The Siege (Part 2)

In the blink of an eye, Xiao Ran had ruthlessly slain two formidable evil spirits. Their corpses had melted into the scorched earth, their souls utterly destroyed. Yet before he could relax even slightly, his nerves were still taut...

"Thump... thump-thump... thump-thump-thump..."

That familiar rattle, with its eerie rhythm, was like a maggot burrowing into bone. It once again pierced the warped curtain of Malevolent Qi mirror walls around him and rang crystal-clear in Xiao Ran's ears.

The sound came from the very spot where the old woman had just been blasted apart, through the breach she had torn open. A force of restraint far stronger than before suddenly locked onto Xiao Ran.

Xiao Ran felt as though his torso and limbs had been instantly encased in thousands of tons of concrete!

This was no mere suppression of strength. It was more like a confinement imposed by space itself—a forced lockdown by the rules of a ghost story! Even his movement as he turned the staff in his hand was severely slowed. The enormous Yin God Dharma Form behind him swayed, and the process of turning the staff was forcibly delayed!

"Damn it! It's her again!" Xiao Ran cursed inwardly. The power of the rules embodied by Rattlesnake Girl was even more troublesome and persistent than he'd imagined.

"Rrrip—"

A grating noise rang out, like heavy leather being torn apart by brute force!

The mirror wall ahead of the City God Temple, condensed from Malevolent Qi and used to butcher evil spirits, suddenly caved inward and warped! Several pitch-black, razor-sharp claws, gleaming with a metallic chill and wreathed in thick, ominous black smoke, thrust through the cracks in the mirror!

The hole in the mirror wall widened abruptly, large enough for someone to enter.

A figure—or rather, a twisted human-shaped