Possessing Zhao Qiang

Zhao Qiang rattled off an address at top speed, repeating it twice. Then he said in a sinister tone:

GOOGLE SEARCH TWKAN

"Brother Tian, sneaking into someone else's house in the middle of the night is illegal. Even though the owner hasn't been back in over twenty years, if the patrol cops catch you, you'll still have to spend a few days at the police station.

"I'm taking a big risk doing this for you, so try not to let anyone else find out. Come alone tonight, okay?"

Gao Tian replied:

"Got it."

Seeing that Gao Tian showed no suspicion, Zhao Qiang pushed his luck even further:

"Uh, don't tell anyone else where you're going tonight, either. It'd be better to keep this under wraps. Understand?"

Gao Tian nodded.

"Understood."

After hanging up, he knew perfectly well that Zhao Qiang was taking advantage of his numbers tonight and had definitely decided to kill him.

A ruthless young master like Zhao Qiang would never be content to stay under someone else's thumb. Rather than hand leverage over himself to a stranger, he'd much rather silence everyone who knew about "what happened back then." That was far more in keeping with his style.

Of course, at first, Zhao Qiang had genuinely gone looking for Xu Yuan's whereabouts for Gao Tian. But as he searched, he discovered that Xu Yuan's hometown was in some remote, uninhabited mountain village—a perfect place to murder someone without a trace. So he'd changed his mind on the spot and arranged for Gao Tian to come there himself.

But Gao Tian didn't care.

How could a gangster possibly outplay someone who operated in the Supernatural Circle?

Zhao Qiang was just unlucky. It was the age of guns, but he'd run into Gao Tian, who dealt in ghosts.

Gao Tian only hoped Zhao Qiang would bring a few more men. They'd come in handy.

After more than four hours on the road, he reached an uninhabited county on the outskirts of Hengzhou City. The pitch-black sky had begun to brighten, and a red sun rose on the horizon. A new day had arrived.

Xu Yuan's hometown was truly remote. It had always been on the edge of a county, but in recent years, fewer and fewer children had been born, while all the county's young people had left to work in the big cities. The county's population had begun to dwindle. First the kindergartens, primary schools, and hospitals closed; then the decline spread to other public facilities. Even the county seat was barely holding on, nearly reduced to a deserted ghost town.

No wonder Xu Yuan had moved to Shang Hai after growing up instead of returning to his old home. No living person could manage to live here alone for long.

After dropping Gao Tian off, the taxi sped away without looking back. All that remained was a muddy lane and a row of dilapidated houses nearby. They were completely dark, and no one had bothered to repair the broken windows. The villagers had clearly moved away long ago. There wasn't a soul to be seen for miles.

Gao Tian reached the place Zhao Qiang had given him and looked around, but saw no one nearby. He took out his phone and called Zhao Qiang back.

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

Zhao Qiang's voice came through again.

"Take a look around. I'm checking to see whether anyone followed you."

The guy had apparently arrived long ago and was watching Gao Tian from somewhere out of sight. He was being pretty cautious. It seemed he really was determined to kill Gao Tian out in the wilderness.

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

"Brother, I came here to find someone, not to sightsee. Why would I bring a bunch of people?"

Zhao Qiang chuckled.

"Good. That puts my mind at ease.

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

Gao Tian looked up and saw several shadowy figures slowly emerge. They were all wearing black jackets and sunglasses. Zhao Qiang stood at their head.

The moment they met, Zhao Qiang jumped down from the hillside and walked toward Gao Tian. Without a word, he pulled out a long object. Its pitch-black barrel pointed at Gao Tian's head. At the same time, his men slowly closed in from behind, spreading out to block every escape route.

"Don't blame me, brother. I was young and stupid back then, and you knew too much.

"I'd almost forgotten about it myself. Who sent you to run into me at that intersection that day, then stupidly try to use what happened to threaten me? I, Zhao Qiang, have always hated people getting even the slightest leverage over me.

"You're about to die. Got any last words? Spit them out."

At this point, Zhao Qiang stopped pretending. He stared at Gao Tian, waiting for him to break down and beg, or struggle desperately, so he could blow his head off.

But Gao Tian's reaction was strangely calm.

People only reacted in a handful of ways when facing death: terror, soiling themselves in fear; rage, fighting to the bitter end; shock, standing dumbstruck... But Gao Tian showed none of them.

His expression calm, Gao Tian looked at the gun pointed at him and asked a very strange question.

"Did you give the twenty thousand yuan I asked you to deliver to Cao Hua's family?"

No matter how arrogant and cold Zhao Qiang was, Gao Tian's attitude on the verge of death left him at a loss. He studied Gao Tian for several dozen seconds, confirming that he wasn't merely pretending to be calm. A trace of admiration crept into his heart.

"Are you not worried about what's going to happen to you at all?

"Don't worry. I, Zhao Qiang, keep my word. I didn't pocket a cent. Your more than two hundred thousand yuan and my money came to over five hundred thousand in total. Every last bit went to Cao Hua's elderly mother.

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

Gao Tian nodded.

"Good.

"Do you have any last words?"

Zhao Qiang froze. At first, he didn't understand what Gao Tian meant. His brain seemed to have stalled.

"Aren't those my lines?"

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

They'd exchanged glances four times at the intersection that day, allowing Gao Tian to steal four pieces of Zhao Qiang's face.

Today, when Zhao Qiang aimed his gun at him in front of Xu Yuan's old home, they exchanged one last glance. Gao Tian stole the final piece of Zhao Qiang's face, completing all five features and activating Shattered Face Ghost's effect.

Without explaining a thing, Gao Tian immediately used Shattered Face's Killing Rule to seize Zhao Qiang's face. Who knew how long he could afford to stall? Zhao Qiang was crazy enough to pull the trigger at any moment, and then Gao Tian would have to waste a Ghost Card to come back to life.

The Ghost Card was meant for use during Supernatural Events. He couldn't waste it on someone like Zhao Qiang.

In an instant, Gao Tian's facial features changed to match Zhao Qiang's.

Standing opposite him, Zhao Qiang hadn't the slightest idea what had happened. He only felt a chill across his face. Suddenly he couldn't see or hear anything. His five features and all his senses vanished, and his entire face was torn off while he was still alive. The figure left standing was a grotesque man with no skin on his face, just a hollow shell.

Stripped of his face, Zhao Qiang collapsed to the ground without a sound. He didn't even manage to scream before he died.

Seeing Shattered Face Ghost kill someone for the first time, Gao Tian felt a shiver of shock. When he'd opened the Black Packet from the Chat Group, he'd only avoided the same fate by walking a tightrope with the bone ash urn.

Meanwhile, seeing their boss suddenly drop dead in the dark, his men panicked. They had no idea what had happened. From their perspective, Gao Tian had simply stood motionless while their boss's face started gushing blood for no apparent reason, then he fell to the ground.

They had no idea where the attack had come from. Some even suspected there was a sniper on the distant hillside. One of the sharper ones immediately pressed his gun to the back of Gao Tian's head.

"Don't move. Stay put!"

Then he turned to check on Zhao Qiang's body.

By now, Gao Tian had taken Zhao Qiang's face and most of his memories. He no longer needed to act so meekly. He immediately turned and slapped one of the underlings.

"Fuck, move that piece-of-shit gun! Look properly—that's me!"

When they realized they'd been pointing their guns at "Zhao Qiang," the men were stunned once again, speechless with confusion.

The man who'd fallen was obviously Zhao Qiang. How had someone with exactly the same face, voice, and way of speaking as Zhao Qiang suddenly appeared in Gao Tian's original spot and started berating them?

Was it just too dark? Had they panicked and forgotten where their boss had been standing?

"B-B-B-Brother, w-what's going on?

"W-why were you standing here one second, and then over there the next?"

The burly man named San Hu was covered in tattoos and muscle, but wasn't too bright. Too many chaotic things had happened at once; they were beyond his ability to understand.

Gao Tian gave the men no time to think. He activated Memory Ghost's ability again, talking rings around them as he planted false memories in their minds.

"Are you fucking stupid?

"Didn't I tell you on the way here that we were helping me bury someone? The old classmates and I were catching up just now. Once we were done, I shot him. Now dig a hole and bury him, and this is all over.

"Are you out of your mind? I shot him, and then you suddenly turned your gun on me. You're asking what's going on? I should be asking you that.

"Maybe this place is haunted. Something must've messed with your eyes."

Gao Tian's explanation was clearly more reasonable than the men's memory of their boss and his victim suddenly switching places.

At his "reminder," the others also "came to their senses." Another man, nicknamed Shou Hou, lowered his gun and warily scanned the area.

"Boss, this place really is haunted.

"I don't know why, but when you fired just now, I suddenly saw you and that kid switch places. Then I thought you'd fallen and he was still standing, so I panicked and drew my gun.

"One person seeing things would be understandable, but all the brothers saw it wrong. Could some kind of monster roaming the wilderness really have bewitched us?"

Gao Tian knew that, with Shattered Face Ghost and Memory Ghost working together, he'd successfully pulled off a case of swapping one person for another: he had taken Zhao Qiang's face and assumed his identity.