Curse Return: Swordsmith Start

Lalu suddenly realized that there was such a hidden story. He wondered why Jet hadn't been injured at all when he came to save them. After all, he had said before that he couldn't deal with his former best friend, Gojo Satoru. At that time, they were even prepared to be wiped out.

As a result, their leader performed a miraculous rescue, saving them from the road, which made the two girls extremely happy.

"I can't reveal the details, but there's a 'rule' that can help clear things up for you."

"In this world, there is an overall 'dynamic balance' between curses and sorcerers, with their overall strength being roughly equal. However, the appearance of my friend Gojo Satoru broke this theorem. His power made the sorcerers overwhelmingly powerful. Therefore, in order to maintain 'balance,' the world needs to strengthen the curse side. This is why there are unprecedentedly many and powerful curse spirits in this era."

"It's foreseeable that more 'Special Grade' cursed spirits will appear in the future. To be honest, I'm quite looking forward to that."

Laru was stunned. This was the first time he had ever heard such an outrageous statement. But was it really possible?

Seeing his expression, Xia Youjie smiled slightly.

"It's terrifying, isn't it? I had the same expression as you when I first heard it, but after confirming it over the past few days, I've found that it really seems to be true..."

"In that case, our previous ideas have no basis for being implemented, because if this is the 'inherent program' of the world, then we will definitely be killed by something more powerful that was born from the world."

"To be honest, if that boy hadn't interfered, we would have been finished."

"..."

"So, you're working for him now?"

As the team's intellectual leader besides Xia Youjie, Laru thought a lot and came up with a possibility.

Xia Youjie shook his head.

"No, I just saw a new possibility in his idea and then formed an 'alliance' with him, albeit in a coercive form like 'binding'."

"In his words, my current status is that of a 'prisoner on the run,' and the only reason he spared me is because I am still 'useful.'"

"If those two little girls heard this, they'd probably be demanding to settle accounts with that guy."

"Hehehe, that's true. Then help me not to tell them. For now, maintaining the status quo is fine. In order to deal with the possible emergencies, my top priority is to continue collecting some cursed spirits. In the last battle, Brother Yigu used up all my savings."

Thinking of this, he remembered the boy named Yuta Otsuku. He thought the other party was just a lucky guy chosen by a powerful force. Who would have thought that the one who truly possessed the power was actually himself? That special-grade Ju-on was actually caused by his power unintentionally overflowing.

When he heard this news from Yue Ren, he was completely dumbfounded. A boy with talent comparable to Gojo Satoru, a descendant of one of the three great curses, who went from an ordinary person to someone who could beat him up in just a few months... He almost suffocated at the time.

It wasn't until the other party regained their Special Grade status in just two months after losing Kimoto Rika that he truly realized how shallow his previous vision and understanding had been.

The Yue man's words, "You can't even see the 'truth' of the world, yet you dare to try to change anything? You have the air of ignorance without fear." Now, thinking about it, he felt utterly ashamed.

Fine, since we've given him a second chance, let's make sure he 'sees things clearly' this time. Anyway, he has plenty of time now.

He watched the dark figures writhing in the valley below.

The cursed spirits there crawled out of the cracks in the ground like maggots, tearing at each other, devouring each other, and merging together, filling the air with the stench unique to curses.

This was also his purpose in coming here—to subdue the unclaimed cursed spirits here.

Because everyone around him has gone underground to eliminate any traces, he has lost the convenient method of sitting and subduing cursed spirits as the leader of the cult, and can only travel to various places to collect cursed spirits on his own.

However, he was not disappointed, because he had already discovered the drawbacks of that method after the previous battle.

In this world, some differences in strength cannot be bridged simply by quantity. Judging from his techniques, spending time collecting a sufficiently special or powerful cursed spirit is often more cost-effective than collecting hundreds or thousands of low-level cursed spirits.

This is the insight he gained after experiencing the "Night Parade of One Hundred Demons": sometimes small fry are just small fry after all, and you can't rely on them to deal with truly powerful guys.

Approaching the level-one cursed spirit slowly, Xia Youjie chanted the incantation to summon the "tent". Necessary concealment was still necessary. Even if those higher-ups were useless, they would still be discovered if the commotion was too great. His "death" state could not be known to them yet, otherwise it would be very troublesome.

Before the opponent could pounce, the 'pet' behind him appeared. A minute later, a cursed spirit ball the size of a billiard ball appeared in his hand. Looking at the strangely familiar cursed spirit ball in his hand, which was emitting a purplish-black filthy aura, Xia Youjie did not choose to absorb it immediately this time.

He looked down at his waist, where a "cursed tool" hung—an inconspicuous metal badge with a faint golden glow on its surface.

This was a "gift" given to him by the Yue people.

"That is?"

The man who caught up from behind raised a question. He didn't remember Jay liking such small things, and Jay had specifically brought it out, so it must be something special, but to him it looked like an ordinary badge.

"This is a cursed artifact," Xia Youjie said, raising his hand to stroke the badge. As he channeled his cursed power into it, it began to emit a faint glow.

"The 'little gift' that guy gave me... well, he said I should try it out when the cursed spirit is captured and turned into a ball."

This was something the boy had sent over with 'instructions' after he had settled his men. Now that the time was right, he could finally use it and see how it went.

As he spoke, Xia Youjie brought the badge close to the cursed spirit orb. This was the first time he had used it, and it would be a lie to say he wasn't curious.

Then, as can be seen with the naked eye, the repulsive aura emanating from the cursed spirit orb, which originally exuded an ominous purplish-black aura, began to fade rapidly, giving the impression that dirty clothes were being gradually washed clean.

The two looked somewhat surprised upon seeing this change.

A few seconds later, the Cursed Spirit Orb turned into a pale blue, crystal-clear ball, which made Xia Youjie, who loathed the taste of the Cursed Spirit Orb, involuntarily swallow.

This looks delicious...

For some reason, such a strange thought suddenly came to his mind.

When he realized what had happened, even he was surprised.

How strange. The taste was clearly etched into my soul, so why do I still have this illusion?

The image of the Yue man flashed into his mind; the man stared intently at the object in his hand.

Or are you actually capable of making some kind of change...?

"Jay, this..."

"Hehehe, let me see what kind of surprise it is."

Without responding to those around him, Xia Youjie swallowed the "purified" cursed spirit orb.

"..."

After a long while, Xia Youjie licked his lips and smiled.

"It's strawberry flavored...?"

"?"

Laru's eyes widened slightly. As Xia Youjie's "person in charge," he naturally knew what the other person meant.

Jay once said that for him, a user of "Spirit Manipulation Technique," swallowing a Spirit Ball was no different from eating a whole rag covered in vomit—a disgusting thing that ruined his mood. He had to be mentally prepared every time. Even so, doing it for a long time would unconsciously change a person. This was also one of the things that made him feel sorry for the other person.

And what he's saying now means... that the flavor he described as capable of making the soul tremble has changed? Because of that cursed artifact?

Is this really possible?

The man's gaze towards the badge changed instantly. If that were truly the case, even this single effect would be more than enough for the man before him...

"...So that's how it is. There's actually this method. Hahaha, Kawasaki Koshito, how many more surprises do you have in store for me? You're a truly terrifying person."

A moment later, Xia Youjie's body trembled slightly as he sensed the condition inside his body.

"Jay, what exactly is it...?"

"I don't know what the incantation on this thing is, but it seems to have rewritten the essence of the cursed spirit, purified the 'disgusting' negative emotions, and then changed the framework that maintains the cursed spirit into a form similar to a 'shikigami'... How did it do that... Could it be... Rika Kimoto's incantation?"

As he spoke, he suddenly remembered what the intelligence report had said: even after the original top-tier cursed spirit, Rika Kimoto, was unleashed, she still left a spell called "Rika" inside Otsuko's body.

Considering that the boy had once explained the effects of his "born technique," it wouldn't be surprising if he created this thing by analyzing the technique of the sacral bone...

It's no wonder he was surprised; the newly appeared cursed spirit seemed completely out of place within his body.

Through the absolute control of the cursed spirit through the spell, he discovered that this guy was different. First of all, he needed to inject the cursed power into the other party's body as "car fuel" instead of casually taking the right to use the "vehicle" on the roadside as before.

This new cursed spirit is like a new car he just bought, one that needs to be painted in his own colors.

That's why the taste changes, because there are no other traces, only the taste of the energy itself, instead of something that has been used countless times and is full of all sorts of 'filth'.

Its essence is a half-cursed spirit and half-shikigami, not a complete transformation, so it can be accepted by his own spell... The man looked at the badge in his hand in surprise. That boy, he actually rewrote the essence of 'cursed spirit' with such a small thing?

That's even more terrifying, okay? Does this mean that if given enough time, he will become the person in the world who knows the most about curses and spells?

So this is where his confidence comes from? Is that "ideal" that Xia Youjie sees as somewhat unattainable simply something he'll eventually achieve once he reaches a certain stage in the future...?

Recalling the confidence in the boy's eyes and his unique aura when they met, was he finally glimpsing the "tip of the iceberg"?

Hahahaha... Kawasaki Koshito, how could such a "monster" like you be born into this world?

Xia Youjie felt both horrified and excited. As someone who liked to think about the "future," he attempted to deduce and imagine the future based on existing information. Now he discovered that the "future" that he thought was most likely just a pie in the sky actually had a real and feasible "process."

Moreover, the extent to which the other party had progressed along this path was far deeper than he had imagined...

A small action can change someone's fate, influence a key moment, and thus change the situation of a group, or even the operating logic of the entire system.

"I see, it really is a grand scheme..." Xia Youjie suddenly said.

"A grand strategy?"

"Yes, it's a very big game."

Xia Youjie's gaze deepened. "His pawns aren't any one person or organization, but the entire world of sorcery. He's probably using the 'world of sorcery' itself as his experimental subject right now."

Laru's breath hitched for a moment.

What kind of ambition is that?

"What exactly does he want to do?" Laru asked.

Xia Youjie remained silent for a long time, because he couldn't be sure whether that person would really do what he said at the final moment.

Once hailed as a genius, now the most wicked curse master, he felt a profound sense of his own insignificance and ignorance, even a sense of absurdity. How could they be called geniuses? This was what a true "genius" looked like—driving the "evolution" of their species with their own bodies, breaking through the supposedly insurmountable "upper limit"...

A genius in the eyes of a genius, a 'monster' or 'madman' in the eyes of ordinary people.

Thinking of this, Xia Youjie's body began to tremble involuntarily, but on the contrary, his face revealed a wild and excited expression.

"Hahahaha, alright, I have to admit, you've truly impressed me, Kawasaki Koshito. Let me see what your 'future' looks like. If it's truly enough for me to give up everything, then what's wrong with taking it all! Hahahahaha..."

The man watching his leader descend into madness chose to remain silent, for he could clearly see that the man's eyes were shining—the expression of someone who had found the 'path' they were seeking. At such times, no amount of persuasion would help; all he could do was silently protect him.

But then he suddenly remembered what he had seen recently. Although Jay had explained, were those cursed spirits really stronger because of the world's rules? Then why did they seem more dangerous and brutal than the cursed spirits he had seen before?