Curse Return: Swordsmith Start

"This opportunity will be brought about by a future sorcerer or spirit curse, a technique capable of directly modifying the soul. If such a figure appears on the sorcerer's side, I can understand it based on my innate technique. However, if such a figure appears on the spirit curse's side, then we will need to rely on your 'Spirit Curse Manipulation Technique.' And I feel that if such a technique is to appear, then the probability of it appearing as a spirit curse is much higher."

Actually, it didn't have to be this complicated. He knew that the guy called Zhenren possessed "Wuwei Transformation". With the copy card he had obtained before, he should be able to copy Zhenren's spells, or he could copy Xia Youjie's spells now, although there would be more limitations.

But if you're going to recruit people, you have to make them feel that you're useful, right?

"As for the reason, you should know about some kind of fate-like rule in this world. There should be a balance of power between cursed spirits and sorcerers, but the 'strongest' beside us has broken this balance. That's why cursed spirits have become rampant in recent years. This is because cursed spirits need to create even stronger beings to restrain the strongest one in front of us. So the appearance of a technique like 'soul manipulation' should also be on the side of cursed spirits..."

Yue Ren stopped midway through his sentence because he realized that the two people in front of him were looking blank, as if they had never heard of what he was saying before.

"......"

"You...don't you know this rule?"

Both of them shook their heads at the same time. Gojo Satoru was also completely bewildered. Did he really have such a role? Was it because he became the "strongest" and broke the balance that the power of the cursed spirits has increased in recent years?

Reflecting on my history before my birth and the overall strength of the cursed spirits now, it seems there's actually a correlation...

What's going on? Is it because of me that the mages are having such a difficult time in battle? And the casualty rate is skyrocketing?

In an instant, Gojo Satoru felt as if he had been hit by a nuclear bomb on the soul level, and he even lost his balance.

Yue Ren slapped his forehead, realizing it was something from the setting book, and it seemed that no one in the story except Tianyuan knew about it... He'd let the lie slip...

Forget it, neither of these two people asked. If they had, I would have just continued to use my own techniques to fob them off, since that would have been plausible.

As for Xia Youjie, who was standing to the side, he felt that his worldview was being refreshed time and time again. Why was it that a sentence spoken casually by the boy in front of him was the truth of a world that he did not understand at all? Were his previous thoughts so short-sighted?

"Your spell? Isn't it a construction spell?"

Xia Youjie recalled the first time he met Yue Ren, when the latter conjured up a sword blank out of thin air. He had always thought that was his technique.

"Tracing the source" allows one to understand the "essence" of the target through the release of magical power, and to control it to a certain extent.

"And with the help of Teacher Gojo, I mastered the 'Reversal Technique' in just a few seconds using this technique."

It wasn't to boast, but to explain to him the specific strength of my technique.

"However, simply understanding it doesn't mean you can directly use someone else's spell. There is a solution, though: forge this 'spell' into a weapon, the kind of weapon with the amplification spell that you see Yigu and the others wielding."

"I can attest to that, since I saw it with my own eyes. This is the fundamental reason why he was able to create such special magical artifacts. In a sense, it's an absurdly powerful technique."

"..."

As a close friend, Xia Youjie knew Gojo Satoru perfectly, so he knew the other party wasn't lying. The information he had gathered so far also matched what the boy had said; that Doji Anche Steel had almost crippled Yuuki...

Xia Youjie hesitated, his proud ideals now teetering on the brink of collapse.

The Yue people knew it was time to add fuel to the fire.

"You actually know this, but you're unwilling to admit it. The essence of everything you hate about non-magicians isn't caused by the difference between mages and non-magicians, but by an inseparable part of humanity—the so-called ugliness of human nature."

The man from Yue plopped down opposite him and continued to share his understanding as a friend.

"Among non-magicians, there are those who are driven by greed, and among magicians, there are those who covet power and wealth and disregard human life. They are no different in essence. The ugliness of human nature is what you truly despise. If there were more truth, goodness and beauty in the world, then the darkness you experienced might not have happened. And my method is to make the overall quality of humanity leap forward."

"The widespread use of 'spiritual power,' this inexhaustible energy, can enable a leap forward in the material realm of human living environments, while the generation of 'spiritual power' requires the use of positive emotions, allowing humanity to evolve while pursuing the beautiful qualities of truth, goodness, and beauty."

"Evil still exists; it's part of humanity, something we can't escape. But it's mostly bound by positive reason and shackled by morality. If the distance between human consciousness shortened, and people were no longer indifferent, alienated, or cursing each other, but rather warm, understanding, and blessed, wouldn't you want to see such a future?"

The Yue man opened his arms wide, and his infectious words stunned his two former close friends who were "stubborn to their own opinions."

"So, shall we come? To be the redeemers of the old world, and at the same time, the pioneers of the new century!"

As he spoke, the boy reached out his hand to the man who was slumped on the ground in front of him.

Sunlight rose from behind him, illuminating the boy's body and making him appear like a god.

Just as Xia Youjie was about to fall into the abyss, he suddenly felt a ray of light shining in.

As if possessed, he slowly extended his hand.

The day after the "Night Parade of One Hundred Demons," the disaster warnings for Kyoto and Shinjuku disappeared, and people returned to their homes. They then discovered that what the government had said might be true, as their houses did indeed show signs of being damaged by a disaster. However, the situation in Shinjuku was much better than in Kyoto.

As winter deepened, people who were thinking about resting and participating in rituals quickly forgot about this unpleasant incident and devoted themselves to celebrating the festival.

Meanwhile, in another world they knew almost nothing about, the final report to the higher-ups in sorcery had been freshly released.

The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons came to a perfect end. Xia Youjie died, and the special-grade curse-breaking spirit Qi Benlixiang successfully broke the curse. There were zero casualties among the curse masters. However, Xia Youjie's accomplices, who were supposed to be escorted to their execution by high-level personnel, were rescued by members of other forces on the way.

No one knows who the murderer is, whether he is a sorcerer or a curse master, or even the people escorting him are unconscious. When they wake up, their accounts are all the same: they felt a headache and then they knew nothing.

Even after investigating to the very end, they used the most hated modern technology, but all they got were a few blurry photos with ghostly figures and no obvious features.

If it weren't for the considerable effort put into suppressing the news, the higher-ups in the sorcery world would have been utterly humiliated.

However, for Yue Ren and his group, this mistake became a favorable card for Gojo Satoru to launch a phased counterattack. It is foreseeable that in the coming period of time, he will be able to gain enough advantages in his confrontation with them by using the slogan of "incompetence".

The real Xia Youjie, after receiving treatment, was completely taken underground by Yue Ren and Wu Tiao Wu. As a sign of sincerity, his followers disappeared with him with the help of Yue Ren.

For Yue Ren now, eliminating a team with only a few level-one sorcerers without leaving a trace would be a piece of cake. He even took many precautions to avoid detection beforehand. However, in the end, he was overthinking it. The incompetence of the higher-ups in the sorcery made him feel like he was outsmarting thin air. His actions of erasing fingerprints and eliminating his aura were just for fools.

This completely shattered the Yue people's perception of the stupidity of power institutions.

But it's alright, anyway, the goal has been achieved.

The task Yue Ren assigned to Xia Youjie was the same as what he had done before: to collect cursed spirits and monitor the cursed spirits that might possess "soul interference" techniques. He was still a curse master, which made it easier to establish contact with those top-tier cursed spirits.

In addition, just in case, he made more plans, such as making him a special "cursed tool" and a card that Xia Youjie was a little confused about, representing the card to be crushed and used when encountering a life-threatening crisis.

The reason he made so many arrangements was not because he had any special feelings for this guy, but because he felt that Lu Suo would probably come looking for trouble for him next.

After all, for this guy, who's like a thousand-year-old tortoise, to realize his wish, he needs to gather several elements, such as the prison gate that seals Gojo Satoru, the "Spirit Manipulation Technique" that can control cursed spirits, and the crucial "True Man" who can use the "Transformation of Inaction".

Regardless of anything else, "Spirit Manipulation Technique" is the technique that Xia Youjie possesses. It is precisely because of this that Lu Suo took over Xia Youjie's body through the brain-swapping technique in the original story to carry out his plan. Therefore, in order to complete his plan, he will most likely seek out Xia Youjie. So, the help I gave him is just a precaution.

The card given to him was a reward he had just won on the battlefield in Shinjuku; he could only hope that one day he would need it.

Besides, the Yue people also gained a lot from this incident.

First and foremost, I gained Xia Youjie as a henchman (partner), which helped me avoid a situation where close friends turned against each other. Besides, this guy is also a decent fighter, especially in team battles.

There were also the rewards from fighting monsters, such as attribute points and skill points, which accumulated quite a bit. There were also several cards, one of which was the "Summoning Card" (Gold) that Yue Ren gave to Xia Youjie.

The effect is that after crushing the card, the main body infused with the power will be instantly summoned to the location where the card was crushed. The gold-level summoning can directly cross space, so even if the enemy has set up any traps in advance, there is no need to worry. After Yue Ren infuses his power into the card, he will hand it over to Xia Youjie. If the other party is in any life-or-death crisis, he can instantly arrive to help after crushing the card. As long as he is not instantly killed, there is a chance.

No matter what, Xia Youjie is a top-tier mage, and even if he faced the final boss Su Nuo, he couldn't possibly be instantly killed.

So this level of insurance is quite sufficient.

Turning back to the Yue people's own combat strength, the first use of the Inherent Barrier did indeed give him many surprises.

First, there's the capture range. When fully expanded, it can even encompass an entire city with the perception range. This was an unexpected delight that Yue Ren discovered after using it, a major advantage that distinguishes it from ordinary and open fields.

In addition, the nature of the two is different from that of the domain of this world. The essence of the domain of this world is to create a barrier of one's own. An ordinary domain is a completely closed space of magical power, while an open domain attaches the effects of the spell to reality, forming an effect similar to painting in the air.

The Yue people's inherent barrier is to open up new spaces, like temporarily replacing all selected things in another world, which makes it extremely feasible.

Based on this conjecture, the Yue people should be able to gain a significant advantage in the collision of domains.

For example, if you pull someone into your own domain after they release it, then their domain should be rendered useless.

After all, whether you're drawing on paper or in the air, if the Yue people directly pull you from your world to another world and teleport you there, and there's no "shell" of a domain in the original world, then your domain is essentially wasted. The domain might even collapse due to the loss of the user, causing the spell to melt down.

In other words, the Vietnamese are almost invincible when they have the second move in a battle, which is incredibly cunning.

In addition to the effects of the domain, there are also the effects of the thousands of swords fired simultaneously and the flames shown earlier. Besides being able to control all weapons and flames at will, he can also use a special ability, which is to temporarily upgrade the sword blank he holds in his hand into a finished product through the "principle of forging".

What does that mean? It means that based on the knowledge and understanding in his mind, he can directly construct finished swords using energy. For example, right now, while he's in his domain, he can pick up a sword at random and, according to his understanding, he can infuse it with magical power to change its form, such as turning it into a curry stick or a Zanpakuto...

Of course, such incredible abilities also have limitations. The more one understands the weapon and the clearer one is about its essence, the more realistic the weapon will be and the more accurate its power will be. Conversely, the less one understands the weapon, the more realistic the weapon will be and the more accurate its power will be. In addition, it consumes a lot of energy, namely, magical power or spiritual power.

So, if he wants to forge a real Zanpakuto or a curry stick, he needs to get his hands on a finished product to analyze it, but at the moment, the chances of that are slim.

If one forges something similar based on their own understanding as a blacksmith, it should be a counterfeit of the same skill level, and it would be expected to have some imperfections.

The Yue people were not greedy enough to create finished products so easily and instantly, because such "power" exceeded their limits.

Just as you can't make an aircraft carrier out of a clay kiln, this involves issues like "specifications" and "size".

In addition to this, his inherent barrier has one last effect, which is the greatest legacy left by the village elder: the Thousand Sons Blade that severs cause and effect.