Chapter 493: Chu Men

My fingers traced the cold surface on my face as I pulled my gaze back, looking at my reflection in the windowpane.

The half-black, half-white mask fit perfectly against my face, hiding my ordinary features and giving off a mysterious, eerie air.

"Is this me?" I stood up and walked to the window, studying myself in the glass. The mask had only two holes left for my eyes.

"Something's changed. Even my presence feels different."

"What are you doing?" Sitting on the other bed, Feng Minglong watched my bizarre behavior, a tremor in his voice.

I glanced over instinctively. A flicker of shock and fear crossed Feng Minglong's face. "Is it really that scary?" I asked. "It's just a mask."

I casually peeled off the Good and Evil Asura Mask and tossed it onto my bed. Only then did Feng Minglong let out a breath of relief. "It's not that it's scary. When you put that thing on, you just remind me of one of those psycho killers in the movies. You felt like a complete stranger. Then again, you already give off the vibe of a cold-blooded psycho anyway, so the mask suits you to a T."

"It's that big of a change?" My looks were plain, nothing like those striking movie actors, yet putting on the mask seemed to turn me into someone else entirely. "Don't go running your mouth about the mask. It's just a decoration."

Feng Minglong rolled his eyes. "Who are you trying to fool? Whatever. On account of lunch today, I won't breathe a word to anyone."

I nodded, put the mask back on, and sat cross-legged on the hospital bed to circulate the Profound Truth Mental Method.

This time, it took me only two or three seconds to enter the state. Even more astonishing, wearing the mask steadily deepened my comprehension of heaven and nature, as if I were brushing against the most fundamental rules of the world. The sensation was beyond words. My cultivation base rose steadily as true qi cycled through me, harmonizing my inner energy with the outside world. It seemed to block out some sort of interference; my mind sank into the embrace of heaven and earth, no longer targeted by that malice.

After several cycles, the Pre-Heaven True Qi in my lower dantian had thickened by another thread. I was highly satisfied.

"With the Good and Evil Mask, the interference from heaven's will is practically negligible now. Combined with Teacher Chen's Buddhist Prayer Beads, my cultivation speed actually seems a bit faster than before. I suppose this counts as a blessing in disguise." Feng Minglong's rhythmic snoring filled the small hospital room. I glanced at his bed, stopped my cultivation, took off the mask, and switched off the light before drifting off to sleep.

Early the next morning, after the doctor finished the routine checkup, Teacher Chen arrived with several nurses to bring me over to Ye Bing's ward.

Inside the VIP ward, Jiang Fei, dressed in a pale long dress, was watering the flowers on the windowsill, while a doctor stood by Ye Bing's bed with a furrowed brow.

"Doctor Yan, I've brought him." Pushing the door open, Elder Chen stood beside me with a kindly expression.

"Sorry to trouble you, Teacher Chen, though we'll have to wait a little longer for the specific treatment plan. My teacher hasn't arrived yet." The middle-aged man called Doctor Yan hurriedly made room for Elder Chen. "As you know, my teacher has a rather eccentric temper. It took a lot of effort to persuade him to step in personally and treat the patient."

"Don't worry about the fee."

"I wouldn't dare, Teacher Chen! If you bring up money, I'll walk right out the door. I'm helping you to repay your kindness. Without you, I wouldn't have the warm family I do today!"

Through their deeper conversation, I learned that Doctor Yan was forty-four years old and a fairly renowned brain surgeon in the country. He had been married twice but remained childless, so he eventually adopted a child from Teacher Chen's orphanage. That was the gist of their connection.

"This must be Mr. Gao." Though only in his forties, Doctor Yan looked much older than his actual age. He wasn't tall, barely reaching my earlobes, and he liked to affect a particular cadence when he spoke—perhaps the air he felt a famous physician ought to carry. "Elder Chen has mentioned you to me. This treatment is critical, so I hope you will fully cooperate."

He had been perfectly polite to Elder Chen, but the moment he addressed a twenty-something kid like me, Doctor Yan's tone turned noticeably chilly.

I didn't mind, though. Giving a brief nod, I looked toward Ye Bing on the hospital bed.

Compared to a few weeks ago, she had lost a lot of weight. Her complexion was sallow, bluish veins showed beneath the surface of her skin, and she looked thoroughly haggard.

"Gao Jian..." Dressed in her pale long dress, Jiang Fei walked gracefully over and offered a faint smile. "Thank you for coming."

"Don't thank me. I'm only doing this for my own peace of mind." The truth was often the hardest thing to hear. I stepped aside and began flipping through Ye Bing's medical chart, paying no mind to the nurses pointing and whispering behind my back, nor the flicker of disdain deep in Doctor Yan's eyes.

To them, I probably looked like a heartless bastard who had abandoned his girlfriend without a shred of lingering affection.

A self-deprecating smile tugged at my lips. None of that mattered to me.

"Mr. Gao, when my teacher arrives, I hope you'll actively cooperate. He has an eccentric temper, and if you rub him the wrong way, he might just turn around and leave." After delivering that warning, Doctor Yan cleared the ward of irrelevant personnel. He and Teacher Chen sat together chatting warmly, while I took a seat by Ye Bing's bed, gazing at a face that no longer felt familiar.

"Please don't be angry," Jiang Fei murmured, quietly taking a seat nearby.

"Angry about what?" I didn't turn my head, my mind occupied with entering her dream.

"Doctor Yan probably misunderstood you, which is why his words have an edge. Don't take it to heart. He's actually quite dedicated. I heard he turned down two international medical conferences specifically to treat Ye Bing." Jiang Fei had changed a great deal over the past month. She used to have a fiery temper; she never would have worn a pale long dress, much less spoken in such a soft, gentle voice.

"He didn't do that for Ye Bing—he did it specifically for Elder Chen to see." The corner of my mouth curved upward. "I don't care about Doctor Yan at all. He's just a posturing buffoon."

When it came to researching the existence of human consciousness during a deep coma, I probably ranked among the absolute best. After all, even the most celebrated doctors had rarely experienced entering the Middle Dream Layer. I hadn't counted on him in the first place. I was only here to assess the basic situation, and then I would enter her dream tonight and take action myself.

We ended up waiting the entire morning. Doctor Yan kept wiping sweat from his forehead, placing over a dozen calls in a row right in front of Elder Chen before his so-called teacher finally picked up. Then, in a turn that left us not knowing whether to laugh or cry, the person on the other end spoke a single sentence and hung up flat.

"What's all the racket? Let me sleep a little longer."

Hearing the voice from the other end of the line, I almost laughed. It was nearly lunchtime and he still wasn't awake? And he was still groggy and irritable on top of that? Was this supposed to be a doctor who saved lives?

At three-thirty in the afternoon, footsteps echoed down the corridor. The person outside wore thick-soled leather shoes, every stride measured and steady.

Without a knock, the ward door was pushed straight open. A tall, thin man walked in and asked impatiently, "Where's the patient?"

"Teacher, you're finally here!" Looking as though he had seen his savior, Doctor Yan eagerly hurried over, took the tall, thin man by the arm, and introduced him to Teacher Chen. "This is my teacher—Chu Men. He's thirty-one years old, a domestic specialist in the subconscious, an expert in psychology and psychiatry, and he has even lectured professors at prestigious universities abroad."

"He's your teacher? But he's younger than you?" Elder Chen kept his calm, easy smile; there was no telling what he was actually thinking.

"My teacher is a true prodigy. He isn't widely known in this field, but the few who have worked with him all know his skill is at the absolute pinnacle nationwide." Doctor Yan rubbed his hands together, then turned to lead the tall, thin man to the bedside. "Teacher, I'll leave the rest in your hands. This patient's condition is very unusual. Since the night before last, her vital signs have been steadily weakening. We've tried every measure available and still haven't found the cause. There's no trauma in her brain either."

"No brain damage?" The tall, thin man picked up Ye Bing's chart and leafed through it. "The patient is in a clinical state of complete unawareness of self and environment; no discernible sleep-wake cycle; complete loss of autonomic function in the brainstem and hypothalamus; no sustained, reproducible behavioral responses to visual, auditory, tactile, or noxious stimuli; no language comprehension or expression; bowel and bladder incontinence..."

After finishing, he held up the chart and waved it. "Everything recorded in here is accurate?"

"Yes. I've tried every method available, and nothing has worked," Doctor Yan said deferentially from the side.

"Her brain function is completely gone. Calling me here is pointless—find someone else." With that, the tall, thin man walked right out of the ward without a backward glance, leaving behind a room full of stunned doctors and nurses.