Tiger Demon Curse Mark

"Why?"

Su Wu's gaze shifted slightly as he followed up on the thin monk's words.

He had a vague suspicion, but he could not be entirely certain yet.

"Two horrors on the verge of awakening live in the other meditation rooms." The thin monk glanced up at Su Wu with a smile that never reached his eyes. "Your Fate Pattern is heavenly nectar to those two half-human, half-horror senior brothers."

"They can use you to bind the horrors about to awaken inside them, or transfer the horrors' power to delay their awakening.

"But either method requires you to die.

"Do you understand?"

The thin monk's voice and expression were cold. He seemed nothing like the other two monks, who had been so easy to "talk to."

Yet after hearing what he said, Su Wu began to trust him a little.

At least everything the man had just said was true!

The long-faced, middle-aged monk had said he lacked a Binding Fate Artifact, then killed Su Wu as soon as he finished speaking;

The kindly old monk had crawled straight out of his skin and drawn sinister pictures on Su Wu's body, also to transfer the power of the withered horror inside him.

Both situations matched what the thin monk had described.

The man had even been acquainted with Zhuo Jie's father for some time and knew that Zhuo Jie possessed the so-called "Spirit Treasury" Fate Pattern!

He had also been certain that, if Zhuo Jie came, his instinct to seek good fortune and avoid calamity would lead him straight to the thin monk's meditation room.

Unlike Su Wu, who did not possess that Fate Pattern and had merely assumed Zhuo Jie's identity—it had taken him three tries to choose the thin monk's room.

"I-I understand." Putting on a timid air, Su Wu asked the thin monk, "Master, if there are horrors in the other meditation rooms, why do you stay here?

"Aren't you afraid they'll kill you?

"Our village was attacked by just one horror, the Narrow-Sleeved Guanyin, and hardly anyone is still alive..."

The thin monk sighed, folded the letter, and motioned for Su Wu to sit on the prayer cushion beside the meditation bed. Then he said, "I was forced to come here to keep watch over those two senior brothers.

"We keep each other in check. None of us can kill the others.

"With me here, the Vicious Ghosts inside them won't awaken for another few years. What is there to fear?"

His words revealed an enormous amount of information.

First, both of the other monks had Vicious Ghosts inside them.

Second, the Vicious Ghosts inside those two monks were on the verge of awakening, but had not yet done so.

Third, the thin monk had a means of keeping both monks in check and preventing the Vicious Ghosts inside them from awakening for several years.

Fourth, keeping those two in check was not something the thin monk had chosen to do. He had been coerced.

Su Wu fell silent for a moment.

He looked as though the sheer amount of information the thin monk had revealed had overwhelmed him, leaving him unable to process it.

In truth, his mind was racing as he worked out how to steer the conversation subtly and coax more useful information out of the thin monk.

"Why do they have horrors inside them?"

After thinking for a long while, Su Wu asked his first question.

The thin monk answered casually, "In a world like this, horrors are everywhere.

"If you don't want horrors to kill you, your only choice is to become like them yourself.

"Not only do they harbor horrors inside them, I have one inside me as well.

"I was simply luckier and stronger than they were. I completed the binding, so for now I needn't worry about the Vicious Ghost awakening."

Su Wu was inwardly startled.

Could it be that, in the region where Zhuo Jie lived, the main way to deal with horrors was to harbor a Vicious Ghost and use it to keep other horrors in check?

Were horrors everywhere outside this region too? Did people there use the same method?

Why had there been no horrors in later times, until they began appearing again recently? What had happened in between?

Fear appeared on his face. He looked as though he dared not approach the thin monk, and even began to stammer. "You have a horror inside you?

"H-how did you tie it up and stop it from getting out?"

Su Wu played dumb, pretending to understand "binding" as tying a horror up inside one's body, and used an innocent tone to fish for information.

The thin monk's gaze shifted slightly, and he gave Su Wu a curious look. "Tie a horror up? That's quite a vivid way of putting it.

"You want to know how to bind a horror?

"A clever little fellow, aren't you?"

With a single remark, he exposed Su Wu's little scheme.

Su Wu blinked and said nothing.

Then the thin monk continued, "If you want to learn this method, you must become my disciple.

"That isn't my rule.

"It's a rule shared by every Dharma monastery in the Secret Treasury Domain!"

The Secret Treasury Domain!

So this place was the Secret Treasury Domain of the past!

Su Wu's heart jolted. Without hesitation, he knelt before the thin monk. "Master!"

The method for binding Vicious Ghosts could definitely be sold in the simulator!

Besides, I might need to use it myself.

Calling him Master was well worth it!

"When Zhuo Sang sent you to find me, he also hoped I would take you as my disciple. We've been friends for many years, so naturally I would grant his request." The thin monk unfolded the letter on the table and showed it to Su Wu.

He made it clear that Zhuo Jie's father had already mentioned this in the letter.

The thin monk continued, "You have the Spirit Cache Fate, which happens to be able to resolve my current predicament. So even if you hadn't asked, I would still have taken you as my disciple."

"Zhuo Jie, from today onward, you will no longer be called Zhuo Jie.

"I'll give you a Dharma name. You shall be called Tianhai.

"Perform the rites of discipleship. I have a gift for you."

When Su Wu, kneeling on the prayer cushion, heard that his newly acquired master even had a gift for him, he sincerely knocked his forehead against the floor three times with loud thuds.

He did not know what the rites of discipleship were like in the Secret Treasury Domain, but kowtowing was considered a grand gesture of respect in many places.

No one could fault him for being too respectful.

The thin monk looked at Su Wu, and a faint smile appeared on his cold face. "From this day onward, you are the disciple of me, Guangfa.

"Tianhai, raise your head!"

Guangfa abruptly barked the command.

Su Wu raised his head and met his gaze.

Suddenly, tufts of black-and-white fur sprouted all over Guangfa's body, and his skeletal frame rapidly swelled!

A plume of black smoke condensed at his tailbone into a long tail like an iron whip. The meditation bed could no longer hold Guangfa's bulk-he had transformed into a black tiger radiating murderous menace!

Black vapor coiled around the tiger, constantly gathering and dispersing, as his savage eyes fixed on Su Wu.

His bloody maw suddenly gaped wide, and he bit down on Su Wu's neck!

"Fuck!"

"After all that, I'm still going to die?!"

Su Wu stared at the bloody maw filling his vision. The thought had barely flashed through his mind when dagger-like fangs pierced his neck!

An icy, savage presence flowed along the tiger's fangs and into Su Wu's body,

While surge after surge of blood was sucked from Su Wu through the wounds in his neck!

Cold enveloped Su Wu's entire body.

Tufts of black-and-white fur began to sprout on him as well!

At the same time, an electronic voice sounded faintly in his mind. "You have received Guangfa's infusion and are condensing a temporary curse mark: tiger demon curse mark."

Tiger demon curse mark (D-class curse mark): activating this curse mark will briefly transform you into a fierce tiger, fully replicating all of a tiger's physical attributes.

Each five-minute use of this curse mark will inevitably leave you in a weakened state for the following twelve hours.

Forcing activation of this curse mark while weakened will cause you to gradually lose your reason, ultimately reducing you to a bloodthirsty walking corpse.

This curse mark can be upgraded by merging it with talents and curse marks of the same type.