The house was already in chaos.

  Alarms from various vital sign monitors blared one after another. Servants scrambled in and out, completely at a loss. When Ling and Dax rushed into the first-floor master bedroom, Old Master Lei lay on the bed, face white as paper, chest barely rising.

  "Grandpa!"

  Hurried footsteps pounded down the stairs. Teon had heard the commotion and came thundering down, squeezing through the bedroom door almost simultaneously with Ling and Dax.

  Seeing the two of them, Teon froze for a moment, then his bloodshot eyes flashed with undisguised disgust and wariness. But he had no time for these "con artists" right now. After throwing them a warning glare, he rushed to his grandfather's bedside.

  Ling ignored his attitude and lowered her voice to ask Dax beside her:

  "Hey, that 'Bloodline Curse' the fox was crying about just now—is it… that thing on Teon?"

  She pointed in Teon's direction, brow furrowed: "Have you seen this before? Why does it look… so strange?"

  No response.

  Puzzled, Ling turned her head and realized something was very wrong with Dax.

  Dax's eyes were red-rimmed, locked onto Teon by the bedside, unblinking. His lips trembled violently as he muttered to himself:

  "How is this possible… can't be… how could it—"

  "What are you going on about? Something wrong?" Ling poked his arm.

  Seeing Dax still looking like he'd lost his soul, Ling's curiosity was piqued. She pushed up her glasses, moved closer, and carefully examined the bizarre aura above Teon's head.

  Last time they left the Lei house, Ling had seen Teon get tainted with bad luck from that muscleman who'd dropped the peachwood sword. But in just a few days, the situation had deteriorated beyond control.

  The purple fortune energy around him—previously noble and refined despite surface disturbances—was now filthy and chaotic, full of impurities and cracks. It was worse than the street gamblers and addicts who'd overdrafted their lives.

  Even an ordinary mortal could tell Teon's mental state was unnaturally withered—a "wilting" from the inside out.

  Behind Teon, a extremely faint black shadow clung tightly, light as mist, features already blurred beyond recognition. It had to be the real Mrs. Lei's vengeful spirit.

  Ling's heart stirred. That spirit had gradually shed her living obsessions and consciousness; her sense of self was dissolving. She was about to completely disperse into the universe, but in her final moments before vanishing, she still instinctively wrapped around her son, trying to use her remaining yin energy to block some more terrible external erosion.

  "Damn it! Why's there no signal!"

  Teon performed some basic emergency tests on his grandfather and found the situation critical. He forced himself to stay calm, pulled out his phone, and dialed emergency services. His finger nearly cracked the screen, but the signal bars showed a despairing "×."

  "Fuck!"

  Teon cursed, holding his phone high as he sprinted out, trying to find signal by the window.

  Taking advantage of this gap, Ling turned her gaze to the elder Lei on the bed.

  Mortal flesh didn't shield much from Ghost-Eye—those loose karmic entanglement threads were easy to see. But lacking the Court's Fate Department standard compilation libraries, Ghost-Eye could only make rough estimates based on observed phenomena—commonly called "reading fortunes."

  In Ghost-Eye's data vision, the elder Lei's condition was very peculiar.

  [Target Status: Forced Separation in Progress]

  When a person's soul senses that the body's lease is about to expire, it's always the spiritual platform at the brow center that receives the signal first and begins separating in advance. During this period, the brain loses higher consciousness and enters "Autopilot Mode" until it walks step by step toward the predetermined ending.

  This is why fortune readers observe that dying people always show darkening between the brows.

  Right now, the elder Lei was like a reptile shedding its skin. His aged soul had already squeezed halfway out from his brow, appearing semi-transparent and ethereal.

  But simultaneously, a powerful force was desperately clutching his ankles, refusing to let him leave.

  That was his deep survival instinct—or perhaps his sense of family duty. This subconscious drive was frantically burning through the Merit he'd accumulated over this life or past lives, trying to "renew the subscription" with the Heavenly Dao for this hard-won human body.

  Teon returned, looking dejected—clearly he hadn't found signal. Gritting his teeth, he shoved past Ling, bent down to carry his grandfather on his back: "Move! I'm driving Grandpa to the hospital down the mountain!"

  "Stop!"

  Dax suddenly stepped across, blocking Teon's path.

  "I know you're worried, but…" Dax's voice was hoarse yet unusually firm. "You need to stay away from your grandfather. Only by leaving you does he have any chance."

  Teon's eyes instantly turned cold, like he was looking at a charlatan exploiting a crisis:

  "Get out of the way."

  "Trust me, things aren't what you think! There's something on you that—"

  "I said move!"

  Teon exploded with rage. If not for the old man on his back, Dax had no doubt this kid would've thrown a punch directly.

  Just as the standoff peaked, hurried footsteps sounded from the doorway.

  "Dad! How's Dad?!"

  "Mrs. Lei" and "Mr. Lei" stumbled in, supporting each other.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  Ling nearly laughed at the wrong moment—these two were really committed to their roles in this family.

  The instant this "family" gathered in the cramped bedroom—

  Alarms blared in Ling's vision.

  [High Energy Reaction Detected!]

  [Karmic Chain Connected!]

  On Teon's body, countless blood-red threads thin as spider silk instantly manifested. With his heart as the center, they shot out frantically in all directions.

  Several of the thickest, most malignant red lines stabbed viciously into the grandpa on his back, and into the "mother" and "father" who had just stepped through the door—like a leech's mouthparts.

  "Urgh!"

  All three convulsed violently at once.

  The elder Lei, already on his last breath, suddenly went rigid as if electrocuted. Then—

  "BLAARGH—!"

  Without warning, the old man opened his mouth and projectile-vomited a stream of black filth, drenching Teon completely.

  At the same time, the "Lei couple" who had just entered seemed to have their spines ripped out. Syrie went deathly pale. Wynn dropped straight to his knees.

  The two of them, weak as limp shrimp, no longer caring if Teon would suspect anything, immediately sat cross-legged on the spot. They frantically circulated the demonic and divine power in their bodies, trying to calm their wildly churning true qi. They felt with terror that they'd been plugged into a short-circuiting socket—one wrong move could mean eternal damnation.

  "BOOM—!!!"

  Right at that moment, a thunderclap exploded outside the window.

  Wild winds howled. Rain poured down in sheets. Lightning illuminated everyone's ashen faces like ghosts.

  That "Cleaning Cloud" overhead, brewing for so long, had finally delivered its judgment.

  Dax's face went white as he watched the scene unfold:

  "This is bad… all those little pokes earlier were just warm-up. The real 'Cleaning' protocol has now officially started!"

  Before he finished speaking, a bolt of pale lightning thick as a bowl tore through the dark sky, descending with a howl of destruction.

  This time it didn't strike the roof, but precisely hit the thousand-year-old tree in the center of the courtyard—one so thick it would take three people to wrap their arms around it.

  "CRACK—!"

  The ancient tree exploded, splinters flying everywhere. But strangely, this heavenly thunder didn't follow physics and conduct into the ground. The instant it touched the earth, the thick bolt split apart, following the tree's complex root network, transforming into countless white plasma serpents that slithered and roared into the villa's foundation.

  The magnetic field inside the villa instantly collapsed.

  The scene before Ling's eyes began to severely tear and double. The air was filled with the smell of burning and high-frequency electrical crackling.

  "Pfft—"

  Syrie and Wynn were already barely holding on. Hit by this rampaging turbulence, their true qi reversed flow. Both vomited blood and collapsed to the ground. Even Teon, a mortal in his prime, felt his heart being crushed by a giant hand—palpitations, dizziness. His legs gave out; he could only carefully set his grandfather down and lean against the wall, gasping for air.

  But something even more terrifying happened.

  As the magnetic interference intensified, this mansion was like a powerful insect bomb had been detonated. All those invisible "residents" who had hidden in this feng shui blessed land for years, secretly cultivating off human energy, were now forced to reveal themselves.

  Crawling out from the wall cracks was the previous homeowner who had killed himself by charcoal burning in the house, face blackened with ash, terrified beyond measure.

  Escaping from a flower vase was a nature spirit that hadn't yet cultivated human form.

  There were also some heaven-and-earth sprites even Ling couldn't name, and even low-level succubi hiding in dark corners.

  They scrambled through the living room like a disturbed nest of headless flies, shrieking as they tried to flee.

  But this house had become a sealed hunting ground.

  Those white plasma serpents swimming underground burst from the soil, precisely biting each fleeing spirit.

  "Got it!" Ghost-Eye shouted excitedly in Ling's consciousness. He'd finally captured a critical frame in the chaos.

  "Sis Ling, look! They're not being 'cleaned'—they're being 'stuffed to bursting'!"

  A set of still images—slightly blurred but logically clear—transmitted into Ling's mind:

  The instant that pale lightning serpent wrapped around a gnome, it didn't immediately purify it. Instead, the lightning acted like a giant syringe, forcibly "injecting" a viscous, heavy black fluid with strange patterns into the gnome's fragile spirit body.

  The gnome's small form instantly swelled like a balloon, distorting, its face twisted in extreme agony. It quickly exploded. And that black fluid, using this "container's" explosion, seemed to dissolve, swallowed back by the lightning without a trace.

  The image wasn't clear enough to see exactly what that faintly patterned black fluid was.

  "What the fuck! What are these bastards trying to do?!"

  Dax watched this hellish scene, cursing furiously. Ling turned toward his voice and saw that even this Earth God had suffered divine power backlash—two streams of blood ran from his nostrils, leaving him utterly disheveled.

  Ling's stomach churned. She decisively pulled out an Earth Escape Talisman from her pocket:

  "Let's retreat first! This is too intense—if we stay any longer I'm gonna puke!"

  "Wait!"

  But Dax pressed down on Ling's hand. He wiped his nosebleed and asked meaningfully:

  "Such a good opportunity—you sure you want to give it up?"

  Ling was stunned: "What?"

  Dax pointed at the thunder cloud frantically operating overhead, his expression complicated as he laughed:

  "Isn't this exactly what you love? A massive bargain."

  "Since this operation isn't on the Court's roster, that means it's 'off-the-books work.' This cloud, legally speaking, is ownerless right now! Since it has 'nothing to do' with the Court…"

  Ling's eyes instantly narrowed, ghost fire dancing in her pupils:

  "You mean… this damn thing, we can… steal from thieves?"

  "Exactly!" Dax spoke rapidly. "I have a way to intercept it! But I need to lure it away from here, otherwise I can't work!"

  He pointed at Teon slumped against the wall, barely conscious:

  "It's after this kid! No time to explain! Take him and run toward the mountaintop! Draw the cloud away!"

  "I'll cover the rear. I'll send you a signal to guide you!"

  Ling didn't hesitate. Her instinct told her Dax actually knew something this time. Trust him once and do as he said.

  "Finally showing some spine. Deal."

  Ling spun around and rushed to the corner, hoisting up the semi-conscious Teon.

  Good thing Teon, despite his muddled brain, could still move his legs with Ling's dragging. Otherwise, with this Celestial Maiden vessel's pathetic strength, she really couldn't have moved him.

  Sure enough, the moment Teon left the house, those plasma serpents swimming beneath the floor immediately changed direction. Like sharks smelling blood, the core hunting zone followed him into the courtyard.

  "CRACKLE—!"

  Several stray bolts struck Teon. With each hit, the already filthy black energy of misfortune around him grew denser.

  Gradually, that black energy began to solidify, becoming a tar-like viscous substance. Even Teon himself, in his daze, caught the pungent stench of tar.

  Ling dragged him into the courtyard. Parked there was a high-tech-looking electric car.

  She struggled to stuff Teon into the passenger seat, jumped into the driver's seat, and pressed the start button.

  The dashboard flickered wildly. Gauges spun like electric fans. The central display spat out endless red error codes before going completely black.

  "Fuck! Electronic garbage!"

  Under this intense electromagnetic and spiritual interference, precision electronics were just scrap metal.

  Ling kicked open the car door. Just as she was wondering where the garage was, her eyes fell on a two-wheeled beast in the corner, covered with a dust cloth.

  She pulled off the cover. A modified vintage motorcycle. No chips, no central computer—just the most primitive mechanical structure, carburetor, and internal combustion engine.

  "Didn't know you had taste."

  Ling's eyes lit up. Her Abyss collection had one of these too, though that was just a resentment-formed imitation. This one was the real steel beast.

  She fished the dazed Teon out of the car and coaxed him onto the back seat like humoring a child:

  "Hold on tight. Hands wander and I'll chop them off."

  Surprisingly smooth. Under this mental assault, Teon's IQ had regressed to kindergarten level. Like a defenseless fool, he obediently wrapped his arms around Ling's slender waist, burying his "tar"-covered face against her back.

  "VROOM—!"

  Ling stomped on the kick-starter.

  The mechanical structure roared with a deep, powerful growl. Blue smoke puffed from the exhaust pipe. This pure mechanical thunder sounded especially pleasant on this stormy night.

  "Hold tight."

  Ling listened to the rumbling engine and couldn't help grinning:

  "Good thing I didn't run. Score."

  Throttle to the floor.

  The motorcycle shot forward like a black bullet, tearing through the curtain of rain, carrying a tall man nearly struck senseless and a Celestial Maiden with greedy ghost fire burning in her eyes, racing toward the pitch-dark mountain road.

  And behind them, that massive thundercloud churning with black lightning pressed down like an enraged beast, relentlessly pursuing.