Yue Shi didn't want to cause any unnecessary trouble for the moment. He took a step back, moving away from Ward 401, and turned toward Ward 402 across the hall.
Looking through the observation port on the door, he saw another humanoid silhouette inside.
However, this "patient" in 402 was sitting in a chair. His hands were chained, and his legs were lashed to the legs of the chair. The upper half of his face was wrapped in a filthy bandage, concealing his eyes, and something was stuffed into his mouth, making it impossible for him to speak.
Sensing someone outside the door, the patient in 402 suddenly began to struggle violently, his face showing the desperate excitement of someone grasping at a final straw.
Unfortunately, no matter how hard he tried, he could only shift his body slightly. Muffled whimpers came from his throat as if he were trying to speak to Yue Shi, but normal communication was completely impossible.
Yue Shi looked away after a single glance, mostly because he noticed the consumption rate of the 【Demon Feather Barrier】 was accelerating.
The supernatural entities on the fourth floor were indeed extremely dangerous.
He continued down the hall, coming to the space between Ward 403 and Ward 404. Both had the same heavy iron doors, but only 403's door was locked; 404's door was slightly ajar.
Peering through the observation port of Ward 403, the room looked entirely empty.
Yue Shi lowered his gaze and noticed a section of blue-and-white striped fabric on the floor. Clearly, there was someone in Ward 403, but they had hidden in a blind spot after sensing Yue Shi’s approach.
Yue Shi didn't provoke this patient. There seemed to be certain rules governing the wards in Qingshan Sanatorium that prevented the supernatural entities inside from coming out.
This was a good thing for Yue Shi.
Just as he thought this, his foot stepped on something. He looked down and saw a medical record.
Yue Shi crouched and picked up the medical record through his barrier.
Upon flipping through it, he found that the record contained information on the patients of Qingshan Sanatorium.
The patient in Ward 401 was named 「Son-Obsessed」. Before transforming into a supernatural entity, he had been an extremely biased parent.
His first child was a daughter, with whom he was deeply dissatisfied. He treated her like a slave, subjecting her to constant verbal and physical abuse.
His second child was a son, whom he treated like royalty. Lacking any real ability himself, he desperately exploited his daughter, using her as a blood bag to provide for his son. He forced her to drop out of school early to work and even planned to sell her off for a bride price to buy a house for his son.
With the help of the Director of Qingshan Sanatorium, the unfortunate girl had sent this biased parent to the sanatorium for treatment.
Regrettably, the parent remained obstinate. Multiple treatment plans failed to cure his twisted mindset, and he was ultimately confined to a high-security isolation room on the fourth floor to reflect on his actions.
The patient in Ward 402 was named 「The Martyr」. He was a parent who excelled at manufacturing suffering for himself and his children, even in favorable circumstances.
He would perpetually eat leftovers from the previous meal, refuse to turn on the air conditioning even when suffering from heatstroke, and treat a purchased washing machine as a mere decoration—letting it rot away while he insisted on washing everything by hand. He would eat fruit starting from the bruised parts, continuing until the fresh parts also spoiled, trapping himself in a cycle of eating rotten fruit.
In the name of "frugality" or "education," he manufactured suffering that led to even greater misery, eventually tearing his family apart, only to continue wallowing in the suffering of that broken home.
Similarly suffering from an incurable condition, he had been locked in an isolation room on the fourth floor.
The patient in Ward 403 was named 「For Your Own Good」. It was the most dangerous entity on the fourth floor and the highest-ranking patient in the entire sanatorium.
It appeared harmless, even possessing a hint of warmth and love, but once someone fell into its trap, they would be haunted by it forever, remaining under its control without any hope of escape.
In addition to these bizarre entities on the fourth floor, the medical record also listed patients from other levels.
For instance, 「Mr. Camera」 was once a parent with an intense obsession with control. He enjoyed secretly installing surveillance cameras in his children's rooms to monitor their every move.
When his children discovered the cameras and confronted him, he would immediately break down, claiming that his children shouldn't have any privacy from him.
These "patients" in the sanatorium had all once been human. Unfortunately, after the supernatural descent, they were all trapped here and transformed into these absurd supernatural entities.
Thinking of this, Yue Shi suddenly felt a surge of intense pity welling up from the depths of his heart, rapidly spreading through his mind.
It was a strange sensation, an emotion he had never experienced before, flowing like an endless, torrential river.
It was as if he were deeply sympathizing with the patients in this sanatorium, finding them incredibly pitiable.
Yue Shi took the keys out of his bag, feeling a sudden, impulsive urge to open the ward doors on the fourth floor.
In the next second, Yue Shi put the keys back into his bag and immediately activated the 【Demon Feather Barrier】.
The feeling of pity in his heart vanished instantly.
Yue Shi quickly regained his senses and instinctively took a few steps back, barely suppressing the panic churning in his chest.
While he was looking down at the medical record, the barrier protecting him had unknowingly been exhausted. He had been so engrossed in the patients' histories that he hadn't noticed, nearly leading to a catastrophe.
If he had actually released those things on the fourth floor, he couldn't even imagine how "beautiful" the resulting scene would have been.
Cautiously moving away from Ward 403, Yue Shi arrived at the door of Ward 404. At that moment, he heard a heavy sigh of disappointment from inside Ward 403.
Yue Shi's expression was grim. The supernatural entities in this sanatorium seemed to specialize in targeting human mental fortitude; they were incredibly difficult to guard against, and one could fall into their traps with a single moment of carelessness.
He took a breath and observed the interior of Ward 404 through the window in the door.
The 「Breeding Obsessive」 on the third floor had said the Director was trapped on the fourth floor, and the "new guy" might be there as well...
The layout of Ward 404 was completely different from the other prison-like wards. The furniture was arranged neatly, featuring a bed with blue sheets, a full-length mirror, a desk, and a stool. There was even a laptop sitting on the desk.
A figure sat on the stool, staring intently at the laptop screen.
However, the computer screen was black, showing no image at all.
Yue Shi slowly pushed open the door. With a long, drawn-out creak, he stood outside the room, watching the figure.
Hearing the sound, the person in the room immediately stood up in alert, turning to face Yue Shi.
Yue Shi could just barely make out the man's face. He was an ordinary-looking male, relatively young—perhaps in his thirties—but with a high, receding hairline and thick glasses.
Yue Shi recognized him instantly. This was the person he had come to Qingshan Sanatorium to find—the fugitive researcher from the Su family's illegal lab, Qiao Xu!
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