Translator: CinderTL
In a daze, Huai Yi recalled the words they had seen scrawled on the wall near the staircase leading to the fourth floor:
"The moment you read this, you're already dead."
"Stay here."
"Forever. Stay with me forever."
Some of the writing was more than two meters above the ground, clearly beyond the reach of an ordinary person. It could only have been written by the creature pursuing them.
The phrase "Stay here, forever with me" sent a chill down Huai Yi's spine. Judging by the mangled limbs scattered behind them, capture meant being assimilated into that mass of corpses, becoming an immortal part of it.
Finally, they reached the ground floor. The main gate stood ajar, revealing a misty gray world beyond. It was like a threshold separating two realms.
Huai Yi and Wen Liangshan's physical endurance had reached its limit, their bodies driven solely by the will to survive. The rustling behind them grew faster, like a death knell urging them onward.
Just as the unmistakable stench of rotting flesh reached their nostrils, they burst through the gate and into the mist.
Huai Yi was relatively unscathed, but Liang Shan, completely drained of energy, collapsed onto the ground.
Turning around, Huai Yi swallowed his blood-tinged saliva, his shoulders still trembling. He had genuinely believed he was about to die.
Looking back at the gate, he saw the same impenetrable gray mist that had blocked his vision when he'd first peered out from inside the building.
Yet he knew that just meters away, behind that gate, lurked a terrifying monster.
Now that they had escaped, that grotesque creature—a grotesque amalgamation of countless severed limbs—would undoubtedly turn its attention to Jiang Cheng and Fatty.
"You... what happened to you?" Liang Shan's puzzled voice broke through Huai Yi's grim thoughts, his face etched with worry for his friends.
Huai Yi glanced back and saw several figures emerging from behind a nearby tree, approaching them.
"It's you!" Huai Yi's eyebrow twitched in surprise.
"Relax, will you? Loosen up a little," Wang Qi said, his peculiar face unchanged. "See? We're all fine here."
Gao Yan and Shen Mengyun were also present, but Shi Xiaoya was nowhere to be seen.
"How did you guys get out?" Huai Yi demanded.
"The same way you did," Wang Qi replied nonchalantly. "The gate opened, so we naturally walked out." He glanced at the gate and sighed. "I wonder why some people haven't come out yet. Their chances can't be good."
After the monster appeared, Huai Yi had raced downward almost without stopping. Yet he hadn't encountered Wang Qi's group.
The Anatomy Room on the fifth floor was also deserted.
A moment later, Huai Yi understood. After Shi Xiaoya's death, Wang Qi's group must have realized the fifth floor would only become more dangerous and hadn't dared to venture there.
They had quietly hidden, waiting for Huai Yi's team to clear the path.
Once the gate's seal had been lifted, they had bolted immediately, giving them this head start.
Fury surged through Huai Yi. He jabbed a finger at Wang Qi's nose and spat, "You bastards! Too cowardly to take risks yourselves? You just hid and waited to swoop in after we cleared the path so you could swoop in for the scraps?"
Wang Qi remained impassive, utterly indifferent to Huai Yi's accusation.
Gao Yan frowned, his face hardening. "Young man, watch your tongue."
"I've got worse insults," Huai Yi retorted, showing no respect for the old man, whose sinister appearance grated on him. "Want to hear them?"
"Enough!" Shen Mengyun interjected, stepping forward. "Mr. Huai, it's not what you think. We've encountered an incredibly complex situation."
She rolled up her sleeve, revealing her pale arm crisscrossed with bloody, claw-like wounds, as if countless hands had grabbed her. "I don't know how to explain it, but please believe us—we haven't been idle."
"We're trapped in this bizarre place. The walls are covered in vein-like structures, draped with purplish-blue fascia."
"Even worse, those veins and fascia are still moving!"
Shen Mengyun lowered her voice suddenly, glancing fearfully at the Medical Building. Her pupils dilated with terror. "Can you imagine it? It's not just that this building is haunted—the building itself is the supernatural entity!"
"It's alive!"
"Shi Xiaoya was eaten by it!"
Unbeknownst to Huai Yiwen Liang Shan, the grotesque creature assembled from dismembered limbs that pursued them had bought Jiang Cheng and Fatty valuable time.
Seizing the opportunity, they quickly retreated to the fifth floor.
The door to the Anatomy Room stood slightly ajar, the interior eerily silent. Jiang Cheng reached for the handle, but Fatty snatched his hand away.
As the door swung open, they were greeted by a scene of utter chaos. Tables and chairs lay overturned in a jumbled heap, and even the heavy operating table had been flipped onto its side. Scattered debris and shards of glass littered the floor, and a foul stench hung heavy in the air.
Yet neither man paid attention to the disarray. Their eyes were fixed on an inconspicuous corner.
There, a young woman lay motionless, dressed in the standard attire of a medical student: a plain white lab coat and beige sneakers. Not a single mark marred her body. Her eyes were closed, and her hands rested neatly folded across her abdomen, as if she were peacefully asleep.
"Doctor!" Fatty's voice trembled with excitement. "It's her! The girl I saw earlier—it's her!"
It was clear now: this girl was Xiaoting, the missing student. Fatty's intuition had been right.
Jiang Cheng approached, his expression darkening as if he sensed something amiss. His face paled further after checking for a pulse at the girl's nose.
"We're too late," Jiang Cheng sighed. "She's already dead."
"Dead?" Fatty stared in disbelief, carefully lifting the girl's arm.
The limb was limp, lacking the stiffness of rigor mortis. Even through her clothing, Fatty could feel a lingering warmth radiating from her body.
"It's freezing in here, but she only just died," Jiang Cheng observed, surveying the surroundings. "You were right. She was still alive when we left earlier."
"Can you tell how she died?" Fatty searched Xiaoting's body for any sign of injury, but found nothing.
More importantly, her face was utterly serene, as if she were merely asleep and having a pleasant dream.
Jiang Cheng gently placed Xiaoting's hand back at her side and shook his head. "I can't tell. It looks like natural causes."
Even Fatty knew that was impossible.
The Ghost Face Old Madam had been chasing them; she couldn't have had time to kill anyone. Besides, Xiaoting's peaceful expression didn't match the aftermath of being killed by such a creature.
Worried that the Ghost Face Granny might double back, Jiang Cheng instructed Fatty to carry the body, and they quickly retreated.
As they left, Jiang Cheng casually closed the door to make it look natural. But the moment his hand touched the doorknob, his eyes froze.
The knob was bone-chillingly cold, and damp with a layer of moisture.
(End of the Chapter)
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