CURSED AND LOVE

THE WOUNDED FACE

When she recalled that she had the sack-bag, she immediately took it out from inside her clothes and injected her mystical powers into it before opening it.

"Woohoo! That's quite a load in there!"

The sack-bag's capacity wasn't that voluminous, but they had stored quite a load of things in it. She gave the things a quick glance and subsequently removed the herbs and the gold from her makeshift bundle to stuff them into the sack-bag before tying the sack securely to her hip.

She saw that she had some of the roast meat leftover, and she proceeded to stuff it in as well before going further into the woods to look for a water source to clean the wound on her face. The mud on her face was not just something she had carelessly smeared on, but she had carefully mixed ground's core water and ground's core earth together as a mud pack to apply it to the wound. One of its advantages was that the cooling ground's core water would reduce any inflammation, and secondly, the mud would cover up the wound on her face so as not to let her be so easily recognizable. The mud had been on her face for days, and she needed to wash it off, so the most important thing to do at that moment was to locate a water source. The most direct way to determine the location of a source of water was to study the density of the trees and vegetation in the woods.

She did not immediately proceed straight into the inner reaches but followed a path based on the density of leaves in the trees and the thickness of the vegetation on the ground. It was around two hours later before she found flowing water, a stream. It was located on the lower parts of a sloping hill, and the leaves on the trees on both sides of the bank were seen to be denser.

"Goddess is good to me! I was sure that I could find water in these woods."

She sighs and let out a big breath of relief, and her steps were light as she came to the side of the stream. She squatted down and scooped up a handful of water by cupping her hands together to drink before opening up the sack-bag to take out a bamboo tube. She filled up the bamboo tube and kept it for future use.

She then removed her shoes to soak her feet, and she soon felt her weariness flow out of her with the running water down the stream. Resting a little while after soaking her feet and hearing the tinkle of the water running over little rocks, she then started to carefully wash off the mud from her face, slowly cleaning out the wound bit by bit to free it from any residue of the mud. Until the water reflected the image of a beautiful girl, but it has a rough and scratchy skin.

"You look like a princess Jocefie." Felisa commented as she was staring at her face on the surface of the flowing water.

"Yeah I know, my mother always told me that I was prettier than those high class daughters in the city."

"Ha.ha.ha you really believe her." Felisa replied

"Of course, she's my mother. Now you laugh at me?"

"I wish I had met you before." Felisa added.

Staring at that face in the water, Jocefie's eyes filled up with a chill. Her body was healthy as it was before. Nothing changes but she grew up without someone on her side. It might be Felisa Adonis will be her family now even though she is a wild spirit living in her body.

"Felisa, if you regain your strength, will you still seek vengeance for what Rowena Sagi did to you?"

Felisa's voice was clearly agitated when she said, "Yes, she must pay for what she did." As if the blood thirstiness lying dormant in her heart began to stir.

"Rowena... Rowena Sagi, you better keep yourself alive and well...." Jocefie mumbled to herself in a low voice. The smile that blossomed, lifting up the corners of her lips, was tinged with a spine-tingling chill.

"Jocefie, may I ask you something?"

"Sure, about what?" Jocefie replied without hesitance.

"Are you trying to cultivate a mystical power?"

"Why you suddenly asked me, you know I am just a mortal." Jocefie said

"Well, I am a wild spirit, but it was supposed to be some immortal kind of person, that I can easily possessed not like you, are you hiding something from me?"

"No, but.. you use your mystical power frequently, I thought it could be a good idea for me to try to study it as well, even though I'm only human and lack the ability to do so. But don't worry; it was only a test, and nothing bad happened. ha. ha. ha. I still dozed off. ha.ha.ha"

Jocefie answered, and even though Felisa was not convinced, her trust in Jocefie still prevailed. For her, Jocefie has no reason to lie. Another is that if she did something, she would definitely feel it.

Taking out the herbs that Jocefie had picked along the way from the sack-bag, she mixed them together with a couple of stems of magical herbs by mashing them before applying the juice. She prepared it while there was still time, so that when the time came for her to find Felisa's body, everything was ready.

The thick scabs that had formed on the wounds inflicted upon her face had come off together with the mud she had washed out earlier, but the ghastly streaks left behind from the wounds would not disappear. She put a little mixture of juice she made to heal it.

Every single scar left behind, wounds were shown up by their dark pinkish streaks on her face after the scabs came off. After applying the juice from the herbal mix, she waited for it to dry up a little before bending over the water to look. The crystal-clear water showed her a face that had identifiable features, and as the reflection showed up a little blur, she found it to look a little strange.

She continued to stare, and her brow suddenly lifted. The crystal-clear running water was suddenly clouded with a bloody shade of red.