"This is the cheapest room, the price is fair and reasonable. If you're satisfied, please pay a month's deposit and sign a three-month rental contract."
In the cramped rental room, the landlord, unable to hide his joy, put away the newly signed contract and handed the keys to the new tenant, a smile he couldn't suppress.
Someone had died in this room, and the death was extremely gruesome. The police never gave a specific explanation; they simply removed the body overnight.
Many tenants cancelled their leases because of this incident, and locals, knowing about the unsolved case that occurred there, were hesitant to rent rooms there, causing the landlord to lose a significant amount of money.
Left with no other option, the landlord lowered the rent, and only then did people gradually move in.
However, the room where someone had died still couldn't be rented out.
Fortunately, a customer from out of town came today and was persuaded to sign the contract.
Thinking of this, the landlord quickly turned and left, after all, he also felt uneasy in the room and didn't want to linger.
The tenant this time was a man in his thirties, very thin, taciturn, and with a lingering gloom on his face.
His name is Wei Chuanmo.
He knew there was something wrong with the house, but, in a way, poverty is far more terrifying than ghosts.
After the landlord left, Wei Chuanmo first opened all the windows to ventilate the room, then briefly looked around and found nothing unusual.
After casually tidying up his luggage, he gave the room a thorough cleaning.
Although the room was already very clean, he still cleaned it again, as if he had obsessive-compulsive tendencies.
When he was cleaning under the bed in the bedroom, he suddenly found a strange thing wrapped in old clothes, placed in a very conspicuous place under the bed, and he didn't know why it hadn't been cleaned up.
"Could it have been left behind by the previous tenant?"
Wei Chuanmo thought this was unlikely. The previous tenant had died a violent death, and his belongings were either taken away by the police for investigation or thrown out by the landlord because he thought it was bad luck.
Driven by curiosity, Wei Chuanmo reached under the bed and pulled something out. It looked like a hard, irregularly shaped, forked object.
He unwrapped the old clothes covering it and saw a strange tree branch. It looked like it was made of metal and was covered with incomprehensible patterns. It would undulate occasionally, as if it were breathing.
It wasn't until Wei Chuanmo picked up the branch with his hands that he realized how unusual it was!
"What the heck? It feels weightless!"
The human body has a very sensitive sense of touch; even if you hold a string in your hand, you can feel its weight. But this tree branch felt more like solidified air.
After a moment of surprise, Wei Chuanmo realized that the branch seemed harmless, so he quickly calmed down, examined it carefully, and a thoughtful expression appeared on his face.
"Could it be... a fortuitous encounter?"
His heart suddenly started racing.
That's why they say a man is a boy until he dies.
When faced with this strange tree branch, Wei Chuanmo, in his thirties, and Zhang Wu, in his twenties, had the same first reaction: they both thought it was a lucky encounter and imagined the plot of protagonists in novels and comics gaining cheat codes.
For the time being, they didn't consider radioactive materials or other high-tech products. After all, things that could appear in such a low-priced rental house were more likely to be believed to have a mystical element than to be technologically advanced.
Wei Chuanmo closed all the windows and drew the curtains, then placed the strange tree branch on the table.
Over the next few days, he conducted various studies on the branch and even tried to carefully remove some fragments from it. He easily sawed off a small section of the branch and did something with it.
When he returned, Wei Chuanmo couldn't hide his extreme excitement. He closed the door, drew the curtains, and then sawed off another section from the tree branch.
Immediately afterwards, he made a cut on his arm and put the small piece of twig he had just removed into the wound.
If Zhang Wu were still alive and saw this scene, he would probably sneer and curse him for courting death.
Sure enough, the moment that small, strange branch touched the flesh, it seemed to come alive, taking root in the flesh and rapidly spreading throughout Wei Chuanmo's body.
Wei Chuanmo clenched his teeth tightly, afraid that he would cry out in pain and attract other people's attention.
His face was contorted in agony as he rolled on the ground, his muscles twitching uncontrollably. The arm where the tree branch had just been transplanted had turned a corpse-like bluish-gray, and this color was rapidly spreading upwards along the arm.
He was soaked in sweat from head to toe, and finally couldn't bear it any longer and fainted from the pain.
Unaware that he was unconscious, Wei Chuanmo was not aware that his breathing rate had suddenly dropped, his heartbeat had slowed down, and his body temperature had gradually decreased to be almost the same as the environment.
It wasn't until late at night that he gradually came to his senses. When he first opened his eyes, he was still a little dazed and didn't know what was going on.
After a few seconds of stunned silence, he remembered what he had done during the day.
He raised his hand and looked at his arm; he could feel a powerful, savage, and chilling force within it.
He tried extending his finger and using that force to poke the table, and to his surprise, he poked a hole in it!
"Haha..." Wei Chuanmo couldn't help but burst into laughter.
He got the treatment that only male protagonists in novels get today!
"As expected, I knew it; I was destined to be extraordinary!"
"The failures of the past 30 years are just an insignificant background; from today onward, I am my true self!"
He carefully put away the strange tree branch like a precious treasure, then changed out of his sweat-soaked clothes and took a shower.
As the warm water poured over his body, Wei Chuanmo's excitement gradually subsided. Only then did he realize that something seemed wrong with his body.
His reflection in the mirror showed a pale, ashen face and a frighteningly low body temperature. He reached up and touched his chest, where his slow heartbeat and breathing only made him more uneasy.
However, he quickly adjusted his mindset. He was no longer an ordinary mortal, so it was normal for his physique to change.
Lying in bed after his shower, he was wide awake, fantasizing about his future triumphs, his ascension to immortality, and his ability to turn the world upside down.
The more I think about it, the more excited I get.
Then, he suddenly remembered the previous tenant who died under mysterious circumstances. Could it be that he had also died unexpectedly while studying this strange tree branch?
The tree branch was placed under the bed; why wasn't it taken away by the police or the landlord?
After pondering for a while, Wei Chuanmo concluded. "This thing was made for me. Others can't see it, and even if they accidentally discover it, they can't use it. Forcing it will only backfire, and they'll die a miserable death like the previous tenant."
"As expected, I am the chosen one!"
He became more and more excited as he thought about it, and took out the strange tree branch to examine it closely, thinking how powerful he would be if he could integrate the entire branch into his body!
Thinking further ahead, this strange branch might have come from a certain tree. If we could find that tree, wouldn't that mean...?
A greedy smile crept onto Wei Chuanmo's lips.
The next second, the smile on his face vanished, because his arm suddenly went out of control, gripping the strange tree branch tightly and plunging it into his chest.
Wei Chuanmo's consciousness did not disappear; on the contrary, he could clearly feel the strange tree branch gradually merging into his body, and another consciousness taking over his body.
His body moved on its own, and he stood in front of the bathroom mirror. Then he saw an incredibly horrifying scene—
An eye grew above his left brow bone and below his left cheekbone, and a mouth grew from his right cheek, making it look as if another person's features were flying all over his face.
At the same time, he felt an itch on the back of his head, and then he heard a voice from behind him. "Xiao Hu, why are you still logging in with me? It would have been better to let this guy do whatever he wanted~"
The mouth on the right cheek opened and replied, "I'm not very satisfied with him. Let me do it myself."
What kind of talent would satisfy you?
"Good-looking, intelligent, capable, ambitious, immoral, and preferably full of resentment."
You're never this picky when it comes to finding a partner!
Wei Chuanmo felt a chill run down his spine. It was as if there was a mouth on the back of his head and another on his right cheek, and these two extra mouths were having a conversation.
Such a horrifying scene would have made an ordinary person faint on the spot, but Wei Chuanmo stubbornly held on. It wasn't that he didn't want to faint, but rather that a cold, sinister force forced him to remain conscious.
After a few more words were exchanged, Wei Chuanmo entered a strange state of forced memory. Everything he had experienced in his life was forcibly dug out, including embarrassing, sordid, bloody, and sinful scenes that he himself could not even remember, which were now reproduced with unparalleled clarity.
His memories are being read...
Hu Jiu quickly grasped the general background of this world, which shared a similar history and international political landscape with the world he had lived in before.
Everything was so similar, yet there were subtle differences.
"Go easy on him, he's about to give up," Du Zhong reminded him from the side.
Hu Jiu stopped reading Wei Chuanmo's memories in time and also calmed his mind.
"We need to use Wei Chuanmo's identity to operate in this world, so we can't let him die. His body and consciousness must both remain intact. Only in this way can we better deceive everyone and avoid this world's rejection of outsiders."
"When this world is damaged to a certain extent, its resistance to outsiders will weaken, and then we can do whatever we want."
Hu Jiu viciously shut down Wei Chuanmo's five senses, yet kept him perpetually lucid and rational; fainting or going insane was impossible for him.
Hu Jiu took complete control of the body, stood up, looked around, and rummaged through Wei Chuanmo's suitcase and wallet, finding his ID card inside.
"You're really something else. You successfully possessed the body and invaded this world on your second try." Du Zhong sighed deeply at the back of his head.
"One failure is enough," Hu Jiu said calmly.
Of course, he wouldn't mind failing a second time; he would keep trying until he succeeded.
"What are you planning to do next? Spread Supernatural?" Du Zhong asked.
He didn't quite understand why Hu Jiu was so eager to invade this world, but he didn't ask too many questions because he knew Hu Jiu's personality. Doing these laborious and troublesome things must be for profit, and he guessed that this world could bring Hu Jiu great benefits!
No matter what the benefits are, Du Zhong wants a share. In any case, given his current form, it's safer for him to stay by Hu Jiu's side than to wander alone in the Ghost World.
"I do intend to spread Supernatural, and hopefully cause a surge in the Fierce Ghost Revival like in our world," Hu Jiu readily admitted.
His true form, the Bronze Giant Tree, had already taken root in the barriers of this world, instinctively wanting to devour "nutrients" and continue to grow stronger.
"I think you can look for targets in war-torn regions. People who survive war are either lucky enough or ruthless enough. If you share the power of the Fierce Ghost with them, they will naturally cause a great disturbance," Du Zhong suggested.
Hu Jiu, however, said, "Luck and ruthlessness alone are not enough. Without wisdom, one can only act like a wild beast, relying on instinct to charge recklessly."
"People in war-torn areas probably haven't even received basic education, and many can't even read or write properly. There's really no need to waste energy and time traveling long distances to find them initially."
Du Zhong: "Alright, you make a good point. So, what are you planning to do?"
Hu Jiu: "Let's take it one step at a time. Since we've taken Wei Chuanmo's place, we might as well use him as the center and unfold gradually."
"We are disruptors, we don't need particularly elaborate plans, and there are no signs of Supernatural Revival in this world, which means that for the time being, no one can stop us."
Du Zhong pondered for a moment, then earnestly reminded him, "This world may have had Supernatural. Do you remember that forest where Fierce Ghosts were buried under the trees we encountered before?"
"I reasonably suspect that there is a master in this world who wiped out all the Fierce Ghost in one fell swoop, burying Fierce Ghost all in the outside world. It's a pity that while the other side was able to quell the internal strife, they didn't expect that the enemy could also come from outside."
Hu Jiu frowned. "Is this your guess, or have you already sensed something?"
Du Zhong: "I sensed a very faint, almost imperceptible, abnormal Supernatural fluctuation, but it was definitely there."
Hu Jiu: "Okay, I understand, I'll be careful."
Just then, Wei Chuanmo's phone rang. Hu Jiu opened it and glanced at it; it was a threatening text message.
To be honest, Wei Chuanmo was not an honest and law-abiding ordinary person. He committed the crime of passion, and after regaining his senses, he immediately cleaned up the scene and fled to another place.
The victim he killed was a wealthy young man. The reason for the murder was quite simple: one party was abusing his power, and the other party happened to be in an extremely unstable emotional state due to being laid off and heartbroken. The slightest provocation caused the explosion of bloodshed.
The victim's parents arrived before the police, presumably wanting to bypass legal channels and take revenge for their child themselves.