Chapter 102: Hex Sorcery Flaring Up

Song Wenxuan had voiced the exact fear weighing on my mind. During the time Jiang Fei and I were unconscious, we might have been inflicted with hex sorcery.

If the old man triggered the hex on us at a critical moment, all our prior efforts would be ruined.

After a moment of thought, I asked Song Wenxuan, "How can you tell if someone has been hit with hex sorcery?"

"Until the exact moment it erupts, someone inflicted with a hex seems no different from a normal person. But if you start feeling unwell, you need to be careful." Song Wenxuan taught me a simple way to check. "Someone whose mind is being controlled by hex sorcery will have different eyes. You need to look at the upper whites of their eyes."

"The upper whites?"

"A healthy person usually has a bluish-white upper sclera with faint blood vessels. If it's heavily bloodshot, it could just be from staying up late, drinking too much, crying, or getting conjunctivitis. But if those vessels are deep red, with tiny blood clots at the ends, it means something is wrong internally, and the hex sorcery might be about to flare up."

"As for those whose minds are actively being controlled, a dark gray vertical line often appears in the middle of their upper whites. This stage indicates that the spell has invaded their body and their self-awareness is starting to blur. When that line turns pitch black, their mind is fully clouded and the hex sorcery art has completely taken hold."

To verify his words, I parted his filthy, matted hair and looked into his eyes.

His upper sclera was thickly bloodshot. Aside from a deep black vertical line, there were also many tiny black dots.

Song Wenxuan didn't resist. He gave a miserable smile and said, "The old man used gu poison to torture me, which is why those black dots appear in my eyes. Don't worry, I won't lie to you."

I was cautious by nature; checking had just been a subconscious reflex. "Right now, I have no choice but to trust you."

I had stayed in the eighth cell for too long. Worried that Jiang Fei might run into danger alone outside, I prepared to crawl back through the drainage channel and leave.

"Hold on, haven't you forgotten something?" Song Wenxuan called out, stopping me just as I turned around.

"What is it? We don't owe each other anything. If I manage to kill the black magician, that counts as avenging your blood feud."

Song Wenxuan looked at Song Xiaofeng with immense complexity in his gaze. Before this, he hadn't even dared to meet the boy's eyes. "I don't care if you actually manage to kill the old man in the end. Right now, please give the knife back to the child."

"The kid is emotionally unstable. He's going to stab you to death."

"That is exactly what I want." Song Wenxuan slowly lowered his head as he looked at his child. "I deserve a thousand deaths, and I have no right to face them. If killing me with his own hands can bring him even a little peace, then I would rather die by his hand."

"Hurry up and give him the knife! That was the condition we agreed on from the start!"

"Give it to him!"

Song Wenxuan was losing control, roaring with the last ounce of his strength. His voice echoed throughout the entire cell.

It was hard to imagine that a person's final wish in life would be to die by his own son's hand. It looked like sheer madness to me, yet I could also understand it.

"I'll grant you the release you want." I had never considered myself a good person, nor did I cling to ethics and morals like some self-righteous crusader. What I considered right was simply whatever made logical sense.

One begged for death, and the other desperately wanted to kill. This was a tragedy that nobody wanted to witness, so it was better to just let the curtain fall early.

I handed the Scalpel to Song Xiaofeng and stopped standing in his way.

Holding the sharp blade, Song Xiaofeng slowly calmed down as his initial impulse faded.

For a moment, I actually found myself unable to read this simple, foolish boy. He just stood there holding the knife, and no one knew what was going through his mind.

Clatter! The Scalpel dropped to the floor. The boy burst into wails, then dove into the foul-smelling drainage channel, fleeing the room as if he had grown wings.

"Could it be... he understood you? The kid isn't mentally disabled?" It might have been impolite to say it out loud, but Song Xiaofeng's actions had caught me completely off guard.

Splashing water echoed down the channel as Song Xiaofeng left, leaving only Song Wenxuan nailed to the cross and me, ready to go.

"Why?" Song Wenxuan murmured to himself, staring at the ripples on the water.

I didn't say a word, because I didn't know the answer either.

Crawling through the channel and back into the adjacent room, I found Jiang Fei half-crouching in a corner. "How was it? Did you find anything?"

"A massive haul. We at least have a fighting chance now!" Putting the young doctor's coat back on, I took the Underworld Phone back into my hand. "You didn't look at what's on my phone, did you?"

"Absolutely not. I kept the screen pointed at the door the whole time."

Jiang Fei promised repeatedly, so I didn't press the issue and simply glanced at the livestream.

"Holy shit!" In just that short amount of time, the viewer count had broken past three thousand. That was incredibly rare for my past broadcasts.

A barrage of comments was flying rapidly across the screen, moving so fast it was overwhelming. I couldn't even keep up with them at first glance.

"Jiang Fei, what exactly did you do while holding my phone?"

Jiang Fei looked completely innocent. "I didn't do anything! I just did as you said—pointed the screen at the door and kept a careful watch."

She demonstrated the posture she had just been using, and I instantly understood. Jiang Fei had held the phone backward. The camera had been pointed directly at her chest, and the silly girl hadn't realized a thing.

"Did I break your phone?"

"No. It's just that it's going to be a long night, and I'm afraid some of our brothers in the chat are going to suffer from malnutrition."

Smiling bitterly, I looked at the Super Thriller Live Broadcast Room, where the popularity was still steadily climbing. This time, the comments completely exploded.

Teletubbies Died of Murder tipped the Super Thriller Live Broadcast Room 99 Underworld Coins: "Soft voice, tender body—I give her a ninety-nine out of ten!"

"Fuck, fuck, fuck! Where's my girl! I want to lick her until she doubts her own existence!"

"Streamer, get out of the way! My eighteen-meter dick has awakened, and I don't want to hurt any innocent bystanders!"

"Second Battalion Commander! Bring out my Italian cannon!"

"Sister-in-law! I, Wu Song, arrived too late!!"

...

I didn't even know how to respond to some of these comments. "What the hell is this Wu Song meme? Calling her sister-in-law like that, won't Wu Dalang be upset?"

Gripping the Scalpel in my hand, I also found a broken section of chain to carry with me. "Let's go. We're heading up to the third floor to look around. Don't stray too far from me, but don't stay too close, either."

Before leaving, I pulled Song Xiaofeng and Jiang Fei in front of me. Using the phone's light, I closely examined their pupils. I only breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that the whites of their eyes were normal. "The hex sorcery art hasn't flared up yet. Let's hope both of them can survive this ordeal."

Before we even made it out of the basement, the overhead lights went out completely, plunging the entire psychiatric hospital into darkness.

"Don't be afraid. Keep an eye on your surroundings and watch the corners." The Underworld Live Show Phone became our only source of light as the three of us emerged from the basement and arrived at the first-floor lobby.

A faint scent of blood drifted through the spacious lobby. Shadows seemed to flicker in the darkness, and the corpse of the pregnant woman had vanished without a trace.

"Let's go. Up to the third floor!"

Our footsteps echoed clearly through the pitch-black stairwell.

I practiced the Profound Truth Mental Method, which heightened my five senses and made me far more perceptive than an ordinary person. Before we even reached the third floor, I abruptly stopped and turned around, grabbing Jiang Fei by the shoulders.

She shivered in fright and immediately halted. Song Xiaofeng, who was trailing at the very back, just froze in place with a blank look when he saw us stop.

None of the three of us moved, but the footsteps in the stairwell did not stop!

"They really came!" I had noticed something was wrong while we were heading upstairs. The footsteps were chaotic, and it sounded like something was dangling far behind us.

I looked down the stairs into the pitch-black gloom. The darkness provided the perfect cover for whatever unknown thing was down there.

"Jiang Fei, you take up the rear. This kid is simple-minded, and I'm afraid that if he runs into danger, he'll be killed before he can even cry out for help."

"But I..." Jiang Fei clutched my clothes, her fingers turning white from the grip. "Alright, I'll take up the rear."

We continued moving forward, but when we reached the third floor, I realized I had severely underestimated the situation.

There were countless patient wards on the third floor. It would take a long time to search through them and find the room where the black magician was nourishing the organs.

"Gao Jian, what do we do now?"

"If he's been nourishing them with vital blood year-round, that room is bound to reek of blood. When practicing evil arts, you have to find a spot that faces away from the sun to avoid clashing with yang qi. This building faces north with its back to the south, so we'll start searching the wards on the south side first!"

"Mhm."

Jiang Fei gave a weak reply. Seeing her frown, I thought she was feeling unwell. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I just felt a little dizzy for a second." She looked at me blankly, completely unaware that a hair-thin gray vertical line was slowly emerging within her eyes.