Bai Wu treated this as a challenge. If the faded pages of the book foretold their destinies, then he was determined to change both his and the captain’s fate.

Wu Jiu whispered,

"Enemies are approaching."

His voice was so soft it was as if he had merely mouthed the words.

Bai Wu nodded, his previous thoughts had not taken much time, and when it came to perceptual strength, he was more powerful than Wu Jiu.

"It’s a familiar presence."

Bai Wu grew more certain, this place was indeed Food City.

The "Hollow-Backed Woman" Evil Fallen from before, was the very Evil Fallen now slowly approaching.

A woman’s crying echoed through the air.

This oppressive sound made both Wu Jiu and Bai Wu slightly uncomfortable.

It was fortunate that both of them were ’max level’ in the real world; otherwise, in this severely mutated world, the effect of this crying would have been more than just discomfort.

Bai Wu could feel that this sound was a form of area damage, and the enemy was hunting him and his captain.

"Are we going to fight?"

Wu Jiu didn’t speak but made a gesture of the Investigation Corps instead.

It signified the intention to kill or retreat.

Bai Wu initially wanted to look at the faded pages, but he refrained. After being silent for a second or two, he shook his head.

Why a woman would be hollowed out from behind and thrown into a sewer, Bai Wu didn’t know.

Of course, even if Bai Wu knew the whole reason, he wouldn’t feel pity for her.

The reason he chose not to fight was not because he was afraid or overcome with mercy.

It was Bai Wu’s instinct that this was the first choice.

Including the giant tentacled monster and the creature with veins entwined around the sewers, as well as the Hollow-Backed Woman Evil Fallen drawing near, Bai Wu believed they were strong, but definitely not a match for him and his captain.

But if they chose to fight, they would be trapped in an endless situation.

However capable of fighting, could they outfight the will of the Well World?

"If it can be avoided, then best not to engage."

Once they engaged, it might cause some strange text to appear on the faded pages.

Bai Wu wasn’t sure, but if strange settings were to be written on those pages, could it cause the world to actually take on those settings?

With Wu Jiu’s style, at this moment he would usually strike swiftly with his blade, killing from one end to the other in an instant.

However, Wu Jiu had always trusted Bai Wu’s judgment.

[The two decided to flee temporarily, controlling their emotions as they leaped out of the sewer.

How many terrifying creatures were hidden in this vast sewer, none could tell.

Soon after, a figure approached the position of the handcuffs, an Assassin with a Sequence of Iron Armament, who had once disguised as an Evil Fallen, but had now become a true Evil Fallen.]

As Bai Wu looked up to leap out of the sewer, he couldn’t help but see the pages that seemed to decide their fate.

Still, Bai Wu couldn’t help but glance at the description on the page.

The Evil Fallen was looking at Bai Wu.

But he didn’t leave the sewer.

His appearance was beyond recognition, half a head gone, and his body riddled with holes.

Yet Bai Wu could feel that this was the Assassin from before.

The one he had spoken to about fear, then summoned the Evil Fallen upon.

At this very moment, it was as if he had returned to that previous moment.

The next second, the Hollow-Backed Woman Evil Fallen with a gaping back suddenly shot out numerous sinister black threads which wrapped around the body of the Evil Fallen.

He had looked towards Bai Wu with a fierce expression, but it turned to fear the moment he was entangled.

Bai Wu did not watch what happened next.

The ground was a mess from the huge tentacles that had broken through, still standing tall in the city, but it seemed there was a region that they couldn’t cross.

On the outskirts of Food City, Bai Wu saw a hospital.

A very familiar hospital that should not have been there.

Wu Jiu was also surprised upon seeing the hospital,

"How can this hospital be here?"

The hospital, shrouded in resentment, looked spooky from the outside.

As if through the windows one could still see those resentful eyes.

Bai Wu did not answer Wu Jiu; they both carefully skirted the tentacles, heading towards the outskirts.

At this very moment, Bai Wu’s heart was also in a state of shock.

[At this moment, Bai Wu’s heart was in turmoil. He had almost been certain that this scene was Food City, but at this instant, everything was overturned.

He saw the Ninth Psychiatric Hospital from Baichuan City. How could a hospital from Baichuan City appear in the area of Food City?

As mad as he was, his heart also felt a strange joy, but would he encounter people from his past in that hospital?]

And what further scenes might appear in front of him? Everything had started to get interesting, yet everything also started to worry him.]

A chaotic map.

The moment he saw the content of the book pages, Bai Wu was certain that he was currently in a pieced-together scene.

The aura emanating from the Ninth Psychiatric Hospital kept the tentacles from daring to approach.

But, recalling that Evil Fallen had not chased him through the sewer, Bai Wu guessed there might also be some kind of "area restriction" here?

It didn’t take long for Wu Jiu and Bai Wu to arrive at the entrance of the Ninth Psychiatric Hospital.

Unlike the serene hospital of before, the hospital now seemed boisterous.

"Yin Shuang, Xiaoyi, Wang Shi, Lin Wurou should be thankful that the hospital we explored initially wasn’t as difficult as it is now."

Once in the hospital’s vicinity, the tentacles that towered between heaven and earth lost interest in Bai Wu and Wu Jiu.

A cat wouldn’t venture into a tiger’s territory to steal food.

"It seems there are many Evil Fallen inside."

The hospital’s gates were wide open, and at the dark entrance of the building, some figures could vaguely be seen.

And from those windows, tufts of hair occasionally surfaced.

Of course, Wu Jiu knew Hong Yin was inside this hospital.

Initially, it was Bai Wu who had convinced Hong Yin, allowing their group to leave safely.

Otherwise, even if Wu Jiu was confident about leaving, he wouldn’t have been sure about the safety of the others.

"Let’s go in and take a look."

[Let’s go in and take a look," the words of his dear friend made Bai Wu somewhat uneasy.

The formation of a world needed a baseline, a foundational setting, so what was that setting?

Was it the world after many years, after his own death, his own distortions spreading everywhere in the world?

But why did it feel even more like a world "without himself"?

If in that original world he hadn’t existed, how would everything have changed?

But if that were truly the case, how would one explain those handcuffs?]

Bai Wu and Wu Jiu stepped into the hospital.

The two had entered the domain of the Ninth Psychiatric Hospital, the intense resentment surrounding them starkly different from the initial scene.

According to previous memories, the first building housed various medical records.

The second building held many monsters, among which only Elijah had survived.

The third was an archive for decoding Hong Yin’s past memories.

The fourth, the most terrifying place of the Ninth Psychiatric Hospital, was where Hong Yin resided.

The first building of the Ninth Psychiatric Hospital now seemed to already be filled with pressure.

Bai Wu spoke:

"Captain, have you ever thought about what would happen to the world if I died?"

Bai Wu wasn’t the type to ask trivial questions, so Wu Jiu considered it seriously:

"You haven’t died."

"It’s just a hypothesis. If I had traveled to this world and I hadn’t survived the first challenge, I attracted an Assassin from the third floor of High Tower, and then... I failed to kill him."

"I died in that sewer."

"How would everything develop after that?"

High Tower would certainly still need to be destroyed, and Alpha would certainly return to the human world.

And would Hong Yin stay in the hospital forever? Not necessarily... if there were no me, not only the future but many past timelines would also face problems.

Bai Wu shook his head:

"Let’s go, let’s go inside and take a look."

Wu Jiu felt some of the pressure inside Bai Wu:

"I always think that the scenes here are unrelated to reality, it’s best to treat them with a normal heart."

Bai Wu wanted to think that way too. Baichuan City’s hospital appearing in Food City seemed to indicate that this place was a fictional world.

It wouldn’t be exaggerated for the Well World Will to do such a thing.

But Bai Wu was still very worried inside. He always felt that the test wouldn’t be that simple.

Based on his understanding of the first three floors...

The connection between the Well and the real world will likely increase level by level.

The fourth floor was more like a buffer zone.

The fifth floor, the world had already begun to overlap with the real world.

In the first building of the hospital, in a corner of the first floor, an Evil Fallen, thin as if just skin and bones, was getting an IV drip.

Though very emaciated, this Evil Fallen had a prominent nose,

It was hooked up to a blood-red IV bag, sitting on a bench, staring blankly.

Bai Wu didn’t pay it any attention, and Wu Jiu was just on guard.

Bai Wu noticed that on the Evil Fallen’s forehead, the words "Ding Jiu" were carved.

He suddenly remembered something.

"2125.0409. I really wanted to use my own formula to give Ding Jiu the sense of smell of Iron Armament before meeting that person."

When he had explored the third building, Bai Wu had read some records.

Here, the Evil Fallen were divided into several qualities: A, B, C, and D.

They did not become Evil Fallen all of a sudden; instead, they were injected with various drugs and gradually transformed into Evil Fallen.

As Bai Wu and Wu Jiu approached the elevator, Ding Jiu’s eyes were no longer dull.

Bai Wu was very clear that in this hospital, the only clue was Hong Yin; as long as they met Hong Yin, everything would be much easier.

But the moment Bai Wu and Wu Jiu pressed the elevator button, Ding Jiu charged at them!

The blood-red IV bag didn’t contain liquid, but some kind of materialized grudge, the powerful grudge causing Ding Jiu’s nose to become even more red and swollen.

Finally, a disgusting viscous liquid sprayed out of his nostrils, an attack that naturally posed no threat to Wu Jiu and Bai Wu.

The two of them easily dodged, but Ding Jiu refused to let them go.

Bai Wu was quick-witted, instantly pressing the elevator button, and at the same time, when Wu Jiu was about to take action... he stepped in front of Wu Jiu, blocking his knife:

"Captain... don’t make a move, only if absolutely necessary, we must not make a move."

The elevator doors opened, and the originally manic Ding Jiu became dull again upon seeing the doors open.

He sat back on the bench, and the empty IV bag was once again filled with a red substance.

Wu Jiu could guess that Bai Wu had a terrifyingly accurate instinct, but upon entering the elevator, he still remained cautious of their surroundings, saying:

"Safety first, if the other party attacks you, I think that would be the time when we must take action."

"I understand, but only when we face real danger."

The elevator started moving, and Bai Wu had originally pressed for the top floor, but suddenly thought of something...

He changed it and went to the eleventh floor.

Wu Jiu also remembered that on this floor, Bai Wu had found a comb in room nineteen.

With that comb, Bai Wu had managed to survive under the grudge of Hong Yin.

Bai Wu was indeed heading for that comb.

11-19.

This room was at the end of the corridor, while in the other rooms, one or two people occasionally appeared, all of whom were locked in dog cages.

The cages were possessed with spirits.

They looked like real dogs, peering through the bars with big eyes, as if to see through Bai Wu and his companion.

Around the cages, there lay a sea of needle syringes.

But the syringes... did not seem very old.

As if these items were new, no longer relics from seven hundred years ago.

Unease was growing in Bai Wu’s heart.

Those Evil Fallen locked in the cages were also marked with codes of A, B, C, D, plus numbers.

They seemed very quiet, without any thoughts of escaping.

But their gaze at Bai Wu was chilling.

They quickly arrived at 11-19.

When they discovered there was no Hong Yin in the room, Bai Wu suddenly breathed a sigh of relief.

But soon he noticed a problem.

Keys, comb, records. The original choices laid before him, three options to pick from.

But now, among the three options, there were only the blood-stained records and the keys.

Bai Wu had complained at the time that he couldn’t save his progress, otherwise he would’ve liked to try all three options.

He had chosen the comb back then, and now the comb was gone.

It was the perfect opportunity to make up for the past regret and choose one of the other items.

But the Ninth Hospital now was not the Ninth Hospital of the past.

Wu Jiu thought Bai Wu would choose to peruse the records or take the key.

But Bai Wu did not do so.

"Let’s go, Captain, the thing I want isn’t here."

"Hong Yin, she..." Wu Jiu wanted to express some concern but didn’t know how to articulate his worry.

Bai Wu shook his head and said:

"The other two items are things that bring pain to Hong Yin. I was indeed very curious before, if everything was just a game, what the other two options would bring..."

"But now, I don’t care about that anymore. All I know is, Hong Yin does not wish for me to go through the records."

Wu Jiu nodded:

"So, what about the comb?"

"That comb was actually formed from grudge and didn’t truly exist; it was just a symbol, symbolizing her hope for the beauty of the past."

"Now that the comb is gone, it might mean..."

Bai Wu did not continue.

He was ready to head to the second building.

Why were there so many former experimental subjects now living in this hospital?

What was the difference between this world and the real world?

Was Hong Yin still alive?

If the Hong Yin here was still alive, what was her connection to the real Hong Yin?

"Another string of questions appeared in the Dragon Slayer’s mind, but he could get no answers, and all he could do now was to head to the top floor. Before that, we needed to add a bit more excitement to this adventure.

How about changing the negative attributes that occurred every four hours to negative attributes that could occur at any moment unexpectedly?

Let’s start with a simple one—blindness."]

The yellowing pages revealed text that was unrelated to Bai Wu’s inner thoughts, and when he saw these words, a shock went through his heart.

His eyes could still see everything, so if what was written on the pages was true, then...

Bai Wu suddenly turned around, and at that moment Wu Jiu became suddenly... blind.

"What’s going on... has it suddenly turned dark?"

Wu Jiu couldn’t see anything in front of him, his vision was pitch black.

But Wu Jiu’s emotions were very stable, having once mastered the Sequence Heart Net, allowing him to perceive many things even in a state of blindness.

Bai Wu also knew that the current captain, despite losing one of the five senses, was not significantly hindered.

He calmed down as well but felt a new vigilance in his heart:

"It seems to be a negative attribute."

"Everything really seems to have gone back to the beginning." Wu Jiu didn’t mind.

A person who had once been burdened with a bunch of negative attributes did not worry too much about this thing.

But Bai Wu was worried about one thing.

"Bai Wu worried that the paper seemed to have the power to control their destiny, to arbitrarily change the settings of this world. Could it change the captain’s behavior as well?

For example, it suddenly makes the captain do strange things.

For example, the captain suddenly throws away the knife in his hand."]

Suddenly, Wu Jiu threw away the knife in his hand.

The sound of metal clashing rang out, not piercing, but as if it landed on one’s soul.

Bai Wu stared blankly at this scene, a sense of despair forming in his heart.

"Captain... what’s happening?"

"I don’t know... I suddenly felt strengthless."

Wu Jiu was also puzzled. For a moment, it felt as if his body didn’t belong to him.

Bai Wu stood still.

Was what was written on this fateful piece of paper really their destinies?

If it could forcibly change the captain’s course of action... then how could he save the captain?

No matter how bizarre the situation had been before, no matter how the scenes distorted, no matter the impact on the real world, Bai Wu had never felt it was unsolvable...

There must be a way to break through this situation, but at this moment, he suddenly felt a sense of weariness and confusion.

The yellowed pages had only played a slight trick on him, yet they had precisely hit his soft spot.

If the captain could be controlled... what should he do?

If everything could be controlled, then was there any point in him striving on?

Would the opponent change his and the captain’s behavior just as they were about to break through?

At this moment, Bai Wu realized that he was like a toy being played with by the World Will.

Wu Jiu, with his vision shrouded in darkness, couldn’t see the panicked expression on Bai Wu’s face.

Otherwise, it might have been the first time... he read a hint of fear in Bai Wu’s eyes.

Wu Jiu didn’t know what Bai Wu had gone through, he just said:

"Why have we stopped moving?"

"Captain... what if I’m harming you? I shouldn’t have brought you here."

Wu Jiu chuckled and replied:

"You’re acting very unusually today."

"What if we’re facing the will of the world, and our adversary can decide our destiny at will... is there still a need for us to resist?"

Wu Jiu still didn’t know what had happened. Nothing was happening right now. Even though he was blind, it wouldn’t affect the exploration that followed.

But Bai Wu’s tone conveyed a sense of powerlessness, and Wu Jiu heard it.

In response to Bai Wu’s question, Wu Jiu always answered seriously:

"Controlling your own destiny is always necessary. I don’t know why you’re suddenly asking this... but isn’t that why we’re here, to change our destiny?"

The ever-unperplexed Wu Jiu gave an unequivocally firm answer.

A few seconds later, Bai Wu nodded:

"I understand, thank you, Captain. Let’s continue moving forward."