Chapter 406

"It's me. When you have time, help me schedule an expert appointment with Adam, Audrey? Audrey's skills probably aren't enough to treat it."

"I'm not sick."

"Huowang, I know you're not sick, I'm just a little guilty and sorry—wait, what did you mean just now about just scheduling two appointments? I don't need that!"

Li Huowang looked at Su Lin, who had angrily hung up the phone, and quickly explained: "My mental state is fine! Brother Su Lin, your Dao principle helps me!"

Clearly, when he made this request, even Su Lin began to doubt whether he had inflicted permanent damage on Li Huowang—especially on the spiritual level.

After all, based on the results of several recent experiments, it was somewhat cruel: Li Huowang's pursuit of the Dao now resembled someone still under its influence.

Xiao Yan looked as if he'd seen a ghost, worrying that he himself might one day become like Li Huowang—a "seeker of the Dao."

A person cannot. At least, should not.

"Sigh, can you understand Chinese?" Li Huowang asked. "I'm saying I'm not sick."

Wu Cheng pried open a pair of disposable chopsticks, lifted his boxed meal, and looked at Li Huowang, handcuffed and shackled, surrounded by people in the spacious bus cabin.

"Every patient I've ever handled says the same thing," Wu Cheng said, lifting the thin plastic lid off the meal container, smiling.

"But in today's world, from children to the elderly, who doesn't have a few minor issues? Look at me—I'm barely thirty and my hair's almost gone."

As a professional psychologist, he had excellent control over atmosphere and pacing; after making a self-deprecating joke, he sidestepped Li Huowang's previous remark.

"Doctor Wu, I'd really like to know why you rushed me out of prison so urgently," Li Huowang fixed his gaze on the man and asked.

"What couldn't wait until tomorrow morning? Not even giving me time to see my mother."

He was probing, raising reasonable doubts.

Taking Li Huowang out of prison in the middle of the night—even with superior authorization—was far too unusual.

"During the day we're swamped; we have many patients to care for. Do you even know how many patients we have at Kangning Hospital?" Wu Cheng scooped up a few bites of rice, swallowed, then gave a number:

"One hundred seventy-one. We're a private hospital, understaffed. I heard someone pressured the director—he didn't even want to take you."

"Your old prison was in the middle of its annual performance review and civil unit inspection period. Who had time to transfer you then?"

"So sometimes the outside world is worse than a psychiatric hospital—high work pressure and environment leave everyone with some psychological issues."

He pointed his chopsticks at Li Huowang; the implication was obvious.

"Heh." Li Huowang sneered, turning his gaze to the bus window.

The city's nightlife was nearly over; even snack cart vendors were pushing their stalls home.

If he didn't know certain things, he might have actually believed Wu Cheng's excuse.

Doumu had always wanted to turn him into her Xin Pan. In the Liang Kingdom, the false past implanted in him—giving him the identity of Hong Zhong of the Zuowang Dao—was also Doumu's doing.

They've been lying since we got on the bus!

He was already trapped in their control. If he didn't think of a way, before Ji Zai appeared, after arriving at Kangning Hospital, he'd likely be slowly controlled by Confused Siming—the deity governing Truth, Lies, and Chaos—until his soul took Doumu's shape.

'But these are only surface appearances.'

The road to Kangning Hospital was long; by the time the bus arrived, the sky was just beginning to lighten.

Li Huowang stepped down from the bus, surrounded by six burly orderlies. He looked toward the faintly whitening east, turned, and dragged his handcuffs and leg irons toward the hospital entrance.

Seeing him so cooperative, Wu Cheng exhaled in relief—but as Li Huowang passed by him, he caught a strange smile curling on the man's lips: "Say hello to Xu Shou for me."

The voice was faint, yet crystal clear in the quiet dawn.

At noon, after lunch, Wu Cheng called Li Huowang to his office.

"Was the food to your taste?" Wu Cheng asked.

"Tastes bad, but it fills my stomach," Li Huowang shook his head. "Your chef uses too much salt. Next time, when making scallion-braised tofu, cut back on the salt."

Wu Cheng nodded. "You're a connoisseur."

"My palate's been spoiled by a friend," Li Huowang sat across from Wu Cheng's desk and said.

"Only my parents' and wife's cooking tastes good to me. Most meals are just for filling my belly."

"You're barely a teenager—you're not even married," Wu Cheng reminded him, pulling out two small white plastic bottles. "After meals, stay in your room. Don't wander. Your treatment isn't over. Therapy begins this afternoon."

"Brother Zhuge, look—he's already laid his cards on the table. Why should I keep pretending with them?" Li Huowang picked up the bottle, slipped it into his pocket, and stood to leave.

"They're clearly targeting me."

"Tell your cafeteria orderlies to stop watching me while I eat. I don't like being stared at during meals. Next time, I'll throw the tray at their faces."

Back in his room, Li Huowang dumped the bottle straight into the toilet, then sat on the bed, legs crossed.

As expected, mere minutes later, the door burst open.

Bang!!

Six burly orderlies charged in, shouting: "Why did you throw away the medicine!? Get up and take it!"

Amid a whistle of wind, the guards' batons struck Li Huowang without mercy.

"Go eat shit!" Li Huowang struck the guard's wrist, snatched the baton, swung it back, and slammed it across the guard's face, then jabbed it hard into another orderly's abdomen.

Ten seconds later, only moans remained; Li Huowang stood alone.

'Good thing I attended Master Zhongli's class.' Li Huowang dropped the baton and walked toward the door.

"What trash dares fight me?"

He didn't care who he trained with daily, who he battled in the Simulation Universe—his illusionary Peng Longteng had leveled up plenty.

In the corridor, Wu Cheng, face solemn, led a group of orderlies and doctors, watching Li Huowang warily—only to find Li Huowang raising both hands, sitting on the floor, and grinning: "I surrender."

Instantly, security and orderlies swarmed him, throwing nets, prongs, and sedatives all at once.

Li Huowang's consciousness sank into sleep—but Wu Cheng, staring at the boy's youthful face, felt no joy. The calm, calculating demeanor suggested everything had been foreseen.

When Li Huowang awoke again, he was tightly bound in a restraint suit, lying on a bed. Every surface of the white room was padded with thick foam.

Wu Cheng stood before him with a tablet, gripping a switch. He pressed it—electricity surged through Li Huowang's body.

"Not good enough," Li Huowang gritted his teeth, speaking slowly and fiercely. "Not as good as Professor Yang from the Fourth Hospital's Psychiatric Department."

In the past, to earn rewards from challenge instances, he had used real sensory perception to explore the Tomb of the Thunder God with several cultivators from Song Shuhang's world, spending time alongside the Thunder Demon of the End Dharma Era.

"Is there a person like this in the Fourth Hospital?" Wu Cheng turned off the switch, watching Li Huowang warily. "You seem to know a lot."

Li Huowang stared at Wu Cheng. "Let Xu Shou speak to me!"

Wu Cheng tapped on his tablet, and soon, a lean old man with a white crew cut appeared on the screen. He wore a suit and leaned on a cane.

Seeing him, Li Huowang laughed. "Xu Shou? Xu Er?"

Xu Shou fell silent for a long moment, then spoke: 【Remove his restraints. Leave the tablet. You leave.】

Wu Cheng was startled, but he did not ask why. He simply followed the old man's orders.

Once the door closed, Xu Shou spoke: 【Why did you know it was me?】

"If you want things from that world, you're a Xin Su too—why don't you just take them yourself?" Li Huowang looked at him and asked. "Jingxin Shitai is dead. Where did you go in that world?"

Xu Shou was Jingxin Shitai's son, just like him—a Xin Su.

"A pen," Li Huowang said seriously. "A pen shaped like a fox's tail, mad when it speaks or writes."

Li Huowang stood up and stretched his limbs. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"I don't care what you're doing. But I want to go back now—back home!" Li Huowang said.

Xu Shou fell silent at this. But after a while, he vanished from the screen, and Li Huowang sat quietly on the bed, holding the tablet.

Long after, Xu Shou reappeared—but now he bore fresh wounds. He clutched his arm, pale-faced, flanked by a dozen bodyguards.

"Xu Shou?!" Li Huowang was shocked.

Acting? No! The man was truly injured!

"Li Huowang! Run!" Xu Shou shouted, clutching the tablet as he bolted. "That place isn't safe anymore!"

Bang! Bang!

Gunfire erupted continuously, but above Xu Shou's location, a torrential downpour suddenly began.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Explosions followed one after another.

Not just where Xu Shou was—but also Li Huowang's own Kangning Psychiatric Hospital.

Li Huowang dropped the tablet and ran out. He saw jeeps crushing the collapsed gate, stopping in the hospital's courtyard. Armed black-clad men poured out from them.

Security guards and medical staff of Kangning Psychiatric Hospital fled in panic. The sky had turned black without warning—a dark mass loomed overhead. Raindrops tapped against the windows, sliding slowly down, wrapping the air in suffocating dread.

"Brother Su Lin, this is the situation." Li Huowang looked toward Wu Cheng's direction—the doctor was frozen in shock.

"I need to change. Only by regaining my power and using magic can I break through this crisis."

"I don't know what changes will come—but right now, I want to go down and fight them. Let those scheming bastards behind me tremble at the unpredictability!"

Just as his future self chose to become Confused Siming because he refused to be anyone's pawn and wanted to be himself, Li Huowang refused to become someone else's chess piece, following the plans of those Confused Siming.

One Confused Siming stood beside the final boss. Dou Lao and Ba Hui both wanted him to become their Xin Su. Someone was treating him like a monkey!

Even in the future, they killed his parents!

Just thinking of the description of his mother hanging herself—even though it was only words—Li Huowang's rage drowned out everything else.

"You can touch me! But you dare not touch my parents!" Li Huowang's voice trembled with urgency and fury. "Please! Let me see your true form!"

Wu Cheng didn't understand what the man was saying, but right now he only wanted to hide—or flee. Call the police… call the police.

He pulled out his phone and dialed.

The sound of shattering glass erupted—but before it reached Wu Cheng's ears, he saw a spray of blood bloom on Li Huowang's forehead. A bullet shot from his brow, smashing through the glass.

Thud. Li Huowang collapsed onto the floor, leaving a spreading pool of blood. At the end of the corridor, near the stairs to the rooftop, two black-clad men stood with guns—just descending from above.

Then, they turned their barrels toward him.

"No—"

Shhh—

A streak of rainbow light shot out. The two black-clad men's heads fell instantly.

"How am I here?" Li Huowang rose, clutching his head. He stared at the blood in his palm, bewildered. "What's going on here? I can use magic?!"

A grenade flew in through the window. Glass shattered. The corridor shook violently. Dozens of guns opened fire.

Smoke and flame erupted. When their magazines emptied, the armed black-clad men lowered a helicopter from the sky, hovering ten meters away. The rotor's wind scattered the smoke, revealing the ruined corridor.

A sword floated in the corridor.

In the blink of an eye, every head fell. A brilliant flash of swordlight surged forward, swallowing the distant helicopter whole—not even a shard of metal remained.

Li Huowang saw a chat group appear before his eyes, along with a message he'd written to himself. Flashing images of memory surged through his mind. His spirit sense swept through the building, then the entire city. A grotesque smile spread across his lips.

"I remember now. What I need to do next."

Li Huowang flew into the sky. He pulled out his storage bag and drew out hundreds of wildly different flying sword artifacts, sending them racing toward different locations across the hospital and city.

"Li Huowang, I knew it was you…" A twisted, chaotic mass of blood and flesh appeared in the air, coiled with black threads of secret karmic chains. "What have you stirred up?!"

"Who are you?!" Li Huowang stared at the intruder—first shocked, then calm.

For some reason, he felt no fear toward this mass of flesh. Instead, he understood: those chains were secret karmic links.

Strange.

"I am Qing Wanglai," it introduced itself. "You—"

Before it could finish, the sky split open with a massive tear. A black ocean poured forth, brimming with boundless terror and despair.

"He's coming in! Run!"

Everything within sight began to warp—entities beyond comprehension.

The floating mass of flesh twisted its tentacles into a spear and lunged at Li Huowang. Terrible secrets and information flooded his mind.

Fusheng Tian. Fusheng Tian… Impossible images and text appeared simultaneously.

Logically, he should have been terrified now. The suffocating information crashed over him like endless waves.

But Li Huowang felt something missing in his mind. Though the images pressed heavily upon him, they did not drive him to despair.

"Incredible." As if watching an exaggerated movie scene, Li Huowang praised it—while his heart tightened.

He saw that thing preparing to strike him.

Though this place did not exist, Li Huowang could sense the other gripping the spiral spear named 'Qing Wanglai' and thrusting it toward him.

At that moment, from the illusory black ocean that obscured sky and earth, a figure gradually emerged; for some reason, Li Huowang felt he had seen it before—though vague, it was familiar.

And now, various lights of ultimate symbols began to coil around that reflection, chaos and order becoming its base, merging into everything, seeping into the reflection's body, twisting.

Only then did Li Huowang realize who the figure was—his name was Ji Zai:

"So it was me?"

Li Huowang suddenly remembered something: Confused Siming, as a thing, seemed to have no concept of time.

All that breathing practice was for nothing.

(End of Chapter)