The golden-armored warrior kicked the round conference table. The hefty wooden table rolled on the ground, directly aiming at me. I had to jump aside to dodge. The warrior appeared in front of me a second later, wielding his broadsword. I closed my eyes at that moment, waiting for death.

At the same instant, Yin Xinyue grabbed a flower pot from the balcony and hit the warrior with it, enraging him; he silently turned to see her. I seized the chance and stepped back.

The warrior noticed my move. He pulled back the tightly held sword handle, using the pointy end of the handle to stab me—he was using the official sword of the Ming dynasty’s imperial bodyguards, which had a spear-like blade at the end of the handle. In a horse battle, it could be used to stab the enemy with a pull of the user’s hand.

I rolled to avoid this fatal thrust. The tile on the floor, right where I had just stood, was broken by that vicious attack. The warrior in golden armor was quite angry as he kicked me. I was flung by this blow, hitting the wall in the end. I felt a surge in my chest, strong enough to almost make me vomit blood.

I checked Li Mazi. He was crouching in the corner, clutching his head like an ostrich and mumbling repeatedly, “He can’t see me. He can’t see me!”

My disdain for him was unimaginable at the moment.

Yin Xinyue grabbed another flower pot and threw it at the warrior. Thanks to this distraction, I used the Sirius Whip and lashed at him. The whip coiled around the warrior’s neck. I pulled him back hard.

At the same time, I called Li Mazi for help. He finally reacted and ran to join me. The two of us grabbed the whip and pulled it back. Still, we had not expected for the warrior in golden armor to be relatively light; it seemed his armor was intangible and had no weight. He lost his balance when we joined hands to pull him, landing on his back with a loud thump.

“Run!” I shouted at Yin Xinyue.

I rushed to push the back door open and dashed out. The warrior slowly got up inside the conference room.

“Damn it, why did he suddenly turn to attack us?” asked Li Mazi. 

“I don’t know. Perhaps someone is controlling him…”

We heard something rolling and rubbing against the floor when we ran to the end of the corridor. I turned my head around to see and the Red Barbarian Cannon had turned back to its true form. Its wheels were rolling as it tried to chase after us. Blood was oozing from the cannon muzzle. It had a head loaded inside. It was really dangerous to stand in front of it, so we did our best to rush toward the staircase.

Li Mazi wanted to run downstairs. However, I called him back. Our best bet was to run to the rooftop. Since this thing wasn’t afraid of sunlight, it was of no use to guide it outside; it could even kill more innocent people. It would be for the best to lure it to the rooftop and find a chance to make it fall off from that height. The cannon was made of cast iron; I was sure it would be smashed if it fell from the sixteenth floor. 

I didn’t care about this item, nor did I want it anymore. Now, I only wanted to deal with it! 

It was a hard job to climb all the way to the sixteenth floor, and we couldn’t even find time to rest and catch our breath. However, when we were about to reach our destination, we found that the door to the rooftop was locked. It was quite a disappointment.

“H-He’s coming!” Li Mazi stammered.

He was right. We all heard the noise as the cannon moved closer; we would be unable to dodge if the cannon blocked us there. I suggested staying on the sixteenth floor for a while.

It was a floor used for meetings. As there were no meetings scheduled, they didn’t even turn the lights on.

As soon as we stepped into the corridor, the clanging sound of the metal armor was heard from the stairs, inching its way closer and closer.

Li Mazi sighed with emotion. “I used to think that we would only collect small things like a bowl or a shoe in this commission. If I had known that I would have been chased and slashed, I would have rather listened to your advice about joining the entertainment industry, sister-in-law!” 

“You still have the face to talk! You ran even faster than a rabbit when you should have stood firm!”

I pulled Yin Xinyue’s hand. I was quite touched since she had just saved me. In comparison, after looking at that coward Li Mazi, I saw what human ugliness looked like!

The noise came closer, and Li Mazi said nervously, “The cannon’s going to arrive soon. Little Brother Zhang, do you have any plans?”

“Yes, I do. When it comes to this floor, we will run to the other end,” I said. I wasn’t afraid, but we didn’t have anything that could deal with it at the moment. That was why I didn’t plan on going there to wrestle with it.

“Brother Zhang!” Yin Xinyue slapped me in the back. “Something just flew in.” I turned to check the window. A paper crane slowly flew in. 

I was thrilled beyond words as Chuyi was nearby. However, the paper crane was holding something in its beak. I saw the thing when it drew closer. It was a condom! It was full of some red liquid. The paper crane steadily flew through the window to reach us. I opened the condom and sniffed.

“What’s that?” asked Yin Xinyue.

“Eel blood… No, it smells heavier than eel blood. It’s the blood of a black-bellied snake. This is the best thing to summon ghosts.”

Li Mazi said, “Why did Chuyi send this to us? He’s a Daoist priest, and he’s still carrying condoms around. He’s not decent at all!” 

“He wants us to trigger the souls in this place to deal with this cannon!” I finally understood.

As we didn’t have time, we couldn’t set up any formations. I used the black-bellied snake blood to write four words on the floor—“All ghosts come here!”

My grandfather used to tell me that language was a spell in itself. Rain fell from the sky when Cang Jie, the legendary scribe of the Yellow Emperor, created words. That night, ghosts cried nonstop. Since humans knew words, they also attained the power of many spells.

As soon as I wrote the four words, a strange wind howled through the corridor. It was blowing so hard that we couldn’t even open our eyes. The surroundings also dimmed out. Soon, the warrior in golden armor appeared with his massive broadsword, stopping when he arrived where I had written the words.

A dozen pale and rotten arms jutted out of the ground, grabbing and twining around the warrior’s legs. A ghost slowly climbed upon him. It was a man wearing a bloodstained patient uniform.

The golden-armored warrior raised his fist and pounded on the ghost’s head. After a few strikes, the ghost’s head was deformed, and ghost blood splashed on the wall. The resentful soul fell on the ground, turning into a wisp of dark smoke and dispersing.

More souls climbed on the warrior’s body. The weight of so many ghosts made the golden-armored warrior go down on one knee. He threw the broadsword aside and used his hands to grab two souls, smashing their heads together. The two souls vanished after several bangs.

However, two hands weren’t enough to fend off the many hands going after him. Although the warrior was formidable, he couldn’t withstand the attack of many souls, climbing, tearing, biting, and scratching him. After a while, he was covered by a horde of resentful souls. This scene was really scary. 

Yin Xinyue commented, “I suddenly find him pitiful.”

I sneered and said, “He can only blame himself. He was chasing after us a moment ago.” 

Still, why did the cannon want to kill us all of a sudden? Is someone controlling him? But it’s such an intimidating item, who would be able to do so?

Suddenly, all of us heard some children crying in the corridor. Several infant ghosts crawled out of the floor; they jumped onto the warrior and started to nibble him. Those small ghosts had grown fangs that could tear and gnaw the armor on the warrior’s body.

Those infant spectres were actually stillbirths. Their resentful energy was heavy since they couldn’t reincarnate. I could tell that they were extremely dangerous. I also saw a mother. It was actually a mother and child pair still connected by the umbilical cord. They stormed toward the golden-armored warrior and started to peel off his armor as if it were fish scales.

Those ghosts were too strong. As the hospital had good geomancy, they would normally remain sleeping; they would not scare or harm people on their own accord. 

“Li Mazi, Yin Xinyue, stop watching. Let’s take this chance to make a run for it!” I said.

We heard a loud explosion as soon as we moved. Scared, I quickly turned to check Yin Xinyue and then Li Mazi before looking at my own body. It was good that none of us were hurt.

The Red Barbarian Cannon was quite troubled by the souls. It decided to return to its original form and shoot its single round. The recoil force had sent the cannon several meters backward, leaving two streaks of bloody wheel marks in the corridor. The resentful souls were also hit hard. The entire corridor was filled with ghost blood and wisps of smoke.

Then, I heard a thumping noise. It seemed the cannon had escaped through the stairs.

When I finally heaved a sigh of relief, the elevator ‘dinged’ and opened. A group of policemen rushed in, pointing their pistols at us. “Don’t move! Put your hands up!”