Curse Killing

"Ding-a-ling..."

"Welcome to Ximo Coffee, sir. What can I get for you?"

"One latte, with sugar."

"Certainly."

"Your latte. Have a wonderful day."

"Thanks!"

The man raised his head. His sharply defined features and well-built physique gave him a sunny, handsome look. Even the girl behind the counter blushed as she watched him.

Holding his coffee, Guo Lingfei walked out of the café and stopped on the street. After drinking half of it, he turned and entered the shop behind him.

He deftly took a bottle of Red Bull from the fridge, scanned it to pay, and walked out of the shop. Then he opened the bottle and poured it into his coffee.

"Bzz, bzz..."

Just then, Guo Lingfei's phone vibrated a few times. He took it out and saw a V message.

[Old Guo, hurry up. The ones coming this time are all top-notch.]

Two steamy photos were attached below the message.

Guo Lingfei smiled knowingly, drained his coffee in one go, and continued down the street.

"Clang, clang, clang..."

Under the night sky, the noise from the construction site beside the road sounded especially grating. Every so often, a dump truck could be seen driving out.

"Bzz, bzz..."

He hadn't gone far when Guo Lingfei's phone vibrated again. He took it out and saw an unfamiliar number.

Guo Lingfei glanced at it and casually hung up.

But as soon as he ended the call, before he could put his phone away, it rang again. It was the same unfamiliar number.

This time, Guo Lingfei didn't hang up. He pressed the answer button.

"Who is this?"

"What, you've already forgotten me after just a few days apart?"

The woman's voice over the phone was rich and deep, carrying an indescribable mature allure. Her tone was calm and rhythmic, as if she had carefully chosen every note. She sounded both confident and enticing.

As she spoke, you could almost imagine the smile hiding behind her red lips on the other end of the line.

Hearing the woman's voice, Guo Lingfei curled his lip. "Sis, we've already broken up. Aren't you worried your husband will find out?"

"I am. I'm afraid even the three million breakup fee won't be enough to keep you quiet."

The woman spoke with a bright smile, then continued, "But, Lingfei, you just left like that, and now I feel so empty inside. I had a master calculate our compatibility. If I remember right, your birthday is the eighth day of the seventh month, isn't it? I was thinking of getting you a gift."

Guo Lingfei tossed his coffee cup into a roadside trash can, then turned to straighten his clothes in the shop window. Unhurriedly, he said, "Oh, sis, you've got it mixed up. My birthday's the third day of the sixth month. But if you want to make up for it with a gift, I won't mind. And while you're having our compatibility calculated, please ask him to look into my career too. I'm thinking of starting a small business."

"Starting a business is great. Then tell me your birth time too, so I can have the master make a more accurate calculation."

"3:16 p.m."

After speaking, Guo Lingfei checked the time on his watch. "That's all for now. I've arranged to go night fishing with some friends." With that, he hung up.

"Pah, bitch!"

He spat in disgust and slipped his phone into his pocket. Then he picked up his pace toward the apartment building up ahead, the one with the words [Ascending Dragon] written on it.

"Ding-a-ling..."

Guo Lingfei's heart began to race. The bell seemed to keep ringing in his ears, every chime striking his heart like a heavy hammer. His legs began to buckle for no apparent reason.

At first, Guo Lingfei thought he'd walked too fast and gotten a cramp. But after a few more steps, his legs stopped obeying him altogether. It was as if some invisible force had taken control of them, dragging him inexorably toward the construction site.

"Three million to keep me quiet? That's too little. A hundred million... No, ten billion! I'll burn however much you want for you."

In a daze, he heard that familiar voice. His face filled with terror as he tried to speak, but all he could manage was a muffled whimper, as if someone had covered his mouth.

Like a doll in a child's hands, he staggered across the muddy construction site, then broke into a run toward the front.

A pile of rusty steel bars lay just ahead. Guo Lingfei's mind went blank, but at that moment, his legs abruptly spun him around and stopped him dead in his tracks.

"Phew..."

Staring at the steel bars right in front of him, Guo Lingfei swallowed. A bead of cold sweat trickled down his face as he thought, I nearly ran straight into them. They would've left a few holes in me.

Just as Guo Lingfei let out a long breath, his legs suddenly began walking slowly toward the cement mixer in front of him. His gaze shifted, and his face began to pale.

"Old Zhang, want to grab a drink after work?"

"No, no, no. I drink every day. I'm done. I'm going home to get some proper sleep after work."

Old Zhang waved off his coworker's suggestion, though he felt miserable. He wanted a drink too, but he didn't have any money.

"Man, life's rough. I wish I could find somewhere quiet to get some rest."

As he spoke, Old Zhang walked up to the cement mixer and raised his shovel to get to work.

But after shoveling in some sand and gravel, Old Zhang glanced at the mixer without thinking. In that brief glance, he saw scraps of clothing and indistinct human tissue tangled around the rotating blades. As they turned, a head emerged from the slurry, sand pouring from its mouth and nose, its eyes wide as it stared straight at him...

"You repaired Guo Lingfei's corpse. Your rating is E-class. You obtained 5 Energy Value."

The repair had received only an E-class rating this time. Xiao Ran was disappointed, but he understood why. After all, he had broken Guo Lingfei's left hand. And when Guo Lingfei had attacked him earlier, he had accidentally tugged at the parts Xiao Ran had stitched up.

It wasn't visible from the outside, but the results were much worse than before.

"Calamity Suppressing Token privilege: Spirit Seizing successful. You obtained Guo Lingfei's ability, [Master Angler]."

Along with the notification, all of Guo Lingfei's fishing-related memories and insights appeared before Xiao Ran.

These memories were nothing compared to the long, drawn-out experience of Li Shang's Tiger Fist. Xiao Ran absorbed them in just a few breaths.

Looking at the corpse before him, Xiao Ran rested his chin on his hand.

"So, how exactly did this guy die?"

One thing was certain: Guo Lingfei had died because of a Cursed Object. Only a Cursed Object could have such an uncanny ability.

His grandfather had told him that there were indeed some sinister arts in the underworld that could harm people, but nothing he'd heard of came close to what had happened to Guo Lingfei.

The other party had controlled Guo Lingfei's life and death with effortless ease. Remembering the despair on Guo Lingfei's face before he died, Xiao Ran couldn't help shuddering.

A true killer that left no trace.

"Still, this kind of killing ability must have a lot of limitations."

Just like his own [Calamity Suppressing Token], which could take the abilities a person had in life. It was powerful too, but its restriction was straightforward: he had to stitch up the other person's corpse.

In other words, if he wanted to take someone's ability, that person had to be dead—or he had to find a way to make them dead.

So the other party's ability must have similar restrictions.

"Besides their Birth Numerology, there must be other restrictions too. Otherwise, killing anyone would be far too easy."

After packing up his things, Xiao Ran covered the corpse with a white cloth.

Technically, this wasn't the end. He still needed to apply makeup to the corpse, dress it, and handle the other steps, but Xiao Ran stopped here.

Anything beyond this...

Would cost extra!!

When he opened the door, he saw Uncle Li, Old Zhou, and the scatterbrained girl waiting outside.

As soon as Xiao Ran came out, Uncle Li hurried over. "All done?"

"Yeah. Only the final presentation remains."

"Good, good. The rest is easy."

Uncle Li nodded repeatedly. As long as the corpse had been repaired, he could consider the job done.

Old Zhou went in to check for himself. Then he came out and praised him. "Good work, kid. Your skill is incredible. I've never seen work this fine in all my years."

Uncle Li immediately grew smug, as if Old Zhou had been praising him. "He's no outsider. He's from the Second Gate of Beijie Hutong. He knows the ropes."

Hearing this from behind them, Xiao Ran raised an eyebrow. It was underworld jargon.

"Pure Outsider" meant an amateur. "Second Gate of Beijie Hutong"—Beijie sounded like "back street," meaning the underworld. "Second Gate" meant he was a second-rate craftsman.

At that, the girl's eyes curved into crescents. Grinning, she asked, "For a job this big, the first cut must've been pretty generous, huh?"

The moment she said that, Old Zhou's face darkened. He shot a sidelong glance at the guilty-looking Uncle Li.

"I left a mark on your window paper. Were you going to keep all the money for yourself? Pay the partner his share. Even with the second cut afterward, you'll still make plenty."

At this, Uncle Li's face turned ashen. He glanced guiltily at Xiao Ran, but seeing that Xiao Ran still looked completely confused, he relaxed a little.

Old Zhou had given him a chance to save face by hinting in underworld slang. If he'd torn through the window paper, Uncle Li might never have been able to keep working in this line. So he took out his phone and transferred Xiao Ran the money.

"Ding!"

The payment notification sounded on Xiao Ran's phone. He opened it and took a look. Whoa, thirty thousand!!!