Betrayed by all, the Blood-Robed Director's aura only continued to swell.
The faces of his family members on his body began to twist and deform. Countless black threads spilled from their mouths, and every severed limb or corpse the threads touched rose to its feet.
"Everyone who died in Paradise is my family. Their souls cannot leave — this is the only home they have."
The Director's piercing laughter was laced with the screams of countless lost souls. Face after face surfaced from the mountain of corpses and sea of blood — tears streamed from their eyes, yet every single one wore a grotesque smile.
The lowest level of this hospital was like a massive tomb, one that had buried untold numbers.
The power of the curse surged violently. Black fog seeped up from the very foundation of the building.
Those mangled remains that had crawled out of the sea of blood all crept toward the Blood-Robed Director, dropping to their knees at his feet, clutching his body, climbing over him — gradually swallowing him whole.
The entire prison ward of the hospital echoed with the Director's laughter as black fog swept through, intertwining countless remnants and curses.
Boom!
A wave over a dozen meters high erupted from the sea of blood. A leg covered in human faces thrust out from the crimson tide, and a colossal monster — assembled entirely from corpses and curses — hauled itself upright.
"The strongest emotion a human can feel is suffering. Happiness and joy are fleeting, but suffering burrows deep into the heart."
"Some spend their entire lives unable to be healed. Some are tortured by pain until they become the very beasts they despise. And others embrace suffering, master it, revel in the sensation of their heart being carved open — until they become monsters that spread suffering wherever they go!"
A hysterical voice boomed from within the monster's body. It was wrapped head to toe in curses and misfortune, corpses continuously sloughing off its frame — only for more to crawl toward it and reattach.
"Suffering never ends. Even death cannot erase it, just like this boundless black fog!"
An arm etched with countless black names and faces plunged into the sea of blood. It seized Chen Ge's parents, their bodies entwined in blood vessels.
A massive mouth assembled from severed limbs slowly gaped open. Just before it could place Chen Ge's parents inside, innumerable strands of black hair lashed around its body.
The black hair surged like an ocean. Zhang Ya wasn't targeting any single point — driven to madness, she intended to bury this monster completely!
Black hair collided with the threads of the curse, at absolutely any cost.
The Director's movements slowed. Dr. Gao naturally wouldn't let such an opportunity slip. He launched himself into the air, both hands dragging chains of blood-red.
"You've gotten much weaker than you were a few years ago. Did Patient No. 1's parents deal a serious blow to you? Or have the wounds from when you tried to kill Patient No. 1 never healed?"
The chains dug into the Director's body. The other two evil spirits of the Cursed Hospital tried to rush over to help, but the Painter and the horde of Red-clothed blocked them firmly.
Both sides had fought themselves into a frenzy. As long as their souls hadn't scattered, as long as they could still move, they charged forward.
Every Red-clothed fought to the death to buy even a single extra second. Right now, Zhang Ya and Dr. Gao were taking on the Director two against one — for Chen Ge's side, this was already the most favorable situation they could hope for.
"Hold on! Once the Cursed Prison shatters, Blood City will crash into the hospital!" the old Headmaster screamed hoarsely. A man who had always been gentle, his eyes turned red the moment he saw the mountain of corpses and sea of blood in the hospital's depths. From his perspective, he simply could not comprehend how anyone could commit such atrocities.
Every Red-clothed had their own ability. Every Red-clothed also carried unspeakable pain buried deep in their hearts. They were all ghosts — but they had once been human!
Because they had experienced the utmost despair and suffering, they could feel it in their bones. And precisely because they could feel it, their fury burned all the more fiercely.
"Get out of my way!" The evil spirit bearing the hospital on its back had endured attacks from countless Red-clothed. So many special abilities had been unleashed upon it that they were beginning to take their toll.
It wanted to save the Director, but on Chen Ge's side there was not only the multitude of Red-clothed — several top-tier Red-clothed stood among them as well.
They had cast life and death entirely aside. They weren't even afraid of their souls scattering, of never finding peace for all eternity.
Facing the Red-clothed of the Horror House, the evil spirit bearing the hospital felt a crack form in its resolve. The words Dr. Gao had spoken at the very start lodged in its mind like a thorn.
So-called evil spirits — they were nothing more than ghosts who could endure more despair and suffering.
A fissure opened in its heart, and stray thoughts began to surface in the evil spirit's mind. Once they appeared, they poured out relentlessly and could no longer be suppressed.
The Cursed Hospital turned me into a monster.
I am a patient imprisoned here to atone for my sins.
There is no reason for me to die with this hospital.
These thoughts took root the moment they appeared and refused to be dislodged. The evil spirit felt a tremor of awareness and, amid the chaos, looked toward Dr. Gao in the distance.
When its eyes — hidden within the black fog — fixed on Dr. Gao, Dr. Gao was staring right back.
"Influencing an evil spirit's mind? Is that his ability?"
With just that single glance, even more tumultuous thoughts flooded the evil spirit's head. Its will to fight had already waned considerably.
One side fought with the certainty of death. The other held back. Even with a gap in raw power, the battle gradually settled into a stalemate.
On the other side of the hospital, the Painter — newly bolstered by the will of the ghost school — fought the veteran evil spirit "Devourer" to a dead heat.
The battlefield that would decide victory or defeat now was the one at the very center of the hospital. If Dr. Gao and Zhang Ya could kill the Director, then all the calamity would be eliminated.
Of the three battlefields, the central one was the most brutal. Seas of blood overturned, shredded flesh rained like a downpour, and curses that would kill an ordinary person on contact formed a curtain that blotted out the sky.
Enveloped by countless corpses, Zhang Ya and Dr. Gao's attacks found it difficult to inflict real damage on the Director.
Yet the monster built entirely from piled corpses had once stood dozens of meters tall — now only half remained. The Director's rate of regeneration was far outpaced by the speed of Dr. Gao and Zhang Ya's assault.
If things continued this way, victory seemed to be merely a matter of time.
But at that very moment, Dr. Gao suddenly stopped. He had discovered that the flesh and blood falling from the Director's body still maintained some kind of connection with him — yet it was not returning to the Director's body.
"So you figured it out already? As expected of the doctor I had my eye on."
The Director dropped all pretense. The instant his words fell, the scattered flesh on the ground rapidly dissolved into black blood.