Lin Mo strolled forward, ignoring the guns raised by Liu Zheng and Old Bai, as if taking a leisurely walk in his own backyard.
He stopped at the edge of the blood-red ritual circle, looking down at Qian Xin'er, whose face was twisted in terror. A faint, almost imperceptible smirk tugged at the corner of his lips.
"Her? She just wanted to perfect her cursecraft, even at the cost of her husband and son. She even turned her own mother into a cursed artifact—what a filial daughter."
Qian Xin'er stared at Lin Mo with wide, trembling eyes.
The illusion she had woven using four cursed artifacts had been shattered by this indistinct figure.
But worse yet, just as she was about to flee from the back, this man had torn apart the entire clown house.
Now, she had no idea what to do.
Cursecraft?
Would it even work now?
At that moment, Shouzhen finally snapped out of his daze.
He turned to Lin Mo.
"Esteemed... layman—no, Master. Did you... know everything from the start?"
Lin Mo glanced at Shouzhen and chuckled.
"If I knew everything, wouldn’t that make me a god? I merely sensed the malevolent aura of cursecraft and followed the trail here."
His gaze returned to Qian Xin'er.
"If I’m not mistaken, the straw doll in He Meihua’s hands was actually given by you. By then, your mother was already a puppet under your control, wasn’t she?"
Qian Xin'er remained silent, her head bowed.
"And the wooden doll hidden in the incense shop, the one infused with sickness and suffering—that was your first experiment in cursecraft, using your son’s illness as the catalyst.
You hid it away because you felt guilty for subjecting him to such torment.
But to master cursecraft, you were willing to sacrifice everything—even your husband and son, just to complete the cycle of death!"
Lin Mo took a step forward, his voice dropping to a chilling growl.
"Am. I. Right?"
His words struck like thunder, driving three searing-hot iron nails straight into Qian Xin'er’s mind.
The last thread of her sanity—snapped.
"What do you know?!" Qian Xin'er suddenly shrieked, her eyes bloodshot, her expression deranged.
"You understand nothing! The cursecraft must not end! It’s our family’s legacy, passed down for generations!
My mother taught me this—so she should have been willing to pay the price!"
She pointed at her son and husband.
"They were my family! Dying for the sake of cursecraft was their honor!"
Shouzhen shook his head in dismay, whispering to Liu Zheng beside him,
"She’s too far gone. The backlash from those cursed artifacts has consumed her—her heart is sealed shut by resentment. No sane person would say such things."
Liu Zheng muttered back, "What do we do? Do we still take her back to the bureau?"
"No need. What’s the point? Letting her live would only mean waiting for the next practitioner of cursecraft to wreak havoc."
Lin Mo had no illusions about what would happen if she fell into the hands of Yanhuang Awakening. She’d spill every secret of cursecraft sooner or later.
A technique this vile—better to end it here and now.
Lin Mo watched Qian Xin'er calmly, a yellow talisman appearing between his fingers.
She wasn’t just breaking down anymore—it was more like... collapse.
The essence of humanity was draining from her, replaced by something cold, venomous, and utterly malicious.
Then, Qian Xin'er’s crimson eyes locked onto one of the cursed artifacts. With a sudden lunge, she seized it—a bronze dagger.
The dagger was covered in mottled green patina, its ancient engravings swirling with dark energy, radiating an overwhelming aura of calamity.
It looked old enough to belong in a museum.
"NO!"
Shouzhen’s face turned ashen, his voice cracking. "She’s going to sacrifice herself—to unleash millennia of accumulated death and suffering stored in that dagger!"
A laugh erupted from Qian Xin'er—inhuman, shrill, and guttural, as if hundreds of voices were screaming at once.
"Can you withstand the weight of thousands of years of death?!"
She raised the dagger high, aiming for her own heart.
But before she could strike—
A bolt of azure lightning, faster than thought, slashed through the air without a sound.
The light was so intense it bleached everything blue-white.
Qian Xin'er’s manic grin hadn’t even faded before the thunderbolt struck like an invisible hammer, blasting her backward in a violent explosion.
The stench of charred flesh filled the air.
Lin Mo leisurely lowered his hand, watching as the talisman between his fingers crumbled to ash. He blew lightly, as if brushing away invisible dust.
Glancing at Shouzhen’s stunned expression, he remarked dryly,
"That was a Five Thunders Talisman with a century’s worth of power. Do you think she could’ve blocked it?"
Not just Shouzhen—even Liu Zheng and Old Bai were frozen in shock.
"Did—did you see that, Old Bai?"
"I saw it."
"Master Shouzhen, can all you Taoist cultivators do that? Could Master Chunzhenzi also summon lightning out of nowhere?"
Shouzhen exhaled sharply, shaking his head.
"No. Our Quanzhen Sect doesn’t have techniques like that. This... must be a Zhengdao or Shenxiao School talisman."
He bowed deeply to Lin Mo.
"Master, your divine thunder is peerless. May I ask if you hail from the Celestial Master Dao or the Shenxiao Sect?"
Lin Mo raised an eyebrow. So, others could summon lightning too?
But he didn’t answer. Instead, he walked over to Qian Xin'er’s corpse.
With a casual gesture, he attempted to summon her soul—
Ah. Nothing.
The Five Thunders Talisman had reduced her to nothingness.
Lin Mo picked up the bronze dagger.
The moment it touched his hand, a frigid wave of death surged upward—
Only to be instantly suppressed by his spiritual power.
Pathetic cursed artifact.
He then collected the other three cursed objects.
These were the real mission targets. As for Qian Xin'er? Just a bug he couldn’t stand to leave alive.
Back at the incense shop, Lin Mo had already guessed that the spirit medium, Liu Guixiang, was dead.
Last night, he’d found her corpse—and followed the trail straight to Qian Xin'er.
At that time, Qian Xin'er’s son was still clinging to life, but barely.
She hadn’t expected Liu Zheng and the others to uncover so many clues so quickly.
So she deliberately leaked the location of Sunlight Amusement Park, setting a trap to lure them in.
Her plan? Kill them with illusions, then flee abroad.
To ensure success, she’d even slaughtered her husband and her terminally ill son.
From Qian Xin'er’s ravings, Lin Mo deduced that Liu Guixiang had taught her cursecraft.
Perhaps because she was her daughter, Liu Guixiang had held nothing back.
But she’d underestimated Qian Xin'er’s talent—and overestimated her resistance to the artifacts’ corruption.
In the end, Qian Xin'er had descended into madness, sacrificing her own kin for power.
ions, keeping it grounded and realistic】 After quitting his job, office worker Su Yang accidentally binds with the "Enjoy Life System." As the name suggests, simply by indulging in life's pleasures, he can earn random rewards from the system—no need to spend money on beautiful women or grovel before anyone. Just enjoy, and the money follows, making it all about effortless fun. The system comes with a scanning feature, allowing him to establish a favorability bond with women rated 85 points or above. Every 20-point increase in favorability unlocks additional rewards. After suffering through over twenty years of hardship, Su Yang trembles with excitement, his dull eyes suddenly gleaming with newfound hope. "Enjoy life? How hard could that be?"
uld barely embark on the path to immortality. Just as he was on the verge of death, his golden finger awakened. No matter whether it was poison, drained blood and vital energy, diminished lifespan, or any other physical debuff caused by paying a price—once midnight passed, everything would be refreshed. From then on, whenever someone asked what kind of person Chu Ran was, the answer was simple: Forbidden arts that other cultivators dared not learn? Chu Ran would learn them. Prices that even demonic cultivators dared not pay? Chu Ran would pay them. Lifespan that even righteous cultivators dared not burn? Chu Ran would burn it. All the blood essence in his body? Take it. Want both his hands and feet? He would cut them off and send them to you. You say he’s finished? He wasn’t built to sit idle. You think he’s gone mad? No—he was simply waiting for midnight. From that day onward, Chu Ran would respect neither Heaven nor Earth, bow to neither gods nor ghosts. He had only one wish: For midnight to arrive a little sooner.
world slacker. But a genius female disciple just had to get clingy, insisting that he take her as a disciple. Not only that, she was always making advances on him, thoroughly disrupting his peaceful slacker life...
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
