Chapter 91: Lamp Sister
A murky orange light emanated from the eyes on the brain monster's head, casting a yellowish glow over most of the main corridor.
Zuiyasi immediately stepped in front of Shenyin, black tentacles spreading behind him and wrapping backward.
"Shenyin, I'll get you out of here."
"Alright."
Although Shenyin was wary of Zuiyasi, he had no idea what Zuiyasi had done earlier. After a moment's hesitation, he took out a life-saving item and chose to be enveloped by Zuiyasi's black tentacles.
Zuiyasi turned and fled, dashing out of the main corridor in a few steps and into the curved hallway, with Molei following closely.
"Huh? Where's Bai Ye?"
After rushing into the curved hallway, Molei looked puzzled. Logically, Su Xiao should be faster than her.
Bang!
Half a corpse flew into the curved hallway, splattering a glaring white bloodstain on the wall. The color of the blood looked very much like brain matter.
"The big-headed freak is dead already? Strong work, Bai Ye."
As Molei spoke, she was about to push open the curved hallway door, but Zuiyasi raised his hand to stop her, pointing at the grimy rectangular glass window on the door. The murky orange light in the main corridor was growing brighter.
Through the blurry glass, Molei felt nauseous just looking at the murky orange light—a dual discomfort, both physical and psychological.
From behind the door, howls echoed from the main corridor. Molei and Zuiyasi recognized the sound; it was the cry of the brain monsters, but now it was dense and frequent, indicating at least a hundred of them.
The sound of swish, swish also came from behind the door, like a blade slicing through the air.
A few minutes later, the main corridor fell silent. The orange light fading from the dirty door glass, and white blood seeped in through the bottom crack.
Zuiyasi retracted his tentacles, and the concealed Shenyin leaped back, keeping his distance from Zuiyasi. During that time, he had vaguely sensed something but couldn't be sure.
Molei pushed open the corridor door, and the scene in the main corridor came into view. In the middle section, there was a pile of severed limbs and heads—brain monsters with their large tumor-like heads chopped off or half-severed. Their remains were stacked into a heap, with watery white blood spreading around it. Standing atop the pile was Su Xiao, holding a strangely shaped medium-short sawtooth blade in each hand, wearing his helmet, the twin blades stained white.
Su Xiao leaped down from the corpse pile, flicked the blood off the sawtooth blades, then flipped them half a turn in his hands before sheathing them with his thumbs pressing down.
In the nightmare, the Church's weapons dealt almost full true damage, combined with the true damage from Cyan Steel Shadow Energy, the damage output was explosive. Cutting through these monsters was like slicing through vegetables. But in reality, these weapons weren't nearly as effective.
The reason Su Xiao stayed to deal with the brain monsters was that he wasn't afraid of the murky light they emitted.
Back in the Nightmare Eternal Hope Town, he had encountered the "Swollen Eye," a creature with a single massive eyeball that emitted an even stronger murky light.
If the Swollen Eye's murky light dealt 30 points of sanity damage, the brain monster's light was probably around 6 to 7 points.
Back then, Su Xiao had endured the murky light while being stared at by the Swollen Eye for 60 seconds, passing some kind of trial. He gained two benefits from it, one being a permanent increase of 120 points in resistance to murky light.
In addition to his own resistance, the [Church Knight Helmet] had an absurdly high resistance to murky light. The reason he could withstand the Swollen Eye's gaze for 60 seconds was that he was wearing the [Church Knight Helmet], which had a specialized resistance bonus in this regard.
His own murky light resistance plus the helmet's specialized resistance—combined, Su Xiao was completely unfazed by the brain monsters' murky light.
But dealing with the brain monsters in the main corridor wasn't without cost. When his sanity was very low, he injected a sedative, and his sanity was full after 5 seconds. Sometimes having a low sanity cap was a good thing.
Su Xiao raised his hand toward the corpse pile, and clusters of white semi-fluid, sealed by energy, floated up and surged toward him, which he stored in his storage space.
[You have obtained Deep Sea Brain Fluid ×10 portions.]
[Deep Sea Brain Fluid: A peculiar substance formed from the mixture of 'Nightmare' and 'Sea's Reverse Surge.' This smooth, viscous material holds unimaginable allure for monsters in nightmares or the deep sea. When these monsters devour this brain fluid, they exhibit bewildering behavior. Witnessing this, do not laugh; laughter will re-attract the monsters' attention.]
...
Seeing the information on [Deep Sea Brain Fluid], Su Xiao knew it was a good item. If thrown without being detected by nightmare monsters, it could lure them away.
"Why were you running?"
Su Xiao looked around at Molei, Zuiyasi, and the transparent Shenyin. Molei and Shenyin both felt awkward, while Zuiyasi remained calm and composed. His thick skin could rival a city wall.
"Continue exploring."
Su Xiao walked at the front. Seeing this, Shenyin pushed out a ball of light, which floated slowly and then merged into Su Xiao's chest.
[Prompt: You have received the 'Clear Spring Surge' buff. Over the next 10 seconds, your sanity will recover by 95 points.]
Su Xiao's sanity gradually recovered, reaching 215/215 points within a few seconds.
At the end of the main corridor, a silver-gray metal door appeared, identical to the one they had encountered when entering the Nightmare Ancient Castle Ward. Su Xiao took out the key, inserted it, and turned it. With a click, the door opened.
Pushing open the double silver-gray metal doors, a patient room of about a hundred square meters came into view. On both sides of the room were rows of iron-framed beds, most empty, but some held brain monsters.
These brain monsters were still ugly, but they wore loose, light pink patient gowns and seemed very weak.
"Miss, is that you? Have you come to see us? Leave quickly, you can't be in the nightmare."
"Drip-drop, drip-drop, drip-drop—do you hear it? The sound of water dripping. It's the ocean. The beast in my heart has vanished. I am healed by the sea's voice."
"Kill me, quickly, kill me. Save... save me..."
"The royal descendants, they used us as test subjects. The beast transformation was healed? Then the seawater rushed in, more painful than the beast transformation. Both exist together."
Every few meters Su Xiao walked, he heard a patient's confession. These patients had been here too long, unable to die or live well, existing in a state worse than death.
Without needing to investigate, Su Xiao could guess the gist of it. When the beast transformation fully erupted in the World of Paintings, the dynasty tried many methods. Desperate, they chose to fight poison with poison, using a strange power from the deep sea to counter the mental beast transformation.
The result was a failure—the mental beast transformation wasn't cured, and they were eroded by the deep sea's power.
Presumably, this castle was the last refuge of the main painting world. Even if the people here weren't mad, they had become unscrupulous.
Passing through the patient room, Su Xiao arrived at a cluttered hall filled with various items. The hall contained several metal dissection tables, some with half-dissected brain monsters on them.
Apart from the clutter, the hall had three corridor entrances: one on the left, one on the right, and one at the far end. The castle ward was larger than expected.
Su Xiao's attention focused on the metal door at the far end. At the center of this door was a combination lock. There was no keyhole, meaning this door could only be opened with a code.
Just as Su Xiao was about to approach, the crisp sound of metal striking the ground—da, da—reached his ears. He immediately ducked behind a dissection table. Molei was beside him, and on the other side of a nearby metal table were Zuiyasi and Shenyin.
For some reason, after entering the cluttered hall, Shenyin's body emitted glowing orange particles, making his concealment much more difficult.
From the corridor entrance on the right side of the hall, a figure emerged. The hem of her robe was tattered, hanging down like strips of cloth. Her long legs were dotted with specks of blood, and she wore metal high-heeled shoes that clicked sharply against the marble floor with each step.
What was most striking was the head of this humanoid monster. She had likely been a brain monster originally, but her brain had been cut and modified.
Her neck was held together with rivets, and her head was encased in something like a metal searchlight. Dozens of eyes on her face emitted murky orange light, which was focused by the searchlight into a beam directed straight ahead. The intensity of her murky light was at least several times stronger than the Swollen Eye's.
This humanoid monster had been deliberately modified by someone to guard the secrets here. The searchlight on her head and her blood-stained long legs somehow made terror and allure begin to overlap.
Let's call this monster Lamp Sister. She moved with an eerie gait, her upper body slightly hunched, her tattered robe swaying as she walked. Each step she took was as wide as possible, her bent leg stomping down, the high heel hitting the ground with a crisp da sound. Every step was the same.
Su Xiao noticed that Molei, leaning against the side of a dissection table, was holding her breath, not daring to make a sound. Zuiyasi wasn't as extreme, but he too chose to avoid her for now.
Lamp Sister was a major problem. Su Xiao estimated that with his current sanity and means of dealing with nightmares, even using [Deep Sea Brain Fluid] to lure her away, he couldn't get past her. The coded door was just over ten meters away, and the code was 338145. He just needed an opportunity.
Molei turned her head and suddenly saw Su Xiao half-crouching, with most of his helmet exposed. Her expression stiffened.
'No, please.'
Molei mouthed silently.
'You're my dad, you're my ancestor! No!'
In Molei's increasingly desperate gaze, Su Xiao drew his right sawtooth blade, stood up straight, and used the pommel to bang against the dissection table with a clang.
Creak!
Metal scraped, and Lamp Sister spun around! But Su Xiao was already gone. That was because, the moment he struck the table, he used his Dragon Shadow Flash ability to phase through space and appear in front of Lamp Sister. When she heard the sound and turned, Su Xiao, having ended his spatial shift, was now standing right behind her.
Su Xiao completely suppressed his aura, stopped breathing, slowed his heartbeat to a minimum, and remained still. Lamp Sister didn't notice him. Attracted by the loud noise, she moved toward where Molei, Zuiyasi, and Shenyin were hiding.
At that moment, Molei and Shenyin were stunned. Zuiyasi's expression darkened; he had wanted to do the same but acted too late.
Lamp Sister approached step by step. The three exchanged glances, and then Zuiyasi shouted, "Run!"
After yelling, Zuiyasi stayed put, while Shenyin bolted. He stumbled after a few steps, tried to duck back behind the dissection table, but saw Lamp Sister charging at him. He had no choice but to grit his teeth and run toward the patient room.
Taking this opportunity, Su Xiao silently moved to the metal coded door, quickly dialed the code to 338145.
With a click, the door opened. Su Xiao saw the unlocking mechanism inside, rushed in, and slammed the door shut.
Boom!!
Lamp Sister slammed into the coded door, her claws frantically scratching at it, leaving white marks. On her lower back hung a fully transparent humanoid silhouette with orange spots.
The cluttered hall fell silent. Zuiyasi had transformed into the appearance of half a brain monster corpse, lying on a dissection table, playing dead.
Da, da, da.
Lamp Sister paced around, inspecting the area.
"Ribbit~"
A frog croaked. Lamp Sister's searchlight tilted slightly, as if puzzled by the strange sound, yet it also seemed normal to her.
"Ribbit~"
Another croak. Lamp Sister ignored it and stopped near the dissection table where Zuiyasi was lying, unmoving.
Presumably, Zuiyasi must have been thinking a certain four-letter phrase at that moment.