Translator: CinderTL
Huai Yi froze after receiving the text message. Nevertheless, he opened WeChat and saw a friend request from someone named Silver Spear Young Master.
After accepting the request, the person sent him a video.
As Huai Yi watched the video, his expression underwent a dramatic transformation. By the time it ended, he still hadn't recovered.
He rotated his stiff neck, slowly turning his head. Suddenly, he realized Director Qi had been standing beside him all along, staring at him with an eerie expression.
Time seemed to freeze in that moment.
Thump.
Thump.
As their eyes met, Huai Yi heard his own heart pounding in his chest. He'd never felt this way even with his girlfriend.
He quickly put away his phone and forced a sheepish smile at Director Qi. "That was... all a misunderstanding. We were just joking around. Did that slap hurt?"
Director Qi stared intently at Huai Yi. His eyes slowly began to roll upward, turning into dead-fish-like white orbs.
A chill ran through Huai Yi's feet, shooting straight to the top of his head.
Director Qi's face began to contort, his muscles and bones shifting beneath his skin, the slow, writhing movement of his skeleton visible through his flesh.
Even more terrifying, the body beneath Director Qi's trench coat was also changing.
Numerous round, bulging shapes writhed beneath the coat. Soon, the buttons burst open, revealing dozens of human faces beneath his white shirt.
The faces varied in size, but all shared the same expression: wide mouths agape in silent screams.
In that instant, Huai Yi felt as if Director Qi's body contained not just a dozen, but perhaps dozens of malevolent Ghosts, all on the verge of bursting free.
"Holy shit!" Huai Yi couldn't hold back any longer. With his life on the line, he had nothing left to conserve. He immediately opened the Gate within him and summoned his allies.
The Qilin Arm manifested, his arm swelling like a balloon. The moment it was covered in pale red scales, Huai Yi struck out with a palm strike.
He aimed for the same spot, but this time with a hundred times more force.
Director Qi's face began to rot, his lips sloughing off, putrid flesh and blood clinging to his face in dangling strips.
One eye had rotted away in its socket, while the other dangled precariously, as if it might fall out at any moment.
This wasn't a person.
It was clearly a corpse that had been rotting for an unknown length of time.
The slap sent the Ghost Face's rotten features caving in, shattering a piece of its skull.
Foul-smelling pus dripped intermittently from the cracks.
The remaining eye fell out, hanging from the face by a few blood vessels.
The spine in its neck had been snapped by the force, leaving the Ghost Face tilted on its shoulder, still facing Huai Yi.
"Gah, gah-gah..."
The Ghost Face smiled, a grotesque and malevolent expression.
In the next moment, the "Director Qi" in the tattered trench coat lurched toward Huai Yi with an eerie gait.
"Oh my god!" Huai Yi cried, sprinting toward the corridor where Jiang Cheng had disappeared earlier.
Thump.
Thump.
The footsteps behind him were spaced far apart, yet the distance between them remained unchanged. Each step of the Ghost was likely equivalent to seven or eight of Huai Yi's.
Thinking back to Jiang Cheng's earlier behavior, Huai Yi wanted to swing his Qilin Arm and slap himself.
That Jiang Cheng is full of wicked schemes. Doesn't he fear his family will suffer retribution?
"Jiang Cheng!" Huai Yi's desperate cry echoed through the empty hospital. "Come out and save me! If... if this Gate swallows me, you'll definitely die here too!"
"The Gate inside it isn't something either of us can handle. It's swallowed countless people already."
"The Gate inside Xiang Nan has been completely corrupted. The curse has erupted. It's now a mobile Gate!"
"It's targeting us!"
"It wants the Gates inside us!"
"Brother Jiang!" Huai Yi shouted desperately as footsteps grew closer behind him. "Help me!"
At that moment, Jiang Cheng was hiding in the corner where he'd been concealed earlier, closely monitoring the situation with Huai Yi.
Lin Wan'er wasn't there. Jiang Cheng had sent her away earlier.
He'd told her to go upstairs to find Yu Yu and Cao Yang.
There were some things he didn't want Lin Wan'er to know, and the situation had spiraled out of control.
The real Director Qi had fallen into the hands of the entity behind Xiang Nan's Gate.
What they were about to face had two possible outcomes:
First, Director Qi was already dead, the Ritual had begun, and the mission had failed.
Second, Director Qi was imprisoned by the Ghost, spared only because the time wasn't right. The Ghost would kill him at a predetermined moment to complete the final step of the Ritual.
Jiang Cheng couldn't be sure which scenario was unfolding.
But right now, he was determined to intervene and save Huai Yi.
Not out of any profound affection, but because Huai Yi's earlier words had saved himself.
Huai Yi seemed experienced in these matters, especially regarding the "Gate."
Moreover, he had mentioned being hired to resolve this issue.
This suggested that the person who hired him had long suspected Nan Huaili's disappearance was linked to a supernatural event.
This was entirely new territory for Jiang Cheng. He might not have cared before, but now he was entangled with a Gate himself.
And judging by Huai Yi's attitude toward him, the Wu behind the Gate within him seemed to possess overwhelming power compared to ordinary Gates.
For Jiang Cheng's current predicament, this could be considered a silver lining.
He needed Huai Yi alive.
He needed to obtain the information Huai Yi and the people behind him possessed.
"Brother Huai Yi, over here!" Jiang Cheng leaned out halfway, waving and calling out.
The moment Huai Yi saw Jiang Cheng, he nearly burst into tears. He'd assumed Jiang Cheng had simply run off with Lin Wan'er.
But it turned out he had a conscience after all, hiding nearby instead of running far.
It seemed that though he didn't say it, he still had some sense of responsibility.
Giggle, giggle, giggle.
An eerie laughter echoed from behind, so close it felt like it was right behind his head. Huai Yi's sphincter tightened, and he ran even faster.
The thing chasing Huai Yi finally revealed its true form.
Besides its crooked, shattered skull, several other human heads had sprouted crookedly from its shoulders and neck.
These heads had a ghastly bluish-gray pallor, like branches growing from a tree, hanging from its body.
Even more terrifying, each head seemed to retain its consciousness from the moment of its death. Except for the crooked one, which was cackling maniacally, the other heads wore expressions of extreme agony.
Some gaped open in silent screams, while others wept bloody tears of pain.
Two heads were crammed together, tearing at each other, blood dripping from their wounds in a gruesome spectacle.
The mass of writhing heads created a scene beyond mere horror or eeriness. Jiang Cheng's breath caught in his throat.
(End of the Chapter)
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