Splurt!
Fang Xiu yanked the scalpel free.
Thud!
Wu Dahai's bloated body collapsed with a heavy crash.
In that instant, the entire office froze. Every colleague stood rigid, as if transformed into lifeless marionettes, their faces drained of color to a ghastly pallor—even Zhao Hao was no exception.
Then, they moved.
Their bodies twisted unnaturally, spines and necks contorting into grotesque, inhuman arcs.
Muscles churned and swelled like boiling flesh.
"Transforming, are you?" Fang Xiu murmured. "Then I'll break your spell before it takes effect."
He had no intention of playing along like some fool in a TV drama, waiting idly for them to complete their transformation.
With a burst of speed, enhanced by his spiritual power, Fang Xiu shot forward like a panther.
One slash.
Two slashes.
Three…
Silver light flickered through the air.
By the time Fang Xiu came to a halt, he was standing on the far side of the office.
In a single second, he had traversed the entire workspace—leaving a gaping wound on each of his colleagues' throats.
Thump. Thump. Thump…
Corpses crumpled to the floor in a cacophony of dull impacts.
Then came the sound.
A sharp, chittering crack-crack echoed behind him.
"The Lady Doctor?"
Fang Xiu turned.
She was there, hanging from the ceiling—her elongated limbs sprawled like a grotesque marionette, black hair cascading down in thick, tar-like strands.
Saliva dripped from the cavernous abyss of her maw.
Those milky, pupil-less eyes locked onto him.
And then, like a specter, she lunged.
Yet this time, Fang Xiu did not dodge.
He did not resist.
He stood still, face calm, waiting for her strike.
Swish!
Her ghastly white claw slashed toward his throat.
But the next moment—something impossible happened.
Her hand phased straight through his neck.
Like slicing through air.
"Had your fun?" Fang Xiu's voice was calm, his gaze sweeping the surroundings. "Then show yourself."
Instantly, the Lady Doctor vanished.
The bodies vanished.
Even the entire sales office shattered like a broken mirror.
Beyond the shards lay the emergency exit of Qingshan Asylum.
A glaring EXIT sign hung on the wall.
Nearby, Zhao Hao and the other two lay sprawled in unnatural angles, their faces twisted in terror, bodies marred with deep, chaotic wounds.
Lifeless.
Fang Xiu rose to his feet.
In the darkness, a pair of eerie, crimson eyes stared unblinkingly at him.
They had no solid form, merely a shifting mass of writhing black mist, endlessly roiling.
"A dream?" Fang Xiu murmured. "So this is your ability."
From within the mist, a rasping voice—like metal grating on bone—whispered:
"How did you see through the dream?"
"Your dream was convincing. And you do understand humans… but you know nothing of silicon."
"Silicon?" The entity hesitated, as if failing to grasp the meaning.
Then it asked again:
"Why do you feel no fear?"
Fang Xiu raised an eyebrow. "Ah, so you kill through fear? The more terrified one is in your dream, the faster they die. No wonder there was a death list. No wonder the dead 'revived' just to summon me back to work."
A smirk played at his lips.
"To be honest, encountering a new kind of entity excites me. But the dream you crafted? I despised it.
A world without horrors? That is not your place to create."
The black mist fell silent.
It only stared, as if engraving his face into memory.
Then, without a word, it began to fade—slowly dissolving into the void.
Fang Xiu glanced at the lifeless bodies of Zhao Hao and the others, the puzzle pieces falling into place.
A dream-weaving anomaly.
The very same entity that had impersonated the Lady Doctor.
And if his guess was right, the Lady Doctor had been the weakest anomaly in Qingshan Asylum.
Her nature was different from the others.
Most anomalies had been subjects of grotesque experiments—humans twisted into something monstrous.
But she had never undergone an experiment.
She had simply been infected by a scalpel, transformed into an anomaly by mere contact.
That was the fundamental difference.
She lacked special abilities.
Her method of killing was crude, simple, rigid.
Oh, but she did have one unique trait.
Her legs.
They were absurdly long—over two meters in length.
And that was why, when she encountered a true anomaly, she had fled without resistance.
The dream-weaving entity must have escaped from the unlocked ward.
It had waited for its prey to sleep—then silently lured them into its nightmare, feeding on their fear.
The more terrified they became, the faster they died.
But unfortunately for it, its victim was Fang Xiu—
A man who feared nothing when facing anomalies, yet everything when anomalies were absent.
Or rather, when he realized they were missing from the dream, it wasn't fear he felt.
It was despair.
The dream-weaver had tried to terrify him, conjuring horrors to break his mind—
But in doing so, it had unknowingly reignited Fang Xiu's desire to live.
And, of course, it had made one fatal mistake.
It knew nothing of silicon.
Yet ultimately, its greatest failure lay in one undeniable truth:
Fang Xiu simply did not fear.
He stepped toward Zhao Hao.
The man's hands were locked around his own throat, his face a sickly shade of blue.
Fang Xiu reached out, checking for breath—
There was none.
Zhao Hao had strangled himself to death.
A feat impossible for any normal human.
But then, anomalies were never bound by normalcy.
Without hesitation, Fang Xiu raised his scalpel—
And plunged it into his own throat.
Darkness swallowed his vision.
—
—
At the EXIT sign.
"This is the emergency exit!"
"There must be a way out!"
His colleagues' voices brimmed with elation.
Even Zhao Hao's eyes sparkled with relief.
But this time, Fang Xiu did not rest.
He had no intention of recovering his energy.
If that anomaly's ability was dream manipulation—then the best defense was to never sleep.
Before, they had unknowingly drifted into slumber.
But this time?
They would move.
"Go."
His command was calm, unwavering.
Without hesitation, he led the charge toward the emergency exit.
The others followed close behind.
Thud!
The door swung open.
They stepped through.
And were swallowed by darkness.
When they emerged, they found themselves standing outside Bai Liu Academy.
Fang Xiu surveyed the empty street.
Then he gazed at the vacant, cloudless sky.
Without a word, he raised his scalpel—
And sliced his own throat once more.