The King of Curses

Chapter 108 Zhuyouke and Indonesian Witchcraft
With a startling "bang!" sound, most of the head of the tattooed bald man who attacked Cen Dongsheng was stabbed into the wall in front of him. Spider-web-like cracks spread upwards. The man's body was covered with fallen glass fragments and he suddenly became motionless.

"Wow."

Seeing this exaggerated scene, Cen Dongsheng couldn't help but exclaimed.

From his perspective—it was really just a gentle pat on the back of the guy's head.

Cen Dongsheng is currently entering the realm of a first-class spell master for the first time. His true energy is vigorous and his strength is skyrocketing, but he has not yet completely gotten used to this superhuman body.

In front of him, no matter how solid human creations and modern buildings were, they all became shoddy projects. If he exerted a little force in a move, he would find that the things around him would shatter like fragile glass products.

He had to learn to get used to this feeling. If he didn't want to affect his daily life, he had to control the power in his body with ease.

Cen Dongsheng looked around. Perhaps because of the soundproof wall, no one came out of the nearby private room. However, he could already hear the hurried footsteps of the security guard who came to check the situation.

“…There’s really nothing I can do.”

Surprisingly, although the bald man who was smashed into the wall had a dent in his head, his body was still able to move, and his arms were waving with considerable strength.

The strength and vitality of this body are not something that a curse-master of this level can possess; even for a human-immortal system, it is still not easy to train the brain to the level of being free from vital points.

Although Cen Dongsheng was doubtful, his hands moved decisively. He stretched out his hands and directly pressed down the other person's hands.

With a "crack", like the crisp sound of a branch breaking, the bald man's arms fell down; then he did the same thing and with another "crack" his legs were folded in half.

The level gap was too big, no matter how hard he struggled, he was no match for Cen Dongsheng.

If this guy's limbs were used to harm ordinary people, it would probably be like an iron shackle that is difficult to break free from; but for Cen Dongsheng, even if this guy's body was really made of copper or iron, he could still break it as easily as a wafer biscuit.

"Okay, follow me obediently."

Cen Dongsheng picked up the man with broken limbs with a smile and threw him into the bathroom next door.

“What happened…?!”

When the security guard arrived at the scene, he was shocked to see a large dent in the wall where the mirror was originally hung.

At this time, he saw Cen Dongsheng.

"you……"

Before he could say a word, he saw the pupils of the tall young man in front of him suddenly turned into bright yellow animal eyes.

That was the gaze of the tiger demon.

"Roar!"

A terrifying tiger roar sounded in the security guard's heart, frightening him so much that his whole body became stiff and unable to move.

After several minutes, he finally came out of this "petrified" state. By this time, the man was no longer there.

The face faded away under the huge mental shock. The security guard turned around and ran away desperately in fear. His colleagues following behind him didn't have time to call him.

He ran for his life all the way and only came to his senses when he was about to leave the KTV. He sat down on the ground limply, gasping for breath, as if he was in a dream.

The security guard was soon surrounded by a group of colleagues and onlookers, who asked him what had happened.

He looked dazed, his memory of what happened a few minutes ago completely blank.

……

After mastering the "Tiger Soul" ability, Cen Dongsheng has learned how to restrain his aura so as not to scare others when walking on the street or staying in an elevator with strangers.

People who are more sensitive may still feel that he is very special and has a strange aura, but at least they will not be frightened and unable to move as if they were being stared at by a ferocious beast.

However, this intimidating aura did not disappear, but was instead gathered within Cen Dongsheng's body, waiting for the moment to burst out.

Previously, ghosts at the level of lonely souls would be completely controlled by "Tiger Soul", and even ghosts at the level of Class A house owners would stay there for a few seconds;
But now that he is a genuine first-class forbidden spell master, his "Tiger Soul" ability has naturally been greatly strengthened. Now, even the second-class ghosts at the level of evil spirits can be transformed into "ghost minions".

If this power were used at full strength on an ordinary person today, it would be enough to burn out the other person's brain in an instant, turning them into an idiot.

Cen Dongsheng has the Philosopher King by his side every day. Having witnessed the pinnacle of "mental manipulation", he is not complacent because of it, but "Tiger Soul" is indeed a great help to him. He does not have to threaten with fists for everything. Sometimes he needs skillful and convenient methods.

Just like just now, Cen Dongsheng had tried his best to use it sparingly. He was just worried that if the mental shock was not strong enough, he might not be able to make this person forget his face...

In fact, it doesn’t matter even if he remembers it. Cen Dongsheng just doesn’t like trouble.

……

"... Dongsheng?"

"It's okay. Remember I just mentioned that I saw a few weird-looking guys in the bar. One of them came into the KTV and I have already controlled him."

"What are you going to do?"

"Let me ask first. I want to find out the bottom line of these guys."

While talking on the phone, Cen Dongsheng opened the door of one of the toilets and threw the prisoner in.

"Tell me, who are you?"

He asked condescendingly, and turned on the loudspeaker of his cell phone so that Sister Zhizhen on the other side could hear their conversation.

The bald man did not answer, but stared at him with a pair of cold and turbid eyes.

"Hey……"

Cen Dongsheng was a little surprised.

Any normal person should have realized the huge gap in power between them by now. Even if this guy is really loyal to the mastermind behind the scenes, he wouldn't remain silent, right?

Which curse-master force trained these assassins?
"Could it be that……"

Cen Dongsheng frowned and thought of a possibility.

He stretched out his hand, grabbed the bald man's cheek, and regardless of whether the other party was willing or not, he exerted a little force with his fingers and directly helped the other party to remove his chin.

The man's mouth opened involuntarily.

"The tongue is still there, but this is..."

The other person's tongue also had a tadpole tattoo, and if you look closely, you can see some strange ashes deep in his mouth, like the ashes of burnt talisman paper.

And this taste——

He frowned and let go.

There were signs of decay in the teeth and mouth, the face was pale and bloodless, and there was this familiar stench...

Could it be that this guy has actually been dead for a long time?
Cen Dongsheng stared at the unfocused dark yellow eyeballs, measured the bald man's pulse, and found that it had stopped beating, so he confirmed his guess.

These guys with mysterious whereabouts turned out to be a group of living dead.

It turned out to be the "corpse manipulation technique".

Is it "Zhuyouke"? Or Miao witchcraft, corpse-driving craftsmen from Xiangxi? Or... is it from Indonesia?
No wonder. He had felt it was strange before, there was a very obvious residual aura of "curse" on this group of people, even a curse master like him who was not good at perception could clearly feel the "Qi" on them.

The general method of concealing one's breath is not difficult, and it is almost an instinct for a spell-binding master. Although it cannot be hidden from those who are good at detection and perception, it is another matter to not disguise at all.

The aura is not strong, but it is very ostentatious - this is what Cen Dongsheng thought at the time.

But now he understood that this group of people were not unwilling to restrain themselves, but unable to restrain themselves, because they were not curse masters at all, but not even human beings... walking corpses.

The lingering breath was the trace left behind by someone who had deliberately cast a spell. The reason was simple: corpses had corpse aura, and if it was not sealed, not to mention the spell caster, even ordinary people would be able to smell the stench on these guys. This was a case of "choosing the lesser of two evils."

"Sister Zhizhen, these guys seem to be zombies controlled by someone."

"The art of controlling corpses?"

Sister Zhizhen is very knowledgeable, and most of Cen Dongsheng's "foresight" may come from her future organization, so naturally there is no need for him to introduce it.

"Ah."

Speaking of curses that have the ability to manipulate the dead in China, the most famous ones come from two sources:
The first is the Zhuyou branch of Maoshan medicine. The term "Zhuyou" originally refers to a school of ancient medical skills, which means that people in ancient times could cure diseases without acupuncture or medication, but only by changing their spirit and temperament. It is a spiritual therapy with a strong metaphysical and religious atmosphere. Later, it developed into various mysterious and strange techniques, and "resurrection from the dead" is one of them.

Since the Ming Dynasty, the art of incantation has been separated from the national medical teaching system. The demand for this medical treatment has been met by Taoism and folk beliefs, among which Maoshan Taoism is the most famous.

The other is the art of corpse-driving in Xiangxi, which some people believe is related to Miao witchcraft. In ancient times, Xiangxi was plagued by severe miasma and malaria, and many people died. The traditional concept of "returning to one's roots" is that the bodies of the dead should be taken back to their hometowns, but due to the rugged mountain roads in the area, it is difficult to transport the bodies by car or stretcher, so the art of corpse-driving emerged.

Another country with similar customs is Indonesia. Both places have a strong witchcraft atmosphere and tradition in history.

……

"Which one do you think it is?"

Cen Dongsheng took a few photos and planned to send them to Sister Zhizhen later. At the same time, he replied:
"Based on the methods I have seen so far, I am afraid it is a combination of both."

This zombie's head, body and even tongue are all covered with densely packed tattoos, which looks very weird.

Since it is related to the "corpse manipulation technique", he speculated that this is probably not tadpole writing, but Javanese letters. Today, Javanese has been replaced by Latin letters, so it is on the verge of extinction in Indonesia.

These letters are enough to illustrate the connection between this curse and Indonesian witchcraft.

Legend has it that the custom of corpse-driving in Indonesia originated from the civil war between West Toraja and East Toraja in the Tana Toraja region hundreds of years ago. After the war, both sides took the bodies of their dead relatives home and used special methods to make the bodies return by themselves.

To this day, the local area still holds a special corpse-driving festival every year. When the time comes, the Toraja people will dig the bodies of their deceased relatives out of the graves, dress them up, and take them through the streets for a parade.

But at the same time, Cen Dongsheng also saw the talisman ashes in the zombie's mouth, which seemed like the method of Zhuyou.

"Is this a new type of curse after fusion?"

"Yes, I guess it will only take a few years for this technology to be invented."

If it were any other traditional spell caster, or even someone who was more familiar with Maoshan magic or corpse-driving witchcraft, they might not be able to come up with an answer so quickly, because traditional schools often have sectarian views, and there are clear boundaries between them, with no chance for communication, not to mention technologies from different civilizations.

But in Cen Dongsheng's era, it was a very common phenomenon for different curses to merge to create new technologies. At the same time, new curses that were unprecedented in the world continued to emerge... Powers like "Tiankui Quanshou" and "Wujian Hell" would have been impossible to create in the past.

Humans are pragmatists after all, and it is understandable that in an era when supernatural powers are declining, the choice of secret inheritance is acceptable; but after the curse masters became the rulers of society, it became a general trend to exchange and integrate past experiences and to integrate the knowledge left over from ancient times using scientific thinking and research methods.

What's more, there are people like the Philosopher King behind the scenes, driving this trend forward by leaps and bounds.

But on the other hand, this is the first wave after all. People who have the foresight and ability to integrate the curses of different regions into a new technology are actually quite rare.

and so--

In fact, he already had some vague guesses about the identity and background of the user of the "Corpse Control Technique".

I'm afraid it would be hard for the mastermind behind the scenes to believe that someone could identify his whereabouts from a mere corpse.

"... Dongsheng?"

"I have some ideas..." Cen Dongsheng pondered for a moment and shook his head, "But I'm not sure yet."

"Do you need help?"

"Not for now. Judging from the level of these minions, the manipulator behind the scenes is still within my control."

This is an understatement. To be honest, the mastermind behind this is at best a B-level person.

He was just a little concerned about this person's background.

Because the curse master who possesses this fusion technology may be related to a certain "ancestor".

This is just a guess; but if it is true, the development of this matter will undoubtedly evolve into something extraordinary.

With the intervention of this reborn being, the Philosopher King and the Equality King, who originally had no chance to meet, have now met each other;

In the original history, this time was probably the first opportunity for the two "ancestors" in the Chinese region to come into contact with each other.

This kind of issue may have a significant impact on the future society, so he had to be cautious. Cen Dongsheng immediately began brainstorming.

"From the time sequence of becoming ancestors, King Ku Rong who will rule the Moxi Region in the future is the 'first ancestor', the philosopher King An Zhizhen who will rule the 'Tiannan Region' is the 'second ancestor', and King Jiang Ling who will rule the Haibei Region is the 'third ancestor'. The time when the three officially stepped onto the world stage is roughly in this order..."

King Pingdeng is the fourth ancestor, and his active period in history is even later than that of the other three.

Since An Zhizhen has already awakened the first special life ban, and Yi Qingyan awakened recently (if the original historical trajectory is followed, it will be delayed for half a year until she moves to another city and can no longer control the urge to kill, and then she will begin the awakening process)...

"So, judging from the time sequence, the one between these two, King Ku Rong, or King Jiang Ling... are both possible?"

(End of this chapter)