The Crying in Lost Alley

The moment the gray fog scattered, sunlight pierced the gloom and slammed down upon the white figure curled up in the corner.

"Sizzle—"

Like cold water splashed into boiling oil! The Vengeful Wife Fierce Ghost, dressed in a tattered white gown and clutching a worn music box, let out a shriek so piercing it became distorted.

It tried in terror to melt into the shadow of the mottled wall behind it, but Fang Gang had torn apart the gray fog ghost domain around it with two fists. The lingering Nine Yang True Fire clung to its body like maggots on bone, scorching its frigid form and sending up strands of foul-smelling green smoke.

"C+ rank?" Fang Gang's gaze was icy as he stepped forward, cracking the ground beneath his feet. "With this little skill, you dared claim territory and prey on people?"

He had never intended to give the fierce ghost any chance to catch its breath or beg for mercy. The instant its ghost domain was broken and it suffered the backlash, its fate had already been decided.

"Roar!" The Vengeful Wife Fierce Ghost was utterly enraged, and the last of its savagery erupted.

It abruptly raised its head. Its once fairly delicate face instantly rotted and twisted, filthy blood streaming from its hollow eye sockets as the music box in its arms gave off a harsh, warped "click-click" sound!

A visible mental shockwave steeped in vicious resentment shot forth like a twisted black drill, stabbing straight toward Fang Gang's brow!

This was its final desperate strike, containing the power of its resentment source!

"Watch out for the mental attack!" Chen Tao saw it clearly and cried out in horror from the alley entrance. This kind of condensed mental assault was enough to instantly shatter an ordinary cultivator's sea of consciousness!

Fang Gang did not even blink.

Within his sea of consciousness, the crystal-clear heart mirror formed by the "True Mirror Still Water Heart Sutra" instantly shimmered with light! Cool, resilient will formed an invisible barrier.

"Buzz!"

That vicious drill of resentment slammed violently into the heart mirror, producing a dull spiritual boom!

The mirror surface rippled fiercely, yet it remained as immovable as a boulder! After only a few waves, it completely dissolved and annihilated that final burst of madness!

Ding! Successfully resisted a C+ rank mental source attack! "True Mirror Still Water Heart Sutra" proficiency +15! Mental attribute slightly increased!

"Mental attack?" A cold, mocking curve formed at Fang Gang's lips. "Couldn't break my defense."

Before his words had even faded, he had vanished from where he stood!

It was not an afterimage produced by excessive speed, but a terrifying straight-line charge created by the explosive contraction and release of his muscles and fascia! The air was brutally forced apart, producing a dull sonic boom!

650 points of agility, chasing stars and moon! With the perfect transmission of his mid-stage Tendon Transformation Realm fascia, he burst forth with a straight-line killing speed far beyond his realm!

"Die!"

A large hand covered in faint golden-red radiance, its muscles knotted like dragons, shot out like a pair of steel-forged pincers. Ignoring the fierce ghost's final twisted illusions and spurting blood curses, it seized its rotten neck with perfect precision!

"Urgh... click-click..." The Vengeful Wife Fierce Ghost's shriek came to an abrupt stop, turning into terrified choking sounds.

It struggled frantically, its cold ghost claws scraping at Fang Gang's arm with a teeth-grating "hiss-hiss," as if scratching refined steel. It could not even leave a white mark!

"Too noisy."

Fang Gang's five fingers suddenly clenched!

"Bang!!!"

It was like crushing a rotten watermelon filled with filthy water!

The fierce ghost's head, along with half of its decayed shoulder, exploded in his palm!

Foul yin energy, shattered resentment, and stinking black slurry splattered everywhere. Yet the instant they touched the Nine Yang Qi and Blood rising from Fang Gang's body, they met their nemesis. With a sizzling sound, they were rapidly incinerated and purified into wisps of green smoke.

The headless ghost body convulsed violently a few times, then collapsed limply to the ground as though all its bones had been removed. Under the roasting of the supreme yang qi and blood, it quickly shriveled, carbonized, and finally turned into a small pile of ash.

Only the battered music box fell to the ground with a clatter. Its lid sprang open, revealing twisted, broken springs and gears within.

Ding! Killed C+ rank Vengeful Wife Fierce Ghost (Core)! Evolution Points +30!

Available Evolution Points: 55!

At the alley entrance, there was deathly silence.

Chen Tao and the several Special Affairs Bureau field agents behind him had their mouths hanging wide enough to fit an egg, their eyes bulging round.

They watched Fang Gang casually shake nonexistent filth from his palm. They watched the ash on the ground rapidly disappear. They watched that bald head reflecting a hard, cold gleam beneath the sunlight... A chill shot from the soles of their feet straight to the crowns of their heads.

That had been a C+ rank mental-type fierce ghost! It had created a Ghost Wall ghost domain covering the entire alley district!

Two groups of elite agents had entered and lost contact without any ability to resist! The mental-power specialist consultant summoned by the Special Affairs Bureau was still on the way!

And the result?

That bald man went in and spent less than three minutes.

One punch shattered the ghost domain.

One grab crushed the fierce ghost.

Simple, brutal, and horrifyingly efficient!

"Gulp." Chen Tao swallowed with difficulty, the sound especially clear in the silent alley. He felt his worldview being rewritten yet again.

Talismans? Dharma artifacts? Mental barriers? Before absolute power, they were all paper!

"Brother... Brother Fang..." Chen Tao's voice carried a reverence and excitement he had not noticed himself. "You... you're all right? That thing's mental attack..."

"Like a scratch." Fang Gang was concise as he bent down and picked up the twisted music box.

It was icy cold in his hand, with a faint but extraordinarily stubborn trace of resentment remaining inside. It seemed connected to some deeper source of yin energy.

He frowned and casually tossed it to Chen Tao.

"This thing is a little strange. The remaining resentment is highly directional. It doesn't seem naturally formed. Check where it came from."

"Yes! Yes! We'll investigate it thoroughly!" Chen Tao caught the music box in a fluster. The bone-chilling cold made him shudder, and he hurriedly sealed it inside a specially made lead box.

His heart skipped a beat. Highly directional? Could it be... man-made? The work of a cult?

At that moment, an extremely faint but bone-deep tremor suddenly came from Fang Gang's left arm!

The Resentful Eye imprint gave off a slight heat. The dark golden vertical eye at its end seemed to... blink for the briefest instant?

A cold, greedy intent swept with extreme subtlety toward the music box sealed in the lead box!

Search by title not working? Try searching the author instead; perhaps it was simply renamed!

Fang Gang abruptly lowered his head, his gaze sharp as blades as he stared fixedly at his left arm. The imprint had returned to its deathly cold stillness, as if that tremor just now had been an illusion.

An illusion? Fang Gang sneered inwardly. This thing had reacted to the source of the resentment lingering in the music box... Or perhaps it craved it?

"Brother Fang?" Seeing Fang Gang staring at his arm with a grim expression, Chen Tao asked carefully.

"Nothing." Fang Gang suppressed the killing intent and desire to investigate surging in his heart, then raised his head. "What about the people trapped inside?"

"Ah! Right, right!" Chen Tao snapped awake as if from a dream and hurriedly directed the agents. "Quick! The ghost domain is broken! Go in and rescue the missing agents!"

With the gray fog gone, the alley had returned to its dilapidated yet clear layout.

Before long, they found the two groups of six unconscious Special Affairs Bureau agents behind several dead ends and piles of abandoned junk.

Their faces were pale and their breaths weak, but their vital signs were relatively stable. Clearly, the ghost domain had drained a great deal of their mental power and yang energy, leaving them in deep comas.

"Quick! Send them back to the bureau's medical team! Use Purifying Spirit Incense!"

Chen Tao directed the stretchers and let out a breath of relief. Then he looked at Fang Gang with gratitude and lingering fear in his eyes. "It's all thanks to you, Brother Fang! This place is unbelievably strange. If you hadn't acted..."

"Mutual benefit." Fang Gang cut him off. His gaze swept over the agents being carried away before settling on Chen Tao's still-shaken round face. Then he suddenly said, "Old Chen."

"Yes! Go ahead!" Chen Tao jolted and stood straight.

Fang Gang pointed at the smooth, mirror-like crown of his head, glittering brightly beneath the sunlight. His tone held a trace of barely perceptible... seriousness?

"You've got connections, Fatty. Help me find some... better shampoo? Or... conditioner?"

He paused, seeming to weigh his words. "The kind that can make a bald head brighter. More reflective."

Chen Tao: "???"

The expression on his face instantly froze. It shifted from gratitude to reverence to bewilderment, and finally the corners of his mouth began twitching uncontrollably. Shampoo? Conditioner? To make a bald head... brighter? More reflective?!

He looked at Fang Gang's solemn, earnest face, then at the gleaming head reflecting sunlight in the shabby old alleys of the northern district like a tiny sun. A sense of absurdity rushed straight to his head.

"Pfft... cough, cough!" An agent drinking water nearby immediately sprayed it everywhere, coughing until his face turned red.

Chen Tao held it in for a long time, his face flushing red before he finally squeezed out, "...All right! Leave it to me! I'll find it for you later! I guarantee it'll be... bright enough! Reflective enough!"

He truly could not understand this lord's bizarre train of thought, but no matter how outrageous the demands of someone this powerful were, he had to fulfill them!

Fang Gang nodded in satisfaction. His bald head was a symbol of his strength and one of his weapons against enemies.

If it was going to shine, then it would shine to the extreme!

Bright enough to blind those ghostly things! He lifted the Bronze Battle Halberd leaning against the wall, its blade faintly resonating with his qi and blood as it flowed with a cold, ghostly gleam beneath the sunlight.

"I'm leaving. If you run into any more tough mental-type opponents, remember to call me."

Leaving those words behind, he turned and strode away. His dark golden bald head gradually receded through the ruined alleys like a moving beacon, dispersing the lingering gloom.

Chen Tao watched his back disappear around the alley entrance. He let out a long breath, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, and muttered, "Tough mental-type opponents... Are there even any 'tough' ones left when they get to you?"

He lowered his head to look at the twisted music box sealed in the lead box in his hands, then recalled Fang Gang's final "instruction" about shampoo. His round face held an incomparably complicated expression.

This lord was absurdly strong, and his methods were absurdly wild too!

After returning to the apartment he was using as a temporary base, Fang Gang locked the door and set the heavy Bronze Battle Halberd against the wall with a clatter.

The remaining Nine Yang aura in the room had not yet completely dissipated, and the air carried a faint scorching heat.

He sat cross-legged on the floor and closed his eyes in concentration.

Within his sea of consciousness, the crystal-clear heart mirror formed by the "True Mirror Still Water Heart Sutra" slowly revolved, gradually sorting through and purifying the mixed mental impacts and fragments of resentment absorbed during the battle in Lost Alley.

Cool intent flowed through him. His mind had never felt clearer, and his control over his own strength seemed to have improved slightly as well.

Available Evolution Points: 55!

His consciousness sank into the system interface.

"System, add points to the 'True Mirror Still Water Heart Sutra'!"

Ding! Consumed 55 Evolution Points!

"True Mirror Still Water Heart Sutra" (Basic Chapter): Beginner (50/200) → Beginner (105/200)!

Mental: 10 → 15!

A torrent of mental power far cooler and more solid than before instantly surged into his mind!

The heart mirror shone brilliantly, becoming clearer and more stable! The range and acuity of his mental perception rose once more!

The cold malice transmitted by the Resentful Eye imprint on his left arm was more thoroughly blocked by this tougher mental barrier, becoming almost imperceptible.

Fang Gang opened his eyes. A clear, faint glint seemed to flash through the depths of his pupils. He lowered his head to look at his left arm, where the dark golden vertical-eye imprint lay quietly dormant, like an inanimate object.

Yet Fang Gang could sense that beneath that cold, deathly exterior lurked deeper greed and malice, waiting to strike like a venomous snake.

"The music box... the source of the resentment..." Fang Gang's eyes turned cold. "And your tremor, you ghostly thing... the Nightmare Holy Cult?" He recalled Chen Tao's description of the Lost Alley incident, along with the highly directional resentment residue.

His intuition told him this was far from an isolated incident. Those rats hiding in the gutters seemed to be plotting something.

He needed more Evolution Points! He needed greater power! He needed to push his mental cultivation technique to a higher realm and completely eliminate this hidden danger!

At the same time, he needed to see what exactly this Nightmare Holy Cult was up to!

He picked up his phone, and the screen lit up.

Aside from a goofy sticker Chen Tao had sent saying, "Researching shampoo brands, guaranteed to be bright enough!" there was also a message from an unfamiliar number. Its content was extremely brief:

"West side of the city, Fu Shou Yuan Cemetery. Midnight. A major target has appeared, suspected to share the same origin as Lost Alley. Dare to take it? —Old Smoker."

Old Smoker? Fang Gang raised an eyebrow slightly.

That seemed to be the codename of a local underground information broker. He had heard Fatty Chen mention him before. His intelligence was reliable, but expensive, and he was elusive.

A cemetery in the west side? Midnight? A major target? Same origin?

A sharp curve rose at Fang Gang's lips.

"Location."