Chapter 1036: The Hidden One (1)

September 17th, 2023. Sunday.

Li Rui was overwhelmed with curiosity. Once again, he couldn’t suppress the impulse in his heart. He wanted to know what lay behind that door, to see what the critical care ward truly looked like.

He wanted to see it for himself... So, he snuck out quietly. And was dragged back.

***

September 17th, 2023. Sunday.

Once again, he was caught in the corridor and brought back.

***

September 17th, 2023. Sunday.

Dragged back again.

***

Dragged back.

Medication dosage increased.

***

September 17th, 2023. Sunday.

Golden morning sunlight filtered through the crack in the curtains. The radio was broadcasting the latest updates on the Russia-Ukraine war. Li Rui got up, washed up, ate breakfast, and took his medicine, following the natural flow of his day.

After three years in the hospital, he had developed excellent daily habits. He fully cooperated with the doctors’ treatment plan, hoping that he could be discharged as soon as possible. He had long forgotten what the world outside the ward was like. Staying in the room forever felt like the safest, most comfortable choice.

His two roommates, Ye Qing and Hao Ding, were playing chess again. The two young men in their twenties had already been here when Li Rui was first admitted. Every day, they played noisily, argued, and laughed. They also cooperated with the treatment faithfully. Rumor had it they would both be discharged in another week or two. Li Rui felt happy for them.

A little after nine in the morning, the attending physician, Sun Fei, came to check on him again. He brought along two of his interns, Li Mu and Lin Beichen. After evaluating Li Rui’s condition, he adjusted his medication and reminded him firmly to take it on time. Then he left, satisfied.

Nurse Tan Qingying stayed behind to check Li Rui’s temperature, blood pressure, blood oxygen, and heart rate. She then chatted with him for a while before leaving with a smile.

Li Rui stood in front of the window. It was a beautiful day. He had completely forgotten about the corridor and the door beyond it. Bathed in the golden sunlight pouring through the glass, Li Rui felt an unprecedented calm. He almost didn’t realize as he began piecing together the plot for his story. Details that had previously eluded him now emerged in his mind with sudden, vivid clarity.

Half an hour later, Li Rui completed the final outline in his mind. He turned around, picked up the worn notebook from the small table, and reached for his pen.

The moment his fingers wrapped around the pen and paper, a strange haze swept through his mind. He looked down at the battered notebook, and his eyes stayed on the slightly yellowed and creased pages. Somehow, they made him hesitate, as if placing his pen on that paper was akin to answering a question far more significant than life itself.

His breathing grew slightly faster. A voice kept echoing within him,

Are you ready? Ready? Are you truly ready?

The words reverberated again and again in his head, growing louder with each repetition. Like the tolling of ancient bronze bells, they thundered through his brain, brutally shaking his nerves. The simple gel pen in his hand felt like it weighed a thousand pounds.

Li Rui took a deep breath. Then he let go of all the confusion in his heart, shut out every distraction, and pressed his pen to paper. He didn’t know why, but the more he wrote, the more everything flowed effortlessly.

Rustle, rustle, rustle...

His pen moved as if guided by a higher will. Ten minutes later, Li Rui had written out the conclusion, at last giving this not-so-brilliant novel a decisive ending.

“It’s finally finished,” Li Rui let out a long breath. Yet just as he wrote the final characters—The End—something strange occurred.

Boom!

Thunder and lightning cracked overhead. The clear, sunny skies outside the window were instantly swallowed by dark clouds, flashes of lightning tearing across the heavens without warning.

It was as if doomsday had arrived. The lights in the hospital room began to flicker violently. The two roommates who had been playing chess moments ago suddenly froze in place. They sat motionless on their beds, as if their souls had been sucked out in an instant.

A jolt of alarm shot through Li Rui’s heart. To his astonishment, everything in the ward had suddenly frozen in place. Even the clock on his phone had stopped ticking.

“What’s going on?”

This supernatural phenomenon left him stunned. He was shocked to the core, and even a little panicked. But in the very next moment, a strange sensation rose within him.

An unseen, mysterious force seemed to be summoning him. An uncontrollable impulse surged up from deep inside him, compelling him to turn around, push open the ward door, and step into the hallway...

There, he saw Nurse Tan Qingying frozen mid-stride in the corridor, her face filled with panic. She looked like she had been sprinting toward the ward, but she was completely still, as though someone had pressed a pause button on time itself.

Li Rui slowly approached her and reached out to touch her arm. It was cold like metal. Looking closer, he could just barely see a faint, purple glow shimmering beneath her fair skin...

He continued walking down the hallway. The doctors in the offices were all frozen in mid-laughter and conversation, trapped in their final moments before the world stopped.

Li Rui observed them carefully. He noticed that a subtle violet radiance flickered gently beneath their skin and even in their pores. He stopped and stared at that light, lost in thought.

He could feel a mysterious and oddly familiar energy pulsing from it. In that moment, it was as if some long-shut gate in his memory began to creak open. A flood of memories came crashing in like a tidal wave, completely drowning Li Rui.

He stood there in a daze, until he slowly looked down at his hands. Once ordinary, even slightly peeling from a lack of vitamins, his palms now shimmered with a faint milky white glow. As the light flickered across them, his skin gradually took on a lustrous sheen that was as smooth and flawless as the finest mutton-fat jade in the world.

He moved his hands gently, curling his fingers. A sensation of unprecedented strength coursed through him. A smile slowly spread across Li Rui’s face.

“I remember now. I remember everything. My name is Li Xiaofei. I... am the Human Race’s Immortal Emperor!”

Only today did he finally remember who he truly was. He began to laugh, each exhalation growing louder and louder as he walked to the end of the corridor. He reached out to grasp the doorknob, and the door opened effortlessly.

This time, it was no longer locked. A torrent of divine energy surged forth like a tide of white light. It swept across everything. Li Xiaofei strode directly into the current, his figure disappearing into the brilliant glow.

***

The Land of Annihilation.

𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Li Xiaofei slowly opened his eyes. Six figures hovered in the air within the pale violet void, each radiating a terrifying and overwhelming pressure of divine law.

Ding Hao, Li Mu, Ye Qingyu, Lin Beichen, Sun Fei and... Oblivion.

“How did you figure it out?” Oblivion looked at Li Xiaofei with a curious expression, his eyes filled with deep confusion.

Li Xiaofei did not answer immediately. Instead, he turned to look at the others. That’s right. The Human Race’s Immortal Emperors were still alive. The auras flowing from their bodies were vibrant and potent, each brimming with supreme laws even after enduring a great battle.

The others smiled at Li Xiaofei, who smiled back.

“I knew it. There’s no way you would’ve been replaced by those ridiculous clones... I just knew it,” said Li Xiaofei, his face filled with joy.

The heavy burden that had been weighing on his heart finally settled and vanished. When he had seen Li Mu, Ye Qingyu, and the others fall one after another, his heart had been overwhelmed with shock, rage, and grief.

That storm of emotions had begun the moment Lin Beichen had fallen, and only grew stronger with each subsequent loss until the final comrade was gone. It had fermented to its peak... and eventually transitioned into a state of complete emptiness.

Li Xiaofei still didn’t fully understand what the entire process of entering the 'psychiatric ward dream realm' truly meant. But one thing was certain, they had won.

Now, when Li Xiaofei’s gaze fell upon Oblivion, he could clearly sense that this once-invincible foe now showed unmistakable signs of weakness. The violet aura of annihilation that once surged from his body had faded greatly, and was no longer as oppressive as before.

Yet, there was no hint of despair on Oblivion’s face. He still wore a faint, composed smile. He patiently asked once again, “How did you discover the flaw in the dream realm?”

Li Xiaofei shook his head. “I didn’t.”

“Then how were you able to break free from the dream realm I crafted?” Oblivion asked again, smiling sincerely, as if he was genuinely curious. “You must understand, this had nothing to do with martial strength. You were just an ordinary person in that dream realm. All it would have taken was a little more time, and you would have forgotten everything. In this world, forgetting is the most terrifying law. To be forgotten is to face eternal death. So why were you the exception? Why were you able to shatter the illusion?”