Chapter 25

Back outside the Buddha Hall, the aroma of incense wafting from within was even stronger. Ye Qiutang didn't dare to enter. She turned and carefully crept back to the half-open window, peering inside through the crack.

The interior was filled with swirling incense smoke. Ye Qiutang squinted. Wang Fugui and Jiang Cheng, like the others, were arranged in strange poses, kneeling on prayer mats. Song Tianming, with his corpse-like face, stiffly brought over a candlestick and placed it diagonally in front of Wang Fugui before lighting it.

Only one empty prayer mat remained. Ye Qiutang understood that this last one was prepared for her.

Accompanied by the increasingly rapid sound of a wooden fish being struck, all nine people, including Jiang Cheng and Wang Fugui, lunged forward simultaneously, prostrating themselves on the ground. Instantly, the enormous painting on the wall changed. Bubbles continuously rose from the pitch-black lake, accompanied by the sound of rushing water.

Ye Qiutang was stunned. A moment later, a wave of chilling dread enveloped her. She never imagined that this painting... this painting had come to life. Staring at the bubbling, black surface of the water, she was certain that some unknown, terrifying horror was lurking within.

This also confirmed what her father's subordinates had said: the diamond corpses gathering to kowtow would attract a great evil.

"No! I have to interrupt the ritual, no matter what!"

Fortunately, she herself was the final link needed for the ritual. With this thought, Ye Qiutang slowly retreated, circling around to the front of the Buddha Hall, the only path through which the diamond corpses could enter and exit.

She had already devised a plan when the diamond corpses had abducted Wang Fugui earlier.

She looked at the red pillar beside her, attempting to climb it, but the result was the same as in the side hall. It was as if the pillar had been greased; she couldn't get a grip.

Seeing this, Ye Qiutang wasn't anxious. On the contrary, a hint of joy appeared in her eyes. Her judgment had been confirmed.

She took off her outer garment, tore it into strips, and then skillfully tied them together, fashioning a rope several meters long. She moved quickly, while constantly paying attention to the situation inside the Buddha Hall.

The chanting inside grew increasingly strange, vaguely mixed with the sound of waves, as if some enormous being was about to burst forth from the water.

As the chanting reached its peak, Ye Qiutang's rope was also ready. Based on her previous experience, the diamond corpses would be coming for her soon.

Ye Qiutang tied a knot at the end of the rope. Then, stepping back a few paces, she aimed carefully at the plaque above the entrance of the Buddha Hall and threw the rope with all her might. The knotted end caught on a corner of the plaque. She tugged on it, and it seemed secure enough.

"Creak—"

"Tap, tap, tap."

The chanting inside the Buddha Hall stopped, replaced by the sound of numb, stiff footsteps. The four diamond corpses were coming again.

Without hesitating, Ye Qiutang lightly stepped on the pillar, and then using her wrists, she pulled herself up the rope in a few swift movements. She crouched in the narrow space behind the Buddha Hall's plaque, peering down below.

Seconds later, the four diamond corpses jumped out of the Buddha Hall's gate. However, this time they didn't go far. Instead, they wandered around in front of the gate, aimlessly like headless flies.

"Just as I thought!"

Ye Qiutang's heart was filled with certainty. The next moment, she took a deep breath and shouted from above, "Song Tianming!"

At the sound of her voice, the four diamond corpses stopped simultaneously, struggling to look up. But after the sound of tearing flesh, their heads fell off, and the headless bodies swayed a few times before collapsing to the ground.

Having dealt with the four diamond corpses, Ye Qiutang didn't dare to be careless. After all, there were still three strange corpses inside.

But this time, her worries were unnecessary. Soon after she carefully climbed down, she saw through the window that the other three corpses had also fallen onto the prayer mats, while Jiang Cheng and Wang Fugui seemed to have woken up from a dream.

Leaving the Buddha Hall and seeing the four headless corpses on the ground outside, the fat man looked at Ye Qiutang with surprise. "This... you did all this?"

Ye Qiutang breathed a long sigh of relief, nodding seriously at the fat man. "We did it together. If it weren't for you, we would have died just now."

After hearing Ye Qiutang's account, Jiang Cheng couldn't help but feel a sense of lingering fear. He hadn't expected to be the first to fall victim, and then there was that painting. The painting clearly depicted the world of Yao, Shun, Yu, and Li Bai, that black water river.

If the ritual had continued, the monster hidden in the black water river might have been drawn into their world. He didn't know what would have happened next.

As the three of them left the Buddha Hall, the lights inside gradually dimmed. And the enormous painting returned to its original state. After walking further away, the entire Buddha Hall became blurred, as if it were being crushed and merged into the darkness of the night.

"Let's go to the Sutra Depository!"

……

"Huff—"

"Huff—"

Walking through the deepest part of the hospital, Tang Qisheng gasped for breath. He opened the iron gate at the very end, entering the world behind it.

Indeed, this was the world behind the gate, a... a completely different world. Everything here was distorted and twisted. The ground rose in irregular mounds, and the walls on both sides of the corridor, as well as the ceiling, were covered in cyan muscles and blood vessels.

Tang Qisheng had never seen such a bizarre scene, not even in his dreams. He didn't know how to describe what was before him. In any case, he was certain that this was the most core part of the hospital, the very root of this haunted hospital.

Countless crimson handprints filled the gaps between the blood vessels on the walls. Just like the ones Tang Qisheng had seen before, they were all the handprints of children, densely packed and seemingly endless, making one feel uneasy.

There were rooms of various sizes on both sides of the corridor. Tang Qisheng passed one, wiping away the bloody grime on the crooked sign with his sleeve, revealing the words "Observation Room."

The door to this room was half-open. Tang Qisheng didn't intend to go inside. He peered through the crack. The inside was dark, but he could still vaguely make out that the space was quite large, probably over a hundred square meters, with about twenty neatly arranged beds.

They were all old-fashioned iron beds. Even though they were painted with a layer of blue rust-proof paint, they were still covered in rust. Judging from their size, they were the kind used by children, surrounded by iron bars.

Upon further observation, Tang Qisheng noticed that these iron beds were all welded to the ground. The welding was crude, clearly prioritizing practicality over aesthetics.

Handcuffs, shackles, restraints, and some instruments that Tang Qisheng didn't recognize were also distributed around the iron beds.

Just as Tang Qisheng was pondering what had happened here, a jarring sound suddenly interrupted his thoughts.

"Creak—"

"Creak—"

……

The sound didn't seem far away. A moment later, Tang Qisheng's eyes widened. He saw a blood-stained children's tricycle slowly emerge from a doorway on the right side of the corridor, about ten meters away from him.