Hong Tianjiang was in a good mood. He proudly stuck out his chest, held his head high, and received the worship from hundreds of ghosts. Then, he explained his story to me.

“Ever since I was a little boy, all of the people in this village have looked down on me…” Hong Tianjiang’s voice was as cold as ice.

The way he had started his speech told me that he was a man who had grown up with a twisted mentality. He didn’t regret anything. After all, he did make a deal with an evil spirit to achieve what he wanted.

At this moment, Hong Tianjiang didn’t look as nice as he used to be. He started to talk sternly. “Today is a good day! A moment ago, I was so happy that I forgot myself and chatted with you for a while. It’s true that when one’s happy, they will become more talkative.”

Now I understood why Hong Tianjiang had suddenly talked a lot this evening. I didn’t doubt him at that time, but I now remembered he tried to drive the topic to power claiming many times. I was dull enough to explain a lot of the moral aspects related to this matter.

At this moment, after thinking about it, I wanted to strangle myself to death. This man was an honest farmer. How could he suddenly have a desire for power?

Hong Tianjiang then started to tell me his story about what he had experienced. Hong Tianjiang’s mother had passed away when they were very young. Old Hong brought up his sons alone. Life was hard and he had to struggle a lot to make ends meet. That was why the Hong family didn’t have a high position in Jintian Village.

His brother, Hong Tianbao, had a large build. Not many kids dared to bully him. At the same time, Hong Tianjiang was a skinny kid and he was always nice to people. Naturally, he became the target of the bullies in the village.

Later on, Hong Tianbao grew up to be a smart and talented man. Under his brother’s glow, Hong Tianjiang became more and more inferior.

After Hong Tianbao left home to enter the jade business, Hong Tianjiang stayed and worked as a farmer. Hong Tianjiang was jealous. He thought that his brother had forgotten about him and that his brother would let him stay in this countryside and work as a farmer for the rest of his life.

But that wasn’t the most important factor. The most important factor was that no woman in this village wanted to marry him. Every time his father wanted to arrange a marriage for him, the villagers denied him. Some even mocked Hong Tianjiang and said that no one would want to marry a dummy like him.

Eventually, even someone like Widow Li was put on his list of matches. In the countryside, widows were considered unlucky people. It was enough to tell how unwelcome Hong Tianjiang was in this village. However, Hong Tianjiang was even more enraged that Widow Li rejected him!

“Why?! She’s just a widow. When I laid my eyes on her, she should have agreed immediately. How could a widow like her disdain me?”

Hong Tianjiang couldn’t control himself. But then, his voice turned into despicable laughter. “Well, well, she disdained me, and what happened? She still has to follow me, doesn’t she?”

As soon as I heard this, I knew it was the beginning of Hong Tianjiang’s evil path. I asked him to tell me more details. He thought that I was interested in his story. He acted like a child sharing his best toy with a friend. He told me what he did, which made me curse like a filthy animal under my breath!

After being rejected by Widow Li, he couldn’t walk with his head held high in this village.

He came up with a plan. It was late at night and dark enough that people couldn’t see things. He broke into Widow Li’s house. Widow Li lives in a corner far from the main road. Even if they were loud, people wouldn’t be able to hear them. Moreover, Widow Li didn’t light up her house to save money on utilities. People knew that her house was dark at night.

“You don’t know how awesome that feeling was.” Hong Tianjiang licked his lips and smiled horribly. “People were walking outside. She wanted to scream, but she couldn’t. I threatened her and told her that if she screamed and people came, I would tell them that she’d seduced me! Oh well, a widow seducing an old bachelor! She has a son, so she had to keep living for him!”

I clenched my fists. I looked at Hong Tianjiang, who was standing in front of me, and thought about the fact that I’d been eating with him and sleeping at his houses for days. I felt so disgusted.

He continued his story. “I didn’t even need to cover her mouth. She didn’t dare to scream. You don’t know how beautiful and satisfying her face changed while under my body!”

“What happened after that?” I didn’t want to hear him insult a widow. From her recent look, I knew Widow Li was already a ghost. But Widow Li didn’t protest against him. Why did Hong Tianjiang kill her?

“After that?” Hong Tianjiang grinned maliciously as if it was the best memory of his life. “After that, except for the times her son came home, I went to her house every night. I finally know why every man wants to marry a wife. Oh, you know, that feeling. Tch tch. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that.”

Hong Tianjiang was sinking in his memories. Widow Li was a mild and tender woman. Since Hong Tianjiang treated her well, she stopped rejecting him. She started to think about marrying him.

However, a bad incident happened during the weekend. Widow Li’s son, who was studying in another city, had a break and decided to go home to surprise Widow Li. When he saw the mother he had always respected rolling in bed with Hong Tianjiang, his face changed. He didn’t enter the house and returned to school immediately. Moreover, he strongly disagreed with his mother about marrying Hong Tianjiang.

To Widow Li, her son was most important to her. Since her son didn’t like to see her with Hong Tianjiang, she started to reject Hong Tianjiang. Since Hong Tianjiang had tasted the sweetness, he didn’t want to end their relationship like this. He kept visiting her and when Widow Li didn’t agree to have an intimate time with him, he forced her.

After forcing his secret lover many times, Hong Tianjiang’s patience was drained. One time, he was so angry he couldn’t control himself and threw the candle holder by the bedside at Widow Li. Half of her face was burned. She screamed in agony. Hong Tianjiang was afraid that she would alert people. Immediately, he used the blanket to muffle her screams. However, after a few minutes, Widow Li stopped breathing.

Since it was the first time Hong Tianjiang had killed a person, he was scared. Fortunately for him, Widow Li was an introvert and rarely left her house. There was nothing strange if she disappeared for a few days. However, paper can’t wrap fire. The death of widow Li was exposed. Hong Tianjiang was scared. If the people in the village contacted her son, they would eventually make him a suspect.

Right at that moment, he found that the red turban his father loved was taking action. Later on, he learned that the red turban in his house was left by the leader of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement. Although he wasn’t a well-educated man, he had grown up in Jintian Village. Of course, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom wasn’t an unfamiliar topic to him.

The evil spirit started to entice him into putting on the red turban. As long as Hong Tianjiang listened to the spirit, it would help him solve all of his problems. Hong Tianjiang wasn’t a fool. He knew that if he put it on, the spirit would possess him. Thus, he tried to make his father wear the red turban instead of him.

Indeed, not even two days after Old Hong wore the red turban on his head, bad things started to happen in the village. Someone robbed the houses and some homes were burned unknowingly. Since people were in trouble, they were too preoccupied to worry about the widow’s business. They buried Widow Li. No one remembered to notify her son about her death.

“If they hadn’t seen my father burn the house, I wouldn’t have had to ask Hong Tianbao to come home…” Hong Tianjiang’s voice was indifferent. It sounded as though he didn’t consider Hong Tianbao as his older brother.

“I made him come back just to use his money to muffle their stinky mouths. I didn’t expect that he would bring you here.”

Hong Tianjiang wasn’t pleased with my presence. Moreover, since he was afraid that I would doubt him, he didn’t interfere with me.

After testing my skills, he knew I wasn’t the spirit’s equal opponent. He made a plan to swap the red turban and asked his father to cooperate with him to play a show for me to see. No matter what, Hong Tianjiang was Old Hong’s son. Although he knew his son had committed a crime, he wasn’t that heartless to ignore him.

That deal had resulted in Hong Tianjiang paying part of his soul in exchange for his safety.

“I didn’t expect that my old man would change his mind. He wanted you to stay…” Hong Tianjiang’s face twisted again. “As long as you’re gone, this village will become my kingdom! Let's see if any of them dare look down on me!”

“Look at Widow Li right now.” He waved his right hand. Widow Li obediently walked to him. Her face had returned to normal. She stood and served beside Hong Tianjiang. Hong Tianjiang contentedly pulled and hugged Widow Li. He talked to me. “See? Even though I’ve killed her, she has to respect me and worship me!”

I sneered and scolded Hong Tianjiang, who had considered himself a supreme being. “You deserve to be disdained!”

How could anybody lay their eyes on a scumbag like him? He hated that people looked down on him. He loathed Hong Tianbao and envied his success. But they grew up in the same family, and people respected Hong Tianbao but not him. Didn’t he think about that?

It proved that Hong Tianjiang had a problem. And now, he didn’t feel sorry or guilty after he had committed many crimes. He was even lower than animals. He was totally pleased with his despicable achievements. What a big scumbag he was!

Hong Tianjiang’s face changed. He pushed Widow Li aside and got up. “I know you have some skills, but Jintian Village is my kingdom. Now, I’m going to ask my people to kill you!”

Then, he made a gesture. The ghosts of the Taiping soldiers followed his order and swarmed toward me. I gave him a disdainful smile. How could these random ghosts be my equal opponents?

I didn’t say anything and lashed my Sirius Whip. Any ghosts the Sirius Whip touched would turn into smoke and vanish. Hong Tianjiang grimaced. Those were the ghost soldiers that he was so proud of.

He didn’t just watch the fun. He blended in the formation of ghost soldiers and gave them commands. Under his command, the ghost soldiers slowly broke my defense.

However, at this moment, I didn’t dare to use my blood. If I was worn out, I would not have enough strength to deal with that filthy animal, Hong Tianjiang!

I tried to pull back and forth with them in hopes that Hong Tianbao would bring Li Mazi here to help me once he realized that I had been away for too long. The magic power of the Sirius Whip was thinning out. Meanwhile, the ghost soldiers were rolling toward me in unceasing waves. Although my Sirius Whip had turned them into smoke, under Hong Tianjiang’s command, they slowly gathered and charged forward again. I couldn’t get rid of them for now.

As I was slowly losing the battle, I started to retreat toward the door. As long as I could get out of here and resist until the morning, Hong Tianjiang wouldn’t have any puppets with him. He would become a tiger that had neither fangs nor claws. It would be much easier to deal with him then!

It seemed he had recognized my intention. Hong Tianjiang accelerated his control. His ghost soldiers moved faster and faster. At this moment, I knew my Sirius Whip wouldn’t work efficiently. I decided to bite my finger to use the blood and risk my life with Hong Tianjiang. Right at this moment, a shadow flew over and tightly hugged Hong Tianjiang from behind.

It was Widow Li! She looked at me. I could see her imploring eyes.

However, her actions had enraged Hong Tianjiang. He began to attack her to get rid of her. Her soul became translucent and eventually transparent, but she still hugged him tightly. She knew that if she kept holding onto him like this, she would perish. Still, she was resolute enough to not let go of him.

I knew she was taking revenge on him!

I didn’t hesitate anymore. My Sirius Whip directly hit the nearest ghost soldiers and turned them into smoke. Then, I ran out of the house.

Hong Tianjiang didn’t chase after me. I ran quickly to the Hong family’s house. I knew Hong Tianjiang wouldn’t dare to attack me in his house. He was the sort of man that had a big mouth but would only do something stealthy behind people’s backs.

I went to find Hong Tianbao and told him every detail of the story. I had to do that because I had to capture Hong Tianjiang tomorrow. If Hong Tianbao didn’t trust me, he would be a big obstacle to me.

Hong Tianbao couldn’t believe it. He sounded shocked. “Brother Jiulin, don’t fabricate things. My younger brother has always been a nice and kind man since he was a little boy. He couldn’t have committed so many evil crimes!”

I knew it was hard for him to accept all of this at once. However, I tried my best to persuade him. I also told him that his father, Old Hong, knew something. It was thanks to his contribution that the play they acted out seemed so real.

Old Hong was sleeping, but Hong Tianbao didn’t mind that. He pulled me to confront his father. When Old Hong found out that I had learned about everything, he was speechless. He kept silent for quite a long time.

His silence made Hong Tianbao believe me. If I had fabricated things to insult them, Old Hong would have jumped and shouted at my face. But he hadn’t said anything. Hong Tianbao had never thought that his brother was behind all of these events. He looked shocked.

“Father, how did you… How could you….” Hong Tianbao grabbed his head in pain.