"Treatment"
As Lumian walked past the main building and saw the detached building housing the Psychiatry Department, her phone vibrated.
This is WeChat message from Franca:
"I've arrived near Mushu Hospital; my car is parked diagonally across the street."
"Okay, I'm going to go to the Psychiatry Department," Lumian replied using voice input.
He then put his phone in airplane mode to avoid any unexpected incidents such as unwanted calls during his trip.
He then activated the Contract Mark below his left shoulder, transforming himself into Shadow Creature.
He currently does not know which room or library Li Keji is locked in in the mental ward, so he cannot "Teleportation" Past directly and needs to search for him. Moreover, "Shadow Transformation" is more concealed and less likely to be discovered than "Hide in the Shadows".
Lumian's body rapidly thinned and darkened, merging with his shadow cast by the Sunlight, frozen alone on the concrete ground.
He moved swiftly, using the shadows of walls, trees, and corridors to his way into the mental ward and sneak into the nearest room.
"Haha, haha." The Patient in the room was laughing incessantly, bending over with laughter, tears streaming from the corners of his eyes.
For some reason, Lumian also felt an urge to burst into wild laughter, as if he had been infected by the emotions of the person opposite him.
He glanced at the Patient, and after confirming that it wasn't Li Keji, he immediately retreated from the shadows behind the door.
Once back in the corridor, he quickly returned to normal.
Without any delay, Lumian went into the next room.
He suddenly became agitated, wanting to break free of the shadows and head straight for the Nurse' station to demand that they hand over Li Keji.
A series of shouts immediately echoed in his ears:
I'm not crazy! I'm not crazy!
"Caution can certainly handle most situations, but it cannot solve all problems."
"When the time comes to take risks, you still need to take risks!"
Lumian roughly determined Patient in the room was and silently retreated back into the corridor of the psychiatric ward.
He wandered in the shadows cast by various things and moved into another ward.
What came into his view was a Patient locked in Bed, as quiet as a Statues.
A wave of sadness and grief washed over Lumian; he felt a surge of rage and a desire to destroy himself.
He remained Rationality and did not linger in the room.
Having calmed down in the corridor, Lumian began to seriously consider what had just happened:
"Once you enter the ward, will you be infected by the corresponding mental Patient?" (https://m. hetushu. com. com)
"Mental illness has become contagious, similar to the behavior of the Humanoid Sealed Artifact we encountered before..."
"I understand, this is essentially Dream, and there are corresponding symbols for mental Patient."
"They symbolize the negative, frenzied, and extremely Irrationality emotions and spirits of the Dream Subconsciousness, and the interactions within Dream are essentially spiritual interactions, so once you get close, you will be influenced..."
Why are the Doctor and Nurse here still acting normally?
Do they symbolize the Dream Subconsciousness to suppress madness and extremes?
"From this perspective, even the suppressed thoughts of madness and extreme emotions can be contagious, which manifests in Dream as Doctor or Nurse occasionally going insane?"
"Yes, the Doctor, Nurse, medicines, and medical equipment here can all be used to combat the madness and extreme emotions inherent in Dream; they symbolize corresponding powers..."
Lumian turned his gaze to the nearby treatment cart, noticing the syringes and medicines displayed on it.
He felt that, in special circumstances, these things might be more useful and effective than the Healing Potion they carried.
They are part of the power of Dream.
Lumian understood the special circumstances of the psychiatric ward, maintained his Shadow Creature state, and moved faster and faster, glancing at each room only once to avoid being infected by the emotions of different Patient.
However, he neither found Li Keji nor the Mushrooms.
Not in the psychiatric ward? Lumian quickly left the area and went to the iron gate in the corner of the wall. Under the pretext of visiting Patient, he re-entered and went to the Nurse' station.
Wearing sunglasses and a mask, he said to the Nurse on duty, "I've come to visit Li Keji."
"Wait a little longer, the Patient has been taken for treatment and hasn't returned to the ward yet." The Nurse looked up at Lumian.
"Where were they sent for treatment?" Lumian suddenly had a bad feeling.
The Nurse explained simply, "It's on the basement level of the main building; there's specialized large equipment there."
On the basement level of the main building... Lumian nodded, turned around, and walked out of the Psychiatry Department.
On his way to the main building of Mushu Hospital, he regained cell phone signal and sent a message to Franca:
"Li Keji has been sent to the basement level; I plan to go look for him."
"If I haven't messaged you within fifteen minutes, have Ludwig come find your mother. That should be very useful on the basement level."
"If all else fails, the Corpse Oil Candle can still be used once, and the Honorific Name of the Director Ya can also be recited."
Lumian explained in such detail to tell Franca that he still had a way out, so she wouldn't risk coming to rescue him.
After a long pause, Franca replied briefly, "Be careful, and prioritize your own safety."
Lumian switched his phone to airplane mode again, transforming into Shadow Creature, and infiltrated the main building.
This time, he didn't choose the elevator, but instead wandered down the dark Safe Passage, step by step.
Upon arriving at the basement level and entering the elevator lobby, he saw a large glass door at the exit.
At this moment, the glass door was half open, and a wheelchair was placed inside, with a person sitting in it.
The man was wrapped in white Bandage all over his body, like a living Mummy.
Lumian suddenly felt a sense of familiarity.
His spiritual intuition told him that the man in the wheelchair was his "colleague," Old Ding, who had been injured by lightning at work.
How did Old Ding end up on the basement level? Where are his family members? Lumian carefully slipped past Old Ding from the shadows beside him.
The next second, he saw Old Ding laboriously extend his right hand and touch a piece of White Paper pasted on the half-open glass door.
The White Paper had a few words written on it:
"Medical facility, unauthorized personnel are prohibited from entering."
Lumian withdrew his gaze but did not stop his infiltration.
As Lumian wandered along the shadowy side of the corridor toward the area where Patient was suspected, he grew increasingly uneasy.
He subconsciously looked down and realized that he had unknowingly escaped the shadows and returned to being human.
His Contract Ability naturally failed!
Lumian also noticed that his clothes were slowly Change, resembling the standard Change of Caregiver at Mushu Hospital.
"This..." Lumian thought of Old Ding "Mummy" at the door, and the notice, and then of the characteristics of the illusory Abyss underground and the corresponding Pathway of the "Mother Tree of Desire," and quickly came to a guess:
This area is Curse!
The Curse reads: Unauthorized personnel are not permitted to enter!
In other words, unrelated people who enter will become related people, become Caregiver who frequently come and go, become Marionette of the illusory Abyss? Once Lumian understood this, he naturally knew how to break the Curse.
But he dared not do that.
His solution was to shout on the spot, "Mother, I am your child!"
The essence of this statement is to acknowledge oneself as the true Divine Child.
The power and influence of the "Great Mother" are clearly present on the basement floor of Mushu Hospital, as evidenced by the "Rebirth" in the Morgue.
Under this premise, the Divine Child of the "Great Mother" certainly does not belong to irrelevant personnel!
Lumian felt the Mutation in his body accelerating, and since he couldn't think of any other way, he had no choice but to activate the Black Mark on his right shoulder and "Teleportation" away from this layer.
He appeared in the Safe Passage on the first floor, which was deserted.
"Luckily, I was able to ' Teleportation ' out from the basement level, otherwise I would have had to use Corpse Oil Candle or chant the Honorific Name of the ' Magician ' Lady or the Director Ya... No, given the speed of the Mutation just now, the Mysticism Ritual wouldn't have had time to work..." Lumian looked down at himself and found that his clothes had returned to normal.
He transformed back into Shadow Creature and arrived at the entrance of the Safe Passage. While observing the elevator going up and down, he pondered how to reach the lower level and rescue Li Keji without becoming Orthodox God.
Lost in thought, Lumian saw a private elevator coming up from the basement level, and a Caregiver pushed out a transfer bed.
Two Nurse stood on either side of the transfer bed, and on the bed lay a man with a thick beard, closed eyes, and wearing a blue and white striped hospital gown.
That was Li Keji.
"Is the treatment over?" Lumian narrowed his eyes.
Was it too late after all?
He watched as Li Keji was pushed out of the elevator, followed him in the shadows all the way out of the main building and back to the Psychiatry Department.
After confirming Li Keji's ward, Lumian went outside first. Behind a row of Green Trees, she took out her phone, switched modes, and sent a message to Franca:
"I was unable to go deep into the negative level because it was Curse, and I was forced to leave prematurely."
"Now that Li Keji has completed his 'treatment' and returned to his ward, I plan to sneak in and check on his condition. If he cannot be saved, I will carry out the cleanup plan."
Franca quickly replied, "If cleaning is too troublesome, we can give up for now and take Ludwig to try."
"I think he's very effective against food-type enemies, like Mushrooms."
That makes sense... Lumian replied with a simple "Okay," and stuffed the phone directly into the "Traveler’s Bag."
There might be a battle coming up, so you need to protect your phone.
Not long after, Lumian, in the form of Shadow Creature, slipped through the crack in Li Keji's ward door and quietly grew taller and taller in front of the Bed.
He looked around, then gazed at Li Keji, who was still Slumber, and began to assess the other's condition.
Suddenly, Li Keji opened his eyes and sat up.
Upon seeing that it was Lumian-na, he smiled sincerely.
I've discovered the essence!
I did it!
Lumian's expression suddenly Change.
He saw Li Keji's chest swell up, two large Mushrooms puffing up his hospital gown, overflowing with Milk, while on Li Keji's abdomen, Mushrooms Aggregation flesh and blood wriggled and tore through his clothes, as if creating a Blood-Colored, real, and directly exposed Womb.