Physical Death Curse

Vast power surged into Jiang Chen's limbs and bones. His body visibly grew taller, his muscles bulging grotesquely, terrifying strength coursing through him. This transformation was clearly more powerful than either of his previous two!

He clenched his fists and made a rough assessment. His current physical strength and Demonic Power were roughly twice what they had been in his General Yin form.

That was an enormous increase, and it proved Jiang Chen's judgment correct. As a minor boss, the Chaos-Dwelling Demon King possessed strength that General Yin, Red Python, and their ilk simply couldn't match.

Ding! Randomly selected supernatural ability-Chaos-Dwelling Heavenly Blade!

Understanding dawned in Jiang Chen's mind.

Then he stood up, his eyes vicious, his powerful presence like that of a humanoid beast that had broken free of its iron cage.

Under his gaze, the nurse panicked and stopped advancing. She watched the handprints she had left on him dissolve with a sizzling hiss, as though they had encountered their natural nemesis.

So he was a ghost too? How else could he suddenly grow dozens of centimeters taller and dispel my curse?

That was the nurse's first thought.

But Jiang Chen's next move showed her she was wrong.

Boom!

The concrete floor shattered. Propelled by the tremendous recoil, Jiang Chen's hulking body lunged forward, reaching the nurse in an instant. His savage, bloodthirsty eyes looked down on her, and the terrifying pressure made her heart pound with fear.

No!

This wasn't a ghost. This was a monster!

In that instant, her heart sank. She couldn't even summon the will to resist.

A large hand quietly settled on the nurse's head.

She seemed to realize something, and her expression turned utterly terrified. "No... don't!"

Crack, crack-pop!

The nurse's head burst like a watermelon beneath his grip.

Iron Hand Shatters Skull!

Ding! ...

The doctor, who had been approaching step by step with a scalpel in hand, saw this, and the mocking expression froze on his face.

"You..."

Even his hands were shaking. He was too terrified to form a complete sentence.

Ding! The doctor is extremely terrified. Ghost Qi +90.

Jiang Chen glanced at the notification, a cruel smile curling his lips, and calmly uttered a single word. "Run."

The doctor's eyes widened. Then, as though granted a pardon, he dropped the black bag in his hand and ran upstairs for his life.

"He knows I'll kill him, but he's running upstairs instead of out of the hospital. Does he think something up there can save him?" Jiang Chen murmured. His heavy footsteps pounded the stairs as he pursued him one step at a time.

His sharp blade dragged along the stainless-steel handrail, producing a string of piercing screeches.

Like a life-reaping vicious ghost, Jiang Chen pursued the doctor relentlessly.

He's coming after me. Will he crush my head too...?

The doctor's face turned pale with fear. Listening to the noises behind him, he wished he could grow another pair of legs.

He had never imagined that a simple late-night outing to harm someone would bring him face-to-face with a freak like this. The horrifying sight of the nurse's death was already seared into his mind, dealing him tremendous psychological blows every moment!

Ding! ...

Throughout the chase, notifications of Ghost Qi gains kept ringing out.

By the time he reached the third floor, Jiang Chen found that, for some reason, the doctor had stopped contributing Ghost Qi. He shook his head. "Sorry, Mr. Doctor. Judging by your face, you're about to die."

The doctor froze. Had this guy just placed a curse on me?

What a vicious ability!

He could actually curse someone to death outright!

At that thought, dense resentment spread from his entire body to resist the curse.

The next instant, Jiang Chen pushed off hard, his body shooting forward like a cannonball. He suddenly appeared behind the doctor, drove the entire blade into him, and ripped it downward with all his strength.

The doctor's body was forcibly split in two.

His eyes widened in defiance.

Fuck!

A physical death curse!

Ding! ...

Jiang Chen glanced at his panel. Over the course of the chase, his nearly depleted Ghost Qi had climbed back to 630.

Previously, killing an ordinary vicious ghost had earned him only a little over two hundred Ghost Qi. It seemed he was getting increasingly skilled at messing with ghosts' heads.

"Hmm, there's still room for improvement. I could've handled several details better just now!"

Jiang Chen reviewed things inwardly. Rather than getting cocky, he planned to try something more visually shocking the next time he encountered a ghost, such as ripping its belly open with a bloody hand.

Then he looked up toward the stairs above. Every light in the fire stairwell was broken. Only the eerie green glow of the "Emergency Exit" signs allowed him to barely make out the way.

That was actually quite unusual, since large facilities like hospitals checked the light bulbs in their fire stairwells every day.

"Cough, cough..."

A very faint cough seemed to come from a floor away.

Frowning, Jiang Chen gripped his blade and slowly walked upstairs. He kept close to one wall, watching diagonally upward and remaining alert for any attack that might come from the darkness.

After he climbed one floor, the coughing grew clearer. It sounded as though someone terminally ill was on the flight above him.

"Cough... cough, cough..."

And, faintly, Jiang Chen also heard a man's hoarse voice.

"Come here. Come here, quickly... come over here."

The voice seemed filled with boundless allure, yet also sounded like an old friend from one's memories, making anyone who heard it involuntarily want to seek out its source.

A trace of ferocity appeared in Jiang Chen's eyes. He gathered Demonic Power between his brows, finally dispelling that dangerous thought from his mind.

For a moment just now, even he had wanted to throw caution aside and see who was calling him.

"Something's wrong! I've fought top-tier vicious ghosts before. They definitely don't have an ability this strange. This isn't a top-tier vicious ghost?" Jiang Chen's expression shifted slightly.

Before, he would certainly have turned around and left. But now, looking at the two-star Monster Transformation Card sitting quietly in his panel, he licked his lips, rose onto his toes, and silently crept upstairs.

At the turn in the stairs, Jiang Chen saw a young man in a hospital gown hunched over in the darkness ahead. He covered his mouth with one hand as he coughed, while waving the other toward the corridor through the glass in the stairwell door.

"Come here, quickly. Come over here. It's been so long..."

The corridor was lit, so Jiang Chen could see an old man walking toward the stairwell, step by step, with bewilderment and anticipation on his face.

"Darling? Is that you, darling? Have you come to take me with you?" The old man was very elderly and walked unsteadily. He was crying and smiling at once, seemingly overcome with emotion.

Meanwhile, Jiang Chen stood on tiptoe, tensed every muscle in his body, and regulated his breathing. Like a leopard preparing to hunt, he inched closer along the wall.

By the time the old man was almost at the stairwell entrance.

Jiang Chen had also crept through the darkness to stand behind the young patient. He could clearly see two digits on the man's hospital gown.

18.

Just as Jiang Chen slowly raised his blade, preparing to fight dirty, the young man's head abruptly twisted around while his body remained still. He looked at Jiang Chen in a horrifying pose.

The young man had a delicate face, but his features were extremely strange. His eyes were different sizes, his nose and mouth were wildly out of proportion, and one ear sat higher than the other. It looked like... a face someone had pieced together!

His eyes, in particular, revealed a deeply suppressed madness. Patient No. 18's face didn't move at all, yet he seemed to be smiling constantly.

And when he actually curled his lips, that silent laughter became even more pronounced.

"Hehehe. Did you really think I hadn't noticed you?"

The man's voice brimmed with mockery.

At that moment, Jiang Chen, who he had expected to look terrified, confused, flustered, and shocked, suddenly smiled too.

"You noticed me and still let me get close? You fucking moron!"

A terrifying black gleam appeared on the blade. A heavy, world-destroying blade intent filled every inch of the stairwell entrance. Fine, shallow cuts appeared on the surrounding walls, as though some invisible blade energy were rampaging through the area.

The smile froze on Patient No. 18's face.

"Chaos-Dwelling Heavenly Blade!"

He slashed.