Chapter 38: 37, Possession

37, Possession

"The paper face is behind me?"

"Bai Xiue is behind me?"

Thoughts flashed one after another in Zhou Chang's mind; he wanted to twist his head and see if Bai Xiue or the paper face was right behind him.

But at this moment, his body seemed frozen beneath a sheet of ice; no matter how the thought-threads moved within him, he could not awaken this corpse of Zhou Chang!

"It's the paper face's doing."

Another thought flashed through Zhou Chang's mind.

He watched helplessly as the dog-faced woman surged menacingly toward him, the iron hook in her hand about to pierce his neck—yet Zhou Chang suddenly grew calm.

Zhou Chang's will flowed along the thought-threads spread throughout the corpse's body.

With a shift of his thought, all the iron thought-threads deeply embedded in the corpse suddenly became sharp and hollow at their ends.

In the blink of an eye, all the iron thought-threads seemed to transform into the needles of syringes!

"You want to play this game with me?

Then let's all stop playing!"

Zhou Chang's greatest reliance now was never how many thought-threads he possessed, or the bone thumb-ring on his left thumb.

It was that he now held the power to flip the table!

Once this corpse completes its fetal transformation, it will become a terrifying 'Old Corpse' among the Thought-Demons; Zhou Chang surmised that before he arrived in this world, an invisible hand had already been secretly pushing forward the process of the corpse's fetal transformation.

Zhou Chang fell victim to a 'Ghost Sickness' and was killed by a ghost.

The ghost that killed him should be connected to that invisible hand in the shadows.

What they did was cause Zhou Chang's soul to die, leaving only the corpse's body to undergo fetal transformation, turning it into an Old Corpse!

And Zhou Chang's arrival in this world made him the sole variable in the process they had planned.

His existence was like a protruding nail on a smooth table.

Now, this nail had driven itself even deeper into the current situation.

Once they tried to pull out this nail, Zhou Chang, they would inevitably disturb the critical core, the tangled branches, and even force the entire process to halt because of him!

Buzz!

The iron thought-threads densely spread throughout the corpse's shell began to tremble!

Zhou Chang was about to release all the iron thought-threads and suck dry the nourishing qi within this corpse!

Even though the nourishing qi within the corpse was abundant, if he drained it completely, it would take dozens of days to replenish.

In dozens of days, who could predict that no other variable would arise?

The more precise a plan, the more precisely it must control time.

Moreover, once he swallowed the nourishing qi within the corpse, Zhou Chang himself would likely become the first Thought-Demon; at that time, the masterminds behind the scenes would have to pray that Zhou Chang, now a Thought-Demon, would not trigger any 'chemical reaction' with the corpse he occupied!

But judging from Zhou Chang and Zhou Chang sharing the same birth data and the same circumstances, if Zhou Chang became a Thought-Demon, it would almost certainly trigger a strange chemical reaction with this corpse!

All these were merely possibilities that might occur.

However, now it came down to who had the courage to gamble on this possibility!

The paper face was obviously a bit more 'cowardly'...

Just as Zhou Chang released all the iron thought-threads within his body, preparing to drain the accumulated nourishing qi from the corpse, he heard the paper face gasp in surprise at his right ear—immediately following, Zhou Chang's seemingly frozen body thawed in an instant!

Swish!

At that very moment, the iron hook in the dog-faced woman's hand also thrust forward!

Just as before—Zhou Chang made no fancy moves; he raised his arm, spread his five fingers, and seized the dog-faced woman's wrist; the dagger in his other hand then rose high and stabbed straight at the dog-faced woman's face!

Sss—

The dagger pierced one of the dog-faced woman's eyes, then was suddenly yanked out by Zhou Chang, and stabbed again to blind her other eye!

Multicolored nourishing qi, mixed with foul-smelling dirty blood, poured down from the two holes in the dog-faced woman's face!

It opened its mouth and wailed: "Woo—Third Sister! Third Sister!"

It had never expected such a situation!

The paper face, whom it called Third Sister, merely sighed.

Zhou Chang had stabbed the dog-faced woman's eyes blind with two thrusts; the knife tips even protruded from beneath the long hair cascading down the back of her head, yet it still lived on, showing no signs of death!

Seeing this, Zhou Chang simply grabbed a handful of the dog-faced woman's long hair with one hand, and with the dagger in his other hand, slowly drew it horizontally along the side of the dog-faced woman's neck—

"Aaaaaah!"

The dog-faced woman screamed wildly from her mouth!

Her entire head was severed by Zhou Chang!

That head still thrashed wildly in Zhou Chang's hand, its mouth full of interlocking canine teeth, trying to bite Zhou Chang's arm.

The headless body ran wildly past Zhou Chang with its arms outstretched!

From its neck gushed nourishing qi primarily red in color; most of that rolling nourishing qi scattered in the air, leaving only wisps of pure red qi flowing continuously into the first hole of Zhou Chang's bone thumb-ring.

Within that hole resided the will of 'Ao Duoji'.

Ao Duoji's satisfied whine echoed in Zhou Chang's mind.

Certain nourishing qi within the dog-faced woman's body was highly beneficial to Ao Duoji in the thumb-ring hole, perfectly matching its diet.

What would happen if this nourishing qi was used to continuously nourish Ao Duoji?

At this thought, Zhou Chang spun around and rushed toward the tall headless woman—

After the dog-faced woman lost her head, rolling nourishing qi constantly surged from her neck cavity; her speed of flight actually increased far more than before, rushing like rolling mist and clouds!

In contrast, Zhou Chang at this moment would often take two or three steps before his body stiffened.

His heels would suddenly lift, then suddenly strike the ground.

Moments later, as he watched the headless woman vanish from his sight, Zhou Chang helplessly turned his head; behind him was empty, with no sign of Bai Xiue or the Paper-Faced One:

"You cannot stop me anyway. In the eyes of that dog sister of yours—if it has any mind at all—it will surely think you are deliberately colluding with me, making me pretend to be possessed by you and unable to move, luring it here to kill.

Then let me take the chance to finish it off with a few strokes.

The outcome is already set; why struggle?

You cannot win favor with that dog sister, but let us make a deal; there is still a chance for sincere cooperation..."

Behind Zhou Chang was clearly empty, yet after he spoke these words, the Paper-Faced One's response came to his ears once more.

The cold voice seemed right against his ear; he suddenly turned toward the direction the sound came from, only to grasp at empty air again: "Do you take me for as stupid as that Bai girl, Zhou Langjun?

To cooperate sincerely with you would mean being eaten flesh and bone clean, leaving not even a scrap.

A person like you, fair-faced but black-hearted, seemingly broad and gentle, yet in truth arrogant and selfish; in just three or five days, you have already grown into a dangerous figure. After some more time, who knows what demon lord or calamity star you will become..."

While the Paper-Faced One spoke, Zhou Chang repeatedly turned his head, looking around, yet never saw any trace of the Paper-Faced One.

Only the low growl from Ao Duoji inside the ring on his hand, as if discovering prey, kept reminding him—the Paper-Faced One was right behind him!

He looked down again at his tiptoeing feet and suddenly realized—the Paper-Faced One had taken possession of this Jiangshi body!

It could also possess this Jiangshi body!

It just did not have as high a degree of control over this Jiangshi body as he did!

"You speak of me as if you know me very well, like an old married couple." Zhou Chang bantered with the Paper-Faced One while his left hand groped all over his own body.

To an outsider, such actions would inevitably appear lecherous.

The Paper-Faced One's voice grew colder: "What are you doing?"

"Nothing. Since I cannot leave anyway, why not entertain myself for a while?" Zhou Chang shook his head; his palm touched a horizontal bone at the back of his head, and from the ring on that hand came Ao Duoji's excited roar—

Zhou Chang's eyes lit up: "Ah!

Caught it!"