The journey was peaceful.
Nothing strange happened like the driver had mentioned.
Halfway there, the Simulator finished cooling down. Jiang Qiao took a look, but they were all useless talents, so he let it run on its own.
An hour later, Jiang Qiao arrived at Blue Harbor Villa.
The real estate consultant Chen Tiantian, dressed in a short-skirted uniform, was already waiting at the entrance. The landlord was with her.
The landlord was a man in his thirties, wearing a Gold Necklace. He was broad, chubby, and completely bald.
Seeing this, Jiang Qiao shuddered and pulled a thick gold chain from his pocket as well.
A necklace, undershirt, shorts, and flip-flops—the four divine artifacts. The older man nodded repeatedly when he saw them.
Jiang Qiao walked around the villa once.
It was empty, containing only some ordinary appliances and furniture.
However, the landlord occasionally hired people to clean, so it was not particularly dirty.
In the end, in a warm and friendly atmosphere, Jiang Qiao and the older man signed a one-month short-term rental agreement.
They agreed that if nothing happened within a month, the lease would be extended long-term.
The older man wanted to downplay the Haunted House's reputation before selling or mortgaging the villa, so he was especially enthusiastic.
He did not even collect a deposit.
As for Jiang Qiao's identity card still being replaced, he waved his hand generously and said Jiang Qiao only needed to send him a photo in a couple of days.
After seeing the agent and landlord off,
Jiang Qiao called a housekeeping company and arranged for them to come over the next morning for a thorough cleaning.
By the time he got back into the older man's taxi, it was already three in the afternoon.
During that time, Happy had sent several messages.
"Hello, Master. Sorry for disturbing you."
"I happened to get your contact information from Big Brother Zhou today, and I wanted to ask you about a few things."
Jiang Qiao was stunned when he saw the messages.
What was going on?
Wasn't the person who added me Old Zhou?
Since the profile picture was merely a landscape photo, Jiang Qiao opened the other person's Moments.
Only the posts from the last three days were displayed.
There was nothing at all.
Heh, quite mysterious.
Jiang Qiao could not be bothered to guess. In any case, he did not know her.
"Mm, hello. I was busy with something just now. What did you want to ask?"
The sun suddenly disappeared, and panic spread among the people outside.
After eating with her best friend, Shen Yingning did not go shopping. Instead, she found a coffee shop and sat down to chat.
Suddenly, a message notification sounded.
Shen Yingning opened Weixin, and her eyes lit up at once.
He finally replied.
That was no easy feat!
The last time she had waited for someone to reply to her message was... well, the last time.
After letting out a breath, she hurriedly composed a message.
As for that "You're so lewd" message—
Shen Yingning felt she had probably sent it to the wrong person, so she chose to ignore it.
"Hello, Master. I've encountered some difficult-to-explain things recently. Well, I won't beat around the bush. I wanted to ask you—are there really ghosts in this world?"
Hmm?
Jiang Qiao was startled when he saw the message, then suddenly understood.
So that was it.
Looks like another unlucky fellow who encountered a ghost.
Perhaps she happened to know Old Zhou, so Old Zhou gave her my contact information.
As for whether ghosts existed—
If someone had asked him before he transmigrated, he probably would have said that he believed in ghosts, but that believing in them was like believing in winning the lottery: he did not think he would encounter one himself.
But things were different now.
Every day in the Simulator, he tore ghosts apart with his bare hands.
And just this morning in the real world, he had seen a wicked female pervert ghost using Paper Money to buy someone's life.
Five days later, Supernatural Revival would arrive directly, and the world of the living would become the underworld.
There had to be ghosts!
Thus, Jiang Qiao calmly replied, "There are indeed many difficult-to-explain things in this world."
He was rather bored at the moment, so Jiang Qiao lightly tapped his thumb, preparing to use their mutual friend Old Zhou as an example.
Just then, the taxi suddenly slammed on the brakes.
"Skreeee—"
The sharp sound of tires scraping against the road rang out. Jiang Qiao lurched forward, and his phone nearly flew out of his hand.
"What happened?"
Jiang Qiao turned to look at the driver.
The older man was gasping heavily, and beads of sweat the size of beans rolled down his forehead.
"Just now... just now there were two children. I almost hit them."
The older man's voice trembled slightly. He was clearly badly frightened.
"You saw wrong, didn't you? It's pitch-black outside. Where would there be any children?" Jiang Qiao looked ahead, but there was nothing there.
"How could I have seen wrong?" The older man wiped the sweat from his forehead.
"I clearly saw two children in red standing in the middle of the road, holding hands."
Jiang Qiao paused slightly after hearing this. He took a pair of sunglasses from his backpack, put them on, and activated Dual Pupils.
His gray, dim vision pierced straight through the darkness ahead. He saw two red shadows flash past the corner.
"So we really did run into something."
Jiang Qiao raised an eyebrow.
He seemed to have thought of something and said to the driver, "Uncle, you don't look too well. Take a short rest before driving again. I'll get out and relieve myself."
As he spoke, he tossed his bag into the car, got out, and walked toward the alley ahead.
"Kid..."
There were no streetlights in the alley.
The moment he walked in, an inexplicable chill ran through his body. The back of his neck felt cold, as though someone were blowing on it.
Moldy rice had been placed at the entrance of the alley, and the remains of incense and candles could be seen everywhere.
As he walked farther in, scattered Paper Money appeared on the ground, spinning in the wind.
"Thud—"
"Thud, thud, thud—"
At the end of the alley, Jiang Qiao saw two children playing soccer.
The soccer ball had a nose, eyes, a mouth, and two ears growing on it.
"Uncle, come play soccer with us."
The two children turned around. Their hollow black eye sockets faced Jiang Qiao, and innocent smiles spread across their pale faces.
Jiang Qiao walked over, crouched down, and gently patted one child's head. A smile appeared on his face as well.
"You should call me Big Brother. Otherwise, I'll smash your heads in."
The children's smiles froze.
In the next moment, their mouths suddenly opened, and a strange cat's meow came from their throats.
Seeing this, Jiang Qiao directly grabbed a ball of lightning and stuffed it into their mouths.
The meowing abruptly stopped.
"Drop dead!"
Jiang Qiao suddenly exploded into action and punched Little Boy in the face. The tremendous force caved in and distorted his features.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Jiang Qiao swung both fists like a madman, beating the two children as though they were punching bags.
If someone had recorded this and posted it online, ignorant netizens would certainly have beaten Jiang Qiao to death with their keyboards.
After only a few breaths, Jiang Qiao had driven the two little ghosts' heads straight into their crotches.
Even their own ghost mothers would never have recognized them.
The alley returned to silence.
Jiang Qiao felt the current inside his body grow noticeably stronger, and delight appeared on his face.
"It really works!"
When he discovered the female pervert ghost that morning, he had not yet obtained the Mad Scientist talent.
So killing one or two ghosts had not been useful for improving his strength, and he had been too lazy to look for them.
But things were different now.
Not only had he obtained a method to absorb Ghost Qi, he had also discovered that Vicious Ghosts seemed to be far from rare. He had encountered several groups from last night until now.
If he could raise his talent by another level before Supernatural Revival arrived, would that not be wonderful?
Very good, Vicious Ghosts. I need you to help me cultivate!
Inside the taxi.
The driver gripped the steering wheel tightly, watching in every direction and listening for every sound, his expression extremely grave.
He kept driving until he reached the main road. Only after the traffic around them grew heavier did the older man slowly relax.
Not long after Jiang Qiao left, a young man with dyed yellow hair walked into the alley with a cigarette between his lips, swaggering as though no one else existed.
He had happened to discover two days ago that quite a few wallets and cell phones could be found in this alley!
The discovery had delighted the yellow-haired youth, who usually made a living stealing electric bicycles.
He came by every afternoon, right on schedule, like clocking in at work.
And he found something every time!
It was dark today, but that did not matter. Love knew no race, and there was no such thing as being too late for business.
The yellow-haired youth swaggered deeper into the alley.
One minute later.
A shrill scream rang out from inside the alley.
"Ah—!"
The yellow-haired youth, who had previously looked as though he were the most badass man alive, came scrambling out, terror filling his eyes.
Inside the alley, more than twenty human heads had somehow appeared on the ground. Their eyes were twisted with rage, their faces frozen in expressions of dying with their eyes open.
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