Seeing Xuan Yang cover Li Huowang's mouth, the others clutching tinderboxes rushed forward, surrounding Li Huowang with menacing glares.
"Not leaving, huh? Then you'll die here today! There's no way we'll let you tip off that mangy Master!"
Faced with this life-or-death situation, Li Huowang wasn't the least bit flustered. He rolled his eyes, exasperated by the plot of this hallucination, then simply closed them and took a deep breath.
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself strapped to a hospital bed by broad leather restraints. The martial brothers who had surrounded him were gone.
"Nurse Wang, I'm awake. Can you untie me?" Li Huowang shouted into the bedside microphone, calling for the night-shift nurse. He was desperate to check if the Jade Pendant was still inside his shirt.
He yelled for a long time, but there was no response. Li Huowang knew Nurse Wang was probably binge-watching Mary Sue dramas again during her shift. Slacking off was her favorite pastime.
Li Huowang looked down at his chest, wrapped in a blue and white hospital gown, and twisted with all his might, trying to feel whether the Jade Pendant was there. But his body was strapped down so tightly; one moment he thought he could feel it, the next he couldn't. After several attempts, he gave up in frustration.
Yawning, Li Huowang could only lie in bed and pray that after finishing her show, Nurse Wang would mercifully glance at the security cameras.
In the dead of night, even the second floor reserved for critical patients was eerily quiet. Li Huowang drifted into a hazy sleep. When he awoke again, he was sprawled on the cold floor of a cavern.
He was in the same spot as before, but the others who had tried to escape had all vanished.
Tch, you bunch of NPCs think you can handle me? Li Huowang fished the Jade Pendant out from his clothes, bounced it lightly in his palm, and tucked it away again.
About half an incense stick's worth of time later, he returned to the large communal sleeping area and lay down on his pile of hay, patiently awaiting daylight. The thought of the pendant's value made him too excited to sleep.
Without a clock, Li Huowang had no idea how much time had passed. When he saw the disciples on either side of him beginning to wake, he sat up too.
It's dawn here, so Nurse Wang should be changing shifts, right? Maybe I should go back and check? Nurse Ai is way more diligent than her.
As Li Huowang hesitated, the sound of hurried footsteps came from the entrance.
A Daoist Boy dressed in a black Daoist Robe with his hair tied in a topknot burst in, his face fraught with panic.
"Hurry! The Master wants everyone at Hui'an Hall!"
The sudden order left everyone bewildered, but since it was the Master who summoned them, they had no reason to refuse.
Soon, all the disciples had gathered in the largest cavern, the so-called Hui'an Hall. The torchlight illuminated the confusion etched on every face.
Li Huowang's sharp eyes noticed something: some people were missing. Besides Xuan Yang, a few of the mangy Master's personal disciples were also gone.
Ha, did they run away together? he thought, enjoying the drama as if he were watching a show.
When an ugly, misshapen head poked out from a dark tunnel, all the Daoist Boys except Li Huowang instinctively bowed their heads. That was their Master, Master Danyang.
"Ahem!" A single cough made everyone tense up.
"Last night, during the second watch, some people tried to escape—including two of this Daoist Master's own disciples. I am most grieved!"
Though he spoke of grief, the fury on his face was so palpable it was nearly a physical force.
Already caught? Xuan Yang and his crew are really useless, Li Huowang sneered inwardly.
"Without rules, there is no order. To break the rules is to face punishment—that is the law of our Xishan Donghua Sect! Follow me."
Not daring to breathe too loudly, the disciples trailed silently behind Master Danyang. They walked through caverns large and small, past a rushing underground river, and soon arrived in a damp cavern the size of a classroom.
There, Li Huowang saw that all of last night's escapees had been trussed up and were piled in a corner.
Their expressions listless, the captives saw their master and began to struggle desperately, as if trying to say something, but the rags stuffed in their mouths prevented any sound from escaping. Master Danyang clearly had no interest in their explanations. With a flip of his hand, he formed a Daoist Seal and pointed forward. "Open!"
The cavern's smooth, water-worn floor suddenly split open, creating a large pit into which the escapees tumbled.
An instant later, hysterical, muffled cries and agonized shrieks erupted from the hole, accompanied by the sound of tearing flesh.
Faced with this horrific scene, many of the Daoist Boys' legs began to tremble, and they squeezed their eyes shut.
"Get closer! This is the price for trying to escape!" Master Danyang's command made everyone's face pale several shades. No one dared defy their Master's order. Shoving against one another, they all shuffled toward the edge of the pit.
The hole was deep and pitch-black. The dark, round opening was like a whirlpool, threatening to swallow them all.
As Li Huowang's eyes adjusted, he could make out a huge black cauldron at the bottom, its rim lined with twisted Talismans. Something seemed to be moving inside, but he couldn't see it clearly. The only information his senses could gather was the acrid, nauseating stench of blood wafting up from below. Whatever was in there, it was undoubtedly something incredibly dangerous.
Things in a hallucination aren't supposed to hurt me. That's never happened before.
Even as he told himself that, his heart began to pound. He readied himself to retreat to the hospital at a moment's notice.
SWISH—! A writhing black shadow shot out from the pit, wrapped itself around the disciple next to Li Huowang, and viciously dragged him back in.
Everyone was terrified by the sight and scrambled back against the cavern's slick walls. If Master Danyang hadn't been watching them, they would have already fled. Nearly everyone present wore an expression of sheer horror, trembling as they wondered what that thing could possibly be.
But Li Huowang was not among those guessing. Standing the closest, he had seen it clearly.
It was a black, fleshy substance with slick, sticky skin, covered in clusters of short, constantly trembling black tentacles!
That alone was enough for Li Huowang to be certain: whatever Master Danyang was keeping in this pit was no natural creature of this world. As for what it was, Li Huowang couldn't guess, nor did he want to step forward for another look.
Even knowing that these things were just inventions of his own mind, Li Huowang couldn't help but wonder why he would conjure up such monstrosities. He scanned his incredibly realistic surroundings, and a horrifying thought suddenly took root. What if this bizarre, terrifying world is real?
The thought sent a tremor through Li Huowang's body. He thought about the people who had died before. If they were real people, not just hallucinations, did that mean he would have died just now if that thing had grabbed him?
The suffocating fear nearly crushed him. He forced himself to take several deep breaths and immediately began the self-counseling techniques Dr. Li had taught him.
These are hallucinations. However real they seem, it's all a hallucination. Li Huowang, you cannot get lost in them again. They're your creation—what is there to fear?
Yang Na is still waiting for me; I can't let her down. I can overcome all of this! I will!
After talking himself down, his emotions gradually stabilized, and he felt composed enough to face whatever came next.