In the night, the petals of the flowers by the bed clustered tightly together, forming a full, rounded ball of blossoms. It glowed faintly blue in the darkness, reflecting a violet blend of blue and purple.
Fan Daoyi cupped the cluster of flowers and lifted it to his nose for a gentle sniff.
"Just as I thought." His hands loosened slightly, and the cluster fell from them. Its roots vanished when it hit the ground, leaving petals scattered across the floor.
He stepped on the petals as he left the ward. "This is the Flower Tender's handiwork."
The faint fragrance gradually spread through the room, slowly slipping through the crack in the door and filling the corridor.
The corridor was dimly lit, and only the conspicuous words "Emergency exit" could be clearly seen.
Keeping a hand against the wall, he followed the green light past several wards. The wall was cold and rough, its chill seeping through his palm and keeping him a little clearheaded amid the somewhat dreamlike surroundings.
It seemed... something was wrong...
The patients' sleep talk, the faint beeping of the equipment, and those wisps of fragrance. It was like a woven dream, its illusory images dreamlike and unreal. And the unsettling strangeness came from the vanished bamboo staff.
This layer was false.
When the illusion shattered and his awareness returned, he was still walking down the corridor. Only now, he was no longer alone.
He walked along with the group of patients. Their expressions were vacant, their eyes empty and lifeless, as though drawn by some invisible force, all heading toward the same place. Whenever they passed a ward, its door would open automatically, and the patients inside would come out and silently join the procession.
The crowd filled the corridor in a vast procession.
They held flowers in their hands, their delicate blue-violet color carrying an indescribable eeriness. The patients bore none of the pained expressions of those tormented by illness and suffering; instead, their faces were all radiant with happy smiles, as though they were in another, beautiful world.
When the procession stopped, a gigantic flower bud appeared ahead. It stood there, giving off a strange, dim glow that illuminated the area around it.
The patients at the front raised their flower clusters high, and the bud opened slightly. Then, as everyone watched in devotion, they were swallowed by it.
Fan Daoyi tried to connect with the bamboo staff, but there was no response. This still was not reality, but neither was it the true Guixu.
Or rather, this was merely a passage between Guixu and the present world. The flower clusters wove sweet dreams, guiding people to enter of their own free will.
But they already had an entrance ready to use, so why had they developed this whole setup?
The line gradually moved forward until it was Fan Daoyi's turn. He had no flower cluster in his hands, and the bud waiting to bloom did not react for a moment.
It looks like there are still flaws in the construction of this passage, Fan Daoyi thought.
He casually touched the flower cluster held by a patient beside him and used Origin Source to create a replica, successfully blending in.
Beyond the entrance was the Flower Tender's plantation, with hallucinogenic flowers growing all around.
A little gardener came hopping over to them, carrying a small basket. She looked utterly adorable in her tiny work clothes, with a little straw hat on her head.
She blinked at this batch of patients, swept her gaze over them one by one, and smiled sweetly. "Come with me, everyone."
But after turning around and hopping forward only a few steps, she stiffly turned her head back to check again.
I think I just saw someone familiar. Oh, this must be a hallucination!
Her big eyes met Fan Daoyi's, and she froze. Then she quickly clutched her forehead and collapsed weakly. "No, I must have been working too long and inhaled too much pollen. I'm actually hallucinating that I saw the great, benevolent, noble, esteemed Lord Dao Yi. This must be fake.
"Shh, please don't expose me. Let me lose myself in this hallucination and ask Lord Flower Tender for a long vacation." She spoke her excuse aloud as she secretly slipped away, her instinct for survival extremely strong.
Fan Daoyi watched the gardener's actions, secretly amused, and said with a mischievous streak, "It's me. Congratulations, you even volunteered to take the exam. How are the revisions to the task I assigned you going? I'm sure you've done a great job."
The gardener's fleeing steps came to an abrupt halt. Looking as though she wanted to cry but had no tears, she stammered, "Y-y-y-y-you, how are you here? Th-th-this..."
She looked around in a panic, seemingly searching for some reason that could explain everything.
Finding nothing, she lowered her head, her voice growing quieter and quieter, like a child who had done something wrong. "I didn't do anything. This is all the Flower Tender's fault..."
This child was just like that, always shifting the blame onto others.
"Give me the thing." Fan Daoyi flexed his hand. The feeling of having it empty made him uncomfortable.
The gardener tilted her head, her eyes full of incomprehension. She blinked and looked at Fan Daoyi with a puzzled expression.
Seeing her bewildered, innocent expression, Fan Daoyi sighed helplessly and rested a hand on her hat, giving it a gentle rub. "Never mind. Carry on with your game. The Flower Tender is here, right? I'll go find her."
Seeing that Fan Daoyi wasn't going to make trouble for her, the little gardener's eyes lit up, and she asked happily, "Would you like me to take you?"
"No need," Fan Daoyi replied flatly. Then he casually picked up a shovel from beside him and dragged it along the ground with a scraping sound. "Just take care of your own business."
The gardener shrank back. For some reason, a chill rose up her spine. Ah, a moment of silence for Lord Flower Tender.
Fan Daoyi's figure gradually receded until he disappeared completely around a bend in the path through the flowers. The gardener's expression went blank again. After a while, she seemed to come back from some train of thought and turned to face this batch of patients once more.
Her eyes swept quickly over the crowd, and she smiled sweetly. "Come with me, everyone."
The numb patients followed her through the flower fields, happy smiles on their faces.
The gardener skipped along, as though trying to create a relaxed, cheerful atmosphere, but she couldn't help wondering and muttered under her breath, "Huh? The number in this batch doesn't seem quite right. Did I remember wrong? It feels like I've forgotten something."
She shook her head. "Oh well, why think so much about it?"
Fan Daoyi wandered at random into a hall where many humans were sitting. They were not the patients who had entered through the flower fields, but another group of players who had entered Guixu through the regular entrance.
This area was like two games stitched together. Divided by the flower fields, they had arrived in a different location.
"Is that the experimental plot they set up over there?" Fan Daoyi murmured to himself. "But the human experiments are connected to the Flower Tender's grounds. Is she working with the Apothecary?"
"If they're bringing hospital patients to Guixu for human experiments, then it really would be impossible to catch them with evidence. And with the Apothecary's methods, even if these patients were missing a heart or a kidney, the Flower Tender could make them hallucinate, and they would all believe they were as lively as dragons and tigers."
As he was thinking, the players in the hall also noticed Fan Daoyi slowly walking toward them.
They were just about to greet him, friendly smiles still on their faces. But what happened next instantly rooted them all to the spot. Fan Daoyi raised the shovel in his hand and, without hesitation, struck one person on the forehead.