Chapter 659: Gradually Losing Control

'The Ghost Ring shattered? Not good! Something happened to Wang Shi!' I focused my attention, sensing the wisp of yin energy I had planted in Wang Shi's body. It flickered weakly, as if obscured by something, leaving me able to pinpoint only a rough direction.

'Why is he still staying in the same place?'

The sect cultivators had already entered Basement Level 3. According to my senses, Wang Shi was currently on Basement Level 4. The distance between them was shrinking.

'If Wang Shi gets caught and my plan is exposed, it's not a big deal. What I'm afraid of is them taking Chen Jiuge's corpse too.' I frowned. As a live show streamer, Chen Jiuge would definitely carry anything related to the Live Show on him. If the Live Show Phone fell into the hands of the sect cultivators, the consequences would be unimaginable. More importantly, the items on him related to the Dream Dao were my only hope of saving Sakurako. I couldn't afford to lose them.

The sounds of fighting drifting up from below grew intense. Tracking them down, I found only corpses littering the ground. The sect cultivators were putting their terrifying dominance on full display.

The sect cultivators checked every single room. Whenever they encountered white fiends or Earth Corpses, they exterminated them without a word. They were completely sweeping the floor clean.

Following behind, I watched with secret alarm. Suddenly, I felt a little worried for the Uncorrupted Bone.

'The strength of Lu Jingxiu and Xu Yan is unfathomable. With those two teaming up, who knows if the Uncorrupted Bone can hold them off.' I didn't have a clear grasp on the Uncorrupted Bone; most of my information came from Daoist master Wan, who had spoken of it with utmost gravity. But then again, I hadn't even seen the Uncorrupted Bone's true form, making it impossible to accurately judge its power.

Leaning against the handrail, I carefully descended to Basement Level 3 and stood guard at the corner of the emergency stairwell.

With overwhelming force, the sect cultivators cleared out the white fiends on this floor. They seemed to notice something was off and gathered to discuss it. Lu Chen even repeatedly suggested temporarily retreating from the Third Ward, but the other cultivators shot him down.

Ultimately, they adjusted their formation. Xu Yan led the way, while the four Golden Mountain Sect cultivators and Lu Chen stayed in the middle, leaving Lu Jingxiu to cover the rear.

'Are they guarding against a sneak attack from behind?' Both Xu Yan and Lu Jingxiu were seasoned veterans who had weathered countless storms. Their dominance was built on a foundation of true strength, making it very difficult to catch them off guard.

'They're going into Basement Level 4!' Terrified of being discovered, I didn't dare channel the yin energy in my body. Unable to warn Wang Shi, I could only leave him to fend for himself.

'I'll just have to play it by ear.' Just as I was about to give up on Wang Shi, the yin energy in my yin aperture surged. Sensing carefully, I realized the wisp of energy planted in Wang Shi's body had suddenly started moving again.

It was darting deeper underground at an incredible speed!

'What happened to Wang Shi? Is he running for his life? That doesn't make sense. Mr. Paper used the vengeful spirits to test the sect cultivators, and they were almost entirely wiped out. White fiends and Earth Corpses aren't interested in yin souls, so there's nothing in this building that can threaten him. Did an accident happen?' I stopped myself from overthinking it. Even though I didn't say it aloud, I actually cared quite a bit about the suspense novelist. After all, we had gone through thick and thin together.

Down on Basement Level 4, Xu Yan also noticed Wang Shi's abnormal movements. He stared at his Compass for a long moment before speaking, "That kid must have gotten scared. He's running for his life."

"Moving corpses and roaming shadows are incredibly fragile without someone to control them. That's what I find so strange. This place is a natural corpse-raising ground. Why would Gao Jian, a Ghost Cultivator, hide here alongside a Ghost Mother?" After Lu Jingxiu purified the Earth-Bound Spirits in the hospital, he hadn't made another move. His face remained taut, as if he were worried about something.

"You worry too much, Daoist brother. When we first entered this building, hundreds of vengeful spirits charged at us without any coordination. Gao Jian has already reached a high level of mastery in his ghost arts; why would he use such a crude method to send his ghosts to their deaths?" A sharp glint flashed in Xu Yan's cloudy eyes. "This proves he's just responding in a panic, trying to use the vengeful spirits to buy time."

"No wonder you stepped in to help me suppress the vengeful spirits," Lu Jingxiu said, shaking his head. "There is something fishy about all this. It feels like something is off."

"It doesn't matter. Defending the Dao by exorcising demons is our duty. The underbelly of Jiangcheng is filled with filth; it's about time we cleaned it up." Gripping his Jade Seal, Xu Yan walked past a door just as a white fiend lunged out from a cabinet inside.

"Watch out!"

Everyone around shouted a warning, but Xu Yan remained completely unfazed. Stepping back half a pace, he silently chanted an incantation and lightly tapped his ring finger against the white fiend's forehead.

The fierce, malevolent monster suddenly froze in place. When Xu Yan pulled his finger away, a red cinnabar mark was left right in the center of the white fiend's forehead. Using my Judging Eye to look closer, I realized it was actually the ancient character for 'Dao'.

Xu Yan continued forward without looking back, as if it were a trivial matter.

The Golden Mountain Sect disciples following behind him immediately rushed forward. Wei Wenming pulled out a rope woven from talismans and slipped it around the white fiend's neck. His second junior brother, Wei Liangming, drew a string of copper coins. Who knew what incantation he chanted, but with a single wave of his hand, the linked coins transformed into the shape of a sword.

'So that's a Copper Coin Sword?' My eyes widened; I was really broadening my horizons today.

Wei Liangming held down the white fiend's head and drove the Copper Coin Sword into the back of its neck. The white fiend twitched a few times before it stopped struggling and collapsed into a heap.

"There are far too many Fierce Corpses in this place. I'm afraid my Five Emperors Copper Coins might not be enough." With a flick of his wrist, Wei Liangming's sword turned back into a string of coins, which he hung at his waist.

"Even without the Five Emperors Copper Coins, we still have the Five Emperors Golden Light Formation bestowed by our master. We've practiced it in the sect so many times, and now we can finally put it to use," Wei Jianming said. The few of them didn't seem worried in the slightest, acting as if they still had plenty of hidden trump cards left to play.

"It's best if we don't have to use it. That would mean the world is at peace," Lu Jingxiu remarked slowly. Certain thoughts and views of his were remarkably similar to those of the late Daoist Priest Xianqing.

Lu Jingxiu was two generations senior to Wei Jianming. Even if Wei Jianming felt disgruntled, he didn't dare show it, merely nodding in agreement.

Wang Shi had long since fled Basement Level 4. The sect cultivators were in no rush to chase him, instead advancing steadily and clearing the floors one by one.

In less than twenty minutes, they had completely swept Basement Level 4. To my surprise, they didn't find Chen Jiuge's corpse.

'Something's not right. There's no way there are so few white fiends on Basement Level 4.' I had just escaped from here last night. The uncontrolled white fiends had instinctively started crawling toward the surface, gathering in massive numbers. If I hadn't stolen a piece of the Uncorrupted Bone and used its aura to intimidate the horde, I really might not have made it out.

'Wang Shi was lingering on Basement Level 4 this whole time. He might have been looking for Chen Jiuge's corpse, but why did he suddenly scramble deeper underground? And another thing, where did Chen Jiuge's corpse go? Is it in Mr. Paper's hands?' I couldn't figure it out. Some sort of incident had definitely occurred here after I left the Jianghu Cancer Research Hospital.

Pushing forward relentlessly, the sect cultivators finished clearing out Basement Level 7 at around midnight.

Armed with a myriad of methods, they meticulously searched every inch of the floor, slaughtering all the white fiends and Earth Corpses. Following in their wake, I watched with a pounding heart. The strength of these sect cultivators was vastly greater than I had imagined.

"Daoist master, the path is blocked," Wei Wenming reported, retreating to Xu Yan's side. With his bloodstained robes and a talisman rope in hand, he looked quite worse for wear.

Down on Basement Level 6, Xu Yan and the Golden Mountain Sect disciples had swapped positions. The sects' joint operation to slay the Ghost Mother was partially meant to hone the younger generation anyway. Once Xu Yan felt he had full control over the situation, he handed the task of hunting the white fiends over to the Golden Mountain Sect disciples and Lu Chen, while he conserved his energy for their imagined enemy—the Ghost Mother.

"Understood." Xu Yan walked over to where Wei Wenming indicated. The opening leading down to Basement Level 8 was completely jammed with corpses and debris, and the air reeked of a foul stench mixed with medicinal liquid.

"What a sin. The living and the dead are buried together here. They're neither human nor ghost, incapable of even entering reincarnation," Lu Jingxiu sighed, looking at the 'fillers' plugging the hole.

"All these lives should be pinned on Gao Jian. Once we catch him, we definitely can't let him die a good death." This Wei Jianming was incredibly petty, happily slinging any mud he could onto my name.

"There's no way he could have completed such a massive project all by himself, not even with a Ghost Mother's help. I suspect he has the backing of some evil sect," Lu Jingxiu said fairly. "Jiangcheng isn't that large. The only local sect capable of pulling this off is the Three Yin Sect."

"It shouldn't be the Three Yin Sect." Lu Chen thought back for a moment. "When I first saw the Ghost Mother, cultivators from the Three Yin Sect were present. They and Gao Jian were completely at each other's throats. There is absolutely no way they're working together."

"If it's not them, then who could it be? Was it this hidden evil sect that murdered Chen Jiuge?"

Hiding in the distance, I heard every word these Daoists said perfectly clearly, realizing they had fallen into a logical trap.

"We'll meet force with appropriate tactics. Once we find him, everything will naturally become clear." Xu Yan waved his sleeve, signaling the others to help clear away the blockage of corpses and debris.

It took quite a bit of time to clear away the corpses, finally revealing a wooden security door behind them. Wei Jianming was just about to open it when Xu Yan suddenly reached out and held him back.

"Don't be so rash. There's something behind the door. We'll wait for it to come out on its own." Before Xu Yan even finished speaking, medicinal liquid began seeping through the cracks in the door, looking like a constantly expanding shadow.

Seeing this, I held my breath from my hiding spot. Not long after, that familiar dripping sound rang out in my ears once again!

"Not good! Fall back!" Xu Yan seemed to sense it too. His expression changed for the very first time. Grabbing Wei Jianming with one hand, he immediately hurled his Jade Seal forward with the other.

The Jade Seal smashed against the security door, its dragon-like flowing light exploding with tremendous power. Yet, it only managed to buy him two or three seconds of time.

Bang!

The security door was violently smashed open, sending medicinal liquid flying in all directions as countless monsters resembling humanoid spiders poured out!