When the first five people received the cursed ssages on their phones, the villagers still did not realize what it ant.
Only after those five died at the end of the three-day deadline, and the cursed ssages automatically forwarded themselves to the phones of their relatives and friends, did people finally realize sothing was terribly wrong.
Among the current residents of Laketon Village, there were still so who, as children, had experienced the original paper cursed chain letter incident decades ago.
After hearing that Narcissa’s grave had been robbed, they rushed back through various ans to the nearly abandoned village, hoping to find Narcissa’s corpse and reseal her with the burial cloth. However, even after turning the surrounding area upside down, the villagers were unable to find her body anywhere.
Driven to despair, the villagers who received the cursed ssages could only resign themselves to their fate.
To protect those close to them, once they received a cursed ssage, they would deliberately forward it to contacts far removed from their own social circles, hoping to divert the disaster elsewhere and gradually steer the curse away from the people they wanted to protect.
That was also the reason the villagers were unwilling to communicate with outsiders like Dylan and the others.
Clearly, in order to end the chain-letter curse, they needed to recover Narcissa’s corpse and reseal it with the burial cloth.
But where exactly had Narcissa’s body gone…?
While Dylan and the others were completely at a loss about what to do, the only female mber of the group finally spoke up.
“Have any of you thought about why, after her husband died, Narcissa stayed in this village instead of returning to her own ho?”
“Maybe she was an orphan?” Dylan guessed.
“Perhaps. But it’s also possible that Narcissa had sothing she couldn’t let go of.”
As she spoke, Vivian turned her gaze toward an old grave in the corner of the cetery.
Kai Surik—the husband of Narcissa Surik, who had always existed rely as background information in the villagers’ story.
At this point, it was already the afternoon of the 20th. In a little over an hour, the five of them were supposed to die. Since they had no better option anyway, the group rolled up their sleeves, grabbed shovels, and began digging up Narcissa’s husband’s grave.
When they opened the long-sealed coffin, they indeed found Narcissa’s remains inside.
Even after more than forty years, she still retained the appearance she had at the ti of her death. Her body was curled up beside her husband’s now skeletal remains, clinging tightly to him, as though trying to make up for the regret of not being able to stay together in life.
Afterward, the group of five went through considerable trouble to obtain the burial cloth from the villagers.
During the process of sealing the corpse with the cloth, all five of them saw horrifying hallucinations and nearly beca so confused that they killed themselves. Fortunately, Vivian—the one with the strongest spiritual sensitivity—possessed extraordinary willpower. At the critical mont, she withstood Narcissa’s ntal assault and successfully wrapped the female corpse within the burial cloth.
At that exact mont, the three-day countdown reached its end.
Although the cursed letter on their phones did not disappear, the five of them truly survived past the deadline.
Bruised and battered, the five companions embraced each other, laughing and crying as they celebrated the end of the disaster.
That happiness lasted for one week.
Everyone thought everything was finally over. In the group chat, the tense exchanges about clues disappeared, and the atmosphere beca relaxed once more. The five of them mourned Mark sadly, chatted about school and daily life, and made plans for the upcoming sumr vacation…
Everly quickly skipped past all that irrelevant content, scrolling down until she finally found the chat records from the afternoon of June 27.
The cheerful mood in the group ca to an abrupt end with a screenshot Vivian posted that afternoon.
It was a screenshot of the cursed chain ssage on a phone. But the important part was not the ssage itself—it was the “received ti” displayed at the top of the screen.
Everyone clearly rembered that they had originally received the cursed ssage at “06/17/2X16, 4:10 p.m.” Yet sohow, at so unknown point, the ssage’s received tistamp had refreshed itself and changed to “06/24/2X16, 4:10 p.m.”
Vivian had circled the tistamp in red and asked in a terrified tone:
“Has the received ti on your ssage changed too?”
That was the final ssage ever sent in the group chat.
Afterward, Dylan and the others likely realized sothing was wrong. They gathered offline, hurriedly drove away from campus, and prepared to return to Laketon Village to investigate.
However, they discovered the truth far too late.
Halfway there, the countdown reached its end, and all five died in an accident.
This also explained why Dylan’s ti of death was only two minutes after Connie received the cursed ssage—because Dylan had already anticipated his own death. Right before the countdown expired, in order to protect his close friends and family, he deliberately sent the cursed chain ssage to Connie, soone he was not particularly close to!
But why had Narcissa’s cursed chain letter returned?
Everly felt deeply confused. She pulled out her phone and called Rebecca.
After listening to the entire story, Rebecca thought for a mont before telling Everly that the problem most likely lay with the burial cloth.
“But that was only a replica of the Shroud of Turin, not the genuine article. The spiritual power attached to it was limited. And from what you ntioned, the burial cloth found beside the grave robber’s body was damaged. I suspect the grave robber handled it too roughly and tore the cloth apart, weakening its spiritual power even further.”
anwhile, during the period when the seal was broken, Narcissa went on to kill many more people, further strengthening the power of the vengeful spirit. As one side weakened and the other grew stronger, the original burial cloth naturally beca incapable of containing Narcissa any longer.
The fragile burial cloth managed to hold on for only seven days.
After those seven days, Narcissa broke free of the seal on her own. Using Dylan and the other four survivors as a new starting point, she once again began spreading the curse.
“So unless we can find a sealing artifact even stronger than the burial cloth, the only hope left is a clergyman at the level of a Purple-Robed Bishop?”
“No.” Rebecca’s tone grew heavy, carrying a slow unease that made Everly uncomfortable. “I’m afraid the situation isn’t that optimistic… The old Narcissa might have been manageable for a Purple-Robed Bishop. But after returning and killing so many more people, even a Purple-Robed Bishop probably can’t do anything to her anymore. To destroy this evil entity, we’d likely need soone at the level of a Red-Robed Cardinal.”
A Red-Robed Cardinal—a Cardinal of the Catholic Church—is a rank second only to the Pope, personally appointed as one of the Pope’s “right hands.”
At present, there were eleven Cardinals in the United States. However, there was one important detail: most of them did not actually possess the ability to perform exorcisms.
That was because several Cardinals had been specially appointed by the current Pope for political reasons. In terms of personal ability and depth of faith, they did not necessarily asure up to the true standard of a Cardinal. To put it bluntly, they were “all title, no substance.”
Unfortunately, the three Cardinals currently stationed in the Jonah Archdiocese—the closest archdiocese to the origin of the curse—were exactly that kind of “lightweight.” This had practically beco common knowledge within exorcist circles.
Would seeking help from Cardinals in other dioceses actually make any difference?
After hearing Rebecca’s analysis of the situation, Everly imdiately ford that idea.
Unfortunately, after discussing it further with Rebecca, she found that the hope was slim.
First, the church itself was currently plagued by issues such as corruption and abuse of power. As an ordinary person without any backing, it would be extrely difficult for her request for help to “reach the higher authorities” in a short ti. Second, cross-diocese intervention by Red-Robed Cardinals could easily cause friction between regions; other dioceses might not be willing to interfere and risk angering the Jonah Diocese. Third, due to the distance involved, there was no guarantee that a Cardinal would arrive before Old John’s countdown ended.
After carefully weighing everything, she decided to treat this path as a backup option.
“Besides seeking a cleric, is there any other way to help my grandfather survive this crisis?”
“I don’t have any leads at the mont, but I can help you ask around,” Rebecca replied, sounding apologetic that she couldn’t be of more help.
After ending the call with Rebecca, Everly transferred the consultation fee and then tried contacting Wester again.
This ti, Wester did pick up—but after hearing Everly’s explanation, he coldly stated that the distance was too great and he was powerless to help.
“I’m currently handling sothing in Teswade State and can’t leave. Also, I don’t have many items on , and none of them can deal with that kind of vengeful spirit. I suggest you get your grandfather to forward the ssage as soon as possible, so you don’t get dragged into it in the end.”
Without waiting for Everly to curse him out, Wester hung up first.
His words made Everly furious. Her chest rose and fell sharply with anger, and for once she felt an urge to destroy sothing.
How could they just give up like this? Her grandfather clearly hadn’t done anything wrong—why should he die over so completely senseless ssage?
Anger and anxiety surged within her. Everly could only force herself to stay busy as quickly as possible, trying to prevent her mind from spiraling further into fear and panic.
At present, the only person Everly could still turn to for help was the Curse Witch, Natalie.
Thinking of this, Everly opened the private chat window on Chatter.
After her previous request for help, the other side had always left her ssages on “read” without replying. Everly understood this was a subtle refusal, but she had no choice. Old John was the person she cared about most in this world. For her grandfather, she would not hesitate to humble herself and beg if necessary.
She typed out a long ssage, carefully laying out everything from the beginning, including her situation and her plea for help, then hit send.
The Curse Witch Natalie seed to be perpetually sitting in front of her computer. The ssage was marked “read” almost instantly.
After a long pause, a reply finally ca through:
[Curse Witch: I thought I had already made it very clear that I was refusing to get involved.]
Seeing this, Everly’s heart sank sharply.
Yes—ever since the “read but no reply,” she had already understood that Natalie did not want to be involved in this matter.
Witches were generally like this: willful, acting only on what they chose to do. Things they did not want to do, they would refuse no matter how close the relationship was. Moreover, strictly speaking, Natalie didn’t even know Old John. There was no reason for her to help at all.
But—but…
Just as Everly’s fingers began to tremble and she almost started typing out desperate pleas or even heavy promises, another ssage popped up on the screen.
[Curse Witch: Just this once. 10 grand. I can give you a hint.]
!!!
Natalie had ultimately softened her stance after all!
At that mont, even though Everly had not cried during the most desperate part of the situation, now—seeing those casually typed words “just this once”—she could no longer hold it back.
Her eyes suddenly stung. A sharp, overwhelming sourness rushed into her nose, and warm tears blurred her vision in an instant.
She wiped her face clumsily and continued typing:
[Everly: Thank you. Please give the hint.]
[Curse Witch: My hint is this—pay attention to the rules.]
[Curse Witch: This is a very intelligent vengeful spirit. It has constructed an entire system of rules and carries out its killings based on them. This complete set of rules, while allowing it to grow rapidly, may also beco its own constraint.]
[Curse Witch: That is all. I believe you should be able to understand it.]
[Curse Witch: I will send you an account shortly. Please transfer the consultation fee in ti.]
After sending that, she went offline imdiately and did not respond further.
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