"Bang~"
The black silhouette exploded, transforming directly into a mist, rushing towards Zhang Chen’s body.
Zhang Chen hurriedly retreated, deploying the Sealing Rune to try and contain the black mist, but the mist completely ignored the rune, passing right through it.
Zhang Chen quickly activated the Light of the True God to resist, but the black mist seemed to disregard it, passing through Zhang Chen’s body as if the Light of the True God didn’t exist, and wrapped around his soul.
The next moment, an ancient, gloomy voice echoed in Zhang Chen’s ear: "I curse you, starting every midnight, you shall transform into a toad."
The voice faded, leaving only the wisp of ethereal mist seemingly bonded with Zhang Chen’s soul, enveloping it like a shroud.
"What the hell is this damned thing?"
Zhang Chen was bewildered, his eyes filled with innocence. He was merely a bystander but somehow suffered from an unexpected calamity.
Zhang Chen quickly looked at Zhong Xiang, who stood there with an even worse expression.
"Are you alright?" Zhang Chen asked with genuine concern, not blaming Zhong Xiang for being dragged into this mess because the two were like grasshoppers on the same string, sharing the same fate.
Zhong Xiang was hit by two curses, theoretically making his situation far worse.
"I’ve been cursed, and twice too. The first curse transforms me into a toad every midnight, and with the second, every 15th day of the month, I must eat grass, or I’ll turn into a donkey!" Zhong Xiang’s face turned green, his voice filled with terror, as he stared at Zhang Chen: "And you? How bad is it for you?"
Zhang Chen was struck by one mist, so he surely had at least one curse.
"Every midnight I turn into a toad for one hour." Zhang Chen’s face was ashen.
Both stood in silence, reflecting each other’s plight, then turned their eyes towards the pool, where the atmosphere grew eerily quiet.
"Is this curse real or fake? Couldn’t it be some ancient scare tactic left by predecessors?" Zhong Xiang still clung to hope, unwilling to transform into a toad.
Zhang Chen responded sarcastically: "What do you think?"
Zhong Xiang’s smile faded as he looked at the turbulent black water.
"Can’t we use power to suppress the curse?" Zhong Xiang hypothesized.
"Theoretically possible but..." Zhang Chen considered the origin, knowing it was an entity that couldn’t be killed by the empire, only sealed. What power could suppress such a curse?
Zhang Chen’s words trailed off, scanning the black pool in hopes of finding any skill to break the curse, but found nothing, much to his disappointment.
"This is tricky! What do we do now?" Zhang Chen’s face was filled with worry.
Both pairs of eyes remained fixed on the pool, neither daring to approach recklessly.
"Let’s wait and see if we can suppress the curse on the first night." Zhong Xiang plopped to the ground, his spirits crushed, uninterested in the Longevity Willow Tree and Ancient Divine Demon bodies.
"Surely, you suspected something; otherwise, why suddenly lose enthusiasm? Are you trying to set me up as the sacrifice?" Zhong Xiang recalled something, turning to Zhang Chen to question.
"Don’t blame me. I only thought the Ancient Divine Demon Tomb wasn’t simple, hence my caution." Zhang Chen immediately refuted Zhong Xiang’s accusations, even blaming him: "If you hadn’t recklessly tried to seize the treasure, activating the curse in the pool, I wouldn’t be involved!"
Zhang Chen retorted, full of accusations.
Zhong Xiang knew he was at fault, thus quietly lowered his head without rebutting.
Time passed slowly until midnight arrived. Zhang Chen was suddenly surrounded by black smoke, the Light of the True God inside him erupted, attempting to resist, only holding out for seven or eight breaths before twisting into an ugly toad.
Meanwhile, Zhong Xiang began to emit red light, lasting slightly longer than Zhang Chen, enduring for seventy to eighty breaths before the fiery glow finally dissipated, also transforming him into a toad.
"Ribbit~~~"
Zhong Xiang cried out in dismay, his voice now that of a toad, filled with horror, near emotional collapse.
Similarly, Zhang Chen looked displeased, staring at his toad hands with embarrassment: "This curse is truly troublesome!"
Zhong Xiang in toad speech: "What do we do?"
Zhang Chen in toad speech: "We’re in deep trouble; this curse’s power is beyond our ability to resist."
Zhong Xiang: "I don’t want to live like this! How can I be a toad? It’ll expose weakness, and if someone assassinates me, I’ll be done for."
Zhang Chen: "..."
As the two ribbited their dialogue, Zhang Chen suddenly noticed something amiss: "Why did you turn into a female toad? Hahaha, you’ve turned into a female toad, even your gender changed; you can’t shake yourself anymore while peeing."
Zhong Xiang furiously responded: "It’s not like I can control this cursed transformation; shut your mouth."
"Let me see." Zhang Chen, eyeing Zhong Xiang with amusement, couldn’t resist teasing him, hopping directly onto Zhong Xiang, pinning him down.
"Ah..." Zhong Xiang cried in shock: "What are you trying to do?!?!"
Zhong Xiang quickly scrambled away from Zhang Chen, hopping frantically to evade capture.
"Come, little buddy, you’ve become a woman now and due to our relationship, it’s not too much to ask for a little fun, is it?" Zhang Chen chased after, his voice filled with teasing and banter.
"Get off ahh! Get away now!" Zhong Xiang cried out in frustration, hopping away to escape.
The two darted around the cave before Zhang Chen finally stopped, burdened with worry: "What now?"
"We must find a way to break the curse; we can’t transform every midnight indefinitely. We’ll slip up eventually." Zhong Xiang paused, watching Zhang Chen with vigilance.
"Breaking this curse is tough." Zhang Chen, in toad form, glanced at the pool: "Perhaps the power to break it lies beneath the water."
"Would you dare enter? Each wisp is another curse; anyone venturing in might not survive." Zhong Xiang complained: "The critical point is, the curse is sickening. I’d admit defeat if it cursed me to die, but transforming into a toad? What kind of twisted humor is this from the caster?"
The curse isn’t highly damaging but is very humiliating.
Turning into a toad every midnight, what kind of nonsense is this?
Is it a serious curse?
Though, if the curser were alive and learned the opponent turns into a toad, they could pursue an assassination, making it a deadly tactic.
But...
Zhang Chen felt speechless, finally understanding why the Cursed Demon God was sealed by the Emperor; this guy was truly perverse.
An hour passed painfully slowly, Zhang Chen and Zhong Xiang stared at each other with toad eyes, but Zhang Chen looked at Zhong Xiang opposite him, feeling oddly attracted, finding the female toad increasingly cute and beautiful.
"I must be sick! Becoming twisted inside." Zhang Chen raised a toad hand, giving himself a slap, hoping to regain clarity.
"What are you doing?" Zhong Xiang inquired, curious about Zhang Chen’s actions.
Zhang Chen ignored him, feeling nauseated at the thought of being interested in a female toad, almost ready to vomit from disgust.
"Seems I’ve truly become a toad! This curse’s power is tremendous." Zhang Chen’s eyes held resignation as he slowly closed them, avoiding looking at the female toad opposite, revealing embarrassment: "This damn curse must be broken."