Chapter 65
Chapter 65
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 065
Chapter Title: Virgin Ghost Yi-hwa and Evil God Emel (9)
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Realizing they didn't have much time, Byung-su spoke up.
"Then I'll take the lead. Park reporter, you guard Da-hee from behind."
"No. I'll guard the rear. My talisman exorcist abilities will be helpful too."
Da-hee held up her talisman and spoke firmly. Byung-su nodded in response.
"Stay right behind me. I'll make sure to find your family."
From experience, Byung-su knew that talismans helped drive away evil spirits, so he instinctively felt Da-hee would be useful.
"I'll go out first. Follow behind."
Byung-su said as he opened the door and stepped out.
As he opened the car door and got out, two staggering corpses came running, gurgling phlegm in their throats.
Whether their joints were stiff or their bodies wouldn't cooperate, they charged unnaturally, flailing their arms and legs.
Byung-su extended his left hand, grabbed the head of the oncoming corpse, and hoisted it up with a flash.
Da-hee, who had followed behind, threw a shield talisman in front of Byung-su.
The shield talisman vanished in midair, creating an invisible wall in the empty space.
The corpses charging at Byung-su thrashed against the unseen barrier.
Byung-su crushed the head of the corpse in his grip with brute force and turned to Da-hee.
Sure enough, Da-hee's abilities seemed very helpful.
"Da-hee, call your sister and brother and ask where they are."
The corpses were pounding on the invisible wall in front of them.
* * *
Left alone in the ICU waiting room on the third floor, Yi-hwa watched the ward door shaking.
The guardians in the ICU waiting room had already evacuated people to the upper floors upon seeing Yi-hwa's exposed form.
Fortunately, the fourth floor had only operating rooms and exam rooms, no patient rooms.
Yi-hwa was worried about the patients on the fifth floor and above, where Baekho was and where the wards began.
"Evacuate people to the rooftop via the stairs. Make sure to close the doors of the stairs you've passed."
She had repeatedly instructed a young man while evacuating the people in the waiting room.
'Baekho and Mi-hee should be fine for now. I need to quickly help these souls pass on, then head up the stairs.'
Screams echoed from below, but nothing had come up yet.
Since Baekho and Mi-hee were on the upper floors, Yi-hwa thought they were safe for the moment.
'Three stairwells, four elevators. No telling which way they'll come, so I need to handle this fast. More of them will make it harder.'
Yi-hwa pressed the switch by the door.
Having formed a body with spiritual energy to wield physical force, she could press the switch.
As the door opened, corpses unable to control their momentum tumbled forward.
More corpses surged over the fallen front line.
Yi-hwa's sword sliced off the head of the lead corpse.
The body collapsed limply, and the flying head rolled across the floor, teeth clacking together.
Yi-hwa's sword continued, severing necks in rapid succession.
She retreated step by step, slicing the necks of the charging corpses.
However, more corpses were emerging from the door than she could behead while retreating.
She shook off a corpse grabbing her arm, sliced the neck of one lunging from the front, and kicked the chest of the next.
The corpse caught by Yi-hwa's foot was unfortunately a handsome dad.
"Forgive me. May you find peace."
The handsome dad, pushed back, charged again.
Yi-hwa's sword emitted silver sword energy as it severed his neck.
Clack clack.
The sound of high heels on the stairs echoed.
Ding-a-ling.
Fire alarms installed throughout blared one after another.
The young man Yi-hwa had instructed had triggered them to evacuate the patients.
Yi-hwa smiled faintly as she decapitated another corpse.
'A clever one. If the patients head to the rooftop, we can reduce casualties.'
The fearless corpses approached, stepping on the rolling heads on the floor.
Clack clack.
Piercing through the fire alarms echoing everywhere, the sound of heels on the stairs grew louder.
* * *
Mi-hee rushed to the central emergency stairwell at the commotion from the stairs.
'Should I block the stair door?'
The footsteps from the central stairs were coming up from below, heading upward.
As Mi-hee cautiously opened the door to peek, it swung open and a young man burst in.
Five more men followed.
People climbing the stairs were visible behind the men.
The first man said to the startled Mi-hee,
"There's a fire below. We need to evacuate to the rooftop. Hurry."
Finishing his words, he passed Mi-hee, pressed the nearby fire alarm, and ran to the fifth-floor nurses' station.
He seemed intent on notifying the ward nurses to evacuate the patients.
The other men went around the rooms announcing the fire evacuation.
The nurse at the desk called the security room in the basement level two, spoke briefly, then directed the other nurses to evacuate patients.
Soon after, an evacuation announcement broadcast over the speakers.
It was a decision from someone monitoring in the security room.
The announcement was late, but effective.
The nurses efficiently moved patients to the rooftop.
Mi-hee confirmed no more people coming up from below and created an invisible wall chest-high on the central stairs from the fourth floor using a shield talisman.
It was one Da-hee had drawn last night.
Mi-hee and Baekho could only produce paralysis talismans, so they had fewer prepared shield talismans.
She went to the left emergency stairs and made another wall, then headed to the right stairs.
'Auntie Yi-hwa will buy us time. These walls on the stairs will too, so we'll hold out as long as we can.'
As Mi-hee reached the right stairs, her phone rang from Da-hee.
—Sis, where are you? You okay? I'm at the hospital entrance—it's chaos!
"Still okay. Auntie Yi-hwa's on three, I'm on five. Brother's on six. Any zombies below?"
Mi-hee had pegged the twisted-walking people she'd seen through the window as zombies.
—Phew, good you're okay. The lobby's full of corpses, zombies. Only some headed up. I'll come up too.
Mi-hee had called them zombies, and Da-hee accepted it.
"Too dangerous. Don't come up. We'll hold here and wait for police rescue."
—The lobby zombies will head up soon. Waiting for police is too risky. I'll take the right emergency stairs. Hold on tight.
As Da-hee said, the corpses that had devastated the lobby and first floor were slowly climbing the stairs.
"Da-hee's coming. Mi-hee, you stay here. I'll go down to Yi-hwa. Yi-hwa won't retreat from the zombies. Gotta bring her up."
Baekho had come down while Mi-hee was on the phone.
"What the hell is this? That ghoul bitch must've caused it. Just like Yi-hwa said, ghouls."
Baekho created an invisible wall in front of Mi-hee as he spoke.
"Go up to the rooftop. I'll bring Yi-hwa soon. People will need you there. Guard them from the rooftop."
As Baekho said, Yi-hwa had no intention of abandoning the zombies and fleeing.
* * *
The number of corpses emerging from the ICU ward door was increasing.
Yi-hwa's sword precisely severed necks in one strike.
Her sword was fast and accurate, but more corpses poured from the door.
To use physical force, her spirit-energy body meant damage to it harmed her soul too.
Before long, Yi-hwa's body and soul were badly damaged.
Where her spirit-energy body was wounded, white smoke billowed instead of red blood.
A corpse with its lower half severed crawled and bit Yi-hwa's leg.
Feeling the pain of her spirit energy dissipating, Yi-hwa stabbed her sword into the biting corpse's head and kicked away another lunging from the side.
The corpses, attacking only humans, perceived Yi-hwa's spirit-energy body as human and didn't stop.
If Yi-hwa dispersed her spirit energy and vanished, they'd stop, but without physical force, she couldn't block them.
Even as corpses swarmed, Yi-hwa kept her spirit-energy body intact.
"Come on! I'll cut you all down together."
White smoke rose from her bitten leg, the pain of dissipating spirit energy intense.
'If I pass on to hell, my spirit energy will burn in hellfire every day, feeling this pain.'
She gave a bitter smile, swung her sword, and advanced again.
Three charging corpses' heads flew from Yi-hwa's fierce attack.
Clack clack.
The heels ascending the stairs stopped.
The central stair door opened, and Emel entered behind Yi-hwa.
"Hey! More impressive than I thought. Plenty of people in ICU. Well done."
Corpses followed Emel through the door.
Yi-hwa dodged to the right hallway, swinging her sword at corpses attacking from both sides.
Four heads flew into the air, and five more corpses charged.
She decapitated three, but two bit her wrists and arms.
Yi-hwa shook off the biting corpses and severed their heads.
"Must hurt a lot. Losing spirit energy is excruciating. You'll vanish without a trace."
Emel laughed, clearly enjoying the scene.
"Fun?"
Yi-hwa asked Emel as she split the head of a corpse grabbing her leg.
"Delightful."
Emel replied mockingly.
"Having fun? Me too!"
It was Baekho's voice aimed at Emel.
Baekho charged from behind Yi-hwa, throwing talismans.
A shield talisman vanished above Yi-hwa's head, creating an invisible wall. The paralysis talisman hit Emel, igniting flames on her body.
Corpses, soulless, were unaffected by paralysis or sealing talismans, but Emel, aura exposed, was not.
Emel extinguished the fire on her body and dodged between corpses.
"Ow! It hurts! I felt plenty of fire last night—no more, thanks."
Thanks to the invisible wall, Yi-hwa gripped her sword anew.
Her elegant hanbok was torn in places, white smoke rising.
Meanwhile, corpses clung to the invisible wall, pushing with their bodies.
"When that wall falls, I'll cut the front-runners. Baekho, retreat while making walls. We'll use them to move to the stairs."
Yi-hwa said, raising her sword to chest level.
The corpses' gurgling mixed with the evacuation broadcast, echoing loudly in the hallway.
Baekho nodded, holding a shield talisman in his right hand.
"Cops or firefighters will come soon. We'll retreat bit by bit till then. But hey, think these things'll run scared from police?"
"Cops, firefighters, even army—they won't back off. No intelligence to flee or hide. Just more injured. No other way. Hope people stay safe."
Yi-hwa stepped forward as the space cracked under the corpses' pressure.
"Here they come!"
The wall collapsed, front corpses tumbling forward from their own force.
Back-line corpses trampled them, twisting forward.
Yi-hwa sliced the tangled, slowed corpses and retreated.
Baekho swiftly raised a new wall with a shield talisman as she fell back.
The two turned and dashed to the right stair door.
The lobby was chaos with fire alarms, corpse gurgles, and human screams.
Byung-su shoved three corpses at the door with his left hand, toppling them, then smashed their heads with a small iron stake from a flower bed.
As Byung-su secured the spot, Dong-jin and Da-hee followed in.
Corpses near the entrance spotted the group and turned toward them.
Byung-su handed the stake to Dong-jin behind him, gripping it firmly in his bewildered hand.
Byung-su kicked the chest of the first approaching wristless corpse, sending it sprawling, then grabbed a female corpse's neck from the side and flung it forward.
"Park reporter! Smash the head!"
At Byung-su's shout, hesitant Dong-jin stepped up.
Dong-jin smashed the limp, wristless corpse's head and ducked behind Byung-su.
Byung-su lifted a doctor-robed corpse by the neck with his left hand, slammed its back onto his knee, snapping its spine.
The spine-broken corpse couldn't rise.
Dong-jin behind smashed its head with the stake.
In the distance, fire truck sirens wailed.