Killing! Evil Spirit

Just when you feared something, it came knocking.

Seeing Li Hu and the other two closing in from the front, left, and right, Zhang Lingshan's heart sank. He clenched the stone axe hidden in his left sleeve.

He had secretly made this stone axe from scraps while hauling stones and lumber at Red Leaf Temple, precisely to guard against a day like this.

As an honest man who had transmigrated from modern society, how could he ever have seen such a chaotic age? For the past half year, he had lived in constant dread, feeling danger lurked everywhere and never knowing whether he would survive to see tomorrow.

Living in such a state of mind, he slept restlessly every night. In his dreams, he was either being hacked to death or killing others in return.

So he had to get himself something, anything that could make him feel a little more secure.

A stone axe in his left hand, a Small Knife hidden in his right sleeve—he was ready to face danger at any moment.

And today, those preparations came in handy.

"Dad."

Zhang Lingshan suddenly froze, looking past Li Hu with delighted surprise in his eyes. Then he crossed the distance in two great strides.

Li Hu could not help turning around in astonishment.

Just then, he felt a vicious gust descend from above. He hurriedly turned his head, only to see a stone axe flying straight at his forehead.

Bang!

The stone axe struck squarely into his forehead.

But with a crack, the axe snapped in two.

Whether Zhang Lingshan had used too much force or the wooden handle was simply rubbish, no one knew.

This change caught Zhang Lingshan completely off guard. He had planned to split Li Hu's skull with one blow before turning to deal with the next man, but now he had no choice but to whip out the Small Knife in his right hand and viciously plunge it into Li Hu's neck, twisting it once.

Splat!

The Small Knife came free.

Spurt, spurt, spurt.

Blood poured out as if it cost nothing.

Li Hu clutched his neck and staggered back several steps. Terror and disbelief covered his pale face before he crashed to the ground with a thud.

"Murder!"

A shrill scream from a passerby in the distance jolted Wang Datou, Li Xiaole, and the other two thugs awake from their shock.

The timid thug on the left turned pale as death, his feet rooted to the ground. They had come to rob someone—how had one of them been killed before they even made a move?

Who was the real villain here?

This short fellow, who had always trailed behind his father like a shadow, looked harmless to man and beast, simple and honest. Why had he suddenly become so ferocious?

Thump, thump, thump.

Before the timid thug could figure it out, Zhang Lingshan came charging at him in huge strides, Small Knife in hand and a savage look on his face. His expression was so grotesque that he seemed like an evil ghost walking the earth.

"Ah!"

The timid thug screamed in horror and turned to run. But in his panic, his feet tangled beneath him, and he fell with a thud. Zhang Lingshan caught up and drove the knife into his back.

Splat, splat, splat!

The sounds rang out repeatedly from his back.

Zhang Lingshan was afraid the man would not die, so he threw himself on top of him and stabbed wildly again and again until the thug went completely still.

"There's one left."

Zhang Lingshan climbed to his feet, panting heavily as he stared at the final thug. Then he said to Wang Datou and Li Xiaole, "You two, stop standing there. Grab that guy."

"Ah, y-yes."

Neither dared disobey. They hurried to the thug's left and right, blocking his escape.

The thug had watched two companions be forcibly killed with his own eyes, and now three people had surrounded him. Not a shred of courage to resist rose within him. His legs went weak, and he collapsed to the ground.

Seeing Zhang Lingshan's cold gaze looking down at him, he hurriedly cried, "Big Brother, spare me! I'm not with them. I was just passing by..."

"Take off your clothes."

Zhang Lingshan ordered.

The thug froze, but seeing that Zhang Lingshan was not joking, he hurriedly obeyed.

Once the man had stripped naked, Zhang Lingshan collected his clothes. Then he stepped forward and viciously drove the Small Knife into his throat.

With the first two as practice, his emotions calmed and the advantage in his hands, Zhang Lingshan carefully lined up the strike. Yet even so, this blow still failed to kill the man in one hit. The fellow clutched his throat and howled for a long time before dying.

That made Zhang Lingshan reflect with a sigh.

His first real fight had felt completely different from simulating murder in his room. Once the adrenaline surged wildly, his limbs had seemed beyond his control.

Clearly, the bad men were dead now and the danger had passed, yet his hands still trembled without stop, his heart hammered wildly, and his entire body quivered faintly.

Sure enough, he was still too green. A novice needed more practice.

Still, it was his first time killing someone. It was understandable.

And the reason he had won today was largely because he had drawn on the experience of fighting back in his daily nightmares, arriving at one truth: no matter how perfect a counterattack was, it could not compare to striking first.

Otherwise, even with a knife and axe hidden on him, he could not have beaten three men without an ambush.

The two lackeys aside, Li Hu really was a vicious man with a fearsome reputation.

The grown men selling their labor at Red Leaf Temple were all stronger than Zhang Lingshan, yet none of them dared openly confront Li Hu over borrowed money, afraid of offending him and suffering retaliation.

The reason Zhang Lingshan had managed to rid the people of this scourge today was, first, that he had exploited their contempt and ambushed them; second, that he truly dared to kill.

"A-Shan... B-Brother Shan, the blood on your face..."

Wang Datou suddenly reminded him, but Li Xiaole quietly tugged at him and interrupted, "Brother Shan, I just remembered there's something urgent at home. We'll be leaving first."

With that, he grabbed Wang Datou and ran, unwilling to stay there for even another second.

Wang Datou had wanted to say something else, but when he saw the three corpses, he did not dare ramble. He followed Li Xiaole and ran far away, leaving only one warning behind: "Brother Shan, the smell of blood will draw dirty things... It's almost dark..."

Zhang Lingshan's heart tightened.

Wang Datou was right. He had to get out of here quickly.

He hurriedly searched the bodies and found several pieces of broken silver. Then he removed his bloodstained clothes, wiped the blood from his face, changed into the clean clothes from that thug, and ran toward Jin City.

At last, he entered the city before nightfall.

Jin City was a large city, divided into the Inner City and the Outer City.

Zhang Lingshan's home was naturally in the Outer City. It was not tucked away in some remote slum, but after entering the city, he still had to turn down several main roads. Only after reaching Qinghe Road and turning onto Changning Street was he close to home.

"Hm?"

When he reached Qinghe Road, Zhang Lingshan suddenly stopped. He saw Wang Datou and Li Xiaole.

He noticed that something was wrong with the two of them.

They had fled as though their lives depended on it earlier, so by all rights, they should already have been home. Yet not only had they failed to return home, they were still walking with their heads down toward the western end of Qinghe Road.

Wasn't that a dead end?

Though puzzled, Zhang Lingshan could not be bothered with them. He followed his usual route, preparing to turn onto Changning Street and head home.

But to his horror, the intersection that had always been only a few steps away could not be found today, no matter how he walked. Instead, step by step, he drew closer and closer to Wang Datou and Li Xiaole.

It was as if the two had been walking in place the entire time, while he followed right behind them!

What's going on?

Terror filled Zhang Lingshan's heart.

They said this world had Weird things and Evil Spirits, but he had never encountered one before. Could he really be so unlucky as to win this cursed lottery today?

But he had clearly saved enough money. Tomorrow, he could go to the martial academy and learn martial arts. His father had gone alone to Golden Light Temple for this, and he himself

had desperately killed three people.

After doing so much, he was just about to defy fate and change his life.

And he had to win the lottery now!?

"A-Shan, you came too. Come on, let's walk together. We'll be home soon."

Li Xiaole's voice suddenly sounded beside his ear.

But his voice was different from usual, as though a hand were squeezing his throat. It came out shrill and hoarse, like fingernails scraping across a wall. It made one's back go numb and one's hair stand on end.

Slap.

A hand suddenly landed on Zhang Lingshan's shoulder.

It was Wang Datou's hand.

But that hand was terrifyingly cold, making Zhang Lingshan shudder.

His heart clenched, as though a giant hand had seized it in an iron grip.

Thump, thump!

The sound of his heartbeat seemed to explode beside his ears, deafeningly loud, making Zhang Lingshan's head buzz.

Ghosts are only forms of energy. They cloud people's senses. As long as I don't look and don't react...

Zhang Lingshan silently repeated to himself.

But suddenly, Wang Datou's head dropped with a thud before him, as if pulled by an invisible rope, dangling in front of his eyes and swaying back and forth.

Bang.

Li Xiaole's head followed close behind.

The two heads swayed through the air and collided, making crisp sounds as they carried out their fixed conservation-of-energy motion. At times, they let out cheerful laughter. "A-Shan, come on, join us."

"Ah!!"

Zhang Lingshan's expression changed dramatically. With an incomparably savage look in his eyes, he roared and swung the half-broken stone axe down at Li Xiaole's head.

Damn it, ghosts feared evil men!

I'd hauled bricks for half a year and finally saved enough to learn martial arts and defy fate. How could I die here?

I don't care what Evil Spirit you are—go die!

Crack, crack, crack!

Zhang Lingshan's furious shouts to bolster his courage and the sound of him crazily smashing heads echoed through the air.

Who knew how long passed...

Tap, tap, tap.

Clear footsteps suddenly rang out from an immense distance away, like stones being tossed one after another into an empty valley.

In an instant, Zhang Lingshan jolted awake and looked up.