Chapter 60: Smooth Brain

"Come on, let's take your temperature."

"Beep."

Looking at the person in the white coat writing down his temperature with a pen, Mo Bai couldn't help asking, "Doctor, I feel like I'm pretty much better. I'm completely fine now."

"When can I be discharged?"

"Discharged?" The person in the white coat didn't even raise his head, saying coldly, "Not by a long shot."

"The poison you contracted was quite unusual. Even though it has subsided, there's still a possibility of lingering aftereffects."

"We need to observe you for a few more days, and besides, regarding your blood... oh."

The person in the white coat suddenly remembered something, looked up, and said, "Never mind, you didn't hear a word of that just now."

"Hurry back to bed and get some rest."

"Oh, right." Mo Bai turned around, then whipped his head back violently: "As if! You clearly wanted to say that the tests on my blood aren't finished yet, right?!"

"Why are you testing my blood anyway? And also," Mo Bai looked at his body with a baffled expression, "When did you draw my blood, and where? I don't even have any wounds on me?"

"Don't worry, it wasn't just blood we drew, but also..." The person in the white coat slapped their forehead. "Tsk, look at my memory. Just pretend you didn't hear that either."

Mo Bai gave him a deadpan stare. "Is this the kind of thing you can just pretend not to hear?"

"What on earth did you guys do to me while I was unconscious, dammit?!"

"I told you, it's just standard examination procedure."

The person in the white coat finished recording. "Anyway, just honestly lie down and wait for the results. Once they're out, you can be discharged."

"Then eat normally, go to work, sleep, and live your daily life."

"Stop thinking about nonsense."

After saying that, the person in the white coat slipped away without looking back. Left behind in the room was Mo Bai, sitting on the bed with a desolate expression, crunching on an apple.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

Speaking of which, ever since Mo Bai awakened his bloodline source, his appetite had improved significantly. He wanted to eat everything in sight and had already consumed three apples, two bananas, a bunch of grapes, two pears, and a box of strawberries...

Well, alright, that was indeed eating a bit too much.

However, this was a normal phenomenon. Awakening a bloodline source also meant an extra mouth to feed inside the body. Maintaining a good supply of energy was the key to keeping up one's mental fortitude.

With the dual liberation of mind and body and the ascension of life to a higher tier, the energy required increased correspondingly.

By the way, who sent this fruit basket? Was it his little sister?

Bored, Mo Bai pushed open the ward door and walked out. Seeing the surroundings, he finally realized that this hospital was the Beisui Central Hospital, and that ward was a single-occupancy VIP room he had never stepped foot in before.

And if he remembered correctly, this single-occupancy room was pretty expensive.

Umm...

It shouldn't have been paid for by his little sister, right?

Shouldn't have been...

Mo Bai took a bite of a banana to calm his nerves and walked over to the front desk at the end of the corridor, finding a seat to sit down.

This area was permeated with the smell of disinfectant. Right next to him, two elderly men were gossiping: "Oh lord, look at these youngsters nowadays—every single day they're pulling all sorts of suicidal stunts. Look at this."

"They just brought in someone who drank Didiwei to kill himself. Luckily, someone on the scene gave him emergency first aid, and now he's in the back getting his stomach pumped. It's tragic. They say when he was brought in, he was still puking stomach acid."

The other old man expressed confusion: "Emergency first aid? How'd they do it?"

"Oh, it's an old folk remedy. Before they brought him in, someone force-fed him human waste to induce violent vomiting."

Mo Bai, who was in the middle of eating a banana, looked up in a daze.

Wait, what did he just hear?

He wasn't sure, let him listen closer.

"There was human waste on the scene?"

"No, that kindhearted Samaritan produced it on the spot."

"Ah?"

The old man gave a thumbs-up, indicating approval. "Now that's what I call truly kindhearted."

In every sense of the word.

"I saw that young man struggling fiercely, refusing to open his mouth no matter what, and it got smeared all over his face. Looks like he really didn't want to live anymore."

Mo Bai: "..."

He suddenly felt that the banana in his mouth wasn't tasty anymore.

Silently tossing the banana peel into the trash can, Mo Bai got up to leave. He hadn't taken two steps when he suddenly saw a burly man burst out from a neighboring ward, lunging forward with three strides into a crawl on the floor, raising his hands with a miserable expression:

"Gwa! I don't want medical treatment! I'm not sick, I'm not sick at all!"

The next second, a gentle and cute-looking nurse with a ponytail rushed out, pinned the burly man's body down, raised her hand, and viciously plunged a syringe straight into the burly man's kidney.

Fast, accurate, and ruthless.

This technique looked exactly like the veterinarian Mo Bai's mother used to take him to see in the countryside.

"It's fine, it'll be over soon. Just sleep for a bit, and everything will be finished, oh~"

With a soft plop, the burly man's head drooped as he collapsed facedown on the floor, seemingly dead.

The nurse dragged the burly man back inside. As she closed the door, she even flashed Mo Bai an eerie smile.

It was as if she was saying, *You're next~*

Moreover, everyone around them turned a blind eye to all this.

As if they were long used to it.

Mo Bai: "Hiss..."

This hospital definitely has issues, right? It definitely has problems, right?

Mo Bai felt a dull ache in his kidneys. After some careful deliberation, Mo Bai returned to his single VIP ward.

Things had come to this; better go to sleep first.

...

"Damn it, I'm quitting!"

Inside an office building, someone angrily pushed open the door. "Take a look at what kind of heaven-defying job you've fucking accepted?!"

"That was Qilin from the Eternal Paradise, the [Butterfly of Netherworld], someone even the Blue King failed to kill! And yet, she died right here in such an obscure manner."

"And then there's the Four-Month Sky. Right now, the Beisui Authority is acting like they've gone mad—they'd kick a stray dog walking past, and all Transcenders are being subjected to inspections."

Veins bulging on his forehead, Scarface slammed the documents down onto the table. "They're almost done investigating this place. I don't want to end up like Qilin."

"I don't want the money anymore. You can do this yourself; I'm leaving this place tonight."

Scarface spat out a hateful mouthful of saliva. "No matter how generous the reward is, you need to be alive to spend it."

He turned and left.

Meanwhile, the young man who had been sitting in the chair reading a newspaper finally opened his mouth.

"Huh? You're just quitting like this?"

With a somewhat sarcastic expression, he tidied up the messy documents on the desk. "It's just the Four-Month Sky. As a Transcender, if you shrink back because of something like this, don't you think it's a bit too..."

"Cowardly?"

He advised, "The rougher the waves, the more expensive the fish."

"Qilin's death might even make them lower their guard. We just need to weather through this period."

"Really, think about it again."

He pleaded earnestly, "Reconsider."

"No need to think."

Scarface looked irritable. "My mind is made up."

"Don't come looking for me next time you guys have work. It's too dangerous, I can't do it."

"Goodbye."

Confirming that Scarface really didn't want to do it anymore, the young man wore a look of regret. "Is that so? What a pity."

"Still, we've been partners for a few days after all. Even if you don't want to work anymore, at least..."

He wore a sincere expression. "You should give me, this helpless and pitiful person, a tiny bit of assistance, shouldn't you?"

"This..." Scarface hesitated for a moment, but considering that leaving like this would indeed harm his reputation in their circle, he turned back with a helpless expression:

"Fine, consider it compensation for you. What kind of help do you need?"

"Forbidden drugs? Sacred vessels? Curses? Or maybe you want..."

"None of those."

The young man shook his head, slowly approaching Scarface, and then reached out his hand.

"Aren't you right here yourself?"

"Why would I bother borrowing external things?"

Scarface's expression changed drastically. "You want to..."

A sickening chewing sound came from inside Scarface's body. Terrified, he lowered his head, frantically tore open his clothes, and then—

Successfully caught sight of a painfully familiar face on his chest.

It was his own face.

It was grinning hideously back at him.

The chewing sound grew louder, crunching noises constantly exploding outward. Scarface tried to reach out and attack the young man, but the outstretched left hand was brutally smashed and broken by his own right hand.

"No, you can't..." Desperation washed over him. "You can't do this! I was wrong, I won't leave, I'll stay and help you, please, I beg you..."

His voice cut off abruptly because he had lost control of his own vocal cords. His brain, holding onto its last remaining shreds of consciousness, could only watch in absolute despair.

The other self inside his body slowly, cruelly, and completely "devoured" him.

"Pfft."

A few minutes later, Scarface—now completely transformed—split his mouth wide open, and a smooth mass of brain matter was spat out by it just like that.

*Splat.*

Then, it was ruthlessly crushed into a bloody, pale mess of filth.

It lowered its head toward the young man.

"Sigh, originally I didn't want to replace you either. After all, creations of the [Flesh Brain] tend not to be too bright in the head, and chatting with them is exhausting."

"Unfortunately, your brain was just too bright. If only you were a bit more foolish."

"Hard to have the best of both worlds."

The young man opened the documents in his hand, looking at the photograph of the white-haired girl inside with an expectant expression.

"The Consciousness of Alaya? Heh, if this is truly what the mastermind desires, then the Authority keeping her locked away in a place like this for a whole year is truly..."

"An utter waste of heavenly treasures."