Chapter 103: What Do You Call Me? Call Me Madam

When Zhang Hao controlled the Ghost Coffin to collide with the wedding procession, it seemed to trigger the opponent's Killing Rule.

The wedding procession, which had been moving steadily, crashed toward Zhang Hao's direction.

The Flower Sedan Chair and the coffin slammed together; this Flower Sedan Chair seemed to possess a special supernatural quality, causing the Fierce Ghost that was carrying the coffin to be unable to stand up after the Ghost Coffin hit it.

Likewise, after the Flower Sedan Chair was struck, the ghosts carrying the chair also lost all movement.

The new groom Fierce Ghost wearing a red robe was knocked flying, fell to the ground, and could not stand up.

"Suppressed?"

Zhang Hao first inspected the Ghost Coffin; the Fierce Ghost carrying the coffin seemed fine.

It was only that after colliding with the Flower Sedan Chair, it was bound by some supernatural restraint and could not act for a short time.

Even without using Restart, it would recover its movement soon.

Zhang Hao stepped forward; instead of looking at the wedding procession, he went to the Fierce Ghost in the red robe.

As Zhang Hao's face grew paler, a chilling aura lingered around, refusing to disperse, and the surrounding temperature dropped a few degrees.

"Sss!"

At that moment, the red robe on the new groom Fierce Ghost seemed to come alive, automatically unfastening and falling off the ghost.

When the robe fell completely, the ghost's body seemed to be torn open by an invisible Ghost Hand.

The entire ghost's body was ripped apart into two halves.

After mastering the ghost in the wardrobe, and with Zhang Hao's Terror Level amplified, the ghost's attack, which originally could only tear human flesh, has now transformed into the ability to tear Fierce Ghosts.

The impact from the Ghost Coffin caused the red robe to fall off and the ghost to be torn; the Fierce Ghost that had worn the red robe was now completely immobilized, suppressed.

Zhang Hao approached the red robe that seemed to be worn by an invisible person.

It can be confirmed that this garment is indeed a ghost.

The garment emitted a chilling and eerie aura.

However, compared to when Zhang Hao first saw the Ghost Bride, this garment is much weaker.

"Is it because there is only one robe?" Zhang Hao asked curiously, looking at the garment.

Grasping the red robe, the garment seemed to sense something that attracted it and, before Zhang Hao could move, automatically draped itself over him.

Yet seeing Zhang Hao's pallid skin and the Crying Face painted on the Face-Covering Cloth gave a sense of incongruity.

Not to mention, Zhang Hao's entire body was rendered in a black-and-white hue, making the red robe stand out even more.

The chilling aura emanated from Zhang Hao's body; the Black and White Ghost Domain began its Ghost's Invasion of everything around, corroding the garment.

The vivid red robe was slowly fading in color, as the garment was being altered by Zhang Hao.

At the same time, the Funeral Clothes inside the robe seemed to come alive as the White Curtain moved.

The Funeral Clothes extended from within the robe, quickly enveloping it, while the White Curtain acted like a belt, tightly tied around Zhang Hao's waist.

Zhang Hao's appearance seemed largely unchanged, except that within the Funeral Clothes, an additional garment formed from a true Fierce Ghost appeared.

However, this is normal; after all, one can wear other clothes beneath the Funeral Clothes.

"In terms of Terror Level, there is little change; this ghost's contribution to my enhancement is negligible."

Zhang Hao sensed the shift in his own Terror Level; since mastering the ghost in the wardrobe, the Fierce Ghosts on his body have become linked, forming a whole, causing his Terror Level to undergo a transformation.

Even if all the Fierce Ghosts on him are later dismembered, these ghosts will, like the Ghost Bride's Puzzle series, instinctively attract each other, seeking to complete one another.

Although the urge to complete this red robe was strong, after truly mastering it, it did not increase Zhang Hao's Terror Level.

"Hmm? It seems there are also some changes."

Zhang Hao looked at the Flower Sedan Chair behind him; as he waved, the chair moved of its own accord.

"So that's it—the ability of this red robe is actually to summon this Flower Sedan Chair?"

This Flower Sedan Chair does not seem to be a Supernatural Artifact, but rather a Spirit Phenomenon, a supernatural attack method.

Just as a ghost painting can spawn paintings, and a starving ghost can spawn ghost infants.

The Groom's Robe's ability is to summon the Flower Sedan Chair; the attack method is to control the chair to crash into people.

Zhang Hao walked to the side of the chair, checking the status of the Fierce Ghosts carrying it.

Upon approaching, he realized they were not Fierce Ghosts but several Ghost Slaves.

These ghosts, along with other members of the wedding procession, were merely Ghost Slaves of the Groom's Robe.

Zhang Hao then looked at the chair; earlier upstairs he had observed a woman's silhouette inside.

"Could it be the Ghost Bride's Puzzle?"

Zhang Hao approached the chair, and at the right moment—though he couldn't tell when—the Ghost Bride descended from the third floor, walking from the house's main door toward here.

It seemed that after Zhang Hao donned the Groom's Robe, she appeared; Zhang Hao noticed the bride's arrival and gave her a glance.

If the bride's Puzzle were inside the chair, it should have already moved.

Now the bride is merely strolling toward Zhang Hao, indicating the chair contains no such puzzle.

"Is it a ghost?"

Finding nothing unusual, Zhang Hao reached out and lifted the chair's red curtain.

"Ah!"

However, at that moment a scream rang out.

"Living person?"

Zhang Hao was startled; he had expected a Fierce Ghost inside the chair, but instead found a living person.

Inside the Flower Sedan Chair sat a beautiful woman in a red wedding dress, wearing a phoenix crown and delicate makeup.

"I see, when she was getting married she happened to be hit by that Ghost Groom, so she was marked, huh?"

Zhang Hao reacted immediately.

This garment is probably also searching for the bride; failing to find her, it treated this marrying woman as a temporary Puzzle.

The woman saw the crying face Zhang Hao had drawn and showed a look of terror.

She sized up Zhang Hao, noticing his numb, emotionless eyes, and that his whole body kept curling backward.

"Are you human or ghost? A He?"

The woman in the Flower Sedan may have already guessed, but she refused to believe it.

"A He, A He, save me!"

The woman screamed in terror, seeming to notice the abnormality only at this moment; earlier, when the Ghost Groom had lifted her in the Flower Sedan, she had not noticed at all.

Yet as the woman screamed in terror, several strange human silhouettes appeared.

Her frantic cries for help triggered the Killing Rule of several ghosts on this street.

These Fierce Ghosts walked toward her, adding to her breakdown.

Yet at that moment, a red‑clothed figure with both hands placed flat before its abdomen, walking at an unhurried pace, appeared before the woman.

That person also wore a red Wedding Dress, but wore a Red Cap on the head, obscuring the face.

Strangely, despite no one supporting her, the bride wearing the Red Cap walked straight toward the direction of the Flower Sedan.

"You you."

The woman, seeing the Ghost Bride appear, showed a look of surprise on her face.

Perhaps she mistakenly thought that the one before her, like herself, had also been abducted here.

Yet soon, her expression changed.

Because she noticed that the strange figures that had been eyeing her and approaching all vanished one after another after the bride's appearance.

Moreover, the walking bride was odd; her hands were frighteningly pale.

The woman thought that before getting onto the Flower Sedan she had deliberately applied foundation, making her hands already quite white, yet the bride's hands were even whiter.

That whiteness was not like living human skin, but resembled the skin of female characters in 3D anime—delicate, flawless, without a single blemish.

"Ghost!"

As the bride approached, she quickly realized that the bride had taken only a few steps yet covered a great distance.

The bride drew near the Flower Sedan's handle, and the woman felt a pair of pale hands materializing in her mind.

Those hands reached out from her consciousness, slowly grasping at her mind.

The next moment, while the girl's face was still dazed, she suddenly lost her vitality. The bride walked to the girl's side, reached out, seized her, and threw her out of the Flower Sedan.

At the instant the girl was thrown from the Flower Sedan, Zhang Hao keenly sensed a change in the sedan.

After no one sat inside the Flower Sedan, it seemed to have lost some ghostly power.

Zhang Hao carefully sensed, and soon detected the change.

It was the ghostly power that had previously restrained the Fierce Ghosts carrying the coffin, preventing them from rising.

After the human bride was thrown out, the Ghost Slaves who had been carrying the Flower Sedan fell to the ground, motionless.

The entire wedding procession seemed at that moment to lose the boost of ghostly power; those already dead began to rot at a visibly rapid rate.

In less than a minute, the procession that had once had a dozen figures was reduced to a single Flower Sedan and the freshly dead bride's corpse tossed outside.

"Is it a ghostly phenomenon like the bride waving? It needs a medium."

"The bride needs to hold a man's hand as a medium."

"This Groom's Robe requires a bride sitting in the Flower Sedan as a medium."

Zhang Hao looked at the Ghost Bride; after throwing out the human bride, the Ghost Bride sat on the Flower Sedan herself.

"Wah‑la‑la"

A Paper Flower Sedan appeared, overlapping this Flower Sedan, its red paper continuously shedding and fully merging into the sedan.

At the same time, the four red‑clothed Fierce Ghosts originally tasked with carrying the Paper Flower Sedan lifted the sedan at this moment.

At that moment, several colorful Paper Persons appeared, picking up torn paper fragments from the ground and affixing them to the two red Lanterns left by the procession.

"Madam, you have completed the puzzle again."

Zhang Hao lifted his head; he could feel that at this moment his connection with the bride was reinforced again.

"No, that's not right, something's off."

After speaking, Zhang Hao looked at the bride inside the Flower Sedan.

"The relationship seems to have changed."

He could feel that now he seemed a true Fierce Ghost, no longer a Ghost Slave.

The bride's hand‑holding medium, and the medium of this Groom's Robe for carrying the bride, altered Zhang Hao's standing beside the bride.

At this moment, their connection was no longer between Ghost Slave and Ghost Master, but an equal relationship.

After donning this Groom's Robe, Zhang Hao changed from the bride's Ghost Slave to the role of husband.

Although after mastering Ghost Seeking Kin, they each belonged to the male‑ghost and female‑ghost parts of that quest.

Yet throughout it remained a state of male weakness and female strength.

Even though Zhang Hao later completed the ghost in the wardrobe, enhancing his link with the bride, he ultimately remained a Ghost Slave.

And at this moment, everything seemed to reach balance; both sides truly embodied the concept of a single entity.

"But the change isn't much, there's no real difference."

Zhang Hao carefully sensed his own change; in fact, it had little effect.

The Terror Level rose slightly, but not enough to cause a qualitative shift, because after mastering the ghost in the wardrobe, they became a single entity, sharing the ghostly power.

As for the primary‑secondary issue, in fact, as Zhang Hao's Terror Level kept increasing…

He now occupies a larger proportion in the bride's behavioral logic, surpassing the importance of other puzzle pieces to the bride.

Faced with Zhang Hao's plan, and the sudden appearance of a puzzle piece, the bride will also act according to his plan.

This newly completed Ghost Groom only further clarifies this point, reinforcing both parties' identities again.

Perhaps in the future Zhang Hao can, by virtue of his role as the groom, obtain some of the red room's supernatural, but for now it is still too early.

The bride wants to dominate the red room, and still needs to find the missing various supernatural artifacts according to the trade conditions.

Zhang Hao knelt again atop the Ghost Coffin, having put on the Groom's Robe to complete it; the supernatural that previously prevented those few Fierce Ghosts carrying the coffin from moving is now naturally ineffective against them.

"This groom actually managed to lure a living person in; it seems this Ghostly City must have a passage connecting to Reality World."

"First go check that Alley from before, then look for where the exit of this Spiritual Realm connects to."

Having decided everything, Zhang Hao guided the Ghost Coffin and the Flower Sedan Chair forward along the Road.

As the party advanced, the human bride corpse that the Ghost Bride had thrown on the ground earlier seemed to have been eyed by some ghost.

Accompanied by a chilling aura, the bride corpse on the ground wobbled and stood up.

Perhaps because of the lingering habit of the human bride's remaining body, the ghost that controlled the bride corpse stared at the Flower Sedan Chair for a long time as it made it stand.

Afterwards, the controlled bride finally took stiff steps toward some direction.

Being watched, Zhang Hao naturally noticed the scene; he turned his head and glanced at the bride corpse that was staring at the Flower Sedan Chair.

Seeing that it took no action, after staring at the Flower Sedan Chair for a long time it left toward some direction, with no intention of attacking.

This Spiritual Realm has an exit that connects to the Reality World; perhaps the Fierce Ghost that controlled the bride corpse will, by some chance, walk into Reality.

"Hey, you're courting death? Wandering around in the middle of the night, not afraid of breaking taboos—come with me quickly."

At the end of the Road, at the edge of the town.

A Fierce Ghost whose body emitted a rotting stench walked through a dark Alley.

At that moment, a black‑robed man emerged from the Alley, waving and shouting at the ghost.

It seemed attracted by the words; the ghost, which had been heading toward the town center, abruptly turned and headed deeper into the Alley.

"Come quickly, this way."

The black‑robed man, seeing the ghost change direction, immediately walked into the deep part of the Alley and vanished into the darkness.

Only deep within the Alley, reminder calls and urging voices kept echoing.

"Only staring at the ghosts that just entered this city? Do they possess intelligence? Or is it caused by the Ghost Domain?"

Zhang Hao watched the scene from afar, his mind constantly pondering.

After about ten minutes, the Fierce Ghost emitting the rotting stench seemed to have been dealt with.

The black‑robed man reappeared at the Alley's exit, apparently searching for a target.

Even when Zhang Hao, kneeling on the Ghost Coffin, approached the black‑robed man, it made no unusual move.

"It didn't even glance at me, not even a hint of reaction."

Zhang Hao stood at the Alley's exit, a terrifying Supernatural Aura emanating from him, causing each Fierce Ghost summoned by the black‑robed man to instinctively flee whenever they drew near.

Time passed slowly, though it's unclear how long—perhaps an hour or two.

During that time, the black‑robed man standing before the Alley called out to and waved at eight ghosts in total, but those ghosts instinctively fled once they approached Zhang Hao.

It was a covert contest; logically, if that ghost possessed intelligence, it should have been unable to endure Zhang Hao's provocation.

But this ghost seemed completely oblivious; every time it encountered a suitable target, it would wave and shout, as if Zhang Hao didn't exist.

"Is it deliberately disguising itself? Or truly lacking intelligence?"

Zhang Hao stared at the deep lane, not underestimating any ghost's patience.

Fierce Ghosts have no lifespan limit; once they truly gain intelligence, enduring a few hours is nothing.

The Wish Ghost spent a whole month cultivating the starving dead ghost.

The Ghost Cabinet, in order to find the red room and the bride, continuously made various deals with Yang Jian.

Human Skin Paper, to cause Yang Jian's death, even when it knows there is no chance of luring him into a trap, still sets up a trap without actually striking, only to have a chance to replace Yang Jian when Yang Jian's Fierce Ghost Dead Machine occurs and he becomes Abnormal.

Even Zhang Hao himself, to master the ghost painting, is willing to let Qin Lao lock him up for several months.

Time holds no meaning for ghosts; it merely slows the growth rate of Fierce Ghosts.

Thus Zhang Hao finds it hard to judge, through this contest, whether this Alley truly possesses intelligence.

"We still have to go in and see."

Zhang Hao retrieved the Ghost Coffin and the Flower Sedan Chair, because this Road can only accommodate one person.

When Zhang Hao and the Ghost Bride stepped into the Alley, the black‑robed man at the Alley's exit suddenly vanished in a bizarre manner.

Then, from the darkness ahead came a familiar reminder.

"Here, come quickly."

(End of Chapter)