"She got away again!" Xiao Shu gazed out the window, waved her hand in resignation, and turned back to Xiao Yu. "What do you think happened to her?"

Xiao Yu took a deep breath, frowned in thought for a moment, and said, "It’s clear she’s being controlled by some kind of power. Before, I kept wondering why Granny Miao from the village—Ming Mei, who killed her own clansmen to fulfill the Life and Death Pact and gained immortality—repeatedly asked me to find the Man-Eating Nether Worm to end her life. Now, I think I understand a little bit. Perhaps some things are better understood implicitly than explained explicitly, which is why she didn't tell me. However, I’ve always believed there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Selling your soul to the devil means being controlled by the devil, which is why I hesitated until the end and never honored the agreement involving those ninety-nine wandering souls."

"You might be right. There must be secrets behind that immortal body that we don't know."

"But I think the most important thing right now isn't uncovering secrets, but finding those missing patients, doctors, and nurses. Of course, if it weren't for Wen Shu, perhaps I wouldn't bother doing this. With her here, everything has meaning," Xiao Yu sighed. Xiao Shu nodded immediately, showing her understanding.

So, the two descended from the fifth floor to the fourth, and from the fourth to the third, all the way down to the first-floor lobby. The entire hospital was deserted, with no living beings in sight, save for the occasional Man-Eating Nether Worm clinging to the stair railings. This stumped Xiao Yu. He couldn't search effectively, yet he was reluctant to leave. He could only pace slowly in the lobby alone, unsure of what to do next.

"Where do you think everyone in the hospital went?" Xiao Yu asked, resting his chin on one hand.

"Earlier, I saw the bodies of four doctors in the four corners of the rooftop, making five doctors including A Mang. That was about two hours ago, before Xing'er and Hua Gu left the hospital. Also, Li Bingyu once appeared next to A Mang's body, wearing a dark red trench coat. She could still speak then, telling me the coat was stripped from a woman's corpse..." Before Xiao Shu could finish, Xiao Yu interjected: "Meaning the slaughter began two hours ago. Including 9457, at least seven people died. When I was staying at this hospital, there were about 500 people inside—over two hundred doctors and nurses, plus more than two hundred patients. That number is enough to complete four to five Life and Death Pacts."

"Are you saying these people have been..." Xiao Shu stopped halfway through her sentence, making a gesture across her throat, as if mimicking slitting a neck.

"If that doesn't explain it, then how do you account for Li Bingyu having her tongue cut out?" Xiao Yu countered.

Hearing this, Xiao Shu nodded thoughtfully, gazing at the streetlamps outside the lobby. She thought about the dark shadows that had leaped out of the windows multiple times, calculating they must have landed nearby, yet she voiced something else: "Bingyu mentioned the coat to me. Back then, my attention was entirely focused on A Mang. If I had been a little more attentive, I should have sensed the massacre happening throughout the hospital. She had her tongue cut out because she leaked information about her companion."

"Yes, if your deduction is correct, they are already destroying the evidence," Xiao Yu said, pressing his lips together, holding back the tears welling in his eyes.

Seeing his sorrowful expression, Xiao Shu patted his shoulder. "We must find the living, and see the dead. There should be an underground parking garage outside this hospital; let’s go look there." With that, she linked her arm through his and they left the lobby, walking toward the brightly lit path. As they walked, she recalled those two moments when the dark shadow and Bingyu sprang out of the fifth-floor window.

Although she hadn't seen exactly where the shadow and Bingyu landed, Xiao Shu instinctively felt it must be in the area right beneath them. If her guess was right, their hiding place was very likely the underground parking garage, as it was the nearest subterranean shelter.