Help!

"Run!" Tang Changsheng's face turned ashen as he grabbed Chen Xin and pulled her away. Even he hadn't expected Da Xiang to cause such a commotion!

Damn it. In the past, he'd been hard-pressed to encounter even a single Grudge Ghost.

So what on earth had Da Xiang done? How had he driven at least dozens of Vicious Ghosts into the hospital?

Where had all these things come from?

Tang Changsheng cursed inwardly. This was already an age when magic was fading. Why make such a spectacle?

By now, white mist filled the hospital inside and out. Shadows flickered through its shifting depths.

Before he could react, a bone-chilling presence rushed straight at him.

Not good! Tang Changsheng shouted inwardly. There was no time to do anything else; a cold that pierced to the bone was already upon him.

He made his decision on the spot, bit the tip of his tongue, and spat out a mouthful of blood.

Tang Changsheng had cultivated since childhood. Though he had only just entered the Heavenly Heart realm, his vitality was far stronger than an ordinary person's.

What was more, his Heavenly Heart had awakened, and he had spent some time cultivating in that other world, where spiritual energy was abundant. His progress had come by leaps and bounds.

The hot blood sprayed out. With a hiss, it struck like hot water falling onto snow.

The approaching shadow dissolved into smoke, broke apart, and vanished without a trace.

"Help! Help..." a woman cried, her voice thick with tears.

A young nurse stood there in a panic, in dire straits. A savage-looking man was chasing her.

His face was twisted and hideous, and Killing Intent seemed to billow from his body, making the surrounding mist churn and warp.

Tang Changsheng was no stranger to such a sight. Only a skilled cultivator, with blood and vital energy coursing through his body, could raise clouds of vapor like that.

But this man was plainly an ordinary person, certainly no master who had cultivated to such a level. Yet here he was, displaying exactly that phenomenon.

The space between his brows was dark blue-black, as though shrouded in storm clouds. His face was twisted with hatred. That was enough to tell Tang Changsheng that a Grudge Ghost had possessed him and forced out his body's vital energy.

Once possessed, a person not only gained immense strength but also became as agile as a martial arts master.

Five or six men lay sprawled across the floor, their bodies drenched in blood. They looked to have died only moments ago.

Tang Changsheng's eyelids twitched. The whole thing felt increasingly unbelievable.

The spiritual energy in this world had declined so badly that even Tang Changsheng, head of the General's Temple, had only ever seen the legendary Grudge Ghosts and Vicious Ghosts in another world...

And now those creatures had appeared here. The world around him seemed so unfamiliar he could barely recognize it...

Another scream from the nurse finally scattered his jumble of thoughts to the winds.

Tang Changsheng rushed forward, seized the possessed man by the shoulder, and kicked him twice in the knees.

Under normal circumstances, blows that heavy would have made the man lose his balance and drop to his knees.

But the man's knees did not bend an inch. Instead, his neck twisted around at an angle no normal person could manage, and he gave Tang Changsheng a sinister smile.

Damn it. Even Tang Changsheng, bold as his skills made him, felt the hairs on his body stand on end.

This is bad. The ghost was squandering an ordinary man's vital energy. In no time at all, even if Tang Changsheng drove it out, the man would be so depleted that, if he survived, he would still spend months bedridden!

As Tang Changsheng thought this, the man fixed him with a stare full of hatred,

his eyes blood-red. Then his body shifted. Moving as though he had no bones, he twisted free of Tang Changsheng's grip and lunged to bite him like a rabid dog.

Tang Changsheng shifted position in a flash. One turn of his foot took him clear.

The possessed man charged straight past. Unable to stop, he crashed into a cabinet.

Even in a hospital, where the cabinets were tall and heavy, the impact smashed it apart. It collapsed with a crash, showering the possessed man with boards and all manner of clutter.

Blood streamed from his broken head, and his face was a ghastly sight. Yet he turned as if unhurt and lunged at Tang Changsheng again.

Thank goodness. Once a ghost possesses someone, the body isn't its own, after all. Its movements are much clumsier...

Tang Changsheng's eyes flashed. He traced a simple Talisman on his palm and slapped it against the possessed man's forehead.

Palm Thunder!

The vital energy he had nurtured within himself for more than a decade blasted out with that strike. Crack! Like a thunderclap, it slammed squarely into the man's forehead.

Boom...

With that single blow, the possessed man flew backward. A wisp of gray vapor escaped his nose and mouth, hazy but vaguely human in shape.

Just then, a woman shouted from behind him: "Watch out..."

She must have spotted the gray vapor in the air...

Oh no... Tang Changsheng groaned inwardly.

Sure enough, as if it had heard Chen Xin's shout, the gray vapor stirred, became an arrow, and shot toward her.

It moved too fast for Tang Changsheng to intercept. By the time he turned, the vapor was already before Chen Xin, about to plunge into her body...

Tang Changsheng's heart sank. I'm done for this time. It might have looked as though he had driven out the Vicious Ghost with one easy slap,

but that Palm Thunder had taken a heavy toll on him. At his current level of cultivation, he could barely manage five strikes at most.

He had already used three! His strength was draining away, leaving his body weak.

Yet the Vicious Ghost, now a gray arrow of vapor, was hurtling toward Chen Xin, on the verge of entering her body.

Tang Changsheng gritted his teeth and bit down hard on his tongue, trying to force out the last of his strength. Even if it badly damaged his vitality, he would unleash another Palm Thunder.

But... there was no need.

Just as the gray vapor reached Chen Xin, it vanished completely.

Or rather, the instant it touched her, a faint light flashed from her body, and the ghost's soul scattered into nothing...

Tang Changsheng could tell with certainty that the Vicious Ghost had not possessed her. Had it simply vanished into thin air?