Fluorescent Curse

The faint light from outside shone through the crack in the church doors. Compared to the glowing patches on people's bodies, this light was weak, like fireflies beneath an incandescent lamp. But the instant the iron doors opened, the patch-covered people began to shriek. Those in better condition rose and ran; the weak crawled toward the iron doors even if they had to use both hands and feet. The sight was bizarre and terrifying, like a pack of zombies chasing the light.

The moment Ji Huaishu entered the church, she hurriedly shut the iron doors. Once the light vanished, the zombies' movements immediately stopped. They swayed from side to side, collapsed onto the ground, and returned to their previous half-dead state.

"Glowing Corpses." Ji Huaishu cursed under her breath. "Damn it!"

Chu Hengkong silently committed this unfamiliar term to memory. He walked up to Granny Sang Jia, but before he could speak, the old woman raised a hand to stop him.

"It isn't finished yet. Wait until the medicine is done."

He saw that the old woman was trying to grind medicine to save the patients, so he quietly waited nearby and observed the Glowing Corpses' condition.

This strange illness seemed like a blend of a skin disease and ALS from another world. The Glowing Corpses' mental states were closely tied to the extent of their glowing patches. Those with smaller patches still had the strength to speak. Once the patches had spread across half their bodies, they were basically unable to speak, leaving only delirious muttering and groans. As for those light-covered people whose entire bodies had been consumed by the patches, they seemed to have lost the ability to think. They neither spoke nor moved, and their lifeless eyes sent chills down one's spine.

A chill quietly crept up Chu Hengkong's spine. The more he looked, the more familiar those glowing patches seemed. He had definitely seen something similar recently...

They looked very much like the texture of Ji Huaishu's light shield!

Could they have come from the same ability? Or were they merely similar powers? Chu Hengkong did not ask. This was not the time to get to the bottom of it. Seeing that the white-robed people could barely keep up, the two of them helped carry the medicinal soup. Granny Sang Jia had no reaction to this and remained focused solely on her work.

She mixed herbs, mushrooms, and animal organs together, ground them carefully, dissolved them in tea, and made them into medicinal soup. This monotonous work continued for nearly an hour before finally ending. The medicinal ingredients they had brought were used up. Some Glowing Corpses improved after taking the medicine, but more remained as they were. The white-robed people pressed their palms together and expressed their thanks to Chu Hengkong and Ji Huaishu.

"Favored children of the Tide, come with me." Granny Sang Jia rose with the aid of her cane. "Tell me why you have come."

Granny Sang Jia was also a well-known figure in Dragon's Return City. She was the third great shaman of the All-Spirits Society, as well as the founder of this religious organization. Rumor had it that Granny Sang Jia had been a destitute prostitute in her youth, trading her body for meager earnings. One day, vicious clients knocked her unconscious, stuffed her into a sack, and dragged her to the farthest edge of the Jade Marsh District. That was a true dead end, because the marsh border was the very bottom layer of the Dragon's Return Water Curtain. Only Relics that nobody desired would fall to the bottom, leaving the city with the current and drifting toward some unknown distant place.

The vicious clients threw the prostitute into the Tide and bet on how many days it would take for people to discover her disappearance. Yet after some time, the prostitute reappeared in the marsh, claiming that she had received a revelation within the Tide. The revelation said that all things in the world possessed spirits and could become gods. The marshfolk worshipped this miracle, and the theory that "all things possess spirits" spread and grew alongside that worship, becoming the All-Spirits Society—the malignant tumor now rooted in the marsh.

Chu Hengkong dismissed this story with a laugh. After all, every gang boss carried some legend of "returning from the dead"; it was nothing more than people making up tales to bolster their prestige. But the idea that all things possessed spirits was genuine enough, because every member of the All-Spirits Society had a "god" they believed in, and each acted according to different beliefs. It would be hard to find another organization like this elsewhere: the leader personally went to the front lines to aid the sick, while the second-in-command stood aside and watched coldly.

"Sang Jia, you're wasting your effort." Adali spoke bluntly. "Your medicine cannot save those who are about to die."

Granny Sang Jia's residence stood in Harvest Settlement in the south of Jade Marsh, a small house decorated with reeds, pebbles, and animal hides. She struck a match and lit her tightly packed pipe, then gently exhaled a puff of smoke. Pale green smoke, like venomous insects, brushed over the dense wrinkles on her face and melted into the coat woven from black feathers.

"This is fate," the old woman said. "I follow my destiny. They follow theirs."

Adali waved a hand, clearly dismissive. He stood and headed for the door. "I still have matters to attend to, so I won't keep you company. You should leave too. I am, after all, a civilized man. I cannot let a dangerous person remain alone in a room with an old woman."

As he spoke, he stared at Ji Huaishu. She clicked her tongue loudly, shot Chu Hengkong a look, and walked outside. The girl had actually refrained from snapping back, making Chu Hengkong wonder just what earthshaking deeds she had accomplished in the marsh.

After the two left, he got straight to the point. "When did this disease begin to spread?"

"It is not a disease. It is poison." Granny Sang Jia shook her head. "Thirteen moons ago, poison mixed into the marsh's light... The poison will corrode a person's fate, turning them into corpses ruled by light, corpses without destiny..."

About two weeks ago, the light had started spreading, eventually turning people into the living dead. Chu Hengkong silently extracted the important points and continued, "Why did you not ask the City Lord's Office for help?"

"Lord Dragon God can barely protect himself. There is no way to turn the tide." Granny Sang Jia tapped her pipe. "There is too much light in the Central District... Once the poison spreads, there will be nowhere to flee."

The key was the intensity of the light. The Central District was also a miserable place shrouded in clouds year-round, but it received far more light than the marsh at the lowest level. If the light poison spread into the Central District, it could very likely cause a massive epidemic... From that perspective, Granny Sang Jia's decision was not wrong. But she had not even notified the Central District, clearly showing her lack of trust in the authorities... She might not yet know that the Healing Temple had been rebuilt. Otherwise, she would not be so resolute...

After considering it briefly, Chu Hengkong set the matter aside for now. Light poison was not something he could resolve alone. He would leave the headache of curing it to Youyou and the others. Saving Ji Qiufeng was still the most urgent matter at hand. He posed his third question. "Do you know about the gold in the marsh?"

The old woman smiled when she heard this. "Child of the Tide, your heart is full of curiosity, but what you seek is not here."

Chu Hengkong tried to describe it in greater detail. "It might be a medicinal ingredient..."

"Gold is that which desire condenses." The old woman's response drifted uncertainly. "Your desire is not in the marsh, but in the past..."

Chu Hengkong pressed at his brow. This utterly mismatched conversation was truly infuriating. He noticed that her mystical tone was somewhat like the appraisal text for Relics, and an idea struck him. He changed his question. "Then what about the gold sought by the apothecary?"

"Apothecary? Apothecary..." Granny Sang Jia closed her eyes in thought upon hearing this. After quite a while, she took a deep drag from her pipe. "Ah... Is it the great Jingzang?"

Chu Hengkong immediately nodded. A nostalgic smile squeezed out from between the old woman's wrinkles. "A graceful man, like a Buddha clad in white... I know. He spoke of it once. In the marshlands, gold will be born—"

From within the thick smoke, a gunshot exploded. The shriek drowned out the whisper as a verdigris-colored bullet tore through the wooden wall and shot straight toward the old woman's forehead!

The bullet stopped beside the old woman's temple, striking the back of a fist with bulging veins. In that instant, Chu Hengkong, who had been sitting calmly, sprang up. With a single punch, he knocked the bullet away, then smashed through the thatched hut and charged outside.

"Ji Huaishu!" he shouted. Brilliant golden light illuminated the broken wall as a spherical light shield protected Granny Sang Jia. With no worries behind him, Chu Hengkong dashed out the door at high speed, pursuing the lurking gunman. That faint sense of danger had surged earlier, as if every needle were aimed at his eyeballs.

He knew he had found the right trail. The enemy clearly did not want him learning something, and was willing to silence the old woman forever for it!

The bullet had only scraped a bloody mark across the back of his fist. He had blocked the shot with taut muscles and hard knuckles. This was no longer a Water Bullet. An unknown crystal had been packed into that verdigris-colored metal bullet, giving it an impact comparable to a modern large-caliber pistol. If he had not evolved into Skillful Hands, that shot would have been enough to temporarily cripple his arm.

Harvest Settlement was filled with low wooden houses, so Chu Hengkong simply leaped onto the rooftops to make tracking the enemy easier. With a single sweep of his eyes, he spotted the dark figure running through the muddy lanes. The gunman wore mottled camouflage and was highly skilled at lurking, but his speed was far inferior to Chu Hengkong's. Chu Hengkong flicked two fingers and first struck the man in the middle of the back with a Water Bullet. The Water Bullet hit accurately, but the gunman only swayed and did not fall.

The gunman's camouflage was also a Relic, and its exceptional defensive capabilities saved his life. Borrowing the force of the blow, he rolled sharply to one side and dodged the second Water Bullet that crashed toward him. Just as the intelligence had said, the target's usual tactic was a staggered pursuit with two hidden projectiles. So long as one avoided them, he temporarily had no long-range means left. Flames burst from the boots beneath the gunman's feet. He suddenly accelerated, widening the distance as he raised the weapon he had been issued.

It was a dark green flintlock pistol. Its bullets had to be loaded one at a time, and the second bullet had already been loaded. The sights aligned with Chu Hengkong's forehead. The trigger was pulled, and the projectile flew forth. If he could not kill Sang Jia, then he would change the plan and kill Chu Hengkong directly!

The gunman's timing was precise. Chu Hengkong had just attacked and had no time to withdraw his move and defend. Yet he did not defend. His outstretched right hand clenched into a fist, while the tentacle on his left arm suddenly retracted, its silver muscles compressing tightly. Using the force of drawing back his fist, he twisted sideways. The bullet grazed past his hair, and the fully Charged tentacle shot out, transforming into a silver spear that ripped through the air!

The sudden detonation made the residents jump in fright. The sound of tearing air pierced through the wooden houses and swept across the settlement, as though piled gunpowder had exploded all at once. No one could see the silver spear's strike. All they saw were rings of white sonic booms spreading through the air. That blow completely destroyed the flintlock pistol and pierced straight through the gunman's torso as well.

The gunman dropped to his knees, then fell like a broken puppet. Chu Hengkong descended from the rooftop and shook his numb tentacle.

This time, he had shown no mercy. Anyone who fired at an old woman did not deserve restraint. He kicked the fallen gunman, turning him over, and felt a flicker of surprise when he saw his enemy's face.

There was no flesh.