Ghost Curse

The County Office jail stood in a corner of the compound's southwest side.

Though it was the dead of night, guards still stood watch outside the jail's thick doors. Clerk Li went over to greet them and slipped them a few pieces of silver, then led Chen Mo and the others inside.

As soon as they entered the prison, a gloomy, sinister chill washed over them.

They walked down the cold passageway, lit only by lamps mounted on the walls.

Chen Mo caught the damp, rotten smell in the air. From the corner of his eye, he saw several rats scurrying around the corners of the cells on either side, squeaking as they went.

Chen Mo hunched his shoulders and continued to look around.

They went all the way down the passage without seeing a single guard on duty.

Only when they neared Cell No. 1 did they find a narrow table set outside its iron bars. Four guards in black uniforms sat together playing pai gow and cracking sunflower seeds.

Clerk Li went over to explain why they had come, then slipped the guards a few pieces of silver.

One of the guards, a burly young man in a black uniform, stood up. He glanced at Chen Mo on Ma Tie's back and smiled. "So you're Second Young Master Chen."

Chen Mo judged the young man to be about twenty-four or twenty-five, with a fierce, burly build.

Without the original owner's memories, Chen Mo couldn't recognize him.

Fortunately, Qiulan quietly reminded him, "His name is Li He. He's the head jailer here at the County Office. He's close with the eldest young master and has visited Chen Mansion a few times."

Chen Mo immediately smiled and adopted the air of an old acquaintance. "Brother Li, long time no see. I'd like to take a look at the Mad Demon Patients. Sorry for the trouble."

Li He laughed magnanimously. "We're friends. There's no trouble at all. Go ahead and have a look. That's the one."

Chen Mo followed Li He's pointing finger. Through the iron bars, he saw a filthy woman curled up in the corner of Cell No. 1. Her clothes were tattered, and she was covered in blood from head to toe.

She had gnawed both her hands clean off. Blood gushed from the stumps, streaming down with a wet, splattering sound. The air reeked of blood.

The next moment, the woman seemed to hear them. She lifted her head and looked at Chen Mo, her mouth full of blood. Then she gave him a sinister grin.

Hiss!

Chen Mo sucked in a sharp breath.

So this was what it looked like when Mad Demon Disease struck?

No wonder...his parents had once nailed his hands and feet inside a wooden jar, leaving only his head exposed.

Then Chen Mo realized that if his illness ever flared up, he would turn into something just like this...

Terrifying!

Utterly terrifying!

Just then—

"Heh heh..."

The woman let out a cold, eerie laugh at Chen Mo. The next instant, she suddenly went berserk and screamed as she charged toward him!

"F—!"

Chen Mo jerked backward in fright, thinking she was about to rush straight at him. But then he saw that the woman had no legs either. She was crawling across the ground like a maggot.

"Awooo! Awooo!"

The woman seemed unable to feel pain. Her blood-red eyes stayed fixed on Chen Mo as she crawled closer...and closer...until she reached him. Then she opened her mouth, bared her icy fangs, and tried to bite through the iron bars.

Her mouth stretched all the way to her ears. Her teeth were nothing like a human's—they were long and needle-sharp, with blood trickling from the fangs onto the ground.

For an instant, Chen Mo felt as if his heart had stopped beating.

"Get back!" Li He thrust his sheathed saber through the bars and struck the woman hard on the forehead.

Her head split open, blood running down her face.

Yet the woman seemed not to notice. She only kept snarling viciously at Chen Mo.

It took Chen Mo a long while to recover. "Brother Li, what happened to this woman?"

"What do you think? She had an attack. The villagers who reported it from Qinghe Town said she was fine yesterday. Then she suddenly fell ill while eating with her family and bit her husband and two children to death. Her uncle's whole family went to visit her and met the same fate. If Coroner Xie hadn't ordered us to keep her for an autopsy and study, we'd have chopped her to pieces already."

Chen Mo didn't ask anything else. He steadied himself, then fixed his gaze on the woman's abdomen, near where the Baby Face should be, and opened the panel.

The woman really did have a Baby Face on her abdomen. There was also a rectangular barcode, with a single Black Rod and three lines of text.

[Current Original Understanding Essence: 0]

[Current Recognition Count: 1]

[Recognizable object detected. Identify?]

Hm?

Could the Baby Face on this woman actually be identified?

And there was only one Black Rod?

Why did the Infant Smile on his own abdomen have three Black Rods, and why couldn't he identify it?

Was her Mad Demon Disease less severe than his?

Or was there some other reason?

Chen Mo suppressed his curiosity. Since he had only one recognition left, using it on a Mad Demon Patient seemed well worth it. He immediately focused his thoughts.

Identify!

The moment the thought arose, a violent tremor shook his mind. The world spun around him, nearly leaving him with a concussion.

It took a long while before he gradually recovered.

The rectangular barcode on the Baby Face on the woman's abdomen had disappeared, replaced by lines of text.

[Name: Ghost Curse]

[Type: Resentful Ghost Qi]

[Function: Corrodes flesh and blood; captures the soul and controls the mind]

[Introduction: A Powerful Ghost Curse. It can infect a person through the resentment in their heart, manifest as tangible Ghost Qi on the surface of the skin, and then infect the flesh and blood. It is highly contagious.]

[Note: This person's Human skin membrane has developed Slight Wei Qi that resists Ghost Curse. Boiling its skin can extract Wei Qi. Taking it can delay the onset of the Ghost Curse, but Wei Qi itself carries powerful Yang Qi corrosion. Only those with strong qi and blood can take it.]

Though this was his first time using the Golden Finger's identification ability, the information displayed still left Chen Mo deeply shocked.

Ghost Curse!

Resentful Ghost Qi!

In other words...Mad Demon Disease wasn't an illness at all. She had been afflicted with a Ghost Curse, which had then evolved into tangible Ghost Qi that invaded and infected her?

That was terrifying.

Chen Mo would have preferred to hear that it was some kind of disease.

The one consolation was that the Golden Finger was at least scientific, laying out the route by which the Ghost Qi spread.

Especially the information in the note.

It was like God's perspective, exposing the weakness of the Ghost Resentment Curse.

The woman had developed Slight Wei Qi that resisted Ghost Curse.

Chen Mo had read books and knew that Wei Qi was a kind of Yang Qi. It was born from Water and Grain, originated in the spleen and stomach, emerged from the Upper Jiao, and flowed outside the meridians. It was strong and vigorous, moved quickly and freely, and could warm and nourish the body inside and out, protect the muscles and skin, resist external evils, nourish the interstices, and open and close sweat pores.

"This Wei Qi...it should be something like antibodies."

No wonder the Baby Face on the woman could be identified: the Wei Qi had alleviated her symptoms.

Wei Qi...a lifeline, plain and simple!

Chen Mo suddenly felt immeasurably fortunate.

He was fortunate to have the Golden Finger, fortunate to have come to the County Office, and fortunate that he hadn't used up this one chance to identify something earlier...if he'd made the wrong move at any point, his chance to stay alive would have slipped through his fingers.

Phew!

Chen Mo took a deep breath, then turned to Li He. "Brother Li, could you let me take this woman off your hands?"

Li He was taken aback, his expression troubled. "Coroner Xie specifically asked for her. If I hand her over to you, I'm afraid I'll have a hard time explaining it to him."

Chen Mo hurriedly pulled out a banknote worth one hundred taels and pressed it into Li He's hand. "My elder brother died a horrible death. I want to find out what caused it. Please do me this favor, Brother Li."

Li He accepted the silver. "You're so loyal and devoted to your family. How could I sit by and do nothing? Take her."

That talk of loyalty and devotion wasn't the point. The point was that Chen Mo had offered far too much...