Five Reagents

Because of Feng Buzhi's successive abnormal actions, a small-scale disturbance broke out in the town's central square.

The disturbance had little impact. After all, not many people came to the square to exchange food after dark.

Before long, calm returned to the area around the square.

The bearded pirate Pei Chao ultimately joined the Mutual Aid Society.

However, Pei Chao did not agree to become the Mutual Aid Society's exploration captain. Instead, he became a relatively free explorer, essentially an unofficial member.

He could join a team to explore the Mist whenever he wanted, or stay out of it if he did not.

But as long as he explored with a team, he had to follow the team's rules and could not act recklessly.

As a benefit of joining the Mutual Aid Society, Pei Chao could receive one psychological treatment each day from Dr. Norton and Professor Li Lin to ease the effects that the Eerie Whisper in the Mist had on his mind.

In truth, because of his dislike for Wang Chen, Pei Chao had originally decided not to join the Mutual Aid Society after giving it some thought.

The only reason he joined was Feng Buzhi.

That was right. While Pei Chao was hesitating and preparing to refuse, Feng Buzhi accepted Wang Chen's proposal and decided to receive treatment at the Mutual Aid Society's psychiatric hospital. Seeing this, Pei Chao could only choose to join as well.

Feng Buzhi exercised his newly repaired right arm as he followed Dr. Norton ahead of him.

His right arm had been repaired, but it did not quite match the rest of his body. Its strength and durability were much weaker.

That was because his body had already undergone [Basic Cultivation Assistance] twice, while his repaired right arm was merely his original arm, so its durability was insufficient.

"It looks like I'll need to use [Basic Cultivation Assistance] on my right arm twice before it can return to a state that matches my whole body."

Feng Buzhi murmured softly.

Without giving it much thought, they had arrived at the Mutual Aid Society's psychiatric hospital.

Though it was called a psychiatric hospital, it was actually an abandoned, dilapidated church with extremely crude conditions.

It was roughly divided into two areas.

The front area was mainly used to provide ordinary Mutual Aid Society members with psychological treatment. When Feng Buzhi arrived, someone there was receiving hypnosis and psychological suggestion therapy.

The church hall in the rear housed humans who had completely lost their minds. Seven patients affected by the Mist were tied up with ropes to prevent them from doing anything incomprehensible.

Several rotting corpses lay in a corner of the hall as well, both human and Goblin.

"Doctor, Pei Chao has already left. Should we..."

An assistant walked over to Norton and spoke, then discreetly displayed the rope in his pocket.

According to Wang Chen's instructions, once Pei Chao left, they were to tie Feng Buzhi up.

Dr. Norton was around sixty years old, slightly plump, with a messy crop of short blond hair.

During a two-month stretch of high-intensity research, he had dozed off once. When he woke up, he found himself in this weird, ruined town.

After that, he joined the Mutual Aid Society created by Wang Chen.

Norton waved his hand. "No need. His behavior may be somewhat abnormal, but he hasn't shown any aggression. There's no need to treat him like these people."

As he spoke, Norton walked toward the seven tied-up humans. As he approached, they clearly became much more agitated. Blood even flowed from one person's mouth as he began laughing.

"Help me hold his head down."

Norton signaled to the assistant, then frowned and stepped forward, prying open the man's mouth for a careful look.

Norton said, "The wound where Number Two bit off his own tongue had already healed. He's torn it open again. Luo, go bring the reagent that was left to settle this morning."

The assistant, Luo Kang, nodded and soon carefully carried over a glass jar.

The glass jar contained a clear gray solution with a faint moldy smell, and a layer of sediment lay at its bottom.

Norton opened the jar, then used a spoon to scoop out some of the gray solution and pour it into Number Two's mouth.

At a speed visible to the naked eye, Number Two, who had been administered the reagent, calmed down. His breathing steadied, and his gaze turned blank and dull.

Norton said, "The calming effect is even better than I expected. Luo, continue administering the reagent to Number Three and Number Five. Use a ten-milliliter dose as well, then record their conditions."

Norton's research into these lunatics had already continued for four days. As for this reagent, Norton had accidentally created it two days ago.

The reagent's ingredients were simple: corpses that had rapidly decayed under the Mist's influence.

By using a homemade hand-cranked centrifuge to separate the decayed corpses, then allowing the upper liquid layer to settle, this transparent gray solution could be obtained.

At present, Norton and Li Lin were still testing the effects of this gray solution. They had only performed a small number of tests on these lunatics.

Feng Buzhi watched the solution in the glass jar held by Luo Kang from afar for a while, then looked at the bound man in front of him.

According to Norton's numbering, this man was Number Six.

As Feng Buzhi approached, the man's emotions quieted somewhat, while a puzzled expression appeared on his face, as if he had seen something familiar.

"Does my clothing seem familiar to you?"

Feng Buzhi looked at his bloodstained clothes, then at Number Six's blue-and-white striped patient uniform—the uniform of Lorenz Psychiatric Hospital.

This Number Six, whose build was similar to Feng Buzhi's, was the man whose clothes Feng Buzhi had stripped off back then.

It seemed he had been affected by the Mist and had now lost his mind.

Number Six's confused expression did not last. He quickly became furious, letting out a beast-like roar as though he wanted to tear Feng Buzhi to pieces.

Clearly, Number Six had realized that the clothes Feng Buzhi was wearing were his.

After that, Number Six became so agitated that Luo Kang soon poured ten milliliters of reagent into him as well, leaving him with a blank expression.

As for Feng Buzhi himself, perhaps because he was too quiet, Norton completely forgot about him.

After settling Feng Buzhi onto a stone bench in the church, Norton ignored him and focused on testing and studying the seven patients.

Time passed into the dead of night. Norton and his assistants began to rest, while the patients bound with ropes gradually quieted down as well.

After several hours of observation, Feng Buzhi had come to understand the makeup of this psychiatric hospital.

There were seven people in the hospital in total: two doctors and five assistants.

Professor Li Lin was responsible for providing psychological treatment to those who were relatively normal. Dr. Norton occasionally helped, but most of the time he was researching these severely afflicted lunatics.

In the utterly silent church, Feng Buzhi rose to his feet and silently moved over to the reagents Norton had prepared.

Norton had prepared a total of five reagents. The one used today was only one of them.

All five reagents were made from rotting corpses. Only the preparation methods differed somewhat, so their effects probably would not differ much.

Feng Buzhi soon picked up the first reagent and took a small sip from it...