Chapter 618: Senior, It's Time to Act!

As it turned out, Lu Yibei was far more experienced at committing crimes. Huá Sāng was completely hopeless. Merely knocking out an ordinary young woman with the appropriate force and without injuring her took three knife-hand strikes.

When the second blow landed, intense confusion and shock clearly appeared in the woman’s eyes, along with a trace of anger that made her want to fight back.

“Sigh. You really lack experience in the martial world…” Lu Yibei shook her head and sighed.

She watched Huá Sāng carry the woman away until they disappeared into the night. Then she drew a deep breath and straightened. Pushing her waist slightly forward, she stroked her abdomen with her right hand to soothe the restless Shuishu Shou (Water Savage Beast), braced her left hand against her lower back, and waddled forward with a convincing air.

“…”

Disguise herself as the young woman Yang Yichen had targeted, wait for him to attack, subdue him before he could react, then force him to reveal Hu Chuan’s hiding place…

She had already observed Doctor Yang. His psychic energy fluctuation level was not even Class C. If she went all out, she should be able to subdue him instantly…

Yes, this should work!

As Lu Yibei considered the plan, she reached the bench and slowly sat down. While extending her psychic sense as far as possible, she imitated the young woman’s earlier posture, curling inward, hugging her shoulders, and sobbing softly.

Hospitals had always been frequent sites of haunting incidents. A secluded little garden like this one was even more likely to attract them.

After nightfall, the little garden quickly grew silent. Surrounded by the vague shadows of dense plants, only the cicadas and soft sobbing remained.

The weeping sounded so mournful and carried such profound sorrow that it was even more heartbreaking than the crying of the real woman, who had nearly lost her child and been neglected by her husband.

“…”

Now all I need to do is wait for our dear Doctor Yang to enter the stage…

Wait. What if he’s a coward who doesn’t dare murder someone for profit and never comes?

Wouldn’t I look ridiculous after putting so much effort into this performance?

Lu Yibei frowned slightly at the thought.

Just then, as if a spider had sensed prey disturbing its web, she felt a psychic energy fluctuation enter the range of her psychic sense.

Judging by the fluctuation’s intensity and the aura it carried, Doctor Yang had probably appeared.

Lu Yibei raised her head slightly and looked in the direction she sensed. Before long, she spotted a dark figure outside the little garden.

However, the figure stopped at the entrance and stood motionless.

Lu Yibei fell silent.

Strange. What is he waiting for?

Come attack me already!

You’re a man who has barely reached Class C, an existence stronger than 52.38 percent of all psychics and hauntings in the world. What are you afraid of?

————

After leaving the hospital building, Yang Yichen first visited his “lair” hidden in a nearby residential complex. He changed into clothes suited for movement, collected his tools and containers for extracting a living placenta, then followed the woman’s scent…

No—more precisely, he had followed the scent of the fetus in her womb to this place.

Many haunting legends across the world involved creatures that devoured infants. Yang Yichen’s Spirit Pattern—【Witch-Type: Aswang】—was one of them.

With the special psychic ability granted by his Spirit Pattern, he could easily track the aura of every infant within several kilometers.

Even those not yet born!

However…

When he reached the little garden and saw the woman curled on the bench from afar, then heard her spine-chilling weeping, he suddenly sensed something wrong.

The fetal aura detected by his power had weakened!

The fetus seemed to be moving farther away, yet its mother, Ms. Wan, was clearly right there…

Could this be a trap?

Yang Yichen stopped at the little garden’s entrance and watched the woman on the bench for a moment. His gaze suddenly sharpened. He spun around and fled.

This was not his first day in such a business, and he had offended many people through it. The only reason he remained alive and retained his convenient identity as a doctor was his constant caution.

The price offered by his longtime customer was extraordinarily tempting. It might even allow him to become a Class B Psychic in a single leap. Yet when the risk was too high, he would rather abandon the opportunity.

After all, there were many chances to complete a Spirit Pattern and raise one’s psychic energy fluctuation level, but he had only one life!

However…

The instant Yang Yichen turned and began sprinting away, Lu Yibei sensed the movement and snapped her head up. Her gaze locked onto his figure, and her eyes narrowed.

Trying to run? Do you think you can escape?

【Royal Authority】—expand!

————

The moment Yang Yichen turned to flee, he sensed a psychic energy fluctuation surge behind him.

The gaze prickling against his back watched him like a predator from a higher dimension.

The psychic energy fluctuation disturbed the air, producing an illusory series of faint electrical crackles beside his ears.

It was not merely the strongest psychic energy fluctuation Yang Yichen had encountered in his life; it was a terror beyond anything he had ever experienced. He even felt an urge to kneel and worship.

Ever since drawing the Spirit Pattern derived from the Malaysian legend of an infant-devouring haunting onto his body, he had been subtly influenced by its craving for flesh. He had committed countless murders and long since become numb to bloody things.

Yet the faint scent of blood emanating from that psychic energy fluctuation made his Spirit Pattern tremble. Fear nearly suffocated him.

Whoosh!

A faint whistle sounded, and a fierce gust swept in from behind.

Yang Yichen stiffened and faltered. He instinctively looked back and saw an astonishing sight.

“Ms. Wan” had launched into a hundred-meter dash at a 6.8-second pace and was now charging toward him with the terrifying momentum of a runaway dump truck. She moved faster and faster until her outline began to blur.

Yang Yichen staggered backward in shock. He blinked once, and “Ms. Wan” had already closed to less than five meters.

“!!!”

Damn it! This really is a trap!

Can someone give me a reasonable explanation—how the hell is that a pregnant woman?!

After his brief daze, Yang Yichen had no time to think. He turned to run again, only to hear a spine-chilling murmur beside his ear.

“Doctor, do you know what despair is?”

Her voice fell silent.

Countless crimson motes appeared ahead of him, like a horde of evil spirits opening scarlet eyes in the darkness.

【Body Beyond the Body Mini: Explosive Enchantment Edition】—ignite!

————

Earlier, Lu Yibei had temporarily separated from Huá Sāng under the pretext of using the bathroom. Her main objective had indeed been to find somewhere to undergo a haunting transformation.

She wanted to avoid the catastrophic embarrassment of turning into a beautiful girl in front of her fiancée.

However, as a precaution, she had also made a few small preparations around the little garden on her way back. For example…

Psychic energy bubbles formed through Body Beyond the Body, capable of exploding in a perfect 360-degree enclosure without a single blind spot.

According to Lu Yibei’s calculations, those explosive psychic energy bubbles gave her roughly a ninety-percent chance of instantly subduing Yang Yichen if he came within a hundred meters. Once the distance shrank below fifty meters, the chance would rise to ninety-nine percent…

Still not safe enough!

That was why she had reluctantly set aside her dignity and tried to reduce the distance between herself and Yang Yichen to less than ten meters, ensuring there could be no accident.

From a certain perspective, the moment Yang Yichen entered the little garden, all hope of escape would vanish.

But…

Who could have expected that old bastard to be so alert? He had barely shown his face near the garden, still more than two hundred meters away, before turning to run.

Lu Yibei’s chance of instantly subduing him had plummeted to around eighty percent.

This was why one should never underestimate the psychic ability of any psychic or haunting. Even if their psychic energy fluctuation level was low, the unique nature of their power might still allow them to accomplish something astonishing.

————

When the whisper sounded beside him, Yang Yichen froze. He stiffly turned his neck and saw those terrifying eyes.

In the darkness, the pale golden eyes were clear, cold, and right before him!

At that instant, Lu Yibei expertly activated her enchantment and Dream Entry abilities simultaneously.

She witnessed a vast number of unnatural deaths and saw countless mothers weeping in grief over the children they had lost.

They should have lived happy lives…

…

When Yang Yichen’s gaze met those eyes, a trace of scarlet slowly rose from deep within them. The faint light reflected in his black pupils and stained his eyes bloodred as well.

The next instant, his vision violently twisted. Everything he recognized as normal collapsed, as though an invisible pair of hands had crushed the world.

When he awakened from that despairing darkness, he discovered in terror that he lay upon a familiar operating table. The dazzling light of the surgical lamp made it impossible for him to open his eyes.

He froze, struggled to rise, and then the light abruptly went out. Darkness swallowed the operating room.

From beneath the table, a tiny mangled hand that had not even had time to grow fully formed skin reached upward and grasped one of his fingers.

Then came two hands, three, four…

Countless tiny hands at different stages of development emerged from beneath the operating table. They seized his fingers and the corners of his clothes, pinning him firmly in place.

“Hee-hee—!”

An eerie infant’s laugh echoed through the pitch-black operating room. Then, as though receiving a signal, more laughter arose and blended into a chaotic din that inspired anxiety and terror.

Accompanying the laughter, mangled little faces—some no more than unformed lumps of flesh—emerged from the darkness. They stared at Yang Yichen with venomous hatred.

Behind them floated women with disheveled hair and deathly pale faces.

Yang Yichen stared for two seconds. Then terror erupted in his eyes.

He recognized those faces. They were the mothers and children who had “accidentally” died by his hand.

————

Thud!

Yang Yichen’s body struck the ground heavily. His once-handsome face had twisted from excessive terror, and a faint blue-purple hue showed through his deathly pale skin.

Small scorch marks from explosions covered the joints of all four limbs.

Yet he was still alive.

Alive despite being afflicted with an Inverse-Form Evil Blossom Gu amplified more than twentyfold.

Lu Yibei’s mastery of the Inverse-Form Evil Blossom Gu was still insufficient to affect Qing Ji, but it could already work effectively on a low-level psychic like Yang Yichen.

This had been an unexpected benefit of the experiment she casually performed while using enchantment and Dream Entry on Yang Yichen to extract his memories.

Lu Yibei stared expressionlessly at the unconscious man.

“…”

This fellow had surprised her. Concerned that power obtained by accident might carry hidden risks, he had actually refused the Esoteric Society’s offer.

Judging from the memories she extracted, the person trading with him was probably either Hu Chuan or Elder Wang…

Ten o’clock tonight, at the gas station near Yuhua Road… Excellent! The time to close the net was drawing ever closer! Lu Yibei thought.

She bent down, grabbed Yang Yichen by one ankle with a single hand, and dragged him like a corpse toward the little garden shrouded in shadow.

And so, a promising young gynecologist vanished from everyone’s sight in no more time than it took to eat a meal.

Before anyone found him, he would probably spend anywhere from several days to half a month beneath that seldom-visited little garden, living every moment under the shadow of death.

And in his perception, that time would be stretched nearly a hundredfold!

————

9:27 p.m.

The Liaozhai Tavern, in a little-known corner of an unnamed city.

Boss Hu stood behind the tavern counter, supporting his chin with one hand and waving a snow-white feather fan with the other. His gaze remained fixed on the large table at the center of the tavern.

Tsk, tsk. As expected of a Guardian of the Midnight Watchers Society. He really is formidable! I’ve secretly replaced two jars of his wine with Dragon-Knockout Brew, yet he still isn’t drunk.

But does relying on his Spirit Pattern’s special psychic ability during a drinking contest count as cheating?

Never mind. Isn’t the Gu Mistress also relying on her Heavenly Silkworm Gu to remain standing? Boss Hu thought, pursing his lips as he lowered his gaze and toyed with his golden abacus.

Two of the three leaders of civilian psychic organizations who had come to meet the Commander of Armaments had already collapsed at the table. Only the current Gu Mistress of Miao territory remained, barely holding on.

Stubborn refusal to concede shone in her bright eyes, but her delicate, fair face had long since turned scarlet.

The still-energetic Commander of Armaments grabbed a wine jar from the table, knocked away its clay seal, raised it, and emptied the entire vessel in less than a minute.

“Miss Lan, I’ve finished mine first to show my sincerity. Drink as much as you please!”

He set down the empty jar and gestured invitingly toward the Gu Mistress.

“…” The Gu Mistress froze. She glanced at the other two people at the table from the corner of her eye and smiled bitterly. “Fine. I admit defeat. Rest assured, my people will fully cooperate with the Midnight Watchers Society’s operation.”

As soon as she finished, she lightly raised a hand. Two streaks of lightning shot from her sleeves and flew out of the Liaozhai Tavern.

They were Lightning Gu, the fastest means of communication inherited by the Gu Mistress’s lineage.

After releasing the Lightning Gu, the Gu Mistress went limp and collapsed seductively onto the table, falling into a deep sleep.

The Commander of Armaments watched her for two seconds, then looked away. Closing his eyes, he rubbed his slightly aching brow. Then he took the jade Death Owl Emblem from his coat and sent Zhang Huainan a message.

“Senior, it’s time to act!”

————

At the same time, elsewhere…

Moon-Gathering Cave, Back Mountain of the Great Pure Palace.

Bright moonlight poured like mercury through the window and spread across the floor. On a low table in one corner of the cave, a gilded incense burner shaped like a beast’s head exhaled fragrant smoke.

A tall, straight-backed figure carrying an inexplicable air of age sat cross-legged on a cushion before the window. Bathed in moonlight, he cleared his mind, focused his will, and guarded his inner unity.

Zhang Huainan had returned from Shengjing earlier. After bathing and changing his clothes, he had remained here from sunset until the bright moon hung high.

Bathing, burning incense, meditating… These rituals were necessary before a difficult battle and also helped his psychic energy circulate, keeping him in peak condition.

He was waiting.

Using the object the Great Pure Palace disciples had recovered from the disciple who lost control earlier, he had already obtained a preliminary lock on the Codename F haunting. The moment the Commander of Armaments sent word, he would join forces with several factions and launch an encirclement operation against it.

Suddenly, the Death Owl Emblem in his robes trembled gently. Zhang Huainan reached inside and brushed his fingers across it.

The instant he received the Commander of Armaments’ message, Zhang Huainan’s eyes snapped open. Brilliant blue lightning flashed through his slightly clouded pupils.

“Good!”

He uttered the word quietly, then rose at an unhurried pace, took up his sword, and left Moon-Gathering Cave. Treading through the moonlight, he headed toward the front mountain.

He would ascend Zi Xiao Terrace and suppress the evil there!