The eccentric doctor never makes a misdiagnosis!

"What an interesting description, 'no longer tormented by endless pain,' it immediately inspired me."

Fran opened the small medicine box and deftly took out a syringe with a built-in needle.

"Sister Haida, can you help me break open his skull? It's been sitting for too long and it's healed again."

"Happy to oblige."

Haida raised the wooden handle of her folding knife and struck Hoven's skull as if using a blunt object, reopening the fragile bone that had just closed. Fran then followed suit, injecting the liquid from the syringe into the skull.

After doing all this, Fran pulled Heida back two steps.

She took out her brass pocket watch and checked the time. It was around 11 p.m., and in a little while... this quarter's cross-disciplinary outpatient visits would begin.

Fortunately, the ascetic's problem has been resolved.

"You want to interfere with my brain? Ha, how clever of you... You can give me mental suggestions, but you can never affect my brain on a physical level... because it no longer exists. Now, my thoughts reside in every blessed nerve."

Fran maintained her professional smile, nodding repeatedly. She looked like a customer service representative dealing with a fussy customer.

"Don't be impatient, Mr. Ascetic. Experience it carefully, and soon you will no longer suffer."

Hoven didn’t understand what Fran had done at first, but he quickly sensed something was wrong from the gradually worsening pain.

The extreme pain gradually softened, transforming into a feather-light caress, or the gentle touch of a beautiful woman's fingertips. A fleeting touch, followed by a ripple of tingling pleasure.

"What is this feeling? Ah, ah... no, Lord, how can there be such joy? No... someone is stroking my head?"

He began to groan weakly, unable to suppress the sounds despite his best efforts to endure them. His nerves, long since numb to pain, were suddenly filled with extreme pleasure, a dramatic reversal that nearly destroyed his self-awareness.

"Now, pain will be transformed into an equal amount of pleasure by your consciousness."

Fran gently twirled the chain of his brass pocket watch, watching the scene unfold with great interest.

[Hoven's suffering has been healed. Your monthly house call is complete, completion rating: S. Your next monthly house call will be randomly triggered next month.]

[This consultation fee: 1 unknown book (high quality, unidentified)]

【您的解析度变化：临床心理学（20％→20.3％），神经学（21％→21.5％），泰拉医学（3％→5％），基因研究（27％→27.2％）。】

"They also published the resolution of the spine from previous research...that's quite considerate."

Fran stretched comfortably, lifted his thick-soled leather shoes, and stepped over the ascetic who was slumped on the ground groaning.

Chapter Twenty-Four: The Blessed Land (Old Man's Ring)

At this moment, Haida unfastened the clasp at the waist of her nun's robe, fully exposing her fair abdomen and the wound on her ribs.

Fran was bending over, using tweezers to clean the blood and foreign objects around her wound with cotton balls.

Although Haida could occasionally feel some restless rubbing against her obliques, Fran's skill in treating external injuries was truly impeccable. She glanced at Huo Wen, who was writhing and struggling on the ground, and then asked a question.

“Dr. Fran, is this ascetic... also just a ‘half-priest’?”

"Yeah, that's right."

Fran finished cleaning the wound and then nodded in confirmation.

She didn't need any additional stitches, just wrapped it with a homemade bandage. The wound had already closed on its own and would heal on its own soon. Haida's blood clotting and muscle repair abilities far exceeded those of ordinary people.

"Sister Haida is as perceptive as ever. Can you tell me how you figured it out?"

"He was weaker than I had imagined a fully-fledged high priest to be. Although he could ignore physical damage to some extent, he did not demonstrate the imprint of his power."

Haida explained her point of view.

She didn't really know much about the high priest; the dancer Sayens she had encountered earlier was the first cultist of that rank she had ever met.

"Actually, he's not that weak. This ascetic received the blessing of the Red Cup. If given enough time to repair his damaged body, he can fully transform into half a 'Holy Heir'. I just interrupted this process."

Fran packed the used medical instruments back into the small medicine box, preparing to disinfect them again when he returned to the Fog Street Clinic.

Although Huo Wen had collapsed into a limp, pale, writhing mass, Haida was still not at ease with him.

The resilience cultists gain through fanaticism is unimaginable; once their ability to act is taken away, it is best to destroy them completely.

She currently lacks the necessary ritual materials and cannot use the three types of rituals, namely [Dissolving Evil], to render the incapacitated evil offspring harmless. Furthermore, gunshots and cuts would cause him only limited damage; even inscribed with the Hunter's Prayer, they could only harm him.

Well, Vivian should have already contacted support troops through the Secret Service. Let's keep an eye on things from here.

Vivian breathed a sigh of relief and slowly approached the two. Although she felt she hadn't done anything, participating in such a dangerous event had still been too exhausting for her.

At the same time, she became slightly curious about the drug Fran had just used.

"Dr. Fran, can the drug you just used really reverse a person's senses?"

"No."

Her answer was extremely concise and unexpected. Vivian was momentarily puzzled.

"Then why did Huo Wen become like this? Wasn't it because he couldn't adapt to the transition between pain and pleasure that he became like this?"

When Fran heard that Vivian was interested in his drug, he immediately began to explain it to her with great enthusiasm.

“Miss Vivian, medicine also has its limits. Although I am not incapable of concocting a drug that can transform pain into pleasure, it takes time... and I did not prepare such a drug in advance, so it is obviously too late to start concocting it on the spot.”

She was patient and composed, her hands covered in stitches with her fingers slightly crossed.

Vivian felt a chill and followed up the conversation by asking, "So... what did you inject into his body?"

"Aphrodisiac."

"Cough cough!"

Fran blinked his amber eyes, maintaining an innocent expression.

This answer caused both Heda and Vivian to look at Fran with enigmatic expressions and fall silent. She, however, seemed unconcerned, continuing to explain the principles to herself.

"First, drugs are used to force the ascetic to experience pleasure, and then language and the 'swinging of the heart bell' are used to further guide and suggest to him, making him believe that his suffering will be completely transformed into pleasure."

"Once this simple common sense has been altered, he will be crushed by the pain he has become accustomed to."

"I see……"

Vivian now understood why Fran had been carrying the pocket watch. From the very beginning, she had been trying to influence the high priest on a spiritual level.

"But is it alright to say it like that...? Wouldn't it be ineffective if he heard it?"

"This patient has already lost the ability to recognize auditory information. Besides, even if he can regain consciousness... then let Sister Heda keep beating him to stop the final transformation into a holy heir."

Fran waved slightly, indicating that she didn't need to worry.

"I have a very important house call to make today, so I'll be leaving now. I look forward to seeing you again. Hmm... if I'm not mistaken, the Red Cup's attack has only just begun, so please be careful."

As he spoke, Fran took out his brass pocket watch and glanced at the time.

Vivian shuddered inexplicably. The horrific scenes of the ascetics were still vivid in her mind, and she now had a strange psychological aversion to checking her watch...

At that moment, Fran's smile froze slightly.

She seemed so engrossed in explaining the medical plan that she lost track of time... It'll be midnight in a few seconds!

"Hmm... I forgot to set an alarm for around 11:50. How embarrassing."

The murky, chaotic mist was like an invisible giant maw, instantly swallowing Fran's slender figure.

Heda keenly noticed that this time Fran didn't specifically look for a door; the mist appeared on its own, as if it were alive, and swirled around her.

Dr. Fran said she would be making an important house call soon... What kind of patients and illnesses would she call "important"? Is this the reason for Sougiri's strange behavior?

As Haida pondered, the swirling mist had somehow already wrapped around her ankles... By the time she realized it, everything around her had vanished, leaving only a hazy, pure gray.

The mist took her away too...

Fran and Haida vanished on the spot, leaving Vivian looking shocked and confused.

She glanced at the empty Hungry Club, then at the ascetic Hoven still lying on the ground, and was speechless for a moment.

About two minutes later, Vivian recovered.

"It seems there was a problem with Dr. Franju's fog system, which caused San to take Sister Heida away as well? How am I supposed to explain this to my colleagues who are coming to help? And..."

She looked at Huo Wen on the ground little by little.

At this moment, his body was limp and disintegrating. His distorted nerves, sustained by pain, were contracting weakly under the infusion of endless pleasure, like a plant about to wither.

"Am I supposed to stay with this guy until reinforcements arrive? By the God of Hunting..."

……

"Ah! What is this... No!"

Huo Wen, who was walking, suddenly reached out from under his red leather robe and tightly hugged his head, screaming in agony.

This caused several ascetic assistant priests nearby to show expressions of surprise and doubt.

The high priest is a blessed person who has received divine grace. No matter how incomprehensible the pain, he would only accept it with joy and enjoy it... But why is his face full of fear at this moment?

"No, it's just a psychological effect... just a psychological effect!"

Huo Wen trembled and exhaled a heavy breath, then raised his hand and plunged it into the chest of a hermit beside him.

Pale nerves surged from the gaps in the bones, burrowing into the body of the ascetic assistant priest, emptying his internal organs and flesh within twenty seconds, leaving only a bloody, intact skin.

"High Priest, what has happened? Is there something wrong with the 'half-body' you sent to the ruins of the Hungry Club?"

"The White Cup Cult is a fraud! Her medicine has no ability to reverse senses at all... She just gradually influenced my mind through some relic!"

Huo Wen's condition visibly improved after devouring a whole person's flesh and blood, but the intense pleasure he had previously sensed still lingered in his heart.

Let alone a "traveler of suffering" who is constantly accompanied by pain and torment, even a dancer would probably be immersed in the blissful feeling she had experienced before.

“Next time, I must kill her before she can exert her influence… No, if the Drinker descends today, none of this matters… Whether it be the Exterminator or the Chief Hunter, they will all die here.”

He reached deep into his skull, pulling out several brain-like nerves to try and forget the addictive, deadly pleasure. Then, he urged his somewhat limp legs forward.

-

[Cross-border quarterly house call begins. You are about to travel to the "Borderlands," and this house call will be conducted in pairs. Your assistant is the "Funeral Maid," Heida Moira.]

[Patient: Evonne, a "faded person" plagued by fear.]

[Patient Profile: Ivanie is a modern soul that has been reshaped. Although she has never truly experienced anything from the real world, she does understand what "player" represents. This is precisely why she has truly fallen into despair.]

Symptoms: Dissociative identity disorder (severe, advanced stage).

[Warning: Do you really think you can cure her? Or rather, do you really think you already have? Foolish!]

[Begin the patient reception process.]

-

The sky was shrouded in dim clouds, towering walls and dilapidated towers stood between the mountains, and there was a golden tree that clung to the center of the world, its branches and leaves reaching for the stars.

Strange yet familiar.

This is the area at the southern end of the border region, known as "Nimgefur".

"The last time I was here was to treat another patient. Who was it again? My memory is a bit hazy; I'll have to check the notes when I get back to the clinic..."

Fran touched her lips with her finger, looking somewhat puzzled. She had a good memory; she shouldn't forget things normally.

"And this time, Sister Heda was also accidentally dragged into it..."

Fran looked apologetically at Haida, who was still feeling dizzy from crossing boundaries, and clasped his hands together slightly, maintaining an awkward yet polite smile.

"Where...is this?"

Jiu Haida slowly stood up from the soft grass, rubbed her still slightly aching brow, and then looked at Fran with a questioning yet sharp gaze.

"Dr. Fran, please explain the current situation to me."

“Dear Sister Heda, this was a medical malpractice incident, all due to my mistake… We are now in what is, in the conventional sense, ‘another world.’ Of course, it has its own name; you may call it ‘the Borderlands.’”

When Yufran approached Haida, her amber eyes were clear and bright, showing sincerity and obedience.

It's obviously impossible to make up a story based on the current situation... so let's try to act cute and get away with it.

"I understand."

Liu Haida remained silent for about five minutes before fully accepting the situation. A profound sense of unreality welled up within her, but her rationality told her that it was logical.

After all, the magnificent tree that stretches straight into the starry sky exudes a golden radiance that commands awe and submission—an ethereal divinity that cannot be faked…

If otherworldly gods exist, then nameless otherworldly realms probably exist as well... I just never thought I would one day set foot on one of them.

Seeing that Heda had regained her composure, Fran extended an invitation to her.

"Although your presence here is due to my mistake... this consultation may require an experienced assistant. I wonder if Sister Haida would be willing to accept a position as 'Head Nurse' at the Fog Street Clinic?"