CHAPTER 252: CHAPTER 252 LIU QIANG

After receiving a certain response, Jiang Yuan felt slightly relieved.

In the torrential rain, Liu Qiang stood for a long time but couldn’t determine on which floor the ghost child was wailing.

After all, the luxury residential area located near the city center’s core has a very high safety index, preventing close access. The distance, coupled with the dense raindrops hitting the umbrella fabric, made the thumping noise a real test for one’s hearing.

What’s more, the ghost child’s cries were almost maddening, echoing eerily in the rain, sometimes near, sometimes far, filled with melancholy. Relying on years of experience, he could barely ascertain it was in the building right in front of him, unable to pinpoint the exact floor.

"Damn it, what unexpected situation did the Child Fiend encounter? Even the Mother Fiend has been increasingly unruly these past few days. What’s going on?" Liu Qiang continuously activated the Secret Technique, trying to summon the out-of-control Child Fiend back.

That night, he released it to claim Cai Changming’s life, but somehow the connection suddenly broke, even causing a backlash that left him bedridden for days before recovering.

At the time, he was scared to death, thinking he’d encountered big trouble, but no further threats came, so Liu Qiang cautiously laid low, not daring to act recklessly.

Finally, seizing today’s best opportunity with the confusing yin-yang rainstorm, he quickly attempted to summon the Child Fiend. Surprisingly, it was certain to be in that building, and as the cries grew increasingly terrifying and intense, he was determined to utilize the Mother Fiend’s aura to summon it back with a little more effort.

But as the wailing abruptly ceased, all his methods seemed to instantly lose effectiveness!

How could this be?

Back then, Liu Qiang spared no effort in refining this most competent pair of Child and Mother Fiends.

He specifically picked a girl from a lowly background with an ordinary appearance, growing up in a male-preferred original family lacking love yet timid, not highly educated, often bullied, and docile.

Step by step, he approached her, orchestrated a hero-saving-beauty encounter, and then gave her meticulous care, allowing her to fall deeply in love with the gentle, handsome, and wealthy uncle without reservation.

When she was immersed in the luxury life and perfect romance, unable to extricate herself, Liu Qiang had someone pose as a human trafficker to abduct her from the street and sell her to an unspeakable place, where she was beaten, humiliated, and brainwashed, causing her to fall from paradise into Hell, filled with despair but unable to even die.

When she was conditioned to be obedient and resigned, a yellow-haired guy played a part of mutual redemption, and she successfully conceived his child, escaped the den of evil under the guy’s "life-or-death" protection after several twists, only to be "saved by true love" again.

Thus, Liu Qiang spent a significant amount of time, energy, and money, manipulating a living person to obtain a perfect target who obeyed his every command and cherished her unborn child.

Under the pretext of loving her and her child, he cared and was attentive, but occasionally mentioned her limited education and lack of intelligence for being kidnapped, complained slightly about her loss of innocence, making her constantly worry, blame herself, yet grateful to Liu Qiang for accepting her.

Just before birth, he "painfully struggled with forced love" and locked the target in the basement, dressed her in custom-made red clothes and shoes, brutally killing mother and child, refining them into Child and Mother Fiend.

Thus, Liu Qiang got a not-so-smart killing tool that even held fantasies about him till the last second of its life.

Love, hatred, fear, resentment, and other complex emotions were unusually strong, condensed into one seamless entity, becoming the world’s one-of-a-kind most perfect Child and Mother Fiends, solely controllable by Liu Qiang.

Although the whole process was labor-intensive and costly, once he possessed these extremely spiteful yet obedient tools, he would never miss his target whenever he wanted to use them.

Especially compared to his predecessors who refined the most malicious Child and Mother Fiends by selecting impoverished pregnant women and casting a Curse, causing two lives lost in one incident, secretly refining the corpses afterward.

Due to economic constraints, many couldn’t even visit hospitals, sudden incidents, inconvenient transportation meant they couldn’t reach hospitals smoothly, so while the success rate was relatively high, the resentfulness wasn’t as severe, nor were they as obedient.

Others would inquire about two-lives-lost dead bodies to steal and refine, not fresh enough with a low success rate, and easily discovered.

"Does Cai have some good tricks, something at home that could trap the Child Fiend?" Thunder rumbled, and the fierce wind blew raindrops against him, Liu Qiang holding an umbrella yet soaking wet.

Brushing the rain off his face, he looked up at the rows of large floor-to-ceiling windows but could no longer trace even a hint of the ghost child’s crying. After much thought, he concluded this was the only possibility.

This was why he usually avoided annoying rich people: the wealthier they were, the more they believed and paid attention to detail. Any genuine article in their possession could easily lead an assault to fail.

However, due to the ferocious refining methods, even those on the path who worship evil spirits have to give way encountering these Child and Mother Fiends;

Liu Qiang personally heard the ghost child cry in fear, so he was certain it was still in this building and unreachable, leaving only one possibility—Child Fiend being trapped, cutting off contact, causing a backlash, wanting to return but unable to!

Thinking about this, he grew more anxious.

Driving Extraordinary objects with a mortal body always demands unconventional sacrifices. Especially nurturing Fiends is more troublesome than nurturing small ghosts; they demand more energy and are greedier, normally sealed it’s alright, once activated either seizing the owner’s lifespan or selecting a suitable target to harm their lives and absorb others’.

Unless absolutely necessary, Liu Qiang would naturally refrain from harming himself, so when crucial times arrive, whenever he activates Child and Mother Fiends, he must find suitable targets for them to devour.

Meanwhile, he could enjoy the benefits—a murderous Fiend refined harshly, after harming others, besides absorbing part for himself, the victim’s remaining lifespan, fortune, etc. would transfer onto him.

Otherwise, without any tempting rewards, who would risk nurturing Fiends?

Years prior, Liu Qiang made a name for himself on the path partially because of nurturing Fiends. With few cameras, chaotic environments, and mixed crowds back then, he had many opportunities.

Nowadays, he couldn’t act so brazenly, originally hoping to cure his illness and pass down his lineage without further turmoil, yet who expected Wu Xiaolan, that bitch, to be involved with Jia Zongliang, openly giving him a cuckold, how could the former boss endure such humiliation?

The media widely covered the scandal, if he didn’t show the adulterers a lesson, how could he maintain his dignity later?

Thus, upon discovering Wu Xiaolan’s soul lingering in the Mortal World unwilling to leave, he grew the vile idea to request her corpse back, extract the heart as bait, refining it into a murdering Fiend.

It only needed a life a day emerging from confining her to her office building, the Fiend formed from Wu Xiaolan would become his new deadly tool, and as she attained freedom, absorbing victims’ lifespans and fortunes would transfer onto him.

Using Jia Zongliang’s indiscretions to cover murders, Liu Qiang believed his plan to be foolproof.

Yet, the new Fiend freshly formed was immediately exorcised and dissolved!

His anticipated absorption of lifespan and fortune vanished into smoke, even the rare inventory Treasure consumed in refining the new Fiend wasted without recouping.

Despite years of cautious behavior, nurturing Fiends eroded Liu Qiang’s rationality; he was furious, nearly insane, discovering Cai Changming, that old guy, thwarted his efforts, so he dispatched Mother Fiend to assassinate Jia Zongliang and sent Child Fiend to deal with Cai Changming.

If he could kill the old guy, his lifespan, fortune, and wealth would become his!

Once again, the promising expectations vanished, Liu Qiang stood in the heavy rain, gritting his teeth in hatred.

Deploying Child and Mother Fiends consumed too much Energy; Child Fiend had been trapped for a long time, had he not been bedridden for days, it wouldn’t have dragged till now.

"Cai Changming, you’ll definitely pay the price for this!" Glancing at that building fiercely, Liu Qiang turned and walked to a nearby parking lot, holding the umbrella.

He had to hasten to gather information, figure out what deity Cai Changming really worshipped. If necessary, he could only take risks to drive Mother Fiend to break the formation and rescue the child. He had already lost the new Fiend crafted from Wu Xiaolan, so no matter what, this meticulously crafted exceptional Treasure could not suffer losses!

Of course, if he could kill the culprit and gain Cai’s fortune for a windfall, it would be ideal.

Jiang Yuan watched the other party leave from behind the curtain, not feeling much relief. The little bundle had stayed with him for some time. Why did the other suddenly show up? What were they doing earlier?

Could they be secretly investigating and locking onto opponents?

Hopefully, Chuci would be effective; he had to figure out how Jia Zongliang died to use the knowledge learned in Wilderness World to professionally tackle the mastermind.