Chapter 14: The Cursed Gold

Wu Chang did not have a pass to leave the sanitarium, but for the sake of convenience, Randy hand-wrote a staff badge for him, allowing him to move freely within the facility.

After putting on the badge and leaving the director's office, the medical staff wandering the corridors indeed did not attack him, as if he had turned into air.

But there was one exception.

Just as Wu Chang was about to leave the fourth floor, he was blocked head-on by Zhu Li, who had been waiting there for a long time.

Zhu Li looked at the handwritten badge on Wu Chang's chest and said in a relaxed tone, "Looks like progress is good."

Wu Chang shrugged, "A bit more troublesome than I imagined. Director Randy is very guarded; he didn't believe what I said just because I had the King's Badge. I need to find more evidence to convince him."

"How is the director's condition?"

Wu Chang said, "His health is quite good; his physique is as sturdy as an orc's, but witnessing the townspeople constantly going mad from paranoia has put too much mental pressure on him, to the point where he doesn't dare step out of his office."

"However, he promised me that as long as I find the real culprit, he will help."

These two segments were the truth, so he spoke them extremely naturally.

Zhu Li nodded; she had been prepared for all this and asked, "What do you plan to do next?"

Wu Chang: "While the night is still long, I'll search areas that are hard to approach during the day. As a senior, Miss Zhu Li, do you have any suggestions?"

"Take a good look at the basement and the backyard; you might have some gains. I'll be on the fourth floor; if you need help, remember to come find me."

Watching Zhu Li turn and leave after speaking, a look of doubt appeared on Wu Chang's face.

Could it be that he had judged a gentleman's heart with a villain's measure?

But the guilt only appeared for an instant before he strangled it to death.

Shame? Non-existent.

Countless battle royale games have proven one truth: only the "old six" and the bad guys can survive to the end.

He was a professional "old six" player; his heart was just dirty.

After searching symbolically inside the building for a while and confirming he wasn't being followed by Zhu Li, he headed straight for the sanitarium's backyard.

Zhu Li's suggestion was not perfunctory; the underground secret room where Randy said old books were stored was located in a small hut in the backyard.

Using the key Randy gave him to open the hut, Wu Chang followed the instructions and found a secret passage leading underground behind the fireplace in the study.

At the end of the secret passage was a small library. Various documents were placed on the bookshelves, from carved stone tablets to parchment and printed books; the collection almost spanned the history of the development of writing.

Every item in the collection had been specially treated; even after hundreds or thousands of years, the handwriting remained clearly visible.

This was a great opportunity to investigate the world-building of the dungeon.

Wu Chang took out a slip of paper with numbers recorded on it and quickly gathered the books recommended by Randy. After a rough browse, he understood what the dungeon's BOSS really was.

What the ancestors of the Anderson family suppressed was an evil god named Laiman.

Laiman was cruel, cunning, powerful, vengeful, and possessed a very rich, wicked sense of humor.

It controlled the power of dreams and reality, could satisfy the wishes of believers, and grant them endless knowledge and wealth, yet it often, out of preference, simultaneously took away the believers' most precious things.

In one record, Laiman once helped a small kingdom's king repel foreign enemies and revive the country, but at the moment of the country's greatest prosperity, it detonated a giant volcano, swallowing the entire country.

It sounds like praying to Laiman is like drinking poison to quench thirst, but due to desire and wishful thinking, coupled with the generosity of Laiman's rewards, Laiman's believers were exceptionally devout.

A troublesome guy.

Wu Chang put the documents back in their original places, took the silver crossbow bolt from his item backpack, and continued to explore the underground secret room.

"Item Name: Demon-Breaking Crossbow Bolt."

"Item Type: Dungeon Item."

"Item Grade: D."

"Item Skill: Exorcism."

"Skill Description: Mark an evil god or an evil god's believer. Use the Demon-Breaking Crossbow Bolt to hit the marked target to cause double damage. After killing the target or one hour after the last marking, you can change the marked target."

"Special Skill: Demon-Breaking." (Unlocked by King's Badge)

"Sacrifice the crossbow bolt to erupt with incredible power, causing massive damage to the origin of the marked target."

"Note: Only by striking the origin can one truly harm an evil god."

The resentment on Wolf mentioned that the Cursed Gold was on the second basement level of Moonlight Sanitarium.

If this resentment was true, then there was no place more suitable for hiding the Cursed Gold than here.

Just as he had guessed, when he searched a certain bookshelf, the resentment on the Demon-Breaking Crossbow Bolt in his hand flickered. Approaching to check carefully, he found a groove on the bottom layer of the bookshelf, the shape of which resembled an arrowhead.

Inserting the Demon-Breaking Crossbow Bolt into the groove, accompanied by the sound of gears turning, a tunnel leading to the second basement level appeared on the floor.

Success!

After nearly a hundred steps, Wu Chang arrived at an open stone chamber. Dozens of stone tablets were arranged in concentric circles in the center of the chamber, each engraved with inscriptions.

As Wu Chang approached, a white phantom like mist appeared before him. At the same time, a vigorous elderly male voice rang in his ears.

"Being able to walk to this step is enough to prove your excellence. That group of rats who believe in Laiman couldn't do it. You must be my descendant, or a junior of the Arcane Knights, right?"

"Lord Anderson?" Wu Chang asked tentatively.

The phantom did not respond to Wu Chang but, like a video recording, continued to speak to itself.

"If you are a rat who believes in Laiman, that's fine too. I have great confidence in your character. Compared to begging for the tiny rewards leaked by that evil god, killing It, stealing Its divine power, and becoming a god yourself—isn't that more tempting?"

"Even if it's just sealing It again, the Cursed Gold will give you everything you want," the phantom continued to entice.

"Don't worry about the problem of betrayal. When we sealed Laiman back then, one-third of the high-level members of the Serene Church were bought off by us. Thanks to them, we were able to leave alive, so don't feel guilty."

"Next, I will tell you everything about this place..."

Five minutes later, as the phantom before him disappeared, Wu Chang shook his head and turned his attention back to the present.

No wonder Moonlight Sanitarium was so abnormal; it turned out that before the Anderson family was established, this was a secret stronghold of the Arcane Knights and one of the backup plans for dealing with Laiman.

The stone tablets placed in the stone chamber were a large-scale exorcism ritual. Once activated, it would dispel or purify all existences possessing evil god power within a radius of several kilometers.

Among them, "dispel" refers to physical dispelling.

Only those who hold the controller of the exorcism array, or direct descendants of the Anderson family, can control this power.

Combined with what happened in the sanitarium, the rule that leaving the ward at night is prohibited is likely because Randy, unable to suppress his magical talent in his sleep, inadvertently triggered part of the power of the exorcism array.

This power combined with Randy's spellcasting; once it detected the aura of an evil god outside the "safe zone"—that is, the existence of paranoia—it would physically dispel the carrier of the evil god's aura.

And the abnormality of the medical staff came from the purification ability of the array.

In addition to the dispelling that attacks the enemy, the array can also help its own side dispel the influence of the evil god.

However, the means are a bit extreme; the method is similar to using chemotherapy to clear cancer cells.

When the spirit of a member of one's own side is affected by the evil god's power, being in the array will trigger the array's mental purification, launching an indiscriminate attack on the person in the array and the evil god's power entangling them.

The result is simple and crude: either the person entering the array has a strong spirit and holds on until the evil god's divine power is purified.

Or they fail, their spirit collapses, and the excessive purification power will be converted into physical damage, causing the person's body to collapse.

Wu Chang still remembered the last words the phantom said when introducing the array's capabilities: "Never mind if the person is okay, just tell me if it was purified or not."

Perhaps because too much time had passed, leading to a loss of magic, the phantom dissipated after telling him only how to control the exorcism array. However, the information about the exorcism array had already answered many secrets in the sanitarium.

As long as the true face of the Cursed Gold is confirmed, the dungeon's main quest two should be completed.

Wu Chang picked up a badge from where the phantom disappeared; the craftsmanship of the badge was the same as the King's Badge.

"Item Name: Arcane Badge."

"Item Type: Dungeon Item."

"Item Description: A token of the Arcane Knights. Holding this emblem, you can obtain partial usage rights of the exorcism array and freely control the power of the array."

"Special Skill: Final Purification." (Unlocked by King's Badge)

"Skill Description: By burning the entire array, erupt with power that exceeds the limits of the array."

"Note: If an evil god's believer uses the power of the badge, they will suffer backlash from the array after using it."

The note on the Arcane Badge only appeared when he wore the King's Badge. He had suspected before that as the first leader of the Arcane Knights, old Anderson was too friendly to evil god believers. Now it seems that old guy really did have a trick up his sleeve.

Putting on the Arcane Badge, he entered the exorcism array, passed through layers of stone tablets, and arrived at the very core of the array.

On a stone altar, he saw the Cursed Gold floating in the air.

It was an eye that was still alive and constantly rotating.

The eye of the evil god Laiman.

(End of chapter)