A tangible fear enveloped him, panic overwhelming all his emotions. David Thompson, acting on instinct, pulled Anna Harris and lunged into his mother's embrace.

But as soon as he touched his mother, her body burst like a bubble, and the mother who had always been reliable and strong, who could shield him from any storm, vanished as well.

"Huowang..." David Thompson's body trembled violently. He whipped his head around, watching helplessly as Anna Harris's body completely faded away before his eyes. The only one he ever loved was now gone, too.

At this moment, all the positive and beautiful things David Thompson cared about disappeared, leaving him only with despair, oppression, and pain.

The pristine white walls of the hospital and everything around him receded rapidly like the ebbing tide, and he found himself once again in the dim cave among the mountains.

With bloodshot eyes and veins bulging on his forehead, David Thompson wanted to scream, to howl, to pour out all the despair and suffering in his heart.

But he couldn't. His throat was tightly blocked by the black taishui, making it impossible to utter a sound. All the despair and pain rebounded, forcing him to bear it all alone.

Watching his disciple kneeling on the ground, trembling and dry heaving, Daniel Thompson clasped his hands behind his back, shook his head, and walked toward the door of the medicine room.

"Tsk tsk tsk tsk, acting this crazy and you say you don't have hysteria? Out of everyone in the medicine room, you're the sickest. Did you think I just picked a random person as the medicinal guide before?"

"Alright, the hysteria is gone. Now you can work properly. Remember, Qingfeng Hall doesn't keep idle people. Come get your medicine from me on the first of every month."

With that, Daniel Thompson's other disciples left with him, leaving only David Thompson on the ground and the other medicinal guides around the room.

The medicinal guides, all with strange appearances and various congenital or acquired illnesses, glanced at each other, not knowing what to do for a moment.

After about half a stick of incense's time, the black taishui in David Thompson's mouth finally slid down, and his heart-wrenching cries echoed endlessly in the cave.

"Why!! Why have I come to this godforsaken place, and this illness still won't let me go!!"

Chapter 10: Steamed Bun

David Thompson curled up into a ball, like an unborn baby, motionless and withdrawn in a corner of the medicine room.

The other medicinal guides didn't dare and didn't want to disturb him, quietly going about their own work.

Night fell without anyone noticing. The oil lamps on the walls all went out, and darkness covered David Thompson like a thick quilt.

He lay there like a corpse, completely unresponsive to the changes in the outside world.

At the third watch of the night, a faint candlelight appeared at the door, illuminating the nearby shelves and dispelling the darkness covering David Thompson.

Timid Lily White came over with a bundle of dry grass, carefully spreading it over David Thompson.

Then she took a coarse grain steamed bun from her pocket and placed it by his mouth.

Seeing that David Thompson still didn't move, she pursed her lips and gently nudged him. "Senior brother, eat something. You haven't eaten all day."

David Thompson's eyes were open, staring numbly at the cold ground for hours without blinking, not moving even slightly toward Lily White.

Lily White wanted to leave, but after hesitating for a moment, she finally took out a jade pendant from her pocket and placed it by David Thompson's hand.

"Senior brother, this is yours. You should take it back."

This time, David Thompson finally reacted. He looked at the item and realized it was the round jade pendant he had stolen from the previous Xuanyang.

David Thompson remembered giving it to Anna Harris to exchange for money. At the thought of Anna Harris, his battered heart began to bleed again. "How did this end up with you?"

"You gave it to me, senior brother. I said I didn't want it, but you insisted."

David Thompson slowly sat up, examining the cloud-patterned round jade pendant in the dim candlelight.

At this moment, he had never felt everything to be so real. But in this reality, there was only real despair and real pain.

If he could choose, he would much rather stay lost in that beautiful illusion forever.

Seeing David Thompson respond, Lily White softly asked, "Senior brother, where did master catch you from? I'm from Liangguo, where are you from?"

David Thompson was dazed for a while, then shook his head in dejection. "I don't know."

He truly didn't know anymore. He did have memories of the past, but after what happened during the day, even David Thompson himself couldn't tell how much of those memories were real and how much were illusions.

Even here, he was still a madman, someone who couldn't distinguish reality from hallucination.

As he shook his head, David Thompson suddenly felt something odd on his head. He touched it and found his hair stuck together by some blood scabs—he had been injured before.

Seeing David Thompson touch his head, Lily White explained, "That was Senior Miller's doing."

David Thompson knew that this Senior Miller was the harelip fatty who had tried to assault Lily White earlier. "Where is that Wang guy?"

"You... you kicked him to death."

Hearing this, an image of Old Liu being kicked away in his hallucination flashed through David Thompson's mind. He lowered his head and smiled silently. He really was crazy enough.