Chapter 194: Madman
The mannequin that had lost its reason did not want to surrender without a fight. Although it was already firmly pinned down, it still had not given up the thought of struggling.
However, the mannequin’s supernatural strength was really too weak, and the force of its struggle was completely insufficient.
“Having seen so many of those ferocious perverts, I actually feel that this thing is quite cute.”
Zhang Qian shook his head, casting aside the inexplicable thought in his mind.
Continuously letting the mannequin flail its claws was not a solution, so he immediately channeled a portion of his true qi, directing it downward into the mannequin’s body.
Almost instantly, the mannequin stopped crying and fussing, becoming as still as if it were dead.
Although true qi was infinite, the amount that could be output at the same time had an upper limit.
Originally, Zhang Qian did not want to waste this quota on the mannequin, but now it did not matter.
After all, there was too much supernatural power on the piano. No matter how much true qi was used, it could not penetrate it. To deal with it, it relied more on the severed limb ghost’s supernatural characteristics, so allocating a portion to suppress the mannequin was not a problem at all.
Settling it properly would also make it easier for Zhang Qian to handle the piano.
Otherwise, if the fierce ghost was dealt with in the end, but the mannequin ran amok and got itself killed, would that not be a waste of effort?
After handling these trivial matters here, Zhang Qian once again turned his attention to the piano.
However, this time his action was much bolder than before.
He directly abandoned the wooden stick and gripped the gap at the top of the piano with both hands.
Cracks immediately began extending from his hands, and they continued to deepen with the passage of time.
In just a moment, the surrounding wooden boards had become fragile and brittle.
“Crack—”
With just a slight movement, an entire wooden board was pried up.
Before he could even let go, the wooden board covered in cracks in his hands shattered into fragments of various sizes.
With this wooden board removed, a pit several dozen centimeters wide immediately appeared at the top of the piano.
The overhead lights shone in through the pit.
This time, without the obstruction of supernatural power, Zhang Qian easily saw the thing inside… a fierce ghost?
Having experienced many supernatural events of varying danger levels and seen countless fierce ghosts of different appearances, Zhang Qian thought he was already accustomed to fierce ghosts.
But facts proved him wrong.
At least this music fierce ghost was absolutely the most miserable-looking fierce ghost Zhang Qian had ever encountered.
It had no legs, and its position below the waist was severed in half, leaving only the upper body crawling in the narrow space inside the piano.
This remaining upper body was not only shriveled down to a mere bag of bones, but it was also covered in round wounds of various sizes.
As if it had suffered some kind of torture, in the areas Zhang Qian could see, this fierce ghost had almost no intact skin from its arms to its back.
The blood inside its body had long dried up, but these round wounds had not healed with time; instead, they had turned into holes piercing straight through.
Piercing through the nearly desiccated flesh, one could even directly see the piano beneath the fierce ghost’s body.
The most exaggerated was the large hole in the center of its back, where a torso the size of a head had been hollowed out, with crucial organs like the heart completely missing.
It was a fierce ghost, after all; even an ordinary ghost controller probably could not survive such injuries.
Zhang Qian could not help but click his tongue. What kind of grudge could lead to imprisoning a fierce ghost inside a piano and still not being satisfied, resorting to such torture to vent anger?
“However, fierce ghosts have no consciousness. Even if tortured like this, it probably would not be of much use, right?”
Moreover, he felt that ghost controllers from the Republic of China era would not do such meaningless things, especially since the one who left this piano was very likely that mysterious captain.
This fierce ghost clearly was not lying here voluntarily; its body had quite a few mechanical structures that looked very precise.
If it was just to nail down the fierce ghost, there should be no need for such trouble. Perhaps these structures had other uses?
But for now, the key was how to stop the musical sound and prevent its attack on the mannequin.
Scanning through the hole at the top a few times, Zhang Qian was somewhat puzzled. “There are no devices similar to musical instruments. Could the sound be sung by this fierce ghost?”
Before he could expand his view for a closer look.
The fierce ghost, which had been lying still without moving, suddenly began to struggle.
The entire piano shook a few times from this force, and the top of the piano, already covered in cracks, could no longer support itself, turning into fragments that fell inside the piano.
Startled by this anomaly, Zhang Qian instinctively grabbed the mannequin from the ground and held it in front of him protectively.
After being on guard for a moment, aside from the musical sound’s rhythm becoming somewhat disordered, there seemed to be no other changes.
It seemed the fierce ghost could not break free from its restraints. Its movement had instead helped Zhang Qian clear away those obstructions, saving a bit of effort.
“This has nothing to do with you. Keep sleeping.”
Casually stuffing the mannequin back under his foot, Zhang Qian looked again into the space inside the piano.
Without the cover of the lid, the internal structure was fully visible.
However, this structure was somewhat beyond Zhang Qian’s expectations. “What a… madman’s idea.”
In a normal piano, pressing the keys connects to small hammer-like things, which strike the strings under key control to play music.
But in this piano on the ghost ship, the keys were connected to rusty steel needles.
Dozens of slender steel needles were embedded in the fierce ghost’s body. When the keys were pressed automatically, the steel needles pierced into the fierce ghost’s body accordingly.
Immediately after, the fierce ghost’s body contracted unnaturally, and the round holes of various sizes on its body also changed accordingly.
Then, different tones appeared in the music.
This design was completely different from what Zhang Qian had imagined. By his thinking, even if this fierce ghost sang a violin piece, it would be considered “normal.”
After all, such bizarre things were already commonplace in supernatural events.
But the devices on this fierce ghost seemed a bit… scientific?
“An extremely bold idea, not just a simple fusion of supernatural elements, but artificially transforming a fierce ghost.”
Zhang Qian had never encountered such a thing before. Regardless of its strength, its novel concept alone was worth collecting.
What a pity.
With a sigh, he still picked up the wooden stick by his foot.
If possible, he would like to take this thing back for his collection, but the current situation clearly did not allow for it.
“Bang!”
He swung the stick down, not hitting the fierce ghost, but striking those mechanical structures.
From the previous supernatural power protecting the piano, the music fierce ghost’s supernatural strength was very high, so one strike probably would not have much effect.
On the contrary, these steel needles, eroded by time, were already covered in rust. Even with supernatural power, they should not be too strong.
