# 1105
Chapter 1106: The Director Manifests
Two figures pushed open the hospital gate and walked out directly.
Shen Qingzhu had one hand in his pocket, the other夹着一支烟叼在嘴中，正欲点火，手指却停在半空中。
He looked around and asked uncertainly, "Heavenly Court... shouldn't forbid smoking, right?"
"...No, don't worry about it." Baili Pangpang's mouth twitched.
"How do you know?"
"Those alchemy gods are constantly burning smoke and exploding their cauldrons all day long. What's the big deal if you light a cigarette?" Baili Pangpang waved his hand. "If they really ban smoking, we'll deal with it when we get caught."
"Fair enough."
Shen Qingzhu silently lit his cigarette.
He took a deep drag, exhaling a long plume of smoke, as if trying to vent all his helplessness and depression along with the smoke.
"拽哥."
"Hm?"
"What do you think about becoming a god's proxy?"
"What did you say?"
Shen Qingzhu froze in place.
Baili Pangpang grinned, gesturing at the surrounding endless palace halls. "Look, things aren't the same as before. The Great Xia gods have all returned. With so many deities, surely a few would want to take on disciples or find proxies?"
I think, 拽哥, you have exceptional talent and an outstanding temperament. The chances of Great Xia gods choosing you as a proxy are pretty high...
Tell me, if Yuanshi Tianzun, the Jade Emperor, and the Queen Mother of the West all came to recruit you as a proxy, which one would you choose?"
Shen Qingzhu held the cigarette between his lips, eyeing Baili Pangpang suspiciously. "Are you joking with me?"
"Just hypothetically. I'm making an analogy!"
"..." Shen Qingzhu was silent for a moment. "I'd choose none of them."
"Why?"
Shen Qingzhu stopped walking. "I don't want to be anyone's proxy, nor do I want to become anyone's shadow... I only want to be myself."
Baili Pangpang stared at him for a moment, then withdrew his gaze and nodded.
"Alright, I understand."
"Where's the bathroom in Heavenly Court?"
"Uh... I don't know either. Let's grab a god and ask for directions?"
"Do they even need bathrooms这种东西?"
"..."
...
After Michael finished talking with Lin Qiye, he left on his own.
Lin Qiye returned to the courtyard to train some more. Only when he was drenched in sweat did he sit back in the dog-skin wheelchair, lie down on the bed, and close his eyes.
Based on today's rehabilitation progress, this body would need about four or five days to return to its original state. According to the Tianzun and Michael's intentions, their transaction needed to be completed as soon as possible. Lin Qiye planned to set out for the lower realm as soon as he recovered, following Michael to that mysterious location to retrieve the items for the exchange.
Staring at the ceiling above, Lin Qiye slowly closed his eyes and immersed his consciousness into the Asylum of the Gods in his mind.
The moment he pushed open the director's office door, he heard a mournful, melancholy elegy drifting from the stone steps in front of the courtyard:
"...O brown guava and evergreen leaves of ivy green, I am compelled to extend these rude fingers of mine to shake you, tender leaves, from your spray. For kin惨遭, pressed by grief's heavy load, I come to disturb your flourishing prime; Young Director Lin is dead, dead in these tumultuous years, Young Director Lin has never left this home..."
Lin Qiye turned his head in bewilderment. In the spacious courtyard, countless orderlies in deep cyan uniforms stood in perfect formation,低下头默默抹着眼泪.
Li Yifei stood at the front of all the orderlies, wearing a white hat and white silk sash around his waist, his eyes blood-red, as if he had just finished crying his eyes out. Behind him, the other department heads stood in a row, their expressions filled with grief. Among them was Wangcai, who had participated in the god war, his leg still wrapped in bandages, trembling as he leaned on a cane while scratching at the tears at the corners of his eyes with his paw.
On the stone steps before the courtyard, Bragi held his harp, facing the crowd with a mournful, sorrowful expression, plucking the strings one by one,哽咽着吟唱悼亡哀歌.
When Bragi's song ceased, Li Yifei, standing at the very front, took a deep breath and bellowed with bloodshot eyes:
"SEND OFF THE DIRECTOR!!!"
Swish—!!!
Hongyan pulled out a stack of white spirit money from her pocket and hurled it into the sky. The paper money fluttered down throughout the courtyard as the orderlies' wailing grew increasingly anguished.
"Whimper whimper, Director Lin, may you go in peace..."
"Director Lin, we will miss you."
"Director, if you have any unfinished wishes, send us a dream and we shall fulfill them..."
"Director Lin, you died so tragically!"
"..."
The howling echoes through the courtyard. Lin Qiye, in his white coat, stood at the doorway of the director's office, his mouth twitching uncontrollably.
As if sensing something, he looked up toward the second floor.
At the doorways of several patient rooms, a monkey draped in a tattered kasaya stood silently leaning against the railing beside a man in a gray robe. Each of them had over a dozen empty wine jars beside them. They gazed at the white paper money drifting down through the sky, their eyes filled with complex emotions.
"Do you believe it?" Gilgamesh suddenly spoke.
"What?"
"..."
"I don't." Sun Wukong was silent for a moment, then shook his head. "He wouldn't die so easily... Besides, he is the master of this place. If he truly died, how could this place remain unchanged?"
"Is that so?" Gilgamesh's eyes narrowed slightly. "Do you truly believe this hospital exists by relying on his life force?"
Sun Wukong's brow furrowed.
"You've been here long enough to sense how lofty this hospital's status is. How could an existence of that caliber possibly依附在一个凡人的灵魂内 and cease to exist when he dies?" Gilgamesh shook his head.
"Moreover, is he really the master of this place? What proof is there?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean nothing specific." Gilgamesh turned his head, gazing calmly at the many grieving orderlies in the courtyard. "I only feel this place isn't as simple as it seems."
While the two were conversing, Li Yifei, standing in the courtyard, bellowed once more:
"KNEEL BEFORE THE SPIRIT RESIDENCE!!!"
Whoosh—!
The hundreds of orderlies in the courtyard all turned sharply at once, bowing deeply toward Lin Qiye's director's office within the hospital building.
When everyone wiped away their tears and stood up,恍惚之间, they glimpsed a familiar white figure standing at the director's office doorway. They froze, rubbed their eyes, and looked again...
Under the stunned gaze of the orderlies, Lin Qiye stood at the director's office doorway. After a moment of contemplation, he reached out from his pocket:
"...Rise."
Complete silence filled the courtyard.
After several seconds, an orderly finally reacted, his eyeballs nearly bulging from their sockets as he screamed in terror:
"DIRECTOR LIN HAS MANIFESTED!!!"
The entire Asylum of the Gods instantly plunged into unprecedented chaos.