The King of Curses

Chapter 17 The Day of Awakening
The charred evil spirit actually went towards the camp—

The lives of a group of ordinary people, are they more tempting than the curse master... than the people he knew in his previous life? Or has it triggered some mechanism that he is not aware of? !
The ghost's actions were unexpected and completely disrupted Cen Dongsheng's plan.

He was in a heavy mood, but his mentality was not affected too much. After all, it was a battle with supernatural forces, and he was already accustomed to "accidents".

Without time to think, Cen Dongsheng did not hesitate. He kicked his feet, fell from the tall building, and jumped towards the direction of the charred corpse.

……

"Boom!"

His feet landed on the ground with a dull thud.

If he were still an ordinary person, jumping directly from the third floor, his knees would inevitably be shattered and his bones would be broken; only a body strengthened by the power of the tiger demon could withstand such a mess.

The flames surrounded him as if they had their own will, blocking his way.

Cen Dongsheng narrowed his eyes, put his hands in front of him, and rushed into the wall of fire.

This fire was not an ordinary fire in nature. It also carried the power of curse, constantly burning his entire body. Even though his true Qi was flowing at a high speed and his body surface was harder than steel, over time, his skin and flesh could not avoid being burned by the flames until they became charred and peeled off.

Seeing the charred evil spirit walking out of the sea of ​​fire, the first person in front of it was Sister Zhizhen. Cen Dongsheng immediately quickened his pace and stretched out his hand towards its head.

"Get back here!"

……

An Zhizhen looked at the young man whose whole body was burning, and subconsciously wanted to call out his name, but saw that the other person's figure quickly went back, and disappeared in the vast flames along with the horrible charred corpse.

The brave and resolute posture, accompanied by the burning breath and raging fire that illuminated the face, imprinted this picture firmly on her retina and mind.

An Zhizhen's heart was pounding, as if the rushing blood was pouring into the eardrum, and her head and ears were buzzing.

An unprecedented strong emotion surged in her heart.

"Doctor An, are you okay?"

Someone asked worriedly from behind.

"...Well, it's okay."

An Zhizhen didn't even look at who that person was, and just said something perfunctorily. All her attention was focused on the battle between Cen Dongsheng and the evil spirit.

She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down, and whispered to herself:
"Not yet, not now..."

*
Cen Dongsheng grabbed the charred corpse's head tightly and dragged it backwards.

During this process, the power of the curse that surged from all directions in the sea of ​​fire finally eroded the flesh and skin protected by the true Qi and began to dissolve the things underneath.

After losing his outer skin, the burning nerves caused intense pain to torment his brain.

Cen Dongsheng gritted his teeth and didn't make a shameful cry. Blood kept flowing out of his mouth, and the cold sweat on his forehead was quickly evaporated by the high temperature around him.

Fists and feet carrying enormous force cut through the air, roaring and burning.

The charred corpse's hands and feet were torn off repeatedly, but if they came into contact with the surrounding sea of ​​fire in the next second, they would begin to recover and grow at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The core ghost...is such a difficult existence.

Cen Dongsheng endured the severe pain of burning all over his body, twisted the charred corpse's neck, stepped on its shoulders with his feet, grabbed its head, and tried to pull out its head and spine.

This scene was extremely cruel. After several minutes of back and forth struggle, Cen Dongsheng, who was covered in black, finally gained the upper hand and successfully pulled out a black thing from the charred corpse.

Finally, only the wreckage of the ghost was left and it disappeared in the fire, and the light around it dimmed.

Cen Dong was panting heavily and for a moment he had no strength to chase after him.

But he knew that the battle was far from over, the cursed sea of ​​fire had not disappeared, it would come back again.

This is how a direct fight with a ghost usually unfolds - a long, intense, brutal fight.

If there is no final curse, one can only use true Qi to continuously consume it until the shell that makes up the ghost or monster completely disappears, leaving behind the irresistible Yin Qi, which can then be refined and absorbed by the curse master...only then will it be considered the end.

Fighting against ghosts and destroying them are two completely different things. The latter often requires a team of multiple curse masters of the same level to be successful.

His hands, feet, and entire body were covered in large patches of burn marks, and the pain made the corners of his mouth twitch. Cen Dongsheng took deep breaths, trying to relieve the pain in this way.

"It's already... it's already good..."

He tried to think positively. The power brought by "Tiger Demon Cloak" was beyond his expectations.

Not only does it make one's physique tougher and more powerful, it also enhances one's original life breath and gives one super strong sustained combat capability.

If it were the self in memory, when fighting with ghosts and monsters, one would often have to be careful not to get hurt. The slightest contact would have a serious impact on the battle, and one would have to find a way to retreat, hide, and seek treatment. The amount of true Qi is also a big problem, as it is easy to be depleted in fierce battles.

Being able to force back a fierce ghost through head-on and brutal means like we are doing now is already a great progress.

Unfortunately……

He is the only one who can fight now.

When he adjusted his breathing, the surrounding fire burned fiercely again.
The charred corpse, which had regenerated most of its body, tried to move towards the camp again, but was pulled back by Cen Dongsheng again.

"Don't even think about it! Just fight me honestly!"

……

The battle began to become long and tense.

Ten minutes, dozens of minutes, an hour——

Cen Dongsheng gradually began to feel tired.

The power of the tiger demon greatly transformed his body, but he was ultimately made of flesh and blood, not a machine... No, it should be said that even if it was a machine, it would be easily damaged by such intense shaking.

He began to feel exhausted. The firepower was stronger than expected, the curse was more difficult than he had imagined, and the ghost itself was an indestructible cockroach.

This was the twenty-third time that Cen Dongsheng had torn apart and trampled on the charred corpse evil spirit's limbs and even its entire body, but every time, it would be resurrected from the fire.

He was secretly on guard against Kong Yinlian, but perhaps because the battle was too intense and she was worried about being dragged into it, this woman never took action; and Cen Dongsheng also gradually began to have no time to take care of other things.

A week is still too short, whether it is the accumulation of true qi or...

Cen Dongsheng thought.

If he could awaken the first level of superpowers, he wouldn't be in such a mess.

He could feel that both he and the charred corpse evil spirit were losing strength and had reached rock bottom.

His fists were getting heavier and heavier, and his footsteps seemed to be filled with lead; the flames on the charred corpse were no longer fierce. The raging fire that seemed to be able to set the entire Xiaokang Building on fire had now shrunk to a small circle of less than ten meters.

When Cen Dongsheng broke the opponent's neck for the twenty-fourth time, the charred corpse that was resurrected from the fire was no longer as unscathed as before. The small half of its arm could no longer grow back; half of its legs were also missing, so it could not run and could only stagger.

He felt that one good thing was that as the battle progressed, the pain from the flames burning his flesh gradually became less painful.

Just as Cen Dongsheng was thinking this, he suddenly looked down and saw his hand...

To be precise, there was no hand there. The flesh had been burned away, leaving only blackened bones.

Cen Dongsheng was shocked.

No wonder there was no pain. It turned out that all the nerves inside were burned, leaving only bones, so naturally I couldn't feel the pain.

In a trance, he touched his face with his skeleton hand, and felt it was rough, so he realized that half of his face was also burned;
Cen Dongsheng looked down again and found that there was a big hole burned through his abdomen. The internal organs inside turned into charcoal and scattered somewhere, leaving only emptiness.

He was so absorbed in the battle that he didn't notice what a miserable state he had become.

By the way, isn't the "Tiger Demon Power" a bit too magical? It can actually maintain its combat capability in this state -

No, that's not right. This is not what he should be thinking about now. The real problem is if this continues...

Maybe I will really die?

Even if he didn’t die in the battle, given the state of his body, once his true energy was depleted, could he really survive afterwards…?
"boom!"

Cen Dongsheng punched the charred corpse's head again, smashing half of its skull.

But this time, he inevitably felt confused.

*
In fact, the so-called "fighting instinct" currently displayed by the young man is nothing more than something accumulated from day-to-day training and actual combat. He has never really thought about it and has been struggling to survive.

So, when Cen Dongsheng had the opportunity to start thinking seriously, he couldn't help but think:

——It’s only been two months since I was reborn, and now I’m going to die?
He said he would protect An Zhizhen, but he did not expect that he might sacrifice his life.

According to his original plan, life in this city was not too dangerous in the early stages, and with his own "foresight", he could completely avoid those restricted areas; on the other hand, as long as An Zhizhen awakened his ability, he could lie down and become a "servant of the dragon" in the future, leading a happy life as a superior person.

Although his ambitions grew because he had obtained a part of the special curse in advance, his plans in this regard did not change much.

However, the unexpected haunting of Xiaokang Building, the foreign curse master, unknown forbidden objects... the accidents that came one after another disrupted his preparations, and everything happened too hastily.

If this goes on, the second chance of rebirth that I finally got, which I will never get again, will end here...? !

Gradually, his heart began to become confused, and indescribable emotions surged in his heart.

After all, Cen Dongsheng was just a man of mediocre talents before his rebirth.

How can a person who has never had any successful experience in his previous life think that he will be able to succeed in this life just by relying on some foresight?

With a Grade A curse, he could rely on his basic strength to fight against Grade B core ghosts and monsters even without awakening his superpowers. This was his judgment based on his personal experience.

Is it possible that it's incorrect?
Of course it was possible. As mentioned before, he was not a successful man and had never come into contact with high-level forbidden spells, so it was normal for him to make misjudgments.

But, if there was still time to escape now—

Is it too late... ?

I want to give up An Zhizhen... give up Sister Zhizhen?

Even if he escaped, his body...

……calm down.

He watched the charred charcoal on his hands fall off, and looked at the large hole burned in the center of his abdomen;
He watched as the flames around him began to dim and the evil spirit's ability to recover gradually came to an end.

Both sides were already on the verge of their limits. Even if he didn't consider life and death in the future, he had to gamble on the current battle. Whoever couldn't hold on first would be the loser.

The charred corpse evil spirit passed by him slowly. No matter how many times he had demolished it, it had no intention of paying attention to him, nor was it prepared to retaliate, but continued to move towards the camp.

What on earth is there that can make it so persistent?

He only knew that if he did not take the initiative to stop it, the evil spirit would ignore him and he would not have to risk his life.

Calm down, calm down, he said to himself again. Cen Dongsheng looked at the bare bone extending from his arm, and for the first time he did not rush forward immediately.

……

"Is it over?"

Someone murmured.

Everyone watched the battle from a distance of dozens of meters in fear, feeling that every minute and every second was torture, like hell.

But finally, as if foreshadowing the battle was coming to an end, the blazing fire that illuminated the entire residential building gradually went out.

"Who's winning?"

"who is it?"

The one who came out of the darkness -

It's him?

...No, it's this.

The charred corpse was dragging its remains slowly towards the people, with the flames on its body flickering dimly.

People looked at its figure in horror and fell into despair for a moment.

This monster is indeed weak... but it is still effortless to kill a group of ordinary people.

The cursed power remaining in it is enough to ignite everyone's flesh and blood, causing them to die in despair.

The evil spirit dragged its feet and slowly approached them, leaving a trail of scorched footprints on the ground.

It took them several minutes to walk this short distance of just a few dozen meters until they reached the group.

There is no way out.

……

An Zhizhen stood at the front, only a few meters away from the evil spirit.

It was looking at him, its empty eyes burning with persistence and anger like embers.

But she didn't care about that.

"Dongsheng, where's Dongsheng?!"

She stood on tiptoe and looked around, but it was dark and there was no one in sight. The bonfire went out, and the surroundings fell into pitch-black darkness again, and there was no one to be seen anywhere.

An Zhizhen's heart sank.

According to previous experience, Cen Dongsheng should have come out to stop it long ago, but after a few minutes he still didn't show up...

Is he dead?

Or is the injury so severe that he cannot move?

still is……

"Hey."

A tired voice sounded not far away.

"I just want to take a short break, why are you so anxious?"

A second figure stepped out of the darkness.

But when the people behind saw his appearance, they were surprised and confused for a moment. They could no longer recognize who this person was.

Except for An Zhizhen, in everyone's eyes, this person looked no different from the terrifying charred evil spirit, and no human form could be seen.

The charred corpse was better, at least it still had a body; the second figure looked like just a tall skeleton covered in carbon ash.

He stretched out his skeletal hands, once again firmly grasped the evil spirit's head, and dragged him backwards.

"Dong, Dongsheng...?!"

An Zhizhen could no longer suppress her emotions. Just as she was about to move closer, she saw the "Skull" making a gesture to stop her. He stopped and seemed to hesitate for a moment.

Then she heard him speak:
"Don't worry, Sister Zhizhen, this will all be over soon, I'll be back soon."

Having said that, he left without looking back.

……

When Cen Dongsheng was halfway dragging the charred corpse evil spirit, the other party suddenly began to struggle.

The remaining flames on its body flickered with a puff, went out, and then lit up again.

This should have been the opponent's weakest moment, but at this moment, it was like a last gasp. There was a scorching heat hidden under the embers, and the power of the curse emanating from the body was unprecedentedly fierce.

"Are you planning to fight to the death?"

Cen Dongsheng's voice was hoarse, and his dry throat seemed to be on fire.

He gave a sinister smile.

"Great, I feel the same way."

*
If he wants to keep climbing up until he sees the scenery at the top of the world, what does he really need?
Cen Dongsheng never thought that he would have the opportunity to welcome this day. He had no chance to think and could only rely on his own knowledge and wisdom to come up with the answer.

For example, a reliable partner and powerful force.

Therefore, he took the initiative to contact An Zhizhen;
So, he looked everywhere for a powerful spell.

After more than a month of rebirth, both of them have gained a lot.

But is this really enough?
Until a moment a few minutes ago, when he finally woke up from his hesitation and made up his mind to gamble his life and fulfill his promise to Sister Zhizhen, he suddenly realized——

If you want to become a strong person, external strength is of course crucial; but a heart that matches it is equally indispensable.

The prerequisite for becoming an extraordinary person is to have a heart that is unwilling to be mediocre.

For eight long years, when the future was uncertain and dark and the world was plunged into unprecedented turmoil and chaos, he tried his best to survive.

He did survive, but he lived a mediocre and cautious life, which dulled the edge in his heart.

Those famous strong men often have obsessions that match their strength. He once thought self-deprecatingly: "Maybe it's because I'm too normal and my brain is not sick enough that I can't become stronger."

But those people are indeed crazy; but on the other hand, they have shown the world the possibility of an unprecedented path.

Everyone who reaches the top is trying to make the whole world revolve according to his own will.

So arrogant, so presumptuous.

So... it makes people yearn for it.

——He knew what he was missing.

"I should have noticed..."

The cursed bonfire rose once again, accompanied by billowing black smoke.

In the raging flames that surged like a wave, there was no flesh left on the man's body, and his bones were smoked black.

No living thing can survive in such conditions.

But he is still "alive"; not only alive, he can even continue to fight.

"Ha ha……"

Cen Dongsheng laughed in a low voice.

In the light of the fire, his bones were shining with a dark golden glow, like some kind of precious metal product.

——It turns out that the first level of supernatural power of "Tiger Demon Cloak" had actually been awakened in his body a long time ago.

It just needs an opportunity, a chance to break through the external barriers of flesh and blood, to be recognized by its owner.

Just as Cen Dongsheng guessed, this trigger condition was actually quite "harsh" for him in the past; but on the other hand, if he could have remained calm during the death crisis just now, he should have noticed it earlier.

Fortunately, there is still time.

Now that I have the ambition to climb to the highest peak, what I once lacked is...

It is the courageous and diligent spirit that is not afraid of difficulties.

Cen Dongsheng stretched out his hands and hugged the charred corpse tightly.

A strong true Qi spread out from the dark gold skeleton and fought against the flames controlled by the charred corpse. The two energies tried to devour and destroy each other.

Water and fire cannot mix, so they extinguish each other. The charred corpse's shell finally began to lose its original outline and gradually dissipated like ashes.

The ghost began its final struggle, fierce flames drilled up from the ground and surged from all directions, just like in the magma of a volcano, vowing to burn Cen Dongsheng to ashes -

"Ha ha ha ha……"

But he couldn't stop laughing.

He had never felt death so close to him; and he was not forced to face it, but he took the initiative to face death.

This was unimaginable to Cen Dongsheng in the past; but on the other hand, he felt an unprecedented joy -

“Haha…hahahahahahahahaha!”

When a person can disregard life and death at a critical moment, that is when he takes his destiny into his own hands.

Amid the raging fire, he laughed loudly.

(End of this chapter)