Dajiang City, inside a villa in the suburbs.
Several men and women drank, chatted, and played billiards beneath the flashing lights and music.
“I heard Wu Xun went to recruit a newcomer. Seems like it’s the one who drove a taxi into the moat and didn’t die.”
Inside the bar, a man in casual clothes held a glass of strong liquor and swirled it.
Ice cubes shifted in the liquor, making a crisp clinking sound.
The female bartender with a ponytail shook the cup in her hand with force. Soon, the shaking stopped.
The liquid inside was poured into a glass, then pushed to the front of the bar.
A pale yet delicate arm reached out and picked up the glass, bringing it to a pair of red lips.
“Isn’t it a good thing to have a newcomer join?”
The woman in a red dress spoke with a smiling expression.
That vivid red made her the most eye-catching presence here.
“Good, of course it’s good.”
“How could it not be? Perfect timing. I’ve had my eye on a sports car lately. It’s not even expensive, just thirty-some million.”
The one playing billiards was a young man with hair dyed in all sorts of colors.
After sinking the eight ball, the young man put away his cue, picked up the glass by the table, and drained it in one gulp.
He walked over to the woman’s side with a chuckle and placed the glass on the bar.
“You like sports cars that much?”
The woman frowned. Her nose twitched as a pungent, heavy scent of perfume drifted from the young man.
“Use less perfume. That stuff is even more nauseating than the corpse stench on you.” The woman shifted away and said with a face full of disgust.
The young man’s expression froze, and his gaze instantly darkened.
The man in casual clothes swept his gaze over the two of them, smiling cheerfully.
“That’s not right. For people like us, having a corpse stench is perfectly normal. Look at Wu Xun—he has it too. Even the president has it. Do you dare say you don’t?” The young man looked coldly at the woman.
The woman gave the young man a sidelong glance, chuckled, her face filled with disdain, too lazy to bother with him.
That appearance of hers, falling into the young man’s eyes, made him even more furious.
The man was still watching the show, but he didn’t dare add fuel to the fire.
One careless sentence might offend both of them, and that would be a losing deal.
So he merely watched.
Suddenly.
With a creak, the front door was opened.
The three of them instantly looked toward the doorway.
Two people walked in. They all recognized one of them.
It was Wu Xun.
But they did not know the young man behind him.
“What a young little brother. Is this the newcomer you brought back?” The woman licked her lips, her gaze fixed straight on Lin Qian.
“Come, little brother. Have a drink with big sister.”
Wu Xun frowned. “I still have to take him to see the president. You’d better stop making trouble.”
Hearing this, the woman’s brows furrowed. As if thinking of something, she then revealed a pitiful expression.
“All right, then.”
Wu Xun said nothing and led Lin Qian toward the second floor.
The young man and the man were both sizing Lin Qian up, a trace of excitement in both their eyes, as though they were looking at prey that had stepped into a trap.
The woman looked at Lin Qian, touched her red lips, and her mouth opened and closed as though she were saying something.
Lin Qian understood what she was saying.
She was saying: Little brother, come down later and drink with me~!
Wu Xun glanced at the three of them without a word, nor did he seem inclined to give any warning.
Lin Qian remained silent and followed Wu Xun upstairs.
“In the future, you can keep your distance from them.”
After they went up to the second floor, those gazes finally disappeared.
And it was at this moment that Wu Xun could not help but offer a reminder.
Lin Qian did not ask why. He merely nodded.
He had no interest in asking why, because in a while, there would be no need to ask why.
Wu Xun led Lin Qian toward the last room on the second floor.
Knock, knock, knock!
“President, I’ve brought him,” Wu Xun said with a solemn expression.
“Come in.”
A middle-aged man’s voice came from inside the room.
The door was pushed open, and Wu Xun led Lin Qian into the room.
“President.”
Inside the room, a middle-aged man sat on the sofa, watching a ball game.
His back was to them, and he did not turn around.
“Come, sit.”
The middle-aged man beckoned.
Wu Xun hurriedly led Lin Qian to sit on the sofa beside the middle-aged man.
“You’re Lin Qian, right?” The middle-aged man took a puff from his cigar and casually looked toward Lin Qian.
Lin Qian nodded. He was not surprised that the other party knew his name.
In an age where information was public, finding out someone’s name was very simple.
“Your luck is quite good.” The middle-aged man looked Lin Qian up and down, then nodded.
Lin Qian chuckled. “You’re not the first person to say my luck is good.”
“Oh? Is that so?” The middle-aged man narrowed his eyes slightly.
“Of course.”
Lin Qian nodded very naturally. Wu Xun, sitting beside him, was terrified. He wanted to remind Lin Qian to be a little more respectful, but he did not dare.
“Can you answer a question for me?”
Lin Qian suddenly said, “After all, I’m here to join the club too.”
Hearing this, Wu Xun frowned. This kid—why did he have so many questions?
“Interesting. It’s always been others answering my questions. Today is an exception.”
The middle-aged man became interested. He wanted to hear what this kid intended to ask.
“Go ahead.” The middle-aged man pressed his hand down, signaling Wu Xun not to mind.
Seeing that the other party did not care at all, Lin Qian revealed a smile. “You really are easy to talk to. Then I’ll ask.”
“Actually, my question isn’t anything major. I just want to ask—do you have anyone behind you?”
The moment Lin Qian asked this question, the middle-aged man and Wu Xun were both stunned.
Wu Xun was somewhat puzzled. What did that mean? Was there anyone behind the president?
Wu Xun looked behind the president. There was no one there.
But the middle-aged man’s pupils contracted. “What do you mean by that question?”
At this moment, a bad premonition rose in the middle-aged man’s heart.
He felt as though something was about to happen.
And when Lin Qian saw the other party’s reaction, he immediately obtained the answer he wanted.
“Looks like there is. But that’s fine. If you can do it, there’s no reason I can’t.”
Lin Qian touched his chin and nodded.
The middle-aged man’s pupils suddenly shrank, and he inwardly cried that things were bad.
But in the next instant, Lin Qian raised his head, and his appearance had completely changed.
At some point, an eerie white mask had covered Lin Qian’s face.
A pitch-black eye without pupils opened on the mask and looked directly at the middle-aged man.
Wu Xun abruptly stood up. “What are you trying to do!”
But in the next instant, his pupils contracted violently, his eyes filled with shock and disbelief.
A terrifying supernatural force acted directly upon the middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man’s complexion instantly turned ashen and lifeless.
His abdomen suddenly bulged. Immediately after, a deathly pale hand tore through flesh and blood, reaching out from the middle-aged man’s belly.
Wu Xun only felt some liquid splash onto his face, and then he saw the middle-aged man lean back against the sofa in agony.
His head tilted to the side, and he died on the spot.
The moment the middle-aged man died, the arm extending from his abdomen strangely retracted, then disappeared without a trace.
The president of the Black Eight Club died just like that. Before his death, he had not even used the ghost’s ability.
Wu Xun stood frozen in place, his mind completely blank.
Lin Qian stood up. The eye on the mask glanced casually at Wu Xun, then paid him no further attention.
He walked up to the middle-aged man. “Trash like you dared to make me your dog?”
Lin Qian grabbed the middle-aged man by the neck and sensed the dormant malevolent ghost inside his body.
“What a weak ghost. But it’s enough.”
If he controlled this ghost, he could at least delay the revival of the malevolent ghost by three months or more.
Without the slightest hesitation, he directly chose to plunder it.
In the next instant, a flash of darkness vanished as quickly as it appeared.
Immediately afterward, the middle-aged man’s body rapidly withered, leaving only the upper half still as it had been at the moment of death.
The malevolent ghost had been successfully plundered.
But Lin Qian, who had plundered the malevolent ghost, was stunned at this moment.
“This… went straight into a crash state?”
After the plunder was activated, Lin Qian directly felt that there was another ghost inside his body.
The instant this ghost appeared, it immediately began suppressing the supernatural power of the Opera Ghost Mask.
Although this ghost’s level of terror was very low, it could slowly suppress the supernatural power of the Opera Ghost Mask. Moreover, it directly formed a balance.
Not only that, this ghost actually had no intention of reviving at all.
It did not even have the most basic agitation.
It gave Lin Qian the feeling that it would never go out of control.
“It crashed right away?”
Lin Qian was very surprised. He had not expected this result.
His idea in controlling this ghost had only been to suppress the revival of the Opera Ghost.
He was different from others. When controlling malevolent ghosts, he did not need to care about balance. As long as he could plunder it, balance would be established directly.
“Interesting.”
Lin Qian lifted the middle-aged man’s corpse. The killing rule of the malevolent ghost he had just controlled was very lethal: one would be attacked if they did not look into the ghost’s eyes.
This directly complemented the killing rule of the Opera Ghost.
His luck was simply beyond words.
He also understood why the middle-aged man had had his back to them when they met.
“You… what did you do!”
Wu Xun finally came back to his senses and hurriedly retreated several steps.
“What did I do? Can’t you see?”
The mask slowly disappeared, revealing Lin Qian’s expressionless face.
“Even trash like him could be president. If I’m stronger than him, why can’t I be president?”
“What he can do, I can do. What he can’t do, I can still do—and better than him.”
Lin Qian carried the corpse and glanced at Wu Xun. “If you want to live, follow me.”
With that, he turned and walked directly toward the door.
Wu Xun’s expression shifted uncertainly. The shock in his eyes slowly disappeared, replaced by a trace of fear.
The president who was stronger than all of them had died. He had died just like that, unable to withstand even a single attack from the other party.
Wu Xun’s face alternated between green and white. He looked at that young man carrying the president—no, the former president’s corpse. Gritting his teeth, he hurriedly followed.
Bang!
An eerie corpse was thrown down from the second floor.