes, it would be best if you read them yourself, “ he said, handing her the letter. The letter was all crumpled up and written on poor-quality paper. The handwriting was fairly neat, but somewhat mechanical. She started reading.

  Despite previous warnings, neither of you has decided to take the appropriate action.

  We are extremely disappointed by this, but we would also like to emphasize that our patience is not unlimited.

  You did not show up at the designated location, and there will be consequences.

  This is your last chance before the whole academy learns about your little secrets.

  And don't fool yourselves, it won't be pleasant. The sect doesn't forgive people like you. We are your only chance for salvation.

  The meeting place is the same as last time.

  Tell no one.

  May read the letter twice, but she didn't know what to think. Of course, she knew Deng Zhifang's secret, but Senlin was a mystery to her. And why did this person want to meet them? And why did he come to her?

  At least now I know where Senlin's strange behavior came from.

  “Excuse me, but could you explain?” she asked.

  "Yes, sort of.

  Deng Zhifang was returning from the library one night, searching for information about a plant he needed for alchemy.

  As he was walking down the hallway at night, something suddenly occurred. He suddenly felt a crushing pain in his chest. Someone was standing behind him and using some strange technique on him. The person tried to cover his mouth with his hand, but he managed to shout out loud.

  The librarian ran out, but there was no one there. The man had escaped. The whole matter was swept under the rug. It was concluded that the boy was tired and hallucinating.

  However, Deng Zhifang knew that this man was trying to put something in his mouth, probably some kind of drug to put him to sleep.

  However, this was only the beginning of strange occurrences.

  When he returned to his room one day, he noticed a note on his desk. The door was locked; no one could have entered. It contained the first threat, instructing him to meet someone in the basement of the academy.

  He immediately reported it to his teachers. However, the next day he was punished, no one was there, and the teachers decided it was a joke. After all, the academy was a closed facility. No one was allowed to enter without permission. However, there were more and more pieces of paper with instructions. Finally, he found out that something similar had happened to Senlin. They both tried to solve this mystery, but to no avail.

  Senlin began to feel so bad that she was barely able to function. That's why he decided to ask May for advice and visit her to see what she had to say. Apart from her, he didn't trust anyone else anymore.

  Could it be the same person whose presence I sensed in the window that night? Many strange situations are happening at the same time; it can't be a coincidence.

  “I'll help you. Don't worry, I won't ask about your secrets, because I'm sure you want to keep them to yourselves. I'll ask around.”

  RaynFall and Artemis for your support!