Chapter 709: “……Thanks.”
Hugo’s pupils shrank suddenly.
He stood frozen, as if struck by a heavy blow to the head.
“Anyway, stop staring blankly!”
Orange Candy didn’t care what reaction he had. She carried the long knife that had been dyed blood red at some point, and turned to face the ferocious vines that had grown back. “This is a battlefield. Do you really want to die? Quickly finish things here. Not to mention the Tarot Master and Chen Cheng still need our help, that guy Pinocchio might arrive soon, and he’s not suited for this kind of combat scene!”
Without looking back, her voice was still as impatient and irritable as always.
“Leave Dan Zhu’s side to me.”
“As for that side,”
The girl’s voice came from nearby.
“You’ll handle it yourself.”
Listening to those familiar names one after another, and looking at the back that was handed over to him without hesitation, Hugo’s gaze wavered, and he couldn’t help but freeze slightly.
“…”
The lone wolf stopped in his tracks, suddenly realizing that at some point, a new group of people had gathered around him once again.
Not in the same guild, no fixed team.
But they entrusted him with their trust and their backs, sharing the same goals and beliefs.
—Go ahead, and personally give your friends the ending they desire most.
Gray smoke swam and circled around Hugo, slowly condensing into form once more.
He turned around and looked again at those two familiar figures not far away.
This time, in those eyes of the same color, there was no more struggle, no more wavering.
Replaced by a willpower as solid as a rock.
The air became dense and heavy, pressing down on the shoulders with a calm readiness to strike.
“Get ready—”
Orange Candy weighed the long knife and grinned.
“Three, two—”
“One!”
As soon as the words fell, she kicked off the ground, her small body shooting out like a bullet—and a second before she stepped forward, a distant, light sound brushed past her ear.
Brought by the wind, and as if it would disappear into the wind the next second.
“………Thank you.”
*
The descent was steady and light.
After about less than half a minute, everyone landed firmly.
As the darkness blocking their vision gradually dissipated, what appeared before them was a long, suffocatingly dull corridor. The doors on both sides were tightly closed, and the end was nowhere in sight.
“So, this is the core area of this instance…”
Ji Guan took a step forward, looking around with a slightly surprised expression.
Although he had experienced this instance just like Wen Jianyan, it was his first time entering the deepest hidden layer of the hospital.
“But these things weren’t here last time.”
Wen Jianyan’s gaze fell on the wall, hinting at something.
The cold, dirty brown-gray wall looked as if it had contracted some disgusting, stubborn disease, covered in large and small red patches. The color varied from deep to shallow, looking as if it were breathing, pulsing like a heartbeat.
Just then, his foot suddenly felt heavy.
A ghost infant had appeared by his feet at some point. It reached out and hugged his ankle, using its livid claws to hook onto his pant leg and climb up.
Wen Jianyan’s heart skipped a beat, and he bent down to scoop it up: “Where are the others?”
Ghost infants had two forms: one was the hundred and ten livid “ghost infants,” and the other was the “Holy Infant” formed by the aggregation of all the ghost infants. This time, since a ghost infant had appeared before him, there couldn’t be just one. Which meant…
“Mommy…” The ghost infant nestled in Wen Jianyan’s arms, sobbing. “The others, the others… they were taken away… taken away by a bad guy!!”
Wen Jianyan was startled: “What happened?”
Through the ghost infant’s intermittent description, the truth was quickly pieced together.
As expected, being the most dangerous and core product of this instance, even the other monsters here, with Nightmare’s blessing and mutation, didn’t have the strength to fight them. However, this advantage didn’t last long.
A bizarre and powerful existence appeared, one that even they couldn’t defy.
Just as the other monsters in the instance had no resistance against them, they too were defenseless against “him”.
While the other ghost infants were caught one by one, only this one managed to escape in the chaos and ran to Wen Jianyan to report the news.
The ghost infant’s body trembled, its little livid face showing clear fear:
“Everyone except me was caught. We couldn’t run—he is our creator… he knows how to catch us—”
…Zhang Yunsheng.
Hearing this, Wen Jianyan’s heart sank heavily.
The thing he wanted to see least had happened after all.
“He wants to separate us from mommy forever—I don’t want to be separated from mommy—”
At this point, its sobs turned into loud wailing, and large, black tears rolled down its cheeks.
“Don’t worry, that won’t happen.” The young man gently stroked its back. “No one can separate you from mommy.”
Watching this bizarre scene, Figaro’s expression was complicated.
He didn’t know whether to comment on Pinocchio actually coaxing a vicious ghost like a baby, or his remarkably smooth mindset of playing mommy without any hurdles… In short, everything before him had exceeded his common sense, to the point of breaking a part of his language function.
“Can you sense where your brothers and sisters are?” Wen Jianyan looked down at the ghost infant in his arms and asked.
“…Yes.” The ghost infant sniffled, gripped his collar with its small, dark claws, and quietly snuggled deeper into his embrace, muttering, “But…”
“If you can, get down and lead the way.” Wu Zhu, who had been watching coldly from the side, suddenly spoke.
Wen Jianyan: “No need to…”
Before he could finish, Wu Zhu reached out and easily plucked the ghost infant from Wen Jianyan’s arms.
“?!” As soon as it was torn from Wen Jianyan’s embrace, the ghost infant dropped its docile act. It struggled fiercely, baring its fangs and claws, scratching wildly in all directions. However, it was held firmly by the scruff of its neck by the fingers behind it, immovable as a mountain.
It glared fiercely at Wu Zhu, baring its teeth, but met the man’s cold golden eyes.
The ghost infant shrank back and quieted down.
Wu Zhu let go and turned to Wen Jianyan: “This is for efficiency.”
Wen Jianyan: “…”
However, on second thought, he realized that if they truly relied on the ghost infant’s unclear verbal directions, finding the way might take even longer.
And time was precisely what they lacked most right now.
He leaned down: “Help mommy lead the way this time, I’ll hold you next time, be good.”
Beside him, the man stared coldly at the ghost infant, his eyes seeming to say—there won’t be a next time.
A monster is a monster, and no one knew their thoughts better than him. No matter how aggrieved it pretended to be or how much it seemed to care for its companions, it was actually plotting to shake off all competitors and monopolize the “mother”.
This method of acting pitiful worked very well on Wen Jianyan. He had practiced it himself, so he knew it well.
Therefore, he naturally wouldn’t allow any other “thing” to practice it again under his nose.
As if feeling the substantial, terrifying gaze, the ghost infant popped its claws, arched its back, and couldn’t help but glare back fiercely.
It miscalculated.
Although it was very happy to be mommy’s only child, it forgot that when it was alone, it couldn’t win against that bad thing standing next to mommy—sure enough, the chances of winning were greater when the brothers and sisters were together.
So, it gave a final, reluctant look at Wen Jianyan’s empty arm, then turned around and eagerly began to lead the way.
With its four livid claws on the ground, the ghost infant ran forward on all fours, looking like an untamed little animal. Its claws clicked against the floor. Because its speed was too fast, the people behind had to run at full speed to ensure they didn’t fall too far behind.
Under its guidance, the group navigated through the maze-like corridors.
Finally, it stopped in front of one of the laboratory doors: “Mommy, they’re inside!”
After pulling the door open, a massive old laboratory appeared before them.
The ceiling was extremely high, and the area was vast. Rows of shelves filled with specimen jars were displayed inside. In the dirty yellow-brown liquid, various grotesque bodies floated and sank.
Everything was exactly the same as in his memory.
Between the specimen shelves was a whole row of metal delivery beds, still stained with dried brown blood.
As soon as they entered, an unbearable sense of suffocation pressed down on them. Faint red light diffused all around, like some omnipresent medium. Unlike other parts of the hospital, perhaps because this used to be the core area of the instance, the entire space had almost completely fallen under Nightmare’s control. Blond grunted and tightly shut his completely bloodshot eyes. Ji Guan, who had the strongest perception, also frowned deeply, his breathing becoming rapid.
Wen Jianyan looked up, his gaze falling not far ahead of the delivery beds.
In the center of the red light stood a familiar figure.
This time, he wasn’t wearing that dirty white coat, nor did he have those messy bandages and stitches. However, that smiling face devoid of any human traits carried the exact same chilling aura from memory.
As if hearing the footsteps behind him, Zhang Yunsheng turned his head and looked over.
“You arrived quickly,” seeing Wen Jianyan appear out of nowhere, Zhang Yunsheng showed a surprised expression. “Your speed exceeded my expectations.”
His gaze fell to Wen Jianyan’s feet, and his smile deepened. “Ah, so I missed one. No wonder.”
Behind him was a huge specimen jar, over a person’s height, filled with frantically struggling livid ghost infants. Some were sobbing and crying, some screaming desperately, and others were scratching and bashing the jar walls, but failing to make even a scratch. It was as if it was custom-made for them, securely locking these terrifying little monsters inside.
They also saw the lone ghost infant and immediately put on ferocious expressions.
“It’s you!!”
“You wanted to monopolize mommy!!”
“Shameless!!!”
The struggles, which were already fierce enough, became even more frantic. All the ghost infants in the jar became agitated, the force of their impacts so great that the massive jar even began to tilt and sway. The Oracle members nearby were startled and quickly reached out to steady it.
“…I’ve never seen them love a human so much.” Zhang Yunsheng turned to look at the ghost infants. “It’s truly surprising.”
Wen Jianyan sneered: “That’s what you said last time.”
Last time, right here, the other party had said the exact same words, even the sentence structure was identical. Although the “director” in that instance was just a phantom of Zhang Yunsheng, an empty shell born to maintain the instance’s operation, it was strangely ironic that he gave the exact same evaluation as the real person.
“I see, so this is the reason for the experiment’s success.” Zhang Yunsheng nodded, looking intently at Wen Jianyan standing not far away, with a regretful expression. “You really are the most suitable candidate—what a pity… If I had successfully brought you here back then, instead of letting you grow wild outside for so long, all these subsequent troubles wouldn’t have happened.”
Wen Jianyan gave a fake smile: “Perhaps. But unfortunately, time cannot flow backwards.”
“After all, if it could, I wouldn’t have set just one fire back then.”
This sentence seemed to finally hit Zhang Yunsheng’s sore spot. For the first time, the smile on his face vanished for a moment, turning into a chillingly blank expression. But the next second, his eyes shifted, and he abruptly looked behind him:
“Trying to act while I’m distracted?”
It turned out that while Wen Jianyan and Zhang Yunsheng were talking, the edges of the shadows were quietly expanding.
However, this place was under Nightmare’s constant, dead-angle-free, high-intensity surveillance, so it was detected almost immediately.
Zhang Yunsheng curled his lips, and his smile returned to normal.
“…What a pity, it’s not that easy.”
Almost as soon as his words fell, accompanied by the cracking sound of “ka-ka”, the specimen jars on the shelves on both sides burst open one after another. The previously immobile embryo specimens inside fell out. The moment they touched the ground, they began to grow wildly at an unimaginable speed. On their wrinkled, brownish-yellow soaked skin, blood-red gashes opened one by one, and wildly rolling eyeballs immediately squeezed out, expanding at a visible rate.
In just a breath’s time, the huge laboratory that was empty just a moment ago was filled with bizarrely shaped embryonic monsters. Without normal development, their bodies, forcibly enlarged by Nightmare, presented a terrifyingly twisted appearance.
“Wa—wa—wa—”
They let out screams akin to crying.
“This…” Seeing this nauseating scene, even the few who had braved great storms couldn’t help but be terrified and retreat two steps.
“I can’t move.” Ji Guan said word by word. “I’ll leave it to you this time.”
He spoke slowly, his face pale, his skin covered in cold sweat. The veins on his neck bulged, and one could vaguely see something pulsing irregularly beneath his skin.
Clearly, the vicious ghost parasitic under his skin had also sensed the mutation of the external aura and once again began to fight him for control of the body.
Looking at the bizarre monsters surrounding them from all directions, everyone retreated step by step, their survival space further compressed.
Compared to the other side, they were simply too weak. Blond, Bai Xue, and Wen Jianyan had no basic combat power. Under the oppression of the core Nightmare here, Wu Zhu protecting everyone in the monster crowd from being swallowed was already his limit; he couldn’t do anything extra.
And now, Ji Guan had lost his mobility, leaving Figaro as the only combatant.
In this situation, just maintaining the status quo was incredibly difficult. Breaking out or even counterattacking?
It was simply a fool’s dream.
“I regret it, I regret it so much. Why did I ever take that job from Oracle?” Figaro looked dead inside, muttering in a voice only he could hear. “Seriously, if I could do it again, I’d stay far away from you. Even if you gave me ten times the money, I wouldn’t take it…”
Having struggled in Nightmare for so long, this was the first time he had been pushed to such a desperate situation, and clearly, it was all thanks to Wen Jianyan.
A jinx… an absolute jinx!
Not far away, surrounded by numerous embryos, Zhang Yunsheng looked very relaxed. He turned his head and looked at the other Oracle members: “Has everything been brought here?”
The last Oracle member walked up from behind and threw an armful of things onto the ground.
Next to the glass jar was a pile of curled, shriveled, bizarre tissues.
Wen Jianyan’s gaze fell on them and he suddenly recognized their shape—they were withered umbilical cords and placentas, a massive quantity, almost piled into a small hill.
As if realizing something, he suddenly took a step forward: “What are you going to do?”
“Do what?” Zhang Yunsheng smiled. “You’re so smart, you can’t fail to guess, right?”
He turned to look at the hundreds of wildly struggling ghost infants in the huge jar next to him, his tone regretful: “The experiment was clearly a success, but we still have to destroy them. What a pity.”
“But there’s no other way.”
Zhang Yunsheng turned his head to look at Wen Jianyan not far away.
“As long as they are here, you will always be a candidate for godhood—if only you were willing to be obedient, how great. You, me, Nightmare, and more joiners, what great deeds we could accomplish, what a glorious journey we could complete—it’s just a pity that you are too, too disobedient.”
His eyes cut across the young man’s face like a cold razor:
“Just like when you were a child, you haven’t changed a bit.”
“So, no matter how reluctant I am, all this must end. We will conduct new experiments, but not here, and not using them.”
Zhang Yunsheng withdrew his gaze, his tone becoming relaxed again.
“Child, you have created too many threats.”
“And this has far exceeded the value you can bring to us.”
He reached out his hand to the person next to him: “Alright, give me the lamp.”
Immediately after, an oil lamp with a very familiar shape was handed over. Wen Jianyan’s breath hitched. He recognized it; it was the oil lamp that had unleashed the endless fire in Yuying Comprehensive University. The corpse oil inside swayed gently, exuding an ominous, bizarre aura.
Following that, the ghost infants inside the glass jar struggled even more frantically. They seemed terrified of the fire, using their bodies to tirelesly and painlessly slam against the glass wall over and over again, making a teeth-setting “dong dong” sound. The Oracle members had to reach out and hold the glass jar to keep it from falling over.
But shockingly, even at this moment, what they were shouting was still “mommy”.
“Mommy, mommy run!!”
No—
He couldn’t—
Wen Jianyan gritted his teeth, his pupils shrinking, and he subconsciously took a step forward.
At his feet, the only free ghost infant hugged Wen Jianyan’s ankle tightly and urged: “Mommy, run!”
“After we are killed, he will come for you… don’t worry about us, leave here quickly!”
Even though the distance was so close, just a few steps away, these short steps seemed separated by a chasm, divided into two worlds by the intense red light and the overwhelming monsters, impossible to bridge no matter what.
Zhang Yunsheng chuckled lightly and loosened his fingers.
As the oil lamp tilted, a cluster of fire slowly fell.
Time seemed to slow down.
That little orange-red flame rolled in the air, falling bit by bit. In just a blink of an eye, it had approached the dry human tissue on the ground. A raging fire that couldn’t be extinguished was about to ignite, just like it once did in the university—
However, the next second, something strange happened.
It seemed as if an invisible wind blew past, and the falling spark shifted an inch.
It landed lightly on the floor, flickered, and went out.
Zhang Yunsheng paused, a look of surprise on his face. He turned his head and met Bai Xue’s pitch-black eyes staring straight at him.
The youth’s face was snow-white, his eyes deep. A very faint stream of pale pink blood flowed from his nostril, dripping onto the ground.
Probability control?
A terrifying talent.
But it didn’t matter. The more terrifying the ability, the higher the cost of using it. And the oil lamp was in his hands; he could ignite it as many times as he wanted. But how many times could the talent on the other side be used?
Zhang Yunsheng sneered.
This time, he didn’t pour the fire down. Instead, he leaned down directly and brought the oil lamp close to the placentas. This time, there would be no accidents—
But bizarrely, his movement stopped halfway.
Pfft.
Accompanied by a soft sound of piercing flesh, a snow-white blade pierced his throat.
For the first time, a look of astonishment appeared on Zhang Yunsheng’s face.
He turned his head and looked back.
A woman’s mummified corpse stood not far behind him. Her body looked like the other monsters: decayed, terrifying, and disgusting. Blood-red gashes ran across her skin, with blood-red eyeballs rolling frantically inside.
But the difference was that she tightly gripped a shiny silver scalpel with the hand that had been parasitized and enhanced by Nightmare.
The scalpel twisted in his throat, and with a strength beyond human capability, it pierced a deep hole from which black blood gushed out.
…?
Zhang Yunsheng looked at that unrecognizable face in confusion, racking his brains, but he couldn’t remember the other person’s name no matter what.
Who is this?
Why would a vengeful spirit and monster born in this instance turn its blade against him, the creator?
Indeed, how could he remember?
So many people had died, so many souls had been tortured. This girl who died on the operating table was just another insignificant number among the victims.
And precisely because he couldn’t remember, Nightmare’s blessing had descended upon every monster that died in this instance.
Even including the anomalies among them.
A white shadow that had once stuffed a hairpin into Wen Jianyan’s hand.
A human soul that still retained its consciousness, soul, and memories.
This time, strengthened by Nightmare, she finally could—and finally had the power to—pour her hatred and anger toward the main culprit in her own way… piercing his throat just as he had sliced open her belly back then!!
The moment Zhang Yunsheng’s throat was pierced, all the surrounding embryos seemed to hit the pause button, stopping at the same time.
“Get ready.” Wu Zhu’s voice rang in everyone’s ears.
The moment the shadows withdrew, Blond was pinned to the ground by Ji Guan’s vein-bulging hand. Figaro’s scimitar drew a bright arc in the air, clearing a small, temporarily monster-free safe area.
The next second, darkness rolled forward, launching a surprise attack—
“Bang!!!”
Accompanied by a loud noise, the huge glass jar tilted and crashed heavily onto the ground, shattering into countless pieces.
Hundreds of ghost infants surged out madly. They bared their sharp teeth and bit hard into the bodies of the embryonic monsters, tearing those eyeballs out alive. Another part furiously charged towards Zhang Yunsheng—
In just a blink of an eye, he had been completely submerged by the livid ghost infants.
And the ghost infant that was free just now was also pinned to the ground by its siblings and beaten left and right—Wen Jianyan was quick-witted, grabbing one in each hand to pull them apart, barely stopping the infighting.
The ghost infants were rioting.
The impact they brought to this instance was devastating.
Walls, floors, buildings, monsters—everything was being destroyed with crushing force.
As the embryo monsters were suppressed and Zhang Yunsheng’s figure was engulfed, the red light that had always permeated the air was inevitably torn open. Through the rift, one could vaguely see the dilapidated interior of the train carriage outside. The howling cold wind rushed in through the broken windows, blowing straight into the hospital.
At the same time, a continuous, even vibration came from below the ground—it was the sound of the train engine.
“Clang.”
With a soft sound, a scalpel stained with dark red blood fell gently to the floor.
The mummified corpse took a step forward. Standing in the gap where the two worlds overlapped, she slowly, almost incredibly, raised her head. She looked deeply into the wind blowing in her face, and a dazed expression seemed to pass over that decayed, dry, and unrecognizable face.
This seemed to be the first time since her death…
She stood under the sky outside the hospital, bathed in the cold wind outside that basement.
“—Lin Qing!!!”
Suddenly, the young man’s urgent call came from behind.
“…”
The woman turned her head.
Wen Jianyan stopped in his tracks. He stood firmly in place, staring at the familiar figure not far away, and said solemnly, word by word:
“Thank you.”
This wasn’t the first time Lin Qing had helped him—once in Fukang Hospital, and now on the broken train.
Both times were life-and-death, critical moments.
The woman shook her head, and a difficult syllable came from her broken throat.
“No.”
She raised her head, facing the wind once again.
Suddenly, in this instant, the appearance of the dry, ugly corpse faded from her body like a phantom.
In the cold, almost howling gale, she suddenly turned back into the appearance on her doctor’s ID photo from when she was alive. Her black hair was blown messy, her eyes gentle, her profile clean.
“Thank you.”
She looked at Wen Jianyan, smiling as before:
“…I am finally free.”
