Additional Chapter for Reader [HJJ.J]

Xie Yuling widened her eyes, scanning every corner of the shop like a radar.

"What are you looking at?" Lin Mo watched as Xie Yuling carefully examined the shelves of paper offerings for the dead.

"I'm checking if there's anything ghostly hiding here."

That explanation wasn’t entirely wrong.

As she spoke, she tiptoed toward the curtain leading to the inner chamber, even lowering her voice dramatically.

"Hey, anyone there? Care to chat?"

Lin Mo watched her back, barely suppressing a laugh.

He had already confirmed that apart from the two of them, there wasn’t a single living thing in this shop—let alone a ghost.

"Ah!!!"

A sharp scream jolted Lin Mo.

The moment Xie Yuling made a sound, Lin Mo had already appeared behind her. As she stumbled back in fear, he steadied her with an arm, pulling her into his embrace.

Xie Yuling immediately clamped a hand over her mouth after the scream, her body trembling uncontrollably.

Thankfully, Lin Mo had already set up a soundproof barrier after entering.

"A... a rat!" Her voice squeezed through her fingers, laced with panic, as she clung tightly to Lin Mo’s arm.

Lin Mo exhaled in relief. He had thought she’d encountered something even his spiritual sense hadn’t detected.

Holding Xie Yuling with one arm, he casually raised his other hand, flicked a finger, and sent a streak of light shooting out. It pierced the rat’s skull effortlessly.

Only a faint thud followed before silence returned.

"It’s dead now," Lin Mo said calmly, his voice soothing.

But the moment he spoke, his spiritual sense picked up something.

He whipped his head toward a nearby bookshelf.

A thick red mist suddenly seeped from one spot on the shelf—far denser than before, though still nowhere near what they’d seen in He Meihua’s home.

Xie Yuling in his arms seemed to notice it too. Her trembling stopped, but her grip tightened as she frantically tapped Lin Mo’s arm.

"Lin Mo, look! There’s something red there! It’s faint, but I can feel it—that mist is bad. It makes my heart race."

Lin Mo’s interest piqued. It seemed Xie Yuling truly had a natural sensitivity in certain areas.

What appeared as dense red mist to him was barely visible to her.

But the fact that she could perceive it at all was remarkable—she was still an ordinary person, while Lin Mo had long since reached the Foundation Establishment stage.

The rat’s corpse had clearly triggered the mist.

The red mist oozed from the book, as if drawn by the scent of blood, and drifted toward the dead rat. It enveloped the body, greedily absorbing it.

But... the process wasn’t as fast as expected.

It was digesting the corpse at a pace invisible to the naked eye.

To Lin Mo’s spiritual sense, it was clear—only slightly quicker than bacterial decay.

Xie Yuling, however, smacked Lin Mo’s arm repeatedly.

"Look! That red mist is eating the rat!"

She alternated between covering her eyes and peeking through her fingers, like someone watching a horror movie.

"I see it," Lin Mo replied flatly. "But this is just the surface. The source is up there."

His gaze shifted to the bookshelf.

A book titled Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Postpartum Care for Sows caught his attention.

He patted Xie Yuling’s back reassuringly before stepping toward the shelf. With practiced ease, he pulled the book out, set it aside, and reached into the gap behind it.

His fingers closed around something cold and smooth—a jade box.

The red mist was seeping from its seams.

Lin Mo flipped the lid open without hesitation.

Inside lay a wooden doll.

At the same time, a tidal wave of crimson mist erupted, surging toward Lin Mo like a blood-red tsunami.

Now, Xie Yuling saw the mist in its full, horrifying clarity—far thicker than the straw effigy they’d encountered before, its color long since deepened into a visceral shade of blood.

Another manifestation of hatred and suffering?

No. The stench of decay hung heavy in the air. This was the suffering of disease.

So, this was what remained of the curse magic.

"Lin Mo!"

Xie Yuling watched in terror as the bloody wave crashed down, her hand already darting toward the talisman in her pocket.

But before she could act, she heard a single, commanding word:

"Seal!"

Just one syllable.

In an instant, all the crimson mist was sucked back into the wooden doll.

[Curse Artifacts Collected: 2/6]

Four more to go, then.

Lin Mo picked up the doll.

Unlike the straw effigy, this one was covered in knife marks—each one distinct.

The aura of decay clung to the cuts. If not for Lin Mo’s spiritual energy sealing it, any ordinary person who touched it would soon fall into a state similar to He Meihua’s.

Only after confirming Lin Mo was unharmed did Xie Yuling relax, her eyes finally settling on his hand.

"What is that?"

"A cursed artifact. The mist you saw came from it. It doesn’t harm ordinary people directly, but it slowly influences the holder, breeding certain... issues."

Lin Mo turned to look at her.

"Good work. Without you, I might not have found this jade box hiding a curse."

Xie Yuling blinked in surprise, a hint of bashfulness creeping in. "Really? Was I that helpful?"

She felt like she’d just been tagging along, utterly useless against the mist. Hearing Lin Mo say this made her suspect he was just humoring her.

"No, I mean it. This jade box blocked my detection."

Lin Mo wasn’t lying. His spiritual sense had scanned the box earlier but failed to detect the artifact inside.

That unsettled him.

He weighed the jade box in his hand. It didn’t look modern—more like an old, handcrafted relic.

"So... what now?" Xie Yuling asked cautiously.

"Now we leave and wait for our enemy to walk into the trap."

Lin Mo had left a triggered spiritual mark near the bookshelf. If anyone approached, he’d know immediately.

After storing the jade box and the doll, he slid the absurdly titled book back into place.

Even the rat’s corpse was cleared away.

The shop was now exactly as they’d found it—no fingerprints, no footprints, no trace of their presence.

The two slipped out from the market’s shadows unnoticed.

"Alright, today’s little adventure ends here."

Xie Yuling checked her phone. There was still half an hour before evening self-study ended.

She pouted.

"Too early to go home. Should we walk back?"

A few kilometers—just enough to kill the remaining time.

"Fine. The timing works."

Lin Mo agreed indifferently.

Xie Yuling grinned, clutching his arm.

At least Lin Mo didn’t find her annoying or useless. Her earlier frustration from noon had completely evaporated.

She was sure of one thing: she was the closest person to Lin Mo.