Chapter Four: Heaven and Earth Turned Upside Down

The possibility of survival filled Mu You with exhilaration! Inside the operating room, chaos reigned.

“The Meridian Soulbreaker Worm! It's actually the Meridian Soulbreaker Worm! Can someone tell me what on earth is going on here? How did he become a test subject chosen by ‘Original Sin’?”

The chief surgeon had lost all composure, roaring in terror and stumbling backward. Within Mu You’s chest cavity, a blood-red centipede thrashed furiously at the approach of its host’s death, its body now over twice its previous size.

“We… we have no idea, he was barely clinging to life when we brought him in…” a trembling nurse explained in a hushed voice. They all knew too well what the emergence of the blood worm meant—this was a disaster.

“Treat him! Treat him, now! This kid cannot die, or none of us will escape this! Get on those rubber gloves—be careful—”

Before the surgeon could finish, a blood-curdling scream rang out. The nurse who had just spoken seized a scalpel and slashed at her own wrist in panic. There, beneath her pale veins, a smaller blood worm was desperately burrowing inside. In moments, half its body had disappeared beneath her skin. Gritting her teeth, she tried to sever it, but its body was as hard as metal, slippery as oil, and with a flick, it vanished inside.

At once, a worm-like bulge writhed rapidly beneath her snowy skin, crawling toward her chest. The nurse shrieked in utter terror, her eyes wild with panic. She looked helplessly to the chief surgeon, her face ashen, screaming, “Kill me! Kill me now! I don’t want to end up as another experiment in Deathrow Paradise!”

“Useless!” the chief surgeon spat coldly. He drew his gun, the black barrel gleaming with a chill, and aimed it at her head.

Bang!

Gunpowder filled the air. The nurse’s eyes bulged, and she collapsed, blood pouring from the hole between her eyes. Without a glance, the surgeon holstered his pistol, as if he’d just performed a trivial task, and swiftly pulled on a pair of taut rubber gloves.

“Even if you hadn’t begged, I would have killed you. With only a male worm inside, you’d never have qualified as a test subject—at best, a defective product!”

Sensing the uneasy looks from his colleagues, the surgeon tucked the pistol into his trousers and barked, “What are you all standing around for? Move! If he dies, we’re all finished. Once we’re done here, you can split her vacation days among yourselves.”

He rolled up his sleeves, lips pressed tight, and carefully returned each removed kidney, preparing to suture the incision.

The others, their furrowed brows easing, stepped over their former colleague’s corpse to gather around the operating table and resume their work in an orderly fashion.

From the split-open chest cavity, more and more Meridian Soulbreaker Worms of varying sizes wriggled out, their tiny, menacing mandibles probing hungrily for the scent of human flesh, sending chills down everyone’s spines.

Mu You stood nearby, witnessing everything in silence. He crouched before the fallen nurse, reaching to close her bulging eyes, but his hand passed futilely through her skull.

A small wisp of soul drifted from the corpse’s mouth. Mu You tapped it with a finger, and it flowed into his own body.

All things are fate—sins of the living, borne by the dead.

As time passed, Mu You felt his body’s pull on his soul grow stronger, yet he remained lost in thought, reluctant to merge.

“Big brother, what are you thinking? Hurry up, there’s no time!” The childish voice called urgently.

Mu You blinked and looked toward Mou You, his gaze now holding an unspoken emotion.

“If I come back to life, you’ll be alone again. Isn’t that kind of life a nightmare?”

Mou You never expected Mu You to say such a thing. She froze for a moment, a bittersweet ache rising in her heart, before she broke into a brilliant smile—

“Mou You isn’t afraid. Compared to being two, a nightmare for one is its own kind of happiness, isn’t it?”

Her small hand suddenly shoved Mu You. He couldn’t react in time—he toppled backward, passing through the chief surgeon and merging with his own body.

Mu You jolted violently, struggling desperately. This time, his soul was firmly anchored by his body. At the edge of the bed, Mou You, only her little head visible, tilted her neck and smiled sweetly as the scene faded, darkness closing in, and pain swallowed Mu You once more.

The joy of rebirth, the agony of pain—none of it mattered to Mu You now. His heart was consumed by overwhelming rage and sorrow.

He was an orphan, a lonely soul with no one to care for him—no one except Mou You.

A child fears loneliness most. He knew all too well the feeling, having endured it from the very beginning.

If he could choose, he would forgo rebirth. He would rather uncover the filth and darkness behind all this with Mou You, to seek vengeance, to overturn the world he once hoped for—no matter if it cost him his soul.

But now, once he awakened, he would be caught in an even greater, all-encompassing web of darkness—he was at their mercy.

He hated nothing more than being manipulated!

“Mou You! Mou You! Can you hear me?” Mu You shouted, but the only response was the piercing shriek of the heart defibrillator.

He could feel the scalpel inside his chest trembling.

“Where’s the suture? Why is it taking so long?” the surgeon’s furious voice roared in his ear.

“We’re out! We were only prepared for organ harvesting, not for repair and closure—”

“Damn!”

The surgeon cut off his assistant, grabbing a handful of her long hair and slicing it off with a sharp snip.

“Medical alcohol, quick!”

The nurse, eyes red with grief, immediately poured two bottles of medical alcohol into a wide jar. Seeing the surgeon toss the hair in, she remembered something.

“No! It hasn’t been sterilized—its proteins haven’t denatured, the body can’t absorb it!”

The surgeon slapped her hard, her face instantly disfigured.

“Sew him up, now!”

…

Time dragged on, cold sweat beading on every brow, while Mu You’s heartbeat grew fainter until it finally stopped.

“It’s over…” The chief surgeon’s face drained of color as he staggered back. After hours of grueling work and psychological strain, he was spent—and the corpse before him grew ever colder.

This time, they were truly finished.

He thought of the fate of those colleagues sent to Deathrow Paradise. A sinister look crept over his pale features as he shakily threw himself at Mu You’s body again.

So tired…

Since birth, Mu You had never felt such exhaustion—weariness that seeped from his soul, leaving him lost and powerless.

He felt himself growing lighter, his whole being radiating a faint glow, his soul slowly dissolving.

“Big brother…”

The choked voice grew near, and Mu You saw Mou You once more.

“The soul cannot leave the body a second time. This time, I’m truly dead…aren’t I?”

Unable to hold back, Mou You burst into sobs.

“I’m sorry, big brother, it’s all my fault, all my fault…”

“Silly child.” Mu You gently tapped her forehead, wiped her tears, and spoke earnestly. “Promise me one thing, will you?”

“…Yes, Mou You promises.”

“Turn around and don’t look at me. The dead are not a pretty sight. Never grieve for me—it’s not your fault. And…learn to be selfish. Don’t always be so kind. Next time you see a soul that looks tasty, just eat it. Not everyone will treat you like I did…I only wanted to be a true brother to you. I never wanted you to suffer those hardships again…”

Mu You’s voice grew faint. Countless blood worms burst from his body, shooting throughout the room and boring into everyone’s orifices. Screams filled the air.

“Get back! All of you filthy bugs, get back into big brother’s body—hurry!” Mou You’s eyes suddenly turned pitch black, crisscrossed with blood-red veins like the end of days. In her fury, she seized the blood worms and stuffed them back into Mu You’s body. With a pale hand, she struck the others, and they instantly melted into pools of pus—no chance even to scream, utterly terrifying.

She gathered all the worms from the pus and almost madly crammed them into Mu You’s chest. That Mou You, as a soul, could gather them showed these worms were far from ordinary.

“No…no, don’t die…” Mou You’s panic reached its peak, her lips trembling as she sobbed uncontrollably, but Mu You was already unconscious. His glow spread, and he was on the verge of utter annihilation.

“Mu You and Mou You—our names even sound alike. You have no past, I have no future, so let’s live well in the present. Listen to your brother…”

When all was lost, in the devastated operating room, only the little girl in red remained. She stood foolishly, clutching half a dead worm, black eyes fixed on Mu You’s corpse. Blood-red, web-like veins cracked out from deep within her pupils, like a demon of hell tearing open its own seal to roar at the world.

Two lines of bloody tears fell silently.

“Big brother…has died…”

Time itself halted. In the next second—

“Ah!!!”

A shrill, unhinged scream shook the heavens. A storm of energy exploded, obliterating the entire laboratory to dust. A torrent of death surged from Mou You’s tiny body, sweeping outwards, annihilating every living thing in the hospital to pools of pus. Slowly, Mou You raised her hand, and with imperial grace, summoned thousands of souls to Mu You, gathering them and nurturing his spirit within.

“Haven’t I died? Why…are there so many souls here?”

As Mu You’s consciousness returned, he opened his eyes in silence, stunned by what he saw.

Deathly energy rolled and surged, a crimson-robed figure at its heart—Mou You’s eerie eyes now gazed at him with gentle warmth.

“Because I don’t want to let big brother die,” she said, walking to his side and lying down, merging them into one.

Soul and spirit became one.

“Brother Mu You, this time, we’ll come back together—and shatter the darkness that weighs on us!”

Her voice was soft, yet so natural and right.

As the storm faded, only Mu You lay quietly on the bed, his eyes gently closed, his expression serene. The entire hospital, however, was devoid of any trace of life.

That night, the world turned upside down.