Upon entering the welfare home, the sense of dissonance brought by the excessive cleanliness became even stronger.
The courtyard was empty, with only the distorted, off-key nursery rhymes continuing to play on a loop.
Yue Shi's gaze swept across the area. Near the base of a wall not far from the main gate, a corpse lay on the ground.
The body was completely shriveled, the skin clinging tightly to the bones, with multiple lacerations across the torso.
Strangely, there wasn't a trace of blood around the wounds.
It appeared to have been sucked dry.
A damaged backpack lay discarded next to the corpse, its contents long gone.
Yue Shi lowered his gaze. Nearby were several faint, small footprints. They were tiny, belonging to children.
Aside from that, there was nothing else unusual in the courtyard.
No supernatural creatures, no traps—only the singing and that mummified corpse.
"Let's go in."
Yue Shi didn't linger in the yard, walking straight toward the door of the welfare home's main building.
Huang Fengjing swallowed hard, nervously following behind. His eyes kept darting toward the corpse and the footprints on the ground, terrified that something might leap out from a corner.
As he pushed open the door to the main building, the scent of old wood wafted over him.
The light in the foyer was dim, with only a few slivers of grayish-white daylight filtering in from the high windows.
Just inside, he saw graffiti on the walls on both sides.
The parts near the door featured crooked suns, smiling faces, and little figures holding hands drawn in crayon, reflecting a child's innocent joy.
However, as they moved deeper inside, the crayon colors gradually grew dark and somber, and the content took a sharp turn for the worse.
The smiling faces turned into crying ones, the figures holding hands became monsters tearing at each other, and the sun was colored black. The surroundings were filled with meaningless lines and spots.
Above the hallway, an old broadcast speaker was playing the nursery rhyme.
The Ghost attempted to possess and invade the broadcast system but felt a chaotic, viscous resistance.
"This thing isn't a conventional electronic device. It might be protected by the power of the supernatural domain. I can't hack it."
Yue Shi said nothing. The shadow beneath his feet rippled, and several ravens flew out, heading toward the second and third floors to begin a floor-by-floor search.
"This song is really unpleasant to listen to. It's making my head buzz, like mental contamination," Huang Fengjing couldn't help but speak up.
Yue Shi glanced at the broadcast speaker.
Screech!
A small spatial rift emerged, and the broadcast speaker was crushed and banished. After a final, piercing screech of static, it went completely silent.
The terrifying nursery rhyme came to an abrupt halt.
The group continued forward.
At the end of the hallway, a dirty old leather ball rolled slowly toward them.
There was no curiosity or inquiry in Yue Shi's eyes, only impatience.
He raised his foot and stepped down on the ball just as it rolled in front of him.
Bang!
The ball burst, and its filling was something dark red.
At the same moment the ball burst, an extremely shrill cry of a child suddenly echoed through the hallway.
Huang Fengjing shuddered.
Fortunately, the wail lasted only an instant before being cut off and vanishing.
Silence returned to the hallway.
Yue Shi expressionlessly kicked the ruined ball aside.
He had dealt with the Life Vine before and had some understanding of its way of existence.
Yet, since entering the welfare home, he hadn't found any vines, nor had he even seen a single ordinary green plant.
It was very suspicious.
The three continued forward, alert to their surroundings.
Suddenly, from a nearby room with its door slightly ajar, a "creak, thud" sound emerged, as if tables and chairs were being dragged.
Without hesitation, Yue Shi quickly entered the room.
It was a room similar to an activity room, quite large in size.
Small tables and chairs were scattered messily inside; some were overturned on the floor, while others were piled in corners.
The most striking feature of the room was a mural covering an entire wall.
The mural likely depicted a group photo of the Warm Children's Welfare Home.
A kind-faced director stood in the center, flanked by several smiling staff members, surrounded by a large group of children with bright smiles.
The colors were bright, and the background featured blue skies, white clouds, and the welfare home buildings.
"There are footprints, and more than one person's. These tables and chairs also show signs of being moved," Huang Fengjing said in a low voice.
The Ghost added, "The footprints are very fresh, looking like they were just left. But where are the people?"
Yue Shi's gaze moved slowly across the room, finally fixing on the mural.
He pointed to a corner of the mural. "Perhaps they are there."
Huang Fengjing and the Ghost looked in the direction he was pointing.
In the background of the warm and happy mural, where the earth met the sky, there were several blurry, dark humanoid silhouettes!
They were easy to miss if one didn't look closely.
They looked as if they had been forcibly stuffed into the painting, their postures struggling and pained, completely out of place against the bright background.
"You mean the people who were in the room before have all entered the painting?" Huang Fengjing's face turned pale.
He backed away in terror, distancing himself from the wall, afraid he would also be sucked in and become a distorted figure in the painting.
Yue Shi, however, walked up to the mural, reached out his right hand, and with his fingers mutated, he thrust them violently into the wall!
He was here to consume the great tonic that was the Life Vine; he had no interest in wasting time on these trivial things.
Large patches of the wall's surface, along with the brickwork beneath, began to decay, with debris and pigment powder falling in showers.
The warm group photo was destroyed. Vaguely, extremely faint screams could be heard from deep within the mural, filled with pain and resentment, but they soon dissipated without a trace.
Yue Shi turned a deaf ear to it, shaking the dust off his hands.
After the painting was destroyed, the entire welfare home seemed to become even quieter.
Returning to the hallway, the vertical eye on Yue Shi's forehead acted like a searchlight, scanning the first floor.
The ravens had already conducted a preliminary search of the second and third floors and found no one.
There weren't even the lowest-level wandering supernatural creatures, only some discarded bedding and miscellaneous items.
This was very abnormal. How could the core area of a supernatural domain be so quiet?
However, Yue Shi soon found an entrance to an underground passage on the first floor.
In a utility room filled with cleaning tools, the floor beneath a certain area was hollow.
Yue Shi lifted the floorboard, revealing a pitch-black hole extending downward.
Unpleasant cold air surged out from the opening.
Without hesitation, Yue Shi was the first to walk down.
Huang Fengjing took a deep breath, pulled out his phone, turned on the flashlight, and followed closely behind.
The light dispelled the darkness, illuminating the steps beneath their feet.
The Ghost floated at the very back.
After descending a long flight of stairs, the three finally arrived in a spacious basement.
As the phone light swept across, the first thing that came into view was a large pile of broken instruments, rusted and tangled with wires, clearly long since decommissioned.
In the center of the basement was a particularly striking metal table.
There were many dark stains around the metal table, and next to it was a small cart with various surgical instruments neatly arranged on it.
Scalpels, scissors, forceps, bone saws, several sealed boxes, and some tools of unknown purpose.
"This is an operating room? Why would a children's welfare home have a place like this?" the Ghost's voice was startled.
Huang Fengjing's expression instantly became extremely grim as he immediately thought of many terrible things.
Yue Shi said nothing, his eyes scanning every item in the basement.
Finally, his gaze landed on a metal cabinet in the corner.
The cabinet door wasn't locked and opened with a gentle tug.
Inside, besides rusted surgical instruments, a yellowed diary lay on the bottom shelf.
Yue Shi took it out.
"A diary?" The Ghost and Huang Fengjing leaned in, looking at each other.
"Who keeps a diary these days?" the Ghost quipped.
Huang Fengjing shared the sentiment. "Even if someone did write a diary, they probably wouldn't leave it in a place like this."
"This diary seems like it was left here on purpose for others to see."
Yue Shi ignored their discussion and flipped open the cover of the diary.
The paper was yellowed and brittle, emitting an old scent.
The handwriting was unexpectedly neat, as if the writer had been trying to maintain their dignity while writing.
The first page had only one sentence: "I thought I would be saving lives, but I didn't expect to spend the rest of my life committing atrocities."
He flipped further.
"The old won't die, and the young won't grow up."
"Performed another surgery today. Retired Old ██ received a new ██. His life and health have been extended."
"I don't like my current job, even if it pays a lot of money."
"Once you're involved in this industry, it's impossible to get out. You can only follow this dark path to the end and work until you die."
"All those who wanted ██ are dead. My conscience hurts, but I want to live even more."
Between the lines, a faint sorrow permeated, a sense of powerless struggle.
The writer of the diary was likely a doctor who had strayed onto a path of evil, their conscience tormented.
But in the face of real threats, they had chosen compromise and descent.
Yue Shi expressionlessly continued to flip through.
For many consecutive pages, the entries were similar.
One surgery after another, receiving huge rewards, their heart gradually becoming numb after brief moments of guilt.
The handwriting remained neat, yet it was clear that the doctor's conscience was slowly fading.
It was replaced by a customary indifference, even occasionally cracking a joke.
Until he reached a certain page, where the situation took a sudden turn.
The handwriting abruptly became scrawled and chaotic, the strokes trembling:
"My God! There really are supernatural creatures in this world! I'm not dreaming, am I!"
"Although I'm just a doctor, I have contact with many high-ranking officials and the elite. I've had the fortune (or misfortune?) to inadvertently encounter a side of this world unknown to ordinary people."
"Supernatural powers exist. I'm a little scared. Do gods, ghosts, and karmic retribution also exist? Will I go to hell after I die?"
"I'm only doing these things because I have no choice. In the future, I'll go to the temple more often to burn incense and donate more money. I hope the Buddha will protect me."
"Clearly, strange things are happening constantly. But in ██, things are always flourishing, and the situation looks excellent."
"The world is undergoing a massive transformation. But a small person like me, even if I know it's happening, can't do anything about it. I can only go with the flow."
"Should I stock up on some goods in advance?"
"The tide of the era is rolling in. I wonder what the future holds..."
The ink in this passage was sometimes heavy and sometimes intermittent.
One could see the doctor's confusion and terror at the time, mixed with a complex excitement at glimpsing the world's secrets.
Yue Shi's gaze lingered for a few seconds on the term "various nations."
That was a political concept from the previous era.
This diary was actually a relic of the old era!
It even dated back to a time before the initial supernatural descent.
Historians would likely love this.
There was a period of history in this world that was vague and poorly documented.
The disappearance of nations and the establishment of the Blue Star Federation—this history was contaminated by countless unofficial records.
No one knew exactly what had happened in the past.
As he flipped through the diary again, several pages had clearly been torn out, leaving jagged edges.
Other pages were stained with unknown liquid, causing the handwriting to be blurry and difficult to read.
The next readable part was:
"The existence of supernatural creatures and transcendents can basically no longer be hidden, although ██ has not officially admitted it."
"The people below are panic-buying daily necessities, while those at the top are scrambling for supernatural resources."
"The existence of supernatural powers means the possibility of longevity. These old geezers are truly insane in their pursuit of immortality!"
"Performed another surgery today. The donor was actually a transcendent! I heard he was even from the official side! He just happened to die in the line of duty."
"I am very certain that when this transcendent lay on the operating table, he wasn't dead yet!"
"He was very young, very handsome, with no injuries on his body, just in a coma due to the effects of drugs. He should have had a great future, a bright and brilliant life..."
"Every part of him was valuable."
"Everyone turned a blind eye to his death."
"Supernatural abilities are a rare resource. Why would the elite, who don't even have them themselves, be willing to see the common people possess them?"
"Craving to embrace the supernatural, craving for immortality. Since they can't awaken naturally, they'll just transplant someone else's ██."
The words were blood-soaked.
In the silent basement, only the rustling of Yue Shi flipping the pages was clearly audible.
Standing to the side, Huang Fengjing had also seen the diary's contents. His palms were already soaked with cold sweat, which he instinctively wiped on his clothes.
He had realized that what this diary recorded were secrets from the old era.
On the internet, people always depicted the era before the supernatural descent as if it were paradise.
But from this diary, it seemed that no matter how the times changed, the darkness bred in the corners where the sun couldn't reach never changed its essence.
Yue Shi sped up his reading, skipping over inconsequential content.
Finally, he reached the part related to the children's welfare home.
The root of everything pointed toward the research and desire for supernatural power.
The first batch of people who awakened supernatural powers generally met with terrible ends once they were exposed.
They would disappear from society in various 'reasonable' ways.
Some were sent directly to the ██ table for vivisection, attempting to unlock the mysteries of the supernatural from a physiological level.
Others were secretly imprisoned and forced to ██ and breed, like livestock.
The offspring of transcendents might have a higher chance of awakening supernatural powers.
This was only a guess at the time, with no theoretical basis, and it had since been proven that the supernatural cannot be inherited.
But in that period, even if it was just a wild guess, plenty of people were willing to try.
Those children forced into existence were all orphans without parents and of unknown origin.
The Warm Children's Welfare Home was such a place, specifically for raising and managing the offspring of transcendents.
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