Long-Handled Lamp

"Of course, it isn't just us. Keeper and Mad Dog from the Ares Guild haven't found any information either!" An Nian added.

Wonderful, just wonderful. Yin Chao applauded inwardly. She had not only sold out her teammates, but her opponents too.

Still, that was hardly surprising. Probably very few people would imagine that the Luo Lingyue in the instance had not only a false identity, but a false gender as well.

He curved his lips, leaned closer to An Nian, and whispered, "Don't tell the others. I've been hiding among the patients."

They were so close that An Nian could see her own nervous reflection in his pale eyes. She held her breath, as though the person before her were an angel who had fallen to earth.

Suddenly, an immense force pulled An Nian back from behind. She stumbled backward several steps and into someone's arms.

She looked up and saw Long Zang's stern jawline.

Long Zang stared straight at Yin Chao, his gaze full of hostility. "Stay away from her," he told him.

This was Yin Chao's first time seeing Long Zang, the Miracle Squad's sniper. Calm, decisive, and perceptive-none of those words would be out of place describing this man he had only met once.

An Nian could sense the tension between them. She tugged at Long Zang's sleeve and whispered, "No, I know him. He's not a bad person..."

Before she could finish, a nurse hurried over and interrupted her.

This was a public space, after all. Even the slightest disturbance would draw onlookers.

"What's going on? What are you all doing?" the nurse shouted.

An Nian quickly moved away from Long Zang. "It's nothing, miss. I just almost fell."

The nurse seemed very fond of this sweet-looking, polite girl. Her attitude immediately changed, and she beamed. "As long as you're all right. Be more careful, little An."

"Okay! Thank you for looking out for me."

After that, An Nian no longer dared to interact much with Yin Chao.

The little incident at noon passed in a flash, and night arrived.

Once the lights were out and everyone was asleep, Yin Chao summoned Anna from the Myriad People Umbrella. "Should we charge straight into the special ward and take her away?"

Anna knew Yin Chao was asking for her opinion-or rather, asking whether she had a better approach.

"The Long-Handled Lamp can conceal your presence. Even human technology can be blocked if you don't want it to detect you."

Hearing Anna's words, Yin Chao finally remembered that he had yet to take out and examine the item he had obtained at Linmu No. 2 Middle School. He had not expected it to have such a use.

He concentrated, brought up his storage slots, and took out the Long-Handled Lamp.

It was a bronze candlestick the length of a forearm, shaped like a tree with spreading branches. At its top sat a candle as white as jade. It looked both intricate and antique.

Yin Chao asked, "How do I light it?"

He did not think an ordinary flame could ignite something like this.

"It needs blood. Anyone's blood will do," Anna said.

Yin Chao was afraid of pain, but cutting someone else on the spot could hardly be done silently. It might even create unnecessary trouble for him.

He turned his gaze to Anna. Understanding what he meant, she deftly sliced her index finger with a fingernail and dripped blood onto the candle.

The candlestick absorbed the dark red blood in an instant, but it did not light.

"Perhaps it's because I'm a ghost servant," Anna explained.

Yin Chao's brow twitched. Knowing there was no escape, he held out his left index finger and let Anna cut it.

Blood welled up along with a sharp pain. Yin Chao dripped it onto the candlestick, and the originally white candle instantly turned crimson.

The flickering red flame illuminated Yin Chao's face. Holding the candle before his chest, he said with a hint of excitement, "Let's go welcome our new companion."

Perhaps it was only his imagination, but after he spoke, the flame danced even more vigorously, like his racing heartbeat.

The journey went smoothly. Even when he encountered a night-duty nurse head-on, she showed no reaction.

It was as though he were nothing but air.

Yin Chao first went to the surveillance room. One wall was covered in small monitors, and the security guard on duty inside was dozing.

Yin Chao watched the people confined within those tiny screens: some curled up on their beds, some mechanically circling their beds without purpose, and others clawing at their own skin and hair.

Loneliness. Despair. Those two words filled Yin Chao's mind in that instant.

They were caged like wild beasts, aggressive and feral, stripped of their rights as human beings.

But wild beasts belonged in the wilderness.

An idea suddenly occurred to Yin Chao.

He turned and left the surveillance room, heading into the corridor of the special ward.

The eerie blue emergency lighting surrounded the red candlelight in his hand. Even if only for a moment, he wanted to let these wild beasts seek freedom.

It would also create some chaos to cover his escape after taking Luo Lingyue away.

Wherever Yin Chao passed, Anna followed behind, deftly smashing the locks on the doors.

Some people stood blankly inside their rooms, while others bolted outside.

Alarm after alarm rang out over the sanatorium.

At last, before the medical staff and security arrived, Yin Chao found Luo Lingyue.

She crouched by the door with her arms around her knees, like a small stray animal abandoned by its owner.

Yin Chao bent his knees and lowered himself onto one knee. "Luo Lingyue, come with me."

Luo Lingyue looked up, only then noticing Yin Chao holding the candlestick. She opened her mouth, and her first words were, unexpectedly, "Who am I? Am I Wang Ren... or..."

"You're Luo Lingyue. You're yourself," Yin Chao interrupted.

In his world, there was no such thing as mental illness, only his own kind and everyone else.

"No matter who you are," Yin Chao continued, "follow me. I need you. We're the same kind."

He held out his left hand, his eyes fixed on Luo Lingyue.

"I... we're the same kind..." Luo Lingyue murmured. These were words she had never heard before.

Scalding tears rolled down her cheeks, falling like the bleak days of her past onto the dark floor beyond the candlelight's reach.

Luo Lingyue took Yin Chao's left hand and stood up.

The revelry outside the room continued. She walked beside Anna behind Yin Chao, gradually leaving the clamor behind. Ahead lay an unknown that was quieter and darker still.

But what did that matter? Luo Lingyue grinned and laughed from the bottom of her heart, looking a little deranged.

How could anyone cry and laugh at the same time? Anna gave her new companion a puzzled glance, then began laughing too.

[Beep beep. Unknown energy fluctuation detected.]

The system's voice sounded in Yin Chao's mind. He stopped, and darkness gradually swallowed his surroundings.

"Oh, right." Anna remembered something. "The Long-Handled Lamp's energy is too powerful. If you use it in the real world, it may open a gateway to an instance."

Yin Chao laughed in exasperation. "You might as well wait until I'm inside the instance to tell me."

[Beep. Welcome to the B-rank instance: Fortune-Blessed Village.]