**Chapter 198: Gluttony: I Heard You’ve Been Looking for Me?**
The atmosphere in the room was bizarre, eerily silent. The kn*fe in Chen Tianran’s hand clattered to the floor as she stared at Bai Yu, her eyes wide with disbelief. It was hard to believe that such words would come from a notorious doctor.
Seeing Bai Yu and hearing that name, honestly, she felt despair.
She had paid a hefty price, even risking her own life to perform a ritual. Harnessing the power of evil spirits, she intended to control all the ghosts in the building to deal with the outsiders. All she wanted was to k*ll those people so that Chen Bingtang could survive—whether she lived or died herself didn’t matter.
The sc*m Game had given her a chance to make a different choice, and she was determined to seize it.
No opportunity? Create one! What did it matter if she sacrificed a worthless life?
But she knew her little tricks wouldn’t stand a chance against the doctor. There was a good chance she’d end up dead, along with Bingtang.
Her body grew weaker, and with the loss of bl**d, her mind felt empty.
Leaning against a bl**d thread extending from the floor, she could feel the strands wrapping around her body staunching the flow, barely keeping her breathing.
If she had been any later, she’d most likely be a goner—just losing too much bl**d could cost her life.
A forced smile broke on her lips, her pale face betraying any color as she whispered, “Thank you, thank you. But, why?”
The girl in the black dress was merely called the doctor—she knew how the nickname had come about. This wasn’t a savior type of doctor; no, this was a doctor who ended all suffering.
So, m*rder? That was more her style. But she had never seen her willingly save someone, especially someone unrelated.
“No reason. You are my target. Got it?” Bai Yu tightened her hold on Chen Tianran with the bl**d strands, preventing her from doing anything rash.
Whether this person lived or died was of no concern to her, except when it came to the mission. Now that she activated the redemption task, if Chen Tianran died, her mission would fail as well. So, Chen Tianran absolutely couldn’t d*e.
“Hehehe, so it’s a mission? I still want to thank you for saving my sister.”
“You did well. Leave the rest to me.” Bai Yu absorbed the bl**d from the floor and walls with the bl**d strands, nodding at Chen Tianran.
People who’d go to such lengths for their siblings were moving.
“Wait.” Chen Tianran lowered her head, her eyelids growing heavy, the cold spreading through her body, a wave of drowsiness threatening to engulf her.
She fought against this sleepiness and said, “My ritual didn’t fail. My efforts weren’t in vain. That evil spirit has already been awakened—it’s outside. Without my control, it will fall into chaos.”
“Got it.” Bai Yu signaled Bai Shuang’er to come in and keep an eye on Chen Tianran. She and Zhao Mingyue stepped out of the room. “Hang in there, don’t d*e.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t d*e. Just a small injury.”
When the door closed, Bai Yu sealed the bedroom door with bl**d strands.
“Mingyue.”
“Yeah?”
“Act smart. I won’t possess you.” bl**d strands spread from her palm, forming a sharp long kn*fe.
“Got it, got it.” Zhao Mingyue casually pulled a magic wand from her backpack, wrapping it in bl**d strands to enhance its terrifying appearance.
“Let’s go.”
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The hallway was chaos. As they were cornered, everyone noticed that the more than twenty ghosts suddenly stopped, all lowering their heads, only resentment bubbling beneath.
Before they could breathe a sigh of relief, those evil spirits suddenly raised their heads and charged at them like crazed beasts, as if something had triggered a frenzy, lunging at them recklessly.
Two red-clothed ghosts led the charge amid more than twenty evil spirits, an overwhelming spectacle. Even before the ghosts pounced, the dark aura of resentment hit them like a wall.
Cold winds howled, and evil spirits shrieked. An Tianhe pulled a wooden hexagram from his pocket, gently spinning the dial with his thumb as three black shadows solidified before him.
Two ordinary ghosts and one in red—that was all the strength An Tianhe had.
He was capable of fighting, but he hadn’t taken action in years, lacking practice, and as a result, he had become a bit rusty. Most of the tasks he dealt with didn’t require his hands to get dirty; just releasing evil spirits and watching them brawl was enough.
Accompanying him were one red-clothed ghost and seven ordinary ghosts.
As the ghosts appeared, the ones in front, facing the crazed crowd, visibly hesitated, refusing to charge ahead.
“Useless.” An Tianhe snorted, biting his fingertip and murmuring incantations. A few drops of bl**d splattered onto the three evil spirits, instantly filling their eyes with black, banishing their fear, and they let out piercing shrieks, retaliating against the crowd.
On An Tianhe’s side were also two red-clothed ghosts; the number of ordinary ghosts was only nine—fewer than the enemy’s.
But that wasn’t crucial. What mattered was the overwhelming aura emanating from the ghosts he released.
Especially the difference between red-clothed spirits; it was glaringly obvious.
The resentment levels were no contest, and their fury paled in comparison.
It was the difference between domesticated and wild.
In the midst of the fight, An Tianhe’s two red-clothed ghosts quickly found themselves overwhelmed.
“Still not making a move? What are you waiting for?!” An Tianhe bellowed, rummaging through his pocket for talismans and coins, hurling them to scatter two little ghosts.
“Releasing so many ghosts, I can’t tell who’s who!”
Bang!
A gunshot rang out, obliterating a seductive female ghost belonging to An Tianhe into dust.
Li Tianan aimed his exquisite flintlock at a wild ghost and blasted it apart.
“Looks like I messed up—sorry, sorry! That wasn’t my fault.”
An Tianhe gritted his teeth in hatred, momentarily at a loss for words. This d*mn fool was clearly doing it on purpose, targeting him!
Reloading a b*llet with one hand, Li Tianan fished out nails and red thread from the box with the other, fingers pinching two glass vials—one filled with chicken feathers, the other with a pure black juvenile centipede.
“Buy me some time!”
He launched a nail into the center of the ghost melee, another into the ceiling, and flicked a few more nails to the walls. Li Tianan moved fluidly, effortlessly, as he blasted one leaping ghost while sending dark red thread skimming out, deftly catching onto the nails.
His fingers danced, shooting the ghosts obstructing the thread, blasting them apart.
As he set up the formation and loaded his lovely flintlock, both hands worked independently without issue.
Yet the ghosts were still too many; setting up a formation wasn’t easy.
During the time Li Tianan was reloading, four more ghosts surged forth. In this moment, two palm-sized dark yellow talismans flew out, launched by two short knives. The knives pierced through the ghosts, igniting them with the talisman’s power.
Compared to Li Tianan’s g*n, Xia Feihang’s flying daggers were less effective.
After hitting the ghosts, they only briefly ignited the resentment, while extinguishing the ghosts altogether would take more time—time enough for the ghosts to rip apart the talismans.
Xia Feihang understood this as well. That’s where her assistant came in.
The wooden stick smashed into a ghost, failing to pierce through its body; instead, it forced the black aura, wafting away, from the ghost’s form.
Her assistant’s dexterity was impressive; with a strong grip, she drove her stick through the ghost’s chest and hooked upward, leveraging the talismans’ strength to turn the ghost to dust.
Another short kn*fe flew, spinning mid-air before piercing another ghost.
A flurry of attacks; Xia Feihang clapped the box for more flying daggers.
Li Tianan concentrated, firing off another ghost in one swift motion, while the hallway filled with red threads, carefully weaving a preliminary talisman through the nails on the walls.
He smashed the glass vials, pinching the centipede within, and crushed it on the red thread.
The black centipede burst into flames, turning to ashes within half a second, drifting down between Li Tianan’s fingers.
On closer inspection, the color of the red thread deepened significantly, now tinged black from the centipede’s remains.
That wasn’t all. Continuing, Li Tianan smashed the second glass vial, pinching a rooster feather, performing the same action.
Boom!
The rooster feather flared into a fiery ash. Li Tianan closed his fingers, causing the previously loose red threads to instantly tighten, the flames erupting forth. When the sparks died down, all the red threads began to ignite.
With a tug on the threads, Li Tianan inadvertently incinerated An Tianhe’s apprentice, Zhou Li’s two seductive female ghosts, leaving behind two thin paper figures that fluttered to the ground.
Zhou Li’s face paled. He hastily bit his fingertip, drawing bl**d to write something in his palm, then pressed his palms together tightly, eyes shut, muttering words.
The two paper-turned ghosts reappeared, although their forms were significantly more ethereal.
Corresponding to this change, Zhou Li’s face grew paler.
As Li Tianan prepared to strike again, An Tianhe could no longer hold back, shouting angrily, “Li Tianan! Stop it!”
“What’s the matter? I’m just killing ghosts!”
Bang!
With another shot, the female ghost on the left shattered, and Zhou Li spit bl**d.
“That’s my apprentice! Do you want to d*e, Li Tianan?!” An Tianhe whirled, glaring at Li Tianan, who was grinning.
“Sorry, sorry! I mistook it again.”
At that moment, An Tianhe dared not utter another word, swallowing his words along with his bitterness.
Because Li Tianan’s formation was indeed powerful; it effortlessly burnt through several ghosts, and more importantly, it suppressed their resentment—simply unbelievable.
A faint groan of pain echoed, and An Tianhe, seasoned as he was, instantly realized it was the evil spirit controlling the ghosts that had been injured by Li Tianan’s formation.
What seemed like a stable situation due to Li Tianan’s formation suggested victory was merely a matter of time.
Just then, the tides shifted drastically.
An Tianhe’s red-clothed ghost was lifted by an opposing red-clothed ghost and slammed into the center of Li Tianan’s formation. In an instant, that red ghost ignited, its face contorted in agony.
An Tianhe turned pale, hastily making hand gestures, black mist expanding around the red-clothed female ghost, suppressing Li Tianan’s fiery formation to minuscule proportions.
In the hallway, a female ghostly laugh echoed—a sound that belonged to none of the ghosts present.
“Tonight, you all d*e here!”
“Bingtang, my child! Why do you disturb her?!”
A truck’s headlights pierced the darkness from below, illuminating the walls with the shadow of a gigantic human-headed centipede.
This centipede loomed above, controlling almost every ghost in sight with its many legs, even reining in An Tianhe’s ghosts, except for the two red ones unfazed.
One ghost equaled one centipede leg, and the hallway was packed with dozens of ghosts.
In that moment, even the once-determined An Tianhe felt a wave of fear wash over him.
Not just him; all present felt a chill run through them.
Only Li Tianan remained unfazed, pulling a large glass jar from his pocket, retrieving the chicken head inside and pressing it onto the red thread.
Flames erupted again, dispersing the centipede’s shadow.
At that moment, it seemed that only Li Tianan’s formation could provide them any semblance of safety.
Yet his face bore more resignation than anything.
What good was fighting the evil spirit? That formidable being hadn’t even made a move yet.
The glimmer of hope that had emerged in everyone’s minds barely lingered for a few seconds before chaos erupted once more.
Suddenly, countless thick dark red bl**d strands writhed across the walls, ceiling, and floor, like giant pythons. Without damaging the structure, they surged forth with the force of a tidal wave, systematically dismantling Li Tianan’s formation—their last hope.
The strands came on swiftly, crushing everything in their path. Any ghosts pinned against the walls were violently consumed by these tendrils, barely aware of their struggle as they were swept away in an instant—eight or nine spirits vanished, without a single shriek left behind.
Yes, those ghosts—devoured.
They were all ghost handlers; surely, they recognized the terrifying writhing substance for what it was.
Knowing fully well what it was sent an icy grip around their hearts, leaving them breathless and covered in cold sweat.
What kind of monster was this, capable of consuming so many red-clothed evil spirits achieving such a horrifying magnitude?
An Tianhe’s fingers trembled uncontrollably; instinctively, he took a few steps back, wanting to distance himself from those strands.
No, this wasn’t just “bl**d threads”—they were more akin to bl**d pythons.
Retreating, he bumped into Li Tianan, who suddenly patted his shoulder.
An Tianhe flinched, turning stiffly to look.
Li Tianan sighed by his ear, pointing at the stunning girl dressed in black that had appeared out of nowhere, and spoke helplessly.
“Isn’t this what you were after? The Gluttony is here.”
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Still more to come tonight~
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