Caught Between Two Fires

He really loved seeing this man alive, yet ice-cold and utterly devoid of vitality.

For a moment, Yin Xiu before him seemed to blur into a dreamlike vision, crystalline as a soap bubble. The sight left him dizzy.

But the next second, a scream from one of the townspeople jolted him back to his senses.

The mayor suddenly came to his senses. Shouldn’t Yin Xiu be hiding right now? Why was he still standing there so calmly?

He turned around, and the commotion at the entrance gave him his answer.

Just as the townspeople flung open the front door and prepared to charge inside, something let out a piercing shriek and lunged out, grabbing the person at the front by the throat.

The ghostly figures, blue as flame and wreathed in billowing black resentment, rushed at the townspeople gathered outside. Driven by hatred, they swiftly killed those who charged forward, then angrily hurled a twisted corpse into the crowd. Blood sprayed over everyone as the body crashed heavily to the ground, making the scene even more horrific.

“What is that?!” The townspeople stumbled backward in panic, instinctively scattering in the face of the shock.

They stared at the twisted corpse on the ground, then at the pale, resentment-filled faces floating in the doorway, and froze in bewilderment.

W-What is this thing? Why are there ghosts in the mayor’s house? And such vengeful spirits, brimming with resentment and fiercely aggressive, at that...