Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Balance Magic Dojo was facing an unprecedented business crisis.
It could be said that there was no turning back Liang Heng’s situation now. Tiger Liang was wrapped up like a dumpling when he was brought back, but fortunately he was still clear-headed. The three young masters hadn’t been overly rough with him, and hadn’t directly damaged his brain… But Liang Heng thought his own brain was about to break down!
“Chen Yi! This isn’t over!” Liang Heng gripped Tiger Liang’s hand tightly. Tiger Liang’s injuries were severe and he couldn’t even talk, but Liang Heng knew that it would be useless to take it to the Cultivation Court.
The three sect leaders had already sent lawyer letters to his Balance Magic Center. Right now, the only thing he could do was admit defeat – he didn’t seem to have any other choice.
At the moment, there was the sound of knocking outside the center.
When Liang Heng opened the door, he was startled to see who it was.
A bald, middle-aged man with a beer belly was smoking as he stood gloomily by the entrance.
“Guru Zhu Ge?”
Liang Heng didn’t know that Zhu Ge’s contract with the Cultivation Reading Network had already been canceled, so Liang Heng’s address was a sore blow to Zhu Ge.
They had met each other before at an offline fanmeet; only the top twenty people in the fan rankings had been eligible to attend the meet.
“It looks like things aren’t good on your end either.” Zhu Ge smiled coldly.
Looking at Liang Heng’s similarly gloomy and frustrated expression, he suddenly realized something.
The reason why the website had terminated his contract was in fact because of pressure from these sect leaders from the cultivation forum. Although Chief Editor Hwang hadn’t said too much, Zhu Ge had gotten a rough idea of the situation when he got in touch with some internal staff after the termination of his contract.
Zhu Ge held out a box of Black Toad Bone-Strengthening Powder and gave it to Liang Heng. “I know that your son was badly hurt; please accept this.”
“Teacher Zhu Ge, you’re too kind.” Liang Heng took the gift.
His son had broken bones all over, and this could be considered just the right gift. It seemed that Zhu Ge had done his homework before coming here; he was even aware of Tiger Liang’s injured condition.
Inside the center, they sat facing each other.
After a moment of silence, Zhu Ge spoke up first. “The Cultivation Reading Network has terminated my contract.”
Liang Heng was stupefied. “Why?”
“Hm… because someone was putting pressure on them.” Zhu Ge didn’t bring up the fact that he was Lady Thirteen. Actually, it wasn’t that he wanted to hide the matter, but as soon as he said something, then Liang Heng would probably be able to guess later on that he had crossdressed to disguise himself as Lady Thirteen.
For Zhu Ge, that was a very humiliating matter, and on second thought, also a little disgusting…
Who could ever imagine a fat shut-in with a beer belly dressing up in an ill-fitting Lolita costume? Zhu Ge recalled how that L size Lolita evening gown had instantly been ripped to shreds the moment he put one arm through the shoulder strap…
“Don’t tell me it was also pressure from the sects?” Liang Heng was very smart; when he saw the change in Zhu Ge’s expression, he very quickly thought of this possibility.
The fathers of the three sect young masters who had helped Xiaoling’s mom out were all fans of Wang Situ, so it wasn’t hard at all for Liang Heng to make the connection.
“I’m leaving Songhai city tomorrow for a small place to take up work as the chief editor of a newspaper there from then on,” Zhu Ge said gloomily as he puffed on his cigarette and looked at Liang Heng.
Liang Heng grit his teeth. “Guru Zhu Ge, don’t you feel unsatisfied with this? Everything you worked so hard for was snatched away!”
“What goes around comes around; there’s nothing I can be resentful about.”
Zhu Ge laughed coldly, then took out a USB key from his pocket. “Previously, a fan of mine sent me this by express delivery.”
“What’s this?” Liang Heng stared at the USB key.
“He said that it contained something that could reverse my situation. I opened it for a look, and the only thing inside is a software for casting curses,” said Zhu Ge.
“Casting curses?”
“It was probably developed by someone from the demonic path.”
“How do you cast a curse? Do you need to pay to do so?”
“I’ve never encountered anyone from the demonic path, but they wouldn’t bother chasing after worldly items like money. I opened that software for a look, and to cast a curse, you pay in life span…” Zhu Ge laughed. “So for me, this thing is basically useless. I’m already in poor health to begin with since I spend long hours sitting down and not moving as I write. Apart from the three highs[1.high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, and high blood sugar.], I also have a fatty liver; even with the best health supplements of this era, I’ll still die in a hundred years if I don’t lose weight.”
Hearing this, Liang Heng sank into silence.
“Leaving aside whether this curse software is real or not, shaving off several decades of my life to take the other party down in revenge isn’t worth it, even if it was real. Ultimately, neither side wins, and I won’t have many years to live after that.” Saying this, Zhu Ge sighed.
Clutching the USB key, Liang Heng felt a little sorrowful at Zhu Ge’s words.
This was the first time he had lost to Chen Yi, which made him so uncomfortable. As soon as he thought of Tiger Liang’s wretched appearance, wrapped head to toe in bandages, he itched to skin Father Chen and his son alive.
After that, Liang Heng open a few cans of beer and prepared some side dishes to go with it. They drank and chatted for some time, during which Liang Heng used the laptop next to him to open the USB key and copy the file over.
His movements were very quick.
After drinking and eating for roughly half an hour, Zhu Ge looked at the sky.
“It’s about time I left, Chief Liang.” Zhu Ge climbed to his feet. He was quite huge and it looked like it took some effort for him to move. Liang Heng was about to go over and help him up, but Zhu Ge waved his hand, and bracing himself, got up on his own.
“Chief Liang, please give the USB key back to me.”
“Alright…”
…
After seeing Zhu Ge off, the first thing Liang Heng did was to open the software which he had copied over.
Like Zhu Ge had said, this was a software for casting curses. It had a slightly creepy interface; after clicking it open, a pop-up window instantly covered the computer screen with an image of a grim reaper holding a scythe.
On its tongue was a name box, above which was a note that he had to think of the person’s appearance when he typed in their real name.
The prices for the different curses were also clearly marked on the page.
Liang Heng opened the menu for a look.
Mild Curse: One year of life.
Moderate Curse: Five years of life.
Heavy Curse: Eight years of life.
Super Curse: Ten years of life.
Deluxe 4-Curse Package: Twenty years of life.
Apart from the marked curse prices, Liang Heng also saw in the upper right corner that there was even an option for topping up the lifespan: he just needed to hover over it with the mouse and recite the number in his mind to complete the top-up.
When he saw this, Liang Heng smiled darkly.
While his center hadn’t been doing that great in the last few days…
He still had plenty of students…
