Doctor Gao spread his arms wide, and beneath the blood-red night sky, he seemed to grow even more excited.
Chains slithered out from beneath his clothes — they served as his weapons, but also as restraints on himself.
No one knew what Doctor Gao had been through. Those chains seemed to have been willingly bound to his body while he was still lucid, symbolizing despair and negative emotions, representing every living person and evil spirit that had died because of him.
The chains restrained all the people he had killed, but they also restrained him.
As more and more chains poured out from his body, Doctor Gao seemed to be undoing layer upon layer of seals, and an utterly terrifying aura radiated from him.
Black blood dripped to the ground, mingled with curses, and transformed into thin threads of blood.
One end reached down to Doctor Gao's feet, while the other connected to this world beyond the door.
The blood-soaked white coat fluttered in the night wind, and from beneath Doctor Gao's body came an unfamiliar voice.
"What a delicious scent — I want to stuff him inside my body! Eat him! Eat him! Eat him!"
A woman's voice was mixed in among them. Another face had grown on Doctor Gao's abdomen — its features skewed, its eyes brimming with greed.
"Shut up!" Hearing the woman's voice, Doctor Gao reached down and plunged his hand viciously into his own body. Blood gushed forth, streaming down along the chains.
"Food I've never tasted — this is something I've never eaten before!"
"It's not you — it's me!"
"Eat him!"
One unfamiliar voice after another issued from Doctor Gao's body. Face after face had sprouted on his flesh, as if they had all merged with Doctor Gao.
"Shut up! Shut up! I told you to shut up!" Blood poured from within, flooding outward. The white coat on Doctor Gao's body was stained vivid red, and his frame twisted and contorted under this near-self-destructive assault.
Doctor Gao, who had calmed down upon encountering Chen Ge, turned violent once more. The chains on his body seemed to have been there specifically to suppress those faces. As they fell away, face after different face began speaking through his body, voicing their desires.
Night flowed onward. Beneath the wounds, the scarred woman continued to laugh wildly.
Chen Ge had actually seen this face before. In the underground morgue, in that room covered with photographs of the Strange Tales Society's victims, he had seen this woman — she was one of those killed by the Strange Tales Society.
Under the influence of negative emotions, she had become one of Doctor Gao's burdens — or rather, she had become a part of the weight he carried.
Different voices continued pouring out from beneath Doctor Gao's blood-soaked clothes. Chen Ge couldn't bring himself to imagine what Doctor Gao's body looked like beneath that white coat. He could only watch from afar as Doctor Gao frantically tore at himself, but it changed nothing.
One voice after another cursed, reviled, and goaded him. Gradually, Doctor Gao stopped moving. The expression on his face slowly synced with those on the faces sprouting across his body — the corners of his mouth split open to both sides, one eye shedding tears, the other weeping blood. With a wild laugh, he charged toward the Shadow.
He attacked indiscriminately. Even Zhang Ya's black hair was an obstacle, and he would tear it to shreds without hesitation.
"A ghost possessing all three attributes — imprisonment, transformation, and suppression." The Shadow used his own body to feed the infant on his chest. He would grow stronger and stronger, until he reached the peak, then crumble and disintegrate. "Liwan Town and the Nether Building hold the secret of the Nether Fetus. Even if I can't retake this place, I will destroy it completely."
The Shadow did not dodge or retreat. His hind legs half-crouched, and he lunged forward against the onslaught, slamming into Doctor Gao.
The Shadow's features were blurring while the infant's face grew clearer and clearer. From a distance, Chen Ge activated his Yin Eye and burned the child's face into his memory.
Without any preamble, the instant Doctor Gao and the Shadow collided, the battle reached its peak.