Chapter 3: The Ghost Opens Its Eyes

I now understand that this thread is called the Netherworld Thread, connecting me to all the spirits bound to me by karma. Only by helping them sever their attachments to the living world will this thread disappear.

I also know that the female ghost had only recently taken shape; she wasn’t truly malevolent—her obsession was simply too strong.

“Qin, get ready. We just received news—there’s been a major ten-vehicle pileup on Yuxi Road. Some of the injured are being transferred to our hospital right now.” Zhou Renhe, who should have been off duty, was staying late because of the accident. When he saw me, he immediately spoke up.

“All right,” I nodded. I’d been an intern in the emergency department for half a year, and had already witnessed countless sudden incidents. Not to boast, but aside from my intern status, my medical skills were no worse than Zhou Renhe’s, the attending physician.

Within five minutes, three ambulances arrived, sirens wailing mournfully.

I froze for a moment. Two of the ambulances were shrouded in a gray miasma of death.

I blinked hard. It wasn’t an illusion. Ever since the Eye of the Nether Dragon at my chest opened yesterday, the world looked different to me.

Sure enough, of the six people brought out from two of the ambulances, two were declared dead by the accompanying doctors.

There were six attending physicians in the emergency department, but for various reasons, only three were present, along with five interns, including myself.

Yet nine people arrived in the three ambulances, all critically injured. Except for the two who died, the remaining seven suffered severe trauma.

I jumped onto a gurney and began CPR on a middle-aged man who was already in shock and had lost his heartbeat.

By the time we reached the resuscitation room, the man’s heartbeat had returned.

I jumped down as two orderlies transferred him to the emergency bed.

“Laceration in the left chest, comminuted fractures of the third and fourth ribs—likely with bone fragments puncturing the lung. Blood type and transfusion analysis immediately. Inject 0.2 milligrams of adrenaline. Prep for surgery…” I calmly issued instructions and began treating his wounds, first clamping several ruptured large blood vessels to stop the bleeding.

Once the initial treatment was done, my part was over. The hospital would never allow an intern like me to perform surgery of this magnitude alone.

Just then, from behind the curtain, I heard Zhou Renhe’s voice: “Time of death, 7:10 p.m. Cause of death: severe closed craniocerebral injury leading to massive intracranial hemorrhage.”

I lifted the curtain and saw a nurse covering the head of a young woman, her hair matted with blood, with a white cloth.

Suddenly, I watched a spectral form drift up from the body.

She circled the resuscitation bed in confusion, then began to slowly dissipate.

This was how ordinary souls faded after death; a spirit wouldn’t persist for long unless it became a ghost.

I was reflecting on this when a chill swept over me. The female ghost from yesterday was there, mouth open, inhaling the remnants of the soul energy that had just dissipated.

My body stiffened. Although I’d obtained the Great Nether Yin-Yang Art and opened my Yin-Yang Eyes, I couldn’t suppress the chill rising inside me when confronted by a ghost—especially one with whom I’d already done unspeakable things.

The female ghost turned, glaring at me with a mixture of fear and resentment burning in her eerie eyes.

I drew a deep breath and stepped towards her.

But she reacted like a cat whose tail had been trodden on—her long hair rose wildly, her once-pretty face twisted into the horrific visage she bore at death, bloodied pupils fixed on me.

“Don’t be nervous, I just want to…” I began.

“Dr. Qin, who are you talking to?” The usually wary young nurse, Wang Meiyu, asked timidly from behind.

Startled, I glanced back and whispered, “A ghost.”

Wang Meiyu gave a frightened start, then rolled her eyes at me in mock annoyance.

“Qin, over here—give me a hand!” Zhou Renhe called out urgently.

“I’m coming,” I replied.

But in that instant, the female ghost vanished.

How odd—usually it’s people who fear ghosts, but why was she so afraid of me?

Puzzling over this, I went to assist Zhou Renhe, but he said we were shorthanded and told me to operate independently.

My patient was the same middle-aged man whose wounds I’d just treated—my first time performing such a major thoracic surgery alone.

“Prepare anesthesia…” I instructed calmly.

The operation was a success. The two nurses assisting me looked at me with new eyes.

Especially Wang Meiyu—her wariness had clearly lessened, her gaze carrying a familiarity I’d come to recognize.

I was sensitive to such signals from the opposite sex. With the right approach, it wouldn’t take a week to lure her into bed.

But at this moment, I didn’t seize the chance to flirt as I once would have, to leave a deeper impression.

Since the Eye of the Nether Dragon awakened, the yin energy of living women no longer tempted me into indulgence.

Instead, I worried that my scoundrel tendencies might transfer to female ghosts…

“Ah!”

Suddenly, Wang Meiyu cried out and retreated several steps, clutching my arm with both hands—the softness pressing against me gave me a secret thrill.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“H-he woke up!” she stammered.

Awake?

I turned and saw the middle-aged man, fresh from surgery, eyes open, irises rolled back so the whites showed—an unsettling sight.

“It’s probably a nervous reflex,” I said. “He had general anesthesia; he shouldn’t wake for at least five hours.” As I spoke, I half-embraced Wang Meiyu, patting her back.

She stiffened, then blushed and fled.

Now the cubicle held only the patient and me. My expression grew serious as I approached the man.

“Ghost’s eyes open?” I muttered, recalling a passage from the Great Nether Yin-Yang Art. I picked up a needle and pierced the crown of his head.

This wasn’t random. In the Yin-Yang Art, this spot is called the Gathering Sun Point.

Immediately, the man’s body convulsed, and two wisps of shadowy energy—imperceptible to ordinary eyes—drifted from his wide-open eyes. Then he closed them and fell into a deep sleep.

I glanced at him, then left the room.

By now it was 2 a.m. Of the nine critical patients brought in, apart from the two declared dead en route and the young woman who died during resuscitation, the other six had survived for now, though no one could guarantee their subsequent fate.

“Dr. Qin, I made you some coffee.” Wang Meiyu approached with a steaming cup, her gaze shy, unable to meet mine.

“Thank you.” I took the coffee and sipped. The scalding brew warmed my chilled body.

“By the way, Meiyu, have you heard any rumors about the car accident?” I asked.

She glanced around, lowered her voice, and said, “I only heard this—you mustn’t repeat it—one patient reportedly woke up midway and kept shouting about seeing a ghost. Think about it, Yuxi Road is so wide, the snow was cleared, no new snowfall—how did ten cars crash at once? And traffic police say none of the ten vehicles showed any brake marks.”

I pondered this as Meiyu, blushing under the sidelong glances of others, slipped away.

“Feng, you’re amazing. Teach me some tricks?” He Xiaojun, a fellow intern, sidled over, full of envy.

I chuckled, “These things aren’t about tricks, but practice. They can only be experienced, not taught.”

After joking with my colleagues a while, I got up to use the restroom.

But even with my eyes closed, waiting there, the female ghost didn’t appear.

So, I’d have to seek her out myself.

The Nether Dragon’s Eye at my chest was bound to her by an invisible thread; sensing her location wasn’t hard.

I walked through the long corridor toward Building B, which housed the hospital’s various laboratories, storage for equipment and medication, and, on its second basement level, the morgue.

The elevator chimed.

I stepped in, the doors closed, and it started descending from the eleventh floor.

Tenth… ninth… eighth…

Suddenly, the elevator jolted violently. The lights flickered with a harsh buzz and then went out completely.