Chapter 5 A Stone's Throw Away_2

Cen Dongsheng followed the method to activate the Cursing Prohibition, dripping essence blood, and focusing his attention, he saw before him countless tadpole-shaped characters trembling and slowly floating upwards, turning from ethereal to solid...

That was the Cursing Prohibition.

Just as he prepared to absorb these characters into his body, he suddenly felt a chill on his spine.

After the Cursing Prohibition was activated, the surrounding yin energy began to fluctuate violently like the tide, attracting all the evil spirits within the building.

Cen Dongsheng was certain he heard a commotion behind him... as if a gigantic lizard was rapidly crawling over the ground, ready to bite off his head in one chomp!

He turned his head, and indeed it was not an illusion; he saw a pale shadow rapidly approaching him.

"That is..."

Cen Dongsheng recognized her at a glance, she was the female ghost he had seen in the bathroom mirror.

Her messy black hair shrouded her face; an old, white dress; dead green skin; like a Monster, she crawled on all fours, clung to the wall like a gecko, then leaped down, lunging at him.

"I didn't even want to take action until just now... was it the fluctuating yin energy around the Cursing Prohibition that attracted her."

Looking at her appearance, she should be a Class C Ghost, the "Lonely Soul," also the kind of ghost people understand most easily.

Ghosts of this level already had the ability to torment and kill people. They would still be harmed by yang energy but could also erode life; they had a natural craving for living beings, ordinary people simply could not resist, and the best option was to stay away promptly.

His thoughts shifted, and the female ghost was already dangerously close to him.

Cen Dongsheng finally got a view of the face hidden by the disheveled hair: it was half a rotten visage, the gum exposed outside, the ghastly mouth opened to an alarming degree, the foul stench shot straight to the top of the skull, a row of dark yellow teeth gnawing toward his neck.

On the other side, Cen Dongsheng's reaction was...

Before the female ghost closed in, he had already taken a deep breath, holding his breath, causing his chest to bulge like a frog's vocal sac;

And when the female ghost swooped in close, his face showed not a hint of panic, he suddenly opened his mouth:

"Back off!"

A shout erupted from deep within his chest, the sound was thunderously loud, accompanied by a breath forcefully exhaled from Cen Dongsheng's mouth, like thunder, that exploded in this small, dark space.

The female ghost was struck in the face by this breath.

What were merely breaths from a human mouth hit the ghost's face like a fierce flame; the rotten face and messy hair caught fire at the same time!

The Lonely Soul screamed in agony, her entire body arched like a shrimp, struggling and twisting as if splashed with sulfuric acid, and within moments she turned tail and scurried away, fleeing the scene like escaping from Cen Dongsheng's presence.

Only then did Cen Dongsheng finally let out a breath, but his face turned deathly pale, the whole person's spirit deflated, as if he had lost his vital energy.

...Yes, he hadn't yet mastered any Cursing Prohibitions, but that did not mean he had no way to deal with lower-level ghosts.

What Cen Dongsheng had just used was merely the basics of Qi Body Technique, a foundational and elementary Qi Manipulation skill that in the future's world was known to everyone: gathering all the body's True Qi at the chest while simultaneously shouting with a thunder sound.

However, although the technique was not profound, just the effort to cultivate this modest amount of True Qi took him a full two months; and now, as he exhaled the result of those two months' work in one breath, Cen Dongsheng felt dizzy and weak.

This was why Forbidden Masters could only bluff and bluster for a long period in history, even if someone practiced from the age of eight to eighty, never slacking off a moment, the amount of True Qi refined in a lifetime probably could not match that of the most ordinary modern Forbidden Master—

It was not until the start of the first wave that a great number of new Curses appeared in this world along with active ghosts, and Cursing Prohibitions were the foundation of the Forbidden Master's power, high-level Cursing Prohibitions not only had immense strength but also could greatly expand an individual's amount of True Qi.

"Now is the moment..."

As the True Qi within his body was expelled, his entire being felt dizzy and his brain swelled. Cen Dongsheng immediately bit his lip, using the pain to stimulate his spirit, striving to maintain a clear consciousness and refocused his attention on the present.

Once he had absorbed all the floating text into his body, Cen Dongsheng staggered to his feet and immediately retraced his steps along the path he had come.

...

"Whew... whew..."

Fortunately, he did not encounter any other ghosts on the way. By the time Cen Dongsheng stumbled back to the sentry post, he was drenched in cold sweat, gasping for air, on the verge of fainting at any moment.

It wasn't just because of the consumption of True Qi, but also because the tadpole-shaped text he had just absorbed was causing chaos in his brain, resulting in waves of pain.

What he needed to do next was to solve these two problems in one fell swoop.

Daring not relax for a moment, Cen Dongsheng immediately immersed his mind upon returning home, sat cross-legged, and entered a state of meditation.

This was a peculiar state where the spirit lies somewhere between dreaming and waking, not losing vigilance over the external world, yet beneficial for cultivation and rest, a foundational technique known to all in the future.

The tadpole text chaotically swirling in his mind began to take the form of structured chapters, as his focus intensified.

Mystical knowledge flooded into his spirit like a tide.

"...This is... a Class A Curse... wait, this is—"

Cen Dongsheng noticed an incredible secret and when he suddenly opened his eyes, he saw a fierce tiger appearing before him!

Its hide was pitch-black, like an ink painting, its thick fur dotted with silver-white spots, its outline seemed ethereal, and in its eyes black and white colors swirled; yet the arrogance within its stare, so eager to devour, was so palpably real as if it had the valiant Qi spirit to swallow the whole world—

The tiger's body almost filled the entire room. It lowered its head, baring its fangs as if mocking, then lunged straight at Cen Dongsheng, slamming into the young man's chest and vanishing without a trace.

In that instant, an astonishing vision emerged in his mind:

A colossal tiger as vast as mountains, its body iron-blue, stood majestically between heaven and earth. Around it, the sand and stones moved, the fierce winds whipped up a vortex, the terrifying storm blurred the world's colors, and it roared towards the sun and moon above;

—But atop this ferocious tiger was clearly an even more enormous figure, standing on its head, a vast shadow that blocked out the sun, with wings extending behind that stretched endlessly like the night sky...

Cen Dongsheng's face turned as white as paper, dripping with sweat; it took him quite a while to regain control of his body.

"Could it be..."

He held his forehead, his eyes reflecting astonishment, joy, disbelief.

As they say, plan first, then act. When making plans, he tried to consider all possible contingencies; but at the end of the day, his goal was simple:

To master a high-level curse for laying the foundation of his future; once he officially embarked on the path of the Forbidden Master, he would use his foresight to sprint towards the ultimate goal.

Thus... he truly hadn't anticipated "this kind of accident."

Cen Dongsheng lowered his eyelids, looked at his trembling hands.

—"That person wasn't just talking big..."

A senior in his past life once boasted in front of others, "I'm only one step away from Special Class."

Everyone thought that the person was just full of themselves, but it wasn't until Cen Dongsheng, who had lived once before, obtained the curse first, that he realized the other's words might not have been mere arrogance...