Courtyard House: Time Traveler Not Yet a Ghost

Night fell once again.

He Damin's soul was the first to leave his body, like a silent bolt of lightning, streaking across the silent night sky of Beiping and heading northwest towards the Western Hills. His spiritual sense was fully activated, scanning the land below like radar. Soon, near a seemingly ordinary forest farm deep in the Western Hills, he sensed something amiss—hidden sentry posts, electrified barbed wire, a faint life force from several buildings deep within the forest, unlike that of ordinary military camps, and a vague, unsettling sense of coldness and filth.

"This is it." The soul hovered high in the sky, taking in the terrain, defense arrangements, and personnel activity patterns below. At the same time, through the soul connection, the information was transmitted back to the physical body in real time.

Inside the east courtyard, He Damin's physical body opened its eyes, changed into its best clothes, and finished checking its equipment.

At three-quarters past midnight, he pushed open the door and disappeared into the alleyway like a shadow blending into the night. He did not use his soul form to fly directly (that would consume a lot of soul power, which would be detrimental to subsequent battles), nor did he allow his physical body to enter the Taiji Space for spatial migration, which required setting up an anchor point for his soul form in advance. Instead, relying on the physical strength of a Grandmaster of Internal Energy and the lightness skill of "Swallow Three Drops of Water," he sped through the quiet streets and rooftops of Beiping City, heading straight towards the Western Hills.

Two hours later, he arrived at the outskirts of West Mountain and reunited with the spirit entity that had been conducting aerial reconnaissance. The spirit entity's return brought more accurate real-time intelligence.

"There are twelve sentries on the outer perimeter, divided into three groups, each with a military dog. Inside, in the core area, there are three brick buildings, and there may be underground spaces. There's about a small squad of guards scattered throughout. Inside the buildings, there are about thirty people wearing white coats or protective suits; their auras... are very mixed, some faint, some eerie." He Damin closed his eyes, processing the information. "No heavy weapons were found, but there may be alarms and self-destruct mechanisms inside the buildings. We need to control both the outer perimeter and the core simultaneously to prevent them from destroying evidence or releasing the poison."

He took a deep breath of the cold air, his eyes turning completely icy.

The phantom of the Soul Refining Banner slowly emerged behind him, its blood-red light concealed, yet it exuded a suffocating pressure.

"Expand the domain."

An invisible surge of soul power emanated from him, spreading like mercury across the ground, instantly covering the forest and a hundred-meter radius around it. The [Wail of the Vengeful Spirit] was quietly activated, its low, mournful wail seemingly rising from the earth, directly invading the minds of every Japanese guard and staff member.

"Ugh—!"

The outer sentries were the first to be affected, collapsing to the ground screaming in agony as they clutched their heads, while the military dogs whimpered and went limp. The guards in the core area and those in white coats were equally gripped by immense fear and chaos.

"A hundred demons parade in the night!"

More than thirty solid, ferocious phantom ghosts shrieked as they pounced towards the guards who had not yet completely lost their ability to resist.

He Damin himself moved like a ghost through the barbed wire (the Netherworld Chains melted easily), heading straight for the core buildings. His movements were lightning fast, his dagger flashing coldly, and any sporadic resistance he encountered along the way was instantly eliminated.

Rushing into the main building, the pungent smell of formaldehyde and some other, even stranger, stench assaulted his nostrils. Before him lay cold lab benches, glassware, cages holding dying animals, and even… He Damin's eyes narrowed as he saw an even more appalling scene.

Several "researchers" wearing protective suits were frantically trying to destroy data or open certain containers. Their movements were slow and their faces were distorted under the suppression of the field.

"die."

Without the slightest hesitation, He Damin unleashed the [Netherworld Chains], instantly piercing their bodies and drawing away their souls. The Soul-Eating Yin Fire then incinerated their souls along with the life force of their physical bodies. At the same time, he hurled specially made incendiary bombs, precisely targeting the containers, incubators, and filing cabinets marked with danger symbols.

"Boom! Boom!"

The pure Yang True Fire, mixed with fierce fire oil, burned fiercely, rapidly devouring all evidence of evil. He Damin carefully controlled the flames with his true energy to prevent a massive explosion or uncontrollable leakage.

He swept through three buildings like a whirlwind, killing everyone and destroying all visible experimental facilities and data. Finally, he stored several seemingly sophisticated instruments, along with some gold, foreign currency, and original experimental records that he hadn't managed to destroy in the safe, into the Taiji Space.

The whole process took less than fifteen minutes.

As He Damin's figure disappeared silently into the vast forest of Xishan, just as he had arrived, the "forest farm" behind him had already been reduced to a burning ruin. The towering flames illuminated a small patch of sky, but in the desolate wilderness of the dead of night, they had not yet attracted widespread attention from afar.

The cold wind carried ashes and a faint, indescribable smell of burning as it drifted into the distance.

He Damin did not look back. His figure sped along the rugged mountain road toward his next destination—a small Japanese supply depot located along the Pinghan Railway.

Tonight is just the beginning.

In the days that followed, similar reports began to appear sporadically in the Japanese battle reports and internal bulletins, always accompanied by phrases such as "unknown cause," "ambushed by unidentified armed forces," "strange scene," and "all killed, supplies missing." The locations were completely unpredictable; sometimes on the outskirts of Baoding, sometimes near Zhangjiakou, and sometimes along the Jinpu Railway. The targets ranged from field troops and logistics depots to special forces teams and reconnaissance units…

The Japanese troops in North China seemed to be gripped by a silent plague, with an unseen ghost army slowly devouring their flesh and blood. Panic spread among the lower ranks, while suspicion festered among the middle and upper echelons. Every casualty report weighed heavily on the already overwhelmed Japanese command system, which was plagued by frequent intelligence leaks.

Meanwhile, in Beiping, amidst the ever-increasing stream of bad news from outside the city, a strange "calmness" seemed to prevail. The Japanese had tightened security within the city, increasing the number of patrols and intensifying checks, but all of this could not mask the deep-seated sense of powerlessness. This ancient city was like a giant, ornate cage, trapping not only a portion of the Japanese forces but also their minds.

He Damin would occasionally return to the east wing of the house in Beiping for a short rest. He would sit by the window, looking at the still gray sky and the patrolling Japanese and puppet troops, his eyes calm and unwavering. He knew that Kawashima Yoshiko was still nowhere to be found; that viper was hiding very well.

But he wasn't in a hurry.

He was like a master chess player, not rushing to capture the opponent's key pieces, but patiently clearing out the pawns and crossed pieces on the board, gradually compressing the opponent's space and weakening their strength. As the opponent's pieces dwindled and their range of movement narrowed, the hidden venomous snake naturally had nowhere to hide.

The city was besieged and its wings suppressed; the blades gleamed coldly.

This hunting game, with the entire North China region as its chessboard and countless Japanese soldiers as its pieces, has only just begun. He Damin's sword is already drawn, its cold light gleaming, ready to shatter all darkness and evil in this harsh North China winter.