The battlefield in the world behind the door had split into two sections. The faceless doctor and the cloth doll seemed wary of each other, keeping their confrontation confined to a small area.
Zhang Ya and "the Past," on the other hand, held nothing back. They didn't care what this world of black mist became or whether they drew more monsters. Once they started fighting, it was a battle to the death.
After the first clash, Zhang Ya became the center of everyone's attention.
Each time she appeared, she was stronger than before. Even facing the colossal "Past" alone, she hadn't retreated a single step.
But as her power grew, so did the mysteries surrounding her. There seemed to be some special connection between her and that blood-red city.
"the Past's" first assault was neutralized by Zhang Ya. A long, deep wound had appeared on its body—left behind by the collision just moments ago.
Countless memories of people's pasts had been torn to shreds, yet Xiang Nuan, embedded in "the Past's" crown, still wore that same vacant, dazed expression.
His eyes were unfocused, as though he didn't know what he was doing. He was simply staring at Chen Ge and Zhang Ya by sheer instinct.
"This monster can't feel pain, and it doesn't seem capable of complex thought. It's powerful but clumsy, hard to control—what was the point of the Cursed Fetus creating such a creature?"
The battle had reached a stalemate. Chen Ge stood at the eye of the storm, yet showed no sign of panic. He was mulling over a question he simply couldn't crack—what exactly was the Cursed Fetus trying to do?
The Black Phone had always said the goal was to prevent the Cursed Fetus from being born. If it succeeded in being born, his death was certain. But what did the process of its birth actually entail?
From all the arrangements the Cursed Fetus had left behind, Chen Ge couldn't piece it together. Neither the incomplete cloth doll nor "the Past" perched atop it—they were the complete Cursed Fetus.
"It seems my former shadow split itself into separate individual parts. If it wants to be reborn, it should need to reforge every scattered piece back into a single body."
During the exchange between Zhang Ya and "the Past," most of the surrounding buildings had been destroyed. Walls that had fallen from the residential towers now lay scattered around several nearby structures—seemingly random, yet almost imperceptibly encircling both Jinhua Estate and Jiuhong Estate.
A terrible premonition rose in Chen Ge's chest. The Cursed Hospital had learned in advance that the Cursed Fetus would most likely be born on this day. They had been waiting for it, wanting to achieve their objective at the lowest possible cost.
And the Cursed Fetus itself had escaped from the Cursed Hospital. It had learned a great deal from Director Gao. It wasn't the kind of vengeful spirit that relied solely on brute force and was driven by hatred alone. It could think for itself, and it had built an entire worldview—thoroughly twisted and pathological.
A Cursed Fetus like this would definitely anticipate the Hospital's move. And yet it had made no effort whatsoever to stop them.
Chen Ge's gaze turned somber. "If I were the Cursed Fetus—hiding behind the door, having spent over a decade painstakingly preparing for my own birth—I certainly wouldn't want to be disturbed at the critical moment. I'd use every means possible to prevent the Cursed Hospital from entering the world behind the door."
With the cloth doll and "the Past," along with countless native spirits, the Cursed Fetus hadn't even been fully born yet and could already simultaneously fight two Evil Gods. With that kind of power, sealing off the Blood Door shouldn't have been difficult.
But the Cursed Fetus hadn't done that. Neither Chen Ge nor the Cursed Hospital's faceless doctor had met any resistance upon entering. It was as if the Cursed Fetus had deliberately let them in.
"Nine children had nine abilities stolen from them. If someone else entered those children's worlds behind their doors, most would be unable to resist the temptation. Jia Ming and the Cursed Hospital's people are perfect examples—no one would give up the partial powers of an Evil God."
"Driven by temptation, they would enter door after door, until they finally arrived at Xiang Nuan's world behind the door."
"The weakened Cursed Fetus they imagined simply didn't exist. What greeted them instead were two monsters on par with Evil Gods."
"When the thieves die, the Cursed Fetus's abilities return to it. If everything went smoothly, the Cursed Fetus would achieve a flawless birth."
"But was it really worth taking such an enormous risk just to reclaim its lost powers?"
Chen Ge looked up at "the Past," whose form was still growing. The sky-covering monster blotted out both entire estates, its shell—grown into its own flesh—dragging along the ground, gradually merging with the earth itself until they were one.
"It's covered the sky and fused with the earth. This monster is trying to envelop the entire estate—along with every single person inside it!"
A mad thought surged through his mind. Chen Ge's pupils contracted. "The Cursed Fetus—could it be trying to devour the two Evil Gods as well?"
In Chen Ge's eyes, a supreme red-robed spirit was already an existence of terrifying magnitude. He was stunned by the audacity of the Cursed Fetus's plan.
"A Gatekeeper can exert double their power within their own world behind the door. The Cursed Fetus must have calculated everything from the very beginning—over a decade of planning, all for this single day."
Chen Ge and the Cursed Hospital had been hunting the Cursed Fetus. But the Cursed Fetus had been waiting for them behind the door just the same.
Chen Ge drew a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.
He hadn't anticipated that the Cursed Fetus's true plan was to devour everyone. And the Cursed Fetus probably hadn't anticipated that Zhang Ya's power would become this terrifying.
"I finally understand what the Shadow in Liwan Town meant. Its entire existence was meant to force out every card I had, to see my limits! The Shadow was the Cursed Fetus testing me!"
As an Evil God, the Cursed Fetus knew many things. It hadn't taken the current Chen Ge seriously—regarding him as merely one of the nine chosen children, a perfect vessel waiting to be claimed.
"Between the Shadow's death in Liwan Town and the Cursed Fetus's birth, there was only a very short span of time. The Cursed Fetus probably assumed my strength wouldn't change much in such a brief window. But it underestimated Zhang Ya."
Zhang Ya, who had been sleeping all along, became the sole variable—one that neither the Cursed Fetus nor Chen Ge's parents had foreseen.
"If Zhang Ya were still merely a supreme red-robed spirit—if her body still bore wounds—she would have struggled enormously against this colossal 'Past.'" Cold sweat soaked through Chen Ge's back. "So the Cursed Fetus had already set everything up. It judged my overall strength to be inferior to the Cursed Hospital's, so it sent its most powerful and terrifying weapon—'the Past'—straight after me, hoping to eliminate me quickly. The moment I die, everything I am becomes nourishment for the Cursed Fetus. At that point, the Cursed Hospital's monsters would pose no threat to it—consuming them would just be a matter of time."
To devour two Evil Gods in a single stroke, all for a flawless birth. The Cursed Fetus's madness was beyond what any ordinary person could imagine. What was even more terrifying was that it had come tantalizingly close to succeeding—truly, just barely short.