Chapter 146 Let’s Start with Friends

“……Is it really possible?”

“of course.”

Cen Dongsheng nodded slightly.

The reason why he acted cold in the past could not be said to be that he was deliberately trying to induce or control the other person’s mind, but he did have some subtle thoughts.

People are easily influenced by appearance and age. If he were older, he might not need it, but who can blame him for being at the age of youth?

His main purpose is to show his unfathomable side in front of others and to put them under mental pressure so that he can easily take the initiative in communication.

But this is also due to Cen Dongsheng’s personality, so it can’t be called a performance. His attitude towards strangers and people he recognizes is impossible to be the same.

“Even if I can’t be your master, we can still be friends.”

Cen Dongsheng smiled. In the girl’s eyes, the young man’s expression was gentler than at any time in the past, as if he was just trying to comfort her who was at a loss at the moment.

“It’s not like we can’t even be friends, right?”

“Of course not!”

Song Yutang just felt flattered. In her opinion, it was good that the other party could risk his life to save her. After all, apart from troubling the other party, she could do nothing by herself.

The girl has no idea what valuable potential she possesses.

“And, on the bright side, it is precisely because you stayed here that this matter has the possibility of being resolved.”

“……What’s the meaning?”

“Because I’m here.”

The female college student, who had been squatting in the corner with her knees hugged and trembling nervously until just now, couldn’t help but raise her head and look at the man in front of her.

That calm and confident attitude was by no means pretentious; it was the look of a man who held power. He had enough confidence to handle everything.

The light cast his shadow from behind, covering her eyes, making him look… a little dazzling standing in the incandescent light.

“Song Yutang?”

It wasn’t until the other party spoke again that she came to her senses and nodded quickly.

“I see.”

“Okay, let’s get started then.”

The young man stretched out his hand toward her.

……

When he came to his senses, Song Yutang found that he had subconsciously reached out, grabbed the other person’s wrist, and stood up from the ground.

“Before I teach you anything… by the way, let me ask you what you think first. If it were you, what do you think you would do next?”

“?”

Song Yutang didn’t quite understand what the other party meant and could only answer tentatively.

“Student Cen said before that in order to master the power, the two paths for a spell-forbidden master to enter are ‘true qi’ and ‘spiritual perception’, so…”

“Oh, that’s what you think. However, it’s better to find a quiet place with someone watching you when you refine your true qi for the first time. You are being pushed into doing it too late now.”

“That……”

Cen Dongsheng laughed and tapped his temple.

“To become a curse master, you need not only strength, but also a way of thinking.”

“Ah, another test of intelligence?”

The girl blinked, a little confused.

“Only smart people can become curse masters?”

“No, it’s just that people with a screw loose in their brains can easily die.”

It doesn’t matter, I’m not that smart either, Cen Dongsheng said. Realizing that you are not smart is the first step to self-knowledge.

“The enemies of the curse master are ghosts and monsters, and sometimes also the surrounding environment. You can think of them as some cunning, evil beasts with all kinds of strange abilities, and we are hunters. What hunters need is not a smart mind, but enough cautious and alert nerves, enough patience to track and wait until the moment when the opponent reveals a weakness…”

The wisdom of the struggle for survival is different from intelligence.

Song Yutang nodded, not quite understanding.

“Give me an example.”

He held up a finger.

“I think there are some problems that you should have noticed a long time ago. For example, where is the source of the evil power that possessed the girl? And why did the possessed person block the entrance and exit?”

“…”

This is a good example. People will lose their minds in the face of a crisis, but as long as they are willing to stay calm and have the motivation to solve the incident, they can think and unravel the mystery step by step… The fact is that she did have doubts about this.

“Then we have to resolve these doubts. In the process, the culprit will reveal himself, and that’s when it’s time to use force to decide the outcome.”

Cen Dongsheng’s tone was gentle and persuasive.

“I will take care of this part for the time being. Before that, I will teach you the working methods and thinking style of a curse master.”

“understood.”

Song Yutang gradually began to understand.

“So, do you have an idea now? Any idea is fine. No evidence is needed. Trust your intuition. You can even use your imagination. After all, we are not the police who are here to investigate a case.”

Song Yutang did not hesitate, the answer was obvious –

“Facial mask.”

She answered in a low voice.

“The power in my body reacted to the mask my roommate used. The smell on it was exactly the same as the smell on those crazy people today… The haunted scene that night and the changes that happened to those girls today were most likely caused by that mask.”

According to her roommate Cao Ying, the facial mask was provided by a senior named Li Huishan, who is a beauty blogger and internet celebrity. She got a batch of goods through secret channels. The skin care effect is very significant and very popular. It was secretly spread among all grades in the dormitory building.

In this case, the reason why those girls were possessed was very simple: they were all users of facial masks.

“How are you going to confirm this?”

Song Yutang took a deep breath and made a decision.

“Student Cen, please accompany me to the dormitory.”

*
They soon arrived at the dormitory door.

“I live here.” Song Yutang pointed in the direction.

The door was tightly closed and she knocked on it.

“I’m Song Yutang, open the door.”

No one responded until she repeated it again, then she heard a response from the inside.

“Don’t, don’t come here!”

The girl behind the door spoke in a strange tone, a mixture of nervousness and fear.

“I won’t open the door!”

“Cao Ying, don’t you know what happened down there? Someone died. It’s very scary. I want to come in and hide.”

“I know… So, you, just find some other place, or go to the dormitory across the street.”

They looked at each other outside the door.

“What are you worried about? I’m the only one outside now, why not open it?”

“I don’t care, you are not allowed to come in!” The girl looked at Cen Dongsheng, only to see him nod slowly.

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t open it, but should I just knock on the door?”

“No, no way…”

While the girls were talking, Cen Dongsheng had already put his hand against the door.

With the blessing of the double supernatural power, the young man can control the shape of his muscles at will, sometimes like water, sometimes like steel; just like the flow of true Qi, the power is ever-changing and he is familiar with it in his mind.

With the two coordinated, his moves were just as he wished, with the violence of splitting mountains and cracking rocks, and rolling thunder, and also the gentleness of thawing spring breeze and continuous drizzle.

“Crack.”

Silently, a dent appeared on the door panel where Cen Dongsheng’s palm was touching, and the door lock at the back was shattered and fell off.

Not only that, the wooden chair leaning against the door and the books on it all shattered in an instant and turned into fluttering butterflies.

With a creaky sound, the door slowly opened backwards.

The dormitory was in a mess, with books and stationery scattered all over the floor. It seemed that there had been a fight and argument, and the tables and chairs were overturned and tilted.

Song Yutang saw Cao Ying sitting on the ground with a shocked look on her face.

As expected, half of her face was covered by a black substance that flowed like asphalt.

…and Qin Shishi, who was lying on the ground with a bleeding head, her life or death unknown.

*
“No, it wasn’t me! Wait, why did you bring a boy in–“

As soon as she saw them come in, Cao Ying’s subconscious reaction was to scream in panic and try to defend herself. Until she saw Cen Dongsheng, she was surprised and immediately questioned him.

At this glance, Cao Ying seemed to still be sane; but in the next second, the black substance on half of her cheek spread rapidly, like moss in a damp dungeon, and Cao Ying’s pupils were bloodshot, revealing a look of madness.

She picked up the art knife next to her, stood up without hesitation, and rushed towards the man and woman in front of the door.

Song Yutang tried to dodge, but accidentally tripped over the leg of a chair;
Cen Dongsheng remained calm, stretched out his hand to support her, and raised his other hand and made a light “snapping” gesture.

“boom!”

Right on target.

The woman with a knife jumped into the air, and like a wild goose hit by a shotgun, her head tilted to the side and fell to the ground.

“What is your relationship with this person?”

The man even had the leisure to turn around and ask her a question.

“Eh?” Song Yutang, whose arm was grabbed by him, answered subconsciously, “Not very good…”

“Oh, then I won’t hold back.”

Like the woman who fell from a three-story building and seemed to feel no pain at all, Cao Ying staggered and tried to stand up.

Cen Dongsheng raised his foot and placed it right in the direction of the opponent’s pounce. His kick was sharp, like a hawk hunting its prey.

If the previous attack was compared to a bullet, then this kick was a cannonball.

Cao Ying’s body, which was hit head-on, flew backwards at a speed several times faster than when she came forward, and hit the wall heavily. Cracks appeared on her back, and then she bounced back to the ground and slid down limply.

The possession effect suppressed her pain nerves, so she was able to charge forward again without fear even though she knew she was injured.

But she was still a human being after all, and her flesh and blood body had innate physiological limitations. The damage caused by Cen Dongsheng’s kick exceeded this limit. The woman’s body fell apart, her head tilted, and she never moved again.

“…”

Song Yutang opened his mouth wide, staring blankly at the battle that ended in a flash.

It’s so ruthless.

The way Cao Ying was beaten reminded her of the cartoons she watched when she was a child, such as “Tom and Jerry”, in which the characters would have exaggerated effects when being beaten.

But… they are not characters in cartoons, but real people, right?
“She, she… this is…”

Song Yutang stuttered a little.

“Are you asking if I will die?”

“Um……”

“Well,” Cen Dongsheng thought for a moment and replied, “It depends on luck.”

Luck?

When Song Yutang saw the stern expression on the young man’s face, he suddenly realized that he might still have some distance to go before he could have the thinking and mentality to be a spell-binding master.

……

Of course, what she didn’t know was that only because Cen Dongsheng’s standards were relatively high would he adopt specific educational methods.

Most natural curse-masters like her were originally in a state of wild growth.

Those civilians who have not received special training either have no will to fight and tremble when they encounter ghosts or monsters, or they are too arrogant and self-righteous.

Since Cen Dongsheng wanted to train Song Yutang, he would not watch her go astray.

“So……”

Cen Dongsheng planned to let Song Yutang calm down first. At this moment, both of her roommates were unconscious, and he wanted to look for clues nearby.

He soon found a box of facial masks rolling on the ground, and smelled a faint scent “like a grave” from Song Yutang’s mouth.

But when he picked it up, he heard a series of “crackling” noises behind him.

The girl beside him made a sound of surprise.

Cen Dongsheng raised his head and watched the light bulb hanging on the ceiling of the dormitory explode and sparks fly.

After flashing several times, the room fell into darkness, with only the faint light from outside vaguely illuminating the outlines of objects.

The entire dormitory building was de-energized and immersed in the ocean of night.

Amid the girls’ panicked cries, darkness suddenly rushed in from the end of the corridor and swallowed up the houses on both sides of the aisle like a giant beast.

…This is not an expression. Song Yutang trembled all over. She really heard huge footsteps and heavy breathing, right in the corridor!
There is only a wall between them and “it”.

The girl’s subconscious reaction was to rely on Cen Dongsheng beside her, and she stretched out her hands to grab the young man’s sleeves;
The young man responded by stretching out his strong arms to hold Song Yutang’s shoulders, just like playing the role of the hen in “Eagle Catches Chicken”, pulling her to the back and protecting her behind him.

“Shhh.”

Before Song Yutang could speak, Cen Dongsheng turned his head, put his finger to his mouth, and made a gesture to her to keep quiet.

So she obediently shut her mouth.

In the darkness, only the eyes of the two people looking at each other were shining.

The young man’s voice sounded at a close distance, blowing on her earlobe with heat, and Song Yutang froze all over.

“Just follow me, okay?”

Song Yutang covered her lips and nodded vigorously.

The girl’s cheeks were rosy, because her ears were her sensitive part. She was glad that the lights in the room were turned off in advance. Her overreaction just now should not have been seen by the other party… right?

……

The dormitory door was gently pushed open.

Cen Dongsheng walked in front and Song Yutang walked behind, bending their backs and quietly walked out of the door.

Then, the girl witnessed the most terrifying scene she had ever experienced in her life——

A pale, huge woman’s face was floating at the end of the aisle like a hydrogen balloon.

At first, she thought it was a head floating in the darkness, but when she looked more closely, she found that behind the face was a huge and winding body, which bloatedly occupied the entire corridor…

(End of this chapter)