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

A figure appeared at the edge of the horizon.

Or, there is something that resembles a human.

Wearing a floral kimono, with a white face featuring four eyes and an upturned mouth, she looked like she was wearing an ugly mask.

A top-tier cursed spirit, incarnated as Tamamo-no-Mae.

Tianyan looked at the face with a regretful expression and said, "What happened? The legendary beauty who could bring ruin to a country, looks like this after becoming a cursed spirit?"

"Sigh, you can't really blame yourself. After all, those who have negative feelings towards you are usually just a bunch of idiots. It's not your fault that you've been corrupted like this; the real fault lies with those people!"

Despite his sighs, his body was already prepared for battle, after all, a top-tier cursed spirit was a formidable enemy for a level-one sorcerer.

Especially since this is a cursed spirit based on the legendary nine-tailed fox, one of the three great yokai of Japan, it should not be underestimated.

His entire body was covered in black iron-colored bone armor, and purple cloud wings appeared on his back.

That wasn't all. Tianyan then began to talk about his technique: "My technique uses incantation to generate and manipulate bones."

This practice is called spell disclosure, which involves making a vow to disclose one's abilities in exchange for a certain degree of spell power amplification.

It's about giving up some things in exchange for others, similar to taking out a loan.

This is a fairly common practice in the world of sorcery, usually used in battles between sorcerers. Tianyan's current approach is clearly taking advantage of the fact that the opposing sorcerer doesn't know how to borrow money.

The overall power of the spell increased, and the bone armor that was originally at the neck continued to climb upwards, eventually covering the entire head. The bones that formed on the face slowly deformed, eventually turning into a black iron-colored Yaksha mask with two sharp horns pointing to the sky.

Judging from their current appearances, it's hard to say whether he or a top-tier cursed spirit is less human!

Zi Yunyi trembled slightly, and his body rushed forward quickly.

"roar!"

Sensing hostility, Tamamo-no-Mae let out a piercing shriek. She stood still, and nine tails appeared behind her.

With all nine tails moving, dozens of pink flames appeared out of thin air in the sky.

Five fireballs blasted at the same time.

Tianyan shifted left and right, using his bone armor to protect his waist and take the hit head-on. The force of the explosion threw him half a meter to the side, and he tumbled halfway in the air before continuing to charge forward.

The pink fireball is not just hot.

Where it brushed against, the surface of the bone armor would seep out a strange sensation—not pain, but a hot, irritating feeling. The cursed power would begin to burn rapidly at the point of contact, and vital energy would flow outwards.

This is an enhanced version of the "burning spell power, absorbing vital energy" effect!

This speed is much faster than being absorbed by the domain. If it is not dealt with, one's own curse power will soon be drained, leaving one at the mercy of this curse spirit.

We need to get closer quickly!

As Tianyan moved at high speed, he went through the matter in his mind.

The trouble lies in getting close to the issue itself.

The fireballs suspended in the dome automatically formed an array, becoming denser the further he went, as if someone had woven a trap net between him and Tamamo-no-Mae that only he could trigger. With each step forward, new fireballs would come in from the sides and above, blocking his path.

He tried to charge forward, and three fireballs exploded simultaneously in front of him. The burning sensation of the cursed power seeped in through the gaps in his bone armor, and a significant portion of his vital energy was drained away in those three seconds.

The fireball struck again.

He leaped backward, standing at a safe distance, stretched his arms, and looked at the few pieces of bone armor that had been charred black.

Tamamo-no-Mae stood there, her nine tails spread out, her four eyes slightly narrowed, and the corners of her mouth turned up even more.

The nine tails swirled again, and the density of the fireballs on the dome increased by another layer. The overwhelming pink light pressed down on the entire space, leaving only a narrow crevice, like a palm closing and slowly wrapping its prey in its grasp.

Tianyan stood in the crevice, glanced at the density of fireballs around him, and then at the amount of curse power consumed on his bone armor.

He did some mental calculations.

With the current spell power, minus the consumption of maintaining the bone armor, minus the amount lost due to the burning of essence during this period, and minus the cost required for a forced breakthrough... what's left isn't enough to withstand two more rounds.

This is a very simple math problem that can be solved easily.

Tianyan rushed out as well.

This time there was no dodging, no borrowing of force, and absolutely no room for maneuver.

It crashed straight into the fireball formation, without any curve.

The first fireball struck his chest, exploding and shattering the bone armor's breastplate. The burning sensation seeped in through the crack, but he didn't stop.

The second, the third, countless fireballs adhered to the bone armor, flames burning, and the curse power was devoured at an extremely fast speed at the point of contact, while the essence evaporated and scattered into the pink light.

Then......

boom!

Bone fragments scattered in the flames, carrying black iron-colored shards that flew through the air. The Yaksha mask rolled twice on the ground before coming to a stop.

Tamamo-no-Mae's four eyes narrowed slightly.

that's it?

It glanced at the still-burning fragments of bone, then at the direction where Tianyan had just stood.

There was no blood, and no flesh.

Nothing should have been left behind when a living being was hit by the explosion.

Only a skeleton, an empty skeleton.

"Here!"

The sound came from its left side, very close, almost touching its earlobe.

Tamamo-no-Mae suddenly turned to the left, but it was too late.

Tianyan's right elbow had reached its waist.

"Eight Extremes Collapse!"

The moment the elbow strike landed, three layers of hidden force shot into the cursed spirit's body through the point of contact.

Tamamo-no-Mae's body was pushed half a step to the right by this elbow, and her nine tails instinctively tucked inward, trying to stabilize the structure of the cursed power.

Tianyan's next punch was already aimed at its chest!

At the moment of impact, a black object appeared on the contact surface.

It wasn't the black iron color of bone armor, but a deeper, darker black, as if a hole had been burned through space itself. Lightning exploded on the finger bones, instantly raising the concentration of cursed power on the fist to several times the normal level.

Black Flash!

"Bang!"

The explosion was unusually muffled, like two anvils being slammed into each other from high above. The entire space felt as if it had been gripped for a moment and then suddenly released, with shockwaves radiating outwards from the point of contact, instantly extinguishing the nearest floating fireballs.

For the first time, a crack appeared on the upturned corner of that white face—a literal crack, black, extending upwards from the corner of the mouth.

In an instant, a hideous crack appeared on his entire face, from which a purplish-black liquid gushed out.

There was a fist-sized dent on the chest of the kimono, with jagged cracks along the edges of the dent—not cracks in the kimono, but cracks in its skin.

Dark purple blood seeped from the cracks, standing out starkly against the kimono.