Free Web NovelChapter 33: Chapter 33: Possessing Zhao Qiang
Zhao Qiang rattled off an address at lightning speed, repeating it twice. Then, he said sinisterly,
"My friend Gao Tian, breaking into someone’s house in the middle of the night is illegal. Even if the owner hasn’t been back in over twenty years, if the patrolling cops find you, you’ll still end up spending a few days at the station.
"I’m taking a huge risk doing this for you. So, try not to let any third party know. Just come alone tonight, okay?"
Gao Tian:
"I know."
Seeing that Gao Tian wasn’t the least bit suspicious, Zhao Qiang pushed his luck even further. ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom
"And, uh, don’t tell anyone else the address you’re going to tonight. It’s better to keep this confidential, understand?"
Gao Tian nodded.
"Understood."
Hanging up the phone, he of course knew what was going on. ’That punk Zhao Qiang, banking on his numbers, definitely plans to kill me tonight.’
’For a ruthless rich kid like him, he’d never be content being controlled by someone else. Rather than leaving this piece of leverage in a stranger’s hands, making sure everyone who knows about ’that incident’ can never speak again is much more his style.’
Of course, Zhao Qiang had initially genuinely set out to find Xu Yuan’s whereabouts for Gao Tian. But as he looked, he discovered that Xu Yuan’s old home was in a remote, deserted mountain village. It was the perfect place to silence someone, to get rid of a person without a soul knowing. So, on a whim, he decided to have Gao Tian come over himself.
However, Gao Tian didn’t care.
’How could someone from the criminal underworld possibly outplay someone from the Supernatural Community?’
’It’s just his bad luck. In an era of guns, he just had to run into someone like me, a guy who plays with ghosts.’
’Right now, Gao Tian just hoped Zhao Qiang would bring a few more of his men. They would be useful to him later.’
...
...
After a car ride of over four hours, he arrived at a deserted county on the outskirts of Hengzhou City. The pitch-black sky was already beginning to lighten. A red sun was rising in the distance, heralding the arrival of a new day.
Xu Yuan’s old hometown was truly remote. It was originally on the edge of a county, but in recent years, with fewer and fewer children and all the young people leaving for the big cities to work, the county’s population had begun to wither. First, the kindergarten, elementary school, and hospital closed down, and the decay then spread to all public facilities. Even the county center was on the verge of collapse, almost a deserted ghost town.
No wonder that after growing up, Xu Yuan would rather move to Shanghai than return to his old house. It was impossible for a single living person to survive here for long.
After dropping Gao Tian off, the taxi sped away without a backward glance. All that remained was a muddy path and a row of dilapidated houses nearby, all pitch-black. Their broken windows were left unrepaired, a clear sign that the villagers had moved out long ago. You couldn’t find a soul for miles.
Gao Tian arrived at the location Zhao Qiang had given him. He looked around but saw no one. He took out his phone and redialed the number.
"Hey, Brother Qiang, I’m here. Where are you?"
Zhao Qiang’s voice sounded again.
"Turn around. Let me see if anyone followed you."
’Looks like this punk arrived a long time ago. He’s hiding somewhere out of sight, secretly observing me. He’s being quite cautious. It seems he’s dead set on killing me out here in the wilderness.’
Gao Tian wasn’t afraid in the slightest. He spread his hands.
"Brother, I came to find someone, not to go sightseeing. Why would I bring a bunch of people?"
Zhao Qiang let out a dry laugh.
"Good. Now that you say that, I can relax.
"Look up. We’re in the third house to your left. We’ve been here the whole time."
Gao Tian looked up as instructed and saw several shadowy figures slowly stand up. Each wore a black jacket and sunglasses. The man in the lead was none other than Zhao Qiang.
The moment they saw each other, Zhao Qiang leaped down from the hillside and walked toward Gao Tian. Without a second word, he pulled out a long object. A dark muzzle was aimed at Gao Tian’s head. At the same time, his men slowly closed in from behind, spreading out to block any escape.
"My good brother, don’t blame me. I was young and foolish back then, and you... you know too much.
"I had almost forgotten about it myself. But then you just had to run into me at that intersection the other day and had the gall to threaten me with it. I, Zhao Qiang, hate it most when people hold things over my head.
"Death is at your doorstep. If you have any last words, say them now."
At this point, Zhao Qiang dropped the act and just stared at Gao Tian. He was waiting for him to break down crying and begging for mercy, or to struggle futilely before he blew his head off with a single shot.
He never expected Gao Tian’s reaction to be so calm it was downright eerie.
There are only a few ways people react right before they die: fear, to the point of wetting themselves; rage, a futile struggle; or shock, frozen to the spot... But he saw none of these in the man before him.
Gao Tian’s gaze was placid. He looked at the gun’s muzzle and, in turn, asked a very strange question:
"Before you kill me, did you clear our call history?"
If he suddenly disappeared, the police would definitely trace his last communications and would quickly find their way to Zhao Qiang.
No matter how arrogant and cold-blooded Zhao Qiang was, he was thrown off by Gao Tian’s attitude in the face of death. He stared at Gao Tian for several seconds, confirming that the man wasn’t just faking his composure, and a hint of admiration began to stir in his heart.
"Aren’t you worried about your fate at all?
"You’re really one of a kind. Damn it, you’re about to die, and you still remember to remind me to destroy the evidence.
"Don’t worry. This isn’t my first time doing something like this. I’ll destroy every last trace of it."
Gao Tian nodded.
"Good. Then I can rest easy.
"Do you have any last words?"
Zhao Qiang was stunned. At first, he didn’t understand what Gao Tian had said. His brain seemed to freeze.
’Isn’t that my line?’
Gao Tian couldn’t be bothered to waste any more words on him.
At the intersection that day, they had already made eye contact four times, allowing him to steal four fragments from Zhao Qiang’s face.
Today, in front of Xu Yuan’s old house, when Zhao Qiang pointed the gun at him, they made eye contact one last time. He had now stolen all five fragments of his facial features, and the effect of the Face-Shattering Ghost was activated.
Gao Tian didn’t offer any explanation. He immediately activated the Face-Shattering Ghost’s killing principle, forcefully seizing Zhao Qiang’s face. Who knew if this madman Zhao Qiang would suddenly pull the trigger in the next second? That would force him to waste a Ghost Card to revive.
Ghost Cards were meant for supernatural incidents, not to be wasted on a nobody like Zhao Qiang. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ
In an instant, his facial features transformed into Zhao Qiang’s.
Meanwhile, Zhao Qiang, standing opposite him, had no idea what was happening. He only felt a cold sensation on his face, and then he suddenly couldn’t see or hear anything. His five features and five senses were gone, his entire face ripped clean off out of thin air. What remained standing was a grotesque, faceless man, an empty shell.
Having lost his face, Zhao Qiang collapsed to the ground without a sound. He died without even letting out a scream.
Seeing the Face-Shattering Ghost kill for the first time, Gao Tian was secretly alarmed. ’Back when I clicked on that black packet in the chat group, if I hadn’t managed that tightrope walk with the cinerary casket, I would have suffered the same fate.’
Meanwhile, seeing their boss die so suddenly and inexplicably, and with the scene being so dark, his men were thrown into chaos. They had no idea what had just happened. From their perspective, Gao Tian just stood there, motionless, while blood suddenly gushed from their boss’s face before he collapsed.
The men had no idea where the attack had come from; they even suspected a sniper in the distant hills. A smarter one immediately pressed his gun to the back of Gao Tian’s head. "Don’t move! Stay still!" he yelled, while turning to check on Zhao Qiang’s body.
But by now, Gao Tian had acquired Zhao Qiang’s face and most of his memories. There was no need to be meek anymore. He spun around and slapped the underling across the face.
"Damn it, get this piece of shit gun away from me! Take a good look, it’s me!"
Seeing that the man their guns were pointed at was "Zhao Qiang," the underlings were once again shocked speechless, unable to comprehend what was happening.
The man who fell was clearly Zhao Qiang. So how, in the blink of an eye, did another "Zhao Qiang"—who looked, spoke, and sounded exactly like him—appear in Gao Tian’s original spot, yelling at them?
Could it be that it was just too dark? That in their nervousness, they’d misremembered where their boss was standing?
"B-B-B-Boss, what... what the hell is going on?
"Y-You... how were you standing here one second, and then... then... then over there?"
A burly man named San Hu, though covered in tattoos and muscle, wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. Too much was happening, it was all too chaotic, and it completely overloaded his brain’s ability to comprehend.
Gao Tian gave them no time to think. He activated the Memory Ghost’s ability again, his words flowing eloquently as he began to implant false memories into their minds.
"Are you a fucking idiot?
"Didn’t I tell you on the way here that you were helping me bury someone? My old classmate and I just caught up. We finished talking, I put a bullet in him, and now you guys dig a hole and bury him. End of story.
"Is there something wrong with your brain? I shot him, and you suddenly turn your gun on me? You’re asking me what’s going on? I should be asking you what the hell is wrong with you.
"Maybe this wilderness isn’t clean. Maybe something clouded your eyes."
This explanation from Gao Tian was clearly far more reasonable than what the underlings thought they saw: their boss and the victim suddenly swapping places.
After his "reminder," the others seemed to "awaken as if from a dream." Another one, a man called Skinny, immediately lowered his pistol and glanced around warily.
"Boss, this damn place really isn’t clean.
"I don’t know why, but right when you fired, I suddenly saw you and that kid switch places. I thought you were the one who fell and he was the one left standing. That’s why I drew my gun in a panic.
"And it was like your clothes swapped for a second, too.
"It wouldn’t be weird if it was just my eyes playing tricks on me, but all of us saw it wrong. Weird, so weird. Could it be some kind of monster that haunts this wilderness really did bewitch us?"
Gao Tian knew in his heart that, with the combined power of the Face-Shattering Ghost and the Memory Ghost, he had successfully pulled off a switch. He had taken Zhao Qiang’s face, his identity, and his status.
