The King of Curses

Chapter 39 Mr. Yang Liu
"Master Liu is a Feng Shui master, born into a famous family. He is now practicing in the secular world. He is very capable. Local wealthy people and celebrities will look for him if they encounter strange things. He also cooperates with the government."

The man in the windbreaker introduced with a smile.

"I just happened to meet him, so I had the opportunity to travel with him. If you really want to go there, come with us. The master can protect you."

"What do you mean by protection or not?" Du Changlong said with disdain, "Isn't this guy just a charlatan?"

Although he didn't dare to speak to the man who looked vicious at first glance, he straightened his back in front of this charlatan who was trying to cheat people out of money.

The expression of the man in the windbreaker froze instantly.

"Mr. Zhang, there's no need to reason with these kids who haven't even grown all their hair yet."

Master Liu, who was sitting in the back, drank a sip of hot water as if he was tasting tea. His attitude was leisurely, but his words were equally impolite.

"Stupid! Who are you talking about?"

Du Changlong stood up suddenly, and Wang Wei beside him stood up quickly and approached Master Liu first.

One was in front and the other was behind. From how well they cooperated, it was clear that this was not the first time they had done this. They were a typical rich young master and his follower.

Especially Wang Wei, who has the sturdy physique of a sports student. Although he cannot be compared with a real ruthless person, it is not a problem for him to beat up the skinny Lao Deng.

The premise is that the person on the other side is really an ordinary person.

Teacher Liu just smiled contemptuously, lowered his head to take a sip of hot water, then raised his head, and when Wang Wei, who was walking in front of him, approached him, he suddenly spit in the other's face.

The water mist sprayed by Teacher Liu filled the air, sparkling under the light, as gorgeous as a rainbow bridge after the rain.

"What are you doing...juggling?"

Du Changlong was startled and subconsciously took two steps back. He soon realized that his behavior was a bit like a frightened bird, which would be embarrassing in the eyes of his female companion.

Just when he was about to rush forward in anger, he found that Wang Wei in front of him suddenly staggered backwards.

As if he had witnessed something extremely horrifying, Wang Wei's eyes suddenly widened in horror, and he screamed "Ahhhh!" while falling to the ground, sitting on his butt and struggling to move backwards.

"Hey, w-what's wrong with you...where are you going!?"

Du Changlong shouted anxiously twice, but saw that his follower ignored him at all, turned around and ran out of the breakfast shop.

"You, what did you do to Wang Wei!"

He turned his head suddenly and glared at Teacher Liu, looking fierce but weak.

"Humph."

Teacher Liu put down the tea bowl and sneered.

"Why don't you try it and find out? Your friend is so scared that he peed his pants. Do you want to accompany him?"

"Chang Long, Chang Long, we should still..."

Only the girl was left, and she tugged at the hem of Du Changlong's clothes with an ugly look on her face.

"This place is really weird..."

"...Yes, you are right." Du Changlong gritted his teeth, "Let's go first...at least find Wang Wei first."

……

Looking at the high school students running away in shame, Teacher Liu was obviously quite satisfied with his skills. His eyes swept over Cen Dongsheng calmly.

"Oh, it looks like I can't go with them."

The man in the windbreaker scratched his head and smiled bitterly.

"However, since these students are going to Caixin Middle School, we should be able to meet them."

"Mr. Zhang, you are so kind." Teacher Liu said, "I promised to help you, but I didn't promise to help you take care of the child."

"Oh, you are a magnanimous person, don't bother with them. If they are really in trouble, you can't just stand by and watch them die."

The man in the windbreaker smiled and quickly changed the subject.

At this time, there was no one else in the store, and the boss had hidden outside. If the commotion continued for a while, we would probably have to call the police.

When Cen Dongsheng put the money on the table and was about to leave, someone called him from behind.

"Sir, did you hear our conversation just now?"

"heard it."

He replied calmly, turning his head.

"Is something wrong?"

The man in the jacket looked the young man up and down and asked tentatively:

"I see that you have an extraordinary temperament, little brother. Could it be that you are also... a fellow practitioner? Have you heard of the term 'forbidden master'?"

"Yes."

Cen Dongsheng did not hide anything.

"I do know a few tricks of exorcism."

"Really? That's great!"

The man was overjoyed.

"If you're here to resolve the incident at Caixin Middle School..."

"solve?"

Upon hearing this, Cen Dongsheng shook his head slightly.

"I'm here to gather intelligence. As for whether it can be solved, we'll have to see it first."

"You look quite brave despite your young age."

Teacher Liu, who was sitting at the back and looked calm, said this while he was crunching walnuts in a meaningful tone.

"Someone is quite famous and said he would come, but after waiting for a few days, he is nowhere to be seen."

The man in the jacket stood aside, smiling awkwardly. He turned his head and asked:

"Little brother, have you heard of Tianxia Forum and 'Youshan Strange Talk'?"

"I've heard of it." His answer was still concise.

"That's great. Actually, we are both members of the forum. My ID is 'Slow Cooking' and Teacher Liu's ID is 'Mr. Yang Liu'. We are both here because of the incident at Caixin Middle School that has caused quite a stir on the forum these past few days..."

Halfway through his words, the other party seemed to remember something and slapped his forehead and said.

"Haha, sorry, I haven't even introduced myself yet, why are you talking about my online name? My last name is Zhang, my given name is Xiu, and this is Teacher Liu Xiaochuan."

"My name is Cen Dongsheng."

"Mr. Cen, now we know each other..."

Zhang Xiu stretched out his hand with a smile on his face, wanting to shake hands with the young man, but he soon noticed something else.

"Cen Dongsheng? 'Dongsheng'? Could it be that..."

He restrained his expression, and asked cautiously and hesitantly:

"Little brother, your ID on the forum is not..."

"'Winter Life'. Any impression?"

"..."

Zhang Xiu and Liu Xiaochuan's expressions all became strange for a moment.

Cen Dongsheng remembered clearly that "Slow Cook" and "Mr. Yang Liu" were the users who appeared in the discussion thread he had replied to. The latter had a conflict with other users because he had said bad things about him. He nodded slightly to the two and was about to turn around and leave.

"Wait!" The other party called him again, "...Mr. Cen, do you want to go with us? It would be good for you to be company."

*
Ten minutes later, they arrived at Caixin Middle School.

"Oh, I never expected that the famous 'Winter Life' would be you, and you are actually so young..."

Zhang Xiu rubbed his hands and asked with a smile.

"Are you still a student?"

“I’m in college.”

"As expected. Heroes are born young, haha!"

Along the way, the other party had already made a brief self-introduction.

Zhang Xiu, also known as forum user "溫火慢煮", is a private investigator.

Although he is not a curse-master, due to his profession, he understands secrets that are difficult for ordinary people to access.

Especially in recent years, several of the commissions he has taken on have involved the involvement of supernatural forces that cannot be explained by reality, so he has to believe in the existence of another world.

Later, Zhang Xiu learned about the existence of "Youshan Strange Stories" from other channels and began to pay active attention to this forum and the people on the forum.

As for the matter of Caixin Middle School, it was because he was commissioned by the parents of one of the missing students; the reason why he posted that message on the forum was actually to find help.

He met Liu Xiaochuan, whose ID was "Mr. Yang Liu", and they had made an appointment in advance. The two planned to go to the place together to find out what was going on.

"I'm sorry, Brother Cen, Teacher Liu...may be a little stubborn."

While the two of them were talking, Liu Xiaochuan had already climbed over the school gate and entered the campus without even looking back.

"But he is a real capable person." Zhang Xiu said, "I heard that he studied with a certain master and practiced in Zhongnan Mountain for five years. It is also true that many wealthy officials asked him for help. I have heard of several deeds..."

"Yeah, that's good."

Cen Dongsheng smiled and made no comment.

After all, the other party is just an ordinary person and does not have a deep understanding of the group of curse masters.

When the "first wave" was in full swing, people who inherited the traditions of ancient spell-casters such as Buddhist and Taoist beliefs and folk traditions used the skills of dealing with ghosts passed down by their ancestors and gained a certain early advantage; but this advantage soon disappeared in the face of naturally strong destinies and the emergence of new spells.

Cen Dongsheng had fabricated a similar identity before, with the purpose of gaining An Zhizhen's trust...although at the moment, it is still unknown how much her sister can believe it.

This Master Liu Xiaochuan is most likely one of them.

With a master and practice, he may understand ghosts better than the average wild spell-binding master, but not much.

"It's hard to say whose fault it is that this cognitive bias exists."

Cen Dongsheng felt emotional.

Unless there are people like him who have been reborn, or people like An Zhizhen who have outstanding foresight, for most people in the world - even the curse masters, the outline of the future is vague.

They may have vaguely sensed that the world was quietly changing, but they never realized that it would be a precursor to the arrival of a wave of the times that would subvert the world.

These traditional spell-binding masters thought that it was just that there were more and more colleagues and more and more ghosts appearing recently, but their thought circuits were probably still stuck at the level of urban supernatural powers, and they never thought that it would develop into the scale of a disaster movie in the future.

They never imagined that when the situation gradually stabilized, what would greet everyone would be a new society in which the old order would be completely shattered and rebuilt on this basis.

"If I hadn't experienced it myself, I would have found it hard to imagine a world that sounds so far away."

Cen Dongsheng thought.

"Hey, look, look!"

Zhang Xiu patted his shoulder, pointed at Liu Xiaochuan not far away, and said excitedly:

"Teacher Liu has started working! What is he doing?"

Looking around, the three of them were in an empty campus, with a clear view of the surrounding scene.

The flower bed in front of the school gate, the stairs on both sides of the teaching building, the long corridor with five classrooms on one side, and the plastic track and playground in the distance.

Everyone has had a student life and those green years, which are similar yet different.

Being on campus again makes me nostalgic, as if I recalled the good old days: the classroom was full of students, the classmates around me were reciting the text with their heads shaking, while I was lying on the table with books covering my face and taking a nap, with the sound of reading aloud and writing lingering in my ears.

Now there is no one but the sound of the wind.

Three adults were standing at the foot of the teaching building in the front. One of them was holding a round board in his hand. He sometimes lowered his head in thought and occasionally stood still. He muttered something and stepped forward and backward, as if following some kind of directional pattern.

"He's holding a Feng Shui compass."

Cen Dongsheng observed his movements for a while and explained.

"I guess it's probably through Feng Shui that we can find places where Yin Qi remains in the local area."

"Yin, yin qi remains?"

"Yes. If there are ghosts, whether strong or weak, there will always be traces left. If those people really disappeared because they were involved in the 'haunted house', we can follow the signs to find clues, and maybe we can find the entrance to another space."

"I see... As expected, we are in the same industry. I can understand you at a glance."

Zhang Xiu sighed, his face showing both envy and respect.

"I wish I had that ability."

Liu Xiaochuan's method is considered an ancient inheritance. When the number of spell masters becomes large in the future, people will naturally develop more modern methods and use the latest instruments and technologies to achieve stable and good results.

But in this era, the importance of this set of things is naturally raised to a higher level. This Master Liu does have some abilities.

Of course, it would be more convenient if there was a "ghost fairy" forbidden master present at this moment. Kong Yinlian and the others were able to directly enter the Xiaokang Building haunted house because of her ability.

"You guys stay busy here first, I'll go check out the situation somewhere else."

Cen Dongsheng said this, waved his hand and walked away.

"Eh? Brother Cen, you..."

Zhang Xiu looked at his back, then looked at Liu Xiaochuan who was still pacing there, hesitated for a moment, and did not move.

*
Cen Dongsheng left the teaching building and walked towards the playground.

The sun is shining brightly overhead and the gentle breeze is blowing on your face, making you feel relaxed and happy.

The young spell-binding master stretched and yawned.

"Ha, after all, I feel more relaxed when I'm alone."

he thought.

"So, do we have to find a way to get into the haunted house today? Or should we wait outside? Someone wants to take the lead, and I'm not so ignorant as to steal the limelight..."

Cen Dongsheng was thinking about what to do next when his ears moved slightly and he heard someone talking.

Following the sound, I looked in that direction and found that it was the three high school students I met at the breakfast shop before.

Two boys and one girl were surrounding another figure in school uniform and pointing at him. I didn't know what they were talking about, but their expressions didn't look very friendly.

The person surrounded was a girl, thin and with long hair that almost covered her eyes. She remained silent.

"...Heh, these students, are they going to perform some kind of school bullying show in front of me?"

He walked towards the group of people with a smile on his face.

"As a big brother, I will not sit idly by."

(End of this chapter)