Quickly putting distance between himself and Liu Shan, Pei Su unleashed his ultimate move. With a flick of his whip, he briefly wrapped it around Liu Shan and shouted for help: “He Zhu! I can’t beat this thing, come save me!”
He Zhu replied, “Just die in there. There are too many people outside if I come in, we’ll both be trapped in here.”
Pei Su roared, “Forget it, you’re useless. Guan Si! Where’s Qi Dengzui? Let him out quick, I can’t hold on much longer.”
Liu Shan broke free from the restraints and lunged at him again.
Pei Su dodged while running, grabbing whatever he could find in the director’s office and hurling it at Liu Shan.
“Where the hell is the key clue? They didn’t even give a hint. Am I supposed to find it with my life?”
Pei Su threw things around wildly until he hit something, and suddenly a notification popped up.
[The key clue is about to be cracked. Candidates are advised to prioritize resolving the thought blockage.]
Guan Si stared at the button before him. The “thought blockage” barrier both trapped the key inside the director’s office and kept everyone outside the intensive care ward from getting in. Once the barrier was deactivated, the people outside would break through the door.
And he couldn’t leave, because the button had to be held down at all times. The moment he let go, the barrier would reform.
He would die here.
He had no other choice, except to reveal his identity.
Guan Si touched the barrier button with his hand, and a sigh fell from his lips.
“Brother Qi, I didn’t mean to deceive you.”
He pressed down hard, and the barrier vanished in an instant.
The nurses outside swarmed in like a hive of bees, their eyes seeming to want to tear Guan Si apart.
Guan Si whipped out his skull bone umbrella. The umbrella spun rapidly in the air, forming a powerful protective barrier.
The barrier was immensely strong. The nurses who touched it turned to ash without making a sound, vanishing into thin air. But at the same time, cracks began to appear across the white barrier, spreading bit by bit like a spider’s web.
Guan Si pressed the button with all his might, his figure already beginning to sway from exhaustion.
<Damn, I’m actually a little shocked. How can he trust Pei Su and He Zhu so completely to get the key?>
<Does he really have no backup plan? It feels like he’s about to collapse.>
Just then, a cloud of black mist appeared around the button. A hand reached out from the mist, pushed Guan Si’s hand off the button, and pressed down on it instead.
Guan Si turned back in astonishment and saw the black mist gradually dissipate, revealing two indistinct figures.
Xiao Yu smiled at him gently, both tender and sorrowful.
“Thank you for being willing to take us home. Our obsessions have lingered here for too long we can no longer leave. But I hope you can. Go now, Guan Si.”
“Don’t let you and your beloved end up like us, trapped in this prison, living in agony.”
Xiao Yu and Xiao Yan’s figures gradually merged into one. Their once ethereal souls slowly solidified, as if they had become a real person.
[You bring them home, and they will send you home. This is a two-way bridge between people.]
[Congratulations, candidate Guan Si, on unlocking the hidden answer: Mutual Aid.]
Xiao Yu said, “Go now!”
Guan Si looked at them and said, “Thank you.”
If Guan Si hadn’t gone the extra mile to have Pei Su and He Zhu take Xiao Yu and Xiao Yan’s bodies away, he would never have gained their help. This exam would have been a certain death sentence.
Only by facing death can one cheat death.
The skull bone umbrella spun rapidly in the air. The still-intact barrier held off all the nurses’ attacks, shielding Guan Si as he made his way toward Room 103.
Guan Si’s complexion grew worse and worse, his entire body barely able to stay upright.
<Ahhhh, they’re about to clear it! Guan Si, keep going, ahhhh!>
<Oh my god, I’ve watched the asylum exam so many times and I’ve never seen the “Mutual Aid” achievement. I had no idea this exam could be cleared this way.>
<The head nurse is coming!!! No, ahhhh.>
Just as Guan Si was about to step into Room 103 and return to the secret passage, a roar came from behind him, the head nurse had broken free and caught up.
In the blink of an eye, the head nurse was right in front of Guan Si. She gripped a scalpel and stabbed it viciously into his barrier.
With a sharp crack, the barrier shattered into countless fragments, turning into white light in the air and vanishing completely.
Guan Si had no strength left. His vision grew blurry, and his mind went hazy as a scene surfaced before him.
In the image, someone broke through his barrier, shoved him backward with force, and he fell into the vermilion gate behind him. The gate closed in an instant, sealing him inside completely.
Ignoring the wound on his leg, he scrambled forward in panic, pounding on the door and shouting at the top of his lungs: “No, no, please, let me out, let me out.”
Guan Si shouted over and over, tears streaming down his cheeks. “Please, no…”
…
Inside Room 103.
The head nurse gripped her scalpel tightly and attacked again. The strengthened head nurse was no longer something an ordinary person could withstand her speed was like a flash of lightning.
〈It’s over, it’s over, it’s over.〉
〈See, I told you, this exam is nearly impossible to pass with three people. Even if there’s a hidden achievement, so what? We’re still going to die.〉
〈Wuwuwu, I just started stanning 77 and 44, nooo wuwuwuwu, are my new faves really gone just like that?〉
The blade traced a blur of an arc through the air. The head nurse’s hands trembled, yet the force gripping the knife never wavered fast, precise, and ruthless as it drove straight toward Guan Si’s brow.
The next second.
The person before her opened their eyes, revealing a sharp, piercing gaze. The blade stopped steadily just before his forehead, a pair of slender hands gripping the white steel, preventing the scalpel from advancing even a fraction further.
Blood dripped down the blade, falling drop by drop onto the floor, crisp and loud in the empty, silent room.
Qi Dengzui met her gaze, his tone casual and unhurried: “Head nurse, where is your daughter?”
〈Holy crap ahhhhh, Qi Shen is back!〉
〈Damn, that’s awesome, the show effect is off the charts!〉
〈Qi Shen, just give the word, and we’ll immediately rally behind you as the new god of the academy. I won’t allow anyone to defy you!〉
The head nurse’s expression froze, and the strength in her hand suddenly weakened.
She stared with hollow, vacant eyes, murmuring to herself: “My… my daughter, where is she.”
〈? What daughter? The head nurse has a daughter?〉
〈Was there this plot point earlier?〉
〈I don’t think it was mentioned.〉
Qi Dengzui continued: “Let me guess, is your daughter Xiao Yu, or Xiao Yan?”
When they first arrived at the asylum, in room 101, the head nurse had seen Guan Si dressed as a woman while delivering medication, and she had been unexpectedly gentle and natural in demeanor. From that moment, Qi Dengzui suspected the head nurse’s identity was not simple.
Her movements were softer than most people’s, nothing like how she treated ordinary patients.
The patient in 101 must have something special about them, something that allowed the already-conditioned head nurse to resist the erosion of the drugs and return to normal.
The only difference between Patient No. 1 and the other patients was appearance, or rather, a false gender Patient No. 1 had a cross-dressing habit and often appeared in women’s clothing. It was very likely that in the head nurse’s eyes, Patient No. 1 was a woman.
So the reason for the head nurse’s preferential treatment of “her” wasn’t hard to guess.
Hearing Qi Dengzui’s words, the head nurse released her grip, and the scalpel fell into the pool of blood on the floor, droplets splattering onto her clothes.
Tears of blood slowly streamed from the head nurse’s eyes. “Xiao Yu… where are you?”
There was no panic on Qi Dengzui’s face. He wiped the bloodstains from his hand, his movements slow and deliberate, like a refined and elegant young nobleman. “She’s trapped in the asylum.”
“Trapped in the asylum?”
The head nurse repeated, her expression suddenly twisting again. “No! My Xiao Yu cannot be trapped in the asylum. She can’t be trapped here like me.”
Tears of blood rolled down the head nurse’s face.
“That bastard sent me to the asylum for some mistress. He wanted to trap me here for life. He wouldn’t tell our daughter where I was. I… I can’t see my daughter.”
As if drained of all strength, her legs buckled and she knelt, her expression dazed and lost. Between ragged breaths, she choked out: “My daughter, so brilliant, she got into the best university, a bright future ahead of her. How could she, how could she be trapped in an asylum like me?”
She still remembered that year when she was at work, and Xiao Yu called her, holding up her admission letter, waving it in front of the camera with a smile: “Mom, guess what this is?”
The camera focused, and the head nurse read the words on the letter, her eyes filled with surprise. “Xiao Yu, you got in?”
Xiao Yu smiled sweetly at her mother and said, “Mom, I can go to the same school as her now.”
The head nurse was stunned, then her expression softened into a helpless smile. She knew how hard it had been for Xiao Yu, given her previous grades, to get into that university. She couldn’t bear to make her daughter unhappy, but she was genuinely worried.
“You like her that much? She’s a girl, you know. What if one day she stops liking you and gets married? What will you do then? Sweetheart, you need to think this through.”
Xiao Yu rested her chin on her hand and said, “Mom, Xiao Yan isn’t like that. She comes over to our house all the time, don’t you know what kind of person she is? Mom, don’t worry. Xiao Yan and I will take care of you together in your old age.”
The head nurse sighed. “Alright, alright, you said it. I’ll be waiting.”
In that era when no one understood Xiao Yu and Xiao Yan, as Xiao Yu’s mother, she gave these two girls the greatest respect. Even with all her worries, facing the two children she had watched grow up, she couldn’t bring herself to say a harsh word.
“I can take her away,” Qi Dengzui said.
He didn’t tell the head nurse that her daughter was already dead that five years ago, she had been trapped in the secret passage of room 103 and starved to death.
His gaze sharpened. “Move aside.”
The head nurse crawled on her knees to Qi Dengzui’s feet and said, “You must take my daughter away, my daughter… she can’t be trapped here. I beg you.”
At this moment, it seemed everyone had forgotten that the woman kneeling on the ground, begging desperately for her daughter, was one of the bosses of this examination ground.
“Take care.” Qi Dengzui stepped into the secret passage. “Stay safe.”
After the examination ground closed, he didn’t know where this pitiful woman would go. That farewell was all he could offer her.
On the other side, Pei Su and He Zhu rushed out with the key as well. The three exchanged a glance, no time for questions, and sprinted together toward the entrance of the asylum.
With a clang, the lock opened.
Once out of danger, Qi Dengzui’s expression darkened ominously. Words were on the tip of his tongue, but he held them back.
The gate was locked again.
Liu Shan stood inside, alone, his tall figure silhouetted. He gazed at the outside, a hint of longing in his eyes, which after a moment turned into resignation.
The iron-barred gate was like a true “prison,” forever separating Liu Shan from them on two sides.
Liu Shan turned and walked away, his figure melting into the night.
The entire asylum was under his control, he knew the stories of Xiao Yu, Xiao Yan, and even the head nurse.
He didn’t regret it; he was just a little tired.
So he willingly stayed here, awaiting judgment.
[Congratulations, examinee, for unlocking the hidden solution: revealing the truth of Xiao Yu and Xiao Yan’s deaths to Liu Shan.]
Pei Su said, “After I got the key, he stopped attacking me. But I was afraid he was tricking me, so I didn’t dare linger and ran.”
Now it seemed Liu Shan truly hadn’t wanted to kill him.
Liu Shan was a deeply contradictory man. He yearned to heal his patients and harbored kindness, yet he lost himself on the path to goodness, becoming a ruthless killer who stopped at nothing.
But he wasn’t entirely evil either he had let Xiao Yu and Xiao Yan go.
In the end, he couldn’t fully be a villain, nor could he be a good man.
He was trapped between good and evil.
Qi Dengzui recalled the examination question:
[The asylum, which has buried countless patients, once again welcomes four mental patients. The patients here are mad or foolish, trapped in this “prison.”]
Yes, this asylum had trapped too many people.
It trapped the old director, unable to let go of family bonds.
It trapped the doctor Liu Shan, whose obsession had become a sickness.
It trapped Xiao Yu and Xiao Yan, who loved each other.
It trapped the head nurse, who loved her daughter so deeply she became a monster.
It had even nearly trapped them.
The asylum buried not just patients, but the lives of far too many.
“Escaping the asylum” was both a physical escape and a spiritual liberation.
[Congratulations, examinees Qi Dengzui, Guan Si, Pei Su, and He Zhu, for solving the final question and escaping the asylum.]
Qi Dengzui handed over the report records that Guan Si had swiped before leaving the intensive care unit.
[Congratulations, examinees Qi Dengzui and Guan Si, for taking the human experiment report records, exposing the asylum’s sins to the public, and successfully completing the bonus question.]
[Now calculating each examinee’s answer sheet score for this examination.]
Pei Su nudged Qi Dengzui’s shoulder and said, “Want to head to the freshman registration hall together later?”
Qi Dengzui said, “You go ahead. I have something to do.”
Pei Su asked, puzzled, “What? Isn’t the exam over?”
Qi Dengzui’s voice was intriguing. “Settling a score.”
…
[Key item of “Escape the Asylum” White Porcelain Scented Vase. Congratulations, examinee Qi Dengzui, for unlocking your destined weapon ?]
〈What the hell, why isn’t the weapon showing?〉
〈First time seeing this, I’m shook.〉
〈Shouldn’t the real question be why Qi Dengzui got the weapon?〉
〈Seriously, the person above is making me cringe. Pei Su has the long whip, He Zhu has the puppet threads, Guan Si has the skeleton bone umbrella, the only one missing a weapon is Qi Dengzui, right? Of course it goes to him.〉
〈So we’re just assuming Guan Si has a weapon? He’s Qi Dengzui’s sub-personality, why does he get one? And this weapon is clearly already evolved, its power is honestly ridiculous.〉
〈So curious. Anyone going to the freshman hall to stalk them?〉
〈They’re about to leave the exam ground. Let’s go, let’s go find them.〉
[Score settlement for this examination: Qi Dengzui and Guan Si, both 95 points; Pei Su and He Zhu, both 90 points.]
[Congratulations, examinees Qi Dengzui, Guan Si, He Zhu, and Pei Su, for leveling up from Study Slacker LV.5 to Ordinary Joe LV.4.]
[Examination concluded. Now heading to the freshman registration hall.]
Qi Dengzui opened his eyes again, surrounded by a sea of people. A sign reading “Freshman Registration Hall” stood before him.
A robot rotated its head 180 degrees, its voice utterly flat: “Welcome, new students, to the Supernatural Academy. Distributing student IDs now… Student IDs and backpacks have been issued to newcomers.”
[Examinee Name: Qi Dengzui
Examinee Level: Ordinary Joe LV.4
Examinee Score: 95
Examinee Rank: Unranked]
[Examinee Name: Guan Si
Examinee Level: Ordinary Joe LV.4
Examinee Score: 95
Examinee Rank: Unranked]
Before Qi Dengzui could examine it closely, a figure suddenly appeared, blocking his view.
He looked up and saw before him a man with captivating peach-blossom eyes, the corners slightly upturned, carrying a casual hint of a smile, with a natural air of charm and elegance in his brow.
The man wore a red robe, and though his face was unfamiliar, he inexplicably gave Qi Dengzui a sense of familiarity.
This man curled his lips into a smile and said, “Pretty one, want to join my team?”
Qi Dengzui looked up and asked, “How many people are on your team?”
The man replied without changing his expression, “One.”
Qi Dengzui: “Why should I join your team?”
The man said in a light tone, “Because you’re good-looking.”
“Scram.” Qi Dengzui was concise, turning to enter the freshman orientation hall, but the man in red blocked him again, unwilling to give up, and recommended himself: “Even though our team only has me, I can take on a hundred alone. I’ll definitely have your back.”
Qi Dengzui raised an eyebrow and threw a punch at his face.
Unexpectedly, the man in red didn’t get angry. Instead, he touched his face as if savoring the moment and muttered to himself, “Hiss, this style, feels a bit familiar.”
“Wait…”
“Holy crap, Qi Dengzui?!”
The man in red widened his eyes, hardly believing it: “Aren’t you the Iron-Armed Warrior, a hulking eight-foot giant?”
Qi Dengzui: “…”
Qi Dengzui: “Are you sick?”
The man in red hastily said, “How come you don’t recognize me? I’m Pei Su!”
Qi Dengzui let out a cold laugh: “No one cares.”
Pei Su’s skin was thicker than a city wall: “Big beauty Qi, I just had a slight misunderstanding about you. Don’t be mad.”
It wasn’t his fault for having a stereotype every freshman’s first exam was just too surreal, with all kinds of appearances.
So when he saw Qi Dengzui in the exam, even though he looked perfectly ordinary, Pei Su’s mind naturally filled in the image of a muscular, reassuringly strong man under that shell. He never expected Qi Dengzui’s true form to be a stunning beauty who fit his aesthetic perfectly.
Qi Dengzui said, “Alright, I’m heading to the freshman orientation hall first.”
Pei Su said, “I’ll walk you ”
Someone behind him grabbed his collar. Pei Su turned around and saw a man with sharp brows and bright eyes, a fierce aura between his brows, like a mafia boss coming to collect a debt.
The man said coldly, “Pei Su, come with me.”
Pei Su looked him up and down and asked, “Why do you look like a grim reaper? The outfit you wore last time we met was pretty nice.”
He Zhu said, “Come help me pack my things. I’m joining your team.”
Pei Su said, “Who wants you?”
He made a gesture with his hand: “No one cares.”
He Zhu knew his attitude was a bit rude and tried to soften his stiff tone: “My stuff is in the dorm. Help me grab it, and I’ll join your team.”
Pei Su: ?
He shot a suspicious glance, not understanding why He Zhu had suddenly changed his attitude toward him. They’d only just met, why was he so eager to join his team?
Still, since he was willing to come and was strong enough, Pei Su had no reason to refuse.
He snorted coldly: “That’s more like it. Let’s go.”
After walking a few steps with He Zhu, he suddenly remembered something and turned back to say to Qi Dengzui, “Big beauty Qi, remember to come to my team! Oh, and my dorm password is 123456 use that to get into my dorm.”
Qi Dengzui: “…”
With that password, how many people must be bothering him every day?