Chapter 124
Chapter 124: Above and Below, I Reign Supreme【Bonus Chapter】
Time rewound to 10 minutes ago.
Seattle Mercy Hospital, 10th floor.
Black aura materialized out of thin air. Jiang Nan stepped out of the inner Small World, carrying the Sovereign Lantern.
"Master, what should we do next?"
Piano leaned forward, tilting her face upward to ask.
Jiang Nan responded in a cold voice.
"Kill ghosts."
Upon hearing those 2 words, Piano's mouth fell wide open.
‘Master...’
‘Master actually spoke?!’
Jiang Nan paid absolutely no attention to her overreaction and simply strode forward.
Piano had no choice but to quietly follow behind.
Reaching the elevator, Jiang Nan looked at the buttons and paused for a brief moment.
He glanced down at his panel. The Strong Luck buff that had once clung to him like a parasite
had completely dissipated, having spent a full day's time inside the Sovereign Lantern.
Toward this godlike ability that others could only dream of, Jiang Nan currently had not the slightest desire to actively use it again.
He had now seen through this broken mechanic completely.
This thing wasn't just protecting him—it was even shielding the hidden final Boss lurking in the shadows!
Because that enemy was too powerful!
Its potential too terrifying!
The Strong Luck assessment mechanic, in order to prevent him from encountering lethal danger, had severed every thread of causality that could lead to their meeting!
This meant that even if Jiang Nan turned the entire hospital upside down, he simply would not cross paths with that entity.
Let alone killing it and making it drop loot.
But now, the situation was different.
With Strong Luck's isolation removed, the gears of fate had finally begun to turn!
‘You piece of trash...’
Jiang Nan revealed a warm smile, the killing intent in the depths of his eyes nearly overflowing.
‘I damn well want to see where the hell you're going to run this time!’
He stepped into the elevator with broad strides and casually pulled a Ghost Coin from his trouser pocket, flicking it high with his thumb.
Ding!
The coin ricocheted back and forth inside the elevator.
In the end, it landed squarely on the floor button marked 19.
‘Good! Then it's the top floor!’
Jiang Nan made his decision without hesitation.
Today, he was going to indulge himself just this once.
Completely shed that miserable feeling of cheating through everything by relying on Strong Luck.
He would trust in his own purest fortune and instinct!
‘To stand atop the summit's peak and look down upon a world grown small!’
As a true powerhouse, one must possess this kind of ambition and spirit—to look down on all things, to crush all things!
How could he allow himself to be fettered by some trivial luck mechanic?
It was nothing more than an external force!
Before long, the elevator stopped at the 19th floor.
Ding!
The elevator doors slid open to both sides.
However, before Jiang Nan could even make out what lay beyond—only a thud was heard!
2 figures, one tall and one short, came tumbling and scrambling forward.
One to the left, one to the right—both latched desperately onto Jiang Nan's thighs!
It was none other than Guo Shuai and Quanquan, who had just been running for their lives in a blind panic!
"Boss!!!"
Guo Shuai, snot and tears streaming down his face, sobbed, "I finally found you!"
Quanquan followed suit, clinging to Jiang Nan's trouser leg and babbling furiously in her soft little voice.
"Big Bro! Bad ghosts were bullying me and Daddy! Hurry up and avenge us!"
Piano, following behind, stared with her jaw hanging open.
She didn't even need to guess—these were absolutely her master's die-hard lackeys!
And at that very next moment!
Bzzzt! Bzzzt! BOOM!
The roar of an electric saw closed in from around the corridor bend ahead!
It was none other than the S-Grade Cursed Creature—the Chief of Orthopedics!
As a terrifying S-Grade existence, its physical recovery speed was incomparable to ordinary Cursed Creatures!
In a mere matter of minutes, it had forcibly recovered from the near-death state of having all 4 limbs broken—down to only light injuries!
It was now dragging that howling electric saw, dead set on grinding Guo Shuai and Quanquan into a paste of flesh!
"Roaaaar!"
The Chief of Orthopedics' massive frame burst around the corner.
However, when Jiang Nan caught sight of this S-Grade Cursed Creature that had delivered itself to his doorstep,
he didn't dodge at all—instead, he burst out laughing!
"Hahaha! Good! Very good! This is exactly the effect I was after!"
Jiang Nan's legs trembled with an explosive surge of power, instantly flinging the 2 figures clinging to his thighs clean off him.
The next second, Jiang Nan's silhouette, clad in the Dragon God Imperial Armor, vanished from the spot in an instant!
Speed pushed to the absolute limit!
The Chief of Orthopedics' footsteps faltered, confusion flashing across its murky eyes.
Where had this armored person suddenly appeared from?
Before that rusted brain of its could even process what was happening—
BOOM!!!
An iron fist, like a heavy cannon fired from its barrel, slammed into its face!
The Chief of Orthopedics was sent flying straight backward!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
It smashed through 3 load-bearing walls in succession!
Amid a storm of flying rubble and billowing dust, it collapsed into the ruins dozens of meters away.
Its gaping mouth vomited torrents of black blood mixed with fragments of internal organs!
"This...who is this?!"
"That kind of strength...how could it possibly be this strong?!"
The Chief of Orthopedics' murky pupils shook violently, flooded with disbelieving terror!
It was a proud S-Grade Cursed Creature!
And it had been one-shotted with a single punch?!
What kind of monster had crawled out from where?!
But Jiang Nan, at this moment riding the extreme elation of his surging power, gave it no chance to catch a breath whatsoever!
"Hahaha!"
Laughter arrived before the man!
Jiang Nan's figure appeared before the Chief of Orthopedics. His right leg swung upward from below!
Launching the Chief of Orthopedics straight off the ground and into the air!
Then—
Dragon Claw strike!
Followed by the Sovereign Lantern!
Jiang Nan's silhouette in midair transformed his right hand into a Dragon Claw, piercing through the Chief of Orthopedics' chest!
Gripping that black heart in his grasp!
Jiang Nan flipped his left hand, and the Sovereign Lantern instantly materialized in his palm.
Aimed directly between the Chief of Orthopedics' brows!
A smooth, flowing little combo—fluid as clouds and running water, without a single wasted motion!
"【Imprisonment】!"
"Aaaaahhhh!!!"
Accompanied by the Chief of Orthopedics' agonized shriek!
Dozens of black chains exploded outward from the lantern's wick!
In an instant, they coiled around its soul, wrenching it from that crumbling body of flesh!
Sealing it inside the Small World of the Sovereign Lantern!
The entire process took under 1 minute.
One S-Grade Cursed Creature—reduced to ash and smoke.
Behind him,
Guo Shuai sat on the ground watching, blowing bubbles from his nostrils.
He swallowed a mouthful of saliva, sensing that his Boss seemed to have gotten considerably more monstrous than before.
Monstrous, of course, referring to that utterly unreasonable, terrifying strength.
Beside him, Quanquan was so frightened she immediately curled herself into a little ball of flesh.
"Daddy...I don't know why, but my whole body feels so hot."
Quanquan trembled. "Every time I look at Big Bro..."
"I instinctively feel afraid."
Guo Shuai forcibly suppressed the shock reverberating in his chest and with perfect seriousness tried to comfort her.
"Don't be scared, don't be scared—this is a perfectly normal physiological response! After all......"
‘After all...’
‘You physically experienced the terrifying might of Boss's power firsthand—like a sun exploding!’
The second half of that sentence Guo Shuai swallowed hard and kept to himself.
Because for a Divine Fetus, that was far too much of a hellish joke.
At this moment, Piano, who had been trailing behind all along, finally found her moment to shine.
She planted both hands on her hips and swaggered up before the 2 of them.
"Hey! You two are Master's lackeys, right?"
"Prick up your ears and listen well! My name is Piano!"
"I am Master's most loyal dog! Show some respect from now on!"
"......"
Guo Shuai and Quanquan exchanged a glance, both feeling as though they were about to grow new brains.
‘Seriously?’
‘So being someone's dog...’
‘is actually something worth bragging about?’
‘Though being Boss's dog is admittedly a cushy gig, you don't have to go around announcing it so righteously, do you?’
The 2 of them were a little baffled—but in a world overrun by Cursed Creatures, to be unharmed and boldly strutting alongside Boss like this...
Anyone with half a brain cell could figure out she was definitely Boss's woman.
‘In that case—you know the rules.’
‘Just address her as Sister-in-Law as loudly as you can and be done with it!’
And so, with perfect unspoken coordination, both immediately bowed their heads and bent their backs, calling out in unison:
"Greetings, Third Sister-in-Law~!"
Hearing that resounding title, Piano instantly narrowed her eyes with delight, nodding her head with a thoroughly satisfied expression.
"Third in line, am I? Not bad, not bad!"
And while this little exchange of banter was unfolding, Jiang Nan had already returned, Sovereign Lantern in hand.
He spoke directly to Guo Shuai: "Where are the other monsters?"
Hearing this, Guo Shuai instantly erupted with animated excitement, gesturing wildly.
"Boss! What the hell! You can talk now?! Your autism is cured?!"
Slap!
A sticky note was plastered directly onto Guo Shuai's face.
【Stop talking nonsense. I'm asking you a question.】
Guo Shuai immediately realized he had gotten carried away and hastily tore off the note, snapping to attention.
Then, at rapid-fire speed, he recounted every single thing that had just occurred—including the Thousand-Face Demon Lord's monstrous ability,
as well as the situation involving Shi Zhongshan and the others—and dumped it all before Jiang Nan in one go.
"In short, the Thousand-Face Demon Lord is now some kind of patchwork freak, and its ability is extremely bizarre and terrifying. Boss, you absolutely have to be careful!"
Guo Shuai warned with a lingering chill of fear.
However, after hearing all of this, Jiang Nan's face didn't show the slightest trace of shock.
Instead, his expression turned dark!
Confirmed.
That Thousand-Face Demon Lord had absolutely been leeching off the dividends of his Strong Luck!
Taking advantage of the vacuum period while he was being "protected," developing frantically from the shadows!
And the most critical thing was...
That thing actually dared to openly slaughter through the hospital in broad daylight.
Seizing all those Gundam Parts that should rightfully have belonged to him!
This was absolutely, utterly intolerable!
Those souls were all precious materials for upgrading his Sovereign Lantern!
Today, he was going to make that thing spit every last bit back—with interest!
Jiang Nan's fury instantly reached its peak. He grabbed the Sovereign Lantern and prepared to go cut down and settle accounts with the Thousand-Face Demon Lord.
"Boss, wait a moment!"
Guo Shuai hurriedly requested, "Can we make a quick detour to find someone first?"
"Earlier, I encountered a group of survivors here—one of them was called Ye Yilin, and there were also 2 prison guards named Shi Zhongshan and Liu Rui."
"They seemed to be getting hunted down by the Thousand-Face Demon Lord. I was afraid they wouldn't hold out."
Jiang Nan's footsteps faltered for a moment. He gave a brief nod.
The two of them followed the western corridor, searching as they went.
Before long, they found a ward with its window thrown wide open.
A makeshift lifeline fashioned from bedsheets still swayed at the windowsill in the breeze.
And there on the floor, Shi Zhongshan's body lay still—a through-and-through bullet hole punched clean through his chest.
Guo Shuai lunged forward and grabbed him by the shoulders, shaking hard.
"Big Bro Shi! Big Bro Shi, wake up!"
No response.
He was dead through and through.
Quanquan lowered its head in sorrow as well.
Though their time together had been extraordinarily brief—
Shi Zhongshan had undeniably been a rare and genuinely good man.
He fit perfectly the kind and brave stereotype that human society attached to the image of a 'police officer.'
Jiang Nan stepped forward and stared down at the body.
He was never a man who liked leaving regrets behind.
Especially not when he still had the power to change the outcome.
And so, without ceremony, he raised the Sovereign Lantern and aimed it directly at Shi Zhongshan's remains.
This time, he did not choose【Decompose】—he chose【Imprison】
"Better to live on badly than to die well."
"Go into the Sovereign Lantern and keep shining."
After collecting Shi Zhongshan's soul, Jiang Nan turned and leapt straight out through the window.
He followed the bedsheet lifeline down and landed on the windowsill of the 18th floor.
Guo Shuai and Quanquan scrambled down the rope after him.
Inside the 18th floor ward, 2 more gruesome bodies lay waiting.
One had lost its head entirely. The other had been nailed to the wall—a mangled, bloody ruin.
Guo Shuai forced down his revulsion, stepped close to identify them, and let out a long sigh.
"Boss, the headless one is Chen Daozi."
"The young cop on the wall is Liu Rui."
As he said it, Guo Shuai suddenly remembered something. He hurriedly fished a hard drive out of his pocket and held it out.
"Oh, right—Boss."
"This hard drive was given to me by Chen Daozi before he died."
"He said he knew you, and that you told him to wait here for you."
Jiang Nan took the Map Imprint Hard Drive, the corner of his mouth twitching faintly.
He had indeed said something like "see you around" to Chen Daozi.
But the clear implication had been that he'd kill him the next time they met—how had it gotten into that kid's head as something else entirely?
‘Forget it. Only a fool picks a fight with a dead man.’
Jiang Nan stuffed the hard drive into his trouser pocket, then raised the Sovereign Lantern over the 2 bodies on the floor.
But the Sovereign Lantern's response made his brow furrow.
Chen Daozi's soul had been extracted—it simply wasn't inside the body anymore. Imprisonment was impossible.
As for Liu Rui's soul, it was still present.
But it had been shredded by Ten Thousand Blades, and he had been dead just a touch too long. The soul form was severely and irreparably fragmented.
【This soul has sustained extreme damage!】
【Even if forcibly imprisoned, once it enters the Small World it will exist only in a vegetative state—and it will never recover!】
Jiang Nan stared at Liu Rui's face—the defiance etched into it, preserved all the way to the moment of death—and held his silence for 2 seconds.
‘Rather than leaving you trapped inside the lantern like a living corpse forever, I'll give you a clean release instead.’
Jiang Nan flipped his wrist. The command changed.
【Decompose】!
A flash of golden light. Liu Rui's shattered soul transformed into warm Grand Love Points and dissolved entirely into the world around him.
With all of that done, Jiang Nan led Guo Shuai, Quanquan, and Piano out of the ward and over to the elevator.
【We're heading downstairs. Guo Shuai—press any floor.】
Jiang Nan tossed out a notepad slip.
Even though the word count issue could be managed now, he still couldn't afford to be extravagant.
Long sentences got the notepad. Short ones he'd just say aloud.
Guo Shuai blinked, then waved his hands back and forth vigorously.
"This…how could I possibly do that?"
"At a moment like this—a moment that decides our fate—it's only right for you to press it yourself, Boss!"
"Besides, I'm still so unlucky."
Quanquan, standing to the side, saw this and launched its body forward—ramming straight into the small of Guo Shuai's back.
"Owww!"
Guo Shuai stumbled forward, body pitching ahead, and his forehead connected squarely with the 【Floor 1】 button.
"Quanquan! What are you doing?!"
Guo Shuai pressed a hand to his forehead, grimacing through the pain.
Quanquan scratched its smooth, bare head with an air of pure innocence.
"Sorry, Daddy—I slipped just now and couldn't keep my footing."
"Next time I'll definitely be more careful. I'll drop you dead on the spot."
"Oh no, I mean—do my best to avoid Daddy."
"……"
Guo Shuai's mouth twitched violently. He couldn't be bothered arguing with this ungrateful little brat.
Meanwhile, Quanquan quietly muttered to itself.
“Daddy, oh Daddy—do you have some kind of misunderstanding about that disaster-magnet constitution of yours?”
“Leaving the path-choosing to you would absolutely drive us all into a ditch! Only Boss understands you best.”
It snuck a glance at Jiang Nan.
The fear that lingered was still there—but now, layered over it, was something deeper: the reverence one felt before a truly superior being.
Jiang Nan watched the elevator display screen flicker with the descending numbers, then finally lock onto【Floor 1】.
An answer had already formed clearly in his mind.
‘The beginning is the end…’
‘Almost forgot—the floors of a hospital don't stop at the positives.’
‘Below Floor 1, there are negatives too…’
Boom.
The elevator came to a smooth stop at the ground floor lobby.
The moment the doors slid open, Piano's nose twitched twice.
"Master! I'm picking up an incredibly thick smell of blood!"
"And…it's definitely not the blood of a living person!"
Jiang Nan didn't waste a single word. He simply tilted his chin upward, gesturing for her to lead the way.
With Piano guiding them, the 4 cut across the pitch-dark lobby and arrived at the dim corridor leading toward the Morgue.
The instant they stepped into the corridor—
"Wuaahhh!!!"
A wave of infant wailing exploded out from deep within the corridor!
It was hundreds of Ghost Infants unleashing a mental assault!
Guo Shuai and Piano instantly clapped their hands over their ears, faces twisting in agony.
Jiang Nan, however, did not so much as furrow a brow.
Those crimson pupils of his erupted with a terrifying killing intent in the darkness.
His voice fell from his mouth, cold and absolute.
"Shatter—these false shackles."
"Tremble—all you wailing souls!"
In the next instant, the blood and vital force within Jiang Nan's body ignited like a volcano!
Scalding blood surged and condensed in his palm in an instant, forging itself into a Dragon Spear!
"Shut up!"
Jiang Nan gripped the Dragon Spear, drove force through his waist in one savage motion, and hurled it forward!
BOOM!!!
The Dragon Spear detonated mid-air in a blaze of brilliant flame!
The Infant Drop Box at the far end of the corridor—along with every Ghost Infant inside it—was blown into a cloud of black ash!
The entire world fell silent in an instant.
Jiang Nan beckoned casually. The Dragon Spear flew back into his palm, then dissolved back into vital force and dissipated.
He didn't even glance back. He simply let a single word fall from his lips.
"Move."
The 3 behind him froze in place.
‘That was…it?!’
‘It hadn't even taken 10 seconds?!!’
All 3 of their minds went completely blank—so stunned they couldn't squeeze out a single word!
Piano especially. She had long since understood that her Master was an unreasonable monster.
But she had never in her wildest dreams imagined that his destructive power had reached a level this hair-raisingly terrifying!
She thought back to that time in the bathroom, when she had nearly been smashed into oblivion by one of those things.
A violent shudder ran through her. Her resolve to be a good and obedient dog hardened even further.
Jiang Nan then strode forward at full pace, leading the 3 of them down into this Path of the Underworld—a place that had been utterly forbidden territory for the living.
They hadn't gone far before more than a dozen Ghost Doctors surged out from the darkness ahead, blocking their path with claws bared and mouths snarling.
Jiang Nan didn't spare them so much as a proper glance.
For bottom-of-the-barrel small fry like these, even wasting 2 extra seconds on them—
Was an unforgivable crime against his own time.
"Get lost."
Jiang Nan let out a cold snort, swept his hand through the air, and the Sovereign Lantern's holy black aura coiled into a whirlwind.
Whoosh!
Before those dozen Ghost Doctors had even closed the distance, the black aura swept over them and refined them into ash on the spot!
The Ghost Doctors lurking deeper in the corridor immediately had their courage shattered.
They recognized that the human before them was absolutely not someone they could afford to provoke.
They turned tail and ran at once—every last one of them wishing they could sprout a few extra legs on the spot.
But how could Jiang Nan possibly let these walking Grand Love Points escape?
"All of you—get in here!"
Jiang Nan never stopped moving, charging forward at full speed while sweeping the Sovereign Lantern back and forth in wide arcs.
He didn't even bother aiming—he simply unleashed indiscriminate AoE.
The Ghost Doctor Nurses along both sides of the corridor—those trying to duck into wards, those pressing themselves against walls and trembling—
The lucky ones were sucked screaming into the Sovereign Lantern one after another, decomposed on the spot.
The unlucky ones took a direct hit from the Sovereign Lantern before it could absorb them—smashed into pulp, then vacuumed up and decomposed all the same.
In just a matter of tens of seconds, this corridor—once a forbidden zone where no living person dared tread—
Had been turned by Jiang Nan into a vacuum where not a single ghost dared breathe.
Just as Jiang Nan was about to charge up to the Morgue's doors, a figure suddenly darted out from the darkness.
It was a high-ranking Ghost Doctor—one with bone spines bristling all across its arms!
It let out a furious roar and planted itself squarely in front of the door.
"You damned invader! Stop right—"
Bang!
Its words had barely reached the halfway mark when Jiang Nan, unable to brake in time, ran straight over it.
That high-ranking Ghost Doctor was deader than dead on the spot.
Jiang Nan skidded to a halt, turned around, and stared with mild bewilderment at the smear of mangled flesh on the ground.
‘Huh. Thought that was a speed bump.’
He casually scooped up the pulped remains from the floor, held them in his grip, and turned toward that Morgue door radiating its eerie green glow.
As he walked forward, he refined the high-ranking Ghost Doctor in his hand.
And just as he was about to stride up and kick the door open—
Click.
The door was slowly pushed open from the inside.
Bathed in that sickly green light—
2 men walked out of the Morgue, one behind the other…