The bronze door of the dormitory automatically locked behind Si Lingle, its lock emitting an ancient click — this was the "Silence Barrier" Si Lingle had learned today in the Forbidden Book Area.
The three roommates froze in place. Ice crystals suddenly ford on the teacup in Erin’s hand; Qian Lili’s skirt, which she was tidying, was pinned to the floor by an invisible force, and Anna’s lips maintained an open arc but could not emit a sound.
"High-level Spell Analysis" floated in Si Lingle’s palm. As the pages flipped, the notes they had altered with cheap ink were automatically restoring themselves.
On the parchnt, golden spell texts erged, intertwining like awakened snakes around the wrists of the three. "It seems you forgot," Si Lingle’s fingertips glided over page 394’s punishnt guidelines, "that each owner of this book leaves a curse on the title page."
The dorm suddenly plunged into a bizarre dark red glow, and the three were horrified to find their shadows betraying their bodies.
Qian Lili’s shadow strangled her own neck, Erin’s shadow broke her magic wand in half, and Anna’s shadow opened her diary, loudly reading out her most shaful secrets.
The academy’s rules on the wall suddenly ca to life. The handwriting on the parchnt turned into corporeal chains, binding the three to their respective bedposts.
Moonlight Grass on the windowsill grew wildly, its vines piercing through the flowerpot and embedding into the floor. The spoiled magical potions they had once poured into the pot were now condensing into vengeful poison dew on the leaves.
"Now," Si Lingle smoothed the pages, her voice as gentle as a bedti story, "let’s review the seven punitive spells for ’stealing magical texts’."
...
...
In the morning’s Magic History class, sunlight stread through the stained glass, casting kaleidoscopic colors onto the stone floor.
Si Lingle sat in the back row as usual, her quill scratching on the parchnt as if nothing had happened the previous night.
From the back of the classroom ca three simultaneous gasps — the tardy Erin, Qian Lili, and Anna stood at the door, the collars of their school robes adorned with conspicuous scarlet emblems, branded with the words "Book Thief" in ancient magic text.
This was the automatic punishnt chanism of "High-level Spell Analysis", lasting at least a week. Worse yet, the quills in their hands were continuously writing confessions on their own, stretching the parchnt as they dragged three ters across the floor.
"Silence." Without lifting his head, the professor waved his magic wand, and the seats of the three were suddenly moved to the farthest corner of the classroom.
When Qian Lili attempted to open the textbook, mini lightning leaped from the pages, leaving burn marks on her fingertips; Erin’s ink automatically ford the words "I altered soone else’s notes"; Anna’s chair emitted a loud alarm every five minutes — a frequently used anti-theft spell in the Forbidden Book Area.
It was not until the class bell rang that the professor cast a aningful glance at the three: "Today’s lesson happens to cover the punishnt of knowledge thieves in the Middle Ages... it seems soone has been studying ahead."
When class ended, other students gossiped about Anna and the others, keeping their distance from the trio.
The three wished to find a hole to crawl into.
After enduring two classes, they couldn’t take it anymore and took a leave to return to the dormitory.
As the sunset dyed the corridor blood red, Si Lingle was blocked at the stone window.
The tip of Erin’s magic wand was crystallized with ice — a sign of her best Ice Spell going out of control.
At this mont, her right hand was wrapped in frostbite from backlash, yet she stubbornly stood in front of Si Lingle, only her trembling eyelashes betraying her fear.
Lisa stood three steps away, her ticulously maintained long hair entwined with thorny magic vines, with new thorns sprouting from her tresses with every step — the mark of the Tracking Curse from "High-level Spell Analysis."
Anna was in the worst condition. Her left eye had turned into a strange silver-white, her pupil floating with ancient magic text — the mark of the Book Guardian Spell. When she tried to speak, only the burnt sll of parchnt rose in her throat.
Erin spoke, "Du Juan, we were wrong, please let us go."
"The curse will lift at the full moon," Si Lingle gently smoothed the book’s dog-eared corner, "but on one condition—"
"We’ll agree to any condition," Erin hastily replied.
Si Lingle’s fingertips lightly traced the page of "High-level Spell Analysis," and the vines of Moonlight Grass suddenly rose, weaving an intricate Magic Array Map on the stone brick floor.
In the flow of silver light, three clear clauses appeared in the air:
The Return Ritual: The three must go to the Forbidden Book Area before midnight and restore the twelve altered tos to their original state — using their own blood as ink.
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