Ghost Wall

The violent tremor in Fang Gang's left arm made every muscle in his body tense instantly!

The pitch-black Grudge Pupil Imprint writhed madly like a living thing. The dark-gold vertical pupil slit at its end expanded to its limit—coldness, greed, disgust, rejection...

All kinds of extreme, contradictory thoughts surged like boiling lava, violently battering his nerves! Their target was the Cainiao parcel station downstairs!

"Mental Meditation... book?" Fang Gang's gaze sharpened like a blade. He looked down at his violently trembling arm, then abruptly raised his head toward downstairs.

That crappy book with 9.9 shipping included could provoke such a fierce reaction from the imprint? It definitely was not an ordinary pirated copy!

He hesitated no longer. Hoisting the Bronze Battle Halberd over his shoulder, he strode downstairs!

His dark-gold bald head cut a hard, cold gleam through the dim stairwell. The scorching aura of perfected Nine Yang leaked out uncontrollably, warping the air slightly with heat.

The Cainiao parcel station downstairs.

The girl at the counter had been idly scrolling through her phone when an invisible, heart-pounding scorching aura suddenly bore down on her alongside heavy footsteps!

She looked up and nearly dropped her phone—the bald demon carrying an ancient halberd like a murder weapon was back!

He seemed to radiate the heat of someone freshly pulled from a furnace, and his gaze was terrifyingly cold!

"P-parcel code?" the girl asked, her voice trembling.

Fang Gang gave her the number, his gaze fixed tightly on her searching movements.

Soon, a thin mailer with a gaudy cover was handed over.

The cover showed a cartoon old man sitting cross-legged in meditation with smoke rising from his head. Beside him were several large words: "Introduction to Mental Meditation (Full-Color Illustrations)."

Fang Gang snatched the mailer. The instant it touched his hand, the Grudge Pupil Imprint on his left arm contracted sharply as if seared by a branding iron!

The boiling thoughts instantly transformed into an even sharper, snake-like icy warning!

Something was wrong! There was definitely something wrong!

He turned and left, walking even faster! Back in his apartment, he locked the door. He set the Bronze Battle Halberd against the wall, tore open the mailer, and took out the thin booklet.

The cover felt cheap, the paper was rough, and the smell of ink was pungent.

He flipped through it. Inside were pretentious line drawings and vague nonsense like "visualize the starry sky" and "observe the brain domain," paired with crude color illustrations. A typical scam.

Yet after this lousy book came into his hands, Fang Gang's left arm reacted like an enraged beast. The imprint's writhing reached an unprecedented level of intensity!

The dark-gold vertical pupil slit at its end even faintly glowed red!

A powerful, icy will originating from the imprint itself frantically battered Fang Gang's mind, trying to force him to throw away the book!

"Are you afraid of it?" Fang Gang's gaze turned cold. He gripped the booklet tightly, allowing the imprint on his arm to burn with the pain of a red-hot branding iron! His perfected Nine Yang blood and qi roared into motion, and the supreme Yang true fire surged through his body, forcibly suppressing the imprint's unrest!

"System! Scan!"

Ding! Inferior paper carrier detected (contains trace mental-induction toner). The contents contain severe logical fallacies and energy traps...

Energy response: Abnormal (the core contains a faint fragment of mental law)...

Threat level: Low (mental induction neutralized)...

Spend 5 Evolution Points to strip impurities, extract the core mental law fragment, and convert it into the beginner mental cultivation technique "True Mirror Still Water Heart Sutra" (Basic Chapter)?

Mental law fragment?! Mirror Still Water Heart Sutra?!

Fang Gang's pupils contracted sharply! Just as he thought! This 9.9 piece of junk really contained something valuable! No wonder the imprint had reacted so strongly!

"Convert it!" Fang Gang did not hesitate!

Evolution Points -5!

Stripping... Removing induction toner... Pulverizing redundant information streams... Locking onto the core mental law fragment...

Converting... Constructing a basic mental tempering path... Generating mental clarity runes...

Conversion complete! Obtained mental cultivation technique: "True Mirror Still Water Heart Sutra" (Basic Chapter) (Beginner 0/200)!

Buzz—!!!

A cool, clear stream of strange energy, like a cold mountain spring, instantly flooded into Fang Gang's mind!

It came with a profound method for tempering the mind, clarifying one's thoughts, stabilizing one's spirit, and resisting external evils!

This coolness did not conflict with the Nine Yang True Fire flowing through his body. Instead, they complemented each other like ice and fire, creating a strange sense of balance!

However, at the instant this mental cultivation technique reached the beginner level!

"Roar—!!!"

The Grudge Pupil Imprint on Fang Gang's left arm released a silent shriek that stabbed straight into the depths of his soul!

The imprint seemed to have suffered a fatal provocation. The dark-gold vertical pupil at its end instantly turned scarlet!

A horrifying thought a hundred times colder and fouler than before, carrying intense curses and the sensation of souls being torn apart, surged madly into Fang Gang's mind like the waters of an underworld river bursting through a dam!

Warning! Intense backlash from the SS-class Grudge Pupil Imprint detected! Mental Pollution intensity: B+ Class!

Traits: Soul tearing, fear implantation, mental domination!

Fang Gang's vision abruptly went black! Countless twisted images filled with absolute malice instantly crammed into his mind!

There were mountains of corpses and seas of blood, endless wails, the moment of death before he transmigrated that he least wanted to remember, and countless pairs of cold, venomous eyes opening deep within his consciousness, staring at him without blinking!

Powerful fear, despair, and self-denial grew wildly like poisonous vines, trying to devour his will!

"Urgh—!" Fang Gang let out a muffled groan. The veins on his forehead bulged like coiling dragons! His body shook violently, golden-red light flashing madly beneath his skin as it fiercely clashed with the black-red foul glow emitted by the imprint on his left arm!

This was a war on the mental plane! A contest of wills! Far more dangerous than physical combat!

"Mirror... Still Water!" Fang Gang roared like a beast in his heart!

He frantically activated the newly acquired "True Mirror Still Water Heart Sutra"!

The cool, clear energy stream in his mind instantly spread out, becoming an invisible yet resilient "heart mirror" that forcibly resisted the tsunami-like Mental Pollution!

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle—!!!

The foul black tide of curses collided violently with the clear power of the heart mirror within Fang Gang's sea of consciousness, annihilating each other!

It was like boiling oil clashing with ice water! The violent feeling of his mind being ripped apart gave Fang Gang a splitting headache, and traces of blood faintly seeped from his seven orifices!

Ding! Mental force confrontation in progress... "True Mirror Still Water Heart Sutra" proficiency +1... +1... +1!

Mental attribute slightly increased! Current Mental: 5 (Basic) → 7!

Amid the intense pain, Fang Gang's will was like refined iron being forged!

Under the terrifying pressure of the SS-class imprint, his newly born mental cultivation technique was frantically squeezed and tempered! The "heart mirror," initially on the verge of collapse, gradually became solid and resilient!

Who knew how long passed? It felt as though an entire century had gone by.

The foul black tide battering his sea of consciousness was finally held back by the heart mirror and slowly receded.

Fang Gang looked as though he had been fished from the water, sweat mingled with blood, but the light in his eyes remained as sharp as ever—perhaps even deeper!

Although the brief clash on the mental plane had been extremely dangerous, it rapidly stabilized his newly acquired mental cultivation technique!

"True Mirror Still Water Heart Sutra" (Basic Chapter): Beginner (0/200) → Beginner (50/200)!

Mental: 7 → 10!

Mental attribute breaks through single digits for the first time!

An unprecedented sense of clarity surged into Fang Gang's heart. It was as though a dust-covered mirror had been wiped clean, and his perception of himself and his surroundings became much sharper!

Although the Grudge Pupil Imprint on his left arm remained savage, the icy thoughts it transmitted seemed to be blocked by an invisible barrier, greatly reducing their influence!

"Phew..." Fang Gang exhaled a long breath of foul air tinged with blood. He looked coldly at the imprint on his left arm. "Want to devour me? Or are you... afraid I'll erase you?"

The imprint wriggled slightly. Its scarlet glow dimmed and returned to cold dark gold, but the deep malice within it had not diminished in the slightest.

Fang Gang ignored it.

He felt the more harmonious power within his body—his perfected Nine Yang supreme Yang blood and qi surged like a dragon, while the newly born Mirror Still Water Heart Sutra established the first line of defense within his sea of consciousness.

For the first time, power and mind had achieved an initial balance!

He needed actual combat! He needed Evolution Points to push his mental cultivation technique higher too! He needed to completely resolve this hidden danger!

He grabbed the Bronze Battle Halberd leaning against the wall, faintly resonating with his blood and qi, and pulled open the door. His phone screen lit up with an urgent message from Chen Tao:

"Brother Fang! Something happened at Lost Alley in the north of the city! Everyone who enters gets trapped like they're caught in a Ghost Wall, and strange crying can be heard inside! Energy response: C+ Class! Suspected mental-type ghost domain! Our people can't get in at all! What do you think..."

Ghost Wall? A mental-type ghost domain?

A sharp gleam burst from Fang Gang's eyes! He had just acquired mental defense, and a test subject had delivered itself to his door? There were Evolution Points too!

"Send me the location." He replied with three words, shouldered the halberd, and strode downstairs.

Lost Alley, north of the city.

This was an old alley district awaiting demolition—narrow, winding, and gloomy. At this moment, the entire area was shrouded in a gray veil like drifting thick fog.

Intermittent sounds of a woman sobbing faintly echoed through the mist, first from the left, then from the right, fluttering unpredictably and carrying intense mental interference and a sense of spatial disorder.

Chen Tao and several team members stood outside the cordon, their expressions grave. One of them held an instrument whose screen was filled with snowy static and garbled characters.

"Captain Chen, the interference is too strong! The space inside is completely distorted. Even thermal imaging has failed!"

"The two teams we sent in... have all lost contact! The only thing left on the communicators is... crying..."

Fang Gang stood at the edge of the mist like a spear driven into the ground. He carried the Bronze Battle Halberd, his dark-gold bald head especially conspicuous against the gray fog.

He closed his eyes and concentrated completely, circulating his newly acquired 10 points of Mental alongside the True Mirror Still Water Heart Sutra.

The clear "heart mirror" in his mind rippled slightly. In an instant, the seemingly flawless gray ghost domain before him was no longer a chaotic blur in his perception!

He "saw" the nodes of energy flow within the mist, sensed the faint direction of the source of those drifting sobs, and even vaguely caught a "crack" in the distorted space!

"Follow me." Fang Gang tossed those words to Chen Tao and stepped into the gray mist!

The thick gray mist instantly wrapped around him, carrying intense mental erosion and spatial disorientation!

The scene before him immediately warped and changed. The familiar alleyways became strange and eerie, as if countless branching paths stretched through the fog.

The woman's sobbing sounded like demonic whispers pouring into his ears, trying to stir up the fear and confusion buried deep in his heart.

"Fang..." Chen Tao had barely taken a step inside when he felt dizzy. The scenery before his eyes spun madly, frightening him into retreating at once, his face pale.

Yet Fang Gang's steps remained firm! The Mirror Still Water Heart Sutra stabilized his mind and clarified his will!

The mental erosion of the gray mist was like a breeze brushing past a boulder! He precisely locked onto that spatial crack and the energy nodes, moving in a straight line through the twisted alleyways!

With every step, a clear footprint burning with faint golden-red light was left on the ground, like a lighthouse temporarily driving away the surrounding fog!

"There!" Fang Gang locked his gaze on an inconspicuous dead-end corner ahead, piled high with clutter! The source of the drifting cries came from behind a mottled old wall!

He walked to the wall, and the cries abruptly became shrill and miserable!

The gray mist churned violently, forming countless twisted female faces that let out soundless shrieks and frantically slammed against Fang Gang's mind!

At the same time, the distortion of the surrounding space suddenly intensified! It seemed determined to swallow Fang Gang completely and exile him!

"Cheap tricks!"

He did not bother looking for any "gate of life" or method to break the formation!

"Open for me...!"

His fists were like two burning golden-red sledgehammers, carrying an overbearing will that tore through space and incinerated illusions as they smashed fiercely into the old wall from behind which the crying came!

Boom—!!!!

An indescribable explosion rang out! Golden-red Nine Yang True Fire instantly devoured the entire wall! Terrifying power containing supreme Yang will surged like an enraged dragon into the core of the gray ghost domain!

Crack—!!!

A crisp sound like shattering glass rang through all of Lost Alley!

The thick gray mist covering the alleys was like a bubble being punctured. It twisted and rippled violently, then... collapsed with a bang! Sunlight instantly pierced the gloom and spilled down!

The distorted space returned to normal!

The strange crying stopped abruptly!

The alley's original dilapidated but clear scenery was revealed!

Behind the pile of clutter toward which Fang Gang's fists pointed, a female ghost curled up in the shadows appeared, wearing a tattered white dress and clutching a battered music box!

Her face was filled with terror and disbelief! Her ghost domain... had been torn apart by this bald man... through sheer brute force?!

Ding! Vengeful Woman's Ghost Domain (C+ Class) torn apart! Core Vengeful Wife Fierce Ghost (C+ Class) heavily injured! Evolution Points +25!

Available Evolution Points: 25!

Fang Gang withdrew his fists, the golden-red flames on them slowly extinguishing. He looked at the terrified female ghost with cold eyes, as though looking at a pile of Evolution Points about to fall into his hands.

"Ghost Wall?" He cracked his neck, producing a series of popping sounds. His dark-gold bald head reflected a hard, cold gleam in the sunlight after his violent breakthrough.

"Can't stop a single punch from me!"