Ms. Gojo thought she was dating an ordinary person's boyfriend.

At the same time, on the other side.

Sitting in the back seat of the smoothly moving car, Gojo Satoru looked at the last perfunctory "Maybe" on his phone screen and raised an eyebrow slightly.

In the past, he might have genuinely thought that Sumi Kichikawa was just unlucky and had run into some ignorant human scum.

But after watching the surveillance footage, he began to think that what Sumi Kichikawa encountered might not necessarily be human.

Could the person he specifically went out to look for today be the curse master hiding in the shadows?

What did Xiao Cheng want to ask that curse master?

Wu Tiaowu's face showed deep thought.

He was about to send another message to ask more questions when he keenly sensed a nauseating fluctuation in the air. He suddenly looked up and stared ahead.

"Ichichi, stop the car."

Kiyotaka Ijichi, who was focused on driving, was startled by the sudden order and immediately slammed on the brakes.

The black sedan came to a steady stop beside the wide, deserted mountain road.

Gojo Satoru strode out of the car, pushed open the door, and got out. He slammed the door shut behind him and, without turning back, instructed Ijichi in the driver's seat, "You go first."

"But, Mr. Gojo..."

"Don't worry." Gojo Satoru raised a hand and waved it casually at him. "Leave this to me."

Kiyotaka Ichi looked ahead and saw that the road was empty, then obediently started the car again.

The engine sound gradually faded into the distance.

Soon, only Wu Tiaowu remained on the wide, winding mountain road.

Gojo Satoru stood quietly with his hands in his pockets, the smile on his face completely gone.

next second.

A dark shadow, radiating intense heat, suddenly attacked from behind without warning!

Gojo Satoru didn't even turn his head; he simply sidestepped easily.

boom--!

The asphalt road he had just been standing on was instantly melted and shattered by a terrifyingly high temperature!

Large chunks of rock flew everywhere, and charred cracks spread rapidly outwards along the ground like a thick spider web.

Amidst billowing smoke and the acrid smell of sulfur, a short, one-eyed cursed spirit with a head shaped like a miniature active volcano slowly emerged.

It grinned, revealing a cruel and ferocious smile, staring intently at the blindfolded man in front of it.

"You must be Gojo Satoru?"

Gojo Satoru looked at the small, volcano-headed cursed spirit in front of him, his face expressionless.

The wind on the winding mountain road swept past him, swirling up a few charred leaves. The cracks in the ground, created by his missed attack, continued to slowly spread, and pebbles rolled to the roadside, only to be quickly swallowed by the mountain wind.

Gojo Satoru stared at the cursed spirit with a volcano-like head on its head, his gaze lingering on it for a moment.

"Who are you?"

Louhu did not answer.

It just stared intently at the white-haired man in front of it.

In that single, enormous eye, malice and murderous intent surged almost undisguisedly. A moment later, it grinned, its smile growing increasingly ferocious.

The next second, Louhu suddenly raised his hand and waved it.

The ground behind Gojo Satoru suddenly rose up.

The hard asphalt road surface seemed to have been forcibly ripped open from the inside by something scorching hot, with blinding flames gushing out from the cracks. In the blink of an eye, a huge volcano rose up from the ground behind him, with molten lava churning violently inside.

boom--!

Instantly hot magma and flames erupted.

The blinding crimson flames illuminated the entire winding mountain road as bright as day, and the roaring heatwave, carrying a temperature high enough to melt everything, relentlessly swept towards Gojo Satoru.

His figure was almost instantly engulfed by lava and flames.

The explosion was deafening.

A scorching pillar of fire shot into the sky, sweeping out in the same direction. The guardrails along the mountain road were instantly twisted and melted by the high temperature, and a large area of ​​forest in the distance was also pierced and engulfed by the flames.

The trees turned into charred remains the moment they came into contact with the lava, and were then completely crushed by the shockwave of the explosion. Thick smoke billowed into the sky, and the stench of burning and sulfur quickly filled the mountains.

In just a few seconds, the once quiet mountain road was completely destroyed.

Louhu stood there, looking up at the still surging flames, a cruel smug smile on his face.

the other side.

Sumire Kichikawa was grabbing Rin Furukawa by the back of the neck, rushing towards the nearest aura of a cursed spirit.

Rin Furukawa was practically being carried away by him.

To be precise, it can't be considered leaving.

The surrounding scenery rushed past him, and the wind whipped his face until it almost went numb. Sumi Kichikawa's speed was inhuman; Rin Furukawa even felt that if he opened his mouth even slightly, his tongue would be blown into a knot by the wind rushing in.

The worst part is that the position of having the back of the neck grabbed is really not comfortable.

He was being held up in an awkward position, his neck aching and numb, and he had to carefully control his breathing. Even though he was in so much pain that his vision was blurring, Furukawa Rin didn't dare to complain at all.

After all, he now fully realized that although his new boss usually seemed calm, he was a terrifying being who could actually crush a top-tier cursed spirit to the ground and reduce it to ashes when he got serious.

He still wanted to live.

Sumi Kichikawa didn't notice Rin Furukawa's expression, which was as if her soul was about to leave her body.

As he hurried along, he casually asked, "So, you mean there aren't many sorcerers?"

Rin Furukawa's voice was slightly shaky from the wind, but she still managed to answer, "Y-yes."

He swallowed hard, struggling to make his voice as clear as possible.

"There are already few sorcerers, and the mortality rate is very high. Many people, even if they are talented, may not live long enough to be discovered by the sorcery world."

Kikawa Sumi tilted her head slightly: "Why?"

Rin Furukawa hesitated for a moment before saying, "Some non-aristocratic sorcerers actually have a hard time surviving as children."

"A sorcerer from a non-aristocratic family?"

"It's the kind where neither their parents nor family members are sorcerers," Rin Furukawa explained. "Their parents may not be able to see cursed spirits, but they themselves have been able to since childhood."

"Even though we live in the same place, we see two completely different worlds. A child may always say that he has seen things that others cannot, but his parents may not believe him."

As Furukawa Rin spoke, his tone became more serious.

"Being simply labeled as a liar or having psychological problems is already considered a relatively good outcome. In more serious cases, one might be treated as an oddball by those around them."

Kikawa Sumi didn't say anything, but she understood what he meant.

He thought of Natsume.

Natsume, because he could see spirits, suffered a lot of rejection and bullying. Even though he spoke the truth, no one believed him. His words of fear, panic, and even pleas for help were simply heard as lies by those who couldn't see spirits.

Even so, monsters and cursed spirits are not the same.

Not all monsters harbor ill will towards humans. They have their own joys and sorrows; some will harm people, some will not, and some will even actively help humans.

But the cursed spirits are different.

At least all the cursed spirits that Sumi Kichikawa has encountered so far have, without exception, harbored deep malice towards humans.

He almost dared not think about it. How desperate would it be if a young child could see cursed spirits but had no ability to protect himself or even ask for help without being believed?

Just imagining it made Sumi Kichikawa's eyes turn colder.