Fire.
The first death was fire.
Jiang Yue felt flames consuming her flesh. Skin blistering. Lungs filling with smoke. A woman's screams—her screams—echoing through a burning house while her children cried somewhere she couldn't reach.
Then darkness.
Then another death.
Drowning. Water filling her lungs. Just like before. Just like her own death. But this time she was a man, a fisherman whose boat capsized in a storm. Cold water. Burning chest. The surface so close but impossible to reach.
Darkness again.
Then another.
And another.
And another.
---
Feng Yichen watched from the cemetery entrance.
Jiang Yue stood motionless among the graves, surrounded by spirits. Her body was rigid. Her eyes were open but unseeing. And from her throat came sounds no human should make—screams, sobs, gasps for air.
She was experiencing death after death after death.
One hour passed.
Two.
Three.
The spirits kept coming. Kept touching her. Kept pouring their final moments into her mind.
Feng Yichen wanted to stop it. Every instinct screamed at him to pull her away from those ghosts.
But he didn't.
Because the ground had stopped shaking.
When they'd arrived, tremors had rolled through the cemetery every few minutes. The Devourer stirring. The seal cracking.
Now everything was still.
Whatever Jiang Yue was doing, it was working.
---
Inside the storm of death, Jiang Yue was losing herself.
She was a child hit by a car.
She was an old man dying alone.
She was a soldier bleeding out on a battlefield.
She was a mother watching her baby stop breathing.
Hundreds of lives. Hundreds of endings. Hundreds of final moments of terror and pain and desperate longing for just one more breath.
Each death tore away a piece of her sanity.
Each death threatened to drown her completely.
But through it all, one thought kept her anchored:
*This is nothing compared to what the Devourer would do.*
If that thing woke up, millions would die. Not peacefully. Not quickly. They would be consumed—body, soul, and everything in between.
She could endure a hundred deaths to prevent a million.
She could endure anything.
---
Dawn broke over the cemetery.
The ghosts finally withdrew.
Jiang Yue collapsed.
Feng Yichen caught her before she hit the ground. Her body was ice cold. Her pulse was thready. Blood trickled from her nose and ears.
"Jiang Yue! Can you hear me?"
Her eyes fluttered open. For a moment, they were empty—no recognition, no awareness.
Then she blinked.
"Did it work?" Her voice was barely a whisper.
Feng Yichen checked his phone. No alerts from the Bureau. No reports of seismic activity.
"It worked. The seal is stable." He lifted her carefully. "But you almost died. Your body went into shock six times. I counted."
"Only six?" She tried to smile. Failed. "Thought it was more."
"This isn't funny."
"No. It's not." She closed her eyes. "I felt them all, Yichen. Every death. Every moment of fear and pain. It's still echoing in my head."
Feng Yichen carried her toward the car.
"We're going to the Bureau. You need medical attention."
"No time. The ritual—"
"Can wait until you're not dying." His voice was sharp. "The seal is stable. We have two days. You can rest for a few hours."
She wanted to argue. But her body wouldn't cooperate.
Darkness took her.
---
Jiang Yue woke in a Bureau medical room.
Machines beeped steadily. An IV dripped fluid into her arm. The ceiling above her was white and sterile.
She sat up slowly.
Every muscle ached. Her head pounded. But she was alive.
"Twelve hours." Feng Yichen's voice came from the corner. "That's how long you were unconscious."
He looked terrible. Dark circles under his eyes. Hair disheveled. He'd been watching over her the whole time.
"You didn't have to stay," she said.
"Yes, I did." He stood and walked to her bedside. "What you did was incredibly brave. And incredibly stupid."
"It worked."
"You could have died."
"But I didn't." She met his eyes. "And now we have time for the ritual. That's what matters."
Feng Yichen stared at her for a long moment.
Then he did something unexpected.
He leaned down and kissed her.
It was brief. Gentle. His lips barely brushed hers before he pulled back.
"That's for not dying," he said quietly.
Jiang Yue touched her lips, stunned.
"I... what..."
"Don't read too much into it." He turned away, but she caught the flush on his cheeks. "Get some more rest. We have work to do tomorrow."
He left before she could respond.
Jiang Yue lay back on the bed, her heart racing for reasons that had nothing to do with near-death experiences.
---
The next morning, everything changed.
Her phone had forty-three messages. Most from Xu Meilin. Some from Lin Haoran.
She read Xu Meilin's first:
*"Where are you??"*
*"You missed all your classes yesterday!"*
*"Your roommate says you never came home last night!"*
*"CALL ME RIGHT NOW"*
And then, ominously:
*"I know something's going on. We need to talk."*
Lin Haoran's messages were calmer but equally concerning:
*"My father mentioned you seemed distracted at dinner. Is everything okay?"*
*"Meilin says you've been disappearing a lot. I'm worried about you."*
*"Let me know you're safe. Please."*
The concern was fake. She knew that. But the suspicion was real.
They were watching her more closely now.
She needed to throw them off.
---
Jiang Yue called Xu Meilin.
"Where the hell have you been?!" Xu Meilin's voice was sharp with anger—and something else. Fear? "I've been calling you for two days!"
"I'm sorry." Jiang Yue made her voice weak, scared. "I... something happened."
"What? What happened?"
"I can't talk about it on the phone. Can you meet me? Please?"
A pause. Xu Meilin's tone shifted to fake concern. "Of course. Where are you?"
"The café near campus. The one we went to on Monday."
"I'll be there in twenty minutes."
Jiang Yue hung up and smiled coldly.
Time to play the victim.
---
She arrived at the café first.
Deliberately chose a table in the corner. Kept her head down. Made herself look small and fragile.
When Xu Meilin rushed in, Jiang Yue looked up with red-rimmed eyes.
"Yue Yue!" Xu Meilin slid into the seat across from her. "What happened? You look terrible!"
"I think... I think someone is following me." Jiang Yue let her voice tremble. "I've been seeing this man everywhere. At campus. Near my dorm. Even outside Lin Haoran's mansion."
Xu Meilin's eyes widened. "What? Who?"
"I don't know. He's tall, always wears dark clothes. I thought I was imagining it at first, but..." She grabbed Xu Meilin's hand desperately. "I'm so scared, Meilin. I didn't want to worry you, so I've been hiding. Staying with different friends so he can't find me."
The lie rolled off her tongue perfectly.
Xu Meilin's expression flickered. Suspicion warred with the desire to believe.
"Why didn't you tell me? Or Lin Haoran?"
"I didn't want to seem crazy. What if I'm imagining things?" Jiang Yue wiped fake tears from her eyes. "But it feels so real. Like someone is watching my every move."
Xu Meilin was quiet for a moment.
Then she squeezed Jiang Yue's hand.
"You should tell Lin Haoran. His family has security. They can protect you."
*Exactly what I wanted you to suggest.*
"You think so?"
"Definitely. He cares about you so much." Xu Meilin's smile was poison wrapped in sugar. "Let him help you."
"Okay. I'll tell him tonight." Jiang Yue sniffled. "Thank you for being such a good friend."
"Always."
They hugged.
Xu Meilin's phone buzzed. She glanced at it quickly—too quickly.
Jiang Yue caught a glimpse of the contact name: **Haoran**.
She was reporting in real-time.
Good.
Let them think she was scared and vulnerable. Let them think the stalker story explained her absences.
The more comfortable they felt, the harder they would fall.
---
That evening, Lin Haoran called.
"Meilin told me what's happening." His voice was warm with fake concern. "You should have come to me immediately."
"I didn't want to bother you."
"You could never bother me." Smooth. Practiced. "I'm sending a security detail to watch your dorm. And I want you to stay at our mansion until this stalker is caught."
Stay at the Lin mansion. In the lion's den.
It was a trap. She knew that.
But it was also an opportunity.
"I couldn't impose—"
"I insist. Your safety is my priority." His voice hardened slightly. "I won't take no for an answer."
Jiang Yue pretended to hesitate.
"Okay. If you're sure it's not too much trouble."
"Pack a bag. I'll pick you up in an hour."
The call ended.
Jiang Yue immediately dialed Feng Yichen.
"Change of plans. I'm moving into the Lin mansion."
"What? That's insane!"
"It's perfect." She started packing. "The ritual is tomorrow night. I'll be inside their house. I can get Lin Haoran alone easily."
"And if something goes wrong? If they figure out who you are?"
"They won't." She zipped her bag. "But just in case—have a team ready to extract me."
Silence.
"This is too risky."
"Everything about this is risky. But it's also our best chance." She softened her voice. "Trust me, Yichen. I know what I'm doing."
A long pause.
"Fine. But I'm monitoring everything. The moment things go south, I'm coming in."
"Fair enough."
She hung up and looked at her reflection in the mirror.
Tomorrow night, Lin Haoran would experience every moment of suffering he had ever caused.
She couldn't wait.
---
The Lin mansion felt different at night.
Jiang Yue's ghost sight showed her what daylight had hidden. The shadows were thicker here. Darker. They clung to the walls like living things.
And in the corners, she saw them.
Ghosts.
Not the wild spirits from the cemetery. These were different. Quieter. Sadder.
Women, mostly. Beautiful women in expensive clothes, with hollow eyes and broken necks.
The Lin family's victims.
They couldn't leave. Something bound them here. Trapped them in the place where they died.
One of them drifted close to Jiang Yue.
**"Another lamb for the slaughter,"** she whispered. **"Run while you can."**
"I'm not a lamb," Jiang Yue replied silently. "I'm the one who's going to set you free."
The ghost studied her.
**"You're different. You see us."**
"I do."
**"Then see him. The father. He's the true monster. The son is just a tool."** The ghost's form flickered. **"But there's something else in this house. Something we don't understand. It keeps us here. Feeds on our despair."**
Something else.
Just like Zhao Lianhua had warned.
"What is it?"
**"We don't know. We only know it lives beneath the house. In the dark places no one visits."**
Before Jiang Yue could ask more, Lin Haoran appeared.
"Yue'er! You're here!" He smiled that perfect smile. "Let me show you to your room."
The ghost vanished.
Jiang Yue followed her murderer up the stairs.
---
The room they gave her was beautiful.
Silk sheets. Antique furniture. A window overlooking the gardens.
It was also a prison.
Jiang Yue noticed the lock on the outside of the door. The bars hidden behind decorative curtains on the windows. The way the room was isolated from the rest of the house.
How many women had stayed in this exact room before her?
How many had left alive?
"Make yourself comfortable," Lin Haoran said from the doorway. "If you need anything, just press the intercom button. Someone will come."
"Thank you. You're too kind."
"Rest well." His eyes lingered on her a moment too long. "Tomorrow will be a big day."
He closed the door.
Jiang Yue waited until his footsteps faded.
Then she began to explore.
---
The house at night was a maze of secrets.
She moved silently through corridors, her ghost sight revealing hidden doors, secret passages, rooms that didn't appear on any floor plan.
The Lin family had been doing this for generations. The mansion itself was designed to trap victims, hide evidence, and dispose of bodies.
She found a basement door behind a bookshelf.
It was locked with a code she didn't know.
But the ghosts knew.
**"4-8-15-16,"** one whispered. **"The dates we died. He likes to remember."**
Jiang Yue entered the code.
The door clicked open.
Stairs descended into darkness.
She went down.
---
The basement was a horror show.
Chains bolted to walls. Stains on the floor that could only be blood. Tools that had no innocent purpose.
This was where the Lin family brought their victims. Where they tortured, killed, and disposed of anyone who got in their way.
And in the corner, behind another locked door, she found something worse.
A shrine.
Candles burning with black flame. Symbols carved into the floor. And at the center, a crack in reality itself—a tear in the fabric of the world, oozing dark energy.
The ghosts had been right.
Something lived here. Something the Lin family was feeding with their murders.
Something connected to the Devourer.
**"You found it."**
Jiang Yue spun around.
Lin Zhengting stood at the bottom of the stairs.
His smile was cold as death.
"I wondered when you'd stop pretending."
END OF CHAPTER 7
Next Chapter Preview:
Lin Zhengting reveals the terrible truth about the Lin family's connection to the Devourer. Trapped in the basement with no backup, Jiang Yue must survive until Feng Yichen arrives—but the elder Lin has powers she never expected. The karma extraction ritual becomes a desperate battle for survival, and Jiang Yue discovers that some debts are paid in blood.