The King of Curses

Chapter 21: The Powerful Leader of Heaven

(After writing the last chapter, I feel like I can finally open Sister Zhizhen's character card... By the way, I'll read it later. I'm still a little confident in the plot I wrote, but the editor said that my reading performance is not strong enough. There are less than ten days left on the new book list. I hope I can climb up again.)
*
When the woman opened her eyes, she felt as if she had had a long nightmare not long ago.

But when she tried hard to recall, she found that when she looked back, there was nothing there, and her mind was only blank.

There were waves of unbearable stabbing pain deep in my brain.

I...who am I?

She found that she couldn't even remember her own name.

Including her past experiences, her family, friends, her occupation, identity, hometown... she couldn't remember a single thing.

Memories and thoughts all turned into floating objects. The logical connections between them were broken, leaving only broken fragments spinning around in the empty mind.

The woman felt like a baby... no, more like an alien, arriving on this planet for the first time.

She looked around blankly and found herself on the rooftop.

The sunlight shone generously, causing the woman to squint unconsciously.

The spacious and empty space was quiet, and the breeze blowing in her face was refreshing... She took a breath of fresh air, and suddenly noticed a strange object that she couldn't tell whether it was a human or a ghost, with dirty blood stains flowing underneath.

"It" was lying in the corner, trembling and wriggling slightly, like a large insect, looking disgusting and pitiful.

The woman felt a little uncomfortable, then turned her eyes away and looked somewhere else.

——Then, she suddenly couldn't move her eyes away.

In the center of the rooftop, a tall figure was sitting on a chair, her white sweater outlining her beautiful curves, her slender legs wrapped in black tights crossed under her skirt, her long straight black hair swaying gently in the wind, and a teardrop mole under the corner of her eye was charming.

She was looking down at the book on her lap. With one hand she brushed away the hair that had fallen by her ear, and with the other hand she was turning the pages. Her every move was full of grace and charm.

Although they were both women, the amnesiac woman found that her attention was completely drawn to the other person, and nothing else mattered. The beauty of that person was even more dazzling than the sun in the sky...

Respect, awe, love - all positive emotions - surged from the depths of the woman's soul, directed toward that man passionately and fanatically. She stared at him obsessively, unable to look away.

"you're awake."

After noticing that the woman woke up, the black-haired woman who was reading raised her face and smiled faintly.

"It's not my misunderstanding. You have the qualifications."

"..."

The amnesiac woman couldn't wait to speak and express her inner emotions.

But when she opened her mouth, she found that she had forgotten how to speak. She felt anxious and tried hard to catch the thoughts that kept flashing through her mind, but she always failed. So she felt ashamed and embarrassed in front of that person, and even thought that she should jump off the roof earlier.

"The process of humans learning language from scratch might be a good case study. Unfortunately, I'm a bit pressed for time."

The black-haired woman put the book down and snapped her fingers.

"Here, let me do you a favor."

The amnesiac woman suddenly froze.

Her empty and chaotic brain seemed to be illuminated by a sudden flash of lightning; countless fragments of memory and knowledge gathered together again under the influence of an inexplicable gravity.

Right... right!
I am... my name is... Kong... Yinlian...!
Kong Yinlian's pupils were dilated and her whole body was trembling. The emotions contained in her pupils ranged from confusion to fear, and then to deep disbelief.

Ten minutes later, she managed to piece her personality together again and finally realized what had happened.

“Brainwash? Mind manipulation…? What…what did you do to me…?!”

She still spoke haltingly, and the severe pain coming from deep in her brain had not disappeared. She knelt on the ground with her hands covering her forehead.

"Well... almost. You can understand it this way."

An Zhizhen just smiled.

The truth was actually far from the truth, but she felt there was no need to explain it to someone like Kong Yinlian.

In later generations, "Tiankui Quanshou" was considered to be the pinnacle of the "mental interference" curse, but in fact, the so-called "brainwashing" was just a by-product of the ability - even in the future, few people knew this.

The leader of heaven and earth, the most powerful person in the world, the true meaning of "the leader of heaven and earth" is an allusion to An Zhizhen's soul, which, on the day of its fate awakening, began to transform into a giant stellar-level consciousness.

When it manifests in the minds of others or is reflected in the spiritual world of others, it will show overwhelming scale and quality.

If someone used mental interference on An Zhizhen, not only would her will not be shaken, but the caster's own will would be shattered by the "huge gravitational force" in an instant.

The same goes for An Zhizhen's ability to proactively interfere with her mind. In front of her soul, which is as majestic as a star, a consciousness as fragile and tiny as a human being is not even a drop in the ocean and will naturally be crushed into dust.

In the end, when people's worldview and values ​​collapse, only a blank space remains, which is covered by the shadows of the stars, leaving indelible marks.

This is the Tiankui Quanshou, and its operating principle is completely different from any spell related to mental manipulation or supernatural power that has appeared in human history.

In short, it is not of the same scale at all. It is an extremely special phenomenon that can only appear in this era and in An Zhizhen.

From An Zhizhen's own perspective, she actually has no concept of "using abilities to manipulate others", but rather allows her consciousness to manifest in the spiritual world of others. Her limitation is her own human brain.

Even without using the curse, An Zhizhen's super-standard consciousness mass will make all people who meet her unconsciously move closer to her, treating her as the center of the crowd, a natural leader.

This is no longer an influence at the level of personal charm, but an almost eternal truth, a law that cannot be violated - just like the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, the phenomena in the material world follow the law of universal gravitation.

"Your consciousness is completely shattered. This is your condition just a few minutes ago. Unfortunately, you are still unable to resist my power."

she says.

"However, there are indeed a very small number of people who, if they are determined and not extreme in character, can reassemble themselves under the guidance of the original inertia after their consciousness is crushed once. In my opinion, such people are the 'qualified' type. This has nothing to do with whether you are a curse-taker or not, but only with the quality of your mind."

An Zhizhen's gaze shifted to a corner of the rooftop.

"As for those who don't have the qualifications... well, they will become like that, idiots."

Kong Yinlian looked in the direction of her finger and saw the strange creature in the corner wriggling like a snail out of its shell, constantly oozing dirty blood.

She could now recognize him as her former companion, the curse master Deng Rong.

But now, he no longer looks human, either mentally or physically.

Kong Yinlian only felt a chill on her back, an unstoppable chill.

She didn't like this man, but she still felt indescribable horror when she saw him end up like this, neither human nor ghost.

"Of course, I also helped you a little to recover so quickly. Otherwise, given your condition when you woke up, you would have to be a silly woman for a few years before you could slowly recover, and you would still be left with the sequelae of mental confusion and memory rupture."

"Originally, you should have been wandering the streets or sent to an orphanage... This is quite leisurely, better than being a curse-caster who harms people," she said.

Kong Yinlian enjoyed her words and even felt happy about them, no matter whether they were insults or ridicule.

Until now, Kong Yinlian was still kneeling on the ground, and she didn't feel humiliated at all, but was used to it. But, even so...

The Curse Master tried his best to suppress the strange joy that welled up in his heart and said.

"S-So...your ability can still be resisted...right?"

"resistance?"

An Zhizhen seemed to have heard a funny joke and smiled happily again.

"I order you to try and see if you can kill me."

s……sh……sha……

Kong Yinlian simply couldn't understand.

Because the connection between this word and the woman in front of her has disappeared in her mind.

Also, including all the hurtful words like chop, cut, stab, hack, and shave... She still remembered their meanings, but as soon as they came into contact with An Zhizhen, the connection would be immediately broken.

This logical disorder also brought extremely intense pain, as if her brain was being dug out bit by bit with an iron spoon... making her whole body hurt so much that it completely shut down.

"Huh...ha...this is...I'm sorry...please forgive me...my transgression...please allow me not to think..."

Kong Yinlian's face was distorted, with snot and tears mixed together. She pressed her face deeply into the rough ground and rubbed it hard until her forehead was covered in blood.

"You can't have any murderous intentions or hostility towards me, right? Rather, you respect and admire me very much now."

An Zhizhen stood up and walked slowly to Kong Yinlian.

"So, you are already my slave, how do you feel about this fact?"

"I...feel genuine happiness...and unprecedented joy..."

"Well, that's a good answer."

An Zhizhen's clear voice traveled from above her head to Kong Yinlian's ears. It was a little vague, as if it came from a god above the clouds.

Whether it was the way he spoke or acted, it was so natural, as if from the very beginning, An Zhizhen had been accustomed to this detached perspective of overlooking the world.

After she possessed a consciousness of such an extraordinary size, she naturally became indifferent to human nature.

Or maybe, it is because she is naturally cold-hearted that she has this extreme ability.

Which is the cause and which is the effect? ​​No one in this world knows the answer except herself.

……

"Okay, I said I needed two test subjects, so that's two."

An Zhizhen clapped his hands and signaled Kong Yinlian to get up from the ground.

"So congratulations, Kong Yinlian, you have survived for the time being."

"Yes, it is my honor to help you, sir."

"Then let's start the experiment."

An Zhizhen handed a camera to Kong Yinlian.

"Take good pictures, you guys are companions after all."

She turned and looked at the "creature" in the corner.

"He was a scum and a pest to society during his lifetime. But on the scale of value, everyone's life is equal and everyone has the opportunity to create value for the world."

"Just like his companions. Whether the traces he left behind at the end of his life can contribute to the future of mankind is up to you."

……

Kong Yinlian silently turned on the camera, focused, and pointed the lens at Deng Rong.

"June 25, 2010... The second experiment of overdevelopment of superpowers... Three, two, one, start."

The squirming creature in the corner suddenly began to struggle violently, twisting and gasping in pain.

She also remembered that Deng Rong's ability was between the human immortal system and the earth immortal system, and its source came from the curse of the power of the ancient wind god Fei Lian.

The human immortal side is that his body parts will transform into something almost bird-like, with hollow bones suitable for high-speed movement and even flying, and he will grow sharp claws and teeth; the earth immortal side is the manipulation of air flow, which is the "power of wind".

Under An Zhizhen's orders, Deng Rong is trying his best to mobilize his true Qi and use spells, even if it means losing control.

The human-immortal system of spells often have a certain degree of self-healing ability. Although it is difficult to reach the unheard-of level of "immortal bones", it is indeed more advantageous than ordinary spell masters.

Deng Rong's curse has dual characteristics, so the power on both sides is not very strong, and he can only rely on the accumulation of time to recover from some minor injuries. But at this time, it is obvious that the effect is beyond the scope of the original ability.

The body, which had been severely injured, miraculously began to support itself, and deformed flesh and blood filled the wounds; but at the same time, "he" - or "it", began to grow black bird feathers all over his body, and the regenerated limbs were abnormally thin, with several of them lying hunched over.

Deng Rong...is becoming a real monster.

Kong Yinlian pursed her lips.

"continue."

An Zhizhen's calm voice came from behind her. It was unclear whether she was giving orders to Deng Rong or talking to herself.

Generally speaking, this is impossible to happen.

When Deng Rong was still rational, he naturally thought about using spells to alleviate his injuries, and he almost went crazy thinking about it; but he still couldn't do it because his human instinct prevented him from breaking the taboo - that is, "using spells without restraint to transform his body."

This is a fundamental fear, a fear that is what makes people human and is rooted in the memories of the ethnic group. It makes the curse masters believe that the consequences of this over-development and "abuse" are more terrifying than simple death.

But this taboo, which should have been violated by no one, was not taken seriously by the woman at all. She was using terror on a larger scale to crush people's instincts and manipulate all of this to happen.

……

In the end, Deng Rong turned into a deformed bird, covered with wet crow feathers. It opened its fang-filled mouth and uttered several shrill cries. Its dozen of twisted limbs tried to support its body, but they broke under the heavy load.

It fell to the ground with its head drooping. The abuse of the curse led to overdraft, and its life force quickly weakened. Its black eyeballs were wide open, then gradually became cloudy, and it died with its eyes open.

It's dead.

"…Experimental results: the subject died."

After An Zhizhen wrote down the last line of the record, he put down his pen, closed the notebook, and nodded with satisfaction.

"Okay, let's take care of this and go."

(End of this chapter)