**Chapter Twenty-Two: What If It’s an Internal Injury?**
The heavy impact with the ground made Luxianbei’s vision flicker into darkness, scattered with little stars.
Before he could recover and see the changes before his eyes, the Mad Old Man’s two newly grown arms climbed onto his body.
His shoulders were locked, panic rendering him unable to breathe. Luxianbei felt a chill emanating from his shoulders, as if a tremendous force were trying to crush his shoulder blades.
Amidst the terrifying sound of skin tearing and bones dislocating, a strong, rancid smell rushed towards him.
Luxianbei looked up and saw the Mad Old Man’s completely distorted and abnormal face, with dozens of murky eyes scattered across it. They held a hint of malice, bloodless eyeballs twitching in their sockets, and a grinding noise came from his mouth, which opened wide to reveal a bizarre cold laugh escaping through his bl**d-soaked teeth.
“Heh heh—!”
His chest and abdomen were fully opened, as if someone had split him in half, revealing various organs laid bare before Luxianbei.
Between the gaps of those organs, a mass of dark red flesh wriggled, constantly changing shapes, as if it were not a part of the Mad Old Man’s body but some parasitic life form, even biting at each other.
The foul-smelling juices splattered everywhere: on the ground, on the wild grass, and on Luxianbei, where they seemed to trigger an unknown chemical reaction, producing loud cracking sounds.
He had never felt so close to d*ath.
Everyone exhibits different behaviors when feeling d*ath approach; some fall silent, some scream at the top of their lungs, and others chatter on nervously.
In a moment of desperation, Luxianbei’s mouth started rambling uncontrollably.
“I-I understand! You want to be friends with me, right? Like, genuine friends who share everything without holding back, right… Ah—!”
Before he could finish, the Mad Old Man’s arms suddenly applied force, accompanied by a crisp “crack,” causing Luxianbei’s face to pale instantly, beads of sweat visibly forming on his forehead.
His right shoulder, whether dislocated or suffering from a comminuted fracture, sent a sharp pain coursing through him, nearly causing him to faint.
Under the immense pressure of d*ath, he made one last attempt and, as if compelled by some force, shouted at the Mad Old Man, “Look into my eyes!”
In such a situation, believing he possessed the abilities from his dream memory, this could be considered typical desperate behavior.
However…
It was unclear whether Luxianbei’s shout caught the Mad Old Man’s attention, but the eyeballs on his face truly began to rotate, locking onto Luxianbei’s eyes.
Then, a flash of crimson light flickered through those eyes.
The figure of the youth before him suddenly blurred, becoming hazy and overlapping with that of a silver-haired girl.
Gazing into the girl’s eyes was like beholding a blooming rose in the middle of the night, full of endless temptation. The Mad Old Man’s body immediately seemed petrified, frozen in place.
Noticing the weight of the Mad Old Man’s arms on his shoulders had lessened significantly, Luxianbei paused briefly, then gritted his teeth, enduring the sharp pain in his shoulder as he struggled to break free.
At that moment, he caught sight of a metal rod and a toilet plunger that had fallen nearby. He hesitated for about a second, tilted his head, and moved forward to pick both items up, tightly gripping them in his left hand.
What was he hesitating about? Who said one hand couldn’t wield two weapons?
In the absence of knowing which weapon would be more effective, wouldn’t it be better to have both?
Luxianbei self-deprecatingly thought, raising the toilet plunger and the iron rod, a fierce glint appearing in his eyes as he brought them down forcefully toward the Mad Old Man’s head.
“Bang—Bang—Bang—!”
Three heavy strikes resonated with muffled sounds as the Mad Old Man’s head tilted, taking his abnormally twisted body down with it.
But…
The dark red flesh inside his body continued to squirm, struggling to push out.
Seeing this, Luxianbei’s gaze narrowed, gripping the iron rod and the toilet plunger tighter as he stepped forward, expressionless, and swung down.
To his surprise, as he brandished the iron rod and the toilet plunger, their trajectory possessed an airy elegance, akin to the exquisite swordsmanship in stories.
“Screech—!”
The dark red flesh, lacking any vocal organs, emitted a scream the moment the toilet plunger and iron rod struck down.
Thus, the screeching echoes of what seemed like thousands of bats attacking simultaneously reverberated over Banshan Apartment.
In the next instant, the dark red flesh, along with the Mad Old Man’s body, suddenly exploded, turning into a stinking puddle of pus and bl**d…
Half an hour later.
In an old model car driving toward the center of Huacheng.
Su Mi held the steering wheel, turning her head slightly towards Luxianbei. “So, the abnormal thing you encountered was just a mad homeless man?”
“Yeah, I even fought him,” Luxianbei replied expressionlessly.
“cr*p! You didn’t injure him, did you?”
If he did, he would have exploded into a pool of bl**d with not even a piece of flesh left… Luxianbei rolled his eyes at Su Mi. “At a time like this, shouldn’t you be concerned whether he hurt me instead?”
“This…” Su Mi opened her mouth and forced a smile, “Aren’t I worried you might have hurt him and he’d come back to extort you?”
“What about you? Did you get hurt?”
“Probably… not.” Luxianbei responded casually, stealing a discreet glance at his shoulder.
He was certain he had sustained a heavy injury on his shoulder during the Mad Old Man’s attack. Yet, after receiving Su Mi’s anxious call and rushing down from the halfway apartment complex to the foot of the mountain, it had taken less than ten minutes for the injury to heal.
As if he had suddenly gained some sort of superpower with rapid regeneration.
“Probably?” Su Mi frowned at Luxianbei. “You don’t know if you’re injured or not? Should I take you to the hospital for a check?”
Luxianbei shrugged, “’Probably’ means there doesn’t seem to be any visible injuries on the surface.”
“But what if that old man is a hidden master who left me with some kind of internal injury that will k*ll me in three days?”
Su Mi, “…” He could still spout such nonsense; it seemed he hadn’t been seriously hurt.
“By the way, there’s one more thing.”
“What?” Su Mi pouted.
“Xiaomi, look into my eyes.” Luxianbei said solemnly.
Su Mi slowed down, turning to glance at Luxianbei.
Their gazes met…
Nothing unusual happened, except the atmosphere grew progressively eerie.
“Seen it? So what now?” Su Mi asked, puzzled.
“Nothing…” Luxianbei said faintly.
————
Su Mi drove Luxianbei to the center of Huacheng, initially intending to have dinner with him.
However, Luxianbei was eager to return home to study the notebook found in Banshan Apartment, so he declined Su Mi’s invitation.
He conveniently avoided paying the bill.
Left with no choice, Su Mi earnestly advised Luxianbei not to continue courting d*ath and then dropped him off at his home.
Upon returning home.
Luxianbei couldn’t bother to check his shoulder’s injury or ponder why it had healed so quickly. He eagerly took out the notebook from his backpack.
With the notebook in hand, he dashed into his bedroom as if he were about to revel in some “learning material.” He locked the door behind him and pounced onto the desk, flipping open the notebook.
Soon, he made a discovery.
[Some people are real, some people are fake…]
At about the twenty-fifth page of the notebook, there was this segment written.
What does this mean? How can people be both real and fake? Luxianbei furrowed his brow, continuing to flip through, feeling that he could find the answers he sought further back.
[Recently, too many people have been taken away. ■■■ is right; we should ■■■■]
At around the fiftieth page of the notebook, Luxianbei saw this passage, which had essential information crossed out, as if the writer were worried about being discovered.
What could it mean?
“We should”?
Were they planning to do something?
Luxianbei frowned, patiently flipping through dozens or even hundreds of pages, but nothing similar to that text appeared again.
“Rustle—Rustle—!”
Nothing more?
Looking at it this way, could the crossed-out words have meant “hide,” “pause activities,” or “go underground”?
Luxianbei pondered while quickly scanning through the notebook, attempting to find other information. Finally, after nearly a hundred pages, he discovered new information; reading those words made his body tremble uncontrollably.
[The method of leaving has been found; as long as the attempt succeeds, everyone will be able to leave!]
This passage’s handwriting was somewhat messy, written forcefully. Just looking at the words, one could feel the excitement of the person who wrote them at that moment.
Even Luxianbei felt as if the power contained within those words was influencing him, stirring up a sense of fervor within.
Although he had not found any members of the Seek Truth Mutual Aid Society nor coincidentally stumbled upon Gu Qiqi’s home, the hints offered by this notebook were precisely what he had been searching for.
He took a deep breath, suppressing his excitement, and continued flipping through, quickly reaching the end of the notebook.
The final scrawl read, [We failed.]
After that, there were no further words.
Only five short words carried an overwhelming sense of despair.
At that moment, a powerful wave of oppression struck Luxianbei, making him feel indescribably uncomfortable, compounding the unwillingness to meet or approach directly.
After witnessing the unusual scenes at Banshan Apartment, he could vaguely guess something.
Those who lived in Banshan Apartment had undoubtedly attempted some sort of venture for the freedom they pursued. Unfortunately, they had failed, which brought about a disaster, forcing them to flee in panic, leaving even their pets behind.
Perhaps that accident over ten years ago was the result of their attempt.
But what exactly did they do? Did they try to send some person, or some people, to that so-called “real world”?
Luxianbei thought as he closed the notebook heavily, glancing out the window.
It was already evening, and a sudden autumn rain began to fall outside, raindrops hitting the glass with a crackling sound.
Luxianbei stared at the rain-swept world outside, lost in thought for a long time, picturing a group of people, much like himself, who had dreamt of another Huacheng, gaining an extra segment of memory that should not have existed, along with a few important individuals, leading them to begin questioning the reality of this world.
For those extra memories and those important people, they had once united and worked hard together, but ultimately paid a heavy price.
Time flowed in the reverie, and before he knew it, the sky darkened.
Just as darkness enveloped everything entirely, the intense pain that had struck him the previous evening returned once more.
An indescribable, piercing pain struck without warning, causing Luxianbei’s body to convulse and tumble from his chair to the ground.
The bl**d within him boiled, surging with an astonishing heat.
At that moment, Luxianbei felt that he was no longer human but had transformed into a steam engine billowing forth vast amounts of white mist.
The heat surged through his body and soon crashed into his heart, colliding with the cold aura brewing within his chest.
Luxianbei felt his body transforming again into an arena without any rules, where the cold and heat clashed violently, leaving no stone unturned.
As if it had no concern for the life or d*ath of this body’s owner.
However, as the pain gradually intensified, an extreme rebellious thought suddenly surfaced in Luxianbei’s mind—what if I don’t recite those strange descriptions as I did yesterday? What would happen?
In my dream memories, didn’t I often do that? Luxianbei pondered.
In the afternoon, using his dream memory abilities, he successfully counterattacked the Mad Old Man, which furthered his belief in everything within his dream memory.
Since the process of enduring this pain doesn’t halt in the dream memory, and there’s no life-threatening danger, why not give it a try?
Luxianbei gritted his teeth, refusing to let any sound escape from his lips.
Thus, under the increasingly intense assault of pain, a fierce memory surged into his mind, as if it were ripping his head apart, causing him to experience immense agony, and before he could comprehend, he lost consciousness.
