Myriad Heavens: Who Let Him Into the Horror Movie?-Chapter 38 : The Ten Curses of Nanyang

Chapter 38: The Ten Curses of Nanyang
Sure enough, the mission had begun.
Li Zhen frowned.
Was it because his alarm hadn’t woken him up, or had the mission arrived before the alarm could even ring?
When he decided to perform the “Head-Descending Curse of Corpses,” he hadn’t considered the second possibility.
He had thought the mission might forcibly wake him, but instead, it had sent him straight here.
This mission had come too abruptly, almost without giving Li Zhen any time to react.
Fortunately, he had anticipated this kind of situation and had brought the Palm-Leaf Whip and the crossbow with him in advance.
Li Zhen drew the Palm-Leaf Whip from his sleeve.
The whip had been brought over in perfect condition.
But what about the crossbow?
Li Zhen glanced around.
He couldn’t find it.
Had he dropped it, or had it not been brought over at all?
Li Zhen sighed softly and looked again at the mission description.
Why was it even vaguer than the last one?
At least the previous mission description had the keyword “Evil Spirit.”
This time, it omitted even that, leaving only one word — “Malice.”
Li Zhen looked up toward the stairwell where that little boy had been dragged into moments ago.
From the runes’ transmission into his consciousness, he knew that boy was the one named Zheng Ze.
Li Zhen’s instincts told him this trouble would be far from simple…
Though the mission had come suddenly, he wasn’t entirely unprepared.
At the very least, the initial ritual for the “Head-Descending Curse of Corpses” had already been completed.
By the light, Li Zhen examined his own body.
On his arms and calves, faint red dots could be seen scattered sparsely across the skin.
This was the sign of the “Corpse Curse” beginning to take effect.
He pinched his hand—his sense of pain seemed to have dulled, though only slightly.
Li Zhen pressed hard against different parts of his abdomen.
Amidst intense discomfort, he felt his sensations weakening significantly. The sharp pain he used to feel was now far milder in comparison.
The heavy, dragging ache he’d once felt while moving had also faded to almost nothing, making his movements much freer.
In time, the pain should disappear entirely, allowing him to act like a normal person…
A faint smile appeared on Li Zhen’s face.
He tucked the Palm-Leaf Whip back into his sleeve, then suddenly looked up.
A gust of fishy wind hit him in the face as a massive bat landed upon his shoulder.
It was the very same Red-Eyed Bat that should have been sealed inside the Small Coffin.
“You actually followed me here?” Li Zhen was both surprised and pleased.
With this evil creature around, he had the confidence to face any strangeness.
The Red-Eyed Bat rubbed its head against his shoulder, smearing the crimson fluid from its mouth onto Li Zhen’s clothes.
“Not your blood?”
Li Zhen dipped his right index finger into the liquid and brought it to his nose. He confirmed—it was human blood.
“There! It flew down! Don’t let it get away!”
Someone shouted from a window above Li Zhen’s head.
Then, the sound of hurried footsteps echoed from the stairwell.
At least five or six people were storming down the stairs.
Li Zhen didn’t even need to guess what had happened.
He quickly glanced around and slipped into the narrow gap between two buildings to his right.
The space was so tight that only two people could walk side by side.
More importantly, it was secluded.
“Don’t run!” The five or six men charged into the gap after him.
The tattooed youth leading them wielded a fruit knife, snarling viciously, “You bastard, that vampire bat yours? You let it out to scare people, huh? Your damn mother—”
Li Zhen didn’t respond. Instead, he looked to the bat on his shoulder. “Did you kill anyone?”
The Red-Eyed Bat screeched softly.
“Good. Without my order, don’t kill at will—but drinking a little blood is fine.” Li Zhen gestured forward. “If you’re still hungry, go borrow some more from them.”
Through his connection with the Red-Eyed Bat, Li Zhen could sense the blood energy and lingering resentment entangled around those men.
None of them were good people.
The reason the Red-Eyed Bat had sought them out was precisely because it had been drawn to their resentment.
What it loved most, besides the blood of those with spiritual power, was the kind tainted with lingering grudges.
The bat’s crimson eyes flared with excitement.
With a shrill cry, it vanished from Li Zhen’s shoulder.
A sharp, eerie “screech” echoed through the narrow passage.
The sound was so piercing, it stabbed into the men’s ears like needles.
A moment ago, they had been charging forward ferociously; now, they clutched their heads in agony and collapsed to the ground, unable even to scream.
The Red-Eyed Bat landed on one of them. Its fangs easily pierced through the man’s arm, sinking into his flesh and vein as it greedily drank.
Judging from its frenzy, it was clearly starving.
After being sealed in the coffin, it hadn’t been fed—worse, it had been used to endure pain, consuming its energy even further.
No wonder it was so hungry now.
The bald patches on its head and the wounds on its wings and body showed how violently it had thrashed against the coffin earlier.
It must have suffered quite a bit.
“Switch targets. Don’t drain him dry.”
Li Zhen stepped over the fallen men and walked toward the end of the passage.
The Red-Eyed Bat darted back and forth between the bodies like a ferret in a melon field.
Once sated, it flew back onto Li Zhen’s shoulder, its belly visibly swollen and its weight much heavier.
“Now that you’ve eaten, let’s get to work.”
Li Zhen took off his jacket, letting the bat hide inside so as not to frighten others.
Having grown larger, it could no longer fit in his pocket.
He entered the stairwell and ascended to the first floor, where he ran into a sloppy middle-aged man wearing slippers and carrying a bag of garbage.
“Who the hell’s blowing that whistle at night…”
“Excuse me—”
The man jumped in fright at the sudden voice.
“Bloody hell, scared me half to death…”
The dim light spilling from the doorway wasn’t enough for him to see Li Zhen clearly. When he stepped closer and caught sight of the young man’s face, a chill ran down his spine.
The malice and eerie aura radiating from Li Zhen froze the words in his throat.
His trembling hand dropped the garbage bag, and without another word, he bolted back inside, about to slam the door shut.
But a hand stopped it.
Li Zhen smiled slightly. “Do you know where Zheng Ze lives?”
The light through the crack of the door illuminated Li Zhen’s pitch-black right eye and waxen face, making him look even more sinister.
The middle-aged man strained to push the door, but it wouldn’t budge.
“Zheng Ze? Never heard of him. Ask someone else.”
The Red-Eyed Bat poked its head from Li Zhen’s jacket, its blood-red eyes locking onto the man’s.
Instantly, the man’s gaze turned vacant. “Zheng Ze… I know. Fifth floor, first apartment by the stairs…”
“Thank you.”
Closing the door gently, Li Zhen began walking upstairs.
The dark stairwell echoed only with the sound of his footsteps.
At the door the man had mentioned, just as Li Zhen raised his hand to knock, a conversation inside caught his attention.
“…Stop watching TV all the time! Dad’s hungry—go make something for me to eat!”
“Dad, there’s only some instant noodles that’ll kill people left. You still want that?”
“I don’t get how I ended up with such a stupid son…”
Somehow, the dialogue felt strangely familiar to Li Zhen.
He knocked.
A few curses followed from inside.
Footsteps approached, and the door opened.
A woman stood in the doorway.
The sight inside the room drew Li Zhen’s eyes.
Near the door in the living room sat a fire basin. Inside it, white cloth burned—a kind used in mourning rituals.
To the right stood two memorial portraits side by side: one of an old man, one of an old woman.
In front of the portraits were lit candles and common offerings.
The two elders must not have been dead for long.
No wonder Zheng Ze had been wearing mourning clothes earlier.
Seeing this, Li Zhen finally understood why the conversation had sounded so familiar.
Two memorial portraits…
A family of three…
The father bore a strong resemblance to the Hong Kong actor Bobby Au-Yeung…
Wasn’t this the very scene from The Ten Curses of Nanyang, right at its beginning?