Behind the Door

[Blood Rampage]!

The wounds on Xia Shou's severed limbs, which had barely been bleeding, suddenly spilled torrents of blood that flew behind him.

Xia Shou had put himself in the Heart Doctor's shoes. If he were the Heart Doctor, this would be the best moment to launch a surprise attack.

When an enemy believed victory was assured and delivered the final, executionary blow to one of your teammates, their physical and mental defenses were at their weakest. A surprise attack at that moment would have a success rate approaching 100%!

Moreover, Xia Shou was certain the Heart Doctor would attack Su Weiyu. She was now the most threatening opponent, while a cripple like him, with all four limbs severed, posed no threat at all.

From Xia Shou's current position, he could not see anything behind him, so that blood attack had been a purely instinctive counterattack.

And he had never expected to hit the enemy. He did not think he could be that lucky.

Instead, he had attacked Su Weiyu!

Su Weiyu tilted her head, instinctively dodging the blood arrow that shot toward her face-and, by chance, the scalpel that would have pierced her neck.

A flicker of confusion crossed her eyes before her gaze abruptly sharpened. Without hesitation, she raised the Boy Cutter, turned, and delivered an utterly decisive horizontal slash.

Like a paper cutter, the blade smoothly sliced the corpse behind her in two.

Su Weiyu flicked her wrist, and the Boy Cutter blurred into countless afterimages, weaving a net of blades around her. The tightly gridded slashes formed an absolute cutting zone, shredding the piles of corpses on both sides.

The sword technique Minamoto no Yorimitsu had once used to slay Shuten Doji was now reproduced through her.

She ignored the already beheaded Hand Doctor and stepped forward, going straight to Xia Shou. Bending down, she picked up his limbless body and slung him over her shoulder.

At the same time, her other hand swept the sword diagonally upward to her right rear, beheading a corpse that had just climbed to its feet.

Then Su Weiyu raced down the corridor, slashing wildly, sending half-rotted limbs flying everywhere.

Unlike the Hand Doctor, whose two keys granted an ability they had no answer to, the Heart Doctor's strength lay in disguise and that first surprise attack against an unprepared opponent.

And now, the enemy's greatest advantage was gone!

Su Weiyu swung her sword in silence.

The blade danced wildly!

It took her only eight seconds to slash her way from one end of the corridor to the other.

Once every corpse had been cut down, the scattered body parts on the floor and the Hand Doctor lying nearby began turning into black ash. The final three keys emerged amid the ashes.

"There they are!"

Su Weiyu's eyes lit up. She hurriedly picked up the three keys, then set Xia Shou on the floor. "How are you doing? We've got all the keys."

"It looks like it really is over." Xia Shou could feel that his heart had stopped beating. He had to rely on Blood Rampage to keep blood circulating through his body.

"Quick, put the Heart Key into the shadow," Xia Shou urged.

He had to seal the new key immediately, or Wang Long would die.

The black shadow beneath him analyzed the new key. Finally, chains made of multicolored flames pulled it into the shadow, and the scale in Xia Shou's left eye began sinking a little faster again.

"Help me pick up my hands and feet."

"Give me a second. I'll get them right away!"

Su Weiyu hurriedly retrieved Xia Shou's severed hands and feet.

Holding the still-warm hands and feet, she hesitantly passed them to Xia Shou. "Um... are you sure these can still be used?"

"I don't know. I just think regenerating an entire arm would use too much blood. Ideally, I could regenerate the missing tissue around the wounds and reattach my hands and feet. That way, I wouldn't waste too much blood," Xia Shou said.

Xia Shou did not seal the other two Hand-and-Foot Keys, lest he sink too quickly in the Root Sea.

When they returned to the first floor, a deathly pale Wang Long was waiting there.

Seeing Xia Shou return alive, Wang Long wore an expression filled with both despair and hope. His voice trembled as he said, "My heart stopped just now."

"Doctor Wang, I think we might actually survive." A smile touched Xia Shou's lips.

"Really?" Wang Long's eyes widened. He could scarcely believe his ears.

"Not necessarily, but we'll soon find out whether we can get out." Xia Shou looked at the enormous circular lock set into the doors and nodded to Su Weiyu.

Su Weiyu inserted the Hand Key into the keyhole and gently turned it.

"Click!"

"...Clack, clack, clack... clack."

Precision gears turned, mechanisms sprang open, and grooves slotted together.

Next came the second key, the Foot Key.

Now the Eye, Ear, Hand, and Foot Keys had all opened their corresponding locks. Only the final key, the Heart Key, remained.

Xia Shou had Su Weiyu take the Heart Key out of his shadow. That way, even if Wang Long noticed something odd about the black shadow, he would not find it strange.

Su Weiyu's ability to go unnoticed would make Wang Long regard the interaction between her and the shadow as perfectly natural.

"Click!"

Every lock had been opened. The enormous disc began rotating, and after one full revolution, it split down the middle. Then the two iron doors slowly swung open, and a bitter herbal smell tinged with the earthy stink of mud drifted out.

Unless something unexpected happened, Idrisu would be behind those doors.

The diary had mentioned that Idrisu had no combat ability. They only needed to stop the treatment to dispel the Sanatorium Domain.

The ward beyond the doors was enormous, with a great many organs floating in the air.

Lungs, kidneys, livers, hearts... countless internal organs hung all around like wind chimes, held aloft by some mysterious force.

Their surfaces had the fresh coloring of healthy organs, and they still possessed considerable vitality. Bright red hearts beat powerfully at a steady rhythm, while lungs contracted and expanded as they breathed.

At the very center of the room stood a large bed. Beside it was a humanoid creature wearing an eagle-feather headdress and a brown bear pelt.

The creature had multiple long, slender black arms. Black scalpels, hemostats, and other surgical instruments grew at their ends, as though those tools were parts of its body.

Xia Shou and Su Weiyu cautiously approached, observing the mysterious creature from the side at a distance.

The creature had no face. A pale bird skull occupied the place where its face should have been.

For a moment, Xia Shou could not tell whether it was a mask or the creature's face.

Before the creature was an enormous hospital bed, with a little girl lying on it. Her eyes were tightly closed, and she held a fairy-tale book in her hands. Her complexion was rosy and healthy.

If not for her opened abdominal cavity

, which contained a massive growth of tumor tissue, Xia Shou would never have thought she was a patient.

Idrisu stood before the bed, silent as a statue, precisely cutting away the tumor with the black scalpel in its hand.

The creature did not speak, yet a strange thought appeared in both Xia Shou's and Su Weiyu's minds.

The creature wanted them to leave, because it was treating a patient.