My organs are too abstract.

"Was it dried by that stuff?"

"It's very similar to its modus operandi, but intelligence indicates it's only an abnormal-level calamity. How could it possibly form a disaster zone? The intelligence department shouldn't make such a basic mistake."

Pei Yan's heart tightened, and she quickly asked, "What exactly is this 'thing' you're talking about?"

"A vengeful infant is a kind of mental anomaly-level calamity," Zhou Wenyu explained in a low voice. "It is accustomed to entering people's dreams, where it devours the victim's internal organs before bursting out of the body. But this thing only exists on the mental level and cannot act in reality."

"That's right." Li Chuan continued, "Abnormal-level calamities are unlikely to cause real harm. Just like vengeful infants, they only erode a small part of the victim's mind through nightmares, at most causing a serious illness, but they can't appear in the real world."

Pei Yan was puzzled: "So, the danger of an abnormal-level calamity isn't actually that great? Then why do we need to come and deal with it?"

Although she had only been with the Bureau of Sickness Management for a short time, she knew that the bureau was short-staffed. It was unlikely that they would send two senior staff members to handle an abnormal disaster, even if it was just to train newcomers.

Li Chuan slowly shook his head: "Theoretically, that's true, but calamities are not static; they evolve."

"Evolution?" Pei Yan was taken aback upon hearing this, her face full of surprise.

"That's right, such cases are rare, but they do exist." Li Chuan nodded, his tone suddenly becoming more serious. "Abnormal-level calamities have no behavioral patterns and act entirely on instinct. However, recent intelligence indicates that this vengeful infant's feeding behavior is beginning to show signs of periodicity."

He paused, his gaze growing increasingly grave: "This means it's transforming into a minor ailment. Once the pattern solidifies completely, it won't just be as simple as having nightmares or falling ill; it will completely devour a person's spirit, leaving only a lifeless shell."

Pei Yan was startled: "So it has successfully evolved?"

"No, it has only just begun to show periodic patterns. It is still far from forming a real killing mechanism, let alone rewriting reality and creating ruins." Zhou Wenyu shook his head. "Moreover, vengeful infants are spiritual beings. Even if they successfully evolve, they will only exist on the spiritual level and cannot appear in reality."

As he finished speaking, his gaze fell heavily on the corpse at his feet. The rest of his sentence remained unspoken, yet it was already understood by everyone.

Pei Yan instantly understood his unspoken meaning, and a chill ran down her spine. The way the corpses died perfectly matched the characteristics of the vengeful infant's crimes, but the vengeful infant shouldn't exist in reality. So who was responsible for this massacre?

"Many people in the bureau lack effective methods to deal with mental calamities, which is why we brought you in to handle them—your abilities are just right." Zhou Wenyu shook his head. "I didn't expect it to seem to have entered reality. Strange..."

He frowned in thought, when out of the corner of his eye he suddenly noticed something in the corpse's pocket.

He took it out and saw that it was a badly worn campus card. It had probably been used for a long time, and the portrait printed on the campus card was a bit blurry. He could only see the college, student number and name on the side.

Pei Yan took it and glanced at it, confirming, "They are students at our school. Judging from their student ID numbers, they should be third-year students."

"If he hadn't wandered into this abandoned school building, he wouldn't have ended up like this." Zhou Wenyu shook his head as he looked at the unrecognizable corpse.

Stop lamenting, let's keep going.

Li Chuan interrupted him, gesturing for the two to follow, his eyes scanning the closed classroom doors on both sides warily: "Check every classroom carefully, beware of any sneak attacks."

"clear."

Zhou Wenyu and Pei Yan followed closely behind, examining each room. When they passed a wall adorned with portraits of famous people, Pei Yan suddenly stopped, her voice tense: "Brother Li, Brother Zhou, look at the eyes in these portraits... don't they seem a little strange?"

The two immediately leaned forward for a look and, sure enough, discovered something was wrong.

The eyes of all the portraits are blank, either blurred into a phantom or a smudge, appearing even more eerie in the dim light.

Li Chuan had never been to this building before, and immediately asked, "Weren't these portraits different when you came to class before?"

"Definitely not, everything was normal back then." Pei Yan shook her head.

Li Chuan kept this unusual detail in mind and nodded, saying, "Let's get going. If you discover anything amiss later, let me know immediately."

"Okay, Brother Li."

The group carefully explored the first floor and encountered no danger. Upon reaching the stairwell, Li Chuan gazed at the deep darkness above that swallowed up all light and said in a deep voice, "Go upstairs."

Pei Yan followed closely behind him. This was the first time she had ever stepped into such a strange place. The gruesome sight of the corpses on the first floor lingered in her mind, leaving her with lingering fear.

"Click—"

Her footsteps on the stairs were barely audible, but they were amplified in the deathly silence of the stairwell, each step striking her taut nerves with a heavy thud.

The eerie and oppressive atmosphere made her a little nervous, and all sorts of terrifying images uncontrollably surfaced in her mind, but she forcibly suppressed them.

"Don't be afraid, Pei Yan."

She silently encouraged herself, but just as she followed Li Chuan onto the second-floor platform, a series of soft noises suddenly reached her ears.

At first, there was a faint rustling sound, but it quickly became more and more intense, like countless pieces of dry sandpaper rubbing against the ground, converging into an unsettling rustling sound that spread wildly through the empty corridor.

Pei Yan froze, startled: "That voice sounds like...!"

"It's a snake, be careful!" Li Chuan shouted in a low voice, but his tone remained calm.

Pei Yan's heart tightened, and she stared intently into the depths of darkness. Countless black shadows writhed wildly on the ground, and countless venomous snakes intertwined and converged into a multicolored torrent, their scarlet tongues flicking in and out rapidly, their piercing hissing sounds rising and falling, rushing towards the three of them like a tidal wave.

"It looks like just an ordinary snake. Xiao Yan, use fire!"

Li Chuan quickly gave the order, but received no response for a long time. When he turned around, he saw Pei Yan standing there, pale-faced and trembling slightly. She was obviously frightened.

"Xiao Yan, snap out of it!" he raised his voice. "Burn them!"

"...Yes!" Pei Yan snapped back to her senses, took a deep breath to suppress her fear, mustered her strength, and raised her hand to aim at the swarm of snakes.

A tiny spark flew from her fingertip. At first, the spark was as small as a firefly, but in an instant, it expanded wildly and transformed into a bluish-black line of fire that shot straight toward the surging swarm of snakes.

"laugh--!"

The flames exploded the moment they touched the snakes, the stench of burning flesh and the venomous snakes' shrill cries filling the corridor instantly. The bluish-black flames seemed to possess a mind of their own, greedily devouring all life. In just a few seconds, the once-fierce horde of snakes was reduced to puddles of black ash on the ground.

"This ability is really convenient," Zhou Wenyu couldn't help but praise. "If it were me and Brother Li doing this, I don't know how much more trouble it would have taken."

"No, that's not true. Brother Li and Brother Zhou are much better than me." Pei Yan quickly waved her hand, her tone full of shame. "I'm sorry, Brother Li. I was bitten by a snake when I was a child, and I'm especially afraid of these things, so I didn't react just now. I will never do it again next time."

Li Chuan softened his tone and gently comforted her, "It's alright. This is your first time encountering this situation, and you've already done a great job."

"That's right, don't take it to heart," Zhou Wenyu agreed with a smile. "You're doing much better than I used to. If it were me in the past, I would have been too scared to move when I saw that corpse downstairs."

He walked to the ashes and gently poked them with his toe: "Your fire is still the most powerful. It can burn not only the body and the spirit, but also burn quickly and cleanly. Ordinary flames can't do that so efficiently."

Heart fire—this is Pei Yan's ailment.

Depending on her mood, different effects can occur, affecting both the physical and mental aspects. Furthermore, based on the assessment of the patient's abilities, there may be other changes in the future.

This is why the Sick Management Bureau sent two people to take care of her—not only to make it easier to deal with the vengeful infant, but also because her potential is great enough.

Li Chuan frowned, his mind filled with doubt: "Why would ordinary snakes appear in the ruins of the vengeful infant? This makes no sense at all."

Logically speaking, all the anomalies within the disaster ruins should be closely related to the core calamity, and there shouldn't be any other unrelated things appearing.

"Who knows? This place is getting more and more eerie." Zhou Wenyu's expression also became serious.

"Keep moving forward, stay alert. The commotion we just made might have attracted some vengeful spirits."

Perhaps the snakes had taken over this area on the second floor, as the rest of the path was not dangerous. However, when she reached a wall, Pei Yan suddenly stopped, pointing at it with a puzzled expression: "Strange... I remember this was supposed to be a storage room, how did it turn into a wall?"

"Could it be that you've misremembered?" Li Chuan asked, frowning.

"No way," Pei Yan said confidently. "I used to have classes on this floor all the time, I definitely won't be mistaken." As she spoke, she led the two to a classroom around the corner. "I used to have classes in this classroom. On the wall by the window over there, there's a rabbit I drew, look..."

Pei Yan raised her hand to point it out to the two of them, but suddenly froze—the familiar wall was completely empty, without even a single line.

"That's impossible," Pei Yan said incredulously as she looked at the house number. "It's 227. I can't be wrong."

Seeing that she was a little flustered, Zhou Wenyu comforted her in a low voice, "Don't worry, we believe in you."

Li Chuan nodded: "Perhaps something has changed in this building."

He stood there for a moment, pondered, and then, without lingering any longer, led the two quickly to the third floor.

As soon as they stepped onto the third-floor stairs, Li Chuan immediately raised his hand to signal the two to be quiet. Pei Yan and Zhou Wenyu understood and tacitly slowed their steps. The scene before them made them gasp instantly.

Several corpses lay scattered in the corridor, their deaths mirroring those of the one on the first floor—all with their abdomens ripped open, a gruesome sight.

Zhou Wenyu was the last to go upstairs. As he was intently observing the surroundings, Pei Yan suddenly tugged at his sleeve and pointed to a peculiar corpse in front of him.

"Um?"

Zhou Wenyu looked in the direction she pointed, and his pupils contracted slightly.

Unlike other corpses lying on their backs, this body was lying face down on the ground, and on the abdomen of the body, a bluish-black, shriveled hand, shaped like an infant's, was stretched out straight out, motionless, exuding an indescribable eeriness.

"A vengeful infant!"

Zhou Wenyu immediately recognized what it was, but then Li Chuan gave him a signal to retreat, and the three of them quickly tiptoed back to the corner on the second floor.

Pei Yan lowered her voice and asked nervously, "That's the vengeful infant?"

"That's right, the hand was bluish-black and withered, exactly as described in the file." Li Chuan frowned, full of confusion. "But how exactly did it break free from the shackles of the dream and come into reality?"

Zhou Wenyu didn't dwell on that question and quickly asked, "Is it currently in hibernation?"

"It should be. The vengeful infant has developed a periodic feeding routine. After eating its fill, it will rest for an hour before waking up to hunt again. Judging from this, it just finished eating not long ago," Li Chuan nodded in agreement.

Zhou Wenyu's eyes lit up: "Brother Li, why don't we take advantage of it while it's still sleeping and pull off a heist?"

"Can."

After a moment's thought, Li Chuan decided it was feasible. Although this disaster site was a bit strange, and the vengeful infant was not quite the same as described in the intelligence, cleaning up the source of the calamity was indeed the best course of action.

He was about to make arrangements when he noticed Pei Yan staring blankly at the wall of the classroom they had just left, her eyes unfocused.

"What's wrong?" Li Chuan asked in confusion, and following her gaze, he was suddenly stunned.

A simple hand-drawn rabbit suddenly appeared out of nowhere on the previously empty wall.

The rabbit's lips curled up in an innocent smile, looking incredibly cute. Despite its smile, a chill suddenly ran down the spines of the group.

There was nothing there before, so how did a painting appear after I turned around?

Pei Yan stared at the rabbit for a long time before confirming, "This is the rabbit I drew, there's no mistake."

"What on earth is going on..." Zhou Wenyu muttered to himself, "There was nothing just a moment ago..."

The three looked at each other and fell silent. They quickly turned around and checked the area, but found nothing and had to return to where they started.

Li Chuan stared intently for a moment with a solemn expression, then made a decisive decision: "Let's not worry about that for now, dealing with the vengeful infant is the most important thing."

"That's right!" Zhou Wenyu also realized. "We need to act quickly, because we don't know how long it will be before it eats again."

The three of them said no more and, led by Li Chuan, quickly headed towards the stairs. As they walked, Zhou Wenyu muttered to himself, "Hopefully it just finished eating not long ago. I'm actually a little worried that we'll run into it waking up as soon as we go up..."

Before he could finish speaking, Li Chuan suddenly stopped at the top of the stairs and sighed helplessly, "Xiao Zhou, you really are a jinx."

Zhou Wenyu was taken aback and looked up.

At the corner of the stairs between the second and third floors, a withered, ugly, bluish-black infant lay on the cold stair railing. Its head was tilted slightly, and its pitch-black eyes, devoid of any white, were curiously scrutinizing the three people.

Zhou Wenyu's lips twitched, and he muttered under his breath, "...Damn it."