Courtyard House: Time Traveler Not Yet a Ghost

The Yanshan Mountains were already behind him, and the path southward back to the interior was in sight. Yet, He Damin paused atop an unnamed mountain, gazing at the vast, boundless black earth of the northeast. His mind was clear, and as his thoughts flowed, a word buried deep in the corner of his memory, belonging to his "past life," pierced his sea of ​​consciousness like a poisoned needle soaked in icy water—

The Kwantung Army's Epidemic Prevention and Water Supply Unit.

The more widely known number: 731.

Shiro Ishii. Live experimentation. Germ warfare. Plague, anthrax, cholera... those demons imprisoned in glassware and permafrost, those flowers that bloomed on living people, flowers that did not belong to nature.

A chilling, almost tangible killing intent rose from the depths of He Damin's heart, purer and more chilling than when he had faced any Japanese troops before. Those were butchers on the battlefield, while these were maggots bred from the deepest recesses of humanity, hidden beneath white coats and the guise of "science."

"I almost forgot about you guys." He Damin's voice was so low it was almost inaudible, yet it sent a chill through the surrounding air.

The plan changed instantly. Back to Yanshan? No. Take care of this first.

His mind raced, and his divine spirit once more left his body. A pure golden humanoid figure stood in mid-air, its form shifting as golden light swirled around it. This time, it didn't choose the mighty eagle, but instead transformed into a grayish-brown, inconspicuous northern lark. The lark was small, its flight path unpredictable, its song delicate and fragmented, blending into the early spring sky of Northeast China. It was far more elusive than any majestic raptor, unlikely to attract the attention of any potential air defense observation posts below.

With a gentle flap of its wings, the lark (He Damin Yangshen) flew silently northward, towards a specific area called "Pingfang" in the southern suburbs of Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, like a seed blown by the wind.

While the speed of the Yang God's illusory flight was indeed slower than the near-instantaneous speed of a pure soul at night, it excelled in its endurance, stability, and complete disregard for the limitations of daylight. The lark, aided by the air currents, glided across towns, fields, and forests in a seemingly leisurely yet highly efficient manner. He Damin's main consciousness was closely connected to the Yang God, sharing vision and perception. Simultaneously, his vast divine sense, like an invisible radar wave, continuously scanned a fan-shaped area ahead, centered on the Yang God.

The flight lasted for nearly two hours. As the sun began to set, a massive and heavily guarded complex of special buildings appeared in the sky above, visible to both Yun Que's sharp eyes and He Damin's spiritual sense.

High walls, electric fences, trenches, watchtowers, patrols with wolfhounds… these were just the surface. He Damin's divine sense penetrated the neat brick and stone buildings bearing signs such as "Kwantung Army Epidemic Prevention and Water Supply Headquarters" and "Special Cargo Warehouse," and "saw" much more inside:

Deep underground, in a sealed concrete chamber, are layers upon layers of constant-temperature incubators and refrigerators. In countless glass dishes, deadly microbial colonies are suspended in turbid liquid.

The prison area known as "maruta" (logs) was a cramped cell filled with emaciated, listless prisoners of war and civilians from China, the Soviet Union, North Korea, and other countries.

The dissection room, the frostbite laboratory, the poison gas test chamber... on those cold metal instruments, there seemed to be a dark red stain that could not be washed away.

There are also several exceptionally large and sturdy enclosures, where enormous snakes and rats are kept, used to carry and spread bacteria.

And researchers and military officers, dressed in white protective suits and wearing masks, yet unable to conceal the indifference or even fanaticism in their eyes.

"This is it." The lark hovered in the air currents high in the sky, and He Damin's killing intent almost solidified.

He did not act immediately. The Yang God Skylark continued to circle, scanning and memorizing every detail of the entire Unit 731 headquarters and its surrounding facilities, troop deployments, transportation routes, and even the direction of underground pipelines, constructing an incredibly accurate three-dimensional model in his main soul.

At the same time, he was also assessing the situation. This place was different from an arsenal or warehouse; it imprisoned a large number of living people and was filled with extremely dangerous biological agents. It needed to be handled with greater caution and, more...thoroughness.

As dusk fell, the lark completed its scouting and flew swiftly back the way it had come. It needed to return to the vicinity of its main body to establish an "anchor point" for its next move.

An hour later, the lark returned, and the Yang spirit entered his body. He Damin opened his eyes on the mountaintop, his gaze fixed on the northern horizon, as cold as ten thousand years of ice.

"The anchor point has been set."

He communicated with his inner world within his dantian, his divine sense locking onto the extremely concealed soul power imprint left by his Yang God near the underground microbial culture storage room, the core area of ​​Unit 731 headquarters. Previously, when he was a Yin God or a soul entity, such long-distance spatial transfers were strictly limited and required nighttime. But now that he was a Yang God, his divine sense and spatial perception had increased dramatically. As long as a clear "anchor point" marked by his own soul power existed, the barrier of distance had been greatly weakened.

"Teleport."

With a blur, He Damin vanished from the mountaintop. The next moment, he appeared in the underground headquarters of Unit 731, in that cold, damp microbial culture preservation room filled with culture racks and refrigerators!

No alarms were triggered. The fluctuations from the spatial transfer were perfectly absorbed and concealed by the small world and its own powerful soul force field.

The storage room was dimly lit, and several Japanese technicians in full protective suits were recording data. They felt a blur before their eyes, as if the lights had flickered, but when they looked again, everything seemed normal, except for an indescribable, chilling coldness in the air. Little did they know, a deadly specter was already standing behind them.

He Damin did not immediately begin killing. His gaze swept over the containers labeled with "Yersinia pestis," "Anthrax bacillus," "Vibrio cholerae," "Melilothorax bacillus," and so on. Behind the glass lay demons visible to the naked eye, demons powerful enough to destroy thousands of lives.

"These things..." A cold glint flashed in He Damin's eyes, "...it's a pity to destroy them. The people who made them should taste them for themselves."

With a thought, the [Soul Banner Domain - Netherworld Ghost Domain] silently unfolded around him, spreading rapidly like ink dropped into clear water to a radius of three hundred feet around the entire 731 Unit headquarters! Within the domain, the light became dim and distorted, the temperature plummeted, and a sense of fear and stagnation originating from the depths of the soul enveloped all the Japanese personnel.

Immediately afterwards, more than two hundred elite split souls roared out! They pierced through the walls and pounced on the figures wearing white coats or military uniforms.

This time, He Damin's order was clear and ruthless:

For all Japanese researchers, officers, and guards—read their core memories (especially about bacteriological warfare deployment, delivery methods, antidote research, etc.), then completely strangle their souls and extract their physical essence to form blood beads.

The "Maruta" in the forbidden zone is put into a deep sleep by the power of the domain, temporarily protecting his soul from the erosion of the domain's panic, but not saving him.

It's not that they can't be saved, but... they can't be saved now. These people have been exposed to bacteria and viruses for a long time, and many may already be carriers or in the incubation period. Releasing them rashly would not only endanger their own lives but could also cause an uncontrollable spread of the epidemic. Although He Damin is ruthless, he still has a bottom line and doesn't want his actions to cause more innocent civilians to suffer. Their fate can only be temporarily frozen in this slumber; perhaps... after this matter is resolved.

The efficiency of soul division was extremely high. In the laboratories, offices, and guard rooms under the pale white lights, one after another, the Japanese soldiers collapsed silently, their eyes unfocused, their life force rapidly dissipating. Their sinful memories were stripped away and copied, their souls were greedily devoured by the Soul Refining Banner, and their life essence condensed into dark-colored beads of blood.

At the same time, He Damin's main body began a delicate and dangerous task—packaging.

His divine sense, like the most skillful hands, combined with the storage power of the small world, began to categorize and transfer the "output" of the entire Unit 731.

The pure bacterial cultures, viral stock solutions, and infected animal tissue slices, contained in specially made glass bottles, ampoules, and metal cans, were carefully wrapped by layers of gentle soul power barriers that isolated all energy and matter exchange. Then, they were stored in racks and racks in a specially isolated, absolutely sealed "high-risk storage area" within the small world's anode space. This area was sealed with multiple layers of soul power to ensure absolute safety.

Experimental data, research papers, records of live experiments, bacteriological warfare plans... all these paper and film materials were collected in their entirety.

He Damin hesitated for a moment when considering the animals used to spread bacteria—especially the large, venomous snakes and rats in the breeding pens that were specially bred to carry multiple pathogens. These were living sources of transmission, extremely dangerous. But then he thought of a better way to "deploy" them.

He spun a wisp of his mind and manipulated his divided soul to perform a simple "treatment" on some of the venomous snakes and rats—not to kill them, but to slightly stimulate their nerves with his soul power, putting them in a state of extreme agitation and maximum aggression, while ensuring that the activity of the pathogens in their bodies reached its peak.

When the storage room and laboratory were mostly emptied and the Japanese personnel were almost completely eliminated, He Damin's preparations were also complete.

He stood in the center of the deathly silent storage room, glanced at the prisoners who had fallen asleep under the protection of the domain, his eyes filled with complex emotions, but then quickly returned to their coldness.

It's time to reciprocate.

He closed his eyes, activated his Yang Spirit to its fullest extent, and combined his divine sense with the Soul Refining Banner's [Soul Banner Cave Heaven] ability. He also used the precise coordinates of several important Japanese cities and military bases that he had just obtained from the memories of the Japanese researchers (these were the targets that Unit 731 planned to use for "real combat effect verification" or "deterrent deployment").

Targets identified: Tokyo, near the Army Medical School (one of the origins of Unit 731) and the Army General Staff Headquarters; Osaka, the Army Epidemic Prevention Research Laboratory; Kyoto, facilities related to the Imperial University Medical School; and... certain training bases of suspected bacteriological warfare special forces on Kyushu Island.

"Go."

Within the small world, the bacterial and viral containers, which were wrapped and sealed by layers of soul power, as well as some specially treated rabid snakes and rats, were precisely guided by He Damin's vast divine consciousness and propelled by the spatial power of the small world, as if they were being thrown into a "spatial delivery channel" with pre-set coordinates by an invisible hand!

This was not a simple physical throw, but rather a precise "cause and effect return" that took place over an extremely long distance, at multiple points, and with the help of the Soul Refining Banner's initial exploration of spatial power after its fifth advancement, combined with the Yang God's powerful positioning ability.

In an instant, the target location was located on Japanese soil.

Inside the underground vault of the Army Medical School, several cabinets labeled "ordinary serum" suddenly opened silently, revealing strange, tightly sealed glass containers that had never been registered before.

In the garden soil of the General Staff Headquarters' backyard, several unusually large, brightly colored, and blood-red venomous snakes suddenly emerged from the ground and hissed as they slithered toward the nearest building's ventilation shaft.

Several rats with bloodshot eyes and lightning-fast movements have appeared in the ventilation ducts of the Osaka Epidemic Prevention Research Laboratory.

On a sample rack in a laboratory at Kyoto Imperial University, a row of unmarked ampoules has quietly appeared.

On the edge of a drinking water reservoir at a military camp on Kyushu Island, several small, easily overlooked, broken bottles containing murky liquid were found...

He Damin could not witness the scene of these "gifts" being signed for, but he could sense that the "items" had accurately arrived at the designated area through the faint causal feedback when they were delivered.

All that remains is to wait. To wait for the unleashed, raging creatures to instinctively seek warmth and blood, to wait for the sealed containers to be accidentally broken or mishandled without anyone knowing, and to wait for those deadly little lives to find new "culture mediums" in the land of their birth.

After completing all this, He Damin's face was slightly pale. Such long-distance, multi-point simultaneous spatial projection was extremely taxing, even for his current cultivation level and the support of the Soul Refining Banner. But there was no fatigue in his eyes, only a cold calm.

He took one last look at this den of iniquity that bore witness to endless evil, then turned away.

[Spatial Transfer], the anchor point is located on the mountain peak near the Yanshan Mountains where we left earlier.

His figure vanished.

Shortly after his departure, the effects of the [Soul Banner Domain] gradually faded. The headquarters of Unit 731 was deathly silent, save for the still-sleeping "Maruta" in the restricted area, and a few low-ranking laborers and logistics personnel who had miraculously survived on the outermost perimeter. When they awoke from their daze to the ghostly scene before them—the officers and researchers dead under mysterious circumstances, the core laboratory and storage rooms empty, some of the animals inexplicably missing—an indescribable terror utterly shattered their minds. Frantic screams and devastating cries finally broke the silence of this land.

Meanwhile, on the distant Japanese mainland, some subtle and unusual "changes" had begun to quietly sprout in unnoticed corners. The deadly "gift" had been delivered; only time would tell when it would be "unsealed" and what chain reactions it would trigger.

He Damin returned to his journey south, his steps still steady. His Yang Spirit was being nurtured and restored within his body, while the Soul Refining Banner was absorbing the new soul harvest.

He felt little joy, only a calm calm that came from having accomplished something necessary.

What goes around comes around. Cause and effect are cyclical; retribution is inevitable.

He looked up, towards the direction inside the pass, towards the battlefield engulfed in flames, the battlefield he was about to step into again.

In his hand, he had another card—a top-secret memory card about the Japanese's extremely feared bacteriological warfare deployment and weaknesses.