Chapter Twenty New Clues

  The old man chatted with Director Liu for a while before getting into the topic. The old man asked, "What's this person's situation?"

  Director Liu said, "Actually, we keep patients' information strictly confidential. I also sought his opinion before arranging this meeting. To be honest, we have not yet confirmed whether this person is mentally ill."

  The old man said: "Not diagnosed, why?"

  "Because his illness is very special," said Director Liu.

  Su Yu asked on one side: "Liu BoBo, is there something special?"

  Director Liu smiled and said: "His subjective and objective worlds are very unified, his self-awareness is basically intact, and there is no organic disease."

  Su Wei said: "It's too profound, listening to you say that he should be very normal."

  Director Liu said: "However, he has a serious delusional disorder. He says many things that we can't understand and accept. Based on my years of clinical experience, I think he should have delusions. Logically, it should be just a general mental illness, but in fact, his situation has lasted for more than half a year now, so we really can't diagnose his condition yet."

  The old man said: "Alright, don't ask too much, you'll know when you see each other."

  We were led to a normal consultation room outside the ward, and Director Liu went to the ward to find that patient. Taking this opportunity, I asked the old man: "What's the situation with this person?"

  The old man shook his head and said: "I don't know the specific situation either. I sent a photo we took together to Old Liu, and he said that some of the things this person usually says are similar to what's going on up here, so they used the photo to test the patient, and as a result, the patient asked to see the person who took the photo. Old Liu and his team also have confidentiality principles, so they didn't tell me anything. All the content can only be asked by us ourselves, and we'll see if he's willing to tell us."

  "Wah, they took the initiative to find us, it's quite interesting."

  The patient was brought in, looking over thirty years old and about 1.8 meters tall. From his appearance, it was impossible to tell that he was a new patient. His robust physique suggested that he exercised regularly. Director Liu led him into the consultation room, introduced us briefly, and sat down beside him, allowing the old man and the patient to face each other directly.

  That man looked at us and said: "Have you been to Shennongjia?"

  We were stunned for a moment, and didn't expect this guy to get into the topic so quickly. The old man said: "No."

  He said: "I've never been there, so where did you take those photos?"

  Su Wei said: "Hey, how did it become you asking us instead? It's clearly our turn to ask you."

  Director Liu waved his hand at her, indicating not to stimulate the patient like that. The man saw Director Liu's action and said: "Don't be so careful, I've already said that I'm actually not sick, it's just that you don't understand."

  Director Liu rushed towards him with an awkward smile, not saying a word. The man turned his head to Old Man and said: "Oh, I forgot to introduce myself, my name is Wang Shengjun, I'm a professional donkey friend."

  The old man said: "Hello, I'm Su Zhenglong, and I've come mainly to ask you some questions."

  Wang Shengjun smiled and said: "You first tell me, where did those photos of yours come from."

  The old man scratched his head, looking at Director Liu, implying: What's wrong with this guy? Director Liu seemed to understand and said, "I've probably introduced him to you all before. All his indicators are normal, he just has delusions."

  Wang Shengjun said angrily: "I've told you, that's not a fantasy, it's something I saw with my own eyes."

  "Hey, calm down, don't get agitated. To be honest, I'd rather believe what you saw is real and not just your imagination, because the things we've seen while taking these photos far exceed a normal person's understanding."

  Wang Shengjun slowly regained his composure and said, "Alright, I wanted to see you for two reasons. On the one hand, I want an explanation for what I've seen. On the other hand, I want you to prove to the hospital that I'm not hallucinating."

  The old man said: "In this regard, we do our best to explain, because some things we don't necessarily understand either. When it comes to proving this to the hospital, we can only offer our own suggestions, after all, we are not professional medical personnel and cannot be responsible for patients."

  Wang Shengjun thought for half a day and said: "You're right too, okay, ask whatever questions you have."

  The old man said: "Can you roughly say what you've seen?"

  Wang Shengjun became visibly excited and exclaimed: "I've seen a historic discovery, you know?"

  "How did you find out?" asked the old man.

  Wang Shengjun recalled: "It was seven months ago, I and several donkey friends went to the Shennongjia for wilderness survival training. We entered the deep mountains and dense forests of Shennongjia in an adventurous state. For the first few days, nothing happened. That day, when I alone ventured into the depths of the forest, I entered a very strange place."

  The old man said: "How did you get in? And how strange is that other party?"

  Wang Shengjun shook his head and said: "I don't know how I got in, I almost mysteriously entered that place, it's a minefield, yes, it's a minefield."

  Wen Long said: "Lei District, it won't be a military base, will it? Even if it is a military base, there shouldn't be a minefield."

  Wang Shengjun gave a dissatisfied glance at Wen Long and continued: "It's not a minefield, it's heavenly thunder, the kind that strikes from the sky."

  Wu Feng said: "If it thunders in the sky, how can it be called a thunderstorm area?"

  Wang Shengjun said: "You can't imagine, but that's the thunder zone. I saw a purple lightning bolt striking an umbrella-shaped building in the center of the sky, and then those lightning bolts scattered from the building to all directions, falling to the ground, forming a huge semicircle, yes, a semicircle."

  I feel like there's something in my mind that seems familiar, so I asked: "Can you describe the building that looks like a mushroom?"

  Wang Shengjun looked at me strangely and said, "You're very interesting. You're not interested in that strange scene, but you're interested in that building. But you really asked the right question, because over there, that building is the most special one."

  My premonition tells me that my feeling is right. As expected, Wang Shengjun continued: "That building looks like a mushroom, to be more precise, it looks like a shiitake mushroom, it has a semi-circular top, and the top is very big. When I first saw it, I thought it was an alien spaceship. However, it's obvious that it can't fly because it's connected by a pillar, this pillar... how should I put it?" He paused again, seemingly thinking of what adjective to use to describe those things.

  He thought for a moment and then said: "That's not a pillar, that's a person. At least I think so, he should be a human or maybe some kind of monster."

  My cold sweat had all come down, and I was basically certain of my idea, but I still didn't say anything, only asking: "What kind of person or monster is it? Can you describe it?"

  Wang Shengjun looked at my expression, as if he wanted to see through me, and then said: "That monster, a creature with the upper body of a human and the lower body of a snake."

  The old man turned his head to look at Su Yi, and Su Yi immediately opened her small backpack, took out a stack of photos, found the one with Fuxi and Nüwa, and handed it to Wang Shengjun, saying: "Take a look, is this what that monster looks like?"

  Wang Shengjun took it and looked at it, saying: "It's almost the same, but not these two. That monster has a distinctive feature, its hands are raised, holding that dome, and there seems to be something on its arms, it's a bit far away, can't see clearly, like two large iron plates. Its lower body is not like this snake shape, should say it's two snakes, each of his legs is a snake body. Coiled down, then standing on a...

  I picked up where he left off, enunciating each word carefully: "Standing on a rectangular table."

  Wang Shengjun looked at me and said: "How did you know?"

  Everyone looked at me, I reckon my face must have been quite unsightly then, as I confirmed the existence of that thing. I took a few deep breaths to calm myself down and faced Wang Shengjun's inquiring gaze, saying: "What you saw is the Absolute Array Heaven and Earth Tower."

  "Jue Zhen Tian Di Ta?" Wang Shengjun said in surprise: "What is that thing?"

  I shook my head and said, "It's hard to explain in a short while. All I can say is that you're lucky to have seen it with your own eyes. I couldn't even imagine that such a thing really exists in this world." Actually, there were some other things I didn't say at the time, mainly because I was afraid of scaring everyone.

  The old man knew I had some things that were inconvenient to say, so he asked: "What else did you see?"

  Wang Shengjun didn't answer directly, smiling and saying: "It's great chatting with you guys, at least you don't think I'm talking nonsense." As he spoke, he glanced at Director Liu.

  Director Liu rushed towards him with a smile and said: "Don't look at me, you say these things, you yourself say, who would believe them."

  Wang Shengjun sighed and said, "Well, never mind, let's not mention anything else. Actually, that day I didn't walk over there, I just took a look from afar. Do you know what was under my feet at that place? What was it?"

  We shook our heads together, this was purely a simple coordination to let him continue. Sure enough, he said with great interest: "They're all bones, I've seen them, human and animal, but they're all bones. I got scared, I really got scared, I had a rubber stick in my hand at the time, it's for self-defense, you know, I've practiced kickboxing for a few years, generally two or three people aren't my opponents."

  "It's obvious."

  Wang Shengjun looked at him and said, "You should also be an expert. You should know that in such an environment, under such circumstances, I was really scared, but curiosity drove me to walk towards that square pedestal. Do you know how big that square pedestal is? I estimate it's at least a thousand meters long and as high as a two-story building."

  Su Yu retorted: "Why is there only length and height, but no width?"

  Wang Shengjun lowered his voice and said: "I can't see it, from my side, I can only see the length and height, looking far away, it seems that I can still see a very large door, I am very curious, curiosity overcomes fear, I walk towards that door, walking slowly."

  Director Liu said on the side, "Didn't you have no past? How come you're going that way now?" I felt that his purpose in asking this question should be to probe into the illness, because we were completely attracted by Wang Shengjun's expression and words, and didn't think of the loopholes in his words at all.

  The exciting atmosphere that had just been created was suddenly gone, thanks to Director Liu's question. Wang Shengjun sighed and said, "Director Liu, I finally managed to create some atmosphere, but you ruined it with one sentence."

  We stifled our laughter and looked at Wang Shengjun's sighing appearance. Su Yi asked, "Alright, did you go in the end?"

  Wang Shengjun stopped pretending and said straightforwardly, "No, I wanted to go in, but I was attacked after just a few steps." As he spoke, he rolled up the sleeve of his hospital gown, revealing three clear scars on his right arm, as if they had been cut by a knife.

  Wen Long took a closer look and said: "It should have been cut quite deeply at the time, otherwise it wouldn't be like this after half a year. What was used to cut it?"

  Wang Shengjun shook his head and said, "I don't know. I didn't get a clear look at the thing. After I was attacked, my rubber baton fell off. At the time, I had no weapon on me and was very scared, so I could only choose to run away. The thing moved extremely fast. As I ran, my back was hit twice, but when I entered the thunderstorm area, it stopped chasing me."

  "Didn't you see what it looked like at all?" said Wen Long.

  Wang Shengjun shook his head and said: "I didn't see it clearly at all, I just remember that it was probably less than 0.1 meters in size, fast, and seemed to have a tail."

  Then we asked some more questions, all of which were not very important. Finally, the old man asked about the approximate location where he entered this place and then signaled Director Liu to leave. Director Liu sent Wang Shengjun back to his ward, and we sat in Director Liu's office sorting out the intelligence we had just obtained.

  Director Liu came back after a while and asked us: "You've chatted with him for a bit, do you think what he said is true?"

  "I said: 'In other respects I don't dare say, but his description of that building should be correct, without falsehood.'"

  The old man also said: "From the situation of talking with him, what he said should be true. How, are you going to take our words as evidence?"

  Director Liu smiled and said: "How is it possible? You are not doctors, but your words can only serve as a reference."

  After some small talk, we bid farewell to Director Liu and returned to the institute. The old man asked us to wait for him in the conference room and then rushed off to report the results to Uncle Wu.

  Su Yi finally had some free time, and said to me: "Oh right, you mentioned something about the Absolute Array Heaven and Earth Tower in the hospital. From your expression back then, it seemed like you didn't finish what you were saying."

  "Let me make it clear," I said, "that's the ultimate formation - the Heavenly Tower. It's best not to mess with that kind of thing. Honestly, just being able to build something like that is a miracle in itself."

  Wen Long also showed interest and walked over to say: "What's going on? Tell me about it." Wu Feng also gathered around, ready to listen.

  I scratched my head and said, "Where to start? I should have mentioned it before. Formations are divided into dynamic and static ones. Static formations can be further divided into Heaven and Earth formations and mechanical formations. The Hundred Eyes Heavenly Connection Formation we visited last time is a type of mechanical formation, while this Heaven and Earth Pagoda is called the Ultimate Formation because it's a Heaven and Earth formation."