Chapter 31

Chapter 31: Baoshan Six

Outside the hospital.

Zhai Dan crouched in the roadside woods, staring at the circle of light from the police flashlight. When there was a brief gap, darkness fell, and she quickly waved her hand toward the east wall of the inpatient department.

The patch of soft green grass on the wall immediately shook, and three or four figures, agile as leopards, wrapped in the night, swiftly flipped over, then began to march forward.

The green light narrowly turned red.

Xi Cheng'en, leading the three junior students he had pulled out of the hospital, gasped as they leaned against the traffic light pole.

"One, two, three."

Xi Cheng'en quickly counted the heads and breathed a sigh of relief when he realized they had all been brought out.

Beside him, Zhai Dan had been signaling them, furrowing her brow as she adjusted the signal on the radio receiver. Seeing her anxious expression, Xi Cheng'en took out two bottles of water, opened one to drink, and handed her the other.

Zhai Dan shook her head. "Thanks, but I can't drink."

"By the way, Xi Cheng, when you went to the Fourth Building to pick up people, did you run into Zhou Jingren and the others?"

"He should be with Chen Xiu, and three freshmen."

Xi Cheng'en shrugged, sat down on the ground. The traffic at the crossroads was sparse at this late hour, and the streetlights cast a yellowish glow on the pavement.

"Anyone I saw, I brought out."

"What's the matter, Dan? You seem anxious."

The earphones were still filled with chaotic, indistinct voices, but it was impossible to make out what was being said.

Occasionally, there were screams and explosion sounds mixed in.

Zhai Dan, frustrated, cursed and slammed the earphones heavily on the ground.

"I'm trying to save lives here, and I can't hear anything!"

Xi Cheng'en quickly picked them up. "Ancestor, these are borrowed!"

Zhai Dan kicked the streetlight pole. "Chen Xiu and the others are still stuck inside the hospital!"

"Listen, all I hear inside are screams. I can't make out what they're shouting."Xi Cheng'en picked up the earphones and heard a booming explosion. His ears tingled, and he vaguely heard a female voice:

"…We’re down!"

"…Fourth floor!"

Then, there was a strange howling sound over the public frequency, as if a ghost were lying inside the earphones, blowing heavily.

It gave Xi Cheng'en goosebumps all over his body.

Xi Cheng'en looked up. "After you dropped it just now, you seem to be a bit better."

Zhai Dan froze for a moment, then hurriedly grabbed the earphones, just in time to hear Chen Xiu's voice:

"Come down!"

"I'm on the first floor!"

Then there was another round of static and crackling noises.

"First floor!"

Zhai Dan repeated, her mind alert, quickly sorting through the information again. She was preparing to force her way into the outpatient building and tell the people from the Ghost Slayer division that, no matter what, it was better to get the students out of the haunted hospital in the middle of the night.

Xi Cheng'en quickly stopped her.

"First floor, right? Baoshan Hospital, Building 8, which first floor?"

Zhai Dan urged, "It doesn't matter about that now, we need to find them first."

"The first floor and the basement are only separated by one floor."

"Some things can penetrate very easily."

Xi Cheng'en's face became serious. "I just came from the first floor of Building 4—"

"The basement of Buildings 2 and 4 is connected, it’s the radiology department there."

"The yin energy field there feels off, I couldn’t get a clear read."

"I even feel like my eyes are deceiving me, the vision keeps bending."Xi Cheng'en used a series of very strange adjectives.

Zhai Dan: "..."

Zhai Dan, anxious, said, "Then I have to go too, at least I have to inform the Ghost Slayer Guild."

"One of the three freshmen is a junior I sent, if something happens to him, I’ll feel guilty to death."

"Thanks, Xi Cheng."

"Got any suggestions?"

Xi Cheng'en: "I only have one suggestion, bring more yang talismans."

In the inpatient department, Building 2.

Western staircase.

Ming Yue and Yan Jun ran together, their footsteps echoing loudly on the floorboards, the sound sharper than a slap in the otherwise silent corridor.

The two-meter-tall vengeful ghost relentlessly pursued them.

Even the rotating staircase felt like a deadly, unbreakable chain, wrapping tightly around the necks of the two students.

Yan Jun shouted, "Senior just said he’s on the first floor!"

Ming Yue nodded wildly: "I know!"

Yan Jun continued to shout, "How many floors have we gone down?"

Ming Yue didn’t look back: "We’re almost at the second floor!"

Yan Jun froze for a moment, a flashback of the floor navigation he saw earlier during their frantic run appeared in his mind—

Wasn’t the second floor just passed a moment ago?

So what floor is this?

He quickly turned his head, wanting to check the navigation sign on the ceiling again, but instead, he saw the terrifying figure of the vengeful ghost at the corner of the stairs. A chaotic mass of blackness, with seven or eight arms, short legs, a fat body, and a soft, squirming head with multiple eyes opening and closing.

Yan Jun: "…"Yan Jun felt like vomiting.

Up ahead, Ming Yue maintained a sprinting speed, pulling Yan Jun along: "Captain, don’t space out!"

"Senior said the first floor is useless!"

"This Inpatient Department Building 2 is so big, where’s the first floor?"

"There are three or four escape exits!"

Yan Jun froze for a moment as Ming Yue pulled him down to the first floor in a frantic rush.

He watched as the yellow lights flashed past, and the blurred entrance disappeared in an instant.

Damn it.

Yan Jun rarely cursed.

Passed, passed, they’ve passed the first floor!

"Ming Yue! Go back!"

"Wrong! That was the first floor!" Yan Jun desperately pulled Ming Yue, and they got stuck on the staircase leading to the basement. Turning around, they had barely taken a few steps upward when they saw the vengeful ghost following closely behind them. Then, an unusual scene occurred—

Black mist, like raindrops, rose up from the first floor, shimmering with faint light in the pitch-black night, forming a net that blocked their way, vibrating and resonating, creating a magnetic field pattern in the air resembling concentric circles—

The two: "!!!"

Ming Yue’s lips trembled: "Captain, what’s going on?"

Yan Jun grabbed her wrist; his palm was cold as ice, "God knows."

Ming Yue felt her scalp tingle: "How is it that the yin energy is fluctuating into a magnetic field shape? ...No, no, where is all this yin energy coming from?!"

At that moment, the vengeful ghost howled and lunged down from the staircase!

Yan Jun quickly acted, pulling Ming Yue and running down:

"Forget all this weirdness!"

"No way out, even if hell is ahead, we’ll charge through!"Ming Yue nodded, quickly repeating the missed first-floor command three times into her earpiece. She pulled out a foldable fork, lagging behind Yan Jun by a step to protect him.

Yan Jun: "……"

Yan Jun shouted, "Come up here!"

Ming Yue said righteously, "The comprehensive department is responsible for the front lines! You, an information systems guy, focus on analyzing tactics!"

The morgue door was slammed open.

Zhang Aihua struggled to stretch her hand out, crawling forward inch by inch.

Her head had already been gnawed off halfway, red and white brain matter leaking out in thin streams, leaving a trail of blood stains on the path she crawled.

Zhang Aihua couldn't cry out because half of her mouth had been eaten away. Fresh blood poured from between her teeth, mixing with the torn flesh of her lips, wetting her carefully groomed eyelashes from the daylight.

The fourteenth-floor stairs.

They were so long.

Cold, flowing with the light of blood.

Zhang Aihua, holding onto the last hope of survival, dragged her half-body, using one hand to grip the steps, trying to pull herself up. She looked like a bloody noodle, her limp body sprawled on the stairs.

"Help...!"

She mumbled, blood tears streaming from her eyes.

"Help me..."

Her weak voice echoed in the empty room.

The stairs from the basement to the second basement floor weren't long, nor short, with no turns, but they made her lose all hope for life.

Feet stepped out from the back of the morgue.

Dragging black, viscous liquid that reeked of decay.

Zhang Aihua cried out in agony, crawling upwards inch by inch.She felt it, the heavy footsteps of "Qiao Ting" sounding behind her.

A strange noise burst in, like the hurried footsteps of strangers, mixed with the chaotic shouts of young men and women.

Zhang Aihua's eyes flashed with a glimmer of light.

Someone!

There are others here!

"Qiao Ting" stepped forward and squatted on the stairs, looking at her.

Zhang Aihua's iris reflected countless eyeballs on Qiao Ting’s body.

Clear.

Deep.

She heard "Qiao Ting" make a strange sound, like a chorus of many men and women mixed together:

"Do you want to be saved, Teacher Zhang?"

"But I don’t want to."

"Why would anyone be saved when the hearts of the world are cold?"

Saying this, "Qiao Ting" extended a hand and inserted it into Zhang Aihua's chest, gripping her wildly beating heart within the searing flesh and blood.

Then, with a gentle squeeze.

Zhang Aihua's eyes widened suddenly, her eye corners cracking open, blood pouring out.

A sharp pain shot through her.

The three major arteries in her heart were instantly squeezed by the increased pressure, screaming and exploding. Thousands of milliliters of arterial blood burst out from every "exit" of Zhang Aihua’s body.

Her seven orifices.

Her heart.

And the massive wound from her missing half-body.She was like a tube of red paint that had been squeezed and exploded.

The light in Zhang Aihua's eyes extinguished.

She had completely turned into a warm body waiting to cool, stiff on the stairs.

"Qiao Ting" dug out her heart, and several hands on her back scrambled to pry apart the meridians and blood vessels, gnawing on the chewy heart muscle.

In the eyes of the Yin-Yang people.

The radiology department was infinitely mysterious, full of metaphysical research waiting to be done.

On the first floor, Ming Yue and Yan Jun witnessed the gathering of Yin energy forming a tide, creating regular ripples, rolling and fluctuating through the air like ocean waves.

The radiation from the daytime work still lingered in the air at night.

It guided the Yin energy to move, forming strange shapes.

It was like a new world.

Both of them were astonished.

Strangely enough, the sound of the evil ghost gradually faded behind them.

The surroundings became eerily quiet, and their eardrums felt a bit cold.

Ming Yue was surprised: "Did they let us go?"

Yan Jun shook his head: "Don't let your guard down, something strange always means there's danger."

Ming Yue pursed her lips: "But we don’t actually have a deep enmity with the little ghosts on the eighth floor."

Yan Jun dragged her forward and asked in return: "Does an evil ghost need a reason to kill?"

Ming Yue: "..."

Ming Yue chuckled: "Some do, some don’t, right?"

Yan Jun coldly said: "Are you going to discuss ethics with a little ghost? Haven’t you heard that children are all demons?"

The two of them bantered passionately, when a lonely department navigation board appeared on the ceiling ahead.

Ming Yue stuck a Yang energy talisman onto Yan Jun’s hand, warming his cold body, and stepped forward to check the navigation sign.The moment she looked, it became clear.

"No wonder the Yin energy is so strong on the lower floors."

"So it’s the morgue downstairs."

"I thought—" Ming Yue, feeling a bit carefree, was about to discuss it when she was suddenly overwhelmed by a strong smell of blood.

The scent of fresh blood soaking through white bones.

A dense, vengeful energy surged like a bloodstorm.

Fresh and filled with hatred, the souls lingered.

Ming Yue: "......"

Ming Yue immediately shut her mouth, took a deep breath, and carefully listened: "Captain, can you smell it?"

Yan Jun pulled out a knife from his bag, whispering: "Of course."

The blood stench was so thick it was like someone had just used a mop soaked in fresh blood to scrub the floor.

—It was coming from the stairwell five meters away.

Ming Yue's heart raced, and she quickly pressed herself against the wall in just a few steps.

She snapped back to reality and made a hand gesture to Yan Jun.

Yan Jun nodded in understanding and moved to the other side to set up an ambush.

Ming Yue held her breath, gripped her weapon tightly, and swiftly dashed to the stairwell, her muscles tensed.

She saw a huge black shadow wriggling on the ground, with a woman’s head pinned beneath it, lifeless.

Endless cold blood flowed from beneath the woman's body, spreading into a pool of blood.

Ming Yue: "......"

Damn it, is this an ice lover?!

Looking for death! Beast!