After being poisoned by mushrooms, all the strange creatures became fascinated by me.

Jiang Hui threw a half-dead newcomer over, and Qiu Wanting grabbed his head and dragged him out.

A strange creature with three heads and six arms stubbornly approached, only to be pierced through by Qiu Wanting with a pair of scissors.

Amidst her busy schedule, Jiang Hui glanced at the gleaming curved surgical scissors. Curved scissors, with their sharp and thin blades, are mostly used in deep surgeries. They can accurately penetrate deep into the muscle tissue to precisely cut human tissue, and are also frequently used in dissection.

"What level of item is this?" Jiang Hui returned after another round of wandering around and couldn't help but ask, "Its power is ridiculously high. Is this something that a low-ranking NPC like Doctor Jiang could possibly raise?"

"Oh, this," Qiu Wanting clicked her tongue and shook her head, "the parasites in this hospital might have stolen the core item from the dungeon and given it to me."

Jiang Hui let out a surprised "heh," and was about to marvel at Dr. Jiang's generosity when she saw Qiu Wanting across from her suddenly change her expression.

Jiang Hui suddenly turned around.

Blood mist filled the air, and the bookshelves, which were originally as solid as copper walls and iron walls, collapsed and fell like trees no thicker than a bowl encountering a herd of migrating elephants.

In the center of the maze, a huge, bloated chimera rose up from the ground in a bizarre manner.

the other side.

"A core item for the dungeon...?"

Old Yan finally opened his squinting eyelids, his cloudy old eyes scrutinizing Sun Ping.

Something that demands an exorbitant amount.

There are only two or three core items in a dungeon. They not only play a crucial role in the dungeon, but also become excellent items that are two or three levels higher than the dungeon level after being taken out of the dungeon.

However, the core item is also a treasure born from the collective efforts of all the strange elements in the entire dungeon. A dungeon that loses its core item will suffer a double collapse in both physical condition and rating. Even losing just one item will be a major blow.

Sun Ping smiled calmly.

"Old Yan, I, Sun, am not one of those fools who are easily deceived by a promotional video and cannot distinguish between the big and small bosses in the bizarre dungeon."

"Is it more important to choose between an item that can be re-cultivated, or to replace Gu Xiaoying as the dungeon boss? Surely the Dean can make a choice?"

After a moment of silence, Old Yan finally nodded.

"However, the night is long. Before I give you anything, watch a game of gambling with me first."

Tang Li is running.

The white floor tiles of the corridor stretched endlessly into the distance, with one dark door after another passing by on either side. Footsteps startled the slumbering eerie creatures, but before they could wriggle to see her, the boundless shadows had already pierced through them.

Ever since that mushroom hotpot, the world in Tang Li's eyes has become so ambiguous and difficult to distinguish between reality and illusion.

Just as she didn't know if the strange yet ordinary scene before her was real, the once modern floor tiles had turned into old cement, dragonfly corpses were hidden in the corners of the stairs, and slender light tubes flickered intermittently. It was as if she had come to the depths of a hospital.

At the end of the corridor was a rusty iron door with a tin sign nailed to it, its edges curled up: Archives.

There's another archive room?

The iron door to the archives was ajar, and faint music could be heard coming from inside, like the sound of an old-fashioned radio.

Tang Li approached silently and, through the crack in the door, saw a dimly lit room that looked like an old photograph.

An elderly man sitting in a rocking chair and a middle-aged man sitting on a bench were sitting very close together, with a strange-looking vessel between them.

"Who do you think will win?" Old Yan asked in his aged voice.

Between the two was a basin, from which chirping sounds emanated incessantly—the intense chirping of insects.

The basin was covered with a layer of damp red sand, and on the red sand, two insect shadows were fighting fiercely.

One was a crab-shell green, with prominent horns and two long whiskers like the pheasant feathers on a general's head, its body light and agile, moving erratically; the other was a bronze-headed, iron-backed creature, large in size, with thick forelimbs, relentlessly chasing after the crab-shell green.

They opened their mandibles, raised their arms, chirped and leaped. They were two crickets.

Sun Ping's expression shifted between light and dark: "They're just two insects, what does it matter who wins or loses?"

He was worried that Lao Yan was deliberately stalling for time. At this point, he no longer had the power to stop the Hundred Ghosts Night Parade, so once it was triggered and the Dean's strength increased dramatically, he would completely lose his bargaining chip with the Dean.

What he wanted, even the simplest files within Lao Yan's purview, he didn't produce.

Regardless, Sun Ping thought that he should at least coax him into taking out one of the items.

"Aren't you interested?" Old Yan noticed Sun Ping was distracted and said disappointedly, "Look at this crab-shell green, doesn't it look familiar?"

"Don't you think so?" he rambled on. "Look at this? This little dead bug's head is pink, can't you even recognize that?"

In the bloody labyrinth of the archives.

Only the pink hair of the head remained, its unclosed eyes gazing up at the sky.

It's as if, even in death, he still wants to ask his boss why he sent him into hell with such fighting spirit, only to lock the door to his own escape.

Jiang Hui, dressed in black and covered in blood, was panting heavily. In her hand, however, was not the knife she always carried, but a long spear that required both hands to wield. The spearhead had a bright red tassel as vivid as blood, while the shaft was as white as silk, without a single drop of blood on it.

Her pupils contracted to a single point as if exposed to intense light, a halo of shimmering gold surrounding the brown area. Her body also underwent a transformation, her speed and strength surpassing human limits.

The skill [Red Tassel] is currently active.

Jiang Hui twisted her body to avoid the strange punch thrown by the chimera.

In the old archives room.

Tang Li walked in silently, paying no attention to Lao Yan and Sun Ping. She seemed mesmerized, watching the two insects locked in fierce combat.

Upon closer inspection, the red sand was littered with the scattered corpses of insects, their triangular heads, limbs, and elytra lying on the ground.

Among the dead insects, there were even more live insects, smaller than crickets, of unknown species, wriggling menacingly, resembling both centipedes and earthworms, giving one goosebumps just looking at them.

"Are you also interested in cricket fighting?" Old Yan asked Tang Li eagerly.

"I think this big guy will win," Tang Li said. Their conversation flowed so naturally, as if they were destined to meet here. "Want to take a bet?"

Before Lao Yan could speak, Sun Ping, unwilling to be ignored, interjected, his sinister triangular eyes fixed on Tang Li: "Where are Qiu Wanting and Jiang Hui?"

"Who knows?" Tang Li replied nonchalantly, not even glancing at Sun Ping, and continued talking to Lao Yan, "I really think Big Guy—that Copperhead and Iron Back—will win."

Sun Ping sneered and said behind her, "Then I'll bet on the other one, Crab Shell Green wins."

As they exchanged words, Old Yan, who had been keeping his eyelids droopy, suddenly became excited.

His aged face seemed to regain its youthful glow, revealing an expression that was almost radiant.

So that's how it is. You really are a gambling addict obsessed with cricket fighting.

"Let's start betting!" Old Yan exclaimed excitedly, gesturing wildly and spitting as he spoke. "Let's start betting! You guys start betting!"

bet?

If it's gambling, there has to be some kind of prize.

Tang Li and Sun Ping simultaneously had a slight thought.

"--OK."