The King of Curses

Chapter 12: The Strange Curse Master
So, just like that——

Although the "haunted house" inside Xiaokang Building was unexpected, due to the clear division of labor between Cen Dongsheng and An Zhizhen, all the residents involved were lucky enough to survive and spent the first day, second day, and then third day safely.

Cen Dongsheng followed his previous working methods, keeping his feet on the ground and gradually expanded the scope of the investigation from the east to the west and south of the floor... Any ghosts that might harm the members of the temporary camp would be eliminated by him along the way.

So far, he has not encountered any other ghosts except the floating spirit, which is actually quite unusual.

Since the gathered Yin Qi is enough to distort the space, it is impossible that there are only the lowest-level ghosts in the haunted house; even if the core ghosts often choose to hide themselves in the dark, there should be other ghosts wandering around, but this is only one example, including the lonely soul that possessed Miss Zhou at the beginning.

In his experience, it is "abnormally rare".

This seemed to confirm his guess: the haunting of the house was indeed an emergency that occurred in a short period of time, a sudden change caused by some "foreign objects" flowing into the building, so there was no time for ghosts to be born and live here.

In addition, Sister Zhizhen gathered all the survivors early, so the only thing he needed to deal with was the ghost accompanying the core, which was convenient.

As time went by, he finally caught the clues left by the core.

……

"This room..."

Cen Dongsheng stood in front of the door, staring at the dry wormwood hanging on the door beam and the spring couplets that had come unglued on the door panel and were drooping on one side.

It seemed as if there was a trace of Yin Qi flowing out from the crack in the door. It was very weak, and he only vaguely sensed it when he got close to this distance, and he was not even sure.

The world in the haunted house is undoubtedly a reflection of reality. Although the scenes reflected in it may not be a one-to-one replica - there may be "incomplete mapping" or changes caused by the special environment in the haunted house, the information clues of the two worlds can still be interconnected.

This is a very important knowledge for him who works in the exorcism of haunted houses. Just don't be fooled by the cunning ghosts.

Cen Dongsheng put his hand on the door handle.

Of course he didn't have the key, but that was a non-issue...

"Crack."

With a slight force on the wrist, the door handle and the iron door behind it were twisted into a twist, leaving a spiral-shaped scar.

Cen Dongsheng kicked the door open.

"Come to think of it, this place seems a little familiar."

He tilted his head, recalled carefully, and then remembered——

Isn’t this the home of Grandma Lin?

Before it became a haunted house, he and Sister Zhizhen had been to this place and helped the elderly move.

He walked into the room and opened the wooden door. In this dim and narrow room, the most conspicuous thing was the altar. On the altar, he saw a burnt-out white candle and a portrait covered in shadows.

Considering the pitch-black environment around and the almost eternal night inside the haunted house, the scene does look quite weird.

But Cen Dongsheng's heart was not disturbed. The only thing he cared about was the strange breath he felt, which was very faint and thin air... right under the altar.

Cen Dongsheng politely clasped his hands together and greeted the portrait, then squatted down and reached his hand in to feel around for a while.

"This is……"

What he took out seemed to be a wallet.

After a quick look, I found that apart from a few photos, the only one worth noting was a group photo.

The young man standing in the middle was about 25 or 26 years old, with long side-parted hair. He held an arm around a man who was ten years older than him. Both of them were in a good mood, and it was probably because of their expressions that they looked like birds of a feather.

The woman standing next to them was about 30 years old, keeping a certain distance from the two companions. She wore a plain dress and had no makeup on her face, but her hands and neck were covered with gold and silver jewelry. Although her appearance was not as good as that of a beauty like Sister Zhizhen, she was still decent and attractive, but her facial expression was relatively dull.

The background of the three people is a shop filled with a mess of antiques and jewelry.

Cen Dongsheng stared at their faces and felt something subtle.

After dealing with similar people for a long time, you will occasionally develop an intuition: although there is no systematic judgment, such as judging a person's occupation by the mud spots on his shoes like Sherlock Holmes, this feeling is equally trustworthy.

For example, now, Cen Dongsheng feels that this group of people are probably not engaged in ordinary people's occupations, and they have a temperament that is incompatible with the society under the sun.

In other words, they are unstable and dangerous people, maybe gangsters, mercenaries, assassins, or fraudsters. Among them, this woman looks familiar, I feel like I have seen her somewhere before, but I don’t think she is the same person...

He thought about it but didn't get an answer. It might be a curse master he had met in his previous life, but since he didn't have a deep impression of him, he was not a big shot worth noting, and was probably even worse than himself now.

But the atmosphere in this photo, coupled with the lingering scent on the wallet, indicates that this is most likely the property of a spell-binding master, or at least someone related to it.

But why did it fall here? Isn't this Grandma Lin's house?
Cen Dongsheng recalled something.

……

"Didn't you say before that you wanted to wait for your grandson to come back?"

"Yeah... it's because he came here and said he didn't plan to live here, so I don't have anything to miss."

"Have you been here?"

"Just a week ago. I remember when..."

……

It turned out to be the case.

Cen Dongsheng pulled out the photo and thought, finally I have some clues.

*
"Thank you for your hard work, Dr. An."

Shrouded in pitch darkness, lights were flickering in the makeshift tent. A pregnant woman resting in the barracks stroked her belly and looked at An Zhizhen, who was busy calculating and arranging daily necessities for nearly twenty people at the table.

"I'm not tired. Someone else is really tired."

The woman answered casually. She didn't look up.

"The man you are talking about is Brother Cen?" the pregnant woman asked curiously, "Can he really solve the abnormality... Ah, don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't believe him or Doctor An, I'm just curious about who he is? A Taoist priest? A monk? Or was he sent by the government?"

"I do not know."

"Hey, you and him have a very good relationship, right? My husband saw you two chatting by the flower bed the other day..."

"Men always have secrets." An Zhizhen sighed and put down her pen, as if her work was over. She smiled and looked at the pregnant woman, "Go back and rest. I remember your due date is coming soon, right?"

"……Yes."

The other person began to stroke her bulging belly again, with unspeakable sadness between her brows.

"I had already made all the preparations. My husband even took a leave. I didn't expect this to happen..."

"Don't worry too much, it will be resolved within a week."

An Zhizhen was comforting someone when she heard someone calling her from outside the tent.

"Doctor An, come here quickly! There's something going on outside!"

……

She came to the door with several residents and looked at the place where the strange thing happened. Her expression became serious.

"This is……"

In the darkness outside the door, which was as quiet as the ocean and brewing, ripples appeared, as if something was happening.

"What's going on, Doctor An?"

Someone asked worriedly.

"We didn't dare to get close."

"It looks like someone might come in later."

Cen Dongsheng mentioned to her that it was difficult for people trapped inside the haunted house to get out "according to common sense"; but if they entered from the outside, it would be relatively easy.
There is a way to actively enter by following the guidance of the Yin Qi gathering place, or there is the possibility that new unlucky people will be drawn into it.

An Zhizhen took out the intercom, reported to Cen Dongsheng, and then watched quietly. In full view of everyone, a few seconds later, two people walked out of the ripples in the darkness.

A woman in a plain long dress with an indifferent expression; a man about thirty-five years old, with his hands in his pockets, his hair messy like a bird's nest, and an unkempt look. The man looked around and saw An Zhizhen and others, and walked towards them with a smile on his face.

"Are you residents living here?" he asked.

"Yes. You are..."

The man did not answer, but walked past her and walked around the makeshift camp a few times. He observed and sighed, not considering himself an outsider at all.

"This campsite is really well-organized." The man turned around and asked, "Did you build it on your own initiative?"

"Sir, who are you?"

"We all came in from outside, and we couldn't guess this."

The other party sighed and pointed to the sky.

"This place you are in is called a 'haunted house'. Actually, you are no longer in the real world. I don't know how long you have been locked up, but since you have set up a camp, you should have noticed that you can't get out..."

The man narrowed his eyes when he noticed that although the expressions of the ordinary people in front of him were nervous, they did not show any surprise or astonishment at what he heard.

"…Strange things are constantly happening in this building, and you may have already felt it. Also, I think some of you have experienced ghosts before? How is it? Can you tell me about it?"

A woman in a long dress came over. She had several silver bracelets on each of her hands and a necklace made of gold, silver and jade around her neck. The bracelets jingled as she walked. She took over the man's topic in a cold tone.

"You talk too much, let's get down to business first. Let me introduce myself. I'm Kong Yinlian, this is Deng Rong, and we're here to rescue you all from this place."

"You guys too?"

Some residents couldn't help but speak.

"'Also'? Oh, so, besides us, there are others?"

Deng Rong still had a smile on his face, but there was a gleam of light in his narrowed eyes.

……

The sudden appearance of the two people caused a small chaos, but after hearing the purpose of their visit, the residents except An Zhizhen were very happy.

In their opinion, there was only one person before, and now there are two. The probability of solving supernatural incidents must have increased. Isn’t this a good thing?

Deng Rong and Kong Yinlian walked around the camp twice and found a secluded corner to talk in private.

"What should I do? There are too many people."

Deng Rong lit a cigarette, and the air was filled with smoke.

"We just need to kill the core ghost. So, it's up to you to find the other party's whereabouts."

"You really want to save people."

The woman stared at her companion through the smoke with an indifferent gaze.

"Haha, of course... that's impossible." Deng Rong replied with a smile, "We are here to rescue our companions. I don't know why Yu Wentao disappeared all of a sudden. We are just a bunch of ordinary people, who cares if they live or die? Even if some of them turn into ghosts, we can easily deal with them."

Although the man's words were cold enough, Kong Yinlian's answer became even colder.

"Don't flatter yourself. You don't care about Yu Wentao's life or death. You just want to get the forbidden item in his hand."

"Hahaha," Deng Rong laughed while smoking, and then started coughing violently.

"Ahem... don't say that. The forbidden item was originally obtained by the three of us together, and we were still considering whether to use it ourselves or ask the ghost market merchants to sell it. It's just that the two of us are busy for the time being, so we let him take the goods back first. Now that this kid has an accident, don't we have to find a way to take it back? Return the item to its original owner."

"Did something happen?"

She looked at the residential buildings standing in the darkness, casting a large shadow on the people below.

"It's indeed possible. This haunted house might have been created because of that forbidden object."

The forbidden object itself was something that attracted Yin Qi, and if it was refined by a forbidden master, it would lose this effect. It was just that the object had a special effect, and they hadn't decided whether to use it themselves or to attack, so they left it in its original state.

There was a forbidden master watching over the place, so it wouldn't become a haunted house. That person was the youngest of their companions, and for some reason he disappeared a week ago, and they haven't been able to contact him since.

"Think about it, Yinlian." Deng Rong flicked the cigarette butt away. "Anyway, if we want to get our stuff and leave here, we have to do the same thing. The search for the core ghost is up to you."

Kong Yinlian nodded slightly, and a long insect that looked like a centipede quietly crawled out from the sleeve of her skirt and clung to the woman's silver bracelet.

The "worm" has a sinuous body, and its hundreds of limbs crawling densely are enough to make one's hair stand on end. It is brightly colored, and radiates a colorful glow like a gem, but its outline is illusory.

The colorful centipede's carapace opened to the sides like wings. It flapped its wings and took off, disappearing into the darkness at an extremely fast speed.

"By the way..." Kong Yinlian closed her eyes and said in a deep voice, "According to what these people said, there may be other forbidden masters here. What should we do?"

"Let's take a look at the situation first." Deng Rong smiled and looked at the woman standing in the crowd.

Doctor An, with her long jet-black hair, was so eye-catching. Her temperament was as pure and charming as a water lotus. She was so beautiful that she didn't seem like an mortal.

She was whispering with a tall young man in a corner, their heads were almost touching, and they seemed to have a close relationship.

*
"See? That's them."

An Zhizhen gestured to Cen Dongsheng in the direction of the two people.

"Are they the same as you, the... what 'forbidden master'?"

"Well, probably so."

Cen Dongsheng touched his shirt pocket and found the photo inside.

After he received the call from Sister Zhizhen, he immediately came out of the building and began to observe the two uninvited guests from a distance.

The timing was right and it was such a coincidence.

"Isn't that a good thing? If someone had the same power as you, it would be easier to deal with the ghosts in Xiaokang Building."

Sister Zhizhen observed his expression carefully.

"But, Dongsheng...you don't look very happy?"

"..."

Is it a good thing that two strangers meet while exploring the same haunted house?

A society that bans teachers is a world where the strong prey on the weak;

The haunted house is not only a dangerous supernatural place, but also contains resources that can make people stronger.

Therefore, the relationship between several strangers may very well be that they are contenders for the same core - a group of enemies who are wary of each other and even harm each other.

Only by becoming a member of an organization or group in a stable social structure and distributing benefits according to relevant regulations can this competition be curbed to a certain extent.

When the "first wave" arrived, what existed more in the world were the "no man's land" that maintained a cruel and primitive state of competition.

"Let's not talk about me. I think Sister Zhizhen doesn't seem very happy either."

"Ah, I just..." The woman blinked, "I dare not let my guard down in front of someone I don't know. Although I don't know much about the things between the forbidden masters, at the beginning, it was only because the person who saved me was Dongsheng that I accepted everything you said."

"…Anyway, you did the right thing."

Cen Dongsheng said.

"In fact, there are not many naturally good or naturally bad people in this world, but there are some who indulge in their desires and soon become corrupted after getting power by chance. After discovering that they can manipulate the lives of ordinary people at will, they will gradually become unscrupulous. Such examples are not uncommon, so don't let your guard down against the group of curse masters."

"Hmm...'degenerate', 'unbridled', huh?" Sister Zhizhen nodded thoughtfully, "Very reasonable, and in line with human nature."

She raised her head and asked.

"So, what is Dongsheng going to do?"

"Let's take a look first." Cen Dongsheng said, "I think they came here specifically to step into the haunted house. They must have a purpose to do so. They will be more anxious than me and will soon be exposed."

……

The owner of the photo is Grandma Lin's grandson Yu Wentao. At the same time, he is most likely a spell-binding master;

And the two uninvited guests who entered the haunted house today... were undoubtedly the two companions in the photo.

(End of this chapter)