Chapter 762 - 723: Mysterious Hospital
After Zhao Rong killed the malicious magical beast in the town, everyone came forward to thank him. However, once their thanks were given, they spoke of another, very dangerous place.
An elderly man stepped forward and said to Zhao Rong, "Young hero, since your Martial Arts are powerful enough to kill a magical beast, please, go to our town’s hospital as well. We need you to investigate and root out the monster hiding inside to restore peace to our town."
When Zhao Rong heard the old man claim there was a monster in the hospital, he asked curiously, "Old master, what do you mean? What kind of monster is in your town’s hospital? Is it an evil spirit, or someone’s ghost causing mischief?"
An elderly woman then stepped forward and told Zhao Rong about a strange incident at the hospital. "Young hero, there’s something you don’t know," she said. "In our hospital, whenever someone dies, their body disappears without a trace. We all suspect there’s a terrifying monster that feeds on the dead lurking in some corner of the building."
Hearing that such strange things were happening, the assistant and the three women standing behind Zhao Rong immediately grew curious. "Zhao Rong," they suggested, "why don’t we go check it out? We can find this corpse-eating monster, solve the hospital’s mystery, and bring the truth to light."
Zhao Rong looked at the elderly man and woman before him. "This hospital of yours is certainly strange. Please take us there now."
When the surrounding onlookers heard that the group of five was actually going to investigate the hospital, they were stunned.
"Those five have a death wish!" one exclaimed. "The most terrifying place in our town is the hospital."
"That’s right, especially the mortuary," another added. "All sorts of strange things happen there every night. It’s enough to make your hair stand on end. These kids are brave, going to our town’s hospital? I bet they’ll be scared out of their wits once they get inside."
Amid a chorus of skepticism and doubt, Zhao Rong and his four companions arrived at the entrance of the town’s most eerie hospital.
As soon as they reached the entrance, the crowd of onlookers who had followed them recoiled, stopping a hundred meters away. They pointed at the building and called out, "Five young heroes, this is the hospital! We’ve seen the strange things that happen in there with our own eyes, so we don’t dare go inside."
Seeing the frightened expressions on their faces, Zhao Rong took the lead and walked into the eerie building. He turned to the three women and his assistant behind him and said, "Everyone, keep up. There’s nothing to be afraid of in here. I think it’s all just an illusion."
With that, Zhao Rong, Lili, Yu Lan, Xuelian, and his assistant entered the terrifying hospital.
Zhao Rong had assumed that such a frightening place would be deserted. To his surprise, when they walked in, they saw it was not only staffed with nurses and doctors but also filled with patients, cleaners, and others.
Seeing the scene before her, Lili broke into a cold sweat. She asked Zhao Rong, "Zhao Rong, didn’t the onlookers say there’s a terrifying monster in here? Logically, if the hospital is this scary, it should be empty. But now that we’re inside, why are there so many people?"
Hearing Lili’s question, Zhao Rong immediately wanted to ask the spectators outside. However, when he glanced back through the window, he was startled to find that the crowd had vanished completely.
Could these onlookers be in league with the ghosts in this hospital?
Just then, Yu Lan noticed a strange phenomenon. She pointed at the patients in the beds and said to Zhao Rong, "Zhao Rong, look at the patients here. They’re all elderly, without a single young person among them."
Hearing her words, Zhao Rong took a closer look and saw that it was true. All the patients looked to be at least ninety, some even a hundred years old.
At that moment, Xuelian pulled a thermometer from her pocket and checked the temperature of several nearby nurses. She was shocked by the result. Horrified, she pointed at the reading and said, "Zhao Rong, look! The nurses’ body temperatures are all zero degrees!"
Hearing this, Zhao Rong stepped forward, pretending to brush past a nurse while discreetly touching her. He instantly felt that the nurse’s body was indeed icy cold, nearly zero degrees.
Zhao Rong drew in a sharp breath and whispered to the three women and his assistant, "It seems everyone in this hospital is dead. They aren’t alive."
Lili swallowed hard, then pointed to the elderly people in the beds. "Zhao Rong," she asked, "are you saying that those elderly people are also dead?"
Zhao Rong nodded. "Lili, haven’t you noticed? The elderly people in the beds... they aren’t breathing."
Listening to Zhao Rong, Lili looked intently and was shocked to see that he was right. The elderly patients were all staring blankly, not breathing in the slightest. They weren’t even twitching.
Lili felt the hair on her arms stand on end. "Zhao Rong," she asked fearfully, "have we walked into a hospital filled entirely with dead people?"
Zhao Rong nodded grimly. "You’re right, Lili," he said with certainty. "Besides the five of us, everyone else in this hospital—the doctors, nurses, patients, cleaners—they’re all dead."
Before Zhao Rong could finish, a patient began to convulse violently and shamble toward their group.