Chapter 47: The Gate of White Bones

To be honest, Xia Shou was now somewhat at a loss.

He had expected that, in the end, he would face a final, most daunting challenge much like reaching the last boss room in a game—a bizarre, sinister supernatural doctor waiting for him, accompanied by a tormented patient on the brink of losing their sanity.

But now, although the hospital room was indeed strange, its atmosphere was unexpectedly warm and tender.

Though the half-human, half-bird creature kept touching the girl’s belly, the girl showed no sign of pain throughout. The healer’s movements were gentle, fluid, even graceful.

Its method of treating the girl on the bed bore a distinct tribal shamanistic, almost religious quality.

In one hand, it held Western surgical tools; in the other, it carried something akin to incense, filling the air with the pleasant scent of burning aromatic herbs. A white bone-carved bell, shaped like a spinning rattle, was rhythmically shaken in another hand.

What should they do in a moment like this?

Should they forcibly pull this monster away from the bedside?

Or strike it down from behind without hesitation?

Xia Shou met the girl’s unwavering gaze on the bed, who smiled and said, “I saw you in the garden. Could you please ask Idrisu to stop treating me? I think it’s been enough already.”

Indeed, from the first glance, Xia Shou had sensed this: the ghostly girl they saw was the very will of this child.

After a brief silence, Xia Shou said to Su Weiyu, “If you’re injured and can’t recover, I’ll stop it.”

Su Weiyu couldn’t be treated for her wounds, but Xia Shou still had the ability to staunch blood and regenerate. For such a high-risk matter, it was safer if he acted.

He took the keys from Su Weiyu’s hand and regained the ability to move.

Stepping forward, he grabbed Idrisu’s arm and tried to pull it away from the bedside.

Just as the diary described, Idrisu showed no resistance at all; its strength was weak, and Xia Shou easily pulled it away.

But the instant it left the patient, a flood of information surged into Xia Shou’s mind like a tidal wave.

It was a series of consequences, telling him how sinful and immoral it was to obstruct the treatment of a patient.

An overwhelming, irresistible guilt attacked Xia Shou, causing him to involuntarily stop pulling.

“Damn it!”

Abandoning the pull, Xia Shou seized the last shred of determination, grabbed the Tōji sword from beside Su Weiyu, and swung it directly at Idrisu’s back!

The blade sank into its body, feeling as if cutting through a massive lump of clay.

Idrisu’s back split open, revealing no organs inside, only a black, muddy substance.

This substance was unaffected by the slashes and slowly gathered back together after splitting.

The guilt intensified. Xia Shou hacked again and again, wildly cutting Idrisu to the ground, severing its limbs, chopping it into a black pulp.

The shadow beneath his feet seemed driven by some desire; chains made of colorful flames shot out, tightly binding Idrisu’s limbs and torso, dragging it toward the depths of the shadowy swamp.

But unlike the moment he sealed those keys earlier, this time Idrisu did not sink into the swamp. Instead, its struggle became fierce.

The once powerless body suddenly grew strong beyond measure.

A birdlike, yet not quite bird, shriek echoed from the avian skull atop its head, making the very air tremble.

The shadow beneath Xia Shou’s feet seemed to gain sentience, swirling relentlessly, attempting to cling to and envelop this frenzied, monstrous creature.

The floating entrails around them began bursting one by one, splattering blood everywhere.

“What’s happening?” Su Weiyu shouted in terror—this was clearly not part of the plan.

“I don’t know!” Xia Shou took a step back, distancing himself from his shadow.

Before him, Idrisu’s form suddenly swelled; its long human limbs sprouted sharp, black feathers. The smooth contours of its bird skull sharpened into a fierce, grotesque visage, resembling a giant raptor from ancient mythology.

“Eee-yaaa!” it screamed in rage, tearing viciously at the black mud of shadows ensnaring it with talon-like claws, its savage movements radiating brutal power.

Xia Shou began to worry whether the shadow could truly devour it; this was evidently Idrisu’s true form beneath the doctor’s guise.

His body felt as if filled with cement, slowly becoming immobile.

Just like the charred corpse that swallowed the Blood Demon House before, attempting to seal Idrisu was just too heavy a burden for the shadow.

Fortunately, after fierce struggles, Idrisu was finally suppressed by the swamp.

Then, a pure white door adorned with bird skull decorations slowly emerged from the pitch-black shadow swamp beneath Idrisu’s feet.

“Creak…”

The bone door opened; Idrisu let out an unwilling roar and fell inside.

The next moment, the door closed, and the hospital room fell into deathly silence.

Before Xia Shou appeared a line of text:

[Congratulations, you have sealed the Unsuckable.]

[Door: Idrisu]

[Description: None] (You know very little about it)

[Function: Though you cannot devour it, you have indeed imprisoned it. By paying the appropriate cost, it will respond to your needs.

Idrisu can remove any “disease” from a patient, curing them.

However, correspondingly, a living counterpart must endure that disease in their stead, suffering its torment over time.

Idrisu holds five keys, containing unfathomable power said to strip others of bodily control.

You have sealed Idrisu, so the keys no longer resist your possession.]

“Hmm? I can move!” Su Weiyu, who had lost sensation in her limbs, suddenly stood up from the ground.

“Yeah, the key’s effect has been lifted,” Xia Shou said calmly.

“You locked the other two with those chains too?”

“No, but those five keys are temporarily mine. I can control them.”

Xia Shou retrieved the two other sealed keys from his shadow; now he didn’t need to seal them to suppress their effects.

Though he hadn’t returned to that original house filled with countless doors.

But Xia Shou knew that now, among the many closed doors in that house, there was a new one called “Idrisu.”

The hospital room began to tremble, furniture and everything around started to distort like melting wax, reminiscent of Salvador Dalí’s painting The Persistence of Memory. All the furniture grew soft and limp, like slime.

“What’s going on?!” Xia Shou’s nerves, just relaxed moments ago, tightened once more.

“The domain is collapsing. But don’t worry, usually when a domain collapses, everything inside is returned to where it belongs. We just have to wait quietly here; most likely, we will be sent back to the original hospital,” Su Weiyu explained.

Xia Shou stood silently, watching as the surroundings became increasingly unreal.