Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows on the twenty-first floor.
Dong Wenrui stiffened, her face drained of color, and her mind stopped working as she slowly turned to look.
She saw a man floating toward her through the air outside the window, his arms folded.
The huge floor-to-ceiling window before her silently broke into hundreds of pieces that fell and scattered.
A breeze brushed her face, and the scene before her eyes flickered.
Lu Ding appeared before the old man as though he had teleported, his feet off the ground.
He raised a hand, clamped his palm over the old man's forehead, and circulated the spiritual qi within his body, sending it inside to investigate.
Though the exterior was still a human shell, someone had already replaced what was inside. Simply put, this was nothing more than a monster wearing human skin.
Lurking underneath was an old ghost of many years.
Lu Ding gradually tightened his grip, and pain twisted the old man's expression.
Lu Ding spoke evenly, without a ripple of emotion. "Where's the original old man?"
"Heh heh heh... ate... ate him. Too old. He was a little hard to chew."
Lu Ding raised his hand and slapped out every one of his teeth. "Could it be that your teeth were bad?"
He tightened his grip.
The old man's head burst like a watermelon, scattering chunks of black tissue and green, pus-filled blood across the floor.
Lu Ding shook the filth off his hand.
A notification flashed on his cheat panel, but no sound rang out.
[Obtained Colorless Small Crystal ×1] [Colorless Small Crystal: formed from concentrated, pure spiritual qi of heaven and earth, enclosing pure soul power. Can be used to replenish expenditure and improve cultivation realm and combat power.]
Apparently, this thing's level was too low to qualify for containment.
So it awarded no techniques, only this sort of Colorless Small Crystal.
Lu Ding was not greedy. As long as he gained something, that was enough. These small fry were not the main prize he had come for.
He turned to look at Dong Wenrui, who had long since gone wooden with shock.
Earlier, while flying over, Lu Ding had spotted her panicking in front of the floor-to-ceiling window. That was why he had flown over and stopped to save her life.
"What floor is this?"
Most of the fear in Dong Wenrui's heart dissipated, though some lingering fright remained as she answered Lu Ding. "The twenty-first floor. 2109."
Though she did not know who this man was.
She understood one thing: the person before her had saved her life.
If not for Lu Ding, she might already have died at the hands of that monster, whatever it was.
Ghosts really did exist in this world...
"I'm going somewhere else now. Stay hidden at home for the time being. Don't go anywhere."
Dong Wenrui nodded frantically. Lu Ding did not even need to remind her. After seeing the monster disguised as an old man, she would not dare go anywhere before daybreak.
Much less take the elevator to escape, or venture down that pitch-black emergency stairwell.
Seeing Lu Ding about to float out through the damaged front door,
Dong Wenrui instinctively asked, "Where are you going?"
"There are more things in your building. I'm going to clean them out."
At the mention of more monsters, Dong Wenrui shuddered several times.
"You... stay safe."
Lu Ding floated away, and the front door collapsed with a crash.
After he left, Dong Wenrui hurried into her room, locked the bedroom door, and hid on the bed, trembling.
Once outside,
Lu Ding headed straight for the emergency stairwell.
The woman who had come to the bureau to report the case earlier had said that her home was on the nineteenth floor, in 1911.
That was precisely where Lu Ding's target was.
He descended to the twentieth floor. When he was only a few steps away from the nineteenth, a young man stood motionless behind the emergency stairwell door.
Upon seeing Lu Ding floating,
His eyes showed none of the alarm a normal person should have felt.
Instead, he said discontentedly, "How many times has the commander told us to be careful, to be careful? We can't act differently from ordinary people, or we'll attract unnecessary trouble. We should be keeping a low profile right now, building high walls and stockpiling grain, waiting for the fifteenth of the seventh month."
"What do you think you're doing? There are only a few days left. Can't you wait even that long?"
"Are those fucking legs just for show? Can't you climb the stairs? If you really can't, take the elevator. It's been so goddamn long, and you still haven't learned to use an elevator? Getting you such a good-looking body was a waste."
"Speaking of which, your body looks good, sure, but why does your face look so unfamiliar?"
Lu Ding listened without interrupting the man.
Commander.
The fifteenth of the seventh month.
Build high walls and stockpile grain.
The person he's talking about should be the mastermind. A commander... looks like an ancient ghost, one who held an official post and had some education.
As for the fifteenth of the seventh month...
That's the Ghost Festival. Are these things planning to stir up trouble then?
Lu Ding surged forward at tremendous speed, grabbed the man's body, and pinned him against the wall, shattering a section of the solid wall behind him.
A slash cut through, severing an arm that tumbled to the floor.
The pain made the man want to scream, but Lu Ding held his jaw in a crushing grip that produced a series of cracks, leaving him unable to utter a word.
"Now, I ask, you answer. If you're even a moment slow, you'll see your own brains."
"Who is this commander you mentioned?"
The ghost hiding in the man's body had a mocking look in his eyes. He had no intention of answering any questions.
Lu Ding did exactly as he had said.
The top of the ghost's skull flew off, splattering brains across the white wall.
Lu Ding casually tossed the corpse aside.
"Looks like you're pretty loyal. Forget it. I can just go find him in 1911 myself."
Leaving the emergency stairwell,
Lu Ding floated to the door of 1911.
One kick smashed both the door and its frame to pieces, revealing the family of three eating their "meal" inside.
Two old ones and one young one.
Unless something unexpected had happened, these should be the replacements for the reporting woman's parents-in-law and child.
The three monsters froze for a moment upon seeing Lu Ding.
Especially when they saw him floating along without touching the floor, the confusion in their eyes deepened.
What was this thing?
A human, or a monster like them?
As far as they knew, humans could not fly.
The old man stood up.
"What manner of fiend are you? This is a garrison of the Pei Family Army. Leave at once, and I can overlook this trespass!"
Lu Ding laughed. "What manner of fiend am I?"
Fucking turning heaven's order upside down.
He, a human with an impeccable background, had become the fiend.
He shot forward as though teleporting and kicked, sending the old man flying straight into the wall, where he became embedded.
Great mouthfuls of green, pus-filled blood gushed out.
The old woman beside him rose to pounce and kill. Lu Ding raised his hand, and a cold gleam flashed from bottom to top. Under the room's dim light, it reflected the old woman's image as she split into three, countless long, winding objects scattering across the floor.
He grabbed the child whose body a ghost had replaced.
Before Lu Ding could do anything,
The old ghost embedded deep in the wall, unable to move, cried out brokenly, "Let... let the young master go! Come at me instead!"
Both thighs were severed at the roots.
"Spare me this loyal-servant-protecting-his-master act. Anyone who didn't know better would think you were the victims."
"If you want me to let him go, answer my questions properly. Otherwise, this little bastard will die in my hands, piece by piece, just like this."
Lu Ding brutally tore an arm clean off the little monster the old ghost had called young master.
At that moment, he was even more savage than these monsters that had replaced people's bodies.
"Aah!!!!! Dad!!!!"
"Shut up. Calling your grandpa wouldn't help, let alone your dad."
"I'll talk!!! I'll talk!!!"