So You're the Fucking Lord of the Forest? (Part 2)

Joel knew that hypnosis required a process. Whether it involved influencing the senses through sight, sound, touch, or smell, or directly through drugs or other substances acting within the body, regardless of the method used to achieve the hypnotic effect, there had to be a trigger, an event, and a process.

But Joel, relying on his extensive experience in hypnosis, carefully considered his previous experiences and retraced the details of his various senses, but he couldn't find anything unusual and couldn't figure out when he had been hypnotized.

Even now, he can't be sure whether the little girl in the white dress he saw on the live monitor and the advertisement he just heard were real or just a hallucination.

If he himself is affected and experiencing hallucinations, he is fairly confident in discerning them.

But following his method, what I had just seen and heard did not seem to be a hallucination.

Joel stood there for a while longer. The video playing on the mall's big screen stopped showing the Ping An Life Insurance ad, and the other ads were all the same, without any special features or even any more English-language advertising copy.

He hesitated for a moment, neither trying to confirm the video source of the advertisement on the big screen, nor checking the direction the woman reciting English lines in the previous advertisement was pointing—there was a travel agency there—while watching the advertisement video, he had the feeling that the woman was telling him to go to that travel agency to check it out.

Joel decided to leave first. There were too many factors in the bustling city that affected his senses and judgment. He needed to find a quiet place to think and sort out his thoughts.

But after walking only a few steps, a furious voice suddenly rang out from the side. "Peng City?! Not in Peng City! I'm not in Peng City!..."

He paused for a moment, turned around, and saw the man who had already passed him, speaking impatiently into his phone, "You fucking dialed the wrong number, right? My surname is Wu, but I'm not in Peng City, and I've never been to Peng City! Buy a house or not?? Buy your mother's ass! Fuck!" Then he angrily hung up the phone, cursing as he walked away, seemingly harassed by a real estate advertisement call.

Joel frowned. That was just an ordinary person, and what he said shouldn't have been directed at him, but why did he feel that the words were implying something?

After learning that John's two phases of transformation were in Peng City, he had been considering when to go Peng City. Just now, he even thought about whether he should ignore what happened to John here, ignore the "help J" mark, ignore the little girl in the white dress in the surveillance video, and go directly to Peng City. If he could find John, all his questions would be answered.

The passerby's words seemed to be a direct response to his thoughts, making it impossible for him to ignore them.

Joel thought for a moment, then decided not to cause any further trouble and continued walking.

Almost instinctively, he paid attention to the advertisements around him, the conversations of passersby, and all sorts of noises and scenes.

Then, two minutes later, he suddenly noticed a line of text floating across a horizontal advertising screen not far ahead:

Are you looking for a place where you can relax? Wushu Mountain might be your answer.

Joel paused for a moment, then felt as if the words were being spoken to him. He glanced at the shop next to the billboard—another travel agency.

He paused for a moment in front of the travel agency, hesitated slightly, but still didn't go in to ask.

As he walked quickly, the various sounds around him made him feel as if some unseen force was urging him not to go to Peng City, but to Wushu Mountain he could find the answers and John.

But when he actually paid attention to those "noises," he found that either he had misheard or misread them, or they were just ordinary, normal sounds or images.

He forced himself to stay calm and not be disturbed by the noise. He found a small park and sat down in a secluded, dimly lit corner.

In this place, far from the hustle and bustle of the downtown area and the busy commercial streets, the various "noises" were much less, and his tense mind relaxed a lot, finally allowing him to catch his breath.

He is now increasingly certain that he has been hypnotized and subjected to some kind of psychological suggestion, which is why he feels that any seemingly plausible voice or image that appears to have a specific meaning is influencing him.

He guessed that the point in time when the impact occurred was when he saw the little girl in the white dress on the live monitoring system.

He just didn't understand how the other party had given him that psychological suggestion, and why they wanted him to go to Wushu Mountain. What was there?

Thinking this, he took out his phone to check how far away Wushu Mountain was. This phone was given to him by the lady who had hitched a ride with him before, and the SIM card and apps on it were all Chinese. Although his own phone, which he had brought into the country, was also usable, he found that the one the lady gave him was indeed more convenient to use.

But this time, as soon as I opened the map app, there was a splash screen ad:

Against a backdrop of beautiful mountains and water, five elegant ink-wash style characters stand out prominently. "Come to Wushu Mountain!"

After a 3-second advertisement, he entered the map app interface, which surprisingly located him directly to Wushu Mountain.

Joel paused for a moment, subconsciously closed his eyes and shook his head. When he opened his eyes again, he found that the location on his phone had changed back to Liu City's current location.

What happened?

Was that moment real or an illusion?

Joel unconsciously tightened his grip on the phone, bending its metal casing and scratching the screen instantly.

He had initially thought that staying away from that restaurant and avoiding the noise of the bustling street would lessen the impact on him, but now it seemed to have no effect at all; the suggestion and hypnosis had likely already taken root in his subconscious.

Looking back now, perhaps the hypnosis didn't begin with watching the restaurant's security footage, but rather started when he saw the "help J" marking.

Joel took out the tattered restaurant receipt again and looked at it, as if worried that there might be something wrong with it too.

Throughout the night, Joel received various hints urging him not to go to Peng City, but to go to Wushu Mountain instead. But the more these hints came, the more wary and hesitant he became.

So at 3 a. m., he finally made up his mind, hypnotized a young Didi driver, and drove him to Peng City.

The more the "hints" discourage him from going somewhere, the more he wants to go; the more the "hints" guide him to go somewhere, the less he wants to go.

On the way, a radio program in the car was discussing Wushu Mountain's travel experiences, which made Joel tense up again.

Strangely, when he asked the driver, the driver heard exactly what he had heard. Moreover, the driver frequently listened to this late-night radio program and was very familiar with the two hosts, so he didn't notice anything amiss.

After listening to the introduction of Wushu Mountain for a while, Joel couldn't help but ask the driver to change the channel. This time, music was playing, and there was no more information about Wushu Mountain.

Just as Joel breathed a sigh of relief, his phone received a notification—it was his own phone.

Joel picked up his phone and glanced at it, then frowned. He had received a new email in his private email address, an address he used specifically to contact John, and no one else knew about it.

He opened the new email and saw that it really was from John. It was written in English that he was currently in an abandoned factory on the outskirts of Peng City and asked "Joel" to come find him as soon as possible.

This email has too many problems!

First, he had contacted John multiple times before, but John had not replied and had completely lost contact with him, which is why he set off for China. Second, he and John communicated via email, which involved code words, but this email was completely straightforward and did not use any code words. Third, the tone of this email seemed to indicate that he knew John had arrived in China.

Is John being controlled and lured into this email?

Are some beings lurking in that abandoned factory in Peng City, waiting to ambush him?

Joel frowned and struggled again as he looked at the email on his phone. Fortunately, this time he was careful not to crush his phone.

He now felt as if he were being held by an invisible hand, controlled no matter where he wanted to go, and his every move was being monitored.

That's really too weird.

As the car drove off the highway exit in Peng City and was about to enter the city, Joel closed his eyes, forcing himself to calm down and think about the series of encounters he had experienced since entering this Eastern country, as well as all the clues he had discovered so far.

A judgment gradually formed in my mind:

The person who emailed me in John's name, asking me to come to Peng City, and the person who, through some unknown means, hypnotized me, telling me to go to Wushu Mountain instead of Peng City, might not be the same group.

John first met the girl in white in Liu City and left the "help J" mark, then went to Peng City and underwent two phases of transformation, after which he lost contact with "Red Rose".

Perhaps... John's transformation was not a result of his own will, but rather a passive outcome.

Just like his attitude towards Guo Tianxiang, except that he didn't have enough "Blood Beast" or "blood plants" to make Guo Tianxiang "passively" undergo a phased transformation.

Thinking about it this way, Joel immediately tensed up. If that were really the case, then Peng City would be a truly dangerous area. Even if he was much stronger than John, he might not be able to avoid being captured and raised as a "blood source." After all, in reality, what made him stronger than other "Bloodline" were some "tricks," not violent abilities.

If he cannot prepare "tricks" in advance, and the other party is not affected by his hypnosis or mental intrusion, then his ability to violently resist may not guarantee his safe escape.

Living in this mysterious Eastern country, Joel felt it was perfectly reasonable to think of his opponents as stronger.

Thinking this, he became agitated again, and even felt an urge to tear the driver to pieces and shower him with blood!

But he knew he couldn't do that now. Getting his hands dirty now, even with just ordinary human blood, would accelerate his loss of control and even cause him to completely disintegrate, because ordinary human blood could no longer meet his needs for this stage of transformation.

Only by finding a suitable "blood source" and overcoming this temporary limit can he once again enjoy human blood to his heart's content.

He closed his eyes, composed himself, and then continued thinking along the same lines he had been following.

He pondered that the person behind the scenes who had subtly influenced him in Liu City and kept trying to lead him to Wushu Mountain was either harmless or relatively weak. Otherwise, since they could subtly influence and hypnotize him without his knowledge, they could also use other means to deal with and ambush him.

So after getting off the highway, Joel asked the driver to stop the car, then switched to another car and "persuaded" the driver of that car to take him to Wushu Mountain, hundreds of kilometers away.

With his limit approaching and time running out, he decided to choose the path that seemed less risky.

Joel traveled by car from night until morning, and then from morning until evening, before finally arriving at Wushu Mountain.

Upon arriving at Wushu Mountain, various "clues" appeared around Joel, such as advertisements on the small LCD screens of roadside food carts, tourist tips played on a loop in the scenic area, and occasional sounds that appeared on him but whose source could not be determined and seemed to be heard only by him, "guiding" his actions.

This "guide" did not lead him into the Wushu Mountain Scenic Area. Instead, it caused him to spend a considerable amount of time entering another, less populated and larger mountainous area— Chongyun Mountain.

Joel's worries about the mountains were actually much less than his worries about the city, after all, he had the title of "Forest Lord," which was not given out of thin air.

Compared to the concrete jungle of the city, the deep mountains and forests are actually his home turf, where many of his abilities can be put to greater use.

Therefore, compared to deciding whether to go to Peng City or Wushu Mountain, he didn't hesitate or consider much about whether to enter the Chongyun Mountain Region.

Of course, Joel remained cautious. After entering Chongyun Mountain, he would lie down every so often, spit out his mouthparts, and leave behind a little "prosthetic tissue fluid".

At the same time, he also used his sense of smell and hearing to carefully search the vicinity for any "Blood Beast" or "blood plants".

After entering Chongyun Mountain, all the clues and hints seemed to disappear. Joel, like a headless fly, continued to delve deeper and explore without any direction.

Time passed slowly, and by four in the morning, Joel still hadn't found anything unusual, and he started to get a little impatient.

He even suspected that the so-called suggestion and hypnosis might just be his illusion, a mental turmoil as he approached his limit.

Perhaps no one ever hinted at him going to Wushu Mountain, let alone at Chongyun Mountain?

As he was thinking this, his phone, which was in his pocket, suddenly lit up on its own. In the dead of night, he relied on his night vision without any lighting tools, so the lit phone screen in his pocket was very conspicuous.

He took out his phone, only to find that it had automatically turned on its flash and taken a picture of him.

He initially thought it was a phone malfunction, frowned, and flipped through his phone to delete the image, only to suddenly realize that the flash wasn't capturing his face, but John's!

Joel's breath caught in his throat.

I recommend a new book, <Medical Black Technology>.

Introduction:

Chen Chang'an's father often said.

"Medical devices are never simple!"

Even a tiny stitch involves a complex and sophisticated process!

Chen Chang'an started with a single absorbable collagen suture, then moved on to ventilators, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), oxygen concentrators, pacemakers... and even MRI scanners, physiological recorders, large X-ray machines, CT scanners, and PET-CT!

Even more advanced than this era are medical robots, implantable prosthetics, induced pluripotent stem cells, autologous cloning pods, organ transplant life support devices, artificial eyes, and the maintenance and upkeep of multifunctional prosthetics.

Many years later, looking back, he realized that he had quietly stood at the pinnacle of global medical technology.