Chapter 44: Silence

On the road.

Xu Zhengzhi opened his phone and tapped open Weibo.

He planned to first expose this matter on Weibo!

As he hurriedly edited the text, pouring all his humiliation, anger, and despair into his fingertips, a strange chill surged up his spine straight to his Heavenly Spirit Cover.

He instinctively raised his head and looked at the shop window glass across the road not far away.

In the glass's reflection, a black, license‑less van was quietly parked at the roadside.

Since he left the police station, this van seemed to have been following him, neither too close nor too far.

Xu Zhengzhi's heart sank sharply.

Those who come bear ill intent.

In the past, his first thought would have been to seek help from the police.

But now...

He dare not, and is even less willing.

He pretended nothing was wrong, put away his phone, got up, and turned into a nearby bustling small‑goods market.

He quickened his pace, weaving through the crowded flow, his ears ramrod straight, catching any sound behind him.

The feeling of being stared at by a beast clung to him like a shadow.

He suddenly turned and darted into a narrow, damp back alley.

Immediately, he broke into a frantic run!

His physique was excellent; years of traveling had honed a strong build.

The alley twisted and turned; the van could absolutely not get in!

The wind howled in his ears, his lungs burning with pain.

He glanced back; no one was pursuing at the alley mouth.

He shook them off!

Xu Zhengzhi felt a surge of joy, and his steps grew faster.

As long as he could run to the main road ahead and hail a taxi, he would be safe!

Just as he rushed out of the alley, about to step onto the sunny stretch that represented 'safety'...

Suddenly, two burly men burst out from either side of the alley entrance!

The one on the left held a steel pipe as thick as an arm.

The one on the right bore a ferocious scar across his face.

Xu Zhengzhi's pupils contracted sharply; trying to stop his feet was already too late!

Bang!

A sharp pain shot through his side neck.

A heavy blow from a blunt stick struck his neck hard.

The world spun.

The world before him was torn into countless spinning fragments, finally plunging into utter darkness.

It was unknown how much time had passed.

A pungent mix of rust and dust flooded his nostrils.

Xu Zhengzhi woke amid intense pain.

He found himself tightly bound to an iron chair inside a huge, abandoned garment factory.

The towering workshop was vast, its surroundings piled with armless, legless plastic dummy models.

Those models struck various poses; in the dim light they cast twisted shadows, their hollow eye sockets staring straight at him.

Awake?

A cold woman's voice sounded.

Xu Zhengzhi laboriously lifted his head.

A middle‑aged woman in a fur coat, wearing heavy makeup, sat opposite him, holding a ladies' cigarette, appraising him with interest.

She was precisely the head of the traffickers, Hua Jie.

Behind her stood several thick‑thumbed lackeys, including the scar‑faced man who had knocked him out at the alley entrance.

"Little hero, you're quite capable—have you also learned to fish?"

Hua Jie exhaled a smoke ring, her eyes icy cold without a trace of warmth.

"Playing online, being a big V, feels great, right? You just love showing off your sense of justice before the whole nation of netizens."

She rose, walked up to Xu Zhengzhi, and lifted his chin with her scarlet fingernail.

"I ask you, where's the backup? Do you still have a backup of the stuff you filmed?"

"What about your accomplices? Who else is with you?"

Xu Zhengzhi spat a mouthful of bloody saliva onto her face.

Pah!

Hua Jie's smile vanished instantly.

She stepped back, took a vise from a lackey's hand, and ordered expressionlessly:

"Prize open his mouth for me."

"Pull out his nails one by one."

"Let's see whose is harder—his bones or my vise!"

A heart‑rending scream echoed in the vast workshop.

His flesh and blood were a blur.

Xu Zhengzhi felt every inch of his nerves being repeatedly seared by a red-hot branding iron.

But he gritted his teeth tightly, refusing to utter a single word.

He knew he would surely die today.

Begging for mercy was pointless.

He used his last strength to etch each of their faces deep into his memory.

Hua Jie's face, smeared with cheap cosmetics.

The scar on Dao Ba Lian's face that twitched when he smirked.

Every expression, every gaze.

If......

If, after death, vengeful spirits truly exist......

If I become a Fierce Ghost, I will surely make you pay blood for blood!

I will also take this despair back!

Return it to you, return it to this corrupt system!

I will make you beasts in human skin taste my present agony!

"Damn! Hua Jie, this kid is a tough nut! His mouth is too tight!"

A lackey, exhausted, threw down his wrench, panting.

Xu Zhengzhi had become a bloody figure, his breath faint, only a weak rise and fall of his chest proving he was still alive.

Hua Jie, seeing that she could get nothing out of him, also lost her patience.

She looked with disgust at the pool of filthy blood on the ground and waved her hand.

"Enough, stop the nonsense."

"Make him shut up forever."

"Clean it up neatly, leave no trace."

Several lackeys exchanged a glance, their faces showing a cruel grin.

They carried the mangled Xu Zhengzhi toward an industrial cutting machine in the corner of the workshop.

Amid the grating sound of the machine starting up and the wild laughter of the beasts.

Xu Zhengzhi's final consciousness was utterly engulfed by boundless pain and darkness.

He felt his body being torn apart, his soul shredded.

His devotion to justice and yearning for light were utterly shattered at the last moment by merciless betrayal and extreme torture.

Then, he transformed into something unprecedented, pure to the extreme......

Hatred!

Half an hour later.

Several lackeys hummed a tune, stuffing each vacuum-sealed package into the hollow, discarded clothing mannequins.

"Hua Jie's trick is brilliant—who would have thought a person was hidden in this pile of trash?"

"Alright, hurry up and work—Hua Jie's taking us out for a fun night!"

They carefully cleaned the bloodstains on the floor, turned off the cutting machine, and then left the factory arm in arm.

The massive iron door was locked from the outside.

The factory fell back into a deathly silence.

Time trickled by, second by second.

Suddenly.

"Hiss......"

An extremely faint sound, like a gas leak, came from the neck seam of a stuffed female mannequin.

A thick, ink-like strand of black vapor seeped out from the seams of that plastic shell.

Then came the second, the third......

In the mountain-like pile of mannequins, more and more black seams began to ominously leak that black vapor.

The black vapor grew more and more, thicker and thicker.

They gathered in midair, swirling and entwining.

It seemed as if countless unseen wronged spirits were wailing and howling.

From the most fervent faith in justice, under the vilest betrayal, was born the most terrifying vengeance.

An unprecedented, surging torrent of resentment was quietly forming in this forgotten factory.