Transcendent Dawn

Chapter 53: Demon Portrait (Please add to your collection! Recommended!)

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

“So sudden?”

Su Lu, who was wiping his mouth with a napkin, was taken aback.

The surrounding bodyguards were on high alert as if facing a formidable enemy.

Rod picked up his notepad and quickly asked, “What does it look like?”

“Red! Red eyes! Black skin, goat’s horns…”

Crack!

The glass cup fell to the ground, shattering into pieces.

Lady Xi Ling waved her arms frantically as if sleep talking, “It… it’s coming for me! I’m going to die! I’m certain I’ll die!”

As if foreseeing her own demise, she cried out in despair, her entire being on the verge of collapse.

“What’s happening?”

Su Lu opened his Inspiration cautiously, but found nothing.

“What exactly is going on?”

Rod brushed past the bodyguards, grabbed onto Lady Xi Ling’s shoulders, and demanded, “Tell me… what’s happening?

“It… it’s in my memory!”

Lady Xi Ling announced in despair, “Once I recall its appearance, it will find me, and I’ll surely die! Please, save me! Servant of the Goddess, please save me!”

“The Cursed Spirit’s killing pattern is to establish coordinates by recalling its image and thus becomes traceable?”

Su Lu was startled, “The initial forgetfulness and the later need to recall, this is significant… It’s actually a hint planted by the Cursed Spirit, leading the survivors to their own doom?”

Certainly, the image of this Cursed Spirit is a taboo.

Yet, the survivors were given a clue that urged them to recall the terrifying image of the Fierce Ghost again and again.

Once they fully recollected it, it would be the Cursed Spirit’s time to kill! “Are they… toying with people’s minds…?”

Filled with anger, Su Lu expanded his Inspiration into a half-circle, protecting Lady Xi Ling within it.

“I can sense it, it’s in the gallery, it’s that painting… It… it’s coming!” Lady Xi Ling curled up into a ball, wailing hysterically, “Katy, protect me!”

“Yes!”

The female bodyguard stepped forward, wishing to comfort her employer by holding her hand.

Suddenly, her eyes focused on Lady Xi Ling.

On Lady Xi Ling’s right arm, four claw marks appeared side by side. The flesh was torn open, and fresh, red blood gushed freely.

“When… when did this happen?” Both Rod and Su Lu were astonished.

Especially Su Lu!

“The Cursed Spirit has begun to harm her, why? Why didn’t I sense it?”

Su Lu quickly pondered, “Unless… it descended from a higher level of the Spirit World, directly attacking Lady Xi Ling?”

The Spirit World had many layers.

As a newly ascended [Spirit Medium], Su Lu had only ever interacted with the first layer of the Spirit World.

More critically, he must enter a Soul Trance, adopting the form of a Spiritual Body, to move freely within the first layer of the Spirit World.

At this moment, he was still within his physical body, his Inspiration could at most reach half a layer of the Spirit World, leaving him powerless against higher dimensional attacks.

“Could it be… I must enter a Soul Trance?”

He rapidly calculated, “But at this moment, entering a Soul Trance would lead me to greater danger!”

While a Spiritual Body could wander the Spirit World freely, he, a first-order [Spirit Medium], would likely meet an unfortunate end facing the Cursed Spirit head-on in the Spirit World.

This pondering moment was cut short before Su Lu could make up his mind.

Suddenly, his inspiration finally grasped something, and his entire body began to tremble.

It was an indescribable, immensely powerful ‘being’.

He deeply sensed the other’s breath, knowing very well that he might not be a match at this moment, that was a fundamental disparity!

This being came from a deeper level of the Spirit World, breaking through the limits of space and dimensions, arriving at the first layer of the Spirit World.

It was like a colossal creature, with a terrifying ‘presence’ , extending its hand towards Lady Xi Ling in the real world!

The next instant.

The paralyzed Lady Xi Ling vanished in an instant.

In the first layer of the Spirit World, her presence was gone! What remained were only the screams of the maids and bodyguards.

“What happened?”

Katy stared blankly at the vacant chair in front of her: “Where’s the lady?”

“She… has been taken!”

Su Lu said gravely, suspecting it was due to the sudden appearance of him and Rod.

Otherwise, just the attack from the Spirit World would have been enough to kill an ordinary person.

“The gallery! Inside that gallery… that’s the final execution ground!”

Rod immediately spoke up.

“Let’s go!”

They exchanged a glance, quickly ran out of the villa, and boarded the carriage.

The coachman, urged to hurry, lashed the two black horses pulling the carriage, and the wheels rolled furiously, speeding away. “Okay, now tell me, are you sure you can handle this Cursed Spirit?”

In the carriage, Rod’s voice was very serious.

“I don’t know!”

Su Lu’s face looked terrible, just now, merely the clash of breaths had let him know that if he wished to restrain the evil spirit with Spirit Thorn as he did last time, he probably wouldn’t be able to hold it for even one second.

And the Cursed Spirit was immortal, it could only be isolated or sealed.

Given Rod’s level, when dealing with a Spiritual Body, he only had those few moves, fortunately, he knew the pattern of the opponent’s killings, there were loopholes to exploit.

“In that case… I’m afraid this time we can only play the roles of ‘Body collectors’ or ‘Cleaners”‘ Rod replied with a gloomy expression.

“Collecting bodies? Cleaning?”

Su Lu got a bad feeling.

“When dealing with a Cursed Spirit, apart from sealing, the only option left is containment… as soon as we confirm the killing pattern, or the activity range of this being, we should immediately start the targeted containment… that is also a sort of sealing!”

Rod explained: “Like this Cursed Spirit, its pattern seems to kill anyone who has seen a certain painting. That painting must be in the gallery, maybe it inhabits that painting… To minimize the loss, sealing the entire gallery, not allowing a single living person inside, it’s very necessary… In this way, after the Cursed Spirit kills all the people who had seen it, it might remain quiet for a while.”

“Such a method, it’s truly desperate.” Su Lu shook his head: “Can’t we just burn the painting?”

“No use, the painting is just a carrier, if burned, it might cause the Cursed Spirit to escape, appearing in an even more bizarre manner…”

Rod shook his head: “For us Transcendents, to a certain degree, we might not fear the Cursed Spirit, but for ordinary people, they have no solution whatsoever!”

“It’s really desperate…”

Su Lu sighed, looking at the vague figure drawn in Rod’s notebook: “Is this…

the image of a demon?”

Sometimes, even a shadow left by a demon can evolve into a sinister Curse!

Perhaps, that portrait of a demon in the painting was the source of the Cursed Spirit?

“Although the Cursed Spirit this time was most likely created by a ‘demon’, it is not a real ‘demon’!” Rod shook his head, “Real ‘Demons’ are idealistic beings. The ones that have a human form, the only possibility was that they are Demon Professionals!”

“The advanced form of the [Fallen] path!” Su Lu whispered.

“They call themselves humanoid demons, with ranks such as lower or upper position… The higher their position, the more idealistic their form will be, often mastering some terrifying abilities! For example…. creating curses!”