The corridor was thick with mist. Beside the woman stood a large-headed infant monster, its skull making up more than half its body. Its skin was an iron blue tinged with black. It clutched something in its hands—a spherical object.
In Bai Yu’s usual descriptions of common Red-Clothed Fierce Ghosts, they were like single-celled organisms. They often lacked independent thought, acting purely on instinct and resentment, endlessly repeating slaughter and death.
This was the most normal state for a Red-Clothed Ghost. One couldn’t achieve such a level of resentment without reaching this point.
This was especially true for an infant with a simple mind. Its very lack of understanding of the world made it even easier for resentment to overwhelm its reason, leading it to launch indiscriminate massacres.
In the woman’s hand was a chain. The chain was bound behind the Ghost Infant, as if another head existed behind it.
“Bai Yu, is that guy one of the enemies?”
Zhao Mingyue stood beside Li Tian’an, her expression grim. The Ghost Infant, clad in a blood-red dudou, didn’t look like something easy to provoke.
She didn’t know the woman’s identity. She seemed to be an old acquaintance of Bai Yu’s, but maybe not.
She had figured out a general pattern: Bai Yu’s “old friends” all paid particular attention to Lu Liangting and were simultaneously afraid of Bai Yu. The woman opposite them had just said “surnamed Lu, that young man,” yet she hadn’t called Lu Liangting by his name directly.
“Yes, be ready.”
“Mm.” Zhao Mingyue nodded. She spotted a long-handled wrench, about thirty-four centimeters long, in the pile of junk beside her and quickly picked it up, gripping it in her hand.
“Bai Yu, is that guy opposite us an old friend of yours?”
“Not sure. We’ll know soon enough. Let’s see how good she is.”
As the human and ghost conversed mentally, the woman spoke again. “I know you. Aren’t you that Exorcist? Heh heh heh, Exorcist. I wonder what an Exorcist’s blood tastes like. It should be quite good.”
She tugged the iron chain in her hand. The Ghost Infant below wore a terrifying, savage expression.
“Hmph.” Manager Li snorted coldly. He raised his hand and fired a shot. The specially treated silver bullet spun as it shot out, heading straight for the Ghost Infant.
The Ghost Infant’s reaction was equally fast. The chain snapped in an instant. It lunged forward, but its arm was still struck. It let out a wretched howl. That arm actually disintegrated into dust and vanished completely.
Manager Li’s expression was impassive. With a flick of his wrist—his finger movements were too fast to see—another bullet was fired.
The Ghost Infant was now clinging to the ceiling. It emitted bursts of chilling laughter as it crawled from the ceiling toward the group, its movements grotesquely twisted. Amidst the spreading fine Blood Threads, the corridor seemed enveloped in a red glow. A nauseating stench of blood spread.
The ceiling above plunged into darkness. From this boundless darkness sprouted countless arms—belonging to men and women, old and young. These arms were densely packed, numbering at least several dozen just above their heads. They clawed downwards, as if trying to drag Zhao Mingyue and Manager Li into the abyss.
Zhao Mingyue took a step back. The Ghost Infant’s distorted, swollen face suddenly appeared before her eyes. Before she could react, the Ghost Infant on the ceiling lunged down at her.
She knew these apparitions were the Ghost Infant’s Psychic Attack. This was the most common method for ghostly beings.
Fortunately, her spiritual power had been enhanced several times. Otherwise, she wouldn’t just be seeing arms and blood mist; perhaps the entire corridor would have transformed into a world covered in rotting flesh.
“Heh heh heh heh.”
The Ghost Infant’s laughter was everywhere. She blinked, and most of the illusions vanished. Just as the Ghost Infant pounced, she raised the rusty wrench in her hand and, without a second thought, swung it into the Ghost Infant’s face.
She had previously obtained an ability called “Ghost God Resonance.” This ability increased her affinity with neutral ghosts and, based on her spiritual power, influenced the damage she could deal to Ghost Gods.
In other words, even though she was just an ordinary person now, she could strike ghosts.
Not to mention that Bai Yu had wrapped the wrench with Blood Threads.
Bang! The Ghost Infant was sent flying by Zhao Mingyue’s wrench. Before it even hit the ground, Manager Li fired a shot. The Ghost Infant screamed. This time, one of its legs was also gone.
Lying on the ground, the Ghost Infant slowly retreated.
Behind it, the woman’s expression was furious. “You worthless waste! Kill those two for me! Do you want to die?!”
Hearing this, the Ghost Infant hurriedly glanced back at the woman. When it turned its head back, its eyes were even more venomous.
It opened its mouth, its tongue lashing out towards Zhao Mingyue and Manager Li. With a single wail, large patches of black-red Blood Threads spread across the walls. Unlike Bai Yu’s threads, these were saturated with a sickening, putrid stench.
Manager Li shook his case. Three Wooden Awls flew out, caught with precision, and were hurled toward the ceiling.
It was unclear what they struck, but the spreading Blood Threads and arms on the ceiling withered away in an instant. With another flick of the hand holding the case handle, a Red String shot out. By now, the Ghost Infant’s tongue had already reached them.
Manager Li retreated two steps. The Red String automatically severed. He dropped his case and lashed out with the Red String. It coiled around the Ghost Infant’s tongue. The Ghost Infant immediately let out another wretched scream; the part of its tongue wrapped by the string was already blackening and withering.
However, the Red String didn’t directly sever the Ghost Infant’s tongue. This indicated that Manager Li’s attack power was still insufficient.
In this split-second crisis, Zhao Mingyue’s wrench came crashing down. The Blood Threads on the wrench solidified into the shape of a blade, severing the Ghost Infant’s tongue with a single stroke.
The severed section of tongue fell to the ground, still writhing like a gecko’s detached tail. After a few seconds, it dissolved into a pool of pus, corroding the floor with a sizzling sound.
Zhao Mingyue wasn’t complacent just because her two strikes had landed. She charged towards the Ghost Infant. Her posture and movements carried a hint of Bai Yu’s style—the way Bai Yu charged at enemies with her blade. It was just that one held a wrench, the other a Long Saber.
Whether her body had been used by Bai Yu so often it had molded into Bai Yu’s form, or she was deliberately imitating her, was hard to say.
“Ah!” The Ghost Infant arched its body, revealing the woman’s head embedded in its torso.
Zhao Mingyue froze. She watched as that head suddenly turned and opened its eyes.
The woman’s head let out a shriek. A dense mass of dry, withered black hair shot out towards Zhao Mingyue.
“Mingyue, you’ve done well. Leave the rest to me.”
A vast expanse of scarlet Blood Threads surged from the surrounding walls, sealing off the incoming black hair.
Zhao Mingyue stood there, gripping her wrench. Manager Li beside her noticed a detail: Zhao Mingyue’s shadow didn’t match her body.
Zhao Mingyue’s hair was neither long nor short, reaching just to her shoulders. But the shadow behind her had waist-length hair.
The shadow seemed to come alive. The long hair writhed as Blood Threads spread, making it look as if the shadow had sprouted countless tentacles.
Not far behind them, the elevator doors opened. Lu Liangting and Half-Immortal Qian stepped out.
Seeing the situation, Lu Liangting’s reaction was to charge forward without a word, simultaneously gripping the Fierce Ghost Item in his pocket. Half-Immortal Qian, after staring blankly for a moment, saw a girl in black walk out from Zhao Mingyue’s shadow cast upon the wall. Then he saw the terrifying Ghost Infant opposite them. His legs turned to jelly, and he collapsed to the floor.
Bai Yu’s form materialized, translucent, appearing instantly before the Ghost Infant.
Her expression was cold. The Short Blade in her hand spun a half-circle before plunging with a squelch into the woman’s head on the Ghost Infant’s body. It was clean and efficient. She twisted the Short Blade’s handle, and Blood Threads exploded within the woman’s head.
Immediately after, Bai Yu shifted her weight onto her left leg, torque from her waist powering a kick that sent the Ghost Infant flying.
Mid-air, the woman’s head on the Ghost Infant’s chest screamed and burst apart, dissolving into a spray of pus. A wave of extreme, overpowering stench washed over them.
With the female ghost’s head gone, a large chunk of the Ghost Infant’s chest was simply missing, revealing the ribs and long-rotted internal organs beneath.
“Mama!” Collapsed on the ground, the Ghost Infant used its remaining arm and leg to crawl forward. The woman behind it spoke again.
“You really are worthless! Do you want me to mince you into scraps and flush you down the sewer?!”
“Save that for yourself!” With a clear shout, Zhao Mingyue—having had her strength increased multiple times and her body significantly developed by Bai Yu—could only be described as reborn. Her speed far surpassed that of a professional athlete.
Her courage was also immense. She actually bypassed the Ghost Infant and reached the woman’s side, raising her wrench for a strike.
“I…” The woman’s pupils constricted. The wrench rapidly enlarged in her vision.
In that instant, she had the sensation of being struck head-on by a train. After hearing a crisp crack, she felt as if she saw her great-grandmother waving at her from the beyond. Her vision blurred, and she collapsed.
She hadn’t expected Zhao Mingyue to be so bold, daring to charge at her before the Ghost Infant was even dead. Not only that, but she had also swung the wrench without a word.
In her daze, the woman only heard this sentence:
“It’s not very good. Doesn’t have the same power as my Magical Girl Wand.”
The woman was knocked to the ground. The Ghost Infant cried out in alarm but, before it could act, was sent flying by a Cross Blade Aura.
Bai Yu arrived beside Zhao Mingyue. She glanced at the collapsed woman, then at the wrench in Zhao Mingyue’s hand.
“Let’s go. We should look outside.”
~
Outside the apartment building, on the deserted street, several figures clashed. The ground was littered with exploded black-red Blood Threads.
The Masked Woman retreated while fighting, directing two Red-Clothed Fierce Ghosts beside her to besiege a terrifying figure ahead. The thing looked like a centipede assembled from human bodies. Its main body was a living human. At the abdomen area was a ghostly face. Below that, instead of legs, was another person’s body, as if two models had bugged into each other.
This body attached to the main one used its hands to prop itself on the ground, acting like centipede legs. Further down was the same pattern: an abdomen with a face, no legs, just another ghost’s body with its hands propping it up. This continued downwards. On the main body, the bodies of four ghosts were spliced together.
Five bodies, ten hands, all serving as the centipede’s feet. The final body segment dragged two legs behind it, resembling a centipede’s tail.
“Damn it! Why isn’t No. 6 out yet? Is dealing with one Li Tian’an that troublesome? So damned useless!”
The Masked Woman glared hatefully at the Youth Apartment.
The Ghost Centipede Form ahead was their target for this mission. Originally a three-person operation, one teammate had died as soon as the battle started. They hadn’t even been possessed by the Evil Spirit before becoming the centipede’s main body. The few Imps released were also killed and spliced onto the centipede’s body.
Now she didn’t dare use any more Imps, afraid of increasing the centipede’s combat power.
But two Red-Clothed Fierce Ghosts could only barely gain the upper hand. To eliminate the target, they needed at least one more Red-Clothed Ghost, maybe even two. Just as she thought this, the main entrance of the Youth Apartment was violently blasted open. Before she could feel relief, a figure covered in blade wounds flew out, landing breathlessly on the ground. It was ultimately wrapped by Blood Threads erupting from within.
Before the thing was cocooned by the threads, the Masked Woman identified it. Wasn’t that No. 6’s Three-headed Ghost Infant?
The Three-headed Ghost Infant’s strength was indeed considerable. It had its mother’s head on its chest and its father’s head on its back, making it equivalent to a Red-Clothed Fierce Ghost plus two reasonably powerful Fierce Ghosts.
The Masked Woman looked toward the Youth Apartment. Three figures walked out. All of them were living humans.
The three appeared. The centipede not far away also noticed them. Using its body, it threw off the two Red-Clothed Ghosts. Seizing the moment when the Masked Person was stunned, it withdrew its power. The spliced centipede body collapsed to the ground. Several Fierce Ghosts were annihilated, and the living human main body gradually disintegrated into ash.
Seeing the Centipede Evil Spirit flee, the Masked Woman’s heart jolted. She was certain the centipede hadn’t run because of her. The thing had definitely sensed something life-threatening and retreated.
Connecting this to the Three-headed Ghost Infant, which had been chopped into mincemeat, the Masked Woman didn’t dare linger. She recalled her Red-Clothed Fierce Ghost, abandoned her teammate’s Red-Clothed Fierce Ghost as a rear guard, and hastily fled.
The plan had gone wrong. Not only had No. 6 failed to kill Li Tian’an, but she herself had been eliminated.
Seeing the woman retreat, Bai Yu didn’t even plan to pursue. It was Lu Liangting who suddenly shouted, “Stop right there!” He chased after her, almost exploding every ounce of his body’s power.
The symbol on the Masked Woman’s face—Lu Liangting knew it all too well. For a long time, his nightmares had been filled with that symbol.
Bai Yu paid her no mind. She exchanged a word with Zhao Mingyue and then possessed her.
Compared to the Masked Woman, she was more interested in these Red-Clothed Fierce Ghosts.
She had to admit, she had made a very good decision today by going out with Li Tian’an.
She had directly devoured three Red-Clothed Fierce Ghosts. Her strength would see a considerable boost after this.
To put it bluntly, the biggest reason she didn’t pursue the Masked Woman was… she was too full to eat anymore.
Even for her, she could only consume three Red-Clothed Ghosts at most in a short period.
Devouring Red-Clothed Ghosts carried risks. She wasn’t afraid of the resentment and rage of the Red-Clothed Ghosts at all. She had killed far too many people; if that could affect her, she’d have gone mad long ago. The main issue was the sheer impact of a Red-Clothed Fierce Ghost’s power.
And Bai Yu’s good luck tonight didn’t end there.
Once things were settled, Manager Li was about to go up for one last look before taking Zhao Mingyue away. Zhao Mingyue suddenly mentioned something to Bai Yu in her mind.
“Bai Yu, do you remember the reward I mentioned back in Pingshan Village?”
