The King of Curses

Chapter 294 The Demon Realm Under the Boat
"Xiao, Xiaoshi?"

The woman's eyes widened in shock.

"Yes. Why, you don't know what this word means?"

The girl raised her hand, covered her lips, yawned, and spoke lazily.

"It's a secretary. Responsible for handling trivial matters, solving problems, and sharing the boss's worries. In addition, he has to run around everywhere and be forced to do various tasks. He never has a moment of leisure."

"..."

The woman was stunned for a moment, looked at the young girl's indifferent expression, and couldn't help but secretly observe the couple walking in front of her.

Although both of them have beauties that make their peers feel ashamed, Consultant An's beauty is the kind that is aloof, otherworldly, and distant from others; while the girl who calls herself a secretary is simply young and beautiful, and feels like a fashionable female college student. Even her entire temperament is incompatible with the world of curse masters.

"..."

When Advisor An had already stated that Cen Dongsheng was his lover, a woman who claimed to be "Xiao Mi" suddenly appeared...

dare not think, dare not think.

She immediately looked at her nose, mouth and heart and stopped talking.

……

An Zhizhen heard the conversation behind him, so he used his mind to whisper to Cen Dongsheng:

"Miss Jiang seems very dissatisfied with you. It's no wonder. She feels left behind by you and classmate Song."

There was a hint of smile in the woman's tone.

"Friendship and harmony among teams are very important, so you must pay attention to that. If Dongsheng can't bear to educate you, I can help."

"……help?"

Cen Dongsheng thought to himself that if he said this in front of Senior Sister Jiang, she would definitely be scared.

But it is precisely because of this that Sister Zhizhen spoke to him alone.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to turn your important friend into a puppet. That would be a waste. Trust my skills~"

"No, that's not necessary. Just leave it to me."

Cen Dongsheng sighed.

……

There was no scene with the disfigured woman during the self-introduction session, but he had already learned of this person's identity from his elder sister.

The woman's name is Ma Jing, she is 35 years old this year, her strength level is "C3", and she is currently an unaffiliated freelance spell-caster.

According to Ma Jing herself, her main job was an ordinary company clerk. After realizing her special abilities, she did not show them to others.

Later, the vigorous "clearing mountains and destroying temples" movement spread across the country, and a branch of the Supernatural Work Committee was newly established in Ma Jing's city.

She also took the initiative to register her identity. Although she did not choose to join, she has always lived a law-abiding life as an ordinary citizen.

But in the past two months, a major event occurred that deviated her life trajectory.

"I had planned to have plastic surgery for a long time. Later, I became a spell master and felt that my skills were better than those of ordinary people. So I met a private doctor through someone's introduction. He said that he had a spell that could transform a person's body. Whether it was changing the body or changing the appearance, it was very easy and could be done in a few minutes."

But it was a trap—

This doctor actually came from the underground black market. He does have extraordinary abilities. Compared to ordinary plastic surgeons who need sophisticated equipment and surgery to constantly fine-tune people's facial features, under his hands, people's faces seem to become a ball of plasticine, which can be flattened and rounded at will by him - it is "plasticine" in the literal sense, and only those who have seen it with their own eyes can understand it.

Ma Jing had little understanding of the unscrupulous nature of the curse masters and originally thought that the worst outcome would be a failure of the operation and turning her into an ugly monster - this was the cognitive limitation of her as an "ordinary person".

She had never expected that the other party's ability was so strange that he could use the head as a toy and at the same time transform the brain inside into a controllable object.

A third-class spell-binding master does not have the ability to "revive after his brain is damaged", and it is impossible for him to break free from such restraints.

In order to preserve her life and sanity, Ma Jing could only obey the curse master's orders and dared not reveal any information to anyone.

It was from that time that she learned the identity of the black market doctor: he was from the Wuxiang Sect, took orders from a big shot named Meng Huafan, and conducted various illegal experiments in private.

There were more than one or two people who were deceived like her. Some who were even more unfortunate were even forced to undergo "head reconstruction surgery". In the end, they all became slaves of the "Wuxiangmen".

If Wuxiangmen simply asked the slaves to kill and burn people, there might not be so much reluctance; but as a researcher, the needs are not so simple.

Since most of the victims were low-level spell masters, Wuxiang Sect did not want them to be thugs, so they suffered inhumane humiliation:

Being a guinea pig in a laboratory, allowing others to conduct experiments on their bodies; after completely losing their value, they will be thrown out like garbage and exchanged for money and resources in the secular world.

"The vast majority of buyers are ordinary people. Some have high social status, some are simply rich, and some are from abroad. They are well-informed, so they have long established connections with the world of curse masters."

There are many smart people among these former vested interests. They can certainly notice the huge power possessed by the group of spell-binding masters and the rapidly expanding size of the group.

This means that they themselves are about to slide down from the upper class. The world of the future will no longer be dominated by power and capital, no longer linked by blood and marriage, but will be filled with purer violence and a more unpredictable fate.

If there were only one or two "supermen", the former rulers of human society might have been able to deal with it, but what they had to face was the rapid rise of an entire new class.

As the new human beings who hold the future direction of mankind and possess a higher level of violence and intelligence, it is only a matter of time before the curse masters replace the old humans. The tide of the times is mighty, and those who go against it will perish. In this new world where the strong prey on the weak and strength is supreme, the resources accumulated by ordinary people for generations will soon be eaten up.

Precisely because they know all of this very well, faced with an earth-shaking countdown, the irresistible panic and fear that arise from it will soon turn into hatred.

Cen Dongsheng had heard about this chaotic period in his previous life. There were also some so-called bigwigs who were unwilling to lose their status and attempted to incite hatred among ordinary people and even mobilize the army. However, they were quickly suppressed by the Curse Master Organization and did not cause any trouble.

Maybe it only lasted for a year or two in total, so Cen Dongsheng didn't have a very deep impression of it, especially since he lived under the rule of the Philosopher King, and the transition from the secular government to the Curse Master government was quite smooth, so he was even further away from such things.

In short, in the face of an overwhelming power gap, the vast majority of ordinary people eventually accept the status of being ruled, and this will not change.

But in the tide of unification, there will naturally be undercurrents and countercurrents.

“They can’t do anything to high-level spell-forbidden masters, but through the Wuxiang Sect, they can buy back those worthless low-level spell-forbidden masters and use them as vases or playthings… For these ordinary people, this is a good way to vent their anger.”

"Oh……"

After listening to the other party's story, Cen Dongsheng felt cruel and novel.

This was another side of the world that he had never been exposed to.

His past experiences and vision were either from his previous life when he had entered a period of stable development, or were limited to the upper and top levels in this life; but he had never understood the lives of ordinary spell-binding masters of this era.

In a chaotic age of lack of order, anything can happen.

"But, Meng Huafan's people do such dirty things?"

Rather than being surprised or disgusted, the man's true thoughts were -

It's really too low.

These were shabby deals, and there was also the suspicion of using a spell master to curry favor with ordinary people. If such things were exposed in the future, it would be a big blow to the reputation of the organization. No wonder the King of Bliss in later generations was eager to go ashore and erase all the previous deeds. "It sounds like the human nobles buying elf slaves in some fantasy works."

This is a unique evaluation from Senior Sister Jiang.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand at all." Cen Dongsheng asked honestly in his heart, "Can you explain it to me?"

“…Forget it if you don’t understand.”

"What kind of fantasy work is that? I want to see it, too."

"You are not allowed to look at it."

"We can find an opportunity to watch it together, and you can introduce it."

"...Teacher Cen, you are deliberately making fun of me, right?"

Someone who looks like a fashionable girl but is actually a useless otaku is looking at him with a cold gaze.

"how come……"

Cen Dongsheng felt very wronged and believed that Jiang Yunmei was full of misunderstandings about him.

……

When Ma Jing talked about her experiences over the past two months, her eyes and expression were gloomy.

"Then how did you escape?"

After hearing this, the man couldn't help but feel curious about this question.

"I, I didn't escape... that black market was shut down."

Ma Jing said that she glanced at An Zhizhen inadvertently, and a hint of fanaticism flashed in her pupils.

"It was our local Chaogong Committee branch that took action and destroyed the Wuxiang Sect branch."

"Oh……"

Cen Dongsheng nodded, it turned out that the problem had been resolved.

"I am grateful to the Chao Working Committee and Advisor An. But..."

Ma Jing stroked her face, then quickly retracted it as if she had been electrocuted, her tone filled with hatred and fear.

"I will never forget this face of mine and the pain that doctor left me with. He was a very cunning man and escaped unscathed during the crackdown."

"So, you're here to seek revenge on him?"

Cen Dongsheng's suspicion was blunt.

"Just you?"

"...No, no, even though I hate him, I hope I will never see him again in my life."

The woman replied with a wry smile.

"But my brain hasn't recovered yet. If I continue like this, I will die sooner or later... So, I can only hold on to a glimmer of hope and come to find him. I asked around for information and learned that he was on this ship..."

……

"I have sent someone to confirm the truth of what she said."

The elder sister whispered in his heart.

"Even though she is just an excuse for me, it doesn't mean she can deceive me."

"...Does this mean you've realized she's lying?"

Cen Dongsheng couldn't help but frown.

How dare a mere third-class spell-binding master lie in front of them?

"At least they didn't tell the whole truth. Even if I don't use my ability, I can tell at a glance if someone is hiding something from me."

An Zhizhen replied.

"Besides, the more familiar the person is, the easier it is."

There seems to be a deep meaning in what my elder sister said...

Cen Dongsheng coughed dryly.

"I understand."

*
While chatting, they had already crossed most of the distance through the corridor of the lower deck.

The road was deserted, filled with cold and lifeless metal machinery, and the scenery was monotonous; but starting from a certain section of the road, the scene before their eyes changed drastically.

Colorful neon mist began to rise in the air, and the stainless steel walls came alive, glowing with the luster of mother-of-pearl. The colors were brilliant, reminiscent of the Dragon Palace in mythology.

——The spiral staircase leading to the deepest part is melting like ice cream, and is covered with a layer of fluffy tissue.

The world constructed by modern industry has been replaced by a strange and magnificent "magic world"; and the deeper you go, the deeper the change becomes.

Cen Dongsheng and others were skilled and courageous, and they continued to move forward without changing their expressions, while Ma Jing was trembling, suspicious, and looking around. If it weren't for the big guys leading the way, she would have turned around and ran away long ago.

But now, she could only bite the bullet and keep going.

The metal handrails grew dense granulations, and the surface of the stairs oozed a gelatinous fluorescent mucus. Every step felt like stepping into the throat of a giant beast. The air was filled with the fishy and sweet smell of ambergris, which became thicker as one went down.

Until you reach the end of this road, which is also the core of the entire Mirage.

What appeared before them was a huge barrier like a jellyfish's umbrella.

The height is tens of meters. Within the outline of the translucent barrier, one can vaguely see a strange and bizarre spectacle that seems to be not from the human world:
Under the space supported by the dark red flesh pillars, the original engine room has been corroded by this demonic world into a living chamber. The gold-plated pipes are all covered with living fibers, like pulsating blood vessels; and the valves on them have become embedded eyeballs.

The deepest fuel tank was a collection of translucent cysts, with iridescent seawater surging in it; the rivets on the floor had mutated into sharp fangs, making the entire space look like being in the mouth of a deep-sea monster.

The most eye-catching thing is that the giant engine in the center that is responsible for providing power to the entire ship has been replaced by a huge ochre-colored tumor, the surface of which is covered with gill slits that open and close with breathing; what is ejected from it is not steam, but swarms of mayflies wrapped in phosphorus powder.

Four figures wearing bird-beak masks are busy, giving people the feeling that they are "adding coal" to the boiler.

They took out the still-twitching hearts from black pottery jars and fed them to the tumor. Once these blue-green mutated organs came into contact with the tumor, they turned into liquid and seeped into the deep part through the gill slits.

The core of the entire Mirage is the magic world in front of us. It looks like a product of modern shipbuilding technology, but in fact it relies on this strange ritual to sail on this sea...

(End of this chapter)