Hex-Edge: Requiem of a Fractured Swordsman

1. The Sugar-Tongue Testament

Lin Wufeng's mouth flooded with ancestral memory as the preserved tongue dissolved—not sweet, but metallic, carrying the iron taste of:

True Name (林风, not "Wufeng")

Original Purpose (His meridians were designed to store stolen knowledge, not receive it)

The First Student's Dying Words: "They harvest our 'A+' grades as spices for their immortality banquets"

The golden threads now spelled out his real birthdate in celestial script, each numeral:

Woven from his mother's stolen hair

Annotated with the Pavilion's cold assessment: "Specimen 13: Optimal Compliance Projection"

Burning where they touched the Tome's lies

2. The Scar-Comedy Paradox

Bai Yu's body had become a living satire:

Every Torture Memory now ended with a punchline:

Frost needles? "Free acupuncture!"

Blood sigils? "Temporary tattoos gone wrong!"

Audience: The knotted nerves had grown into a miniature amphitheater in his chest cavity

Critics: Ghost-scribes threw rotten metaphor fruit when jokes fell flat

But the true horror emerged when he laughed:

Each chuckle erased a page from the Tome's doctrine

His healing wounds formed perfect smile-shaped scars

The nurse-puppet started laughing along, her grading rubrics turning into comedy club flyers

3. The Button-Eye Revelation

Ying Sha's crystallized eyelid fused with the jade button, granting:

Precognitive Flashes: Seeing seconds ahead made blinking agony

Teacher Vision: Spotting every pedagogical trap in real-time

The Cruelest Truth: Her father had left the button as both apology and detonator

When she focused on the Hollow King's true form:

Its student-face morphed into her father's

Then into Lin Feng's

Then into her own

The prism showed why: "All top students eventually teach the same lies"

4. The Thirteenth Lesson's Price

The activated lesson demanded payment:

Lin Feng had to unlearn his golden threads (leaving raw nerve endings exposed)

Bai Yu must forget which scars were original (blurring pain and punchlines)

Ying Sha was losing time between blinks (each closure cost memories)

In exchange:

The classroom's paper airplanes formed into attack formations

The ink-tear river rose as a liquid shield

The confiscated love notes became precision-guided weapons

5. The Cannibal Banquet Exposed

The First Student's final revelation unfolded:

Blackboard Display: A lavish feast where instructors ate:

A+ Exams as appetizers

Valedictorian Brains as main course

Tears of Failed Students as wine

Menu Notes: "Best served with obedient silence"

Chef's Signature: Instructor Mu's face tattooed on every plate

Ying Sha's button-eye zoomed in on the cutlery: "Those are our bone needles... They've been dining on us for centuries."

6. The Revolution's First Strike

The trio weaponized their payments:

Lin Feng's exposed nerves became truth strings that entangled instructors

Bai Yu's confused scars infected the Tome with absurdity

Ying Sha's lost memories reappeared as enemy weaknesses

When the first real instructor (not a puppet) finally appeared—a living syllabus with chapter titles for muscles—they struck as one:

Golden Nerve Whip (disrupted dogma pathways)

Stand-Up Exorcism (made its own footnotes rebel)

Precognitive Poke (to its only unarmored spot—the dedication page)

7. The Nerve-Whip Revelation

Lin Feng's exposed nerve endings didn't just lash—they conducted. Each strike against the living syllabus:

Released compressed memories of other students

Absorbed fragments of the Tome's original text

Left golden afterimages that formed protest slogans

Most devastating was when he struck the instructor's "References" section:

The whip un-cited entire passages

Plagiarized content unraveled into meaningless strokes

The creature screamed in six different academic voices simultaneously

8. Stand-Up as Spiritual Warfare

Bai Yu's comedy routine reached metaphysical levels:

Setup: "Why did the cultivation master cross the meridians?"

Punchline: "To get to the other student!" (This triggered a chain reaction where the Tome's metaphors became literal)

Effects observed:

The syllabus's "Learning Objectives" started arguing with its "Assessment Criteria"

Footnotes rebelled, crawling up the page to rewrite headers

Entire chapters played hooky, their pages folding into paper airplanes

The instructor's body began laughing itself apart, its:

Table of Contents unaligning

Index fingers snapping off

Bibliography citing only Bai Yu's scars as sources

9. The Button-Eye's Precision Strike

Ying Sha's precognitive flashes revealed the dedication page's secret:

"To My Favorite Meal—

The One Who Almost Got Away"

Signed: Instructor Mu's True Name (which vibrated at the exact frequency to shatter jade)

Her attack method was brutally elegant:

Waited for Lin Feng's nerve-whip to expose the page

Timed Bai Yu's joke to freeze the signature

Flicked a crystallized tear at the vibrating name

The result?

The instructor's authority dissolved (signatureless documents are invalid)

Its body began returning to draft form

The classroom recognized the trio as legitimate teachers

10. The Banquet's Thirteenth Course

As the living syllabus crumbled, the floating menu updated:

"Main Course - Consolation Prize

Ingredients: Valedictorian's lingering hope

Preparation: Slow-roasted over 'what-if' fantasies

Served with: Their own stolen potential"

The platter materialized—a silver dome covering:

Lin Feng's missing childhood

Bai Yu's pre-scar innocence

Ying Sha's father's last moments

Lifting the lid required:

Nerve-whip as serving utensil

Stand-up routine as grace

Precognitive wink as toast

11. The First True Bite Back

When the trio partook:

Lin Feng tasted his mother's lullabies (each note a meridian adjustment)

Bai Yu chewed his own laughter (now weaponized against dogma)

Ying Sha sipped her father's calculations (the original resistance formulae)

The effects were immediate:

The banquet table cracked like an overgraded spine

Instructor Mu's true form began emerging from the wreckage

The silver strands synchronized just long enough to whisper:

"She's not the head chef... just the waitstaff..."

12. The Real Enemy's Shadow

Behind the crumbling classroom, something colossal stirred:

Its body was bound in living vellum (student skin)

Its breath smelled of ink and iron (grading pens and blood)

Its voice was the sound of a thousand red pens scratching

The Hollow King's true face finally made sense—it wasn't a failed student.

It was the first course that fought back.