The Cleaver missed.
Uncle Li’s wife rushed over, but instead of attacking him, she transformed into a Black Shadow and merged into his body.
Uncle Li shuddered all over, then hurriedly checked himself.
Song Yu stared for a moment. “Uncle Li, don’t tell me you’ve become a Ghost Tamer just like that?”
“I… I don’t know.” Uncle Li shook his head, still looking utterly bewildered.
He couldn’t understand why his dead wife had suddenly appeared beside him as something like a ghost.
Nor could he understand what would happen now that she had merged into his body.
“We finally made it out. Uncle Li, let’s go home first.”
The surroundings shifted, and the two of them reappeared in the Alley.
At Song Yu’s reminder, Uncle Li came back to his senses too.
“Xiao Song, hurry and get in the car. Let’s go back.”
The two hurried back home.
Song Yu closed the door from inside without a word, then finally breathed a sigh of relief.
With his wife there, Uncle Li should be safe.
But could they really avoid this supernatural incident just by hiding at home?
Song Yu wasn’t convinced. After all, he’d been dragged into that strange Illusory Realm in broad daylight.
Could a single door keep an Illusory Realm like that out?
After the two of them drove home, a figure appeared out of thin air outside the Alley, looking somewhat disheveled.
It was Xia Ling, who had appeared in Song Yu’s shop earlier. She looked up at the sky, blanketed with dark clouds and gloomily overcast, her heart heavy.
“A supernatural incident? Why did the alarm suddenly go off? Did Uncle Chen’s team discover something?”
“Where’s Boss Song? Oh no, he was in the Alley just now too. Could he have been dragged into the Ghost Domain as well? If it’s a Vengeful Soul, there’s still a chance of survival. Against an Evil Ghost, ordinary people are doomed.”
Xia Ling’s face filled with worry as she searched the Alley.
But as she walked, her expression grew more and more grave. People kept appearing out of thin air around her, but they were only bodies, all in horrifying condition.
At last, she spotted the two-story building at the far end of the Alley, along with its lights and the figures inside.
“Thank goodness. Boss Song should be all right. I should go save the others.”
Xia Ling’s expression turned solemn, as if she were sensing something.
Then she spread her arms. A Black Shadow appeared around her body, and a pair of illusory bat wings unfurled behind her.
“Xiao Fei, enter the Ghost Domain here.”
Xia Ling spoke in a low voice. Yin Power surged through her, and as her wings beat, she vanished from the Alley.
Inside the Snack Shop, Song Yu recovered a little, then pulled back a corner of the curtain and looked outside through the adjacent window.
The sky seemed to have darkened in an instant.
There had clearly been sunlight when he went out earlier, and it was still a long way from nightfall.
“What exactly is going on with this supernatural incident?”
Song Yu turned on the computer and began searching for the latest news about Liangcheng.
His phone had had no signal at all outside, but once he was back in the shop, the Wi-Fi worked and seemed unaffected.
The computer had a signal too, which surprised Song Yu.
『An alarm has suddenly sounded in Liangcheng. What level is this supernatural incident?』
『Liangcheng Special Affairs Bureau announcement: Residents of Xinchun District, please stay indoors for your own safety. Do not go outside. Close all doors and windows, and wait for rescue.』
『Latest news: The supernatural incident in Liangcheng has affected an area with a permanent population of over 900,000.』
『Latest news: The supernatural incident has been provisionally classified as Grade B, Level 2...』
『Latest news: The supernatural incident’s level has been raised to Grade A, Level 2...』
...
The stream of unofficial reports and official announcements made Song Yu draw in a sharp breath.
Grade A, Level 2—did that mean it covered an entire district?
Liangcheng was only a second-tier city, with a permanent population of just over six million.
The population of Xinchun District was 900,000. That was probably a conservative estimate.
It had been broad daylight, and even if the shop was safe, he couldn’t sleep.
So all he could do was watch the Alley through a gap in the curtains.
Before long, he finally saw a familiar figure.
Xia Ling suddenly appeared on the street in the Alley and stumbled, almost losing her balance.
She was carrying a young man who looked terrified.
“Where do you live?”
Xia Ling asked.
The young man was still shaken. Once he had steadied himself, he hurriedly said, “Not here. I live in the next residential complex...”
Xia Ling’s expression darkened as she scanned the area.
This definitely wasn’t the center of the supernatural incident, but everyone had been pulled into an independent Ghost Domain.
This was the third Lesser Ghost domain she had entered.
In the first one, the moment she entered, she saw that the person who had been dragged inside was already dead—a gruesome sight.
Just then, a middle-aged man appeared beside a food stall not far from them.
“Mom...”
He let out a desperate wail.
Xia Ling exclaimed in delight, “You actually made it out!”
But as soon as she finished speaking, she saw the middle-aged man’s voice abruptly cut off. He seemed to have been frozen in place. Then streaks of blood light appeared, forming a net that sliced him to pieces.
Looking at the pool of bright red chunks, cut into eerily even pieces, Song Yu nearly threw up.
He had slaughtered chickens before and handled plenty of raw meat.
But he really couldn’t stomach this scene.
The young man was standing nearby. After freezing for a moment, he began retching.
Xia Ling hurriedly pulled him back, searching for somewhere they could hide.
When faced with a low-level ghost creature, sometimes even a room could save your life, if you were lucky.
But she saw that every door along the Alley was shut tight.
Should they stay where they were or go outside?
As Xia Ling hesitated, a flash of light suddenly caught her eye.
She saw Song Yu waving at her from behind a window, holding a flashlight and flicking it on and off.
Xia Ling hesitated, torn with indecision where she stood.
She didn’t know that Song Yu was completely safe inside the shop. She only thought that going in might put him in danger.
But there was another life at stake beside her.
After weighing her options, she still pulled the young man into the shop.
Song Yu hurriedly shut the door.
A small box appeared in Xia Ling’s hand. She opened it, took out a blue talisman, and gently pressed it onto the door.
“Phew...”
With a sigh of relief, Xia Ling sank into a chair.
“Thank you, Boss Song. We really had nowhere else to go.”
Song Yu waved a hand. “It’s fine. If I hadn’t seen you, you’d have been in danger.”
Anyone with eyes could tell Xia Ling had been saving people, but she was having a hard time herself.
When he could save someone’s life with little effort and no loss to himself, Song Yu was happy to do it.
Besides, the Special Affairs Bureau reimbursed expenses generously. At the very least, helping made him feel good.
He didn’t want to become the kind of selfish person who treated human lives as worthless whenever there was nothing in it for him.
Being decisive and ruthless meant having the ability to distinguish good from evil and eradicate evil completely. It didn’t mean killing innocents or slaughtering an entire family over the slightest grievance.
Perhaps people with no principles lived better.
After all, people always said that evil people lived for a thousand years, while good people died young.
But the education and values he’d grown up with wouldn’t let him become a menace to society—not for now, anyway.
“Thank you, big brother and big sister, for saving my life! Let me kowtow to you!”
The young man finally came to his senses. He wiped away his tears and snot, then dropped to his knees with a thud.
Song Yu and Xia Ling were both startled and hurried to pull him back up.
“No, I have to kowtow! I nearly saw my great-grandma just now, but this Heroine came in and tore the Evil Ghost to pieces, and I suddenly came to my senses. And big brother let us in—this is even greater kindness than delivering charcoal in a snowstorm. If it weren’t for you two, I really would’ve gone to see my great-grandma.”
The young man insisted on kowtowing, crying and shouting as he did.
But Song Yu’s strength was surprisingly great, and he held the young man firmly in place.
Creak...
As the three of them struggled with one another, the sound of a car braking sharply came from outside.
Xia Ling was startled. The young man stopped fussing too, then said fearfully,
“Ghosts can’t drive, right?”
Xia Ling glanced at him. “If they need to, they can even pilot an aircraft carrier. Besides, what you’re seeing might be an illusion.”
In the gloom, a taxi stopped in front of the shop.
Of the three, only Song Yu remained unruffled. He watched the taxi with curiosity. Once the shop door was shut, no matter how powerful it was, it couldn’t do a thing to him.
He was even a little excited.
Was this the start of a classic ghost taxi scene?