.....

"You can ask me anything! I'll tell you everything! Just hurry up and ask!!"

Lu Ding turned his head, the brutality in his eyes making the old ghost, a monster himself, tremble with fear.

"What’s the name of your commander? His full name? And why are you stationed here?"

The old ghost was surprisingly cooperative, answering without hesitation, "Our commander’s surname is Fang, given name Du. We are stationed here to await the revival of the general. I advise you to leave immediately, or you will suffer greatly when the commander returns. The child in your hands is none other than the commander's son."

Fang Du?

Never heard of him. I’ll check 749’s records later for historical documents.

As for the general’s revival...

Lu Ding tore off another arm from the little ghost. "I don’t like being threatened, and I don’t want to hear empty threats."

"Now tell me, where did your commander go? Where is your general? What’s his name? When will he revive?"

"I’ll talk, I’ll talk!"

Blood kept pouring from the old ghost’s mouth.

But right now, he couldn’t afford to care about that.

"The commander left tonight to find his wife. The lady was set free by the young master. Our general’s surname is Pei, given name Ziyi. He was known as the Jade-Faced General of Duanling. He will revive when Yin energy is at its peak during the Ghost Festival. As for his exact location, I don’t know. The commander doesn’t know either. But we do know that the general is somewhere in Yunhai."

Lu Ding’s expression turned strange.

He didn’t know who this Pei Ziyi was, but "Jade-Faced General"...

He recalled that the Living Shed Corpse he had taken down seemed to be wearing a jade mask.

Lu Ding tested his suspicion. "Then I probably know who he is. Your general—was he buried using a secret suspended coffin method, with a jade mask on his face?"

The old ghost's face showed utter shock.

"Yes!! Yes!! How do you know? Have you seen our general!?"

So it really was him.

This was an unexpected way to solve a huge problem.

Lu Ding twisted off the little ghost’s head, separating the corpse from the skull, and casually tossed it aside.

"I’ve seen your general. Actually, that’s not accurate. More precisely, I dug up his coffin and killed him. He died just like this little bastard—shattered into pieces, without even a full corpse left behind."

"You!!! You!!!! Impossible!! That’s absolutely impossible!!! You wretched brat, talking nonsense! How could the general..."

Before he could finish, Lu Ding walked right past him into the bedroom. Behind him, a severed head slowly rolled into view, frozen in an expression of unwillingness and fury, forever locked in that moment.

A yellow-wood wardrobe stood before him.

This was the wardrobe the police report mentioned—the one hiding a monster.

But no matter how Lu Ding looked at it, this didn't seem like the kind of Yin artifact that could house an evil spirit.

Raising his hand, he struck the wardrobe open.

Blood began seeping from the broken sections.

Boom... Boom... Boom...

The entire building started to tremble. If Lu Ding had been outside, he would have seen that the building he was in had begun to flicker uncontrollably.

It was like watching an old VHS tape with poor contact—flashing, glitching, overlapping, freezing.

Inside the wardrobe, which had appeared empty at first, an ancient, cracked door suddenly materialized out of thin air.

A stream of Yin energy leaked out.

Looking through the door from the outside, Lu Ding could see a room—identical to the bedroom he was standing in.

"Yin Domain Overlap?"

Lu Ding spoke aloud, recognizing the phenomenon.

Yin Domain Overlap—something only powerful ghosts could create.

The living and the dead occupy separate realms:

The living exist in the Yang Realm.

The dead exist in the Yin Realm.

In myth, the Yin Realm was home to the Ten Kings of Hell, Ox-Head and Horse-Face, Black and White Impermanence, and other underworld deities.

Unlike the Yang Realm, the Yin Realm followed its own rules.

And the Yin Domain was something condensed from the power of powerful ghosts.

A Yin Domain’s creation reflected the ghost’s own law of existence, rewriting the very rules around it.

For example:

Living beings need oxygen—that’s a rule.

Falling from a great height means death—that’s a rule.

The human body is mostly water—that’s a rule.

But a creature that creates a Yin Domain gains the ability to rewrite the rules of its own domain.

Though limited only to the Yin Domain itself, and only once—once the rules were set, they couldn’t be changed again.

A Yin Domain could exist independently or attach itself to an object in the real world.

Yin Domain Overlap happened when the balance between the attached Yin Domain and reality was disturbed, causing them to merge.

The wardrobe door was now the connection point between the Yin Domain and reality.

Lu Ding could feel the overwhelming Yin energy surging inside.

Outside, chaotic footsteps echoed.

Lu Ding understood immediately—he had alerted the ghosts within the Yin Domain.

And inside this building, the "people" who had been replaced by monsters were also on the move.

Downstairs, Apartment 706.

A woman, about to go to bed, looked up in shock.

Her husband, who had just been in the bathroom washing up, suddenly bolted naked out of the room, sprinting toward the front door.

Apartment 514.

An old woman, exhausted from the day, had just tucked herself in.

Her husband, who usually needed a wheelchair to go outside, suddenly sat up straight—and ran toward the door with unnatural speed.

The old woman stared, completely dumbfounded.

Was she hallucinating?

This bizarre phenomenon repeated itself throughout the building.

Some were alone.

Some involved entire families.

But every single "person" who suddenly started running—they all had the same destination.

Apartment 1911.

Meanwhile.

Outside the Bao Fan District Public Security Bureau, a car was parked on the roadside.

Inside, a man gripped the steering wheel, his gaze locked onto the police station in front of him.

"My lady, you weren’t supposed to discover this secret... My love for you is as true as heaven and earth... Why... Why must you do this..."

As he spoke, his expression twisted with rage.

Armor began materializing over his body.

His ordinary middle-aged face transformed into one covered in scars and murderous intent—a terrifying ghostly visage.

This man was the commander the old ghost had spoken of.

Following his wife's aura, he had tracked her all the way to the police station.

A fierce internal struggle played out in his mind.

He loved her.

But she had now tried twice to interfere with his plans.

With a heavy heart, he had no choice but to silence her forever.

But before he could storm the police station, he suddenly felt something shift—

Someone had broken the wardrobe in 1911.

The balance between the Yin Domain and reality had collapsed.

The Yin Domain was now exposed to the human world.

The man instantly flew into a rage, his massive body bursting through the human skin disguise he was wearing.

"You deserve to die!!! I don’t care who you are!!!! You must die!!!"

At this moment, he no longer cared about the people inside the Public Security Bureau. He shot straight through the roof of the car, black mist swirling around him as he soared toward Dinghao Complex in the distance.

Apartment 1911.

Lu Ding pulled out his phone and dialed 749’s manual dispatch line.

"Hello, this is Lu Ding, Patrol Investigator of Yunhai’s Bao Fan District. I need to report a situation."

"Understood, please proceed."

"In Bao Fan District, Building Five of Dinghao Complex, a Yin Domain Overlap has occurred. A powerful ancient ghost is stationed here, stockpiling resources and gathering troops."

"Yin Domain Overlap!!!!"

Inside 749’s Headquarters Dispatch Department, a headset-wearing staff member leaped to his feet, shouting in alarm.

Instantly, everyone’s attention snapped toward him.

"Investigator Lu, please hold your position as long as possible, or retreat now and wait for reinforcements to arrive so we can take down the creature together and seal off the Yin Domain."

Lu Ding turned his head—the creatures that had replaced the living had already reached his door.

The moment one of them stepped through, a violent slash attack erupted—

Walls, door frame, and monsters—everything exploded into pieces.

"Retreat isn’t an option anymore. Get people here to clean this up ASAP. This situation is going to get out of hand fast."