The curse transformed into a black knife, and the Cursed Woman personally placed the blade into
"The hardest lies to see through are built from nine truths and one falsehood. The most inescapable illusions are woven from ninety percent reality and ten percent nightmare. I removed your heart, and I can use the curse to sustain your life and memory — but if you sacrifice everything and are left as nothing more than a shadow, even I won't be able to help you."
"Are you willing to lose everything, to become unrecognizable, as the price of becoming her silent shadow — one that can never reach her, forever?"
The vicious words seared themselves into Chen Ge's wound. He took the Cursed Woman's knife without a shred of hesitation and drove the curse-laden blade into his own chest.
The blade sank into his body, and every drop of life that bled away was replaced by curse and despair.
At the cost of flesh and blood, Chen Ge used the curse to help the Cursed Woman find every experience his body had ever shared with her.
Memory blossomed at the deepest layer of the curse. The knife had only penetrated halfway when countless black threads halted its progress.
The Cursed Woman, dressed in red, her eyes filled with a tangled mix of pain and complex emotion, recalled her past.
Black threads wove across her blood-red garment, forming mysterious patterns. The terrifying aura she exuded surged higher and higher, blanketing the entire western outskirts of Xinhai.
One wailing name after another was crushed to dust. Every curse the Cursed Woman had ever consumed fused together, forming a single new name.
To curse someone, you had to know their true name — and the Cursed Woman's name was her only flaw and greatest secret.
Right now, that name materialized before Chen Ge's eyes, then slowly faded, vanishing into the deepest recesses of the black-and-red bloodstained coat.
A pale hand gripped the knife lodged in Chen Ge's chest, but the curse was already flowing through his body, and even the Cursed Woman could not pull the blade free.
"It seems you've recovered your memories. Can you tell me — what kind of person was I before?"
The Cursed Woman did not answer. She directed the curse threads to seep into Chen Ge's wound, trying to prevent it from spreading further, but no matter how she struggled, the wound continued to widen.
The curse had taken effect. It was irreversible.
The Cursed Woman placed her hand on Chen Ge's chest. Black threads wove three words before his eyes: "Is it worth it?"
"Of course it's worth it. I've lost most of my memories, but I still have a few faint impressions left. You once saved my life. One life for one life — that's only fair."
A pale hand, gripping a cursed blade — and no one had ever spoken such words to a vengeful spirit before.
"Plenty of ghosts in this city have helped me. They risked total annihilation to stand beside me. How could I cower behind them just because I'm afraid of death?" Chen Ge pressed his hand against the curse-formed knife in his chest. "This time, let me stand in front of them."
The aura enveloping the western outskirts of Xinhai grew ever more terrifying and frigid. The Cursed Woman followed behind Chen Ge.
"I'm going with you…"
Inside the dance studio of Xinhai's Western Suburbs Private Academy, a mirror several meters tall shattered in an instant.
Sharp shards of glass sliced across Chen Ge's face. Blood sprayed through the air as he stood face to face with a one-eyed woman in a red school uniform.
"Is my left eye all you want?"
Unrestrained laughter pierced the night, and an unprecedented wave of savage violence swept across the Western Suburbs Private Academy!
Footsteps echoed down the deserted streets of Liwan. Chen Ge gazed at the red-clothed girl standing at the corner of the road, who had been waiting for him for a very long time.