Chapter 96

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Stealing The Finger Phalanx

ONE HOUR LATER

When an average-looking middle-aged man got out of the car and stepped into the main lobby of the hotel, Ghost Gentleman—who had been resting with his eyes closed—opened his eyes.

The black cat stayed in the same room as Ghost Gentleman. It maintained a guarded stance throughout. When Ghost Gentleman moved, it also jumped up immediately while shifting to a defensive posture.

“Very good, vigilant.” Ghost Gentleman observed the astute reaction of the black cat and an appreciative smile formed on his face. For cooperative missions, it was definitely better to have a teammate that was smart.

“Diao Yongnian, who is also my current owner, is currently on his way up. Find somewhere to hide first. Don’t let him find you.” Ghost Gentleman instructed.

The black cat hesitated and did not move. There were still doubts in its mind.

“Don’t worry. Diao Yongnian is an idiot. As long as you retrieve the finger phalanx, he would no longer be able to control me. Without me, he’s just a useless piece of trash. He won’t be able to catch you then.” Ghost Gentleman looked around the surroundings. He then pointed at the gap below the television cabinet, “Hide there.”

The black cat looked towards where he was pointing at to find a space below the television cabinet. Its cat instincts also felt that that particular spot was a good location. It was difficult for others to discover it if it laid there. In addition, the immediate surroundings were very spacious so there would be an easy route of escape once it exited the space.

The black cat sent one last odd look at Ghost Gentleman before turning around, nimbly jumping down from the sofa and sneaking into the space below the television cabinet in the blink of an eye. The instant it hid itself, the originally spirited Ghost Gentleman—who had been shrouded with a dense layer of ghost energy that it was even wary of—suddenly turned weak. His initial solid body swiftly faded into a translucent form, as if he was just an ordinary soul that could disperse into thin air at any time.

The black cat’s big and round eyes instantly widened even larger. If it was not for that fact that it had personally witnessed the change, it would have thought that the other party was extremely weak and could be simply exterminated with a single swipe of its claws.

As expected of a ghost of a former human, he was so sly! The black cat thought harshly to itself.

Ghost Gentleman seemingly became aware of black cat’s gaze on him. He turned his head to send a look towards the direction the black cat was in. He then lifted up his long and pale finger to his nose and shushed the cat.

Everything was now in place and ready.

About 2 minutes later, a beep sound came from the room door. Following which, a middle-aged man entered with hurried steps.

“Xiao Tao.” Diao Yongnian shouted towards the room. However, the living room was extremely quiet and he did not receive any response.

Diao Yongnian was surprised and he started to observe the room. He then saw Ghost Gentleman on the sofa and looked extremely weak.

“Why do you look so frail?” Diao Yongnian was shocked at the sight of the debilitated Ghost Gentleman.

“I spent too much energy during the battle with that practitioner 2 days ago, but you refused to let me return to the phalanx to hibernate these days. It’s not unusual for me to turn into such a weak state now.” Ghost Gentleman rasped.

Diao Yongnian’s expression gained a trace of awkwardness. Ghost Gentleman had indeed asked to return back to the bone to hibernate. However, such a hibernation would last 3 days. This meant that Ghost Gentleman would only wake up 3 days later. Now that MA had issued an arrest order for him, he could not afford to let his precious safeguard to enter into a deep sleep before he reached a safehouse. Therefore, he rejected Ghost Gentleman’s request at that time. He would think about this request, but only after he leave Hai City.

“I’ve already bought the plane tickets. We would be leaving in a while. You can return to the finger phalanx to rest once we are on the plane.” Diao Yongnian replied in a gentle manner.

“Then feed me some blood first.” Ghost Gentleman requested.

“Wait till we are on the plane.” Diao Yongnian rejected.

“In that case, if anything happens along the way, don’t blame me for not helping out.” A fake smile surfaced on Ghost Gentleman’s expression.

“You-…!” Diao Yongnian was angered. This Ghost Gentleman was obviously threatening him. If he were to not feed the ghost blood, the ghost would go on a strike.

As the holder of the finger phalanx—the master of Ghost Gentleman—Diao Yongnian should have been able to forcefully order Ghost Gentleman around based on the contract embedded in the phalanx. However, Ghost Gentleman was no ordinary ghost. It was told that at the time when the Ghost Gentleman had been ritual refined by his ancestors, the ghost was already at the level of a ghost general. Ghost Gentleman had a prideful character. Thus, even if the ghost was bound by the contract, if Diao Yongnian were to overly provoke the ghost too much, it was possible for Ghost Gentleman to forcefully stop himself from taking action to help Diao Yongnian at the expense of his own soul dissipating into nothingness.

In fact, there was a similar incident inscribed in his family records. At that time, the holder of the phalanx at that time abused the powers of Ghost Gentleman through the power of the contract. Then, during a life-threatening battle, Ghost Gentleman chose to suffer through the burning of his soul rather than appear to help his master of that time. Ultimately, his master was forced to accede to the ghost’s requests.

From that time onwards, all the subsequent Diao family members that owned the finger phalanx did not dare to push the limits of him. Ghost Gentleman was also clever. As long as the demands of the owner of the phalanx were not excessive, he would definitely obey. As such, the relationship between both parties remained peaceful for hundreds of years.

And now it was clearly apparent that Diao Yongnian had angered Ghost Gentleman for refusing his request to return to the finger phalanx to rest when the ghost was in such a weak state.

Diao Yongnian was a cautious person. Furthermore, he knew the strength of MA, he was concerned that he would be caught by them and so he insisted on not letting Ghost Gentleman hibernate. However, if Ghost Gentleman was in such a weakened state, the ghost would not be able to help if they encountered trouble during the journey anyway. After hesitating for a moment, Diao Yongnian gritted his teeth and took out a wine glass from the wine cabinet. He then searched for a knife and harshly slashed at his own wrist.

With a slight grunt, he collected the red blood that flowed down his wrist into the wine glass. After a significant amount of fresh blood had accumulated in the wine glass, he reached out his arm to take off the necklace—the finger phalanx strung through it—that hung around his neck and put the phalanx—its surface entirely inscribed with runes—into the wine glass.

In an instant, the fresh blood was automatically absorbed by the bone piece. Gradually, a crimson layer of blood energy started to form on the originally yellowish-white bone. At the same time, the body of the weakened Ghost Gentleman seemingly became more solid. The instantaneous effect was obvious to the naked eye.

Diao Yongnian endured the throbbing pain and spoke to Ghost Gentleman, “This amount of blood should be enough for you to recover a portion of your strength.”

“Yes.” Ghost Gentleman was an easy-going ghost. Seeing that the other party had given him some blood, he did not raise further requests. He shut his eyes and focused on absorbing the blood energy.

Diao Yongnian was relieved upon seeing Ghost Gentleman’s reaction. He then took a look at the time. It was already 6pm in the evening. The plane he had bought tickets for would be departing at 8pm tonight. Ghost Gentleman would require around 15 minutes to absorb that amount of blood. He could make use of this time to pack his things.

“Xiao Tao.” Diao Yongnian called out as he headed towards his disciple’s, Xiao Tao’s, room.

“Master, you are back-…. Your hand!” Xiao Tao noticed traces of blood on Diao Yongnian’s wrist.

“Take out the first aid kit in my room and start packing up our stuff. We’re leaving immediately.” Diao Yongnian instructed his disciple and swiftly returned to his room next door after.

Xiao Tao quickly ran out from his room and started to search for a first aid kit in the storage cabinet at the corner of the living room. He then speedily ran to his master Diao Yongnian’s room with it. In his haste, he forgot to close his room door after running out of it.

Whoosh! A mass of shadow came out from underneath the television cabinet. In a blink of an eye, it climbed up onto the table in the living room. The black cat squinted his eyes as it momentarily scrutinized the finger phalanx that was submerged within the fresh blood contained in the wine glass. After confirming that the bone piece was not dangerous, it opened its mouth and bit onto the red string that the bone was strung on.

Ghost Gentleman could no longer suppress his smile at this point of time.

The black cat threw a glance in his direction with its golden eyes. It then turned around and gazed towards Xiao Tao’s room. It recalled Ghost Gentleman mentioning that there was a balcony in that room that it could use to escape.

Ghost Gentleman gave the black cat a nod.

The cat no longer hesitated and ran towards Xiao Tao’s room so quickly that its figure blurred during its motions. Just as it started dashing out, the finger phalanx was forcefully pulled out from the wine glass. Subsequently, the wine glass was dragged across the table by the force and broke into pieces as it landed on the ground with a loud crash. The remaining blood inside that had yet to be absorbed by the bone piece immediately stained the carpet blood-red.

“What’s that sound?” Diao Yongnian rushed out from his room the moment he heard the crash—white bandages still trailing after his wrist as they had yet to be properly binded. At the same time, the black cat dashed past his feet and entered Xiao Tao’s room that was situated next to his own.

“The finger phalanx?” He was extremely familiar with the power of the finger phalanx. As such, he did not even need to see the broken wine glass to confirm what had happened and started chasing after the black cat in reflex.

However, the speed of a human was definitely no match for a cat’s, not to mention that the black cat had already planned its escape beforehand. By the time Diao Yongnian barged into his disciple’s, Xiao Tao’s, room, the black cat had already bolted to the balcony. Just when Diao Yongnian used his utmost strength to charge towards the balcony, the black cat had leapt into the air and jumped down from the 36th floor.

“No!” Diao Yongnian howled as he pounced towards the balcony. However, by the time he reached the balcony and looked down, he could only spot a mass of black shadow continuously jumping down floor by floor between stairways. The black cat that had stolen the finger phalanx actually made use of each floor’s balcony that was designed in a staggered manner and absconded the building. In the blink of an eye, it had descended more than 10 floors. Its speed was infinitely quicker than the lift’s.

Diao Yongnian almost wanted to jump down directly to chase after the cat.

“Oh no, my bone was stolen.” Ghost Gentleman appeared at the side of Diao Yongnian some time ago. He was looking down from the balcony with a woeful expression.

“Why are you not chasing after it!” Diao Yongnian was enraged. The only one that could catch up with the black cat right now was the ghost, Yuan Bai.

“So what if I don’t?” Ghost Gentleman shot back with another question.

“If you don’t, trust me, I would-….” Diao Yongnian suddenly paused as the expression on his face changed drastically.

“You would what? Use the soulfire to burn me?” In that case, you need to find my finger phalanx first.” a huge grin grew on Ghost Gentleman’s face.

“You did this on purpose!” Diao Yongnian understood what had transpired after looking at Ghost Gentleman’s currently solidified figure that brimmed with power. The ghost had never turned weak in the first place. It was all a hoax by Ghost Gentleman to act weakened for Diao Yongnian to take out the finger phalanx to feed the ghost some blood.

“So what if I did it on purpose?” Ghost Gentleman gave a shrug and admitted the truth.

“Don’t forget that I still have a portion of your bones secured in my Diao family house. Once I return, I will ritual refine another piece of your bone again. At that time, you would still be a ghost slave of mine.” Diao Yongnian threatened.

“Oh, I would have forgotten it if you didn’t remind me. But it’s alright. I will chase after that cat after you ritual refine another one of my bones.” Ghost Gentleman replied.

The ghost was obviously trying to provoke Diao Yongnian. After Diao Yongnian had ritual refined another bone piece, why would he still require the stolen finger phalanx!

“Believe it or not, I will eradicate your soul!” Diao Yongnian gritted his teeth. This ghost was just a slave of his and yet he dared to act so arrogantly.

“You wouldn’t. Without me, you are just trash.” Ghost Gentleman’s tone changed, as a mocking expression formed on his face.

Diao Yongnian was so infuriated to the point his bloodshot eyes were almost bulging out of their sockets. “Wait till I ritual refine another one of your bone pieces. I will use soulfire to torch you every single day till the point whereby you would plead for death. I will make you kneel in front of me and beg me to finish you off.”

“In that case, you better hurry up. You better not be caught by the Metaphysical Association before you even reach the airport.” Ghost Gentleman reminded kindly.

“You-….” Diao Yongnian seemingly thought of something as his expression changed completely.

“Still not intending to escape?” After finishing, Ghost Gentleman leapt down from the balcony. His figure leisurely floated downwards just like a green leaf before vanishing from sight in a blink of an eye.

At this time, Diao Yongnian wanted to swallow Ghost Gentleman’s soul whole. However, he did not have time to worry about that now. Currently, escaping was of utmost importance. He turned around to rush back to his room. He did not bother with packing his belongings further and immediately started running out after retrieving his identification documents.

On the other side, after jumping down from the 36th floor, Ghost Gentleman’s figure gradually turned transparent and he automatically returned to his finger phalanx. After which, he materialized from the bone piece and landed in front of the black cat.

Discovering the sudden appearance of Ghost Gentleman, the black cat stiffened subconsciously.

“You kitty, why are you so cowardly? My finger phalanx is already in your mouth yet you’re still this afraid of me hurting you?” Ghost Gentleman huffed.

The black cat became stunned for a moment before reacting to Ghost Gentleman’s words. That’s right. Even though this evil ghost was powerful, his finger phalanx was in its mouth now, so the ghost would not dare to harm it. Thinking of this, the cat held its head high and a sneering expression could be seen on its face. It then swept a condescending look at Ghost Gentleman.

Ghost Gentleman could not help but burst out in laughter. He did not want to bicker with a cat. He gazed at the ongoing traffic flow and asked, “Don’t you want to rush back home? This finger phalanx has Diao Yongnian’s sigil on it. He could follow this sigil here.”

The black cat looked at Ghost Gentleman and suddenly swiped its claws in front of it with a menacing look.

“Are you trying to say that you are my master now, and want to command me to go deal with Diao Yongnian?” Ghost Gentleman guessed.

The black cat’s eyes lit up and it nodded.

“That’s not possible. Even though I, too, want to beat him up.” Ghost Gentleman leisurely fanned himself and continued speaking, “600 years ago, Diao Yongnian’s ancestors used a blood ritual to refine me and forced me to sign a ghost slave contract with them. As long as the contract exists, I’m not able to harm anyone from the Diao bloodline. Thus, I can’t help you.”

If he could take action physically, he would have done so earlier on and not just use words.

The black cat heard the ghost’s explanation and immediately darted off. It swiftly jumped onto a car passing by. It did not care where the car was going as its priority was to get out of the hotel vicinity first.

Ghost Gentleman laughed out loud and followed after the cat swiftly like the wind.

If a metaphysical practitioner were to pass by this area at this time, they would definitely witness an odd sight. In the never-ceasing traffic flow and the sea of twinkling neon lights, there was a graceful gentleman dressed in a traditional chinese outfit sitting on top of the roof of a car in an elegant and refined manner. There was also a black cat that looked extremely intelligent sitting in front of the man. It was like a picture of a god that had descended down to the mortal realm with his spiritual pet by his side in his boredom.

7.30PM

Wu Miaomiao and Ji Lang had just returned home. The moment they stepped into the apartment, Wu Miaomiao eagerly opened up the battle trophies from today’s shopping trip. They were couple-pyjamas from a certain brand. She then took out the male set of pyjamas and forced it into Ji Lang’s hands.

“My dearest husband, go take a shower and change into this.” The pyjamas set was bought in the morning. Since the moment they bought the couple outfit, Wu Miaomiao had been anticipating this exact moment of returning home at night.

When night fell, they would return home to take a shower. After showering, they would change to their pyjamas that were bought by her today.

She had bought the pyjamas so this meant that she could remove them….

“You’re looking forward to wearing this couple-pyjamas with me that much?” Ji Lang chuckled.

Wu Miaomiao was someone that could not hide her thoughts. From the very moment she entered the sleepwear store, to the point she chose to buy the couple pyjamas, he knew of the hidden schemes of Wu Miaomiao. She was a little girl after all. Girls usually liked to indulge themselves in romantic acts, such as couple-watches and couple-pyjamas. Previously in his university days, he witnessed a lot of couples doing similar things.

Right, wearing them together. Only after they wore them together then could they remove the clothes together.

She would remove his, and he would remove hers.

Wu Miaomiao nodded her head profusely. She felt that she was such a thoughtful girlfriend. If it were only her removing his clothes, her dearest husband would seem to be at a disadvantage. So she should also wear the pyjamas and let him take them off her too. “Yes yes yes. I want to wear it together.”

“Alright.” Ji Lang could only helplessly oblige to her request.

They had yet to wash the newly bought pyjamas, but what could he do since this little girl was so eager to wear it.

He silently sighed to himself and entered the bathroom with the set of pyjamas in his hand. 10 minutes later, he walked out of the bathroom, wearing the newly bought pyjamas. It was made of pure cotton and light blue in colour with cute cartoon pig designs sewn all over—the kind that Ji Lang would definitely not have bought for himself.

Wu Miaomiao looked at the appearance of Ji Lang in the couple-pyjamas. Her originally glittering eyes grew even brighter at the sight. This made Ji Lang suspect there were lightbulbs, which could be adjusted in brightness, installed in this girl’s eyes.

“Are you not going to wash up?” Ji Lang glanced at her.

“Oh, I’m going right now.” Wu Miaomiao immediately picked up her pyjamas and rushed into the bathroom.

He was humoured from watching her hurried actions. Though, it indeed felt really nice to directly feel the love of someone.

Ring ring ring….

About 10 minutes after Wu Miaomiao entered the bathroom, her mobile phone started ringing. Since it was her phone and was located in her bag, Ji Lang did not rummage through her bag on his own accord and continued to let the phone ring while he dried his hair.

Soon, the ringing tone stopped. Shortly after, it started ringing again.

Ji Lang glanced at Wu Miaomiao’s bag, hesitating on whether he should pick up the call. During the time where he was conflicted, Wawa, which was originally sitting on the sofa watching an animation show, suddenly crawled over and dug out the phone from Wu Miaomiao’s bag. It then brought the phone to Ji Lang on its own initiative and started “AH”-ing, as if urging Ji Lang to pick up the call.

Ji Lang was extremely pleased at Wawa’s action of treating him as part of its own family. He looked at the caller ID reflected on the phone’s screen and the last wisp of hesitation within his heart vanished.

This was because the number of this call showed that it was dialled from the area where the villa was situated.

Ji Lang reached out to accept the call. The moment the call was connected, a tragic female voice could be heard.

“Mistress Witch, help! An evil ghost of hundreds of years followed Master Cat back home!”

Ji Lang’s expression changed. He immediately got up, walked towards the bathroom and spoke to Wu Miaomiao, “Miaomiao, something happened at the villa!”

“What!” At this time, Wu Miaomiao had already finished showering. In order to quicken the process of changing to her pyjamas, she did not wash her hair. As such, her shower time greatly reduced. At this moment, she was wearing a pink pyjamas piece which complemented Ji Lang’s. She opened the bathroom door.

“Mistress Witch, please come quickly. This ghost is too horrifying.” Liu Meier’s voice could be heard from the phone.

Wu Miaomiao’s expression shifted. “The black cat has found Ghost Divinator.”

“I’ll go change my clothes.” After finishing, Ji Lang threw the phone to Wu Miaomiao and returned back to his room to change clothes.

Change-… change clothes?

Wu Miaomiao took a look at the pyjamas that she had just worn. Vexation gradually filled her heart.

If she had known this would happen, she would not have instructed the black cat to go search for the ghost today!

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