Knight? Fell into Jinglin Sanatorium?!Upon hearing the plea for help on the phone, Yu Sheng was first startled. Then he quickly recalled whose somewhat familiar voice it was on the other end, and a corresponding image swiftly emerged in his mind—a notably tall figure, eye-catching and entirely wrapped in a white coat, a spherical fishbowl at the head, and the goldfish swimming back and forth inside.
The director of Jinglin Sanatorium.
It's not that Yu Sheng has a particularly good memory; it's mainly because the director left such a deep impression on him that he probably won't forget a scene of a goldfish lazily telling him with a magnetic voice, "I am the fish in charge here" for the rest of his life...
Meanwhile, Baili Qing quickly spoke up: "Alright, reinforcements will arrive immediately—ensure that knight's safety, I will come to you personally."
The voice of the responsible fish urged from the other side of the phone: "Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up! If you don't come, I'm going to be beaten to death! When exactly will the support..."
Baili Qing hung up the phone expressionlessly, turned to Yu Sheng, and even before she could speak, Yu Sheng had already opened a magical door to Jinglin Sanatorium out of thin air next to him.
The next second, Yu Sheng and his group, along with Baili Qing, passed through the door and arrived directly in the reception hall on the first floor of Jinglin Sanatorium. As soon as they landed, they heard the sound of the Special Service Bureau security forces outside the sanatorium opening fire, with gunfire and explosions sounding quite intense.
The atmosphere in the hall was tense; some fully armed security personnel were guarding the entrance, and other ordinary staff members who seemed to have been temporarily mobilized had also taken up weapons. The red lights at the staircase and elevator entrance not far away were flashing, while a tall figure in a white coat was anxiously pacing back and forth in the open area.
Yu Sheng leading a group who appeared directly in the hall shocked everyone on the spot, and two of them, who looked like caregivers, even raised their guns—and thankfully, the people working here had somewhat received training, so at least there was no misfire.
Baili Qing directly approached the tall figure: "The reinforcements have arrived now."
The director was still in a daze; the goldfish in the spherical fishbowl floated lazily in the water, until Yu Sheng also came over, and it suddenly spit out a string of bubbles, speaking with a lazy magnetic voice: "... Truly fast."
Baili Qing didn't waste time talking with her, not giving the responsible fish more time to be dazed, she quickly opened her mouth: "How is the situation now?"
The goldfish in the fishbowl suddenly snapped back to reality as if fully waking up, hurriedly speaking: "We... We've just eliminated the enemies that intruded into the courtyard, they fell in from a crack above the forest, numerous and hard to kill, I even have some of the mentally unstable joining the fight..."
Baili Qing immediately interrupted her: "You let the people from the wards into the fight?"
The director's tall body visibly shivered, with a string of small bubbles emerging from the fishbowl: "No, no, no, I didn't let the mentally ill in, I sent in their mental instabilities..."
She paused at this point and then explained: "They're entities of chaotic minds that were recently successfully separated in the surgery room. I used my ability to wrap them in a layer of control and threw them outside, thinking that if they successfully get killed by monsters outside, it could lower medical costs..."
The director's voice grew increasingly uncertain, finally raising her hands under Baili Qing's sustained gaze: "I had no choice; the situation was urgent, and the security forces were close to being overwhelmed. But rest assured, I specially selected a relatively stable batch and retrieved them before any loss of control happened..."
Baili Qing stared at the goldfish in the fishbowl, which had already shrunk tremblingly to the bottom of the water, until a few seconds later, Baili Qing finally diverted her gaze: "Being flexible in urgent situations is understandable. Now take us to..."
However, at this moment, a horrific explosion suddenly sounded from the direction of the main building's wing, directly interrupting Baili Qing's next words. The explosion noise was mixed with sounds of things collapsing and tearing apart, and then voices came through the director's walkie-talkie: "Director! The east side fence was breached! A kind of self-exploding monster has appeared on the other side!"
Upon hearing this, the goldfish immediately reacted, turning urgently to Baili Qing: "Ah, that's right! I need support here!"
Yu Sheng instantly looked at Erin and Luna: "You two send people over to help now."
Before his words finished, the little puppet had already raised a hand, and several twisted space rifts suddenly appeared out of nowhere, with a large crowd of mass-produced puppets sporting dead fish eyes appearing in the hall, simultaneously looking towards the director.
Next, Luna also took out a teleportation gate card she carried—a card activated, and a door leading directly to a certain Valhalla Corps base deep within the Dark Meteor Domain opened immediately, allowing a Saintess Squad and hundreds of Brass Knights with blades drawn to come across the star sea.
The goldfish in the director's head immediately darted two circles in the water, spitting out a string of bubbles, preparing to flip upwards.
But in the next second, she was sharply brought back to awareness under Baili Qing's piercing gaze.
"Chief, Director, when did the Special Service Bureau..."
"Don't ask too much, this is the support corps," Baili Qing said flatly, "send someone to take them to the other side of the wall, and you take us to see the situation of that knight."
"Ah, okay..."
The director quickly arranged for two armed security personnel to lead the Valhalla combat unit and the mass-produced Erins who had just arrived to the breached wall area. She then turned to lead the way, guiding Yu Sheng and the others to the location of the knight.
"It's on the 1st floor, not far from here," said the director quickly while rushing down the corridor leading to the wards. The goldfish in the spherical aquarium would occasionally turn its body to glance at Yu Sheng. "He first fell at the edge of the forest outside the sanatorium. We thought he was with those monsters, but we soon discovered he was being chased by them...
"He wasn't a match for those monsters, but he could run fast and made his way to our front gate. I found that he was able to communicate and had rationality, so I let him in...
"After letting him in, I discovered that beneath his armor, it was actually empty, with only a bunch of dark shadows inside... Honestly, it was quite frightening. At first, I thought he was a Spirit Realm detective or an Independent Investigator trapped in the forest area. You know, director, people in this line of work often have peculiar styles. I've met patients before who wore ancient armor and wielded swords in the Exotic Realm...
Yu Sheng looked at the goldfish in the fish tank leading the way, thinking to himself how she, an entity formed from the Exotic Realm environment, could have the nerve to say that an empty suit of armor was "frightening" — especially when she managed a sanatorium filled with various bizarre creatures. In this place, a mental patient and his own delusion stabbing each other with knives could be considered mild cases...
At that moment, a series of explosions came from the flanking direction, causing the ground underfoot to tremble slightly. Baili Qing paused for a moment, raising her hand with a wave.
The next second, Yu Sheng saw the completely enclosed corridor, which previously had no windows, suddenly become transparent. Through the wall and roof, he saw the situation on the sanatorium main building's flank.
A shocking gigantic rift stretched across the sky above the Exotic Realm. The rift extended from the side of the sanatorium to the edge of the forest outside. The huge and bizarre architectural structures stretched down like withered branches from the rift and extended to the ground, and in the depth of the rift, a shattered space could vaguely be seen suspended upside down at the top.
All sorts of strange "invading entities" were continuously falling out of the rift at this moment, including demon-like creatures, stone-carved ghosts, and even soldiers wearing armor in which only pitch-black flames remained.
At this moment, Erin's puppet army and Luna's Valhalla Corps had already reached the wall area. Meanwhile, glaring hot beams occasionally swept across the sky, mingling with the frequent flashes from the Special Service Bureau's security forces opening fire.
A moment later, the walls and roof returned to their original state, and Baili Qing continued to walk briskly forward.
With the director leading, Yu Sheng and the others soon arrived at an isolated hospital room — the door opened, and Yu Sheng saw the "knight" they hadn't seen for many days.
The knight, clad in heavy armor, was lying on the bed. There were a few obvious wounds on his breastplate and leg armor, with wisps of black smoke continuously seeping out, and his condition visibly poor.
"I won't disturb you," the director stood at the door, cautiously observing Baili Qing's expression, "I'll go back to command the battle, just call me if you need anything..."
Baili Qing didn't speak, just waved a hand, and the goldfish controlled its "containment container" to quickly leave the room.
Yu Sheng stepped into the hospital room, while the knight lying on the bed heard the movement from the doorway, and with the sound of metal scratching, the empty helmet turned to face Yu Sheng and the incoming group.
A somewhat muffled voice came from the helmet: "Ah, it's you. Sorry, it looks like I've brought you trouble."
"Hey! You're pretty polite, huh?" The Little Puppet quickly climbed onto the bedside table next to the bed, standing with its hands on its hips as it looked at the knight, "But you're right, the trouble is indeed significant. We were just fighting all along the line, and then you suddenly disappeared..."
"We need an explanation," Baili Qing calmly said, "How did you leave the containment room, and how did you get here? Do you know what happened?"
The knight was silent for two seconds and sighed: "…She found me."
"Who? Who found you?"
"My homeland," the knight said softly, "The Kingdom behind the high wall... After searching for it for so long, it finally reached out to me. In the darkness, I heard the sound of horns—the day of the end has come, all exiles have been forgiven, and the Kingdom demands all its citizens to return to their homeland on the final day, to greet the last dusk..."