The King of Curses

Chapter 88: Ghost Village, Stone Building, and Mandrill

Cen Dongsheng in the haunted house space is not clear about what is happening in the outside world.

If he saw the tense situation between An Zhizhen and Yi Qingyan, he would probably feel his stomach cramping. It had only been less than two hours since the three of them said goodbye, but the fragile balance between the two future "ancestors" could no longer be maintained and was on the verge of collapse.

Precisely because he doesn't know yet, he can still focus on what he has to do.

After parting with Song Yutang, he followed the path indicated by the ghosts and headed towards Shigou Village that existed in the haunted house space.

About twenty minutes later, he saw the entrance to the village.

"That's..."

At first glance, the architectural style does not look like a village in modern society, but more like returning to ancient society, with ancient trees and tall and low houses, surrounded by a stretch of clear water, and a broken stone bridge spanning the overgrown thatch.

The roads in the village are paved with bluestone slabs, and neat tiled houses and old thatched houses are mixed together; the walls are made of yellow mud and the tiles are black, and you can faintly hear the crowing of chickens and barking of dogs.

But if you look closely, you can find facilities and objects in this ancient village that are obviously only available in modern times: road signs on the edge of the road, cement piles in the corners, fallen electric poles...

It seemed to be a mixture of "Shigou Village" from several eras, Cen Dongsheng thought.

The man climbed over the broken bridge and walked into the village at a leisurely pace.

The village is quite lively, with people wandering around in the fields, on the roads, and under the eaves.

The clothes these figures wore were equally bizarre. Some wore undyed linen clothes, some wore coarse cloth clothes, some wore Zhongshan suits, some wore cotton coats on the upper body and urea pants on the lower body, and some wore jackets and jeans...

Not only were there men, women, young and old, but they were also obviously from different eras, gathered together so casually.

There was no sound, and no one spoke. They were like clockwork dolls, walking around aimlessly.

The only thing they have in common is their pale faces, bluish skin, and empty, blank eyes.

These wandering ghosts are probably victims of the "Lord Mountain God".

Walking deep into the village, Cen Dongsheng noticed something falling from the sky, and pieces of it were falling on his body.

He touched his shoulder and picked up a wisp of white dust on his clothes.

"This is……"

Rather than sparkling snow, it looks more like the ashes left after burning paper money.

Cen Dongsheng frowned, twirled his fingers and brushed away the dust.

The fine white dust fell from the gray sky, covering every house, every road, and the empty faces of ghosts in the village.

……

He continued walking further, until he had circled most of the village, and he found that the ghosts were in different conditions:
Some had weak auras and scattered outlines, and were not far from disappearing; some should be considered "fresh", and when they saw him, they wanted to pounce on him and eat him, but he killed them easily.

In general, the earlier the era, the weaker the ghosts.

After being transformed into a ghost, although they are no longer restricted by the flesh and blood of a living person and can wander in this world for decades or hundreds of years, their spiritual intelligence will be exhausted in the process until it completely dissipates.

Apart from the fate of being refined by the curse master, this is another fate for ghosts and monsters to die naturally.

At first glance, the group of villagers holding hunting rifles that Cen Dongsheng had seen before were actually the group with the strongest aura among those killed by the mountain god, and the leader of them was a fierce ghost.

It makes sense. As victims, the villagers still have the will to resist the mountain god. Although the gap between the enemy and us is too big, they can only wander in the forest far away from the village and kill the monkeys of the mountain god, but their intelligence is relatively intact.

Cen Dongsheng never stopped and continued to move forward into the depths.

He soon noticed that at the end of the road stood a huge shadow; white dust falling from the sky blocked the way ahead like fog.

In the hazy white fog, an incredibly large outline vaguely emerged.

It stood silent and motionless, like a giant beast, looking down at the village below.

Cen Dongsheng walked towards the giant shadow.

……

As he got closer, he finally saw it clearly.

At the end of the village, there is a stone building.

Like an ancient palace, the buildings are built with rounded stone pillars and disc-shaped stones.

He recalled the mural painted by the monks during his mountain climbing in the real world:

Compared with the stone building itself, the content on the painting has obviously been processed by imagination and does not have the beauty of magnificent buildings, carved beams and painted buildings; the details such as the riveting of stone pillars and stones are very rough, and it does not look like they were made by skilled craftsmen. There are some crooked characters and paintings on the walls of the stone building, like children's doodles.

Still, it was all shocking.

Because - it is too huge. Every detail looks like a human house magnified dozens of times. It is a palace inhabited by giants.

Cen Dongsheng looked up at the dome. The untouchable distance made him feel his own insignificance.

He also heard rhythmic breathing coming from deep within the palace.

The sound of huge, heavy breathing echoed throughout the enclosed space of the stone building.

The ground beneath my feet trembled slightly, and the fine gravel shook on it; it became a drum, shaking regularly with the dull heartbeat.

Cen Dongsheng remained calm and continued to walk in. In a corner of the stone building, he saw a skeleton.

The skin, flesh and hair on it had rotted away, and the remaining skeleton was also very huge. He estimated that when the owner of this skeleton was alive, his body length was at least ten meters, larger than a mammoth.

Only in the ancient times of the Earth could this kind of creature be seen on land.

"Have I arrived in Jurassic Park..."

Moreover, judging from the shape of its arms and feet, it is very likely a primate. If this skeleton were sent out and seen by modern paleontologists, I wonder what kind of stir it would cause in the academic community.

But what he knew was that in the next eight years, in the era of the curse master, there would be such common sense:
There are indeed ferocious beasts in this world that have survived from ancient times to the present day and have only appeared in ancient myths and legends in various places.

This does not conform to the laws of biology at all, but it is nothing for a world full of supernatural things. Against the backdrop of the global spiritual revival, these evil demons also awaken from their long sleep.

Speaking of which, Cen Dongsheng himself had seen with his own eyes an ancient evil demon awakening from its slumber—

...Then, he was killed instantly by a little girl.

For some reason, he remembered what happened when he first met Yi Qingyan in his previous life, and Cen Dongsheng suddenly found it a little funny.

These monsters are indeed a terrifying threat, but there is a balance in the universe. On this planet, there are humans who are far more terrifying than the ancient beasts.

……

After finding several skeletons in various corners, Cen Dongsheng finally walked into the depths of the stone building and faced the enemy this time. Above the stone building, there was a palace, and in the center was a "stone chair" that was more than ten meters long and wide.

A giant beast was lying on the chair, about fifteen meters long.

It has a tuft of white hair on its head, well-developed muscles, long limbs, and a protruding face. Rather than an ape, it looks more like a giant covered in black fur.

Cen Dongsheng walked to the bottom of the stone bench and looked up at the mandrill.

This chair, which looks like a throne, is three or four stories high.

The breathing sounds heard along the way suddenly stopped, and the giant beast sitting on the chair raised its eyelids, and its scarlet eyeballs looked down at the human.

Its mouth moved, making a rumbling sound.

"what? What?"

Cen Dongsheng pinched his ears.

It was not his misunderstanding, the monster was speaking, with a rhythmic tone that was obviously human language.

But the rumbling voice of this fellow caused the entire space to tremble, and the way he spoke was unclear, and it was obvious that it had been a long time since he communicated with others, so it took him a long time to finally understand what he was saying.

"Live... sacrifice... live sacrifice? Are you treating me as the sacrifice, or the one who carries the sacrifice?"

Cen Dongsheng sighed.

"Unfortunately, there are no offerings. I came here to fight."

"Lord Mountain God" slowly raised his huge body from the chair, and his huge eyes revealed a condescending look, and at the same time, an unconcealable hunger; he raised his hand and stretched out only two fingers towards Cen Dongsheng.

It wanted to eat itself as prey. Perhaps a tiny thing was far from enough to fill its appetite, but after waking up from a long sleep, it had become hungry and had no choice but to eat anything.

It doesn’t matter if one person is not full. Next, it will start hunting all the creatures in the forest, whether they are animals or humans.

……

Cen Dongsheng saw its actions and noticed its thoughts, which were very obvious.

The evil and cruel aura of the mandrill could not be concealed, and along with the movements of the giant beast, a strong fishy wind blew in the face.

But he himself was very excited, as this was the first time since his rebirth that he had "dealt with" a ghost of this size; if the nature of this fight was considered a one-on-one, it might really be the first time in his life.

Before, facing such a huge monster, his first choice would definitely be to run away...

But it's different now.

He wanted to go head-to-head with this guy and have a thrilling duel.

Facing the two thick fingers reaching towards him, Cen Dongsheng realized that this was a good opportunity.

Taking advantage of the moment when the mandrill was full of contempt for a human like an ant, he gave it a ruthless blow.

"So……"

Cen Dongsheng stretched his muscles, assumed the squatting posture of a sprinter starting at a race, and kept his eyes on his goal.

Breaking only two fingers is useless. For a monster of the size of a mandrill, no matter how serious the damage is, it will not affect the situation.

and so……

Cen Dongsheng took a step, accelerated, jumped up, and jumped onto the finger.

The true energy in his body began to burn rapidly. Instead of stopping, it rushed upwards along his arms covered with thick hair.

I don’t know if it’s because in the previous two battles in the haunted house, he was forced to the point of using “Immortal Bones” after being on the verge of death each time, but Cen Dongsheng has gradually become accustomed to fighting with all his strength every time.

Of course, the main reason is that every time he meets an opponent, they are all ghosts of a higher level than himself.

This is a dangerous practice. On the one hand, the use of true Qi is like breathing and exercise. Using too much will not only lead to exhaustion, but also cause conditions similar to "shortness of breath", which will become a fatal flaw in a battle against time. On the other hand, if the spell masters are too emotional, they will easily violate taboos, which is "excessive abuse."

But perhaps this is the advantage of the special-grade spell - even if it is an incomplete partial power, it can allow the holder to circulate the true energy at full power in an extraordinary way without causing any side effects.

In the eyes of his opponents, this young man seemed to have ignited all the true energy in his body in one breath and rushed forward without caring about his life at all.

He watched helplessly as the strange spell-binding master transformed from a flame into a torch, burning in the mandrill's pupils.

The scarlet eyeballs enlarged, and the fatigue that the mandrill felt due to long sleep disappeared at once. It realized that it was not a small insect that it could crush to death at any time, but a poisonous scorpion that was enough to threaten its life!
But by the time it woke up, it was too late.

Its broad, powerful, muscular arms provide it with terrifying physical strength and are its most deadly weapon. It can easily pull out towering trees and wield them as weapons. The hard hair covering its body is like the barbs on its armor, making it impervious to water and fire.

But at this moment, both of them became accomplices, and the little man was running towards the mandrill's head at a very fast speed.

This action gave the ruthless monster a chill.

Even humans would feel panic if they saw a bug crawling up their body and then disappearing after a while; what’s more, this is an bug that they know has the ability to threaten their life.

The broad arms became a wide road. Even if the little man shook his arms and wanted to fall down, he could easily stand firm by grabbing the fur.

And then just like that—

Cen Dongsheng jumped onto the mandrill's shoulder.

"Drink!"

All the muscles in the body were tensed, and the true Qi was infused into one arm, then extended to the five fingers that were put together, until it spread to the fingertips. Then...

Run up and fall.

The knife in the hand raised high pierces the epidermis of hair and skin and reaches the muscle.

The feeling of grabbing the hard hair when he jumped up just now was enough to make him realize how thick the mandrill's body was. No wonder the people who once lived in this mountain were simply unable to fight against it. Not to mention cold weapons such as swords, bows and arrows, even ordinary rifles and explosives could not break its defense.

So there was no trial this time. Cen Dongsheng put all his strength into making sure that he could achieve sufficient results with one strike.

His arm was like a drill running at full speed, drilling into the mandrill's neck. After breaking through the outer layer of protection, his entire arm was immersed in it.

"Roar--"

The mandrill felt pain and roared, and the roar made the entire stone building under its feet shake.

It jumped up from the chair and then crashed into a stone pillar nearby.

Accompanied by a "boom", there was flying gravel and dust. The mandrill raised his other hand and slapped the little man on his shoulder hard!

(End of this chapter)