The Divine Kingdom's Upgrade, the Forbidden Hospital's Prototype

After a harrowing forty-eight hours, Su Bai finally returned to his shabby but cozy home after school.

As usual, he first went into the inner room to check on his mother. After taking the second dose of Heart-Clearing Life-Prolonging Powder, her complexion had grown rosier, and even her violent coughing had subsided considerably. She was sleeping peacefully now.

Su Bai quietly withdrew to his little cubicle, locked the door, and sat cross-legged on the somewhat rickety wooden bed.

The intense fighting and constant tension of the past few days had left him deeply exhausted. But whenever he thought of the explosive haul he had made at Benevolent Heart Hospital, he felt full of energy.

"Time to count my spoils and do some serious infrastructure building."

Su Bai closed his eyes, and his consciousness instantly sank into the Wasteland Divine Kingdom within him.

The Divine Kingdom now covered thirty square kilometers, its area a full three times greater than when it had first awakened.

The layer of gray-black pollution fog in the sky had grown denser, and a faint dark-red glow of blood even shone through it. The air was filled with more than simple dark matter; it also carried extreme fear, resentment, and despair.

In the center of the wasteland still stood the dilapidated school building and the moss-covered Thirteen Steps, along with the Midnight School Bus, parked by the roadside and rumbling in a low voice.

But on a stretch of barren land several hundred meters away, an earthshaking transformation was taking place.

A massive complex of buildings, shrouded in thick black fog, was slowly rising from the earth.

It was the prototype of the Forbidden Hospital, a large, composite ghost-story scenario automatically spawned by the system after Su Bai devoured the third-tier Anomaly, the Benevolent Heart Director, along with the entire third basement floor!

A gigantic outpatient building, an eerie inpatient wing, and an emergency entrance bearing a deathly pale cross gradually took form on the wasteland.

The complex looked far larger than the abandoned school building. Its walls were covered in dark-red, dried bloodstains, and twisted human figures flashed past its windows from time to time, as though countless tormented souls were imprisoned inside forever.

[Ding! Host detected entering the Divine Kingdom.]

[Hidden ghost-story building: 'Forbidden Hospital' prototype has been generated.]

[Due to a lack of sufficient high-level medical-type vengeful spirits of the third tier or above, the hospital is currently in a semi-activated state and cannot be used as an offensive Domain.]

[Current hospital passive function: 'Flesh Reorganization.' Low-level corpses, resentment, and polluted materials placed in the hospital by the host can be mass-converted through a surgical assembly line into mindless first-tier 'caregivers' or 'patients' for use as the Divine Kingdom's basic cannon fodder.]

Hearing the system's notifications, Su Bai rubbed his chin.

It was a pity he hadn't directly unlocked a complete third-tier killing Domain, but the passive Flesh Reorganization function was practically a divine skill!

What did he lack most right now? Basic cannon-fodder troops!

If he encountered another situation like the one with Gu Chengfeng, who had sent an army of ten thousand charging at him, he couldn't rely on Hongdou and the school bus to wear them down every time. With this hospital, he could turn his enemies' corpses from trash into treasure and build a "zombie army" of his own!

"As expected of a building dropped by a third-tier monster. It's incredibly useful."

With a thought from Su Bai, an invisible force swept into motion.

The corpses of the dozen or so low-level mutated monsters he had hacked to death in the Benevolent Heart Hospital lobby, along with the mangled limbs of the second-tier killers he had taken out at the abandoned chemical plant, were all swept up and thrown straight through the Forbidden Hospital's pitch-black doors.

Soon, the scalp-tingling sounds of chainsaws, bones being pieced together, and piercing screams came from deep within the hospital.

In less than ten minutes, the emergency entrance burst open with a bang.

Dozens of monsters in bloodstained caregiver uniforms staggered out, rusty syringes and scalpels in their hands and blank looks in their eyes. They lined up neatly at the hospital entrance, like a deathly still guard unit.

This was Su Bai's first batch of assembly-line cannon fodder!

"Good. Once I get more stock in the future, this hospital will definitely become our enemies' nightmare."

After getting the hospital settled, Su Bai turned his attention to Hongdou in the center of the wasteland.

Hongdou stood quietly at the top of the Thirteen Steps. Her once-shabby red dress had become so vivid it seemed ready to drip, as though it had just been pulled from a pool of blood.

After absorbing a great deal of fear points and the resentment of the second-tier killers, Hongdou's aura had grown deeper and more terrifying. There were faint signs that she was about to break through the second tier and advance toward the rules of the third tier.

"Hongdou, it's time for you to level up too."

Su Bai withdrew his consciousness and pulled the priceless "supreme-grade miniature second-tier spirit vein core" from his schoolbag, along with the pile of incompatible spiritual medicines and magical artifacts he had looted from Venomous Bee's ring.

Precious as these things were, they were scrap in his Wasteland Divine Kingdom. He had to exchange them for pure resentment crystals before he could help Hongdou break through.

"Looks like I need to make another trip to the black market."

Night fell, and Su Bai made his way to the Night Owl Market with practiced ease.

He headed to the same shady shop called Machinery and Flesh.

The burly bald man, Iron Hand, was listlessly wiping the counter. When he saw the young man in a baseball cap and tracksuit walk in, his mechanical eye nearly popped right out of its socket.

"Young... Young Master Su?! You're still alive?!" Iron Hand cried out in shock.

He had spent many years in the underground black market, so naturally he was extremely well informed. Although the City Appearance Bureau had forcibly suppressed news of what happened yesterday at Warehouse No. 3 of the abandoned chemical plant in the eastern suburbs, word had long since spread through the underworld.

More than thirty elite killers from the Shadow Guild, along with the Gu Family's death warriors, had been wiped out to the last man! Aside from a few tire tracks, not a single hair had been left at the scene.

And the young man with a bounty on his head was standing here completely unharmed!

"What? Were you hoping I'd die?" Su Bai sneered, walked up to the counter, and tossed a bulging black backpack onto it.

"No, no, no! How could you say that, Young Master Su? You're my little benefactor! I'm hoping you live to a hundred!" Frightened, Iron Hand hurriedly forced a smile and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

"Cut the nonsense. Give me a price." Su Bai pointed at the backpack.

Iron Hand carefully unzipped it. One glance inside, and the sound of his sharp intake of breath echoed through the spacious shop.

"Good heavens... Is that a Deep Blue Poison Blade made especially for the Shadow Guild? And this... an Explosive Spirit Talisman exclusive to the Gu Family's death warriors?!"

The more Iron Hand saw, the harder his heart pounded. The backpack was filled with high-level equipment and magical artifacts taken from those killers and death warriors. This wasn't fencing stolen goods; he was clearly here to show off his battle record!

This harmless-looking high schooler really had wiped out so many experts single-handedly!

"Young Master Su, this... this batch of goods is too hot to handle." Iron Hand swallowed, his voice trembling. "If the Gu Family or the Shadow Guild traces it back here, I can forget about keeping this shop open."

"Just tell me: are you buying or not? If not, I'll find someone else." Su Bai made a move to take back the backpack.

"I'll buy it! Of course I'll buy it!" Iron Hand gritted his teeth, his merchant's instinct for profit overcoming his fear. Fortune favored those who took risks. If he reworked these goods and sold them elsewhere, he would make an enormous profit!

"How much altogether, including this spirit vein core?" Su Bai slapped the milky-white stone onto the counter.

Iron Hand rapidly worked his abacus. After quite a while, he finally looked up, his face flushed red.

"Young Master Su, for the goods and the core, I'll offer you twelve million in Great Xia Currency! That's definitely a fair price!"

Twelve million!

Su Bai's heart gave a sudden thump, but his expression remained unchanged.

"I don't want money. Exchange it all for the highest-purity non-attribute resentment crystals, and high-level polluted flesh materials."

Iron Hand froze, then looked at Su Bai as though he were a madman.

Twelve million, all exchanged for polluted garbage? Was this kid trying to create a god, or a demon?!

But under Su Bai's icy gaze, Iron Hand didn't dare ask any more questions and immediately ordered his men to fetch the goods.

An hour later.

Su Bai walked out of the black market in high spirits, carrying a special radiation-proof backpack filled with high-level resentment crystals and rare polluted materials.

With these resources, Hongdou's breakthrough to the third tier was as good as nailed down. Even the Thirteen Steps and the Midnight School Bus could be significantly strengthened.

As Su Bai walked home, his phone suddenly vibrated.

It was a notification sent to everyone in the class group chat.

Qin Wan, homeroom teacher: "Attention, all third-year students. Next Monday, the entire school will travel seventy kilometers outside the city to the Mist Canyon, a moderately polluted secret realm, for a three-day practical assessment."

"This assessment will be conducted in teams of five. The ten teams with the highest scores will qualify to represent the school in the citywide competition. Please form your own teams and submit the rosters before the weekend."

Su Bai stopped when he saw the message, a playful smile curling at the corners of his mouth.

"Mist Canyon? A moderately polluted secret realm?"

"Heh, those dogs the Gu Family planted at school probably can't wait to bite me in the secret realm."

Su Bai raised his head and looked at the deathly pale crescent moon in the night sky, undisguised killing intent flashing in his eyes.

"Then come on. As it happens, my Forbidden Hospital still needs a few attending physicians."