I subdue demons and monsters, and cultivate immortality in hell to become a saint.

"Is that evil spirit still inside?"

Zhong Jiu didn't rush into the room where the incident occurred; instead, he raised his hand and rang the doorbell.

The doorbell rang eerily in the empty hallway.

The room was silent for a few seconds, then the sound of footsteps came from behind. The door creaked open a crack, and a chilling draft escaped through the gap, making Zhong Jiu shiver.

"Is anyone coming to visit me?"

A soft, childlike voice drifted out.

A boy wearing a white T-shirt, about seven or eight years old, with messy short hair, was standing at the door, holding a doll that was emitting black smoke.

His skin was as white as paper, and his mouth stretched from ear to ear, revealing two rows of sharp baby teeth. His smile was more terrifying than that of a villain in a horror movie.

Zhong Jiu's gaze instantly locked onto the doll.

That wasn't a toy at all; it was a trapped soul!

The boy was inhaling deeply into the doll, and wisps of its essence seeped into his nose, which infuriated Zhong Jiu.

"Is that Guo Ranran you're holding?"

Zhong Jiu's voice was as cold as ice.

Guo Ranran is the girl who murdered her father. The news said her fate was unknown. It turns out that she had already been killed by this little devil, and her soul was used as a toy and "snack".

The boy's smile widened, but a glint of malice flashed in his eyes: "Big brother, do you know her?"

"I was thinking that if you had been wronged before you committed these evil deeds, I might be able to forgive you this time."

Zhong Jiu slowly tightened his grip on the Soul-Binding Lock, his eyes instantly turning cold. "But now it seems, a demon like you deserves to die ten thousand times!"

"The older brother seems to feel sorry for her."

Suddenly, the boy's eyes flashed with bloodshot light, and he pounced like a ravenous beast. "Then you'll take her place and be my new toy!"

"You? You think you're worthy to touch me?"

Zhong Jiu remained motionless, flicking his wrist, and the Soul-Binding Lock shot out like a serpent. "Stay put, you bastard!"

Chi la la!

The iron chain circled in the air once, then snapped around the boy's waist, and the black mist instantly tightened.

The boy's face changed drastically; he realized he had messed up and struggled desperately to escape, his eyes glancing towards the stairwell entrance.

Unfortunately, Zhong Jiu's killing intent was already at its peak, so why would he give him a chance?

"Trying to run? Leave your life behind!"

Zhong Jiu roared angrily and yanked the Soul-Binding Lock in his hand.

Although this chain is not a top-tier magic weapon, it is a natural nemesis of ghosts. When he held it in his hand, he felt it was icy cold, and his knuckles turned white from the cold. But when he wrapped it around the boy, the little ghost felt as if he had been thrown into lava, and he convulsed in pain.

The chains tightened, binding the boy like a dumpling, making it difficult for him to even move a finger.

Zhong Jiu, seething with anger, exerted all his strength, causing black mist to billow from the chains, scalding the boy who screamed in agony, "I was wrong! I was really wrong! Big brother, have mercy!"

"My parents abandoned me in an orphanage before I died. I suffered from cold and hunger, and no one cared for me. In the end, I starved to death on the street!"

He wailed in a hoarse, childlike voice, his tears turning into black smoke and dissipating, "I hate those children who have families and love, that's why...that's why they hurt Guo Ranran! I was forced into it!"

Zhong Jiu sneered repeatedly, showing not a shred of sympathy.

A miserable life is no excuse for evil deeds. Humans and ghosts are different. Once you become a ghost, you must abide by the rules of the underworld.

Humans abide by human laws, ghosts follow the rules of the underworld!

Zhong Jiu's eyes flashed with a sharp light, his voice so deep it could leave a crater, "You were abandoned by your parents, go find them and settle the score! Guo Ranran's parents loved her, her family was perfect, so you deserve to kill her? You deserve to be annihilated?"

He grew angrier as he spoke, and thinking of the doll's spirit that had been treated as a "snack," he suddenly jerked his wrist: "Smash it!"

The Soul-Binding Lock instantly erupted with blinding black mist. Before the boy's screams could even finish, he was shredded into a cloud of black smoke and completely dissipated into the air.

Zhong Jiu shook the embers off the chains and turned to leave.

The art of slaying demons truly becomes easier with practice; the more you do it, the more skilled you become.

However, finding ghosts is much more difficult than slaying them.

He wandered around the city all night before he finally managed to collect enough demons to meet his quota.

Besides the boy, the other two ghosts were hiding in an unfinished building on the outskirts of the city. They were migrant workers from out of town who worked for a heartless boss. They had an accident and were hastily buried without even receiving compensation.

The fact that these two ghosts only killed the unscrupulous boss at first is somewhat understandable.

But after going berserk, he completely lost control, not only wiping out the boss's entire family, but also not sparing his former coworkers who used to work as bricklayers. In just a few days, his kill count soared to over ninety.

"Every wrong has its perpetrator, and every debt its debtor. It's fine if you retaliate against Boss Su, but don't blame me for being ruthless when it comes to indiscriminately killing innocent people!"

When Chung Kau found them, the two ghosts were gnawing on the victim's soul. Without saying a word, he threw out his chains, and after a fierce struggle, he sent their souls flying away.

By the time they finished dealing with those two, the sky was already turning a pale white, and the dawn had dyed the clouds orange.

Zhong Jiu yawned. Although he had become a soul soldier, his physical body was still that of a human, and he still needed to eat and sleep as usual.

I got home immediately, and the moment my head hit the pillow, I fell asleep like a log.

Around noon, my phone rang like a death knell, shaking my pillow.

"You're not dead?"

A cold female voice came from the other end of the phone; it was her younger sister, Zhong Yingmei!

Zhong Jiu's mind was still blank, but his body sat up first—this was a conditioned reflex ingrained in the original owner's bones.

He rubbed his temples and complained, "A brother afraid of his sister? This original owner of the body has no dignity at all."

"I'm fine, perfectly fine."

Zhong Jiu cleared his throat, trying to keep his voice steady.

Why send a farewell email for no reason?

Zhong Yingmei's voice suddenly rose, her anger almost overflowing from the receiver, "I'm going back to Guiling City in a couple of days, you'd better explain yourself to me face to face!"

beep-

The call was immediately disconnected.

Zhong Jiu then slowly recalled that the original owner was terrified after being targeted by an evil spirit and sent a "farewell letter" to her sister before committing suicide.

He scrolled through his emails, looking at the numerous sentimental messages like "Little sister, you must live well," and couldn't help but facepalm: "This original owner of the body really had cowardice and weakness etched into her DNA."

Unbeknownst to him, Zhong Yingmei, on the other end of the phone, leaned against the wall immediately after hanging up. Her tense shoulders slumped instantly, her eyes red like a rabbit's, and tears "plop" fell onto her military trousers from her previously icy face.

Even though the siblings don't usually keep in touch, they're more heartbroken than anyone else if something really happens to them!

If any of your comrades were here, they would be absolutely stunned. Zhong Yingmei, the famous "Iron Lady" of the provincial military academy, actually shed tears?

This is even more absurd than a demon being afraid of the sun!

Zhong Yingmei quickly wiped away her tears, straightened her military uniform, and resumed her cold and aloof demeanor, as if her previous vulnerability was all an illusion.

Zhong Jiu didn't take it too seriously and went back to sleep.

When he opened his eyes again, it was already pitch black outside the window, and the clock hands were pointing to midnight.

This time, he was no longer aimless. He had already figured out the evil spirits' tricks: they either hid in cemeteries with heavy yin energy or squatted in hospitals with weak yang energy.

Cemeteries may be nice, but hospitals have even more ghosts.

After all, people die in hospitals every day, and patients' yang energy is already weak, making it practically a "buffet restaurant" for evil spirits.

Zhong Jiu browsed through the local forums and, sure enough, they were all posts about paranormal events at the hospital:

"Someone was crying on the third floor of the inpatient ward in the middle of the night..."

"The thermometer at the nurses' station is spinning by itself..."

"The curtains in the intensive care unit always seem to open for no reason..."

Even so, the hospital remained brightly lit, with medical staff braving the risks to go to work. If even they were to leave, the patients in the city would truly have no way to survive.

Zhong Jiu admired him and quickened his pace, soon reaching the inpatient department of the city's central hospital.

"Lingling, it's time to change the dressing for bed number five. Let's go together."

"Okay, don't let your hands shake, let's finish changing quickly and come back soon."

Two nurses pushed the treatment cart, gripping each other's arms tightly, their steps unsteady.

The wheels of the treatment cart rolled over the tiled floor, the "gurgling" sound echoing in the empty corridor, sounding particularly eerie.

They knew the hospital wasn't clean, but the old man in bed number five was critically ill, and delaying his dressing change could be fatal, so they had no choice but to bite the bullet and go ahead.

Upon reaching the ward door, the two exchanged a glance, took a deep breath, and pushed the door open.