Hellish Ascension: Court of Curses

Qiren Lin was once an ordinary man, down on his luck. His medical clinic stood on the brink of closure. He was financially ruined after his wife vanished with half his possessions. Within the same month, his house burned to the ground—and his car was stolen. It was almost absurd. How could one man be this unlucky? Why was misfortune focused so precisely on him? With no road left to walk, he wandered the streets, lost in thought. Then he saw it—a boy crossing the path of a black cat. In that single logical second—no, in that half-millisecond—something shattered. Curses etched into the road revealed themselves. The cat’s shadow stretched, twisting into the silhouette of a tiger that tore the boy from his feet. A homeless man sat beneath a flickering lamppost, unaware of vile spirits gnawing at his shoes, unraveling his socks, stealing the buttons from his coat. In that moment, Qiren perceived a universal truth—one that transcended heaven, earth, and every realm in between. He had been cursed.