PD -Chapter 156 Successfully Collecting the Soul

“What did they say to you?” I looked at Tingting and asked.

“They kept repeating a string of numbers. It sounded like 0027.” Tingting brushed back her somewhat disheveled hair and replied.

I thought about it for a moment but still had no idea what the number could mean. Then my mind drifted to Old Que’s lover…

I pulled out the photocopied photograph and handed it to Tingting.

“Among those ghosts just now, was she there?”

Taking the photo, Tingting studied it under the flashlight for quite a while. Yet she still seemed uncertain and shook her head.

“There wasn’t any light back then. It was hard to make out each of their faces clearly, so… I can’t recognize her.”

I sighed and shook my head.

“That’s alright.”

After a moment’s thought, I turned to Li Zi.

“Your earlier feeling wasn’t wrong. The ghosts here really don’t seem to have any intention of harming us. It feels like they’ve been trying to tell every person who entered this place something for many years now. Unfortunately, no one has been able to stay calm enough in the face of fear to listen to what they were saying.”

Li Zi frowned and muttered, “With the way they look and how bizarre they act, is that really what you’d call communicating properly? We’re probably the only ones brave and composed enough to even try. Anyone else would be scared half to death. Who’d have the presence of mind to listen to what they’re saying?”

I shook my head.

“Maybe they genuinely wanted to communicate. It’s just that… the mental illnesses they suffered from in life, combined with the effects of things like electroshock therapy and invasive procedures…Their minds became chaotic. And after death, their souls remained just as confused and fragmented. That’s why all those eerie scenes occurred.”

Li Zi thought about it for a while and nodded, apparently finding my deduction reasonable.

“But then what exactly does 0027 mean?”

“It sounds like some kind of identification number,” I said after a moment’s thought. “A patient number perhaps. Or maybe… a room number.”

“But what room number starts with a zero?” Li Zi shook his head.

“I remember now!”

Tingting’s boyfriend suddenly shouted.

All of us turned toward him.

Instead of explaining immediately, he swept his flashlight around the area and walked a short distance down the corridor.

From a pile of old junk, he picked up a signboard and brought it back to us.

I took it and shone my flashlight on it.

Written in traditional Chinese characters was a room number:

0012.

“The rooms in this basement are numbered starting with zeros!” I exclaimed in realization, immediately turning my flashlight toward the deeper parts of the basement.

“Li Zi, take the two of them outside first. I’m going to find out what secret Room 0027 is hiding!”

Li Zi nodded.

Now that we knew the ghosts weren’t hostile, he seemed considerably braver.

After reminding me to be careful, he led the other two out of the basement and toward the hospital exit.

As for me, I turned around and headed deeper into the corridor, searching room by room for Room 0027.

The basement was very different from the buildings above ground.

The air was damp, and moss covered both the walls and the floor.

Many room-number plaques had long since disappeared. Even for those that remained, I often had to wipe them clean before I could read them.

I searched one room after another.

Logically, the room numbers should increase as they went farther inward.

After finding a room whose plaque still read 0018, I continued searching sequentially.

But eventually I discovered that the rooms only went up to 0026.

There was no Room 0027.

I searched back and forth countless times without finding it.

In the end, I even forced open every door to inspect the rooms one by one, but still found nothing.

My thoughts drifted back to what that security guard had told us during the hotpot dinner.

His partner had supposedly mentioned a hidden door inside the basement boiler room.

Yet I hadn’t even found a boiler room here.

Sweat began forming on my forehead from anxiety.

Standing in the corridor, I swept my flashlight around, trying to calm myself and think the entire matter through.

The security guard who claimed there was a hidden door in the boiler room had committed suicide shortly after coming out.

That meant his mind had already become unstable upon leaving the basement—or perhaps he’d been controlled by something.

Naturally, his words couldn’t be trusted completely.

So perhaps there really was a hidden door somewhere in this basement.

Just not necessarily inside the boiler room.

After some thought, I turned my attention to the corridor walls.

Picking up a stick from the floor, I began tapping along the walls inch by inch, trying to locate a hollow section that might conceal a secret chamber.

Buzz… buzz…

At that moment, my flashlight flickered twice as if there was a loose connection.

Frowning, I smacked it a couple of times.

But when I looked up again, there was suddenly a figure standing in front of me.

It was a woman.

Her face was hidden behind long hair.

She wore a white qipao and was barefoot.

More importantly, her feet weren’t touching the ground at all.

She was clearly one of the patients who had died here years ago.

“What are you trying to tell me?”

Aside from a brief moment of surprise, I wasn’t particularly frightened.

The woman’s head swayed unconsciously from side to side, like someone suffering spasms after electroshock treatment.

Slowly, she took a step forward.

Every movement looked incredibly stiff, as though even the smallest action required immense effort.

After some thought, I formed a hand seal.

Drawing out my spiritual energy, I created a small Spirit-Gathering Formation where she stood, supplying her with some energy.

Gradually, the woman’s convulsions lessened.

Finally, she lifted her head.

Revealing her face.

“Shen Fang?”

I froze.

Though her complexion was deathly pale, her facial features were identical to the woman in the photocopied photograph Old Que had given me.

The woman slowly raised her head and looked at me.

She took a few steps closer.

When I called out her name, she appeared confused.

Her lips moved slightly.

But no words came out.

All I heard were vague tones and fragments of sounds, still impossible to understand.

She seemed to realize I couldn’t comprehend her.

Slowly, she raised her arm and pointed toward the last room at the end of the corridor.

After a brief pause, I turned and walked into that room.

The moment I entered, Shen Fang’s spirit followed instantly.

Standing in the far-right corner, she pointed toward an old filing cabinet.

I immediately went over to inspect it.

With considerable effort, I dragged the cabinet aside.

A narrow hidden doorway instantly appeared behind it.

Turning around, I looked at Shen Fang.

After a moment’s thought, I took out the Soul-Collecting Talisman hanging from my chest.

“I’ll take you back to see Old Que.”

At the mention of Old Que’s name, Shen Fang was momentarily stunned.

Then tears began flowing from her eyes.

She nodded at me.

Transforming into a streak of white light, she voluntarily entered my Soul-Collecting Talisman.

I let out a sigh.

Just as I was about to put the talisman away and crawl through the hidden doorway, I discovered something startling.

The moment I entered, I realized that this was the boiler room that Security Guard Zhou and his colleague Xiao Xu had visited.

But according to Zhou’s account, the boiler room was the very first place he reached after entering the basement.

So why had I only found it through a secret passage?

Could this actually be… a parallel space?