The blood vessels climbed on the walls. The floor was submerged by blood. Xia Yang’s room appeared to be wiped away from reality and was hidden in the nightmare. All the devices related to the dream went out of control. The display twisted to show the faces of the dead. The needles spun backwards. The lights exploded soundlessly. Red eyes opened on screens.

The strangeness entered Xia Yang’s eyes. He laughed joyfully. “Yes! This is the world in my eyes. This is the world I want to see. You have done it! You have completed the things I have been meaning to do!”

The Blood City Tattoo crawled on his skin. Gao Ming lowered his head to look at Xia Yang. He was not Xia Yang’s saviour or friend. To be accurate, he pushed Xia Yang to his death. The endless deaths lent Gao Ming the ability to predict certain things. Xia Yang sensed that in Han Hai, no matter how clever he was, he couldn’t defeat Gao Ming. He chose the second best thing, which was not suffering a loss. He killed himself and hid his consciousness in his death portrait. As long as Gao Ming used his portrait, Gao Ming would be affected by his consciousness until Gao Ming slowly became him.

Back then, Gao Ming’s biggest nemesis was Situ An. He would not give up the trump card in his fight against Situ An.

“Tell me. What is the last thing you remember in Han Hai?” Gao Ming lowered his head.

“Is that important? Do you really care? Haha! That bunch of idiots thought I was the first candidate to be eliminated. They had no idea I stored my torn soul in your heart!” A psychotic heart hid under Xia Yang’s sunny appearance. He was a killer in Han Hai. He assisted orphans and children while murdering adults. He treated the world as his canvas. Xia Yang was a candidate carefully curated by Immortal Pharma. However, he encountered Gao Ming and was targeted. He lost his self-consciousness after his suicide. That was why he couldn’t re-enter Han Hai after he woke up.

“What happened after you and Situ An escaped from my torture room?” Gao Ming frowned. He didn’t like to communicate with the current Xia Yang.

“I can’t remember. Right. He led me to find someone called Lu Zang. The man had the way to leave Han Hai.” Xia Yang said as if he were the devil, “Don’t you know him too? Do you want to kill him?”

Lu Zang was Situ An’s support. He appeared to be connected to many Blood City candidates.

“How did you leave Han Hai?”

“I’m not sure. I opened my eyes, and I was here.” Xia Yang was very patient with Gao Ming, “Strangely enough, I woke up earlier than you did. I was only asleep for one night, but you were in a coma. However, the time flow in real life and Han Hai is different. After all, that is the world of the dead.”

“Where is Situ An?”

“He is gone from both Han Hai and Xin Lu. Even Immortal Pharma can’t find him. They tried to get information from me by feeding me different drugs.” Xia Yang’s skin was about to fall, but he still tried to smile.

Xia Yang was happier than Gao Ming that Gao Ming had remembered Han Hai. In the past, only he knew the ghost stories he told Gao Ming weren’t lies. They had experienced them personally. All the stories were real. Xia Yang enjoyed that feeling. He was like a killer asking after the situations of his victims’ families. No one would expose him.

“Do you have any other questions? I can tell you everything I know. I’ve gotten to know many things, like where the other candidates are hiding and who you should kill among the Immortal Pharma superiors. I have devised more than seventy murder proposals. Would you like to hear them?”

Xia Yang was so excited that blood oozed out of his lips. He spoke quickly.

Staring at the transfixed Xia Yang, Gao Ming could not fathom what the man had been through. As the first candidate to be eliminated, Immortal Pharma conducted a lot of horrible experiments on him. However, they couldn’t even send him back into the nightmare.

“I’ll figure out everything I need to know myself.” Gao Ming interrupted Xia Yang. The tattoo near his heart slowly opened. “Tell me. Do you have any last wishes?”

“Last wishes…” Xia Yang regarded the opening torture room door without fear. He thought about it and shook his head. “No. I’ve lived my life without regrets.”

Eight arms grabbed Xia Yang’s body. All the anomalies in the room were shoved into the torture room. When Xia Yang’s consciousness, soul and body were sent into the torture room, a black-and-white portrait in the corner of the torture room changed. Xia Yang’s corpse and self-portraits gained colour. He had a warm smile on his face.

“Gao Ming, I’ve been unable to enter the nightmare. After giving it much thought, there is only one possibility. A part of consciousness has become one with you. I am you, and you are me…”

The lights in the lab went out. Gao Ming left. He already had the God of Flesh and Blood check Xia Yang’s memory. Everything he said was the truth.

“What a crazy monster.” Gao Ming gleaned a lot of important information from Xia Yang’s memory, such as the addresses and habits of many important personnel like Tang Ling and the statuses of the other candidates. His personality aside, Xia Yang was an impressive man. It was no surprise that he was a candidate.

Gao Ming took the elevator to the floor where Ah Fang and his mother were. The child’s mother was kept hostage by Immortal Pharma. They could cure her, but for their own goal, they sometimes made her condition worse.

“Is the boy not here?” Gao Ming opened the door and saw Ah Fang’s mother crying. She was in bed. Her wrists were punctured with needles. She couldn’t speak or move.

He followed where she was looking. There were Ah Fang’s little school bag and red building blocks on the ground. However, the boy was gone.

“Has your boy been taken away?”

Hearing Gao Ming’s voice, Ah Fang’s mother tried her best to move her mouth to speak.

“Slow down. I’m here.”

Gao Ming had to lean close to hear the mother’s intermittent plea.

“Kill me. Please. Kill me…”