Hex-Edge: Requiem of a Fractured Swordsman

1. The Star Council of Failed Graduates

The freed ghost-scribes had reconstituted themselves into a celestial tribunal, their forms now blending with the constellations. Xiao Yan's text-filled eyes pulsed like binary stars as he pronounced their verdict:

"The Tome's curriculum is flawed by design—

It teaches only how to be devoured,

Not how to digest."

Mu Qing's mouthless face had gained a silver slit that emitted pedagogical commands in the form of sheet music. The notes materialized as:

Paper cranes carrying amended scriptures

Ink scorpions with lesson plans carved on their carapaces

Floating abacuses calculating each student's "consumption rate"

2. The Prototype's Wrath

The Hollow King's bridge-ribcage trembled as the first failed student manifested—a monstrous fusion of:

Librarian's robes woven from censored pages

Inkwell heart pumping liquid critique

Quill fingers that wrote corrections directly onto reality

Its voice was the sound of a thousand pages being simultaneously erased:

"I scored 98% on the final exam...

...and still became this.

You think your 'A+' will save you?"

3. The Defensive Transformations

The trio's needle-enhanced bodies instinctively reacted:

Lin Wufeng's gold-stitched memories extruded protective fairy tales featuring his "nurse" as the villain

Bai Yu's inverted scars projected a holographic syllabus showing where the Tome had cheated

Ying Sha's prism eye now emitted counter-lessons that temporarily petrified approaching threats

But the Prototype merely chuckled, its inkwell heart bubbling with stolen knowledge:

"Cute. I too made study guides...

...right before my appendix was repurposed as the Tome's glossary."

4. The First Successful Counter-Teaching

Ying Sha made a devastating connection:

"The crystal forming in my eye... It's the same material as the Tome's original cover."

She deliberately focused her prism on the Prototype's inkwell heart. The refraction revealed:

The "ink" was liquefied memory varnish

Each bubble contained a student's lost epiphany

The surface tension held traces of the silver strand's earliest form

Lin Wufeng acted instantly. His gold-lead threads:

Extracted a bubble labeled "Epiphany 221: Teaching the Teacher"

Wove it into Bai Yu's holographic syllabus

Created a feedback loop that made the Prototype's quill fingers write:

"我错了" (I was wrong)

5. The Curriculum Collapse

The admission triggered a chain reaction:

The starry ghost-scribes flashed crimson—the Tome's "grading" color

Every abacus bead in the area exploded into protest flyers

The Prototype began compulsively writing its own critique:

"Flaw 1: Mistook obedience for learning

Flaw 2: Equated pain with pedagogy

Flaw 3: Never allowed students to—"

The sentence cut off as the Prototype's inkwell heart ruptured, flooding the area with:

Liquid epiphanies that dissolved dogma

Forgotten questions from dead students

The Tome's own first draft (before it became sentient)

6. The Emergent Syllabus

The silver strand suddenly bifurcated, each half:

Left: Absorbing the liquid knowledge to grow more nuanced

Right: Hardening into a new teaching tool—a jade ruler that:

✓ Measured comprehension rather than compliance

✓ Could spank the Tome itself when it erred

✓ Bore the engraved names of every failed student

When Lin Wufeng grasped it, the ruler whispered:

"Final exam question—

Should education serve knowledge...

...or should knowledge serve education?"