While I was chanting a curse, the system said I was Xiao Yan?

When Kusakabe descended the mountain, his steps were much lighter than when he went up.

He walked on the gravel road, his hands in his trench coat pockets, humming an unknown tune, and looked to be in a great mood.

Tianyan stood there, watching his figure disappear around the corner of the woods, then looked away, reached into his pocket, and took out the piece of cloth.

You killed the reclusive Hai Bodong and discovered a mysterious fragment.

The system notification echoed in his mind. He looked down at the piece of cloth in his palm, about the size of a palm, with jagged edges and a dark color, making it impossible to tell what the original material was. But on the surface of the cloth was a pattern, like an eerie lotus flower.

Tianyan stared at the pattern for a while and then made a guess.

His lips slowly curved into a smile. If he wasn't mistaken, this was a fragment of the map of the Pure Lotus Demon Flame.

In the original work, the Pure Lotus Demon Flame is the third-ranked strange flame, possessing the characteristic of purifying all things. It is one of the most mysterious and powerful flames on the Dou Qi Continent, and its map is divided into several parts, scattered in various corners of the Dou Qi Continent.

Tianyan held the cloth up to his eyes, and through the sunlight filtering through the leaves, he watched the lotus flower's patterns shimmer slightly in the light.

"interesting."

My own map is clearly incomplete, and I don't know when I'll be able to collect the complete set.

A month later.

The sports field of the vocational college.

The sunlight slammed down from above, baking the entire playground like a hot iron plate. The air was thick with heat, and the distant school buildings distorted slightly under the rising steam, like a watercolor painting soaked in water.

There is no wind.

The leaves and blades of grass remained motionless. Even the wild cats that usually roamed freely hid in the only shady spot in the corner, curling up in a ball and dozing off with their eyes half-closed.

Tianyan stood on the far right of the playground, his right hand holding a bone blade about half a meter long, the edge as thin as a cicada's wing, gleaming with a dazzling cold light in the sunlight.

Around him, there was a nearly transparent circular area less than two meters in diameter, enveloping his entire body, with a faint, almost invisible glow flowing around the edge of the area.

Kusakabe stood opposite, arms crossed, his eyes bright, staring intently at the "circle" in front of Tenen.

He watched for a while.

He drew the unsharpened wooden sword from his waist and casually swung it towards Tianyan. The speed of the slash was not fast, and the angle was not tricky. It could even be described as a careless slash.

The moment the blade touched the circle, Tianyan, who had been keeping his eyes closed and motionless, drew his sword and precisely struck the wooden sword, cleaving it away from that area.

Kusakabe sheathed his wooden sword, twirled it in his hand, and then tucked it back into his waistband.

"Alright, open your eyes."

Tianyan opened his eyes, looked down at the fading light around him, then looked up at Kusakabe: "Did you pass?"

"It's still a long way off."

Kusakabe corrected, "This is just the beginning. Knowing how to open a simple domain and knowing how to use it are two different things. Right now, you can only maintain it. You're still far from being able to use it in battle."

Tianyan's lips curved slightly, but he did not refute her.

A sparse clapping sounded from the side of the playground. Haibara Yu was the first to clap, his face adorned with that signature, energetic smile, his eyes shining like two stars.

"Senior Tianyan! You're amazing! You've mastered the basics in just a few days!" His voice was so loud that it could be heard throughout the entire playground.

Nanami Kento stood beside him, his hands in his pockets. He didn't clap, but his gaze towards Tianyan held an obvious respect, and the corners of his mouth curved slightly, a silent congratulation.

"Tsk."

Wujiao Wu leaned against the fence by the playground, hands in his pockets, sunglasses perched on his nose, a lollipop dangling from his lips. He looked at the faint light around Tianyan that had already dissipated and clicked his tongue in a cryptic way.

"This thing is boring."

He took the lollipop out of his mouth and pointed it in the air: "Instead of spending time learning a simplified version, you should spend that time developing your own field. A real field, that's what 'rules' are, not this simplified one..."

He paused, then smiled slightly: "To put it bluntly, it's nothing more than 'imitation'."

Kusakabe glanced at him, his lips twitching slightly. He wanted to retort, but swallowed the words back. It wasn't that he didn't want to, but that he couldn't. Gojo Satoru was telling the truth; no matter how strong the Simplified Domain was, it was still just an imitation and simplification of the "Domain."

It can negate the "guaranteed hit" effect of a domain and can resist the suppression of a domain to a certain extent, but it is ultimately not a real domain. In the face of a real domain, it is just "armor" rather than "weapon".

"Enlightenment".

"Hmm?" Gojo Satoru turned his head and looked at Natsumi Yuuki, who had spoken up beside him.

"Just because you haven't learned it yet doesn't mean it's useless. In any case, Tianyan-jun is ahead of us in terms of this field."

Gojo Satoru raised an eyebrow and let out a soft snort: "Who says I can't learn it? I just don't want to. Spending so much effort learning a watered-down version of a field is not as good as developing my own."

Shoko Ieiri sat on a bench by the playground, holding a cup of cola in her hand and an unlit cigarette in her mouth, tilting her head to look at the stubborn Satoru Gojo.

"Have you developed it yet?"

Gojo Satoru's smile froze.

The playground was instantly filled with a joyful atmosphere.

At the edge of the playground, an assistant supervisor in a college uniform walked quickly over, holding a folder in his hand. His forehead was covered in sweat, and his steps were hurried, as if he had something very important to do.

He walked up to Xia Youjie, stopped, and bowed slightly: "Xia Youjie, I have a mission."

Xia Youjie was watching Tianyan demonstrate a simplified domain when he heard the sound and turned his head to glance at the assistant supervisor.

"Now?"

"Yes." The assistant supervisor nodded and handed over the folder. "The mission location is in Saitama. It's a level 2 cursed spirit. The difficulty isn't high, but it needs to be dealt with as soon as possible."

Xia Youjie took the folder, glanced at it, and nodded: "Okay, I'll go right now."

Standing next to him, Gojo Satoru frowned slightly.

"Executed alone again?"

Gojo Satoru raised his voice a notch: "Why does Jet have so many missions? We've all been so bored lately, but he keeps running around doing one after another."

He glanced at Xia Youjie, a hint of suspicion flashing in his deep blue eyes behind his sunglasses: "Could it be that those old fogies at the top don't dare to retaliate against me and Tianyan, so they're turning on you instead?"

When Gojo Satoru said this, his tone was relaxed, even somewhat joking.

Xia Youjie's lips curved slightly: "That's not true."

He said he took the folder from the assistant supervisor, glanced at it, and said, "These tasks were ones I applied for myself."

Gojo Satoru raised an eyebrow: "You applied yourself?"

"Um."

Xia Youjie closed the folder: "I want to accumulate more practical experience."

He said this with a very serious expression, so serious that Gojo Satoru couldn't find any flaws in his statement.

Gojo Satoru stared at him in silence for a moment, then clicked his tongue, looked away, and put his hands back in his pockets.

"Alright, you know what you're doing."

His tone returned to its usual nonchalant manner: "But if those old fogies really cause you trouble, just tell me, and I'll kick their door down again."

Xia Youjie smiled, knowing that Wutiao Wu was serious: "Okay."