Chapter 33: Possessing Zhao Qiang

Zhao Qiang rattled off an address twice in rapid fire. Then, he added with a sinister edge, "Little brother Gao Tian, prying open someone's door in the dead of night is against the law. Sure, the owner hasn't been back in over twenty years, but if a patrol cop catches you, you're still looking at a few days in the lockup.

"I'm taking a huge risk doing this for you. So let's keep third parties out of it. Come alone tonight, got it?"

Gao Tian replied,

"I know."

Seeing no wariness from Gao Tian, Zhao Qiang pushed his luck even further:

"Also, don't tell anyone where you're heading tonight. It's best we keep this strictly confidential, understand?"

Gao Tian nodded.

"Understood."

Putting down the mobile phone, Gao Tian knew perfectly well that Zhao Qiang was banking on his numbers tonight and definitely meant to kill him.

A ruthless rich kid like him would never willingly let someone hold him by the throat. Rather than leaving such leverage in a stranger's hands, silencing everyone who knew about that incident from back then fit his style much better.

Of course, Zhao Qiang had genuinely gone out to find Xu Yuan's whereabouts for him at first. But during the search, he discovered that Xu Yuan's old home sat in some remote, desolate mountain village—an absolute ghost town. It was the perfect place to silence someone, where a body could disappear without a trace. So, he made a spur-of-the-moment decision to have Gao Tian come over alone.

Not that Gao Tian cared.

How could a thug from the criminal underworld ever outplay someone from the supernatural circle?

It was his own bad luck. In an era where people played with guns, he just had to run into Gao Tian, a man who played with ghosts.

He only hoped Zhao Qiang would bring a few extra brothers along. They would come in handy later.

...

...

After a car ride of over four hours, he arrived in an abandoned county on the border of Hengzhou City. The pitch-black sky was gradually fading to pale white, and a red sun crested the distant horizon. A new day had arrived.

Xu Yuan's old home really was in the middle of nowhere. It sat on the edge of the county, but over the years, the number of children had dwindled. With all the young people leaving to work in the big cities, the local population had withered away. First the kindergartens, elementary schools, and hospitals shut down, and the decay soon spread to the rest of the public infrastructure. Now, the county center itself could barely be maintained; it had practically devolving into an empty ghost town.

No wonder Xu Yuan had moved to Shanghai after growing up instead of returning to his old house. A single living person couldn't possibly survive out here for long.

The taxi driver dropped Gao Tian off and sped away without looking back. That left only a muddy trail and a row of dilapidated houses nearby. They were all pitch-black, their broken windows left exposed without maintenance. It was obvious the villagers had moved out a long time ago; you wouldn't find another soul for miles around.

Gao Tian reached the spot Zhao Qiang had specified and took a lap around the area, but there was no sign of anyone. Taking out his mobile phone, he redialed the number.

"Hey, Brother Qiang. I'm here. Where are you?"

Zhao Qiang's voice filtered through the speaker:

"Take a walk around and let me see if anyone followed you."

It seemed the guy had arrived early and was observing Gao Tian from some hidden vantage point. He was being quite cautious; he really was dead set on killing Gao Tian out here in the middle of nowhere.

Gao Tian wasn't the least bit afraid. He spread his hands:

"Brother, I came here to find someone, not to take a scenic tour. What's with bringing so many people?"

Zhao Qiang chuckled:

"That's good. I'm relieved to hear you say that.

"Look up. We're in the third house on your left. We've been here the whole time."

Gao Tian looked up to see several dark silhouettes stepping out from the shadows. They were all wearing black jackets and sunglasses. Leading them was none other than Zhao Qiang.

The moment they made eye contact, Zhao Qiang hopped down the slope and strode toward Gao Tian. Without a word, he pulled out a long object and leveled the pitch-black barrel of a gun right at his head. At the same time, his subordinates slowly boxed Gao Tian in from behind, fanning out to block his escape.

"Don't blame me, good brother. I was young and ignorant back then, and you know way too much.

"I had almost forgotten about it myself. It's your own fault for bumping into me at that intersection and recklessly using that matter to threaten me. I, Zhao Qiang, hate it more than anything when people grab hold of my leverage.

"You're at the end of the line. If you've got any last words, speak up."

Zhao Qiang completely dropped the act, staring Gao Tian down. He was waiting for the other party to break down and beg for mercy, or make a desperate final struggle, before he blew his brains out with a single shot.

Unexpectedly, Gao Tian's reaction was eerily calm.

Facing imminent death, a person's reaction usually fell into a few categories: terror, scared so witless they pissed themselves; rage, lashing out in a desperate struggle; or shock, frozen like a statue. But he saw none of these in the man standing before him.

Gao Tian stared blankly at the barrel of the gun, and asked a very strange question in return:

"The twenty thousand I told you to give to Cao Hua's family—did you deliver it?"

As ruthless and arrogant as Zhao Qiang was, Gao Tian's utter indifference in the face of death completely threw him off. He stared at Gao Tian for a good twenty seconds, making sure he wasn't just putting on a brave face. A sliver of genuine admiration began to rise in his chest:

"You really aren't worried about how this ends for you?

"Don't worry. I, Zhao Qiang, keep my debts and favors straight. I wouldn't embezzle a single cent of yours. That two hundred thousand-plus of yours, combined with mine, came out to over five hundred thousand in total. It all went to Cao Hua's old mother. I didn't take a dime.

"After Cao Hua's funeral, the next one will probably be yours."

Gao Tian nodded:

"That's good.

"Do you have any last words?"

Zhao Qiang froze. At first, he didn't quite understand what Gao Tian had just said; his brain practically short-circuited:

"Isn't that my line?"

Gao Tian couldn't be bothered to waste any more breath on him.

Back at the intersection the other day, they had already made eye contact four times, allowing him to steal four fragments of his face.

Today, in front of Xu Yuan's old house, when Zhao Qiang aimed the gun at him, they made eye contact for the fifth and final time. With all five fragments of his facial features stolen, the effect of the Shattered Face Ghost triggered instantly.

Gao Tian offered no explanation. He immediately activated the Shattered Face's Killing Rule, forcibly seizing Zhao Qiang's face. If he dragged things out, who knew if that maniac would suddenly pull the trigger? That would force Gao Tian to waste a Ghost Card to resurrect.

The Ghost Card was meant to be used during supernatural events; he couldn't waste it on a random nobody like Zhao Qiang.

In a fraction of a second, his facial features shifted, morphing perfectly into Zhao Qiang's face.

Standing across from him, Zhao Qiang had no idea what was happening. He only felt a sudden chill wash over his face before his vision plunged into darkness and the world went dead silent. His features vanished, all five senses utterly eradicated. His entire face had been ripped right off out of thin air. All that remained standing there was a grotesque, faceless man—a completely hollow shell.

Stripped of his face, Zhao Qiang collapsed to the dirt in absolute silence. He died without letting out so much as a single scream.

Watching the Shattered Face Ghost kill for the first time sent a chill down Gao Tian's spine. Back when he first clicked on that Black Envelope in the Chat Group, if he hadn't walked a tightrope and used the Urn, this exact fate would have befallen him instead.

Meanwhile, seeing their boss inexplicably drop dead in the pitch-black gloom threw his subordinates into a total panic. They had absolutely no idea what had just happened. From their perspective, Gao Tian had just stood there motionless while their boss's face inexplicably bled profusely before he collapsed to the ground.

These men couldn't figure out where the attack had come from, even wondering if there was a sniper hiding in the distant hills. One of the sharper ones immediately jammed his gun against the back of Gao Tian's head. "Don't move! Behave!" he shouted, while simultaneously turning back to check on Zhao Qiang's corpse.

Since Gao Tian had already claimed Zhao Qiang's face and the majority of his memories, there was no need to act so timid anymore. He whirled around and slapped the subordinate across the face:

"Fuck off and move that piece of shit gun! Open your eyes—it's me!"

Once they realized their gun was pointing at "Zhao Qiang," the subordinates were struck dumb all over again, failing to grasp the situation before them.

The one who had fallen was clearly Zhao Qiang, yet in the blink of an eye, a "Zhao Qiang" who looked identical and whose tone and voice had not changed in the slightest, was standing in Gao Tian's original spot, cursing them out.

Was it really because it was too dark out? Had they gotten nervous and misremembered where their boss had been standing?

"B-B-Boss, w-what the hell is going on here?

"H-How were you standing over there a second ago, and n-n-now you're s-standing right here?"

The one who spoke was a burly man named San Hu. Despite being packed with muscle and covered in tattoos, his mind wasn't exactly sharp. What had just happened was far too chaotic, and it had completely exceeded his brain's capacity to understand.

Not giving them any time to think, Gao Tian activated the Memory Ghost's ability. With lotuses blooming from his mouth, he began implanting false memories into their minds:

"Are you a fucking idiot?

"Didn't I tell you on the way here? You're helping me bury someone. My old classmate and I just finished catching up, so I put a bullet in him. Now dig a hole and bury him, and we're done here.

"Is your brain totally fried? I shot him, and you suddenly swing your gun around and aim it at me! You're asking me what's going on? I should be asking you what the hell your problem is!

"Or maybe this desolate wasteland just isn't clean, and something out here is playing tricks on your eyes."

Coming from Gao Tian, this explanation was far more reasonable than what the subordinates had just seen—that their boss and the victim had spontaneously swapped places.

Thanks to his "reminder," the others immediately "snapped out of it." Another subordinate, Skinny Monkey, lowered his handgun and cast a wary glance at their surroundings:

"Boss, this damn place really isn't clean.

"I don't know why, but when you fired that shot, I swore I saw you two swap places. I thought you were the one who went down, and he was the one left standing. That's why I panicked and drew my gun.

"It'd be one thing if my eyes were just playing tricks on me, but all the brothers saw the exact same thing. Did some wilderness monster actually blind us?"

Gao Tian knew in his heart that, thanks to the combined powers of the Shattered Face Ghost and the Memory Ghost, he had successfully swapped faces with Zhao Qiang, seamlessly usurping his identity and status.