Crushing the Ghosts, Containment Reward: Drumbeat Heart-Shaking

The moment the call ended, everyone in the call center sprang into action.

"Quick! Check whether any investigators are passing near Dinghao Residential Complex. Message them to reinforce Dinghao Residential Complex immediately!!!"

"Issue an emergency notice right away. Notify Anhong District, Luding District, and Taisi District, the three districts closest to Baofan District, to send their patrolling investigators over immediately!!"

"Notify the cleanup department to head to Dinghao Residential Complex. Make absolutely sure not a single monster escapes. Clean them all out!!"

"Satellites, communications barriers, network monitoring, road closures, emergency coordination-activate everything!!"

"Have the local authorities issue an earthquake warning and switch on the seismographs. Get ready."

A busy urban neighborhood was unlike anywhere else. They had to take this seriously.

When something like a Yin Domain overlap occurred somewhere like Dinghao Residential Complex, the first priority was protecting ordinary people's lives and property.

Road closures were a must. As for network monitoring, that was to prevent news of the Yin Domain from leaking online.

The seismographs and earthquake warnings were tools for the aftermath.

If there were casualties, they would certainly have to provide an explanation, and a natural disaster was the best explanation.

The state would also provide all kinds of compensation, on every front.

Bureau 749 moved fast.

Lu Ding could not slow down either.

Over a hundred monsters that had replaced the "people" surged in from every floor of the building.

Lu Ding held the doorway of apartment 1911, unleashing his full firepower. Slash after slash swept out like a lawn mower, killing and dismembering the charging monsters.

The strikes were so powerful.

Even the corridor walls, floor, and ceiling outside apartment 1911 were left scored with deep cuts.

But the things outside were not the greatest threat. The things inside the Yin Domain were.

When a Yin Domain overlapped unconsciously, the overlap took time.

Before the overlap was complete, the old ghosts that had accumulated inside the Yin Domain over the years could only emerge through the opening in the bedroom wardrobe of apartment 1911.

Lu Ding hacked down those charging from outside while blocking the things emerging from within.

He did not care who came. If one showed its head, he killed one; if two came out, he killed the pair. Like a god of war, he spawn-camped them.

Bang!!!

He thrust out a kick!

A ghost that had endured untold hardships dodging slash after slash had only just reached Lu Ding, without even launching an attack, when his kick sent it flying through the wall into apartment 1910.

The original residents inside had long since turned into monsters and been slain by Lu Ding.

Countless corpses lay around him, minced flesh carpeted the floor, and blood flowed in rivers.

Lu Ding floated above the heap of corpses.

Both arms extended out to his sides, he radiated a powerful aura, like a king standing upon a battlefield.

In control of the situation, powerful, composed, and brazen.

The monsters outside had been slaughtered to the last. In the cramped corridor, any casual slash from Lu Ding cut like a red-hot blade through butter, without the slightest resistance.

All that remained were the ghosts within the Yin Domain beyond the wardrobe doorway.

Lu Ding blocked the entrance and shouted, "Come on, charge again!!!"

The Yin Domain had yet to merge completely. All he needed to do was trap and kill these things inside it without letting them out.

The monsters in the Yin Domain were cowed on the spot.

But they had all been vicious creatures who had fought their way through mountains of blades and seas of fire.

And they had already died once.

Naturally, they did not fear dying again.

A monster with half its body rotted away wore heavy armor, with faint glimpses of white bones visible through the gaps.

It stood amid the throng of ghosts.

In a hoarse voice, it shouted, "Heavy shields forward, spears in the second rank, blades and axes in the third!!!"

Ghosts carrying shields as tall as a person formed ranks and set their shields. Faded, rusted spearheads emerged through the gaps, and behind them, ghosts held blades level with their heads.

An iron-blooded military formation was nothing more than this.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The heavy shield troops pushed forward, each step pounding down with tremendous momentum.

Lu Ding remained unmoved, his gaze settling on the heavily armored ghost that had issued the orders.

"So you're a leader."

"Throw!" the heavily armored ghost commanded.

Spears flew from behind the heavy shields, hurtling straight toward Lu Ding at tremendous speed.

He glanced at the wardrobe he stood in.

Lu Ding shook his head slightly.

Forget it. Killing them will be simpler than holding them back.

He raised a hand, summoning a howling gale that blew the incoming spears away.

The Wind-Calming Technique did more than let Lu Ding fly. It could also summon howling winds to further increase its user's flying speed.

At that moment, Lu Ding's speed rose to its utmost limit.

He flew into the Yin Domain, the phantom of a Flying Bear gradually rising behind him as he charged to crush the military formation within.

Charge the formation!

The towering, ferocious Flying Bear carried Lu Ding crashing into the ghosts' formation.

It flung aside and crushed the ghosts these proud soldiers and fierce warriors had become with wild abandon.

With a casual strike from Lu Ding, a ghost bearing a tall shield that had closed in to trap and kill him shattered along with its shield, scattering flesh and blood.

He glanced back and sent a horizontal slash sweeping out, clearing ten meters as though mowing grass.

Within the formation, two ghosts raised their shields to form a bridge. The heavily armored ghost leaped onto it, wielding spiked raw-copper hammers and clad in layered armor with tiger maws. Crossing its arms in a mountain-cleaving strike, it leaped down to ambush Lu Ding, intent on smashing his head open.

"However fierce a brute you may be, you'll be nothing but another wronged soul beneath my hammers!!"

Bang!!!

Shock appeared on the heavily armored ghost's face.

One of Lu Ding's hands gripped the tip of a thrusting spear, stopping it from advancing an inch, while his other hand reached skyward to catch the copper hammer, refusing to sink even a fraction.

"You certainly shout loudly. Shame you're trash with a loose grip and a limp hammer. Eat a few more years' worth of meals after you're reborn before you come back!"

Both hands exerted force at once. The spear shattered, and the hammer cracked.

The Flying Bear phantom turned and roared. Spreading sound waves carried the power of true qi, flaying and killing layer upon layer. The roar shattered the heavily armored monster's armor, scattered its flesh, stripped its bones, and reduced it to dust that vanished like smoke.

The giant bear swept across, sending severed limbs flying through the air.

[Contained monster: Drum Hammer Ghost Chief]

[Containment reward: Drumbeat Heart-Shaking]

[Drumbeat Heart-Shaking: Form hammers from qi and use flesh as a drum to shake the viscera, heart, and lungs, causing those who hear it to burst apart and die. The drumming method can also temper the internal organs and flesh, strengthening the physical body.]

The Drumbeating Ghost Chief: military chronicles recorded that, on particular days each year, armies of certain dynasties would gather their soldiers and set out a drum taller than a person, with a hundred-jin drum hammer. Soldiers were made to lift the hammer and strike the drum. Those who sounded it ten times could receive fine silver; those who sounded it twenty times could join a commander's personal guard.

Those who sounded it fifty times could become a hammer chief, responsible for sounding the drums on the battlefield.

This was no respectable, safe job. Anyone capable of doing it had to be a first-rate tough bastard, strong and quick-witted, and also had to protect the drum. It was much like serving in the banner guard, only less elite.

This Drum Hammer Ghost Chief was what one of those fierce drummer soldiers had become after death.

A reward had finally dropped.

Having gained another new technique, Lu Ding was somewhat impatient to try it.

He immediately circulated qi through his body, using qi to sound the drum, and brought down a hammer. Bang!!!

A deep drumbeat surged outward, a visible sound wave bursting forth. The charging ghosts exploded on the spot in swathes, blasting flesh and blood across the sky.

By the time Fang Du, having burst out of his human skin, flew back to Dinghao Residential Complex, smashed through apartment 1911's window, and landed inside.

All he saw were severed limbs, flesh, and blood strewn across the floor.

Every one of the ghost soldiers he had substituted was dead.