Deep in the Living
Chapter 296 - 284: Awakening

Chapter 296: Chapter 284: Awakening

Deep sleep.

This time, Luo Di did not dream about his student days,

instead, he had a very strange dream where he turned into a chunk of beef.

He was placed on a chopping board and then beaten back and forth with a stick by a chef.

Strangely enough, even though the sinew and meat were shattered, Luo Di only felt a little pain, and the sensation was mostly one of comfort and relaxation.

When he was completely beaten into minced meat, the dream also began to dissipate.

Somewhat bizarrely, Luo Di seemed to fully accept the fact that he was beef, even wanting to be further processed into beef balls and thrown into a boiling pot to be cooked.

The dream ended, and the strange thoughts also vanished.

However,

when Luo Di opened his eyes, he was no longer lying on the back of Crow Colt, nor was he discarded on the roadside, but he found himself in a metal chamber lit with special incense.

He was lying on a hard, round bed, completely stripped, and Crow Colt and the other figures were nowhere to be seen.

His body continued to feel as in the dream, having a strange sense of comfort, completely relaxed, shedding all pressure and burdens.

Hu~ha~

A heavy breathing sound came from beside him, making Luo Di realize someone was next to him, apparently the chef from the dream who was pounding the beef.

When Luo Di instinctively tried to turn over, he found that although his spine could move, his body did not respond. Only with careful feeling did he discover that his body had been beaten into minced meat, with only his spine left unchanged.

The so-called chef was indeed the Iron Pillar Nun, Agatha.

They were now inside the Great Monastery.

Agatha’s warning came:

"Luo Di, don’t move yet.

Crow Colt brought you here in a deep coma to the Great Monastery. Fortunately, we found Mr. Hook’s letter of recommendation on you, and I just happened to be around and took you in right away.

It was detected that your body had reached its limit of activity. And, as you are new to True Hell, there was a certain rejection of this world, and your body always remained semi-tense.

After consulting the teacher, I was authorized to perform ’Physical Beating’ on you.

Your body has been smashed into its most primitive state and needs to recover in the therapeutic pool next door. Do not make any movements during this process, or it could cause irreversible damage to your body."

"Alright."

Luo Di felt his mushy body being carried on Agatha’s shoulder to the next room.

A scent drifted into his nostrils,

resembling a mix of gasoline and flowers.

Splatter!

The mincemeat-like body was directly thrown into the pool, with his face just able to stay above the water for normal breathing.

"Hm?! What is this?"

Luo Di could clearly feel a liquid infiltrating his body, each acupuncture point being stimulated, every cell greedily absorbing nutrients.

While absorbing nutrients, he could clearly feel a needle-pricking sensation on the surface of the cells, and this feeling was getting stronger by the moment.

His body was not only being repaired, Luo Di also felt an unprecedented relaxation all over.

If Physical Casting had given him a nearly perfect Hellish humanoid form,

the current beating and repair had made this humanoid body even purer, more fitting for True Hell.

An hour passed,

Luo Di stood up to examine his reconstructed body, occasionally noticing a metallic sheen flickering across the muscle surface.

As he nodded satisfactorily at his current body, Agatha who was also in the room nodded too and even gave her assessment:

"Spine and metal perfectly combined in one body, and your recovery speed is faster than that of an ordinary monk... no wonder Lord Hook specially recruited you."

Feeling Agatha’s gaze, although Luo Di had the idea to follow local customs, he still subconsciously turned his body, even needing to rotate a certain angle more.

His clothes and accessories had already been neatly folded and placed on the other side of the pool.

Luo Di quickly put on his clothes, and his headgear also hung at his waist.

"What about Crow Colt and Recruitment Spine?"

"The Crow Colt has been sent to the Monastery’s [Pasture], where there are many Hell Beasts. It has been tested to have Suffering attributes and there’s no problem keeping it there.

If you are concerned, you can go and see it later.

As for that consciousness of the Spine, it is not allowed to enter the Great Monastery. Its mission is already completed and has been sent back through the Teleportation Array."

"Okay." Luo Di now cared even more for Crow Colt, and as for Spine, it was good to send it back early, as it might not survive if it encountered danger.

"Where are we going now?"

"Your ’baptism’ will be conducted tomorrow morning. There’s nothing for today, so just follow me back to the lodging area. Since you are a monk who joined us temporarily, they haven’t arranged a shared dormitory for you yet.

Plus, it seems you won’t be staying here for a long time, so you might as well live with me."

"Is that okay?"

Agatha didn’t quite understand Luo Di’s proposal, "What’s wrong with that~ I, as a nun, have my own private bedroom. We happened to have met earlier, and didn’t you promise to share more stories with me?

As a token of gratitude, I will help you quickly get acquainted with this place."

"Okay, is the dormitory far from here?"

"Not far... The Great Monastery is a miracle of architecture in True Hell, unlike Nest City, we don’t need any means of transportation here, just walking enables moving across all areas."

Having said that,

a metallic object hovered above Agatha’s palm, not the Iron Pillar, but a rather exquisite metal Magic Cube (3×3).

Each piece had its own metallic luster and engraved patterns.

"The essence of the Great Monastery is a Magic Cube space, comprising 27 sections in total. The sanatorium, where we are currently, is one of these sections.

The Magic Cube in my hand synchronizes with the changes of the Great Monastery. To go to any section, we just need to wait until the two section pieces are adjacent.

The Magic Cube changes every ten minutes.

The dormitory area we are going to is right beneath the sanatorium, and it’s about to shift positions in five minutes, so hurry and follow me."

Luo Di hadn’t even had time to be amazed by the wondrous structure of the Great Monastery before Agatha dragged him out of the room... It has to be said that Agatha’s strength was immense; the sudden acceleration and pulling nearly dislocated his arm.

The structure of the sanatorium was also huge; they were currently on the seventeenth floor.

Rushing down the stairwell,

when they reached the very bottom, there was a ’metal door’, made of the same material and structure as the Magic Cube.

After Agatha opened it forcefully, darkness prevailed inside, as if there was a disturbance in space.

"Jump!"

"Okay".

Both of them jumped into the door, not landing directly inside a dormitory building or another stairwell, but instead falling from a hundred meters high.

Just as Luo Di was preparing to kneel for the high-speed fall,

a magnetic force emanated from the ground, acting on his metallic spine. The repulsive force canceled out the falling speed, landing them firmly at a Crossroad.

Darkness, dense fog, silence.

Vastly different from the well-lit sanatorium previously.

The dense fog limited visibility to within ten meters; no dormitory buildings could be seen for the moment.

However, there was a metal signpost at the Crossroad they stood, pointing in four directions.

[Front - Shared Dormitories]

[Left - Single Dormitories]

[Right - Suffering Dormitories]

[Back - Order Group Residences]

"Members of the Order Group also live here?"

"They just have their residences here; entities like teachers often control a section in the Great Monastery.

They mostly rest within their own section, rarely coming back here."

"Then what is the Suffering Dormitories?"

"Some monks need to endure suffering in their sleep to achieve spiritual strengthening. Suffering Dormitories are specially set for them, where even basic sleep requires enduring pain.

I belong to the physical type, it doesn’t concern me."

"So they’re not at peace even in sleep?"

"No... those guys need to be in pain to fall asleep; not providing them with sufficient suffering stimulation actually leads to insomnia.

Luo Di, you’ll have to slowly learn to enjoy suffering, I believe during your time at the Great Monastery you’ll gradually adapt."

"Alright."

Luo Di already had a bad feeling, sensing that Agatha’s dormitory might be hiding some weird things.