The Other Side

"Call the other wardens and tell them what just happened," Xia Shou told Wang Long.

In this incident, the anomalous patients hadn't actually posed much of a threat at first.

With the right response, the damage could have been kept to a minimum.

But once one of their kind died, the remaining anomalous patients' mobility would skyrocket. Once they could move as well as ordinary people, their lethality would be virtually on par with military biological weapons.

The anomalous patient whose limbs Xia Shou had just crippled now lay motionless on the floor. It seemed to be dead.

The Anomalous Entities elsewhere in the hospital had probably grown stronger again.

Although Xia Shou had told Wang Long to call and warn the other wardens, he knew there was a very good chance they had already been wiped out.

"I can't get through... No one's answering." Wang Long hung up.

Xia Shou wasn't surprised. This was entirely within his expectations.

"Have everyone here hide in their rooms and lock the doors and windows. Don't let anyone in."

He had no intention of taking ordinary people to the other side of the closed domain.

The other side wasn't necessarily any safer.

Before Liu Dong died, he had kept muttering that he only needed one more. This seemed to suggest that something on the other side was hunting the ordinary people in the hospital as prey. That space might be even more terrifying and dangerous than this one.

"Dr. Wang, bring Liu Guangyao and come with me," Xia Shou said.

This place might be connected to the Blood God. As they explored further, Liu Guangyao might recall some more crucial information.

Although Wang Long was an ordinary person, his medical knowledge could help Xia Shou. If they encountered another situation that required surgery, Xia Shou would need him there to provide instructions.

"All right. I'll go tell them now. Give me three minutes." Wang Long nodded wearily.

In truth, Wang Long already considered himself half dead. As an insider at the Containment Bureau, he lacked the specialized skills to handle supernatural threats, but he still knew the basics.

Calling a closed domain a death domain was no exaggeration. Their desperate struggle to survive might only postpone their deaths by a few hours.

While Wang Long went to find Liu Guangyao, Xia Shou released his black shadow and began devouring the now-lifeless patient Anomalous Entity. As the anomalous patient gradually sank into the shadow, the progress bar before Xia Shou's eyes rapidly advanced.

As he had expected, this Anomalous Entity wasn't particularly difficult to digest. His devouring progress increased smoothly.

[Devouring progress: 100%]

[Devouring complete. You have acquired the incomplete skill-[Shared Misery]]

[Description: Humanity's baseness lies in wishing others to suffer the same pain when you are suffering yourself.]

[Effect: Through physical contact, you can transmit your body's unpleasant sensations to the person you touch. This effect remains active throughout contact and persists for 30 seconds after contact ends. (Only affects humanoid creatures of similar size.)]

[Cost: While the effect is active, your own discomfort doubles.]

[Note: This skill is incomplete. Acquiring the complete skill will further improve both its effect and its cost.]

"Fine. It's a self-torture skill, but it's better than nothing," Xia Shou said to console himself.

The skill he had acquired this time was incomplete. Xia Shou suspected that was because he had only devoured one Anomalous Entity.

Since these anomalous patients were connected to one another, they probably counted as a single whole. To acquire the complete skill, he would have to devour them all.

Of course, he had no energy to spare for that right now.

They were trying to survive, after all, not farming monsters in a dungeon.

Just as Xia Shou finished devouring the patient, Wang Long arrived with Liu Guangyao.

Liu Guangyao was much calmer now, but he still looked rather dull and dazed.

"I'll take care of him. Just focus on what you need to do," Wang Long said.

Wang Long knew Xia Shou was their only hope of getting out alive. The only thing he could do was keep Xia Shou from being distracted.

"Then... let's go." Xia Shou went to the window at the end of the corridor, gripped the sill, and climbed over to the other side. The others climbed through after him, arriving on the opposite side one by one.

"Is this a hospital too? I smell disinfectant." Su Weiyu sniffed.

"It seems like it, but not quite. Still, a corridor this long probably wouldn't be in a private home. It must be some sort of public building," Xia Shou said, looking down the corridor stretching dozens of meters before them.

Every corner of the corridor's walls and floor was covered in overlapping circles, intricate geometric patterns, stylized images of internal organs, and masses of unfamiliar writing. It resembled some kind of ritual array, filling the entire corridor with a religious atmosphere.

"I feel like I've seen these somewhere before," Liu Guangyao murmured as he stared at the patterns.

"Have you seen this place in your dreams?" Xia Shou asked cautiously.

Liu Guangyao hurriedly shook his head. "No, I've never seen this place. But these patterns... they look a little familiar, though I can't remember... We're really not dreaming, are we?"

"That's right. We're not dreaming. Think it over carefully, and tell me if you remember anything."

By now, Xia Shou was all but certain that this anomalous domain was connected to the Blood Demon!

Xia Shou took a few more steps forward. Suddenly, a hazy cloud of mist appeared out of thin air in front of them.

All four stopped in their tracks and stared fixedly at the mist.

The mist coalesced in the air into the figure of a little girl. She then trotted to the corner at the end of the corridor, pointed in one direction, and turned back to look at them.

"Could anything that appears in this hellhole be good?" Xia Shou asked suspiciously.

"It is suspicious, but at least she isn't one of the doctors Liu Dong mentioned," Su Weiyu said. "Since she isn't a doctor, maybe we can try trusting her."

"Let's follow her for now and see." Xia Shou checked the remaining cooldown on [Death Road].

Twelve hours remained. It felt like an eternity.

Following the ghostly little girl, they rounded the corner and wound their way through the building. In the end, they actually left the building and emerged into an open outdoor space!

Once outside, they finally confirmed that this was indeed another hospital. They were now in its garden, but its layout differed from that of an ordinary hospital. At its very center stood a strange, fortress-like building.

The fortress's exterior formed a perfectly regular octagonal prism, with a window on each of its eight sides and only one door at the base.

Many doctors in white coats prowled around the fortress. Carrying all manner of weapons, they roamed the surrounding lawns along fixed routes, seemingly guarding against outsiders approaching.