The King of Curses

Chapter 202 Omen
"Quick, quick, call a doctor over!"

"What happened to the old man..."

After the doctor rushed to the ward and examined him, he quickly announced Jiang Dechang's death.

……

Jiang Zhifeng looked at his father lying on the bed and rubbed his wrist. He looked down and saw bruises in the shape of finger marks still on it.

"That strength just now, was it a last burst of energy?..."

Although he did not expect his father to die so suddenly, Jiang Zhifeng did not feel much sadness in his heart. During the long struggle for the family business, when his brothers were driven away and his family members were alienated, the relationship between father and son had long faded.

Although he was the head of the family supported by his father, it is hard to say that the relationship between father and son is better than that of others. Instead, there is a higher element of mutual exploitation.

In his father's eyes, he is probably just an obedient puppet, and there are as many substitutes as he wants.

For example, Jiang Zihao, who is a generation younger than him, was assigned by his father to be responsible for the crucial job of communicating with the spell-binding masters, and now his status in the Jiang family is no less than his.

"Speaking of Jiang Zihao, my father seemed to be calling his name just now."

The first thing he felt was confusion.

Death came suddenly. Although my father was seriously ill and weak in bed, according to the doctor's latest examination results, he should be able to hold on for at least another year or two.

Jiang Zhifeng did not doubt the doctor's words, because this was the second time a similar misfortune had happened to this old man.

Just two weeks ago, Jiang Dechang was still the old man who was full of energy and annoying in the minds of his children. The old man himself was a curse master. Although his rank was not high, his life span was undoubtedly longer than that of ordinary people. As a result, he was admitted to the hospital in the blink of an eye. He fell into a coma without any signs and was so weak that he looked like a skeleton.

It was as if the life force in him... had been forcibly taken away by someone.

When he thought of this, Jiang Zhifeng's heart was shrouded in dark clouds.

Was the sudden death just now because the half of his life that was left was taken away mercilessly?
……

"Uncle San, what's wrong with you? Why haven't you spoken since just now?"

Someone asked nearby. The other person looked confused, with tear marks on his face. I didn't know if he was really crying or just acting so hard that he believed it.

"nothing……"

Jiang Zhifeng answered casually.

He knew very well what these people were thinking. They just wanted to take advantage of the old man's illness and gather around his bedside to curry his favor.

In the past, Jiang Dechang's overbearing style was deeply rooted in people's hearts. Even though he had retired for a long time, he still had authority in the Jiang family's industry and company. With his support, he could quickly become a hot figure in the family, so he would try his best to perform.

No one thought that Jiang Dechang would really die of illness. After the most unexpected development happened, they were in a panic.

Jiang Zhifeng always thought this was funny. Watching this group of people crying and laughing, he felt like he had become one of the tourists visiting the zoo, watching the funny performances of the animals across the glass wall.

...But he is also a self-aware person, knowing that in the eyes of some people, he is the one being watched.

"Should I take a break for a while..."

Jiang Zhifeng rubbed his eyebrows and felt a little tired.

After his father died, he became the person with the highest status in the family, but he was not happy at all. He only had the urge to escape.

Perhaps, my personality is not suitable for being the so-called head of the family.

Amid the crying and panicking crowd, Jiang Zhifeng sat silently in the corner. When he closed his eyes, he heard annoying screams in the ward.

He opened his eyes.

Something happened that frightened and overwhelmed everyone.

"Grandpa... Grandpa's health is..."

The Jiang family member who had just asked him had a trembling voice.

"Dissolving...?"

The scene in front of me could be best described as "dissolving". The old man who had just died was lying on the bed, like a floating corpse fished out of the water, with liquid constantly flowing out of his body, seeping through the clothes and the sheets underneath.

It was not water, but some kind of asphalt-like black liquid, flowing viscously.

At the same time, the outline of the old man's body seemed to become "illusory" and gradually disappeared.

"Wait, what on earth is going on..."

The doctor who rushed over was obviously a little frightened by this bizarre scene that went against science.

After Jiang Dechang woke up and vomited black water, making the entire ward a mess, someone took the remaining body fluids for examination, but no conclusion was drawn in the end.

Jiang Zhifeng's face became increasingly gloomy as he watched this scene. He stood up, pushed away the tribesmen who were blocking his way, and walked out of the corridor by himself.

"What the hell." He thought, "I have to leave this place. No, maybe... the best thing I should do is to run away."

Jiang Zhifeng began to seriously think about this idea which seemed a little crazy to others, simply because he smelled a very bad smell from it; but at this time he had not yet realized that he actually had no way out.

……

"Uncle San, there was a phone call just now."

As soon as Jiang Zhifeng walked out of the ward, a man with a phone came up to greet him. It seemed that he had been waiting for a while.

This person is one of the younger generations in the clan who supports him the most. He is considered his deputy and has always been very self-conscious and obedient.

"who is it?"

Jiang Zhifeng asked as he picked up the phone.

"They say they are from the Super Working Committee."

"……Fine."

Jiang Zhifeng took a deep breath and suppressed the strong sense of uneasiness rising in his heart.

But he couldn't just ignore the call from the Super Working Committee. He had no choice but to dial the number back.

"Hello, I'm Jiang Zhifeng."

On the other side of the microphone, the staff of the Super Working Committee was polite and gentle in tone, but the words that came out of their mouths shocked Jiang Zhifeng.

"……what?"

He knew that while he was taking care of the old man, the Jiang Family Manor was holding a banquet. He also knew that this banquet was not simple and there was a conspiracy behind the scenes that even he was not clear about. But no matter what, he never thought that something like this would happen -

The banquet venue was caught up in a sudden battle, the guests fled one after another, and even foreign mercenaries were involved.

In addition, Jiang Zihao and his girlfriend died together at the very beginning of this incident.

He suddenly remembered that his father was calling his name before he died...

Before Jiang Zhifeng could think about the connection, even more shocking news came from the other end of the phone.

It would be fine if the Jiang family was just a simple victim, but from what the other side said, the Jiang family had actually colluded with one of the parties in the battle - the two sorcerers, trying to resist the Super Working Committee, and had also been in contact with overseas forces.

The main reason why Jiang Zhifeng turned a blind eye to the conspiracy within the family was that he felt that since he was powerless to stop it, he might as well let things take their course.

But if he had known in advance that things would be this bad...

However, it is too late to regret now.

Going against a behemoth like the Super Working Committee? What a joke! Even when he was ambitious, he would never have such an unrealistic dream.

The words his father once said, about the mysterious ancestor who was said to be very powerful and could support them, came to his mind.

So that's it... Jiang Zhifeng suddenly understood that this was the old man's idea from the beginning.

But he just thought it was crazy. It was good to have a pillar of the family, but they should be prepared for the worst and never give up the Jiang family's way of survival in the cracks. He now understood from the bottom of his heart why his brothers wanted to leave the family...

Fortunately, his father was already dead, and as the head of the family, he had to find a way to escape from the vortex.

Faced with the turbulent situation, Jiang Zhifeng tried to stay calm and think of solutions.

"Mr. Jiang, you are now the person in charge of the Jiang family that we can contact, so we want to confirm your attitude and opinion."

"Of course I will cooperate with the investigation—"

He suddenly shut his mouth halfway through the sentence.

The cell phone was taken away.

It was the junior who had just handed the phone to him, and the other person was smiling at him.

"What are you doing? Give it back to me..."

"Uncle San, I just hope you can think about it again. Do you really want to stand on the side of the outsiders?"

"..."

Jiang Zhifeng looked at the other person's smile and cold sweat broke out on his forehead.

At first, he was just surprised by the other party's sudden change in his previous respectful attitude, but when he noticed the dark marks in the corners of the other party's eyes, a sinister chill ran down his spine.

He was not mistaken, that was... the trace left by the "black water".

Jiang Zhifeng was deeply impressed by the black water that gushed out of his father at the end and the strange phenomenon that his whole body seemed to dissolve after his death.

"We are blood relatives. We are Jiang family members in life and Jiang family ghosts in death. Standing with the family is the right choice, right?"

The other person grabbed his wrist with an eager expression.

But Jiang Zhifeng happened to notice the gaps between the man's fingertips. He didn't know if he was using too much force, but black water was constantly being squeezed out from the gaps in his flesh.

"I...I'll think about it..."

But Jiang Zhifeng didn't have much time to think, as the other party had already pulled him forward in a tough manner, his voice sounding like a dream.

"Come here, go quickly..."

"Speak well if you have something to say!"

Jiang Zhifeng was shocked and angry, and immediately shook off the other person's hand. He saw the other person shook twice, turned around and gave him a weird smile.

"Uncle San, I'll go first."

As he said this, he strode towards the window next to him and flipped out with a swift movement.

All these changes happened so quickly that no one had time to stop them. When people in the corridor saw this scene, some screamed. Then, from the ground floor of the hospital came a dull and creepy "plop" sound, like the echo of a stone thrown into a deep well.

Jiang Zhifeng stood there blankly.

The noise and bustle around...

In Jiang Zhifeng's vision, these close-up scenes seemed to be separated by a layer of frosted glass, blurry and unclear.

The cold sweat on his forehead fell onto his eyebrows. He subconsciously raised his hand to wipe it clean, but when he spread out his hands, what caught his eyes were ink-like black marks that emitted a faint fishy smell.

"what……"

Jiang Zhifeng came back to his senses and gave a bitter smile.

He suddenly realized that all the abnormalities that happened before him were both reminders of the future and warnings to him——

Right now, he actually has no other choice.

"Where are you going?"

"The Jiang family's ancestral home...is that so?"

Jiang Zhifeng supported his forehead with his hand and talked to himself.

"It seems that I have to go."

*
Two days later, at Cen Dongsheng's home.

"What's the situation at the Jiang family now?"

Cen Dongsheng, who had just finished exercising, was enjoying tea and snacks, which is a hobby that Sister Zhizhen has recently become obsessed with.

She claimed that she wanted to be a good wife and mother, but found that her cooking skills were not as good as Cen Dongsheng's, so if the family wanted to taste delicious food, it was almost always left to the men. So she chose to find another way.

Cen Dongsheng took a bite of a baked butter biscuit.

Mmm… a little burnt, but still tasted pretty good.

"All members of the Jiang family are now under investigation, except for your teammate."

After putting down the tea and biscuits, Sister Zhizhen sat on the rocking chair opposite him. The dazzling sunlight made her white dress slightly transparent, like an artistic young woman holding a book and enjoying the lazy afternoon time.

Cen Dongsheng was exercising, An Zhizhen was reading, and the two chatted occasionally, but most of the time they were doing their own things. Even if they were lovers, they would not put too much pressure on each other, as long as they could see each other, they would maintain this leisurely atmosphere.

"I know. Just tell her so."

He put down his teacup, edited a text message and sent it to his teammates, then asked.

"What's your plan? I remember the first step before 'cutting down the mountain and destroying the temple' is to lure the snake out of its hole, right?"

The only way to destroy the monsters and demons is to let them out of their cages.

Sister Zhizhen gathered the hair that fell by her ears with her hands and replied with a smile.

"The results are remarkable. As soon as the Chao Working Committee started to take action, a large group of people couldn't sit still."

"It means they have been paying attention to the movements of the Super Working Committee, and some things have been planned in advance..."

Cen Dongsheng said.

"But I didn't expect that this matter was actually related to overseas forces."

When he said “I didn’t expect it”, he really didn’t expect it - the struggle hidden behind the scenes of history that had never been mentioned in any public information in the previous life.

"I had a hunch, this is just confirmation."

"Where exactly?"

"I'm afraid it's the country across the ocean."

"Oh~"

Cen Dongsheng nodded thoughtfully.

He was not worried, because the Chinese region represented the highest level of the Curse Master civilization. Therefore, An Zhizhen was not only the strongest person in the entire Chinese region, but also the person who stood at the top of the world.

He just remembered one thing -

It is said that the philosopher Wang Anzhizhen had a conflict with an overseas secret society before becoming the "Ancestor", and her second special curse was obtained at that time.

"'It is impolite not to reciprocate'. Once the situation stabilizes, I plan to take the initiative to teach them this principle."

An Zhizhen showed a quiet and beautiful smile.

"Will you accompany me then?"

(End of this chapter)