My left and right hemispheres fight each other.

It was at this very moment that Chen Jing finally realized something he had long been aware of, but had temporarily put aside due to his inability to concentrate.

As for his becoming the doctor on the Bauhinia ship, it can be said that he seized a great opportunity.

He devised a clever scheme that allowed him to temporarily conceal himself while achieving his goal.

He improved his status, inquired about the past, and got to know the captain—everything pleased him.

Only one thing made him feel uneasy.

That is, there doesn't seem to be a single window in the medical room.

No, there wasn't a single window on the entire Bauhinia ship, at least not in any of the areas he traversed.

Perhaps there are some in the captain's cabin or the priest's room? But that's no longer important.

Without windows, one cannot be constantly vigilant about the outside world.

How then can we know when the "candle extinguishing prayer" will occur?

"Close your eyes and ears, be careful with your words and actions..." Chen Jing was startled. He was used to letting Chen Xin sleep while he kept watch, and he originally thought this was a huge advantage in the mission world. But he suddenly felt that he was about to be killed by this!

"Close your eyes and ears, be cautious in your words and actions. Such vague and ambiguous statements suggest that to ensure absolute safety, we must sleep and rest. But if that's the case, apart from places like the captain's cabin and the priest's quarters, no one knows when to sleep. Therefore, once we enter the Blessed Light Sea, nighttime will be a no-go zone for us!" Chen Jing's mind raced, and soon, he came up with an even more chilling conjecture.

"To be perfectly safe as soon as it gets dark is far too lenient, at least for unambitious travelers!"

Chen Jing immediately recalled every detail of what the travelers he had seen said and done.

"Everyone was terrified of the mission! Even Chen Muqing was extremely cautious."

"It seems something is bound to happen in the night, forcing the travelers to act only under the cover of darkness!"

Thinking about this, Chen Jing came to a conclusion, and his gaze toward the infirmary became even more focused.

He could clearly hear someone stepping on the entire passageway where the medical room was located, making that distinctive sound of the wooden planks soaked with moisture.

Moreover, that person was extremely cautious, making it impossible for them to have any good intentions.

"Judging from the voice, it's much lighter than the skinny boatswain. A woman?" Chen Jing compared it with his memories, roughly circling a few of the most likely beings among all the human figures he had glimpsed in the past.

"It's also possible that..."

The footsteps had already quietly reached the door of the infirmary, and hearing the slight creaking of the wooden planks, Chen Jing had already envisioned a scene in his mind.

The figure, whose appearance and build were indistinct, was standing on tiptoe in front of the infirmary door, perhaps eavesdropping, or perhaps spying using some unpredictable means.

"The soul departs for a stopover, the ghost comes to be invited..." Chen Jing murmured these two lines, pondering, "This should most likely be 'come,' right? Should I invite her in? No, it could also be 'stopover.'"

The thing lying in front of the door was very patient. Chen Jing's thoughts wandered several times and then came back to him many times, but the other party still did not move.

Until a certain moment, when Chen Jing was using one of his three senses to count to two thousand seconds, the guy suddenly started to groan strangely.

Moreover, it was accompanied by the sound of skin rubbing against the rough texture of the wooden door.

The floorboards creaked and groaned from the constantly shifting forces, and Chen Jing's expression changed: "So, it seems I have to respectfully invite her in?"

He pondered for a long time, but there were too few clues. There were far too many possible answers that could be derived from just a few riddles, and if he made the wrong choice, he might be doomed.

"Looks like the only option is to invite her in directly and take a gamble?" Chen Jing frowned, listening to the increasingly wild voice gradually turn into a low growl.

He pursed his thin lips, pushed open the hidden compartment of the infirmary, and tried to open the door.

But just as he touched the ground, a withered arm suddenly emerged from the black hole on his left, firmly stopping his advance.

Chen Jing turned around in confusion, and immediately heard a hoarse voice weakly say, "Don't go."

Chen Jing was caught in a dilemma. After leaving the dark room, the terrifying sound in his ears grew more intense. He turned his head slightly and saw that the wooden door of the infirmary had begun to twist and might collapse at any moment.

The voice hidden behind the door had turned into an extremely shrill scream.

Just as Chen Jing was about to make his decision without further hesitation, he suddenly let out a muffled groan and knelt on the ground.

It felt as if something had suddenly pierced his skull, causing his mind to churn violently.

The once-quiet cerebrospinal fluid seemed to be greatly stimulated, and began to tremble and surge wildly. A strong sense of crisis made Chen Jing feel cold all over.

Perhaps everything in his body is out of order, including the division of labor between cells, the operation within the nerves, and the exchange and reaction of various substances.

Chen Jing felt he was about to collapse, and the sea of ​​memories that had always been clear, cold, and frozen began to roar violently.

Is this the pain of the soul? Is this the tearing apart of memories? In short, this is not suffering that can be relieved by blocking the pain receptors.

Feeling a burning sensation all over his body, Chen Jing clearly realized that the old man's hand that had been holding his wrist had quietly left. His world suddenly felt empty, and he returned to absolute solitude.

But at that moment, amidst his distorted face and exploding body, a genuine, heartfelt laugh suddenly emerged.

The last time I laughed so heartily was after Chen Xin's brain was split open.

He twitched the corners of his mouth, feeling the world receding from him. The screams of the monster in front of the door not far from him gradually faded away, as if his surroundings had been vacuumed.

After an unknown amount of time, Chen Jing's body finally stopped trembling, and he collapsed to the ground, whereupon his will, which had not been completely extinguished, finally came to its senses.

What soaked the floor was no longer the chill of the deep sea, but his filthy sweat.

And just now, he was in so much pain that he curled up into a twisted shrimp shape, his body covered with tear marks from his unconscious fingernails.

"Compared to the torments I've endured over the years, this is nothing..." he sneered, or perhaps he was sighing? Lamenting?

In short, he fell asleep.

For the first time, I experienced a carefree and peaceful sleep.

……

Chen Xin and Chen Jing woke up together. Chen Xin felt her blurry vision, forced herself to shake off the languid drowsiness, and gently rubbed her eyes.

"Stop sleeping! Stop fucking sleeping!" The noise around me grew clearer and clearer, gradually becoming deafening.

Chen Xin woke up instantly. He opened his eyes wide, but his vision was still red and blurry.

"What's wrong?" Chen Xin realized that the person who shook and woke him up was Cao Hui.

"I didn't expect this taciturn guy to shout so loudly. How urgent must he be?" Chen Xin's mind, which had just recovered, was still sluggish as he thought.

"That's what we were going to ask you too." Chang Song, who was not far away, had a frighteningly dark expression.

"Why are these guys acting so strangely today?" Chen Xin was still surprised.

"Sigh, see for yourself." Ge Yan, standing to the side, covered his face and pointed to the side.

Chen Xin followed his finger and looked over, then his body froze.

He straightened up in disbelief, breathing heavily, staring intently at the horrifying scene as if confirming something.

The door to the infirmary was removed.

Perhaps it's because if it weren't done this way, no one would be able to open it.

Because there was a person pasted on its door panel.

A pale, bluish face was set against the top of the door, its eyes bulging out in a grimace of pain, the whites of its eyes rolling back, yet beneath those eyes, its dark purple lips wore a strange smile.

Her lower body was even more gruesome; her entire body, along with her clothes, was covered in paste on the door, smeared evenly, with juices flowing everywhere.

The face and skin were bloated and horribly disfigured, the exposed heart, lungs, liver and gallbladder were shriveled, and the bluish-green intestines were slippery and oozing everywhere.

All body tissues were compressed to an extremely flattened state, with viscous tissue fluid pooling beneath them.

What horrified Chen Xin the most was the horribly disfigured person before her...

It was Chen Muqing!

"This...this isn't a dream, is it?" Chen Xin murmured after a long while, as if waking from a dream.

"If so, then it's a nightmare we all had together," Ge Yan said with a wry smile.

"She is probably the strongest among us. According to Losweiser, she showed him that the power she revealed was enough to fight against a strong enemy with a combat ability index of at least 27 or 28." Chang Song exhaled a breath of turbid air and glanced at Losweiser, who was hiding by the door with only half of her face showing.

"Can one march really achieve this level of impact?" Ge Yan exclaimed, but when he looked back at the gruesome corpse, he fell silent.

"97%." Roseweiser suddenly spoke, drawing everyone's attention. Her face was pale, and she shrank back slightly before weakly saying, "To be precise, it's 97.8%. She told me that at the end of the last large-scale parade, her mission completion rate reached 97.8%. Later, she voluntarily participated in two smaller parades, both of which achieved a completion rate of 98%."

Cao Hui, Chang Song, and Ge Yan all changed their expressions.

"Anyone who dares to enter a small parade is someone with exceptional courage, ambition, and strength. There's no way she could die silently on this ship," Cao Hui said through gritted teeth.

"Silent and still?" Chen Jing frowned and muttered.

"So, why did she die in front of your door? Dr. Chen? What do you know?" Cao Hui was drawn in by Chen Jing's mutterings and pressed him for an answer.

"What time is it now?" Chen Jing stood up, quickly tidied his hair, and asked in return.

"Answer my question!" Cao Hui lost control of his emotions and immediately lunged forward, grabbing Chen Jing's hospital gown collar.

"Calm down." Chang Song stepped forward, reached out and grabbed Cao Hui by the neck, stopping him from making any further moves.

But Cao Hui's hands still wouldn't let go, gripping Chen Jing's collar tightly, his furious eyes like those of a ferocious beast ready to devour its prey.

"The fact that you can't even manage your own emotions is the inferiority of an emotional animal. Heh, according to common biological knowledge, easily angered beasts are often the most foolish and cowardly, because cowardice is the root of irritability." Chen Jing stared directly at the other person and gave a cold laugh.

"You fucking want to die?" Cao Hui suddenly exerted force and roared.

Unable to pull him away, Chang Song had no choice but to use his elbow to lock him in place, shouting, "Calm down, Cao Hui!"

Their collars were ripped open, and Chang Song and Cao Hui fell to the ground. Chen Jing only took two steps back before regaining his balance. He straightened his wrinkled clothes, watching the brawl between the breakers and the enraged fighters with amusement, and couldn't help but add fuel to the fire: "This is the difference between you and Chen Muqing. Do you see it? Cautious action and appropriate concessions are the rules of top predators. Only arrogant, conceited, and utterly insecure trash would ignite so easily."

"You should say less!" Chang Song's cheeks were red, clearly he was really angry.

"It's still early morning, far from noon, at least a third of the way through," Ge Yan replied to Chen Jing after watching the farce unfold for a long time without flinching.

"So you came looking for me after discovering Chen Muqing's disappearance?" Chen Jing nodded, then looked at Losweiser by the door: "When was the last time you saw Chen Muqing?"

"Before bed." Ge Yan shook his head.

Chen Jing's gaze made Roseweiser tremble even more violently, and she lowered her head, trying not to look at him.

Ge Yan noticed this, walked over, whispered a few words to Losweiser, and patted her on the shoulder.

Roseweiser finally spoke, glancing fearfully at Chen Jing: "Last night, I wanted to come to the infirmary to teach him a lesson... but Mu Qing found out and told me to go back. I had no choice but to obey, but she stayed in the passageway. I waited until midnight but she didn't come back. I thought she went to investigate something, but I didn't expect this..."

"I see." Disregarding the lesson from Losweiser, Chen Jing pondered for a moment, then looked at Ge Yan and said, "That's interesting."

"Last night, just as I was getting sleepy, I suddenly heard someone come to the infirmary."

"At the time, I thought someone was looking for me, so I went out of the hidden compartment. But the person was just a door away from me. No matter how much I called out to them, they didn't say a word. They just pressed themselves against the door and kept groping around."

"What?" Ge Yan put the scene described by Chen Jing into his own mind and immediately got goosebumps.

Panting heavily, Chang Song saw Cao Hui suddenly freeze and stop struggling, so he released his grip and sighed, "Strange."

"At the time, I guessed that what was in front of the door was definitely not a person. I started to suspect it was some kind of monster, or the ghost mentioned in that premonition of the parade," Chen Jing continued calmly.

"The soul departs for a resting place, and the ghost comes to be invited. At that time, my mind was in complete chaos. I didn't know whether this was a resting place or the ghost coming and I needed to invite it."

"Later, the guy behind the door seemed to realize something and started shouting and screaming wildly, even trying to damage the door. His sharp voice sounded like he was suffering some kind of great pain."

"I realized at that moment that if the other party wanted to come in, it probably wasn't a stopover. But the thought of having to respectfully invite this thing in seemed absurd, so I was stunned and at a loss for what to do, unable to make any decision."

"What did you say? That thing shouted and yelled? That's impossible!" Chang Song said with a solemn expression.

"That's right. Last night, I didn't hear anything except the sailors' snoring. I trust my ears. At such a short distance, without any soundproofing, I could definitely hear it." Ge Yan was very certain.

"That's the problem." Chen Jing stroked his chin, scanning the crowd: "That sound could definitely travel across most of the ship, loud enough to pierce my eardrums, so why do you all say that Chen Muqing died silently in front of my door?"

"And then?" Chang Song temporarily set aside this question and asked eagerly.

"Ever since that thing started screaming, my body has been getting increasingly unwell. I was feeling dizzy but in excruciating pain all over my body, which eventually made me faint. It wasn't until you came here and woke me up," Chen Jing recounted truthfully.

"You're lying!" Cao Hui shouted, his face full of terror.

Everyone looked at him, bewildered.

"Where's the evidence?" Chen Jing replied indifferently.

Cao Hui curled up on the ground, as if trying to shrink himself into a ball. His voice trembled as he pointed at Chen Xin: "There are three pirates in this infirmary. Why don't they know anything?"

Chang Song glanced at the three ragged pirates sitting in the corner watching the show, then looked back at Chen Xin: "The three of them really said they didn't hear anything and slept soundly until now."

Chen Jing never glanced elsewhere; he simply smiled and looked down at Cao Hui, who was trembling on the ground.

"And didn't you say that the captain and priest prefer quiet and dislike noise? If what you said last night was really true, the captain and priest wouldn't have remained completely silent!" Cao Hui spoke with increasing confidence, seemingly convinced of his own words, until finally he laughed confidently: "That's right, that's exactly it. Didn't expect that your casual remark back then would become such a huge flaw in your lie now! Tell me, what were your motives for lying about this?"

Chen Jing didn't argue; he just asked curiously, "You have so many questions, but I only have one."

"What exactly are you afraid of?"

Cao Hui's confident smile froze. He paused, awkwardly averting his gaze, and then became angry and embarrassed: "You're just a newbie, an ignorant fellow. You don't understand anything at all."

"The most frightening thing about the mission is not encountering an invincible enemy, but suffering from those strange and unpredictable things."

"Small, self-organized marches are the easiest to do, so few people are willing to organize them."

"This is a newbie's mission. How could such a thing exist in this world? Impossible! You're the one behind this!"

The more Chen Jing listened, the more disheartened he became: "Oh, it seems that the shadow left on you last time has indeed had a significant impact on you."

"It's your turn to answer my question!" Cao Hui gritted his teeth, but this time he held back.

"When did I agree to answer you?" Chen Jing sneered.

"You son of a bitch!"

"I don't know." Chen Jing stopped looking at the angry Cao Hui and ignored him, instead addressing Chang Song and Ge Yan:

"That's why I think this is the suspicious point in this matter."

"In my humble opinion, we shouldn't get bogged down in this kind of question that we can't even get to the bottom of right now."

"We should revisit Chen Muqing's proposal."

"We all better get a sense of impending march."

Chang Song's expression darkened.

"What's wrong, bro? It's come to this point, and you still haven't realized how serious the problem is?" Chen Jing asked, puzzled.

Chang Song gave a wry smile: "It's not that I'm stingy, but this premonition of the parade needs just too many starting points."

"What you may not know is that the price we pay for triggering a sense of impending a march increases with each large-scale march mission we undertake."

"Are you confident that you can silently kill Chen Muqing, or do you have a trump card to deal with that desperate situation?" Chen Jing asked coldly.

"Sigh." Chang Song sighed in bewilderment.

"I have a premonition of the parade," Ge Yan suddenly said, then smiled at Chen Xin, "I've only experienced one world, and it cost me very little."

"The premonition of the march gave me the following clue..."

His voice suddenly stopped.

"What's wrong?" Chen Jing asked him with concern.

Ge Yan spoke with great doubt and uncertainty: "Captain of the Bauhinia, King of the Green Ghosts, Master of the Red Sharks, Head of the Bauhinia Fleet, Pirate Admiral, Uncrowned King who sank an ironclad battleship, a legend known throughout the five oceans and nine seas."

Stop here.

"And then?" Chen Jing pressed.

"No...that's all." Ge Yan swallowed hard and stammered.

The atmosphere suddenly fell silent.

"My premonition about the parade is telling me..." Chang Song hesitated for a few seconds before finally relaxing and making his choice:

"Close your eyes when it gets dark; do not sleep at night."

"In the absence of light, one must be still; in the absence of knowledge, one must go forth."