Mastering the Sword Manual, sweeping across the globe

The same words slipped out again.

Li Guifang, who had also rushed to the bedside, anxiously trying to check her father's wrist, turned around in astonishment upon hearing her brother's inexplicable and bizarre words:

"I'm shameless; not a single word I utter is the truth."

The exact same words came out of her mouth fluently.

Li Guifang's expression froze, turning into the same look of shock and bewilderment as Li Jianguo's.

Wang Bin adjusted the glasses he had just picked up, frowned as he looked at his brother-in-law and sister-in-law behaving strangely, trying to rationally analyze this illogical scene:

"I'm shameless; not a single word I utter is the truth."

Wang Bin: "...?"

He was completely stunned. His mouth opened and closed repeatedly, trying to organize his thoughts as usual, but each time his throat vibrated, all that came to his lips was—

"I'm shameless; not a single word I utter is the truth."

"I'm shameless; not a single word I utter is the truth."

Zhao Dahai, who was huddled in the corner, was already terrified. Seeing this bizarre scene, his scalp tingled even more. He trembled, trying to distance himself from the situation:

"I'm shameless; not a single word I utter is the truth."

Zhao Dahai: "..."

The four of them looked at each other, and the only sounds in the ward were Li Fuquan's suppressed groans of pain, the alarm of the monitor, and their own uncontrollable, repetitive honesty.

Li Jianguo shook his head in horror, "I'm immoral, not a single word I uttered is the truth."

Tears welled up in Li Guifang's eyes as she frantically pointed to her mouth, crying, "I'm despicable! Not a single word from my mouth is the truth!"

Wang Bin's face turned pale. He was the relatively calmest of the four and realized that the problem might lie in the few things the young man had said from a distance.

He tried to communicate with gestures, pointing to Zhang Qiliang and then to his own throat and mouth.

Zhao Dahai was already slumped on the ground, his crotch slightly damp. He opened and closed his mouth in vain, uttering the same old lines.

In less than half a minute, the four of them were completely overwhelmed by fear.

They were horrified to discover that no matter what thoughts were swirling in their minds at that moment—anger, doubt, pleas for mercy, explanations, curses—the moment they opened their mouths, what inevitably flowed out was: "I'm despicable; not a single word from my mouth is the truth."

It was a stroke of genius, I suppose... A little while later, Li Jianguo frantically pulled out his phone, his fingers trembling so much he could barely hold it. He finally unlocked it and typed in his notes with trembling hands: "Is this some kind of demonic possession magic???"

Li Guifang also realized what was happening, and tearfully pulled out her phone to type: "What's going on! I can't speak... no, I can't speak anymore!?"

Wang Bin was relatively restrained, but his hands were shaking as he typed: "Brother...we were wrong, we admit our mistake, please be lenient."

After typing this line, Wang Bin turned his phone screen towards Zhang Qiliang and bowed deeply.

Inspired, Li Jianguo scrambled forward, practically shoving his phone at Zhang Qiliang's feet. The screen was filled with pleading: "Grandpa Immortal!! Ancestor!! I was a jerk! I deserve to die! Just ignore me! We'll pay for the medical expenses! We'll pay for them ourselves!!!"

“Sure,” Zhang Qiliang readily agreed, “I have no problem with that, as long as he nods.”

He was pointing at Chen Ming, of course.

All eyes, filled with endless terror, pleading, and despair, instantly focused on Chen Ming.

After the initial shock subsided, extremely complex emotions welled up in Chen Ming's heart.

Looking at these people who were so confident and scheming not long ago, plotting how to ruin his reputation and extract future benefits, he now looked like a quail with its tongue pulled out, only able to humbly beg for mercy through his phone screen, utterly pathetic.

Afraid?

Of course afraid.

The methods of this young man beside me have gone beyond what I can understand.

But... does it make you feel better?

Seeing Li Jianguo's terrified expression filled with typos, seeing Li Guifang's pathetic state with tears streaming down her face, seeing Wang Bin's trembling as he tried to remain calm, seeing Zhao Dahai's utterly broken and cowardly state...

Chen Ming's lips twitched slightly, almost uncontrollably.

He's stubborn and inflexible.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have stubbornly refused to back down when it was clearly easier to "admit responsibility," preferring to dry himself into a dried-up state at the intersection every day just to prove his innocence by saying "I didn't hit him."

"I dare not." Chen Ming shook his head. "If I take care of it now, it will become my problem later."

"Then there's nothing we can do." Zhang Qiliang shook his head regretfully, unable to offer any help.

After saying that, he stopped looking at anyone in the ward, turned around, and walked straight towards the door.

Chen Ming was stunned for a moment, then quickly followed.

As he passed by Zhao Dahai, who was slumped on the ground, he instinctively avoided him.

Zhao Dahai seemed to want to reach out and grab his trouser leg, but his arm fell limply halfway up. He just stared at him with his eyes full of extreme fear and pleading, and his mouth opened and closed, but what came out was still the same truth.

Zhang Qiliang opened the door and went out.

Chen Ming glanced back at the ward one last time—a frozen sculpture of fear—before stepping out of the room and gently closing the door behind him.

"Click".

The soft click of the door lock closing acted like a gate, separating two worlds.

……

Inside the door.

The silence lasted for about ten seconds.

Then, Li Jianguo was the first to jump up and lunge at the call bell on the wall by the bed, pressing it down with all his might.

At the same time, Li Jianguo's other hand trembled as he grabbed his phone, unlocked it, and typed rapidly in the family group chat: "Quick! Call a doctor!! Something's happened to Dad! Also, report it to the authorities! Report it to the authorities immediately!! A madman broke in and crippled Dad!!! We're at 312!!!"

Li Guifang also scrambled to her feet and dialed the police hotline.

The call was connected quickly...

Li Guifang opened her mouth and said, "I'm immoral. Not a single word I utter is the truth."

Li Guifang was sweating profusely and stamping her feet in frustration. She shoved the phone back into Wang Bin's hand, pointed at the screen, and gestured for him to come up with a solution.

Wang Bin's face was also deathly pale, but he remained relatively calm.

He first quickly checked Li Fuquan's condition—the old man had fallen into a semi-comatose state due to severe pain and fright, and the twisted angles of his limbs were shocking.

He took a deep breath, steadied his trembling hands, and first sent a message via WeChat to the doctor he had added when he was admitted to the hospital, explaining the ward number and that "the patient has suffered an unexplained violent attack, with severe injuries to his limbs, and requires emergency treatment."

Afterwards, a report was sent to the authorities via text message, detailing the location, the nature of the incident, and that the perpetrator had already left.

The three communicated via mobile phone. Although still shaken, their instinct for survival and their burning desire for revenge temporarily brought them together.

Only Zhao Dahai.

He slumped against the wall, watching the other three busy at work.

He wanted to make a phone call and ask for help.

However, as he shakily pulled out his phone, unlocked it, opened his contacts, and sent a 120 text message, his fingers involuntarily typed out a line: "I'm despicable; not a single word from my mouth is the truth."

He was stunned, deleted it, and tried again.

As I pressed my finger down, the same sentence still appeared on the screen.

He refused to believe it, exited the text messaging interface, and opened the notes app.

"I'm shameless, not a single word from my mouth is the truth. I'm shameless, not a single word from my mouth is the truth. I'm shameless, not a single word from my mouth is the truth..."

Cold sweat poured down Zhao Dahai's forehead like a waterfall.

He slammed his phone to the ground, looked around, and a few seconds later, as if grasping at a straw, Zhao Dahai saw a pen and a piece of scrap paper left behind by someone on the bedside table.

The pen tip trembled as it landed on the paper.

What he wrote down were still those seventeen words: "I am immoral, not a single word from my mouth is the truth."

He frantically crossed it out, wrote it again, and crossed it out again...

The paper was soon covered with messy handwriting and ink blots.

Each recognizable fragment is a different stroke of that sentence.

"Heh...heh..." Zhao Dahai let out a trapped beast-like whimper, and desperately raised his head to look at the other three.

The sound of hurried footsteps and carts being pushed could be heard in the corridor.

The doctor and nurses have arrived.

52 viewed

The chaos in the ward reached its peak when doctors and nurses rushed in.

"What's wrong with the patient?!" The doctor leading the team, a middle-aged man in his forties surnamed Sun, immediately frowned when he saw the bizarre twisting angles of Li Fuquan's limbs and the dangerous heart rate numbers on the monitor. "Prepare for emergency treatment! Notify the orthopedics and anesthesiology departments for consultation!"

The nurses, well-trained, surrounded him, checked his vital signs, and prepared for intravenous access. Meanwhile, some of them communicated with Li Jianguo and others to obtain his medical history and the details of what happened.

"Family members? What just happened? How did the patient get injured?" a young nurse quickly asked Li Jianguo, who was standing closest to her.

Li Jianguo opened his mouth, his face full of anxiety and sweat pouring down his face: "I'm shameless, not a single word I uttered is the truth."

The young nurse was taken aback: "Sir, what did you say?"

“I’m despicable. Not a single word I uttered is the truth.” Li Jianguo stamped his feet in frustration, pointing frantically at his father on the sickbed, then at his own mouth.

Li Guifang squeezed in, her eyes brimming with tears: "I'm despicable. Not a single word I uttered was the truth."

Wang Bin remained relatively calm. He stepped forward, took out his phone, and quickly typed: "Someone broke into the ward and violently attacked the patient. The patient originally had a fractured left lower leg, and now all four limbs have suffered new and serious injuries. The attacker left about two or three minutes ago. We...we are currently having some difficulty expressing ourselves."

After typing, Wang Bin held up his phone screen for the nurse and Dr. Sun to see.

While directing the rescue efforts, Dr. Sun glanced at his phone screen, his brow furrowed.

Language expression disorder?

The way these two family members were gesturing anxiously, yet could only repeat the same strange phrase over and over again, was indeed abnormal.

He quickly made several initial assessments.

aphasia?

This was the first thing Dr. Sun thought of, but he immediately dismissed it.

Not like.

Typical aphasia is the partial or complete loss of language comprehension or expression, such as difficulty finding words, grammatical errors, or the inability to utter meaningful words or sentences at all.

But they...

Looking at Li Jianguo and Li Guifang, who were anxious but clear-headed, able to understand instructions, and only able to output a fixed sentence when they spoke, it seemed more like some kind of... compulsive language output? Moreover, the content was highly consistent.

Hysteria? Collective consciousness disorder?

Dr. Sun shook his head again, his gaze sweeping over Zhao Dahai, who was slumped in the corner with his mouth moving silently, and then looking at Wang Bin, who was relatively calm and able to communicate by phone.

Four people simultaneously exhibited similar symptoms, but to varying degrees?

In the case of mass hysteria, it usually occurs in highly stressful and suggestible environments, and the symptoms are more varied, including limb abnormalities, convulsions, and fainting, and are not so uniform.

Moreover, these people were even able to clearly describe the events in writing?

By the time Dr. Sun realized this, he had already completed a quick examination of Li Fuquan's pupils and level of consciousness: the elderly man was in a semi-comatose state due to pain and fright.

"Put these aside for now, saving the patient is the top priority... Have you notified security? Have you reported it to the authorities?"

Wang Bin nodded quickly and typed on his phone, "I've already reported it to the authorities."

Dr. Sun stood up and said to the nurse, "Stabilize the patient first, then prepare to take him to the operating room. These family members..."

He glanced at the group of people acting strangely and said, "Keep an eye on them and wait for the express team to arrive. Also, notify the psychiatry and neurology departments; a consultation may be necessary."

"Doctor," a nurse whispered, pointing towards Zhao Dahai, "where is that person...?"

Everyone looked over and saw that the scrap paper in front of Zhao Dahai was covered with graffiti, and many of the characters had torn the paper because of the excessive force used.

Dr. Sun's brows furrowed even more.

This is completely beyond the scope of common emergencies.

“You…” Dr. Sun turned to Li Jianguo and Li Guifang, carefully choosing his words, “Have you taken any special medications? Or… have you been exposed to anything unusual?”

This inevitably raises suspicions about hallucinogens or psychoactive substances.

Li Jianguo shook his head rapidly, while Li Guifang waved her hand while crying.