Chapter 119: The Tree of Creation, A Home Within Dreams

Chapter 119: The Tree of Creation, A Home Within Dreams

As the light faded, Ji Yan and the Horse Player looked up, their eyes widening in shock.

The scene in the basement-level morgue was nothing like what they had imagined.

The floor, walls, and ceiling were cracked, with crimson, writhing flesh bursting through the concrete and steel, spreading across the entire corridor. Thick and thin blood vessels crawled over the flesh squeezing out from the gaps, resembling the tangled roots of an ancient tree, while every inch of the concrete and steel seemed like embedded soil.

The entire basement level looked like the inner cavity walls of some colossal Supernatural Creature!

“What’s the matter? Surprised, aren’t you?”

“Don’t you think… it’s beautiful?”

Their reactions brought a faint, satisfied smile to the Supernatural Hospital Director’s lips.

“It’s… beautiful?”

Ji Yan and the Horse Player couldn’t comprehend those words.

The Supernatural Hospital Director didn’t answer. Its face, carved like stone, twisted into a stiff, rare smile—like an artist beholding their greatest, irreplaceable masterpiece.

Holding its sleeping Daughter, it stepped into the writhing flesh coiled within the cracks of the walls and strode deeper into the corridor.

The Horse Player quickly followed.

Ji Yan, however, stared at the pulsating flesh and placed a hand on it, testing whether he could trigger his Talent to glean any information.

But there was no reaction.

Instead, the Blood-Stained Paper Figure hidden in his hair twitched.

Before Ji Yan could react, the figure suddenly darted out from his hair, paused on his shoulder for a moment, then vanished into a crack in the wall.

“???”

“Why did it just run off without a word?”

Ji Yan was stunned, left with no choice but to watch helplessly.

But then, realization struck him.

If the Blood-Stained Paper Figure reacted, didn’t that mean…

“Did your leg cramp up or something?”

The Horse Player glanced back at Ji Yan, who shook his head and pushed the thought aside for now, hurrying to catch up.

As they moved deeper down the corridor, the fleshy roots squeezing out from the walls grew more and more abundant, all converging toward a single room.

At the end of the passage stood a stainless steel door.

When the Supernatural Hospital Director pushed it open, they were met with a vast chamber. Inside, the source of the fleshy roots had piled up into a towering, grotesque tree.

Its roots were masses of compressed flesh, its trunk a tangle of thick and thin blood vessels, and its leaves—countless pale, stitched-together limbs, densely sewn onto the flesh, forming a horrifyingly “lush” spectacle.

Even more jarring was the way those countless limbs clawed wildly at the air, as if swaying in a spring breeze, their agonized wails rustling like leaves in the wind.

This was a tree built from thousands upon thousands of corpses!!

As the sight assaulted their eyes, Ji Yan and the Horse Player’s jaws dropped involuntarily.

“Let me guess… this is the Tree of Creation?”

The Horse Player muttered under his breath, adding quietly, “But where the hell is the ‘creation’ part?”

Ji Yan had also formed some abstract assumptions about the Tree of Creation beforehand, but seeing it in person still left him shaken.

This scene was more Lovecraftian than Lovecraft himself!

Which meant…

Those “recovered” patients had actually been brought here, disassembled, and pieced together into this tree?

He saw beneath those "limbs and lush leaves" clusters of bloody, tumor-like flesh balls hanging high in the air, their surfaces crawling with veins and blood vessels.

"Director, is this what you call medical research?" Ji Yan asked quietly.

"Indeed, isn’t it awe-inspiring and magnificent? Even you can’t remain calm, can you?"

"All patients ultimately find their perfect final home here. This is the perfect home every patient dreams of!"

The Supernatural Hospital Director’s facial muscles twitched, his eyeballs visibly trembling with excitement.

"This is the culmination of my lifelong efforts. Today, I will witness its final fruition."

"Home?" Ji Yan frowned slightly. "You mean those tumors?"

"Tumors? Goat Doctor, you should call them 'Fruits,'" the Supernatural Hospital Director retorted, his eyes slanting toward him.

"Once the Tree of Creation is fully activated, those patients will slumber eternally within it. Each Fruit will create a Dream World for them."

"In the Dream World, every patient will have the most perfect home. The dream will endlessly fulfill all the fantasies of its dreamer."

"Rather than letting them leave the Undead Hospital and face that polluted, brutal world where they slaughter each other, isn’t it better for them to stay here forever, immersed in a Dream World no different from reality?"

"This Medical Achievement—isn’t it magnificent?"

The Supernatural Hospital Director turned his face, staring at Ji Yan, his eyes shifting from excitement to madness.

After hearing this, both Ji Yan and the Horse Player couldn’t help but twitch at the corners of their mouths.

Damn!

What the hell is this—Infinite Tsukuyomi?!

Is this really right?

Just as the Supernatural Hospital Director revealed all the secrets of the Tree of Creation, the Main Plot panel popped up before their eyes.

"Ding! Congratulations, players! The Main Storyline progression has reached 75%!"

"Through your interaction with the Director, you have discovered the existence of the Instance, Tree of Creation. Next, you will need to assist the Director in completing the Mission to Save the Tree of Creation."

"A new Main Storyline Task has appeared."

The Horse Player’s expression shifted. "Could completing this Mission mean clearing the entire Instance?"

Even as he said it, he didn’t believe it himself.

Ji Yan, however, focused on the glaring word.

Save?

Why use that term?

According to the Supernatural Hospital Director, the Tree of Creation was created. What does "Save" imply?

Given the Dragon Player’s presence, Ji Yan remained highly vigilant toward every game panel that appeared at this critical moment.

He didn’t even fully trust the reward panel!

"As for the final Fruit… let my daughter bear it."

The Supernatural Hospital Director gently stroked the sleeping girl in his arms, his rough hand caressing her silky hair with surprising tenderness.

Stepping over the writhing, coiled flesh-and-blood Roots, the Supernatural Hospital Director walked toward the Tree of Creation, which loomed like a monstrous, clawing black tree.

Ji Yan’s eye twitched. "He’s even abandoning his own daughter? Has the Supernatural Hospital Director completely lost his mind?"

With each step, the Director became utterly absorbed in his interaction with his daughter.

"My child, I know… I’ve been an unworthy father. No, I don’t even deserve to be called one!"

"Your mother is dead, yet I still didn't devote enough care to you, instead pouring all my efforts into building this cold, lifeless hospital."

"Because of this, you fell ill, wounded by the filth of human hearts, completely shutting yourself away in your own inner world."

"Do you still hate me? I don’t know. But your father hates himself, and he will never forgive himself!"

"I owe you too much, and I can never repay it."

"The only thing I can do is let you live in that perfect home of your dreams, where there is a devoted father and the mother you miss most... They will love you without holding back."

"You will live forever in that blissful fantasy."

The Supernatural Hospital Director tightened his embrace around his daughter, as if reluctant to let go, as if trying to hold onto something one last time.

"As for the reality outside the dream, your father will stake his life to protect the Tree of Creation, guarding this happiness I’ve given you to make amends!"

Having said this, his footsteps halted.

The Supernatural Hospital Director finally pressed a gentle kiss to his daughter’s forehead, then slowly released her, placing Chu Mo on the crimson floor.

Soon, the floor cracked, and countless fleshy roots writhed out, stretching toward the girl’s delicate, slumbering form, gradually dragging her into the depths of the Tree of Creation.

Layer after layer of grotesque flesh peeled open like a monstrous, gaping maw, slowly devouring Chu Mo...

Ji Yan frowned as he watched it all unfold.

The Horse Player’s expression mirrored his disgust.

Muttering under his breath, he spat out: "The lines are touching, the plot is melodramatic, and the visuals are downright disgusting..."