Chapter 9: The Mastermind Behind the Scenes

Behind the white door is a staircase leading downward, and at the end of the staircase is another white door.

As soon as Wu Chang stepped onto the stairs, his vision blurred, and inexplicable hallucinations rushed toward him; the hallucinations were composed of countless fragments of images, their content jumping, chaotic, and insane, like the images surging in the mind of a mental patient before a total breakdown.

He shook his head violently, relying on his high Will to break free from the hallucinations.

The moment he regained his senses, he discovered a red key embedded in the wall beside him.

Someone had placed the key to the fourth floor of the sanatorium here.

For this purpose, they had even specifically set up a layer of testing.

If one's will was not strong enough to break free from the illusion mirror, one would only pass through the corridor in a daze and would not discover the red key on the wall.

It seemed his Will had passed the judgment.

He stored the key in his personal space, walked quickly to the white door below, and pushed it open.

Behind the door was a room resembling a clinic, where a refined middle-aged man in a white coat sat behind a desk, writing out prescriptions one by one.

Wu Chang’s heart skipped a beat; oh no, he had walked right into a trap.

No one told him that behind the door was actually the night-shift doctor's duty room; now he had been caught red-handed violating the sanatorium rules, and he hoped the punishment wouldn't be too harsh.

Hearing the sound of the door opening, the middle-aged man looked up, and when he saw that the visitor was Wu Chang instead of the familiar Jin Dun, his brows furrowed involuntarily.

"Who are you?"

Wu Chang stole a glance at the doctor’s name tag and replied obediently: "Hello, Dr. Wo Fu, I am a new patient."

Dr. Wo Fu’s gaze swept over Wu Chang, and Wu Chang remembered something, subconsciously covering the Traveler’s Amulet hanging at his waist.

"Did you kill Jin Dun?"

As soon as Wo Fu said this, the atmosphere in the room instantly dropped to freezing.

Wo Fu’s question contained no emotion, impossible to tell if it was sadness or anger; Wu Chang remained frozen in place with an obedient expression, not knowing whether to answer truthfully or to strike first and pull out the Silver Dawn to put a bullet in Wo Fu’s head.

This time it was Wu Chang’s turn to break into a cold sweat.

After a brief silence, he quickly sorted out the situation; the things inside the white door were enough to make even a veteran doctor wary, and it would not be wise for him to rashly start a fight.

"Jin Dun lost the bet."

This was the truth, but only a partial truth; he would leave the unsaid parts for Wo Fu to fill in himself.

"That is truly wonderful!"

Upon hearing the news of his acquaintance’s death, not only was Wo Fu not angry, but he revealed a brilliant smile, as if he had heard the best news imaginable.

Just then, the whistling sound of a kettle boiling came from the back of the office.

"My medicine is ready, come with me, let’s talk as we walk."

Wo Fu opened a door located behind him and greeted Wu Chang enthusiastically.

Passing through the office, the two arrived at a huge cave; contrary to the tidy office, the cave was extremely crude, like the nest of some large insect.

After entering the cave, Wo Fu’s body began to tremble, his skin rapidly expanding and tearing, his whole person swelling as if inflated, and the part below his ribs transformed into a bloated worm covered in pustules.

In just a few seconds, the refined middle-aged doctor had turned into a half-human, half-insect monster.

"Excuse me, the scent of the pharmacy is too intoxicating; it makes it hard for me to control myself." Wo Fu reached out his right hand, which had turned into an insect limb, to scratch his head, a look of apology appearing in his blood-red eyes.

"It’s all the fault of those demons like Jin Dun, who brought the damned delusional disorder and caused me to become like this; I hope I didn't scare you."

Wu Chang shook his head and said in a "Go! You can do it!" tone: "Dr. Wo Fu, you haven't been out for too long; you don't know that modern society has diverse aesthetics. The concept that 'only looking like a human is normal' is already outdated. Your current form is the one that can truly define aesthetics. If you went to a certain White Tower country, you could at least be a beauty pageant contestant."

"Beauty... pageant contestant?"

"Of course, in the White Tower, not only is aesthetics not defined, but even gender cannot be defined; for example, my gender is an attack helicopter."

"Ah?" Wo Fu was completely baffled, looking at Wu Chang with a blank expression, as if it were Wu Chang who had transformed into a monster, not him.

What was the meaning of this? Was this kid teasing him, or had the outside world already fallen into the delusional disorder? It wasn't until the two reached the innermost part of the cave that Wo Fu recovered from his daze.

Deep in the cave, a huge metal pot was being heated over a fire, and the pale yellow medicinal liquid inside was boiling violently.

Wo Fu turned off the fire, skillfully poured the medicinal liquid onto gauze, wrung out the moisture, left the pale yellow medicinal powder mass, and placed it into a metal bowl.

Afterward, he grabbed a sack from the corner, took out a large handful of various herbs, and chewed them in his mouth.

Under the effect of the herbs, colorful pustules grew on Wo Fu’s bloated worm body; he squeezed the pustules, dripped the pus into the metal bowl, ground the pus and the powder mass evenly with a pestle, and put it into an oven.

Then he took a tray of dried medicinal powder from the oven, passed it through a fine sieve twice, and filled it into pre-made capsules.

Wu Chang, who had witnessed the entire manufacturing process, looked at the familiar capsules and asked with a tingling scalp: "Dr. Wo Fu, what are you doing?"

Wo Fu said as a matter of course: "Making medicine; didn't you see before you came in? This room is the pharmacy."

Looking at the colorful pustules on Wo Fu’s body, Wu Chang’s stomach churned; it was a good thing he hadn't eaten the special medicine issued by the sanatorium yet. He really wanted to ask Wo Fu who the hell taught him to make medicine like this.

Wo Fu put the finished capsules into a medicine bottle and turned to ask: "Where were we just now?"

Wu Chang: "We were at the part where Jin Dun and the others turned you into this."

"Thank you very much."

Wo Fu looked down at Wu Chang and said unhurriedly: "You are a fresh face; as an outsider who can come here, you must also be a treasure hunter."

"You can think of it that way." Wu Chang didn't know what the setting of a treasure hunter was, but seeing that Wo Fu didn't seem to have any malice, he agreed first.

"Unfortunately, the 'Gold of Curses' you are looking for does not exist; everything is a scam. You and us, we have all been deceived."

Wo Fu sighed and began to recount the past of the town in a reminiscent tone.

The place where Moonlight Sanatorium is located is called White Stone Town, a small town almost as old as the history of the kingdom, which has always been managed by the Anderson family.

In the beginning, White Stone Town was still White Stone Fief.

It was the Anderson patriarch, who came from a farming background, who earned this territory through military exploits that could be recorded in epics.

The descendants of the Anderson family, through the unremitting efforts of generations, successfully managed the vast territory into a small town.

A small town on the verge of bankruptcy, at that.

The dire financial situation forced the Anderson family to seek help from the surroundings, but opening the door to bring in help also invited a wolf into the house.

The Vino family of Forest City possessed dozens of large factories, had astonishing financial resources, and was skilled in management; they claimed to have taken a fancy to the long history of White Stone Town and could not bear to see it decline, so they offered a helping hand.

Under the magic of gold coins, the Vino family quickly took control of White Stone Town; they built factories, prospected for minerals, and started schools and churches in the town.

For a time, the town was thriving, and the lives of the townspeople became prosperous.

But in reality, these were all a conspiracy.

Besides their identity as wealthy merchants, the Vino family had another identity: they were members of the Serenity Church, a group of lunatics living in an industrial society who firmly believed in mysticism and magic.

The remote White Stone Town was the experimental field for the Serenity Church.

Under their secret manipulation, the town’s water source and air were polluted, the townspeople’s physical health deteriorated, and they were often plagued by illnesses.

To get rid of the diseases, they had to seek help from the church, and thus gradually accepted the Serenity Church.

Under the guidance of the Serenity Church, their spirits began to be affected, and they contracted an infectious mental illness called delusional disorder.

As the illness worsened, the patients began to go mad and attack others.

To control the spread of the disease, Randy Anderson and Wo Fu, who had returned from the capital after studying medicine, transformed the oldest cathedral in town into the Moonlight Sanatorium.

Hearing this, Wu Chang looked up at Wo Fu and asked in surprise: "In other words, you are one of the builders of Moonlight Sanatorium?"

Seeing Wu Chang’s surprise, there was not a hint of pride on Wo Fu’s face; instead, he said sorrowfully:

"I am also one of the creators of this tragedy. Randy and I were both wrong; it turns out that mysticism really exists. The Serenity Church used the gathered delusional patients to complete some kind of terrifying magical experiment!"

"They succeeded, and used the power gained from the experiment to seal off this sanatorium, torturing the patients inside, twisting their spirits and bodies, and turning them into inhuman monsters. Just like..."

"Just like me."

"I became this way because I investigated too deeply and was discovered by them; they have also been sending Jin Dun to monitor me."

Wu Chang stared at Wo Fu’s worm body and asked: "Does Director Randy know you have become like this?"

Wo Fu shook his head and said: "Ever since the sanatorium was sealed, Randy has not left the fourth floor. I suspect his situation is not optimistic either, but he is our last hope."

"Pitiful and poor outsider, now you are also caught in the middle; if you want to get out, you must help me! I cannot distinguish who among the medical staff is a believer of the Serenity Church; I can only trust you outsiders."

"The Serenity Sect has mastered the power of an Evil God and is using this power to twist reality. You must let Randy know about the Serenity Church’s conspiracy and find a way to stop all of this!"

Wo Fu finished speaking excitedly and waited for a while, but did not hear Wu Chang’s response.

He reached out his insect-limbed arm to scratch his back and asked: "Outsider, is there something on my back that makes you stare at it?"

Wu Chang looked at the pale red resentment being scratched by Wo Fu’s insect limb and shook his head in response: "There is nothing."

Looking at the last words in the resentment, then looking at the sincere expression and natural tone of Wo Fu, he clicked his tongue.

A veteran actor indeed; if not for the information in the resentment, he might have really fallen for Wo Fu’s trick and believed the monster before him was a tragic hero.

His gaze fixed on the resentment, and a line of ordinary last words appeared within it.

"I didn't expect you, a thick-browed and big-eyed pharmacist, to be an Evil God believer just like me. Wait, Priest, don't move, we are on the same side!"

(End of chapter)