The King of Curses

Chapter 212: A Hundred Years of Ridiculous Dreams

Different from the impression given by the entire Jiang family ancestral home and this palace, the person sitting on the throne spoke the most standard modern Mandarin.

"You are the one enshrined in the Jiang Family Ancestral Hall..."

"Yes, I am Jiang Qi, the seventh generation of the Jiang family. The mansion you see and the ancestral hall were all built by me personally."

Jiang Qi, sitting on the throne, looked at the coiled dragon above the palace, his tone full of emotion.

"Now that I think about it, I became a Feng Shui master. I can only say that it was a perfect fit. I heard that the ancestors of the Jiang family were descendants of Jiang Ziya."

"Really?"

"Of course it's fake."

Jiang Qi laughed.

"Okay, let's stop talking nonsense. You all have come all the way to my hometown, so I think you have something to ask me. Let's talk frankly. I will answer my questions and will not let you go back empty-handed."

"A family in this village died, and something happened to the Jiang family far away in another city. You are the culprit of all this."

As Cen Dongsheng spoke, his eyes roamed around the hall.

The spacious space was completely dark, as if some kind of sleight of hand was used. But Jiang Yunmei had already heard the voices of the dead, and whispered in his ear:

"There are two rows of evil spirits standing in the palace."

Are they waiting for their boss to "throw the cup as a signal"...

Cen Dongsheng remained calm, wanting to see if the other party had any other tricks up his sleeve. Based on his current level, he could easily clear it by himself.

"'The culprit'... you could say that."

The Feng Shui master on the throne seemed sincere.

"But I just want to accomplish my goal and don't want to hurt others."

"More than one person has died because of your plan."

"Who? You said you came here for the Jiang family, I admit that; but the only ones who died were the Jiang family and the people of this village. If there were extra casualties in the process... I feel very sorry about that, this was not my intention."

After hearing his tone, Cen Dongsheng finally came to his senses.

"You mean, the only people you'll use are the descendants of the Jiang family?"

"Yes."

Jiang Qi admitted it generously, while Jiang Yunmei beside him tightened her face.

"It is really unlucky to be reincarnated as your descendant."

Cen Dongsheng sighed.

"Isn't it natural for descendants to respect their ancestors?"

Jiang Qi laughed loudly, with no guilt in his tone, as if everything was natural.

"I know you are not a member of the Jiang family. Let me guess, you are probably someone sent by the government of this era to handle this incident... I want to discuss something with you and the person behind you."

……

During the confrontation with Jiang Qi, Cen Dongsheng was secretly communicating with his teammates.

"Do you think he is a human or a ghost?"

"I can't hear a heartbeat... From my 'spiritual sense', it doesn't seem like a living person."

Jiang Yunmei's tone was very cautious, but combined with Cen Dongsheng's experience, it was actually enough to make a judgment.

"A ghost that can communicate with humans rationally and normally..."

“Is it rare?”

"It's rare, but it's not without precedent. Some curse masters try to live a second life by transforming themselves into ghosts. This Jiang Qi is probably one of them."

Cen Dongsheng replied.

"But a ghost is a ghost. No matter how normal it appears on the outside, its will and heart have been transformed into a cold-blooded monster. It is completely different from when it was still alive."

Transforming oneself into a ghost is a form of active "demon possession", and the end of this road is only regret.

The life of a ghost is boring. It is impossible to continue the ambitions of the living. There is only endless coldness and greed for the flesh and blood of living beings.

This is a hellish torture that no living being can imagine. Some taboos should not be touched, as it will not benefit anyone.

"I know that the city is the territory of you living people; and I can only choose to meet with the ghosts at night."

Jiang Qi sighed.

"But I'm not dissatisfied with this. My ambition is just to be a mountain king... What do you think? A rural place like Jiangtun Village is not a big loss for you. There is a clear distinction between humans and ghosts. After we have drawn the line, we will never have any contact with each other. Isn't that good?"

“Ridiculous conditions.”

Cen Dongsheng refused bluntly.

"The world belongs only to us humans. No one would bother you if you stayed in the mountains and forests. But you dared to reach out to the gathering place of humans and even wanted to occupy the mountain and become the king. How could such a good thing happen?"

"Don't you need to discuss this with your supervisor?"

"No need. She will just know better than me that you are a threat."

Cen Dongsheng's words and deeds today are deeply shaped by his experience in the ruling bureau, and the ruling bureau is undoubtedly an extension of the will of the philosopher Wang Anzhizhen——

Special individual goblins can be used, but as a whole race, they must be destroyed. "Those who are not of my race must have different hearts." One of her life goals is to completely drive goblins out of this world.

"Heh, it seems you have a very high status. No wonder you have the confidence to break into my territory. Other than that..."

The ghost Jiang Qi's gaze fell on the girl next to Cen Dongsheng.

"Is there one of my descendants with you?"

Cen Dongsheng narrowed his eyes.

"How do you know she is your descendant?"

"Of course it depends on appearance."

Jiang Qi's voice gradually became lower:
"No matter what, it seems that it will be difficult for us to reach a consensus."

……

As soon as it finished speaking, pairs of pupils flashing with faint green light lit up in the dark hall. The faces of the dead were all strange, and there was no uniformity in clothing, gender, or appearance; but the atmosphere was silent and orderly, just like an army.

Cen Dongsheng took a quick look around and found that most of them ranged in strength from lonely souls to evil spirits.

Again, it wasn't a threat to him, but for ordinary spell-binding masters of this era, just seeing this scene was terrifying enough.

The reason why Jiang Qi was able to control ghosts in this way was probably because he had mastered this psychic ability during his lifetime.

"They are my subordinates, guards that I have spent a lot of time and effort to train."

"What about those outside the door?"

"Those outside the door are also my subordinates, but they all have people under them, and they recognize me as their boss." Whether it was the guards in the palace or the guests at the banquet outside, they were all full of resentment.

Cen Dongsheng thought that even if he killed all the people in Jiangtun Village, it would be impossible to gather all these subordinates.

Even during the period of spiritual energy recovery, the birth of vengeful spirits still requires conditions. Only when there is a strong residual will can ghosts be born, unless -

"You are mass-producing ghosts. Is this your ability?"

The experiences of Jiang Yunmei and Song Yutang reminded him that the room where his teammates lived was filled with corpses and could only emit faint "sounds" until they came into contact with the environment inside the haunted house and began to slowly transform into ghosts.

If Jiang Qi chose to hide here, repeating this process over and over again for many years...

Jiang Qi clapped his hands slowly.

"Good, you finally figured it out. So, do you want to know the size of this army?"

Without waiting for an answer, Jiang Qi spoke to himself.

"Over the past hundred years, the total number is about 100,000."

One hundred thousand ghosts...

"What exactly do you want to do? I have never heard of a mountain king who can gather a crowd of 100,000 people."

When Cen Dongsheng said this, his eyes inadvertently fell on the Panlong Pillar, and a guess suddenly jumped into his mind -

No way! He couldn't help laughing. This was even more ridiculous than he thought.

"When I first crawled out of the cemetery, I couldn't adapt to this era. There was no distinction between the noble and the humble, no matter how high or low... But there are still a few good things. For example..."

Jiang Qi raised a finger and pointed upwards, which was the golden pillar with coiled dragons.

"When I was alive, I always wanted to see the emperor's throne, but unfortunately I never had the chance before I died. I never expected that I could see it in a book now."

"...I noticed it when I first came here. My dear ancestor, your palace is really eye-catching. I have traveled to the Forbidden City before. The shape of this place and the chair you are sitting on are all modeled after it."

The person who spoke was Jiang Yunmei, and she finally couldn't help but speak.

Like Cen Dongsheng, the girl also guessed Jiang Qi's thoughts -

"You are so absorbed in studying the ancestral house and ancestral temple that you even crawl out of your grave to do evil after you die. Could it be that... you want to become the emperor?"

"Yes, I have been a Feng Shui master all my life, and in my 'next life' I only want to be an emperor. I know you will laugh at me for having wild ideas, but if I can change my fate, it is not difficult at all. As the saying goes, 'A golden fish cannot stay in a pond. Once it encounters wind and clouds, it will turn into a dragon'..."

The Feng Shui master pointed to Jiang Yunmei again.

"So, I am just collecting some of my descendants' lives as collateral in advance. When the time comes, you will have endless wealth and glory to enjoy."

"Then I really want to thank you on behalf of my relatives."

Jiang Yunmei sighed deeply.

"But I laugh at your wild ideas, not because I think your horoscopes and feng shui are useless. I just want to say..."

"——There is no emperor in this world anymore."

After being ridiculed by his great-great-great-great-granddaughter, Jiang Qi fell silent for the first time.

"Yes, there is no emperor in the world anymore. This is the only thing I never thought of during my lifetime."

When Cen Dongsheng heard this, he just wanted to laugh.

In the end, the real reason was that the old man didn’t survive until the Xinhai Revolution…

"So, you want to continue dreaming about this?"

"Whatever I wanted to do when I was alive, it has long since vanished after I die. Rather than ruling over mortals, I now want to eat all the living people in this world."

A fierce light flashed in the ghost Jiang Qi's pupils.

"Unfortunately, this is my obsession in life. Only after realizing this obsession can I become a pure 'ghost'."

The ghost on the throne who was dreaming of being an emperor flicked his sleeves, and the ghost guards in the palace gathered together to form a "ghost wall", blocking the view of the curse masters.

"Okay, let's stop here. I should have killed you right now... but you are lucky to have come across our banquet. On a day of celebration, we should not commit murder. I will give you one last choice. If you are willing to escape, you still have a chance to survive. Take this news back to the human world."

*
Cen Dongsheng and the other two walked out of the palace.

The banquet in the ancestral home was still going on in full swing. This time, the guests no longer cast fierce or covetous glances at them, but acted as if they did not exist.

"I thought Teacher Cen would just rush up and beat up that pretentious guy."

"Do you think I'm just a muscle man? Since I know this ghost is extraordinary, I won't act rashly. And that 'Jiang Qi' on the throne..."

Cen Dongsheng shook his head.

"I don't think it can be the real body."

The news that Jiang Qi locked himself in a coffin was probably true, otherwise, given his arrogant desire to be the emperor, he would not have spoken to the intruders in a friendly manner. Jiang Qi in the palace did not seem to be seriously injured, so perhaps he was a clone.

"Ahahaha, I think this ghost's idea is ridiculous."

Although Jiang Yunmei had already felt disgusted with this ancestor who exploited his descendants before she came, she was still shocked by the other party's absurdity after actually meeting him.

"It's ridiculous," Song Yutang said, "but if the size of its army really reaches the order of '100,000', if they all rush out of this haunted house, it will cause unimaginable damage to the outside world, right?"

“Most of them can’t get out.”

Cen Dongsheng shook his head.

"The Yin Qi in the haunted house is the resource that ghosts rely on for survival. If they cannot be replenished in time in the outside world, the larger the scale, the more likely they are to self-destruct."

Unless there is some kind of larger-scale mutation that provides the conditions for Jiang Qi's ghost army to appear in this world openly -

"Mutation?"

He slowly frowned and suddenly thought of something.

One of the "Eight Great Disasters", "The Passing of the Ghost Soldiers", is a large-scale supernatural conflict that is expected to occur shortly after the start of school next year. It involves Cen Dongsheng, who was an ordinary person in his previous life, in a disaster that profoundly changes his life.
The greatest significance of this disaster to this society and this country is that it has exposed the conflicts of the new era. From then on, the existence of curse masters and ghosts could no longer be hidden from ordinary people.

Even though there were special curse masters protecting the city, a considerable number of victims were still forced to wander, because according to later speculation, the forces behind this disaster were extremely complex:

For example, the sorcerers of the Ghost Mother Society. Cen Dongsheng's personal experience in his previous life told him that this group of guys was one of the culprits. And considering the connection between the Ghost Mother Society and the Nether King, the person who has not yet become a patriarch may also be involved;

In addition to humans, there are also a large number of demons and monsters involved.

If Jiang Qi's secret had not been exposed in his previous life, and considering his connection with the Jiang family, he might have participated in the "Ghost Soldiers Crossing the Border".

Even though a legion of a hundred thousand ghosts poses limited threat to high-level spell-breakers, it is more than enough to stir up chaos in ordinary people's society.

In terms of the number of cannon fodder, Jiang Qi, who has accumulated a hundred years of experience, has an advantage that others cannot match...

"What a coincidence."

Cen Dongsheng pinched his knuckles and thought.

If this is true, then the new and old grudges can be settled as a single account, and he will definitely remove this thorn completely.

(End of this chapter)