Chapter 159: Mannequin
Icy cold seawater poured in with his breathing, and a suffocation of imminent drowning appeared instantly, as if the next moment it would drown Zhang Qian in this pitch black seawater.
But as he grabbed a thing in his hand, this feeling disappeared in a flash.
His body sank, and he felt the ground under his feet again, as if the icy cold seawater around him had receded.
“Cough cough cough……”
The unusual discomfort in his lungs made Zhang Qian unable to hold back his coughing, but he didn’t cough up any seawater. Apart from the faint pain in his hands, there was no other discomfort.
Not only that, there was no wet feeling on his body at all, as if the previous experience only existed in his fantasy.
He somewhat laboriously opened his eyes.
In front of him was still that eerily calm room.
The chandelier overhead emitted a faint yellow glow, accompanied by a barely audible electric current sound, illuminating the entire room.
But this light stopped at the doorway, illuminating only a bit of the aisle directly opposite, without spreading to both sides.
The empty doorway no longer had any trace of the fierce ghost, but as his line of sight shifted down, on the carpet at Zhang Qian’s feet, a monster with a completely rotten body had appeared at some point.
This thing had no skin anywhere on its body, with many twisted limbs randomly assembled onto the torso, its shape somewhat similar to bacteria under a microscope.
A thick long neck piled on the ground like a heap of discarded water pipes, still emanating bursts of foul odor.
From its shape, it was undoubtedly the fierce ghost that had wanted to chase and kill Zhang Qian.
Observing warily for a while, the severed limb ghost still didn’t move, seemingly fallen into silence.
“Faking it? Or really crashed?”
He’d know if he tried.
Zhang Qian looked at the motionless fierce ghost, suddenly picked up the wooden stick on the ground, and hit it without any hesitation.
“Dong!”
The wooden stick collided with the fierce ghost’s head, producing a crisp impact sound that was melodious and pleasing.
Normally, no fierce ghost would tolerate such provocation, but the severed limb ghost’s state was clearly off.
Even the head dragging the neck was knocked flying, and this fierce ghost didn’t stand up to say a word.
“We clashed for so long before without causing it any harm, but now it seems it was because I didn’t hit the right spot.”
Looking at the wet humanoid object in his hand, Zhang Qian was pensive.
“Maybe this thing is the core of the fierce ghost, and the other parts are irrelevant.”
This thing looked very miserable, like a child whose hands and feet were broken, with dense wounds all over its body.
Upon closer inspection, the shape of those cracks was somewhat similar to the wounds on Zhang Qian’s arms.
But this corpse emitted no rotten smell at all, and the skin all over its body, apart from those terrifying wounds, showed no signs of decay.
“Perhaps it’s not a corpse, but a rather well-made mannequin? Ghost controllers from the Republic of China era are really perverts; even their usual toys are so unique.”
Whether it was a mannequin or a corpse, the layer of wet sleeping posture on the surface couldn’t be faked.
Undoubtedly, it was the thing Zhang Qian had just fished out from the stomach of the severed limb ghost.
This thing was very eerie. Clearly as big as a seven- or eight-year-old child, yet when Zhang Qian held it in his hand, he felt no weight at all, as if it would disappear as soon as he let go.
“Being able to assemble different fierce ghosts into one body… this ability is quite special. If he could take it, it would be a good choice…”
The ghost mask was almost digested anyway; perhaps it was time to look for the next fierce ghost to devour.
Just as Zhang Qian was about to observe it carefully, the mannequin’s drooping head suddenly lifted.
A pair of eyes without whites, entirely pitch black, slowly opened, casting a deathly gaze toward Zhang Qian in a somewhat stiff manner.
“It can still move?”
Zhang Qian’s pupils contracted slightly, and true qi immediately surged from his left hand holding the mannequin’s neck, forming some kind of eerie suppression.
Then, without caring about anything, he flipped it over and slammed the mannequin face-down into the carpet.
“Bang——”
The mannequin’s face had an intimate contact with the carpet, but it didn’t sustain any damage.
Zhang Qian didn’t expect a fierce ghost to collapse from such a small trick. His right hand holding the wooden stick immediately wanted to follow up with another blow.
But at that moment, he suddenly heard a strange sound.
“Wait……”
This voice was very strange, indistinguishable between male, female, young, or old, and the tone was odd, like a distorted recording tape.
The only thing certain was that this sound came from the mannequin below.
“Dong——”
The wooden stick about to swing down didn’t pause at all, smashing straight onto the mannequin’s smooth back of the head.
One hit wasn’t enough; Zhang Qian raised his hand to continue the blows, not planning to give this ghostly thing any chance to catch its breath.
It could talk, but that wasn’t anything rare. Ghost slaves could talk too, but that didn’t change their non-human nature.
Besides, this thing had tried to kill him before—who knew what it was up to. If he let it delay even a little time and got tricked again, that would be bad.
“I have no malice……”
“Dong——”
Before it could finish speaking, the wooden stick infused with true qi made the mannequin’s body stiffen.
“It wasn’t intentional……”
“Dong——”
The mannequin kept changing what it said, trying to gain Zhang Qian’s forgiveness with words.
But Zhang Qian was completely unmoved, mechanically swinging the wooden stick, determined not to stop until it crashed.
If apologies worked, what would police be for?
Almost getting killed wasn’t something that could be brushed off with a casual two sentences; at the very least, it needed to show some sincerity.
Unfortunately, this mannequin was stark naked without even clothes; the only thing it could offer was probably itself.
As for whether this mannequin had consciousness, it made no difference to Zhang Qian.
If this mannequin had no consciousness and was just a strange fierce ghost, beating it until it crashed would make it easy to carry, and he could try refining it into a pill when he got back.
Even if this mannequin had consciousness, Zhang Qian wouldn’t go soft; he’d just use a more proper handling method.
After all, carrying around an intelligent being that held a grudge against him would be no different from seeking death.
“Killing it directly might be difficult, but even if he couldn’t kill it, he had to beat it until it crashed, then find an empty room to lock it up to prevent it from causing trouble later.”
An anomaly capable of controlling other fierce ghosts posed a danger even greater than ordinary fierce ghosts.
After all, this thing was practically like a ghost controller, able to treat various fierce ghosts as limbs assembled on its body and control them simultaneously.
Zhang Qian knew full well that just two or three fierce ghosts earlier had been so terrifying; if he gave the mannequin a bit more time, he might not even have a chance to resist.
