Hunter of Mysterious Creature

Chapter 843 - 89: The Undying Curse (Part 2)

Is it a bloodstain?

The monk reached into his pocket, then took out a fake flower made of scrap paper and rusty wire and placed it beneath the window frame.

"Is this... a tribute?" Candle Dragon asked.

"Yes." The monk nodded, "I once had a friend who took his last breath leaning against this wall... May he find peace in paradise."

Just then, Sun Hang’s earpiece suddenly beeped with an incoming communication alert.

Sun Hang pressed the answer button, and Nagano Souta’s voice, mixed with static, immediately sounded from the other end of the earpiece.

"Sun Hang, I found out... Back then, there was indeed a monk in my father’s team. That monk was an esper, but the person I found wasn’t familiar with the monk; he only knew the monk was an esper but didn’t know what specific ability... Did you find this monk’s remains in Nanhua Town?"

"Why do you say remains?" Sun Hang felt he might have already guessed the truth of the matter.

"Because that monk is dead. The person I asked was the witness of the monk’s death... He watched the monk’s chest being shattered by a shotgun, the entire person falling into a pool of blood, and subsequently a series of explosives further blew the monk’s body into pieces... How did you determine the remains you found belonged to a monk? Did you find any personal items?"

"What if I told you that this monk, who was blown to pieces, is now guiding us?" Sun Hang replied.

"A mysterious object! It must be a mysterious object!" Nagano Souta asserted, "Do not trust it!"

"But we haven’t sensed any aura of a mysterious object meme on him." Sun Hang said.

"It might be some kind of disguise... You guys need to stabilize it first. We’ll make a decision after our main force arrives in Nanhua Town! We will get there as soon as possible—"

Nagano Souta wanted to say more, but the signal fluctuated at that moment, abruptly cutting off the communication.

Sun Hang looked at the monk walking in front, pondered for a moment, and asked, "Have you been dead once already?"

"Have you encountered... my companions from back then?" The monk stopped, turned around, and asked, looking at Sun Hang.

"Otherwise, how do you think we know there are ’treasures’ hidden in Nanhua Town?"

"Indeed." The monk nodded with a look of relief and then opened the cloak draped over him.

Beneath his cloak, his body was emaciated and shriveled, with the surface skin covered with terrifying ravine-like scars and stitched marks—a myriad of these marks, as if his entire body was pieced together from hundreds of fragments, these fragments even outnumbering the patches on his worn cloak.

Candle Dragon’s breath suddenly hitched, and the surrounding temperature instantly dropped below freezing.

From where he stood, thin frost began spreading outwards.

"What happened to you?" Candle Dragon asked in a grave voice, "Was it the power of the mysterious object that kept you alive?"

"Buddha said, I alone will enter hell so others need not." The monk stated lightly.

"Is this really the time for riddles?" Sun Hang said helplessly, "Can’t you just speak in plain terms?"

"That thing needed a guide, or one could say a ghost slave." The monk said, "Due to my ability, I retained the last bit of clarity, I volunteered to be the chosen one... If it were someone else, they would be completely reduced to a puppet, their three souls and seven spirits eternally trapped in a body that does not decay, enduring everlasting torment in confusion and pain..."

"So, you were resurrected by that mysterious object?" Sun Hang asked.

The monk nodded.

"Then why is there no mysterious object meme aura on you?" Sun Hang questioned, puzzled.

"Perhaps because the mysterious object hasn’t infected him... after all, that mysterious object wants to use him as bait; if it infects him, it would more easily alert the prey..." Candle Dragon said, "In this way, those missing cases seem to have some clues."

"What missing cases?"

"Before I set off, I checked all the information about Nanhua Town. Over the past ten years, twenty-four missing cases have occurred near Nanhua Town, with as many as eighty-five people missing... However, such incidents are quite common in no man’s lands, and the frequency and the number of missing people in Nanhua Town aren’t significantly extraordinary compared to other areas, so they haven’t drawn special attention... Now it seems, those missing people should have been led to that mysterious object by him." Candle Dragon said.

"I advised them, that the sea of suffering is boundless, turning back is the shore." The monk said, "I told them over and over that the thing is dangerous, it’s the embodiment of humanity’s purest desires, no one can escape its influence... But no one was willing to give up. After hearing my description, they became even more fascinated by that thing..."

"Do you know why they don’t believe that thing is dangerous?" Sun Hang asked the monk.

The monk gazed at Sun Hang with a questioning look in his eyes.

"Because of you." Sun Hang said, "You’re not an infected, and you’ve evidently seen or interacted with that thing. Given that nothing has happened to you, naturally, they also believe they will be fine... Humans, they’re such blindly confident creatures, especially driven by greed."

"Given your clear insight, why yourself stay infatuated?" The monk wrapped himself in his cloak-covered body, "Knowing what the final outcome is, why don’t you choose to let it go? I am just a guide; I won’t force you to contact that thing, and even if you turn and leave now, I won’t stop you."

"I said humans are blindly confident creatures." Sun Hang chuckled, "If I’m human, then obviously I’m quite confident in myself; and if I’m not human, then that thing, the embodiment of humanity’s purest desires, probably wouldn’t affect me... As you also aren’t affected by that thing, right?"

"I..." The monk was rendered speechless.

"Do you still consider yourself human?" Sun Hang continued to ask.

"I... I don’t know." The monk looked down at his body and shook his head.

"When all this is over, if you’re still alive, would you mind letting me dissect you?" Sun Hang asked the monk with a smile.

"If you can remove the curse that that thing has placed on me, you may do as you wish." The monk said.

Sun Hang suddenly leaped forward, a liquid metal condensed into a short blade that pierced the monk’s throat with lightning speed.

"Sun Hang?!" Candle Dragon was taken aback, instinctively wanting to pull Sun Hang back, but the monk was already clutching his throat, trembling as he collapsed.

"Why did you kill him now?"

"Relax, he’s most likely not going to die."

Just as Sun Hang declared, the monk got back up after a dozen seconds. He first touched his still-bleeding throat, then pulled out a needle and thread from his pocket, starting to stitch the wound on his neck.

Throughout the whole process, his pupils were dilated, and only after the wound was closed did his eyes regain focus.

"This is the curse on me." In the aftermath, the monk said to Sun Hang with resignation, "I cannot be killed... even if I am cut into pieces, these pieces will reassemble themselves."