Chapter 321: Dual Curse

On the eve of the annual meeting, preparation work within the "New Era" Base entered a fever pitch. The Shenkong Zhi Yan Hall was decorated with solemnity and a futuristic aesthetic, holographic projectors repeatedly calibrated to ensure the most stunning presentation. Security levels were raised to maximum, with visible and covert checkpoints stationed inside and outside, the Energy Detection Network covering every corner.

Xia Wan, besides her daily strength adaptation and control training, began participating in the annual meeting's rehearsal. Her speech draft underwent multiple revisions, striving to convey confidence and strength without revealing too much sensitive information. Lei Dong placed great hope in her, wishing her to become the bridge connecting transcendent power with the ordinary world, stabilizing people's hearts.

Yet, amid this frantic preparation, a hidden current was quietly surging toward the base's core.

Outside the base, the ThirdLivingZone.

This was the residential area for base staff families and some non-core researchers; compared to the core zone, management was relatively lax and the atmosphere more lived-in. In recent days, a small convenience store within the zone had seen unusually booming business.

What drew customers was not the store's merchandise, but the owner—a young woman who had just taken over the shop half a month ago and called herself Liu.

The woman was about twenty-seven or twenty-eight, strikingly beautiful, yet with an eerie, fragile beauty. Her complexion always carried a sickly pallor; her glances carried an innate, pitiable charm. She spoke little, merely sitting quietly behind the counter, yet every customer who entered—especially men—could not help but buy more than they intended, some even visiting multiple times a day just to catch another glimpse of her.

Even more peculiarly, those who encountered misfortune in life or work and happened to confide in her found their troubles mysteriously resolved shortly afterward. Meanwhile, those who mocked her with crude remarks or tried to touch her would suffer terrible luck within one or two days—tripping while walking, making mistakes at work and receiving harsh reprimands.

Gradually, rumors about this "Boss Liu" spread through the living zone. Some claimed she was a fox spirit reincarnated, capable of bringing good fortune and dispelling misfortune. Others said she bore a curse: proximity brought luck, but ill intentions invited retribution.

These rumors naturally reached the base's Security Department. During this sensitive period, no anomaly went unexamined. Two plainclothes Security Personnel were dispatched to the convenience store for routine investigation.

"Welcome." Boss Liu raised her pale face and offered a faint, distant smile as the two entered.

The younger Security Personnel, meeting her gaze—eyes that seemed to suck in souls—felt his spirit stir, unconsciously straightening his posture. The older officer remained alert, his sharp eyes scanning the store's interior.

"Madam Liu, we're from the base Security Department. Routine inspection." The older officer displayed his credentials.

"Go ahead." Boss Liu nodded slightly, not rising.

The younger officer couldn't resist asking: "Boss Liu, I heard your shop's really potent? Can it really turn luck around?"

Boss Liu glanced at him; her gaze carried a hint of pity. "Good fortune and misfortune have no fixed door—they are summoned by one's own actions. My shop merely offers a place where cause and effect become slightly clearer."

Her words were cryptic, deepening the mystery.

The older officer frowned. Such mystical talk was unpopular in disciplined forces. He procedurally questioned her identity, merchandise sources, and recorded the answers. Boss Liu's responses were flawless—all documents were complete, goods procured through legitimate channels.

The investigation found no issues. The two prepared to leave.

Just as the younger officer turned, he seemed to trip, stumbling, his clipboard flying from his hand—perfectly striking a dull, unremarkable black clay pot in the corner of the counter, seemingly just a decoration!

"Clang!"

The pot shattered!

An extremely subtle yet chilling aura—so profound it sent shivers down the spines of two trained Security Personnel—spread like invisible ripples from the broken pot!

In the instant the pot shattered, Boss Liu's face turned even paler, utterly bloodless. She clutched her chest, stifling a groan, her eyes filled with pain—and a hint of relief?

"No good!" The older officer reacted instantly, drawing his sidearm. Though he didn't know what it was, that cold, malevolent aura was no benign force!

Yet the aura did not attack them. Instead, like a living thing, it formed a nearly invisible black thread and shot through the wall at lightning speed, heading straight toward the base's core zone!

Its target seemed to be… Xia Wan, who was making final preparations for the annual meeting, and her pure, powerful Tiankong Guardian energy!

"Stop it!" The older officer roared into his comm, sprinting outward.

But the cursed aura moved too fast, intangible and formless—conventional physical barriers and Energy Detection Network were nearly useless!

Meanwhile, inside the store, Boss Liu seemed to have all strength drained. She collapsed limply to the floor, dark blood trickling from her lips. She looked at the two startled Security Personnel, a strange smile—mixing pain and mockery—forming on her face as she gasped:

"Useless… the YanShengZhou… has been unleashed…"

"It carries… 'Decay' and 'Misfortune'… targeting transcendent beings…"

"And… for me, the 'caster'… the backlash of 'Pain' and 'SoulConsumption'…"

"Dual Curse… an endless blood feud unto death…"

Before her words ended, her body convulsed violently. Beneath her skin, countless tiny worms writhed, emitting grating, faint sounds. Her entire form withered and decayed visibly, her life force vanishing rapidly.

The two Security Personnel felt their scalps crawl, sweat instantly soaking their backs!

They realized—they had triggered a disaster!

A meticulously designed curse, using the caster herself as sacrifice and trigger, targeting Xia Wan (perhaps also Qin Feng), had been accidentally activated—and was now racing toward its target!

"Report immediately! Highest alert!" The older officer rasped into his comm, staring at the direction where the black thread vanished, his eyes filled with despair.

In the core zone, Xia Wan, finalizing the annual meeting flow with Lei Dong, suddenly felt a sharp pang in her chest!

The normally steady flow of her Tiankong Guardian energy surged like a stone dropped into a lake—violent, chaotic. A cold, filthy aura, thick with Decay and Misfortune, appeared out of nowhere, coiling around her Spirit and energy core like a parasitic vine!

She groaned, her face paling instantly; the vast, serene aura around her now flickered with disorder.

"Xia Wan! What's wrong?" Lei Dong immediately noticed her anomaly and asked urgently.

Almost simultaneously, the base's highest alert siren shrieked through every corner!

"Report! Anomalous cursed energy detected in ThirdLivingZone! Target: Miss Xia Wan! Energy nature extremely dangerous! Strong backlash effect detected!" The comm crackled with panicked reports from the Security Department.

Lei Dong's face turned ashen!

A curse? At this critical moment?!

Xia Wan forcibly suppressed the turmoil in her energy and the cold, serpent-like coiling, her gaze instantly turning icy and sharp.

She sensed it—the two distinct yet complementary malevolent wills within the curse: one, "Decay" and "Misfortune," targeting her potent vitality and Guardian power, like a parasitic worm gnawing at her foundation, twisting her fortune; the other, stranger still, carrying the caster's boundless pain and resentment, like the wails of vengeful spirits, striking her Spirit, trying to drag her into an abyss of negative emotion.

Dual Curse!

And this curse's tier was extremely high, profoundly hidden and malicious—impossible for ordinary means to enact!

Who? At this critical moment, who struck her with such cruelty?

Was it G. S. C. retaliation? Or… the entities behind the interdimensional invaders?

"Initiate highest-level medical and energy purification protocols! Lock down ThirdLivingZone! Full investigation!" Lei Dong roared into his comm, then turned anxiously to Xia Wan. "Xia Wan, how are you feeling? Can you hold on?"

Xia Wan did not answer. She closed her eyes, channeling all her Tiankong Guardian power and Bloodline energy, attempting to dispel or suppress the Dual Curse.

Yet the curse was alive, stubborn, entwined with her power, resisting eradication in the short term. Worse, the backlash Pain and SoulConsumption effects persisted like background noise, constantly disrupting her focus, drastically weakening her abilities.

The annual meeting loomed, yet she was afflicted by such a vile curse…

At that moment, a calm voice sounded behind them:

"What's all the noise."

Qin Feng appeared at the meeting room doorway, watching Xia Wan's pale, disordered aura, his brow twitching almost imperceptibly.

His gaze seemed to pierce through Xia Wan's body and land directly upon the dual curses entwined around her origin.