Curse Reply: After choosing Nawa, the cursed spirit cursed me for being cruel.

Zhang Xiang simply nodded slightly and put his hands into his sleeves.

Mingming curled her red lips into a charming smile: "Looks like I made the right bet. I wonder how much return you can bring me."

"Don't worry, it won't be less," Duanmu Yan said.

Leyan Temple leaned on his cane and snorted coldly, "I underestimated you. You've gathered so much power without me even realizing it. It seems you've always had ambitions."

Duanmu Yan looked at him and nodded: "Grandpa, don't say that. It's the era of the young people now. Those old fogies should have stepped down long ago."

Kusakabe stood at the very edge, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead with his sleeve.

Fortunately, he was quick to choose sides. Before he could fully react to the moment Zhang Xiang made his move, his body had already made the decision for him.

Looking at the corpses on the ground and then at Duanmu Yan's calm expression, he had only one thought in his mind: if he had been a step slower, he would be the one lying there.

“To be honest, I’m quite surprised.” Duanmu Yan turned to him. “You’re actually supporting me, a member of the Kusakabe Class 1.”

Kusakabe quickly waved his hand and said, "Actually, I didn't want to fight Duanmu Special Grade either, but I was forced by circumstances."

He's still terrified. The hunting order, personally issued by the elders, has now been ruined by his own hand.

Would this be considered treason? Would he also be wanted as a curse master? He didn't want to live that kind of life.

Just then, my phone rang.

Duanmu Yan answered the phone, and a lazy voice came from the other end: "All done. Not a single one was left."

Duanmu Yan responded and hung up, putting his phone back in his pocket and looking at Kusakabe.

"The Elders' Council has been cleared out."

Kusakabe's eyes lit up instantly. Daylight had broken; he was no longer wanted.

……

Not far from where Duanmu Yan was fighting, an almost transparent barrier was affixed between the tree canopy and the ground.

Louhu sat cross-legged inside the barrier, his single eye piercing through the thin membrane of light, staring at the battle that had ended in the open space in the distance.

He lowered his voice and said in a deep voice, "The battle inside is over, and those humans you contacted have already lost. Those guys won't live much longer... Even if you made a binding agreement with them, it should be null and void by now."

The text appears to be a jumbled collection of characters and symbols, possibly from different sources. A direct translation isn't meaningful without further context or clarification.

She gently shook her head. "That was originally my plan."

She had indeed made a pact with the Grand Elder that if she failed to kill Duanmu Yan during this hunt, she would have to serve the Elders' Council.

But she never intended to follow the second half of the sentence.

Although she had only met him a few times, she knew a little about the man.

Given Duanmu Yan's personality, the Grand Elder wouldn't survive until today.

Once the other party to the contract dies, the binding force will naturally break down, and she can escape cleanly without having to do anything.

That was her original plan.

“However—” She tilted her head slightly, her gaze passing through the barrier and landing on the tall, silent figure standing behind Duanmu Yan, “Now I’ve seen an interesting person, which has piqued my curiosity.”

Following her gaze, the water clock saw the swollen face, and there stood the man with two buns in his hair—the eldest son of the Nine Phases of the Cursed Fetus Diagram.

It recalled the time when Hua Yu was still alive, when the wind blew through the trees, and the sound of birdsong filled the air. It remembered the days when Hua Yu was still alive, and how he used his beauty to make the world go round and round.

"Are you trying to get that man on our side? That's impossible, Duanmu Yan is still there."

The text appears to be a jumbled collection of characters and symbols, possibly representing a corrupted or incomplete text. It's impossible to translate meaningfully without further context or clarification.

"You mean..." The water clock's one eye shrank back slightly.

The skull waved thanks to the cup, the cliff resisted the evil spirits and dragged the hooting, the fresh stack stood upright, the lair sent the high punishment, the Kongxiao shepherd ship showed the rate of the frame.

A burly figure emerged silently from the shadows of the trees behind him.

The man wore an old-fashioned monzuki haori, the fabric stained with dark blood. His face was stiff, and his eyes had no pupils, only two dark red points of cursed power.

The water clock suddenly turned its head: "What is this?"

"The most vicious sorcerer in history..." (The rest of the text appears to be gibberish and unrelated to the previous sentences.)

Chapter 156 My Battle

The text appears to be a jumbled collection of characters and symbols, possibly from a corrupted or incomplete source. A direct translation is not possible without further context or clarification.

My original goal was to obtain Xia Youjie's Spell Manipulation Technique, but I haven't been able to get it.

But it doesn't matter, she still has a backup plan. As long as that cursed spirit appears, the plan will be half complete.

The bones were shrouded in mist, and the springs were shrouded in mist. The shrouded in mist was shrouded in mist, and the springs were shrouded in mist. The springs were ...

The body of Kamo Noriyuki that she now possesses is supported by her blood using the Crimson Blood Manipulation Technique.

She placed her palm on the man's broad back, her fingertips applying slight pressure, and dark red curse power seeped into the blood vessels of that body through her fingers.

Kamo Kenjiro's stiff jaw moved, and the two dark red dots in his eye sockets flickered. (The rest of the text appears to be gibberish and unrelated.)

"Let's use this body to reunite with my beloved eldest son."

Kamo Kenjiro strode forward, stepping over fallen leaves, towards the edge of the barrier. He walked away, his steps heavy with the weight of the fallen leaves.

"My child, I hope you'll enjoy this reunion!!"

In the open space, Duanmu Yan had just put his phone back in his pocket and was about to call Zhang Xiang and the others to walk back together.

Duanmu Yan suddenly turned his head and stopped in his tracks.

"What's wrong?" Mingming asked first.

“There’s something here.” Leyan Temple frowned.

Zhang Xiang didn't ask. He had sensed it the moment Duanmu Yan stopped; a cursed force was coming from deep within the grass dozens of meters away.

He couldn't possibly mistake that aura of cursed power.

One hundred and fifty years ago, when he was still in the container, separated by that thin membrane, the first cursed power he sensed was this smell. Cold, sticky, mixed with the sweet and metallic taste of blood.

At that moment, all the blood in his body seemed to boil, and every drop of blood screamed within his veins.

"Kamo Kenryun—!!!"

With a roar, Zhang Xiang swung his arms and flicked them out, sending the blood-red blade flying from his palms, its edge tracing an arc in the air.

His pupils constricted, his nostrils flared, and he looked like a bowstring stretched to its limit. Kusakabe was so startled by his shout that he almost dropped his cigarette.

A large hand parted the grass in front of them.

Kamo Noriyuki came out, his stiff face devoid of color in the sunlight.

He casually caught the piercing bullet, stood still, and looked at the swelling from dozens of meters away.

That face was smeared with sparse, lumpy ink.

“It’s been so long…my son.”

"Kamō Kenshō, how dare you show your face in front of me?!"

The rubble beneath Zhang Xiang's feet shattered, and he transformed into a blood-red shadow, charging straight forward. He left no room for maneuver, nor did he need to.

The man before them was the one who used their lives as experimental subjects 150 years ago, the one who sealed the nine brothers in containers for a century and a half, the one who was the starting point of all their suffering.

Kamo Kenjiro stood still, and just smiled at the sudden attack of the bloated figure. "You're quite fast. One hundred and fifty years ago, you were just a lump of blood curled up in a container. Now you've taken on a decent appearance."

Zhang Xiang did not answer, but swung his right arm and drew a long blade formed of congealed blood from his palm.

As the blade slammed down, he had already compressed a small bead of blood at his fingertips with his left hand, which popped out from the bottom up, blocking the opponent's space to dodge.

Kamo Noriyuki raised his right hand, holding a blood blade, also formed from congealed blood but much darker in color, horizontally in front of him. He slammed it down with a swirling slash, and the two blood blades collided, the blood droplets splattering onto their faces and exploding into fine mist.

Kamo Kenjiro flipped his left palm, and another blood-red blade took shape. He then used a backhand to slash across the side of the bulging waist.

Zhang Xiang sidestepped, the blade grazing his clothes and slicing off a small piece of fabric. The fabric was soaked by blood as soon as it floated up and fell to the ground with a soft, corrosive sound.

Kusakabe, watching the sudden battle unfold before him, turned to Duanmu Yan and asked, "That...that Kamo Noriyuki? Is it Kamo Noriyuki? The most vicious sorcerer in history? Didn't he die over a hundred years ago?!"

“He is indeed dead.” Leyan Temple’s cane slammed on the ground, his wrinkles deepening at the corners of his eyes. “But the one before us, his curse power is real, and the aura of the Crimson Blood Manipulation Technique is exactly the same as that of the Expansion Form… No, it should be said that the source of the Expansion Form’s technique is this man.”

He turned off his phone screen and put it back in his pocket.

Her expression was a few degrees more serious than when they were discussing payment. "So what's the situation now? Has Kamo Noriyuki been resurrected? Or has someone borrowed his body?"

Duanmu Yan said, "Don't rush. The situation is still unclear. This guy was most likely created by the Elders' Council."

His gaze followed Zhang Xiang's figure closely. The man, who was usually taciturn and only spoke a few words when taking care of his younger brother, was now like a ferocious beast, using all his strength in every strike.

This hatred could be felt even from hundreds of meters away.

Mingming took a step forward, but Duanmu Yan reached out and stopped her.

"Wait a minute," he said.

"Wait a minute?" Kusakabe pointed to the battlefield shrouded in blood mist on the open ground. "That's Kamo Noritoshi! A man like that..."

Before he could finish speaking, a dull thud echoed from the battle.

Zhang Xiang was knocked back by Kamo Kenjiro's punch, his feet plowing two deep furrows in the ground, his left sleeve was torn to shreds, and his forearm was covered in bruises.

He shouted in their direction, "This is a battle between me and Noriyuki Kamo. I'm going to kill him myself. Don't interfere!"

On the open ground, Zhang Xiang knelt on one knee, his blood-stained blade pressed against his body. Several nicks and slits were cut into the blade, which were then patched up with his own blood. Deadly blood dripped from his sleeve, sizzling as it burned the grass at his feet.

He stood up and gripped the blood-stained blade tightly again.

Kamo Noriyuki stood a few meters away. His old-fashioned crested haori was ripped to shreds by the blood, revealing his dark red torso underneath, but there wasn't a drop of blood.

"You used Crimson Scale Leap well, but your Blood Piercing and Hundred Gathering seem to be affected by your current mood. Try to calm down, and you will become stronger."

"Shut up! I'm going to kill you!!" Zhang Xiang swung his sword and slashed again.

Kusakabe glanced at the people fighting desperately in the battle, then at Duanmu Yan standing motionless beside him, and finally couldn't help but speak up again: "Duanmu Special Grade, is it really okay for us to just stand here and watch? The opponent is that Kamo Noriyuki."

“Kusakabe Level 1.” Duanmu Yan finally turned his head, his eyes were calm, but when he saw Kusakabe, all the words he wanted to say got stuck in his throat.

"The thing Zhang Xiang wants to do most in his life is to kill this man with his own hands. If you go up to help him, he will hate you. I will not make the decision for him."

Hearing this, Mingming leaned back against the tree trunk.

She had originally wanted to make a good impression on the new head of the family, but now it seemed best to give up.