Chapter 71: Battling the Ghost! [Fourth Update]

Chen Miaofu was no match for Yang Yongsheng. As Yang was on the verge of succeeding in his vile intentions, Yan Yu could no longer bear it and kicked open the office door with a crash.

“Stop!” he shouted.

Yang Yongsheng paused, turning to look at Yan Yu without a trace of fear in his eyes.

“How did you get in here? Get out!” he barked, as if he were simply conducting business and not assaulting a girl.

Chen Miaofu, upon seeing Yan Yu, looked as if she had glimpsed her savior. She pleaded, “Help me... help me... please, don’t leave...”

“I won’t go,” Yan Yu replied, turning to lock the office door behind him.

“You brat...” Yang Yongsheng narrowed his eyes, surprised that someone dared to defy him in his own internet addiction treatment center.

Outside, chaos reigned because of Li Zhixian’s escape. The parents’ shouted cries drowned out all other sounds, so Yan Yu didn’t worry about anyone discovering what was happening in the office.

He quietly picked up a broom leaning by the door, detached the wooden handle, and readied it as a weapon.

“Do you intend to resist me?” Yang Yongsheng sneered, rising from atop Chen Miaofu and buckling his belt.

“You knew this day would come,” Yan Yu said coldly.

“With just that stick?” Yang Yongsheng curled his lip in contempt. “I’ve long wondered who tampered with the talisman on Room Thirteen the other day. Now I see, it was you, plotting all along.”

Yan Yu’s expression changed—so Yang had already discovered him.

“You think I don’t know how much those people outside hate me?” Yang Yongsheng laughed. “Fifteen years ago, I was careless once and walked out of these doors alone. I was nearly hacked to death by those brats I’d ‘educated,’ but... the old gatekeeper took a few blows for me. Since then, I have never stepped out of this center alone.”

“What’s your point?” Yan Yu demanded.

“My point is, I have never been alone!” Yang Yongsheng declared.

Even as he spoke, the temperature in the office dropped sharply. A furious wind whipped through, coalescing into a dozen or more ghostly figures!

These were the very spirits Su Han had mentioned previously.

At the sight, Chen Miaofu fainted on the spot from terror.

“In life, they were mine. In death, they are my ghosts. Outside these doors, their parents protect me. Inside, these brats protect me. I, Yang Yongsheng, will never be defeated!”

Yang Yongsheng broke into wild, arrogant laughter. Only a handful of exceptional people would dare tamper with his talismans, so he summoned his host of child-ghosts to quickly deal with Yan Yu.

The youngest appeared to be only about fifteen, the oldest in their twenties. Their eyes were empty, their responses sluggish. At first glance, they looked almost human, save for their pallid faces and prominent veins.

Each of them had been tormented to death by Yang Yongsheng.

Yet, his relentless abuse had warped their spirits, binding them to the mortal realm—not for revenge, but in desperate hope of escape from this earthly hell.

Yang Yongsheng had trapped them with talismans on doors and windows, using these as threats to force their obedience.

“All of you, attack him—tear him apart!” Yang Yongsheng commanded.

Instantly, the ghost-children’s faces twisted into feral snarls and they lunged at Yan Yu like mad dogs.

Yan Yu blanched and backed away, but after only a few steps, he was pressed into the corner, nowhere left to run.

At this desperate moment, Yan Yu drew a talisman from his pocket and recited loudly, “Heaven and earth without end, the way of nature prevails—obey my command!”

This was the foundational Exorcism Mantra of Mao Mountain. Previously, Yan Yu had only chanted the mantra and used hand seals, but now, with the power of the talisman, its force surged.

A flash of golden light swept through the room, scattering the ghostly children. The weaker spirits began to fade, their forms growing insubstantial—another hit, and they’d be utterly destroyed.

Seeing this, Yang Yongsheng’s face darkened. “So, you do have some skills.”

“That’s all I need to deal with you!” Yan Yu snorted, brandishing the wooden stick and charging at Yang Yongsheng.

Yang Yongsheng moved quickly, snatching up a folding chair to block the blow. The chair was aluminum alloy; Yan Yu’s stick was mere wood—it could do him no real harm.

Soon, the ghosts began to surround him again. Yan Yu called out, “It was Yang Yongsheng who killed you—do you still want to be his puppets and help him hurt others?”

At these words, confusion flickered in the ghosts’ eyes. For a moment, they stood frozen, motionless.

Yang Yongsheng grew uneasy. Suddenly, he tore a necklace from beneath his collar and began to chant: “Black dread and banners, war cries like clouds. The six halls exhale mist, black energy seethes!”

As the incantation ended, wisps of soul were drawn from each ghost, sucked into the necklace in Yang Yongsheng’s hand.

Yan Yu looked closer. The pendant wasn’t a gem or agate—it was a human tooth.

A heavy aura of resentment clung to that tooth.

With their souls drawn away, the ghost-children went berserk. Yang Yongsheng now used their very souls as leverage: if they didn’t attack Yan Yu, they would be obliterated.

But only Yan Yu understood that with Yang Yongsheng’s ability, once he took their souls, he had no power to return them.

The ghosts swarmed Yan Yu, hoisting him into the air and slamming him hard to the ground.

He felt as if his organs had been knocked out of place; he could not muster the strength to rise. The ghosts seized their chance, biting him ferociously.

Though they couldn’t tear his flesh, they left black bite marks all over him—marks that rapidly drained his vital energy. If untreated, Yan Yu’s very soul would be scattered and perish.

“You brat, you’re not the first priest to ever come here. Do you really think you little upstarts can topple me, Yang Yongsheng!?”

Yang Yongsheng strode over and kicked Yan Yu ferociously, sending him sprawling into the corner.

As Yang Yongsheng and his ghosts drew closer, Yan Yu gritted his teeth.

It seemed... the time had come to use it.

He hadn’t expected things to reach this point.

Lying on the ground, Yan Yu quietly drew a talisman from his pocket.

“Palace of the Northern Emperor—your disciple, Yan Yu, calls. Divine envoys and warriors, come swiftly to the altar.

With urgent command, thunder roars and races, heavens darken, sun and moon grow dim.

Ten thousand demons bow; when the talisman arrives, all must obey. Devour demons, consume ghosts, cut down evil, destroy malice.

Those who defy the black law, be dragged to the mulberry-bronze—delivered to the black prison, to suffer endless torment.

In the deep, eternal night, sword and blade gleam. Now I break the seal—let all ghosts submit to me!

By the law—so let it be done!”