Qiao Xu looked like he wanted to raise three fingers and swear an oath. “Everything I said before was true!”
“Is that so?” Yue Shi drawled, patting Qiao Xu’s head with a mocking smile, looking as if he might peel his scalp off at any moment.
Cold sweat poured down Qiao Xu’s face. “Believe me, I just want to stay alive! Surviving in the cracks means you can’t hide everything, or you’ll die even faster. It’s almost impossible for a subject to escape the Su family’s pursuit anyway, so why would I risk provoking one over details like this?”
“Your performance just now wasn’t nearly as smooth as you claim,” Yue Shi remarked.
Qiao Xu gave a bitter smile. “Forgive me. I’ve stayed in this sanatorium for too long; my mind isn’t exactly right anymore.”
“Who are the four subjects who haven't been recaptured?” Yue Shi asked.
Qiao Xu studied Yue Shi’s expression, carefully comparing it to his features before speaking slowly. “I don’t know their names, only their designations.”
“Subject 017, the ‘Emotion Manipulator.’ He was the one who led the breakout, sabotaging the lab and releasing the others. I was influenced by him back then, developing feelings I shouldn't have had. I pretended not to see his little schemes, and well… one wrong step leads to an eternity of regret.”
“Besides the Emotion Manipulator, there are Subject 036, the ‘Mage,’ and Subject 079, the ‘Ghost.’”
Qiao Xu stopped there.
“Why are there only three?” Yue Shi questioned.
“The last one is classified,” Qiao Xu replied. “I didn’t have the clearance to know.”
“Classified?” Yue Shi’s tone carried a hint of disdain. He quickly followed up with a cold question: “Where were these subjects sourced from?”
Qiao Xu sold them out without hesitation. “They were tricked. The family registered private organizations in remote cities where the Investigation Bureau’s oversight was weak. They’d recruit transcendents with promises of incredible benefits. Once the transcendents let their guard down, it was time for the slaughter.”
Yue Shi paused. That routine sounded incredibly familiar.
Thud—
A dull sound of something heavy hitting the floor suddenly echoed from outside the door.
Thud, thud—
The same sound repeated in quick succession, interrupting Yue Shi’s thoughts.
A cold smirk played on Qiao Xu’s lips. His reinforcements had finally arrived; it seemed his stalling hadn't been in vain.
Yue Shi grabbed Qiao Xu by the collar and dragged him out of Ward 404. They quickly realized the noise was coming from the Treatment Room.
Inside the Treatment Room, something horrific was unfolding. The corpses that had been suspended from the ceiling by chains around their necks were falling to the floor one by one for no apparent reason.
As soon as they hit the ground, the corpses began to move, slamming violently against the door of the Treatment Room.
The eerie smiles never left their faces. Their hair stood straight up on end, and occasional sparks of electricity flickered around them.
Qiao Xu’s face paled instantly. “This is bad. The restrictive rules of the sanatorium are failing!”
Yue Shi seized the opportunity to ask, “How many rules are there?”
“Many,” Qiao Xu answered. “‘Ward doors cannot be opened from the inside’ is one of them, but that rule is currently dissolving.”
Realization dawned on Yue Shi. “The director is locked in the toilet. The rules don’t just restrict others; they restrict him too. To get himself out, he had to modify the rules, and in doing so, the patients are gaining their freedom as well.”
Qiao Xu nodded. That was exactly the situation.
“Wait,” Yue Shi added. “If ‘Ward doors cannot be opened from the inside,’ does that mean a toilet stall counts as a ‘ward’?”
Qiao Xu didn’t answer because the corpses in the Treatment Room had finally burst through the door.
The bodies emerged with numb, stiff movements, walking incredibly slowly. Arcs of electricity crackled around them, and the exaggerated, grotesque smiles on their faces grew even wider.
Seeing this, Qiao Xu’s expression shifted to pure terror.
Yue Shi noticed the change and grabbed him by the throat. “What’s wrong with you? Your heart is racing. You seem a bit panicked?”
“I… I’m terrified! The supernatural creatures in the Treatment Room explode easily, creating lightning storms. If even one goes off, it’ll trigger a chain reaction. None of us will get out alive!”
Qiao Xu explained at breakneck speed. He was truly panicking now. He had initially thought the commotion outside meant his backup had arrived, but he never expected the sanatorium’s horrors to spiral out of control.
He urged desperately, “What are you still standing there for? Find a way to run!”
Yue Shi remained perfectly calm. Instead of fleeing, he dragged Qiao Xu toward the approaching mass of corpses.
“No… please, no!” Qiao Xu resisted with everything he had.
Yue Shi spoke as they moved, “I think you’re still hiding things. You have too many little schemes; you still need a bit more disciplining.”
“No, no, no!” Qiao Xu’s entire body writhed in struggle.
“I’ll talk! I’ll tell you everything!”
“I already notified the people coming to collect me. By all rights, they should have been here to arrest you by now, but something must have gone wrong. They haven't arrived.”
“The information I gave you before was all true! I even brought a defensive supernatural item, which is the only reason I’ve managed to survive here.”
“The toilet stalls on the fourth floor are ‘wards,’ and Ward 404 is a ‘toilet.’ A Clown confused the concepts of the two, and I helped him trick the director into going inside…”
Qiao Xu was genuinely terrified, spilling everything in a frantic rush.
At that moment, the doors to Ward 401, 402, and 403 began to thud and rattle.
The ‘Son-Obsessed’ in 401 wasn't targeting Yue Shi or Qiao Xu; it was simply bashing against the door. However, the ‘The Martyr’ in 402 was radiating pure, unadulterated malice.
【Demon Feather Barrier】 began to deplete at an incredible rate. Fortunately, Yue Shi replenished it immediately, withstanding the boundless mental pollution.
Qiao Xu, standing right beside him, wasn't so lucky.
Crack…
Yue Shi heard a crisp snapping sound coming from Qiao Xu. Looking down, he saw a porcelain-white bracelet of unknown material on the man's wrist. It had cracked in half, and Qiao Xu’s expression seemed to shatter along with it.
Even without feeling it himself, Yue Shi could tell from Qiao Xu’s contorted face that he was in agony—a pain that wasn't just physical, but one that reached into his very soul.
“Well, you’re incapable of communicating now. You’ve lost all your value.” Yue Shi shoved Qiao Xu hard toward the corpses flickering with electrical arcs.
Qiao Xu had said that whoever killed him would be marked. Therefore, Yue Shi didn't kill him with his own hands, choosing instead to let the supernatural entities clean him up.
With a loud crack, a ball of lightning erupted from a corpse, instantly engulfing Qiao Xu. He didn't even have time to scream.
Yue Shi took the opportunity to retreat back into Ward 404 and activated 【Hidden Black Feathers】.
The horrors in the hallway seemed to lose their target instantly and began to wander aimlessly. One by one, the patients in the other three wards broke the locks on their doors.
Ring, ring, ring…
A piercing, shrill bell suddenly rang out inside Ward 404.
Rate on N.U.
