He just broke up with his girlfriend and is already living with the devilish rich girl.

Zheng Xingguang pinched the still writhing corpse-eyed maggot between his thumb and forefinger, applying just the right amount of pressure so that it couldn't break free.

The eyeball embedded in the insect's head spun wildly, its pupil shrinking to the size of a pinhead, clearly knowing what was about to happen.

"Don't be nervous, I just need to borrow something from you."

He spoke casually, squeezing two fingers together slightly.

The Corpse-Eyed Maggot's body suddenly arched, its eyeball bulged outwards, and liquid began to seep from the corner of its eye.

It wasn't blood, but a grayish-white viscous liquid.

It was as thick as leftover rice porridge, and it gleamed with a faint phosphorescence under the dim lights of the elevator car.

"This is a byproduct of the Corpse Eye Maggot digesting corpses; to put it bluntly, it's liquid crystallization of resentment."

"This stuff in the bureau is called 'Nether Dew.' Brother Bai, have you ever been to Youdu?"

Bai Ziheng had certainly been there, and was even quite familiar with the snake in charge of the place.

"In Youdu, the older the Minglu (a type of elixir), the more expensive it is. Using it to draw talismans can directly affect the obsession itself."

As Zheng Xingguang spoke, he pulled out the vermilion pen from his waist.

He brought the pen tip to the corner of the corpse-eyed maggot's eye, dipping it in the grayish-white mucus.

Then he turned around and wrote on the iron wall of the elevator car.

"Year of Jiazi, Month of Bingyin, Day of Xinmao, Hour of Renchen—"

As he wrote, he muttered to himself, the tip of his pen dragging gray lines across the iron wall, each character appearing as if it were carved there.

The edges of the strokes glowed faintly.

The runes were not the cloud script or dragon seal script commonly found in Taoist talismans.

It's more like some kind of ancient font, with straight lines and sharp angles, each stroke exuding a cold and rigid sense of order.

"This person lived in Room 403, Yonghua Building. Her surname was Zhou and her given name was Xiulan. The cause of death was suffocation. Her obsession was finding a substitute."

"Anchor point location: the third wall on the north side of the elevator shaft on the fourth floor; number of people entangled: seven."

After finishing writing on one wall, he moved a step to the side, nudged the Corpse-Eyed Maggot's eye, and continued writing.

"In the year of Yichou, the month of Gengshen, the day of Jiawu, and the hour of Guiyou, this person's surname was Liu, his given name was Jianguo, and he died from falling from a building."

"Obsession type: Repeated death loop. Anchor point location: Drainage pipe on the east side of the fourteenth-floor atrium. Number of people entangled: three."

Bai Ziheng leaned against the corner of the elevator, watching him.

The way this kid writes talismans is completely different from the usual Zheng Xingguang.

His usually handsome face, which was either adorned with a silly grin or the hurt look of someone who had been scolded, was now completely gone, leaving only half-closed eyes and lips pressed into a thin line.

The pen kept moving, and information about the deceased kept popping out as if chanting a spell, as if solving a math problem that had been solved countless times.

That feeling is hard to describe.

It's as if the gruesome deaths and wandering souls accumulated in this building over the past decade are all just variables in a formula in his eyes.

Each one was labeled, located, and categorized.

There was no fear, no compassion, only logic being peeled away layer by layer.

This is who he really is.

Bai Ziheng suddenly realized that his previous worries were a bit unnecessary.

This kid is much more reliable than he thought.

After waiting for a while, Zheng Xingguang was still writing.

He had already covered three walls and was now attacking the fourth.

He squeezed the Corpse-Eyed Maggot again, and its eyeball began to roll back.

The secreted mucus has changed from grayish-white to translucent, which is a sign that the stock is almost depleted.

Bai Ziheng was getting a little bored.

He pulled out a cigarette case from his pocket, shook out a cigarette, and put it in his mouth.

As he held the lighter halfway up, a moral law from the depths of human civilization suddenly struck him in the head.

Smoking in the elevator may indicate impotence.

He remained silent for a moment, then put the lighter back into his pocket.

After a while, Zheng Xingguang finally put down his pen.

The iron walls on all four sides were covered with dense gray-white runes and names, which at first glance looked like a swarm of insect eggs magnified countless times.

Only upon close inspection can one discern that these are the files of the deceased.

The corpse-eyed maggot had completely shriveled up; its once plump and full body now hung limply between Zheng Xingguang's fingers.

The eyeball rolled upwards, half-open and half-closed, the remaining pupil so unfocused that it was impossible to find a focal point.

He shoved the shriveled worm into Bai Ziheng's hand.

"Brother Bai, you take this first. I need to get things done later, and my hands won't be free."

"what?"

Bai Ziheng looked down at the shrunken, wrinkled thing in his hand that was still twitching slightly.

"Brother Bai, are you afraid of bugs?"

"It's not that I'm afraid of bugs—"

Bai Ziheng picked up the corpse-eyed maggot with two fingers, turned it over, and looked at it.

Even though it had shriveled up like this, the insect's body was still half the length of his palm, heavy and fleshy when held in his hand.

"This thing is quite enormous. How much did you squeeze out? How many people did it eat to grow this big?"

"Judging by its size, it must be several hundred years old. It must have eaten at least eight or nine of these in this building."

Zheng Xingguang has already started moving his wrists.

"Eight or nine? These tiny bugs, they could grow this big after eating eight or nine people?"

Bai Ziheng weighed the object in his hand again, his expression changing from disdain to a subtle curiosity.

"If you took this thing to the pet market and sold it with a label that says one feeding will keep it alive for ten years, wouldn't it have a pretty good market?"

The Corpse-Eyed Maggot twitched in his palm, unsure whether to be moved.

Zheng Xingguang didn't respond to that.

He had already stood directly in front of the elevator door, his feet slightly apart, his right hand clenched into a sword-like gesture, and his left hand supporting his right wrist.

The sword sheath on his back emitted a deep hum, and the Xuan Tie Flying Sword automatically unsheathed half an inch, with the runes on the sword beginning to light up in concentric circles.

"open."

The elevator doors slid open slowly to both sides.

There are no digital displays, and no floor numbers.

There was only a blurry dark red stain on the wall of the corridor outside the door, as if it had been haphazardly wiped with a wet mop.

Bai Ziheng followed Zheng Xingguang out. The ground beneath his feet was sticky, and when he looked down, he saw a layer of semi-dried dark red liquid.

The musty smell in the air was overwhelmed by a rusty, fishy odor, and every breath felt like chewing on a piece of raw, rusty iron.

"Where are we?"

"The place where you were fighting those women in red."

The words had barely left his mouth when the sound of high heels clicking on the concrete floor echoed from the end of the corridor.

Then came the cracking sound of bones dislocating, as if something was squeezing itself out of the crack in the wall in an inhuman posture.

The woman in red emerged from the shadows again.

A face without features faced them, its body sprawled on the ground in a reversed joint position, its ten fingers deeply embedded in the cement, leaving ten new scratches.

Behind her, more red shadows began to seep out from the wall.

Red skirts hung down from the cracks, like corpses hanging upside down.

Bai Ziheng subconsciously took a step back, glancing at Zheng Xingguang out of the corner of his eye.

Instead of backing down, the young man walked towards the woman.

"These things can't be killed," Bai Ziheng reminded him in a low voice.

"I tried it before, and if my fist can't hit you, your sword probably won't be able to."

"Yes. They weren't really things that existed in the world to begin with."

Without turning his head, Zheng Xingguang formed a sword finger with his right hand, and the Xuan Tie Flying Sword flew out of the sword box on his back and landed steadily in his hand.

The blue runes on the sword were all lit up, and the blade gleamed with a cold light in the dim corridor.

"The methods of this world cannot kill the souls of the dead on the other side; this is common sense."

"So, what are you planning to do—"

"Brother Bai, pinch it."

Bai Ziheng looked down at the shriveled corpse-eyed maggot in his hand and subconsciously pinched it gently with two fingers.

The insect shuddered, and a drop of grayish-white mucus, thicker than before, clung to the corner of its eye, threatening to drip.

Zheng Xingguang rubbed the tip of his sword against the drop of viscous liquid with his other hand, then pointed his sword forward.

"Boundary realm."

The Xuan Tie flying sword shot through the air, leaving a trail of bluish-gray light. The tip of the sword pierced the red-clad woman's chest.

"Breaking the law."