The Western-style villa was covered with human faces and body-related patterns. Being inside gave one an extremely eerie feeling.
No one had entered this house in a long time, yet there was not a speck of dust to be seen. It was spotlessly clean, as though someone tidied it every single day.
Red High Heels walked on ahead by herself. She seemed to have been here before. Wrapped head to toe in bandages, she strode straight to the center of the hall and stopped beside an indoor fountain.
"Watch yourselves. Guard every exit once we move in — don't let anything in this house escape." Chen Ge blended seamlessly among the crowd of Red Dresses, not out of place in the slightest. His expression was practically indistinguishable from theirs.
The scent of blood and medicinal fluid in the air grew ever thicker. Large patches of crimson veins began surfacing on the walls, giving the impression that they were about to tear the entire building apart.
The faces painted on the walls wept blood tears. Their gazes slowly shifted, locking onto Red High Heels.
Every body-related object in the villa seemed to spring to life. The mansion revealed its true form — a place built from human remains.
Throughout all of it, Red High Heels showed no reaction. She simply stood before the fountain, her eyes silently fixed on its dried-up, ruined basin.
After roughly a few minutes, the sound of rushing water rose from within the fountain. Several carved women's heads on the inner walls opened their mouths, and foul-smelling blood began pouring wildly into the basin.
The pungent stench of the blood stood in jarring contrast to the fountain's exquisite carvings.
The fountain returned to operation. Blood splattered everywhere, as if draping a thin crimson veil over every person and object.
"Red High Heels seems to be preparing to trap us here," Men Nan whispered. Though his strength was limited, he was well-traveled and quick-witted.
"Wanting to trap ten Red Dresses — she's got some nerve."
Red High Heels beside the fountain also sensed the anomaly. She pressed forward, and with each step, more of her bandages slipped away.
Grotesque, terrifying black tattoos flowed across her skin — a beauty that took one's breath away.
Of the entire Prenatal four-star trial mission, Red High Heels had reaped the greatest reward. She had devoured nearly everything the Prenatal entity possessed.
After emerging from the Prenatal scenario, she had absorbed and assimilated the Prenatal entity's memories as well. Just how powerful Red High Heels had become now, even Chen Ge was unsure.
The beautiful faces in the fountain, the moment Red High Heels drew near, all twisted into grotesque masks of horror. They screamed and shrieked at her with desperate fury, no longer resembling anything "human" in the slightest.
The cursed tattoos on her body spread outward. Countless black threads sliced through the air like blades, cutting apart the fountain before her.
One by one, the statues shattered, revealing the tangled web of blood veins packed inside.
Their power was not on the same level — or perhaps the Red Dress in the villa was not using her full strength.
"So you've found me after all."
From deep within the fountain came an extremely unpleasant female voice. The speaker's throat seemed to have been damaged; her voice was piercing and harsh.
The blood in the fountain basin parted to either side. The ground cracked open. Buried beneath the villa was a monster in red.
Her skin was deathly pale, and several blood-red flowers bloomed across her body. She was pinned beneath the fountain by countless strands of blood veins.
"How did you find me?" The monster looked up at Red High Heels, a smile creeping unbidden to her lips. "My proudest patient."
"Patient?" Chen Ge instantly seized upon the keyword in the red-robed monster's words. He recalled the affinity quest related to Red High Heels. "Could Red High Heels have once stayed at the Cursed Hospital? And this red-robed monster was a doctor at the Cursed Hospital?"
Chen Ge did not know what the blood-robed monster had once done to Red High Heels. This was the first time he had ever seen her attack so proactively.
The cursed black threads shrouded the entire villa. The dark mist completely suppressed the blood mist. Thread after thread wound around the red-robed monster's body, dragging her straight up from the bottom of the fountain.
The monster did not resist. She simply laughed as though she had gone mad.
"You think it's painful for patients to be treated? The most agonizing of all are us doctors! You can still flee — you still have a chance to escape. But us? Once we choose to leave, the curse the Director planted in our bodies gets triggered. We won't even be able to remain as ghosts!"
Her piercing voice echoed through the great hall. Red High Heels gazed at the monster before her, her expression deeply conflicted — anger, resentment, but also sympathy and pity.
Chen Ge stepped out from among the "people" and walked to Red High Heels's side.
The curse-bound red-robed monster noticed Chen Ge as well. A blood-red flower had bloomed in her left eye socket, and she was studying Chen Ge with her right eye.
"A living human standing beside a top-tier Red Dress?" Earlier, the monster's attention had been entirely on Red High Heels, and she hadn't noticed that among the distant crowd of Red Dresses lurked an ordinary person.
At first she had assumed it was some puppet toy casually made by one of the Red Dresses, but judging by the current situation, this ordinary human appeared to be the linchpin of every Red Dress present.
"I can't make sense of it."
"Were you once a doctor at the Cursed Hospital in Xinhai?" Chen Ge did not beat around the bush and went straight for the answer. "Answer my questions honestly, and perhaps we can still be friends."
"Are you threatening me?" Blood dripped from the flowers on her body. The red-robed monster could never have imagined that one day she would be threatened by an ordinary human.
"Just now I heard you say that anyone who ever served as a doctor at that hospital ended up in a terrible state — unable even to exist as a ghost?" Chen Ge stared into the monster's eyes, his expression calm, not a single ripple in his pupils.
"Yes. The Director placed a curse on every doctor." The red-robed monster was currently suppressed by Red High Heels. She was wise enough not to resist, choosing instead to answer Chen Ge's questions docilely.
"Can this curse be lifted?"
"Why do you ask?" The monster was baffled.