Huadu First People's Hospital.Inside a special isolation ward.
The Chen brothers—Liam Chen and Aiden Chen—were completely wrapped in gauze, looking like a pair of mummies fresh out of a horror movie.
Across from them, sitting on a stool and instructing a nurse to wrap them even tighter, was none other than their grandmother—Granny Wang.
"Gran, c'mon, enough already," Liam groaned. "We only took some hits to the chest. Wrapping our legs and arms is pointless!"
His whole head was swaddled in white bandages, with only his eyes peeking out from the layers like a haunted cartoon character.
Aiden looked even worse. Thanks to the backlash from using his Ghost Eye, even his eyeballs had to be wrapped in specialized medical gauze. He looked like a proper Egyptian mummy who'd taken a detour through a trauma ward.
Hearing his brother's protest, Aiden nodded vigorously, his bandaged head squeaking faintly against the pillow.
Granny Wang shot them both a look so sharp it could shave a demon.
For all her kindness, she was a product of another time—a woman forged in fire, war, and loss. She wasn't someone you could just whine your way past.
Yes, she'd been devastated at the temple yesterday, but now—after receiving the City God's divine response—her soul was grounded once more.
And now? Now she was letting her grandsons know exactly how displeased she was. In her own… grandmotherly way.
"What's this? Got some wings now, do you? Don't listen to your old gran anymore, huh?" she huffed, dabbing at the corners of her eyes in a melodramatic fake-cry. "I get it, I get it. I'm old. Useless. Might as well talk to the wall!"
The two brothers wisely shut up, letting her scold them in peace.
They knew she was just expressing concern in her own cranky way.
But what could they say?
As exorcists, they faced monsters their father and grandfather had never even imagined. They couldn't afford to retreat—not even an inch. Because if they stepped back… the millions living in Huadu would have nowhere left to run.
"That's more like it," Granny Wang sniffed. "Once you're healed, you're both coming with me to the City God Temple to offer incense. Mark my words—if you're still alive today, it's only thanks to His protection!"
She went on and on, muttering about rituals and offerings and how she was going to drag them both back to the temple if she had to pull them in a cart.
The brothers exchanged a silent glance, both reading the same helpless expression in the other's eyes.
City God's protection?Sure, that's what she thought.
But they knew the truth. The battle they survived last night… it had been hell on earth. If that terrifying ghost army hadn't appeared out of nowhere, Huadu would've been overrun by now. A playground for demons.
Yes, the ghost army had called themselves "Yin Soldiers."
But exorcists like them didn't believe in divine intervention. To them, those ghosts were just an organized group of unusually powerful spirits.
If gods really did exist…Where were they when blood soaked the streets?Where were they when demons tore through families?
Granny Wang could see from their faces—they didn't believe a word of it.
She sighed quietly.
And then—
CRACK!SPLAT!
Liam's back arched violently. The gauze wrapped around his entire body exploded like confetti in a horror-themed parade.
Behind him, a ghostly elder with a skeletal face and cold eyes slowly emerged, his aura chilling the very air.
Aiden's eyes, hidden beneath the gauze, suddenly began to bleed. The ghost-corrupted blood hissed as it melted through the bandages like acid.
The brothers stared at each other.
Both saw the same look in the other's eyes: shock.
They turned—simultaneously—toward the northwest corner of the hospital.
That's where it was coming from.
The ghost energy was dense. The air reeked of iron and decay. Something monstrous was forming there.
"A ghost… in broad daylight?!""Impossible!!"
Their bandages were now in tatters.
Aiden turned sharply to the nurse standing nearby. "The first room in the northwest wing—what is it?"
The nurse, clearly startled, but weirdly calm (this was Huadu after all), answered reflexively, "That's the… uh… the morgue."
Aiden gave Liam a grim look. No words needed.
Sunlight streamed in through the hospital windows.And yet… the room suddenly felt cold.
For years, exorcists had operated under one core belief:Evil spirits don't move during the day.
But the sinister force growing within them… said otherwise.
Somewhere, inside that morgue, a new evil was being born.
"We need backup," Aiden said calmly to the nurse. "Call headquarters. Now."
Liam looked toward the door. He didn't want his grandmother to see him like this—twisted, ghost-infested, something no longer quite human.
But he had no choice.
If this happened at night, the hospital would be under high-level protection from patrol exorcists.
But in the day? Only regular security and maybe a few clueless cops.
And against the kind of monster they were sensing?
The only outcome for civilians was death.
"Go," Granny Wang said softly.
She didn't know what was happening. But she knew that look in their eyes. It was the same one her husband wore when he went off to war.
There were things that simply couldn't be avoided.
With a nod from her, the brothers launched out the door without hesitation.
They sprinted through the corridors, heading straight for the morgue.
Outside the morgue door, they paused only briefly.
Deep breath.
CREEEAAAK—
Aiden pushed open the door.
Sunlight vanished. The room was pitch black, darker than a moonless midnight.
The air was filled with the squelching, wet sounds of chewing. The stench of rotting blood hit them like a brick wall.
Even Liam—who'd fought demons barehanded—wrinkled his nose in disgust.
Aiden's Ghost Eye flickered red beneath the remnants of his gauze.
In that crimson glow, the room's nightmare became visible.
The walls were drenched in blood.
Corpses—dozens of them—lay scattered like discarded dolls.Their eyeballs had been gouged out.And in the center of the room, those eyes had been piled into a grotesque, glistening mountain.
Kneeling around it were four or five terrifying evil spirits.Not laughing.Not attacking.Just trembling.
Whimpering.As if in the presence of something far, far worse than themselves.