Chapter 392: Mo Chou (30)
On that night when Zhan Rong began to consider befriending some ghosts to later make them do some espionage work for her, Jiang Li was jumping from houses to houses after dealing with the corrupt city mayor who suddenly got a heart attack.
He was pretty unbiased towards his victims. As a fairly powerful poltergeist, every time he switched targets, he began with the usual 'drop some cutleries first... then bang the door loudly or twist the faucet so the kitchen or bathroom will be flooded... make the bulbs and generator explode... and force some knives to fly around chasing them for a whole hour regardless of the direction they took.'
Other spirits loved to pull their victims into a nightmare or simply scare them with their frightening appearances that were usually a copy of what they looked like at the moment of their death.
Well, there was a time, he wanted to try that, and it was difficult given his current face.
This was why he was quite annoyed.
'Visual images are cheap,' Jiang Li thought disdainfully after a few tests. 'Because one's ghostly face won't always work, the best scare tactic is to make the victim realize that they could be killed in the most mysterious and unjustifiable way possible. Only then would they be truly frightened. It is always the fear for their own lives that could draw the rawest emotion out of people.'
Even if they were big men with explosive muscles and intimidating tattoos and piercings, would they be able to maintain a collected expression when confronted with something this creepy and supernatural and at the same time life-threatening? It didn't matter if there was a killing intent or nor. The idea itself that one could die in the hands of a monster or a spirit was very alarming.
Before, this one guy with a bodybuilder look was like 'You, go to this region and wait for some idiots to drag her' to his subordinates.
Another guy, an extremely high-ranking 'executive' within the organization wore an extremely arrogant face as he said,'A ridiculous upstart wants to defy me? When I said to deliver his wife to me and make her accompany me for a drink, I allowed no objection! He doesn't want to? Easy! Bankrupt him! Pressure him on all sides! Kill him mentally and spiritually! Until he will be at the point where he'll sell even his daughter to me on his own accord! A mere dog should know when to bark and when to wag its tail!'
The latter was in fact that arrogant city mayor that was now being rushed to the hospital, marked by a curse from Jiang Li.
What good did his unmatched confidence bring him against Jiang Li?
A silly question. In this world, there was no other race who knew the real essence of justice, equality and impartiality other than ghosts!
The rest of the evildoers Jiang Li managed to get a hold of, they ended up miserable, living an endless nightmare, fearful that they would die from accidents.
This old ghost was very merciful, not intending to kill them.
However, he was also just as cruel, thinking the supernatural stuff had not yet driven them crazy and he felt that he had truly not done anything extreme at all. He was in favor of throwing all the members of the organization in the middle of a desert with no supplies or whatsoever where they would have a real survival game. There was also other various options, like introducing them to the group of ghosts outside Zhao Village for a better paranormal experience.
'The latter sounds nice and will help me reconcile with those fellows.'
'As long as they are not dead, I can recycle them to farm fear points too.'
His thoughts right now seemed not that horrifying.
Yet it was undeniable that eerie laughter from an evil spirit reverberated through the night. The red light district that was finally showing lesser vibrancy at 3 am... in particular, the room at the highest floor of the top establishment in the area that was a dream for countless men, was suddenly so eerie on that evening. The noises of the visitors and girls having fun doing something that should not be mentioned downstairs could not reach the place.
As if the whole fifth floor was isolated from the rest of the world.
In such isolation, Jiang Li burst into a crazy bout of laughter. His eyes were red and his figure was like flickering smoke still persisting against the wind.
"Hahahahahahahaha!"
It sounded so insane and malicious. "Hahahahaha!"
However, while it was true that he was in a good mood due to the amusing plot playing in his head, the large part of why he kept cackling like an opera singer stubbornly holding onto a note for tens of seconds was still to freak humans out. On the many references he had browsed, tons of ghosts were depicted to have successfully scared people with just a maniacal fit of laughter which most spirits purposely made to sound like it was echoing from six feet underground.
No doubt, if he did this as a human, he would be very embarrassed by now.
But anyways, his exaggerated happiness did render another victim of his, a woman in charge of a prostitution den, quake in her bed out of trepidation.
"D-Don't come to me! I-in the name of…B-Buddha! Begone! Go away! I-I beg you!" The woman sobbed so badly that her thick makeup was ruined, giving her an appearance as hideous as, if not more than, a ghost.
Her pitiful cries only elicited a sneer from Jiang Li.
"Yeah. Stupid. Like hell Buddha would respond to a bug like you." He disdainfully said.
After that, once again, he laughed like a madman. In the next minute, several deep cuts appear on the body of the pimp manager. No second passed that she was not screaming at the top of her lungs. When a mirror floated over to show how ugly and bloody she had become, her cries reached a crescendo, it was so tragic, melancholic, and at the same time, ear piercing. For a while, the ghost had an illusion that he just did what only neuropathic sadist would do, yet he also felt like even if he did, it would be alright since... Well, who would sympathize with someone who deserved nothing but hell after driving countless women to a path of no return? He was already too nice this way.
The ghost lifted the invisible barrier that temporarily blocked the sounds within the place from escaping. 'Go ahead. You're free to shout.'
Without any cue from him, the woman cooperated.
With her yells like that, of course, people would come over to check what happened. The woman took pride in her beauty that she had maintained even though she was already in her late thirties. Her concern about her appearance was as much as those celebrities counting on their faces to eat.
When the alerted guests and employees rushed over, the woman was initially happy to receive some help. So was it the densely-packed cuts across her whole body, or her ugly bloody face? After recognizing the shock and disgust in everyone's expression when they looked at her after recovering from the daze, she lost it and turned into a rabig dog crazily chasing people away.
It was obvious this unprincipled pimp wouldn't have good days ahead.
Jiang Li left contentedly, dropping by the hospital where the city mayor was. The old man was of course unconscious and would offer him no entertainment. But among his family members, close fellow politicians, and personal assistant… some of them must be aware of the underground dealings of the mayor.
How ecstatic he was that his guess was on point and that there was one more toy for the bored, untiring spirit him to kill time with.
Unfortunately, these happy moments did not last long.
"L-leader, b-bad news!"
Jiang Li phased through a wall and saw the owner of the familiar voice floating over with an anxious look on his face. "What's the matter?"
"Leader! T-that girl! She suddenly k-killed three disciples from Maoshan Sect. The spirit realm is also forced to undergo a massive restructuring within its ranks. Master spirit hunters from that mountain descended out of rage!"
"W-we should hide!"
A piece of news about Gu Mochou made way into his ears from the mouth of his spy who had taken two days to travel back from Haowen Town.
His brain did not bother to ponder why they should hide from spirit hunters.
Jiang Li froze midair and only came back to himself a minute later wherein he immediately asked with a gloomy expression. "Gu Mochou… that woman… Tell me, what did she do again?"