Confusion spread instantly.

"What?"

Before anyone could react, Wade slowly raised his hand.

Between his fingers was a strange black nail, long, sharp, and unnaturally dark, as if it absorbed all light around it.

He calmly fitted it onto his finger.

The moment the others saw it, their expressions twisted in horror.

"No... that’s!"

Wade chuckled softly, his voice laced with mockery. "Sorry, beggars... but your end is near."

Before anyone could stop him, he dragged the nail across the invisible barrier.

A deep crack formed instantly.

Until now, they had only been dealing with external pressure.

But this...this was internal damage.

The teachers’ eyes widened in shock. "Stop him!"

They rushed toward Wade. But he was faster.

With a simple snap of his fingers, his figure blurred and reappeared in another spot within the protective circle.

Again, he raised his hand. Again, he slashed.

The barrier groaned, fractures spreading like spiderwebs.

Students began attacking him in panic, but Wade moved like a shadow, his speed impossible to track.

In a split second, he carved a tiny opening in the barrier.

A hole. A direct breach. Everyone froze.

"Wade, what are you doing?!" Betty shouted, her voice trembling.

"Have you lost your mind?!" Layla cried.

Fay stepped forward, disbelief written all over her face. "Why are you acting like a GA member?!"

Richard opened his mouth to speak, but his voice faltered midway. His eyes widened as realization struck him like lightning.

"...Because he is one."

The words hung in the air like a death sentence.

Silence followed. Then horror.

The mystic cultivators from Shadowridge University felt their hearts drop.

They had made a terrible mistake. Everything began to make sense.

Back at the vacation site... It had been Wade who provided the so-called protective equipment that supposedly repelled ghosts.

But now...tt was clear.

That equipment had not been protection. It had been the catalyst.

A trigger for opening a ghost portal near the farmhouse.

And then... Lana’s memories.

What she had told Fay.

Her distorted visions.

Scenes of Layla suffering... when in reality, none of it had ever happened.

Someone had tampered with her mind. Someone who had been close to her. Someone who had drugged her.

They had only been meant to mislead her.

And the one behind it all...was standing right in front of them.

Even now, the memory struck Lana like a sharp sting... Wade had been the one who handed her that drink earlier.

’So that was it...’ she thought, her teeth grinding together as anger flared within her. ’He planned everything from the very beginning.’

For a moment, her fingers trembled.

But then...a slow smile formed on her lips.

’You really thought I would fall for that?’

With deliberate calm, she pushed herself to her feet as if nothing were wrong.

Then, in the very next second, she raised her hand. A surge of energy erupted from her body.

It wasn’t ordinary.

A strange blend of brown, bluish, and faint whitish hues swirled together, spiraling from her palm like a living force.

The air around her trembled as that energy flowed directly into the protective barrier.

Crack. Crack.

The fractures Wade had carved into the barrier began to heal at a visible rate, the broken lines sealing themselves as if time itself were reversing.

Wade’s smirk faltered.

His eyes narrowed sharply as he stared at Lana. "You didn’t drink it."

Lana let out a soft chuckle, tilting her head slightly.

"What can I do?" she replied lightly. "I tend to be very suspicious... especially when it comes to people like you."

Her gaze sharpened as she stepped forward. "How could I accept food or water during something as important as an exorcism?"

By now, the other mystic teachers and students had also begun moving toward Wade, their fear slowly being replaced by anger and determination.

Wade, however, simply chuckled. Snap.

With a flick of his fingers, his figure blurred...and in the next instant, he stood outside the protective barrier.

Beside him...

The three-thousand-year-old ghost.

The girl tilted her head, her lips curling into a delighted smile as she stared at Lana, as if she were gazing at a piece of irresistible candy.

A low snarl escaped Lana’s throat.

"Don’t look at me like that with your filthy eyes," she growled, her voice cold and sharp. "If you offend me any further... I will gouge them out."

A strange, guttural sound came from the ghost, almost like laughter.

But Lana ignored it.

Instead, she turned toward the others, her voice firm and commanding.

"Listen carefully. If all of you channel your energy together and form a single concentrated attack, combined with exorcism talismans... we can deal significant damage to it."

There was no hesitation this time.

Everyone nodded.

In the next moment, they raised their hands together.

Streams of mystical energy began to converge, forming a massive glowing sphere in the air.

The ghost’s expression changed.

For the first time, it looked wary.

Its eyes narrowed slightly, as if it had finally recognized a threat.

Wade noticed it too. His expression darkened.

Snap.

He flicked his fingers again.

The already damaged barrier began to crack at an even faster rate, thin fractures spreading like veins across its surface.

Lana’s gaze shifted toward him.

Wade stood there, watching her with an indifferent expression, a mocking smirk tugging at his lips.

For a brief moment, silence stretched between them.

Then... Lana smiled back.

Slowly, she raised her wrist.

The jade bracelet shimmered faintly under the dim light.

’This... is what you overlooked,’ she thought.

That bracelet...

It was no ordinary artifact.

Back when she had been possessed by the ten-thousand-year-old ghost, that very bracelet had weakened the entity drastically the moment it came into contact with it.

Even though her uncle had been able to completely destroy that ghost, its power had been reduced by more than half because of the bracelet.

Only then had it been possible to defeat it.

Which meant...against a three-thousand-year-old ghost...

And a mere GA member... It was more than enough.

As she lifted it higher, a pure white energy burst forth, spreading outward like a protective wave.