Nightmare Apostle

Chapter 362: Chapter 311: Zhuwang Village_2

This wasn’t newly grown flesh; it was a piece of Drama Robe that had burrowed out from the flesh! He... he could even feel the fragment squirming!

He burst out of the bathroom, crazily tore open his backpack, and pulled out the Drama Robe, only to face an even more despairing scene. A part of the robe’s back was missing, and now, shockingly, it had been patched up with a piece of human skin, a piece dripping with blood.

The triangular piece of skin was naturally Yang Xiao’s own. His skin had been stolen by the Drama Robe, and part of it had replaced his own skin.

This sudden blow was more unbearable than being killed. Unable to tolerate it, in desperation, he pulled out a dagger, returned to the bathroom, faced away from the mirror, clenched his teeth, and started to cut through his flesh little by little, digging out the piece of Drama Robe.

In an instant, blood flowed profusely from his back, but Yang Xiao hardened his heart. Even if it meant removing a piece of his own flesh, he had to extract the Drama Robe fragment.

Fortunately, it went rather smoothly, and moments later, Yang Xiao knelt on the ground, blood all around him, yet a smile hung on his face as he stared at the Drama Robe fragment on the tip of his knife, mingled with flesh.

Thank goodness... it wasn’t too late to discover it, or who knows what greater trouble it could have caused. Indeed, the owner of the Drama Robe harbored ill intentions, just like the Mirror Ghost.

At least he was clear about the Mirror Ghost’s intention to replace him, but what about the original owner of the Drama Robe? What exactly did she want to do?

Yang Xiao forced himself to calm down. He disinfected the wound, then bandaged it up crudely. Sitting on the edge of the bed, panting heavily, he suspected that if he wore the Drama Robe for a long time without taking it off, it would eventually exchange skins with him—meaning the robe would become his new skin, and he would end up holding a complete set of his own skin.

The very thought of holding his own skin, the horrific scenes he had seen of the little girl with the Human Bone Staff lifting her shirt to reveal her back, sent chills down Yang Xiao’s spine.

Suddenly, Yang Xiao gasped in shock. He felt something wriggling at his wounded back, rushed into the bathroom, tore open the bandaged wound, and faced the mirror. What came next utterly tested his physiological limits. A piece of the Drama Robe was emerging from the depths of his bloody wound and was gradually flattening out over the injury, fitting seamlessly.

Yang Xiao collapsed. He distinctly remembered he had just reattached the fragment to the Drama Robe and flushed the human skin down the toilet; but how... how could it be that in a blink of an eye, the Drama Robe fragment had returned, emerging from deep within his flesh?

He dashed out of the bathroom, reopened his backpack and pulled out the Drama Robe again. It looked as it was before, still missing a piece, and that piece, now filled by Yang Xiao’s skin, fitted just as seamlessly, as if his skin and the Drama Robe were originally a whole.

Dejectedly collapsing to the floor, it took nearly half an hour before Yang Xiao seemed to regain a bit of strength. He pulled over the Drama Robe, his eyes filled with despair, voice weak, "Just tell me what you need me to do, I’ll get it done if I can. No need to go through all this."

He waited for a long time, but the Drama Robe showed no response, not knowing whether it hadn’t heard him or simply chose to ignore him.

Yang Xiao refrained from doing anything foolish again, like digging out the Drama Robe once more. It was stupid and unnecessary. This was reality, and he had to accept it.

Outside, the Resentment Sect was hunting him, and the original owners of both the Drama Robe and the Mirror Ghost were plotting against him. Yang Xiao wouldn’t even dare to write such a script, fearing it would be criticized for its hellish difficulty. Yet, all this was actually happening to him.

Yang Xiao didn’t know how he managed to fall asleep that night. He only knew he slept well, dreamless, without any chaotic visions disturbing him.

Facing the mirror, the piece of Drama Robe was still there, and the wound had mostly healed. Yang Xiao sighed, realizing he would probably be stuck with this piece of Drama Robe for a while.

Life had to go on. He couldn’t do without the robe now; otherwise, if he ran into an enemy from the Resentment Sect, he would be a dead man.

Arriving at the office, he had a simple meal. He wasn’t much hungry, but he had to train soon, arranged by Director Nalan.

In a gloomy mood, he didn’t even go to his own office, worried that Beibei and other teammates might see through him.

Training was as monotonous as ever, starting with Zhu Yina’s combat training class. Having faced real combat, Yang Xiao had greatly improved compared to before. Zhu Yina also found it quite challenging to fend off his attacks. After the session, she even changed Yang Xiao’s training regimen to focus more on skill training, noting that his physical strength had improved significantly since their initial encounter.

"Have you been taking some courses on mental development or focusing on concentration training recently?" Zhu Yina asked curiously while helping Yang Xiao relax his leg muscles.

Yang Xiao was somewhat surprised, "Why do you ask?"

"Your reaction speed has increased a lot, and you’re also good at seizing the moment to exploit weaknesses. Your improvement has been very comprehensive." Zhu Yina pointed to her head and seriously added, "I’m talking about this here."

Yang Xiao was slightly taken aback but soon realized that these improvements were likely related to the enhancement of his spiritual power. He himself could feel it. Recently, his sleep had been severely deprived, and he hadn’t rested much, yet he felt more energetic than before.

Next was the shooting training. Yang Xiao performed brilliantly as usual. The Bald Coach couldn’t help but applaud Yang Xiao, praising his innate shooting talent, describing him as a cold-blooded and precise hunter.

"Coach, there are no hostage targets today." Yang Xiao curiously looked at the Bald Coach.

"No, there won’t be any from now on. Those are useless to you." The Bald Coach explained seriously as he put away the guns.

In the afternoon, Yang Xiao finished his day’s training. He had thought that Nalan Shuo would schedule a session with Lu Youdao, but that did not happen. The large metal door of the equipment room remained closed all day. Just as Yang Xiao was about to leave, he received a call from Zhao.

Zhao was in a very good mood from the start of the call, thanking Yang Xiao profusely. After listening for a while, Yang Xiao finally understood: the issue with Zhao’s Script Club had been resolved. Not only had the opposing party promised not to harass him again, but they had also offered to apologize in person. However, Zhao was a reasonable man; knowing when to stop, he declined their offer to compensate him in person, preferring to leave things on good terms for possible future interactions.

Zhao had initially planned to invite Yang Xiao’s boss to dinner to express his gratitude, even preparing 300,000 in cash. Yang Xiao had to excuse his boss, saying he was busy and had other engagements in the evening. Zhao reluctantly settled for having dinner with Yang Xiao instead. freewebnoveℓ.com

Yang Xiao felt awkward to decline again and agreed to attend the dinner. Zhao chose a fancy restaurant in the southern part of the city. Between toasts, Zhao expressed his gratitude many times. He mentioned that he had read the script Yang Xiao sent him, commenting that the content was still too horrific for current market trends, but that wasn’t a big problem as long as one was willing to invest money. He could smooth things out with his connections, and once the product was ready, he planned to start selling it in his best store, which he was already preparing to remodel according to the style depicted in the script.

During the dinner, the screen of Yang Xiao’s phone placed on the table suddenly flashed. It was a message from an unknown number. With just a glance, Yang Xiao sobered up instantly. The message contained only one short sentence: Ghost Envoy gone, respond if seen.

Yang Xiao immediately stood up, excused himself saying his boss had an urgent matter, grabbed his phone, and headed to the nearest restroom. Once inside and confirmed no one else was there, Yang Xiao locked the restroom door and immediately dialed the number that had sent the message. But the next second, the ringing of the phone emerged from within the restroom.

Yang Xiao instantly turned around, his face turning pale. The ringtone was an old-fashioned bell sound, coming from the back stall in the restroom.

But how was that possible? Yang Xiao had checked all the stalls when he first entered, ensuring there was no one else inside before locking the door.

He quickly drew out his horsetail whisk and slowly approached the last stall, then kicked the door open. There was no one inside, perfectly clean, except for a box placed on the closed toilet seat lid.

The box was perfectly square, casting an eerie, ominous hue. What attracted Yang Xiao most was the three red-painted characters on the right side of the box: Zhuwang Village.

Yang Xiao clenched his fists in an instant; the script box had arrived. It seemed that Zhuwang Village would be the location for his next mission.

Out of the blue, the hairs on the back of Yang Xiao’s neck stood up. His eyes intently fixed on the wall inside the stall, where a dark shadow slowly rose, engulfing his own shadow.

Something was behind him... There was something behind him.