The time was still only afternoon.
The sky was not yet dim.
Everything in the manor could be seen clearly.
Especially since the ghost that Wang Xiaoqiang had released in the conference hall had come out, it was not that no one had seen this scene, aside from the service staff inside the building.
Outside the manor, beside a ground littered with corpses.
Barely clinging on to his half-spent life, Ma Youcai was touching his own neck which felt like it could split open at any moment; before he could recover from his astonishment and fear, the sight before his eyes turned his face instantly pale, and his whole body went limp.
A person, no, it could no longer be called a person.
The figure in front of him was now just a highly decomposed corpse, emitting a foul stench, with flesh that had rotted away almost completely, revealing the ghastly white of bone underneath.
And that face, the red of blood and flesh clung to a skeleton, even the eyeballs were gone.
Such a person, no matter where, would already be considered a corpse.
But it was still alive.
And it could still move.
Moreover, it was walking over from afar, heading this way.
Ma Youcai was so frightened that he nearly fainted.
Although he knew that dealing with ghost tamers and Evil Ghosts was terrifying, seeing a ghost appear before his very eyes was enough to shatter a person's sanity with fear.
Above his head, the sun shone brightly.
Under normal July weather conditions, one would only feel the heat of the sun, but at this moment, Ma Youcai felt only bone-chilling cold.
It was as if all the blood in his body had frozen at that moment.
The highly decomposed ghost now slowly walked up to the dead body of Wang Xiaoqiang and stopped.
"What does it want to do?" Ma Youcai, terrified, wanted to run away.
But his body did not respond; he simply couldn't muster any strength.
Whether it was due to extreme fear or because Yang Jian had switched bodies with him previously, he didn't know.
The ghost did not go after Ma Youcai to kill him; instead, it slowly squatted down, reached into the corpse of Wang Xiaoqiang, and methodically began to pull out the organs from the body.
Choosing to stuff them into its own body.
An empty skeleton began to gradually fill out.
Once the organs were emptied, the ghost then tore the flesh from the corpse and pasted it onto its own body.
The movements were crude but contained some sort of eerie power.
After stuffing the organs into the body, they began to come back to life; the heart started beating again, the intestines wriggled, and the skin immediately bonded to the rotten frame as if it had grown there, without falling off.
Ma Youcai, witnessing such a horrific and disgusting scene, couldn't help but feel nauseous and started vomiting beside him.
But no matter what happened around him,
The ghost's actions did not stop.
In less than half an hour, the ghost's body gradually took on some semblance of form.
Tattered flesh stuck to the body, with bones exposed in several places, but this didn't seem to affect anything.
Finally, the ghost picked up Wang Xiaoqiang's head from the ground.
Wang Xiaoqiang's head lacked a skull, and inside, it was like something soft and spongy; after picking it up, the ghost stretched open several slits, like an ordinary person putting on a headgear, and forcefully fitted it onto its own head.
A battered and incomplete Wang Xiaoqiang appeared in front of Ma Youcai.
His pallid face devoid of any blood color, his head crooked and twisted, his body ragged and torn, all parts of it seemed thrown together haphazardly.
However, the next moment.
The deceased Wang Xiaoqiang suddenly opened his eyes.
The ashy-gray eyes gradually regained a trace of life.
Although his body trembled slightly.
Wang Xiaoqiang had come back to life once more.
"Damn it, died again, did I? Just as I thought, that ghost dismembered my body and glued the parts back together. But my body's getting more and more battered," he mumbled, looking down at himself with a mix of shock and anger.
Who knows how many more times this body could be used.
Once it's no longer usable, I reckon that ghost will probably discard me.
"Is everyone else dead? This Yang Jian is really ruthless, he didn't show any mercy and wiped out company bosses worth tens and billions just like that, hmm? President Ma, how are you still alive? Yang Jian didn't kill you?" Wang Xiaoqiang tugged at the flesh on his neck.
He adjusted his head back into the right position.
"You, you're still alive? Are you a human or a ghost?" Ma Youcai said, his terror laced with astonishment.
Even in such a state, Wang Xiaoqiang was able to come back to life.
"I told you, my ghost is quite unique. That Yang Jian is too sly; he chose to leave the conference hall right after I released the ghost, effectively eluding its grasp."
Wang Xiaoqiang's gaze flickered as he stood up: "But him thinking I'm dead and leaving the place makes sense, what's strange is that he spared you."
"What did you give up to save your life from him? You wouldn't mind telling me, would you, President Ma?"
Ma Youcai stammered, "I, I didn't say much, I just told him I was willing to give him the company. Yang Jian didn't believe me. He, he swapped my head with Lei Hu's body. Look..."
He pointed at himself.
An athletic and towering body topped with a middle-aged balding head.
No matter how you looked at it, it was mismatched.
"That's the ability of his second ghost. You're lucky that he covets your capital, so he spared your life; but he's also imposed limitations on your body. If I'm not mistaken, if he can attach your head, he can just as easily take it off again. From now on, you'll never be able to escape his control."
At this point, Wang Xiaoqiang narrowed his eyes and sent out a few messages on his phone.
"With so many shareholders and people dead, the club is likely to be dissolved after this chaos. Without Yang Jian's death, the club won't be able to stand its ground in Dachang City. The man is too dangerous. He hasn't been a ghost master for long, yet he's already found a way to control the second ghost. Could my brother have deliberately kept it from me?
Why did I not receive news of him going to the lab?"
"What exactly happened at the entrance to Huanggang Village that day? Could it be related to this?"
Wang Xiaoqiang pondered, but regardless of what had happened, today's events were far from over.
And the sole survivor, Ma Youcai, did not reveal the truth to Wang Xiaoqiang, he didn't speak about Wang Yue's matter.
Because by now he understood, his life was in Yang Jian's hands; if he told Wang Xiaoqiang the truth and Yang Jian came to know about it, his death would be certain.
For the sake of his life, he had to keep the matter secret.
"These ghost masters are monsters, why didn't I realize it before?" Ma Youcai was still shaking inside, gripped by fear.
The sight of Wang Xiaoqiang, who had returned from death and hid a ghost inside his body, that Yang Jian who could easily displace human heads, causing people to vanish, and the yet-to-show-his-abilities Wang Yue... none of these people were actually people.
They were all Evil Ghosts wearing human skins.
They kill without even blinking an eye.
"President Ma, given the injuries you've suffered today, shouldn't you seek revenge? As long as that Yang Jian lives, you'll be under his control for life. Kill him, and you'll be safe," said Wang Xiaoqiang, looking at him again.
"I, I don't want to get involved in such matters anymore," Ma Youcai said, trembling.
Wang Xiaoqiang said, "I'm not asking you to get involved, just fund the club with ten billion. There'll be an outcome to this. For you, President Ma, ten billion is a lot, but it's not like you can't afford it.
Initially, I wanted the other shareholders to share some of the burden, but as you've seen, Yang Jian has already killed the rest, and a whole pile of inheritance issues will arise, which likely means they won't be able to continue funding the club."
"As the only surviving shareholder, you have a heavy responsibility, President Ma."
"I, I'll try my best," Ma Youcai didn't refuse, but he also didn't make a clear commitment.
Wang Xiaoqiang said, "I'll give President Ma three days to raise the funds. It's a good time for me to make some preparations too."
After finishing, he patted his shoulder as if entrusting him with a great task, then got up and left.
Wang Xiaoqiang's face turned ashen with a barely containable killing intent surging in his heart.
He was alive because the ghost inside him hadn't abandoned him yet and was still willing to stay in his body. In fact, he had been killed by Yang Jian once already.
Though he's called Xiaoqiang (which implies resilience).
He's not unkillable and dying a few more times might eventually lead to an accident where he can't be resurrected.