Chapter 44: Folk Forbidden Art—The Three Corpses Blocking Wealth (Part 6)

After all, this was the first time he had used the folk forbidden technique, the "Three-Corpse Wealth-Blocking Curse," to cause harm. Li Chengfeng was also eager to know if it could truly obstruct someone’s fortune and burden them with bad luck and misfortune.

Wang Bin was equally curious. He wondered if the effort Li Chengfeng had put into scouring the mountains and waters to find the carcasses of crows and bats to set up this curse would really make the Shenghai Jewelry Store pay the price as he had claimed.

Was this folk forbidden technique merely a superstition left behind by ancient ancestors, or could it genuinely influence a person’s financial fate? Now was the moment to witness the miracle.

To see whether the Three-Corpse Wealth-Blocking Curse was real, Li Chengfeng and Wang Bin spent the following days hovering near the Shenghai Jewelry Store, observing whether it was being affected.

The two sat in a fried chicken shop across the street, ordering two colas and two large combo meals consisting of fried chicken wings, drumsticks, and fries. Wang Bin took a sip of his cola, picked up a wing, and said while eating, "Chengfeng, I remember just a few days ago, this store was bustling with customers. How did it suddenly become so deserted today?"

"Could it be that the curse is actually working, blocking their financial luck?"

"Yes," Li Chengfeng replied, nodding as he gnawed on a drumstick. "It should be. The Three-Corpse Wealth-Blocking Curse is a forbidden art for a reason; it really can obstruct one's wealth."

Li Chengfeng did not know much about the technique beyond the layout method, and he hadn't been entirely sure it would work. Seeing the store’s business plummet, he finally realized the power of the curse. He was still unaware of the extent of the harm such forbidden arts could inflict, but given its classification, it clearly possessed a sinister side.

What happened next, however, was beyond his expectations. He never imagined that the violent, malevolent energy of the curse—laid on a "Triple-Break Day"—would be so potent.

As the two ate and drank, acting as if nothing were wrong, they continued to watch the store. Through the glass, they could see the saleswomen, each more beautiful than the last. The store, which had once thrived with a million-dollar daily turnover, was now completely abandoned. Han Lili’s highly anticipated Qixi Festival sale ended in failure, with total revenue for the past two weeks amounting to less than twenty thousand yuan.

Business aside, the idle staff felt exhausted and sore even when doing nothing all day, their mental states deteriorating rapidly. Strange things also began to occur. One employee, a woman who had recently married and was two months pregnant, was sitting at the counter playing with her phone because there were no customers to serve. This was the same saleswoman who had originally tried to sell incense burners, candle holders, and fruit plates to Li Chengfeng.

Because she was pregnant, she grew hungry quickly and began snacking on a treat her husband had bought for her—a chocolate-cream-filled cookie. It was sweet and delicious. Just as she was enjoying her snack, a crow’s caw suddenly pierced the air. Confused, she wondered how a crow had gotten inside. She looked toward the sound and saw a crow staring at her from the doorway.

Strangely, the bird had no feathers.

As she watched, the crow tilted its head, its small, pitch-black eyes locking onto hers. It let out a hollow, shrill cry, flapped its naked wings, and flew rapidly toward her. The saleswoman was stunned—how could a hairless crow even fly? Terrified, she screamed and instinctively scrambled backward, but the bird was too fast and landed on the counter. It stared directly at her belly, cawing incessantly.

Panicked, she backed away several steps, pointed at the counter, and shrieked, "Security! Come here! There’s a hairless crow!"

The four security guards on duty and other staff rushed over to ask what was wrong. "The crow! There, a hairless crow!" Everyone looked in the direction she pointed, but they saw nothing—certainly no bird.

"Xiaoqing, are you seeing things?" one colleague asked, confused. "There's no crow."

"It's right there! It's right there!" she insisted, her eyes fixed in terror on the counter, invisible to everyone else. At that moment, the crow’s black eyes fixed on her stomach; it shrieked and flapped its naked wings, diving straight toward her abdomen.

To her horror, the crow flew straight into her stomach. She shrieked, jumping and clawing at her belly, trying to find it, but the bird had vanished. The guards and her colleagues looked on, utterly bewildered.

Suddenly, bright red blood began to trickle down her leg. A colleague gasped, pointing down, "Xiaoqing, your leg..."

She looked down, saw the blood, and her face drained of color as she collapsed to the floor in a dead faint. The security guards immediately called for an ambulance. When the paramedics arrived and examined her, they said urgently, "The patient is miscarrying and hemorrhaging. Get her to the hospital immediately!"

Li Chengfeng and Wang Bin watched the ambulance arrive, confused. Wang Bin went to investigate and returned to say that a saleswoman had suffered a miscarriage and severe bleeding. Looking toward the store, he saw a security guard mopping up fresh blood at the entrance.

Li Chengfeng initially thought it was just an accident, not realizing it was caused by the curse. Later, they learned that while the woman had survived, the baby—a boy—was lost. Han Lili was furious; business was already bad, and now this had happened.

By late afternoon, the two prepared to return to the Suiyuan Hall. They had watched the store all day, and not a single customer had entered. Satisfied with the result, Wang Bin exclaimed as they left the shop, "This folk forbidden technique is truly incredible! Chengfeng, can you teach me? If someone offends me in the future, I’ll lay a curse at their door, block their fortune, and bring misfortune to their whole family."

"Absolutely not," Li Chengfeng retorted. "The very fact that you’d say that shows you have an evil heart. If I passed this down to you, the world would fall into chaos."

As they walked down the street laughing and waiting for a taxi, another saleswoman stepped out of the Shenghai Jewelry Store. She was beautiful, dressed in a petite suit and a short skirt. Just as she crossed the threshold, she heard a squeaking sound behind her. She turned around, and her eyes went wide with terror. A bat the size of a human palm was flapping its wings, flying rapidly straight toward her.