Chapter 817 - 676: Breaking the Curse
"I really do seem to have transmigrated."
A thought suddenly sprang up in Qin An’s mind.
The earliest fragment of that blurry memory showed that he seemed to have transmigrated once, yet had inexplicably forgotten it himself.
And now this segment of memory appeared again along with that voice, making a bizarre and absurd idea surface in Qin An’s heart.
He had transmigrated, but then he transmigrated back.
However, this way of coming back didn’t seem to be the way he wanted.
Everything was fake.
The instant this thought surfaced, Qin An reacted at once.
He felt his hand gripping Cold Star grow tighter and tighter, veins bulging on the back of his hand, as two emotions inside his heart struggled and writhed.
"Isn’t this the result you wanted?" one of the voices said. "What you dream of is to leave that dangerous and terrifying place and return to a safe world."
"Now you have it all. You can live peacefully here. You can use all the power you gained after transmigrating to run rampant and carefree here; no one can stop you."
The other voice spoke: "Fake. All of this is fake. He wants you to endure pain, to lose yourself in depravity. Don’t trust him—wake up, now!"
The two voices tangled together like water and fire.
They were like two armies, tugging and battling against each other.
Qin An panted crazily, feeling as if endless pain was spreading through his body.
He suddenly lifted his head. "Who exactly are you?"
"I am what you desire most in your heart." That voice came again.
Right after that, Qin An noticed that everything around him began to change.
The moving stream of cars, the passersby on the street, and the birds swooping across the sky all seemed to have had a pause button pressed on them, freezing them in this instant.
Everything seemed to have been frozen in place.
Not far away, a figure gradually emerged, turning from blurry to clear.
As that figure appeared like a vortex, the face also slowly became distinct, revealing itself before Qin An.
The other person wore simple clothes—a white short-sleeved shirt on top and light blue jeans below—and his appearance was actually exactly the same as Qin An’s.
Qin An suddenly thought of something, his gaze sharpening. "You’re the Curse Liu Yebai talked about, aren’t you?"
He remembered everything, and he remembered that he was currently undergoing the so‑called trial of the martyrs.
This person before him who looked exactly like him—other than being the Curse, Qin An could think of no other identity.
The Curse nodded slightly, acknowledging Qin An’s guess, then spread his arms and said slowly, "I can bring you extreme pain, but within that pain a trace of comfort can be born. The contrast between the two will make people sink into it."
"But what I didn’t expect is that you were actually able to walk out of that kind of Illusion Realm. That truly surprised me."
"Still, no matter how surprised I am, it doesn’t matter. Now, there is only one road before you."
Qin An raised his brows slightly and walked slowly toward the Curse. "You say there’s only one road before me—then what road is that?"
Seeing Qin An draw close, the Curse shook his head. "Give up. You can’t shatter all of this with your methods. This is your heart. This is a warm place."
"Look at this place. You lived here. It gave you all your memories, yet made you completely lose them as well."
"What lies before you now is simple. I can give you pain beyond imagination, and I can also let you gain pleasure beyond imagination."
"Pain comes from the cracks in your state of mind. Your previous life has always been your most fragile spot, and your pleasure lies here as well."
At this point, the Curse stuffed his hands into his pockets and paused briefly, his eyes never leaving Qin An, studying his expression.
He found that Qin An’s expression was very calm, but standing here, he could feel that Qin An’s heart was far from calm; a faint ripple had arisen.
It was this faint ripple that made the Curse’s lips curve slightly, a hint of confidence appearing on his face.
"I can feel that you’re a bit tempted. Now, let’s drown ourselves here. Just like I said, you can become the god who rules all things in this place."
"All those injustices you faced in your previous life, those predicaments, those so‑called regrets—you can settle them all with the saber in your hand, and here you are unmatched. Isn’t that even more wonderful for you?"
Qin An shook his head. "No. This isn’t what I want."
The Curse’s gaze suddenly turned icy cold. "I’ve seen many people who talked tough, but your mouth is the hardest of them all. I think even if I threw you into the flames and burned you to ash, that mouth of yours would still remain, wouldn’t it?"
He hadn’t expected Qin An to refuse so decisively.
But so what if he refused as decisively as he liked?
This was a place under his control.
The Curse’s figure was gradually fading.
At the same time, a sneer drifted over.
"Since you don’t want to immerse yourself in boundless pleasure, then sink into endless pain."
"I think in pain, you’ll slowly come to realize that everything I’ve said is true, and in the end you’ll completely submit and agree to what I’ve proposed!"
As the last word fell, the Curse’s figure vanished completely.
And as the voice disappeared, everything around them shifted from frozen back to motion, returning to normal.
But just then, Qin An suddenly planted Cold Star Saber on the ground, clutched his head with his hand, and showed an expression of pain.