Wen Shifei nodded. Her condition was equally dire. The long flight, the immense drain on her mental energy, and the physical pain had left her vision blurry. She forced herself to wrap Lu Chensheng's magic blade in a rag and carry it on her back, but the cold, ominous feeling still hung over her like a thorn in her side. She looked at Lu Chensheng, who lay unconscious on Ajie's back. The bleeding from the wound on his shoulder seemed to have stopped temporarily, but his face remained frighteningly pale, and his breathing was weak.

"Go. Watch your step." Wen Shifei's voice was hoarse. She was the first to step into this huge cemetery made of steel and concrete.

Every step required extreme caution. Underfoot lay loose rubble, sharp metal fragments, and a hollow that threatened to collapse at any moment. The stench of decay was pervasive. Collapsed billboards creaked in the wind, threatening to fall at any moment. Twisted shadows swayed among the rubble, like monsters lurking, ready to devour. Wen Shifei's nerves were constantly on edge, not only aware of her surroundings but also fighting the whispers of the "Ark" spirit within her mind, weakened by her distance from the fortress's core, yet still stubbornly lingering. Those whispers were cold and sticky, carrying echoes of temptation and destruction, constantly trying to break her will and drag her into the icy purple abyss. She could only recall over and over the faint light of the lighthouse, the back of Lu Chenentang standing in front of her... using these remaining vestiges of warmth to build a shaky dam.

The sky gradually brightened during the arduous trek, but the light was gray and cold, bringing little warmth. The outline of the abandoned hospital building gradually became clear in the gray morning light, like a huge, silent tombstone.

It was even more dilapidated than the surrounding ruins. While the main structure remained, the exterior walls were severely peeling, revealing dark red bricks and rusted steel bars. Most of the windows were left with only bare frames, and the few remaining panes of glass were covered in spiderweb-like cracks, swaying dangerously in the wind with a teeth-grinding creaking sound. The hospital's main entrance had long since disappeared, leaving only a dark entrance, like a gaping maw ready to devour. A strong, sickening smell, a mixture of blood, decay, and some pungent chemical, like a physical miasma, continuously poured out from the entrance and the shattered windows, filling the surrounding air.

Wen Shifei frowned, his stomach churning. Ajie and the other soldier also subconsciously held their breath, their eyes becoming even more alert.

"This smell... isn't right." Ajie whispered, lifting Lu Cheneng on his back.

"Be careful," Wen Shifei lowered her voice. She drew the laser pistol from her waist, the energy indicator illuminating with a faint blue light. Another soldier also raised his energy rifle. With quiet steps, like hunters approaching a wild beast's lair, the three of them slowly approached the dark hospital gate.

Pushing open the tattered metal door, already warped and half hanging on its hinges, a stronger, fouler smell slammed into the three people's faces like a huge wave of decay. Wen Shifei suppressed the urge to vomit as the beam of his tactical flashlight pierced into the hospital.

The scene of hell unfolded under the beam of light.

The hall floor was coated in thick dust and unknown grime, its broken tiles like cracks in a dry riverbed. The walls were splattered with long-dried, dark brown or even black blood, stretching deep into the dark corridors. Scattered, gnawed bones lay half-buried in the garbage. Abandoned carts, overturned chairs, shattered glass bottles... all sorts of debris lay scattered across the floor, also covered in thick stains and suspicious dark patches.

Deathly silence. Absolutely dead silence. Only the gentle crunching of rubble and dried blood beneath their feet as they stepped in was amplified infinitely in this empty and filthy space, sounding particularly harsh.

Wen Shifei's flashlight beam slowly swept across the hall. Suddenly, it stopped at a half-open ward door in the corner. Deep lacerations marked the door, as if left by a giant clawed creature.

"There..." Wen Shifei warned softly, her heart beating faster involuntarily. A cold sense of unease, deep within her genes, gripped her.

Ajie and the soldiers immediately went on alert, their guns pointed at the door. Wen Shifei took a deep breath, suppressed the churning stomach acid and the whispers in his mind, and placed his fingers on the cold door handle, exerting a little force.

“Squeak—”

The teeth-grinding grinding sound was particularly loud in the dead silence. The door slowly opened inward.

The scene inside the ward was even more horrifying than the one in the hallway. The bed had been flipped and twisted by the immense force, its legs facing upward. The bedside table had shattered into splinters, scattered across the floor. In the very center, a severely decomposed, almost unrecognizable corpse lay prone on the ground, beneath a pool of blood that had long since dried and solidified into a dark brown crust. It was from this spot that the overwhelming stench emanated.

Lu Chenshang seemed to be stimulated by the smell on Ajie's back and let out a vague groan, but did not wake up.

Wen Shifei's attention was drawn to another thing huddled in the shadows of the corner next to the corpse. The flashlight beam moved over to it.

It was another corpse. Its posture was twisted, its arms clasped behind its back at an impossible angle, its head buried between its knees. Its clothing was tattered, and its exposed skin had a strange, gray, festering color, as if corroded by strong acid. Even more disturbing, scattered around this corpse were… metal fragments? Like the remains of some small, delicate instrument.

"Be careful," Wen Shifei whispered, signaling Ajie and the others to guard the door. She herself, enduring the intense physical and mental discomfort, held her breath, and cautiously stepped into the death ward. The beam of her tactical flashlight carefully scanned the walls, the floor, and the scattered debris...

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