Chapter 476: Ghost Art Unparalleled (2)

"Crash, my fucking ass!" the driver yelled, so terrified his soul nearly left his body. He looked ready to punch me. "We're going to crash! We're going to crash!"

"Just drive! Cut the crap!" I snapped. Steeling myself, I threw caution to the wind and stomped the gas pedal to the floor. The dozen meters between us vanished in the blink of an eye.

The black and white figures that had materialized out of thin air blocked the middle of the road like grim reapers coming to collect their due. Both the driver and I saw them clearly; their bodies wavered between physical and ethereal, fundamentally different from ordinary ghosts.

The car hurtled forward, accelerating like an out-of-control bull lowering its horns, and slammed into the black and white figures at full speed!

"It's over..." The driver's face filled with despair. If his car killed someone, he would be implicated even if the accident wasn't his fault. "I just wanted to do a good deed. Did it have to cost someone their life?"

Closer and closer!

When the front bumper reached the black and white figures, the driver squeezed his eyes shut, too terrified to watch the bloody scene unfold.

But after two or three full seconds, the expected collision and deafening crash never came. He opened his eyes in bewilderment. Before him stretched the wide-open Ting Tang Road; the figures were completely gone.

"What the fuck?"

As a white-collar worker and a highly educated professional, this was only the second time the driver had cursed out loud. I understood how he felt, though. Anyone would struggle to calm down after such a massive emotional rollercoaster.

"Just focus on driving. Safety first," I said, easing off the gas pedal. I glanced back; we had temporarily shaken off the Jiang family's black sedan and the taxi.

"You have the nerve to tell me 'safety first'?" The driver wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. "What just happened? I could have sworn I saw two figures on the road, one black and one white. Was I hallucinating?"

I ignored him. Instead, I activated my Judging Eye and stared fixedly at She Qian, worried he would pull another trick.

Sitting inside the black sedan, She Qian maintained a vicious smirk on his effeminate face, acting as if he already had me dead to rights.

"Good people do not live long, while scourges last for a thousand years. I should have let the Ghost Mother obliterate you last time!" My tone was ice-cold. In reality, I knew very well that under those circumstances, I had absolutely no authority to command the Ghost Mother.

Through the car window, She Qian mouthed something at me. I could not hear him clearly, but I figured it was some sort of threat.

Looking elsewhere, the vehicle closest to us now was the taxi. The cab driver was completely out of his mind. His face radiated black energy, and his mouth hung wide open as drool slipped down his chin. Every now and then, he would let out mindless curses or burst into manic laughter.

'I absolutely cannot let that maniac catch up.' My gaze jumped past the taxi to the road farther back. Two relatively inconspicuous sedans were trailing us from a distance. Both cars were packed with people. Aside from the drivers, the passengers were mostly cultivators from the Three Yin Sect dressed in dark Daoist robes.

'Including the taxi, the Jiang family dispatched a total of four cars, carrying at least seven or eight cultivators. Are they putting everything on the line to settle things in blood today?' Aside from their overwhelming power, a large part of why the Three Yin Sect had managed to become the true puppet masters ruling Jiangcheng was their sheer ruthlessness. They were a sinister, venomous organization, striking like vipers. Anyone who got in their way or caught their eye would meet a violent end.

"Drive faster! Once we reach the hospital, I'll let you go!" I shouted. I already had a knife to my throat with absolutely no way out. The snake venom was still spreading through my left leg, and the broken fang was still lodged deep in my flesh. I wouldn't make it far on foot in this state.

After driving forward for a few more minutes, my phone suddenly chimed with a WeChat notification. I opened it and, to my surprise, saw a message from the Balding Uncle.

"Streamer, my car got impounded by traffic cops for speeding, so I can't get there anytime soon. I'm calling my wife right now. I probably won't reach the Central Hospital for another hour."

"An hour?" My eyes darkened. The people from the Three Yin Sect could catch up at any second. If I got out of the car at the Central Hospital, they would snatch me right off the street. Those lunatics wouldn't try to reason with me.

'The uncle's car gets inexplicably impounded by traffic cops? How can my luck be this bad? Is heaven itself secretly messing with me?' Regardless of whether it was just a coincidence or something deeper, it didn't matter anymore. All that mattered was figuring out the fastest way to escape to the No-Lights Road.

Coughing dryly, I looked at the driver. He was the only person I could rely on right now. Getting out of the car to find another ride was far too risky; one wrong move and the Three Yin Sect would have me.

Even though we were in the middle of the city, the sky was already dark, meaning ghosts were no longer restricted. The sect members could easily use ghost arts to attack me without ordinary people ever noticing.

"Buddy, what's your name? Words can't express my gratitude. I swear I'll pay you back for this later." I gathered my thoughts and spoke to the driver in a softer, more reassuring tone.

"Don't. I'll just drop you off at the hospital. If you really want to do me a favor, never come looking for me again. This is too fucking wild; my heart can't take it." He was a smart guy. Seeing the cars hot on our tail, he had already figured out the gist of it. "Did you borrow from a loan shark? Is that why they're chasing you so hard? You want me to call the cops for you?"

Even though he cursed a lot, the driver was actually a decent guy.

"No need for the cops. They aren't your average criminals," I said, catching my breath. I tore a strip of cloth from my shirt, tied it tightly around my calf, and squeezed the black blood out of the puncture wounds on my ankle, doing everything I could to slow the snake venom.

"Seriously? It's that serious?"

The driver tactfully dropped the subject. Seeing the Central Hospital drawing closer and closer, I spoke up with an awkward grimace. "Brother, the place I actually need to go is the No-Lights Road in the Old Town District. The hospital was just a desperate excuse."

"Don't call me brother. If you really see me as a brother, let me go. My wife and kids are waiting for me at home, and I've got a seven or eight thousand yuan mortgage to pay every fucking month. I can't afford to get into an accident. If I'm gone, my entire family collapses..."

Before I could even reply, the driver broke down, bawling and pleading through snot and tears. I genuinely pitied him, but my life was on the line here. There was no room for negotiation.

'I can't let him stop the car. If push comes to shove, I'll hijack the car and make a run for it!' I made up my mind. If playing nice didn't work, I'd have to use force. At worst, I would just compensate the owner double once this was all over.

I twisted around to check our pursuers. Inside the black sedan, She Qian let out a chilling sneer. Having seen everything happening inside our car clearly, the corners of his mouth crept up. He rolled down his window with one hand while pinching a Black Talisman between two fingers. "Soul-Conquering Child Spirit, Soul Boy, buried in the nether, unable to be born! I beseech the spirits for retribution, deny this man his path! Seize his three ethereal and seven corporeal souls, track and seek the Five Paths Immortal Master! Let him speak madness, let his head split upon the road! Let his hands and feet turn to ice, let his body be bound, let his mind scatter to the winds! I command thee by the authority of Emperor Yama, Great King of Ghost Power, act with the urgency of the law!"

The moment the incantation finished, a flash of black light erupted from She Qian's hand. The talisman dissolved, transforming into a wisp of black smoke that hid a child's face. It shot straight toward our car.

'Trying to take me down? You're completely outmatched when it comes to ghost arts!' Fury ignited in my chest. I was just about to summon the Desire Ghost from my Ghost Ring, but to my surprise, the black smoke darted into the car, fearfully dodged around me, and lunged right for the driver.

"What the hell is that?"

A hideous round-faced child spirit suddenly threw itself at the driver's eyes. Panic-stricken, the man threw both hands off the steering wheel and frantically slapped at his own face.

My rage boiled over. The shameless, despicable She Qian knew his ghost arts wouldn't do much against me, so he had targeted the driver with his Black Talisman instead. "Don't panic!"

I instantly ripped a page from the Profound Truth Dao Scripture in my jacket and chanted the spiritual invocation: "When mortals come, they are barred by paper! When ghosts come, they are barred by mountains! A thousand evils cannot break through, ten thousand evils cannot pry it open!"

The true Daoist scripture contained supreme celestial resonance. A mere Soul-Conquering Child Spirit couldn't possibly break through a page of this holy text.

The round-faced spirit was repelled by the scripture, its features twisting in savage fury. Lacking any true sentience, it immediately turned and lunged at me instead.

"There is a path to Heaven, yet you refuse to walk it! There is no gate to Hell, yet you force your way in!" Within my yin aperture, Yin energy surged like the earthly River Styx. "Yin-Yang Has an Order! All souls released from purgatory shall ascend to the heavens! Defy this command, and your bones shall turn to dust, eternally damned to the netherworld!"

My Kidney Aperture tore wide open, flooding my palm with Yin energy. I reached out and seized the ghost child. Closing my fingers, I crushed its body inch by inch.

Waves of Yin energy swirled inside the car, accompanied by the agonizing shrieks of ghosts and howling wolves. The Soul-Conquering Child Spirit was shredded to pieces in the blink of an eye, turning into pure Yin energy that I absorbed straight into my Kidney Aperture. Deep inside, the slumbering Three-Eyed Infant Spirit seemed to sense the influx of external Yin energy, and the third eye on its forehead gave a faint flutter.