Grotesque Hospital

Everything in this secret realm was incredibly bizarre.

Finding herself alone, Nan Zhi activated her Hiding Art and rose into the air upon a mist, only to find the sky was a hazy gray with no end and no upper limit.

Looking down from above, the entire secret realm resembled an irregular hexagon.

The sky was round and the earth was flat. Across both sides of the ground, buildings of different styles from various eras were mixed together, as chaotic and messy as wild grass growing by the roadside.

Out of a thatched straw hut, a hundred-meter-tall building grew straight up. On a dilapidated asphalt road, oxen were driving humans to pull carts.

Buildings like hospitals, post offices, and department stores filled with 1950s style were stacked in an extremely bizarre and illogical manner, resembling building blocks haphazardly piled up by a playing child.

Hills, lakes, dense forests, deserts, and rainforests—terrains and landforms belonging to entirely different climates—were crowded together.

Sopping wet camels swam in the lakes, their golden humps resembling hills. Occasionally, they would dip their heads underwater, using their teeth to search for and eat shellfish on the sandy bottom.

Fat red carp flapped their dorsal fins, swimming through clouds with a jelly-like texture.

Car-sized spiders extended their eight dark, long legs, scurrying rapidly through the humid rainforest, their slender mouthparts plunging into flowers to suck nectar as thick as blood.

Even the world's top geologists would question their very existence upon seeing this.

—Was this the Ghost City of Ultimate Bliss?

“Go!”

Snapping out of her daze, Nan Zhi immediately pinched her fingers to recite a spell, sending out four paper figures in four different directions.

For some reason, she had not encountered anyone else after entering the secret realm.

Fortunately, this secret realm was not large, with an area only about two-thirds the size of Tailande. The paper figures she sent out soon sent back feedback:

Qin Yue and the others had also successfully entered the secret realm.

Ghost Sand had very distinct features and was easy to identify. Besides, apart from the Ghost King, there was not much danger in the secret realm worth worrying about.

Therefore, Nan Zhi had no intention of meeting up with them.

—Pretending to be a low-level cultivator was truly painful, and moving together with the official authorities would inevitably tie her hands.

Her target was the Ghost King.

Nan Zhi released her divine sense, searching carefully through the secret realm.

Her contract with the Dragon Girl had also provided her with feedback. In just a few days, the range of her divine sense had nearly doubled, far exceeding that of cultivators of the same rank.

Sure enough, in less than the time it took to drink a cup of tea, a particularly eye-catching red dot representing an enemy force appeared on the system map:

【Ba Yan Ghost King (Pseudo): Level 40】

The red dot was well hidden, concealed inside a dilapidated building that looked like an abandoned hospital.

As her divine sense swept over it, everything inside the building was revealed to Nan Zhi, and she could not help but raise an eyebrow.

It was a building that looked quite old. Two moss-covered pillars stood in front of the entrance, and the glass doors were half-ajar. A strange, bloody scent mixed with the smell of disinfectant filled the green corridors.

A crooked red cross symbol hung askew on the main entrance, behind which were rusty steel bars broken down to nothing but their frames.

Inside the hospital wards, those lying there were not human patients, but groaning and wailing ghosts.

Ghost doctors and ghost nurses dressed in dirty white coats held illusory chainsaws and iron hammers, smiling merrily as they dismembered the patients, completely ignoring their piercing screams.

Intact ghosts walked into the hospital, and the doctors sawed off their heads and arms like performing magic tricks. Like a circus act, every single ghost appeared exceptionally happy:

“Superb medical skills, bringing the dying back to life!”

“Wonderful! My head doesn't hurt anymore!”

“I hope you die a horrible death, hehehe!”

“I hope you reincarnate soon!”

A familiar voice drifted over. Nan Zhi focused her gaze and realized it was actually an acquaintance.

...

“Mmph, mmph!”

Basong Zhalunpeng opened his eyes, but his surroundings were not the familiar Baoshan Temple.

The pungent smell of disinfectant filled the air, and sharp, agonizing screams echoed in his ears.

He desperately turned his head, only to find his entire body strapped down with leather belts to a dilapidated bed, completely unable to move.

His military uniform, which symbolized his status, had been replaced with blue-and-white striped hospital scrubs stained with various shades of brown marks.

Basong recognized that these layered stains were oxidized blood.

Where was this?

A hospital?

He should have been at Baoshan Temple, attending the wedding of the Ba Yan God.

For this wedding, Basong Zhalunpeng had specially invited multiple media outlets to publicize the power of the Ba Yan God. His goal was to elevate the great exorcist Sashu onto a pedestal, thereby increasing his own local prestige.

Was it a kidnapping? What did they want? Ransom, or organs?

Damn it!

Few knew that the largest organ-trafficking organization in the underground black market of Manggu was actually one of Basong's properties.

In his eyes, a healthy, ordinary person could be viewed as a collection of hot-selling commodities from head to toe.

Eyes, one hundred thousand dollars.

Heart, two hundred thousand dollars.

Kidneys, thirty thousand dollars.

Blood—as long as the blood type was rare—could sell for five hundred dollars per liter.

Who had made a move against him?

Was it a political rival bent on seizing power, or the family members of gamblers whom he had driven to ruin?

Was it an undercover police officer he had once ordered to be thrown into the sea to feed the sharks, or was someone purging opposition?

Could it be that the great exorcist Sashu had betrayed him?

Basong Zhalunpeng's mind raced. He tried to call out for help, but suddenly sensed that something was slightly off.

Why did the decor here look so incredibly familiar?

The blackened walls, the tall, shattered floor-to-ceiling windows, the yellow-and-white medical privacy curtains, the familiar room layout, and the statue of the Virgin Mary covered in a thick layer of dust on the table...

A sudden chill crept up the back of his neck.

This was the church hospital that had been demolished by explosives back in the 1980s, which originally stood next to Baoshan Temple!

This was a building that should not exist!

How could he possibly appear inside a building that had been demolished long ago?!

Was this a dream?!

“Mmph!! Mmph!”

Basong struggled violently, like a fish thrashing on a chopping board due to a lack of water.

A doctor with a neck as slender as a snake and wearing a large surgical mask appeared before him.

“Ah, esteemed patient, please do not be afraid. Your scheduled surgery to remove your heart, eyeballs, kidneys, and testicles is about to begin.

You are deeply wicked, and your crimes are too numerous to record. Your organs are very popular; everyone wants some!”

Livor mortis spots covered his entire body. His chest and abdomen were wide open, completely hollow inside.

Was this a dream, or a grotesque reality?

No, even if they were yin spirits, they had no right to judge him!

He had the protection of the Ba Yan God! He also carried a divine amulet personally crafted by the great exorcist Sashu!

“Ah!”

Basong's eyes practically split with rage. Driven by an intense desire to survive, the leather belts snapped with a sharp crack. He leaped outward, but failed to escape, instead crashing heavily onto the floor.

“Ah, ah, ah...”

Basong's lips trembled as he shook with fear, lifting his hospital scrubs.

In the next second, he completely broke down.

His legs were severed cleanly from below the calves, his feet long gone. As he dragged himself, he left behind two smears of bright red blood.

What caused Basong to break down even further was that as the medical curtain was pulled back, he saw Sashu lying on another hospital bed, his chest and abdomen split wide open, eyes staring blankly in death.

In the ward, countless doctors and nurses with missing organs gathered together, their mouths stretching wide into eerily similar, fanatical smiles.

“I want his kidneys.”

“I want his palms.”

“Hehehe, I'm still missing an ear.”

“I want his eyes.”

“I want his **.”

“Hehehe... I want his blood.”

More and more ghostly figures lunged forward, piling onto Basong one by one. Horrifying sounds of chewing and swallowing echoed alongside the man's screams, sending shivers down anyone's spine.

“Aaaaargh!”

“Spare me, spare me...”

“Help! Help!!”

The screams eventually faded into silence.

A moment later, a new round of torture began.