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

"Two days? How is that possible?!"

Zenji Naoya, who ran up to the roof, also heard the conversation below. His first instinct was that it was unlikely, because his physical sensation inside the house was at most half an hour.

"It's true."

"It really was two days."

Tianyan repeated, holding up two fingers: "It's been over forty-eight hours. When Kyoto College sent out its distress call, it said 'Missing personnel, fate unknown,' otherwise I wouldn't have come here."

Naoya opened his mouth, intending to refute, but swallowed his words back, because he felt that Tenyan would not lie to him about this matter.

If that's the case, then it's because this barrier and the cursed spirit have accelerated time. He had seen similar cases in the Kyoto library. Although such things are rare, they do exist. Obviously, he and the songstress had just experienced one.

Seeing that he was thinking about something, Tianyan didn't say anything more. He shifted his gaze from Zhizai to the huge cursed spirit that was crawling out of the ground not far away.

The thing was dark red all over, and its shape resembled a skinned fat monkey with thick limbs.

Tianyan reached into his pocket with his right hand and put the crystal core back into his storage ring.

He just used this crystal core to lure out the cursed spirit hidden deep within the domain. Clearly, the crystal core's attraction to the cursed spirit is more effective than any bait.

The cursed spirit has now appeared, and the crystal core's mission is complete.

Then he looked at the cursed spirit again, raised his right hand, palm facing up.

Pink flames surged from the palm of his hand, dancing in the sunlight, emanating a sweet, inexplicably heart-pounding aura.

Tianyan flicked his wrist and threw the ball of pink fire away.

The pink flames drew an arc in the air and landed precisely on the cursed spirit's chest.

"laugh!"

Like throwing a red-hot iron into water, white steam rose from the cursed spirit's chest, accompanied by a piercing hissing sound. The cursed spirit let out a not-so-miserable scream, its huge body shuddered violently, and the skin on its chest was slowly burned through, revealing the dark red muscle tissue underneath.

But the pink flames didn't stay in that spot; instead, as time passed, they slowly spread throughout the entire cursed spirit, continuing to burn gently.

Tianyan raised an eyebrow slightly.

The power was less than expected.

Pink Flame is inherited from Tamamo-no-Mae, and its characteristics are burning cursed power and arousing desire. When dealing with cursed spirits, the effect of burning cursed power is still there, but the characteristic of arousing desire is not affected by cursed spirits, which have no desire, or rather, their desires are too primitive to be affected at all.

Therefore, the effect of the pink fire on the cursed spirit is simply and continuously burning with cursed power. Since the cursed spirit's entire body is composed of cursed power, burning cursed power is equivalent to burning its flesh.

However, the burning speed is obviously a bit slow, the damage is not high, but the duration is strong.

"It's a bit of a waste of money," Tianyan commented in a low voice.

But the Zenji Naoya who is seen below does not think so.

What he saw was Tianyan descending from the sky, smashing a ball of fire—who knew what it was—on the curse spirit, and then standing there, as if waiting for something.

In his view, this was clearly...

"Stealing monsters?!"

Naoya's eyes widened, and his expression changed from 'displeasure' to 'anger'. He suddenly turned to look at Tenen, his voice filled with annoyance at having his territory invaded.

"Zen Temple Heavenly Flame! This is my mission! This cursed spirit is mine!"

Tenyan opened his mouth, wanting to say, "I was just testing the power of the pink fire," but before he could finish speaking, Naoya had already moved.

Projection spell activated!

The moment Naoya's figure disappeared from the spot, a spiderweb-like crack appeared on the ground. His speed was so fast that there was no time for an afterimage to form. Only a blurry, almost invisible shadow flashed across the rooftop.

Then, he appeared at the feet of the cursed spirit.

His toes touched the spirit's ankle, and his body shot up the spirit's calf like an arrow.

The speed increased, and each step added new kinetic energy, causing black blood flowers to bloom on the skin of the cursed spirit beneath his feet.

Naoya's figure left a vertical afterimage on the cursed spirit's body, moving so fast that it tore the air apart, emitting a sharp whistle.

When he reached the height of the cursed spirit's head, he clenched his fist.

He was wearing a pair of fist blades on his hands.

The pair of fist blades were extremely exaggerated in design, entirely silver-white, with fine runes engraved on the surface, gleaming with a cold luster in the sunlight.

Two sharp spikes extend from the front, each ten centimeters long, like two curved fangs!

The overall design...

Tianyan looked at the pair of brass knuckles and his lips twitched slightly.

This looks a bit like the blade of Iron Fist Breaking the Wind...?

Naoya clearly had no idea what Tenyan was thinking. His right fist had already been thrown out, and the two spikes on his knuckle duster left two silver-white arcs in the air. With the combined speed and kinetic energy of his entire body, it slammed hard into the top of the curse spirit's head.

"laugh!"

The sound wasn't loud; it was the dull thud of a sharp weapon piercing flesh. Then, two hideous wounds, stained with purplish-black blood, appeared on the cursed spirit's face.

Before the cursed spirit could react, Naoya's fists rained down on its head!

The cursed spirit's head exploded from the top, scattering black liquid and bits of flesh like a blooming, rotting flower.

Naoya's figure emerged from the center of the explosion, flipped twice in the air, and landed steadily on the roof.

He shook the black liquid off his hands, turned around to face Tianyan, and a smug smile curved his lips.

The spikes on the brass knuckles were still dripping black liquid, gleaming eerily in the sunlight.

"Did you see that, Zen-in Temple Ten'en?"

Naoya's voice carried an barely suppressed smugness: "Even if you have another pair of chicken wings now, it will still be very difficult for you to defeat me again."

"My strength has undergone a qualitative change compared to before!"

Tianyan looked at him without saying a word.

But his gaze did not fall on Naoya's face, but on Naoya's right hand.

The hand wearing the brass knuckles was now enveloped in a thin layer of pink flames.

It was that ball of pink fire he had just thrown out.

When Naoya killed the cursed spirit, he inevitably came into contact with that ball of flame.

The pink flames absorbed the power of his knuckle duster spell, then spread along the knuckle duster to the back of his hand, like a thin layer of burning syrup, clinging tightly to his skin.

Naoya obviously felt it too, because he felt something was wrong with his right hand.

It's not pain.

It's an indescribable, warm sensation that seeps deep into the skin from the surface.

He glanced down at his right hand.

Pink flames.

At some point, a thin layer of pink flame appeared on his right hand. The flame was small, only a thin layer, as if his hand had been coated with fluorescent paint, shimmering with an ambiguous glow in the sunlight.

Naoya frowned.

"What the hell is this thing?"