Chapter 640: Secrets

"The secrets inside the hospital? You'd better explain why you're here first." I didn't believe the Writer's words. I had seen his medical record; this guy should have died twenty years ago!

"Relax, I am absolutely not your enemy."

The Writer took two steps forward. As I watched his ugly face draw closer, I immediately called out, "Stay right there! Don't move!"

My thoughts were a mess. The Writer's sudden appearance was a completely unexpected event outside my plans.

I had no idea why he was here, much less the courage to rashly cooperate with him. I had neither the time nor the ability to verify his claims.

In other words, even if he was lying, I wouldn't be able to tell.

Cooperating with him under these circumstances was no different from asking a tiger for its skin. One careless move, and I would be devoured without even bone scraps remaining.

"Alright, I won't move. I'll just stand right here and explain everything." The Writer raised both hands. Although his attitude was sincere, his ugly, sinister appearance made it hard to trust him. "The reason I knew you were here is because someone ordered me to come find you. He told me to kill you in secret and specifically instructed me to hand your corpse over to him."

"He wanted my corpse?" My brow twitched. "Who was it?"

The Writer pulled a black token from his pants pocket. The moment I saw it, I knew he wasn't lying.

It was an Octagonal Black Token. The character for 'fate' was written on the front, and 'usurp' on the back.

"Two-Faced Buddha's Fate Manipulator Token!"

"That man's surname is Chen. He came here with Mr. Paper before, and this token is his credential." The Writer waved the token in front of my eyes and patiently explained, "Mr. Chen is a Daoist practitioner, and he seems to be Mr. Paper's friend. Oh, right, I haven't told you about Mr. Paper yet. That man is truly incredible. He set up the entire formation around Jianghu Cancer Research Hospital. He's practically like those Earth Immortals from ancient times, able to summon the wind and rain, or scatter beans to turn them into soldiers."

The Writer's words carried a deep reverence for Mr. Paper. I compared his story against the clues I already had, and there were no major discrepancies. "Summoning wind and rain? Turning beans into soldiers? Do you really think he's some kind of immortal? Cut the nonsense. Why is his token on you? And what is your real name? If you want to cooperate with me, tell the truth!"

Seeing the Fate Manipulator Token, I already believed half of his story. Out of caution, though, I didn't immediately change my tune.

The Writer's expression soured at my questions. He hesitated for a long time before answering, "You definitely won't believe me when I say this, but all these years... I haven't even known if I count as being alive."

He paused slightly, a trace of nostalgia flashing in his eyes. "My name is Wang Wu. I was admitted to Jianghu Cancer Research Hospital twenty years ago for cancer. Back then, the medical environment was terrible. If you had terminal cancer, you were basically just waiting to die..."

Through the Writer, I learned his story.

Wang Wu had been a successful businessman. His life was absolutely perfect—at least the first half of it.

But there are unpredictable winds and clouds in the sky, and right at the peak of his life, he received a cancer diagnosis. In that era, stage-three cancer was tantamount to a death notice.

However, Wang Wu, being at the height of his success, was different from other cancer patients. He didn't succumb to numb despair, nor did he simply accept his fate. He possessed an intense desire to survive. Even when the hospital had given up on him, he was still actively seeking treatment.

Perhaps moved by his sheer will to live, a doctor at the hospital recommended he participate in a trial for a new drug. After paying astronomical medical fees and signing a non-disclosure agreement, he was sent into the completely sealed-off Third Ward.

The subsequent treatment process was complicated and agonizing. He felt his physical condition deteriorating day by day, and the drugs injected into him were constantly changing. Gradually, he lost his mobility. His body was ravaged by the disease, his face was disfigured, and even communicating became a struggle.

Under these circumstances, the hospital transferred his treatment area underground. They began injecting him daily with a specific, unlabeled special drug.

The effects of this new drug were astonishing. After just a few courses of treatment, he actually felt his body recover significantly.

With hope reignited in his heart, Wang Wu began to actively cooperate with the treatment. The hospital expressed deep confusion over his recovery. In reality, the cancer cells had already spread throughout his body by then. If he were a normal person, his internal physiological systems should have collapsed long ago.

The hospital attributed everything to that specific drug, and so they launched a second round of clinical trials.

Chaos and terror began exactly with that second round of trials. The patients in this batch all shared the surname Lu.

In the early stages of the trial, everything was normal.

But after a few courses, some patients suddenly dropped dead without warning. Their manner of death was bizarre and completely unheard of.

At first, the hospital remained obstinate and didn't take it to heart.

A few weeks later, however, all sorts of bizarre incidents began occurring throughout the hospital.

Ghostly shadows flickered in the corridors at midnight. The security cameras constantly captured humanoid entities crawling in the corners. The underground laboratory collapsed inexplicably, and the on-duty doctors and nurses frequently heard weeping and delirious murmurs.

Even more terrifying things followed. One night, locked in his ward, Wang Wu saw with his own eyes that some patients were talking to empty air. Everyone around him seemed to have gone mad!

A week later, innocent blood began to flow. The first to die was a doctor; he committed suicide in his own office.

Once it began, death spread continuously like an uncontrollable plague.

From underground to the surface, and from the Third Ward, it expanded across the entire Jianghu Cancer Research Hospital.

The situation could no longer be suppressed. The higher-ups finally made a decision, ordering Jianghu Cancer Research Hospital to relocate immediately.

The trials were halted, and Wang Wu and the others were transferred out of the Third Ward.

With the treatment terminated halfway through and the drug injections stopped, Wang Wu's condition rapidly deteriorated. He knew death was beckoning him; he didn't have much time left.

As mentioned before, he was a man with an incredibly strong will to live. Driven by this intense desire, he sneaked underground to steal that drug.

Strange things were constantly happening in the hospital, and everyone was in a state of panic. No one expected that someone would sneak into the Third Ward late at night.

The doctors and caretakers didn't expect it, nor did Mr. Paper, who was plotting underground at the time.

Wang Wu stumbled upon Mr. Paper and his accomplices' scheme. Through Mr. Paper's own words, he discovered that the drug injected into him every day was actually a diluted substance extracted from the body of an Uncorrupted Bone.

To save his own life, he agreed to become Two-Faced Buddha's dog and guard this abandoned hospital for him. No matter what the future held, as long as he could stay alive, it was enough.

As their contact deepened, he gradually realized that Two-Faced Buddha had long been scheming for the Uncorrupted Bone beneath the hospital. The man had blinded the heavenly secrets and was using the hospital to nurture the corpse; the sheer scale of this undertaking was beyond imagination.

It could be said that Two-Faced Buddha's plan had already succeeded. However, there seemed to be a force in the unseen world interfering with it. Just as Two-Faced Buddha opened the coffin to extract the Uncorrupted Bone, a young girl's wandering soul happened to drift underground.

When the coffin lid opened, the very first thing the Uncorrupted Bone saw was that girl.

What happened next linked up with the clues I already had. Two-Faced Buddha wanted to refine and obliterate the girl's will inside the Uncorrupted Bone, but she fought back with everything she had. This stalemate dragged on for twenty years, and it was only recently that he was on the verge of success.

A lot had changed over the course of twenty years. For instance, Wang Wu's understanding of life. Mr. Paper had placed a curse on him, barring him from taking even half a step out of the hospital. By day, he hid in empty wards; at midnight, he transformed into an accomplice of the grim reaper, working alongside the white fiends to hunt down the living people lured into the hospital. Day after day went by like this, until one day, he suddenly felt that this kind of existence was awful. He had grown somewhat 'tired' of living.

Speaking of this, Wang Shi inevitably had to be mentioned. The reason Wang Wu impersonated Wang Shi was, first and foremost, because he genuinely needed an identity, and the pen name Corpse Body Human Face perfectly fit his requirements. Many people on the internet knew that Corpse Body Human Face was a master of suspense, but no one knew what kind of person was actually behind that pen name. Secondly, Wang Wu personally loved reading Wang Shi's novels; he longed to become someone like him.

With a new aspiration, Wang Wu was no longer satisfied with being Two-Faced Buddha's watchdog. He wanted true freedom so he could pursue a real life.

So, a few years ago, he took the initiative to seek out the Uncorrupted Bone. His talent as a businessman had seeped into his very marrow. Much like today's situation, he wanted to make a deal with the Uncorrupted Bone.

He would help the Uncorrupted Bone escape, and in return, the Uncorrupted Bone would take him along when it left.

The man and the corpse conspired together. To satisfy the Uncorrupted Bone's demands, Wang Wu spent a long time meticulously planning this kidnapping case.

He needed to obtain blood from the same origin as the Uncorrupted Bone, as well as torture and kill the older brother that the Uncorrupted Bone deeply resented.