One Against Four Special Grades

"Forget it. I should go." Lin Ran knew that he was the only one who could go right now. If any of the other ordinary people went, the outcome would be disastrous.

"Go on, ask the customers what they'd like. Being diligent is never a bad thing, young man." The Shopkeeper nodded, then suddenly felt the temperature around him rising. "I thought the air conditioning had been on the whole time. Why is it getting hot?"

"Jogo, don't get worked up. It'll get hot," Suguru Geto reminded him, lifting his eyes.

By then, Lin Ran had already approached. He could clearly feel that the closer he got to Jogo, the hotter the surroundings became.

"Sir, what would you like?" Lin Ran looked at Suguru Geto with a forced smile. At such close range, he could clearly feel the oppressive pressure emanating from the several Special Grades around him.

"A glass of ice water, thank you." After saying that, Suguru Geto kept his gaze fixed on Lin Ran. He had noticed something strange.

Jogo also sensed that something was off and turned to look at the waiter beside him.

"All right, please wait a moment." Lin Ran's goal was to avoid making a scene. If he gave Suguru Geto a glass of ice water, perhaps they would sit for a while and then leave. That way, everyone would be safe.

But he was wrong. For someone as unusual as him, it was very difficult to conceal himself from discovery.

"Hey, brat, can you see us?" Jogo narrowed his eyes at Lin Ran's back. "At this distance, you couldn't possibly still be alive under my heat."

Lin Ran stood still. After a few seconds, he simply turned around and looked at Jogo. "You're strutting around so openly. Can't you keep a lower profile?"

"So you can see us after all!" Jogo grew excited as he looked at Lin Ran. "A Jujutsu Sorcerer, or what?"

"Wait, the cursed energy on this brat is wrong." Thinking Jogo was about to attack, Suguru Geto immediately stopped him.

"It is indeed strange. To have no cursed energy at all, either he's very strong, or he's..." Jogo chuckled and rose to his feet. "Mr. Xia, it seems we've found something interesting today."

Lin Ran's expression turned grave. The four before him were equivalent to four Special Grades, and these four were completely different from the two Special Grades he had encountered before. The gap between them was like heaven and earth.

Of these four Special Grades, any one of them could probably take down the two Special Grades he had met before. Jogo in particular was at least several levels stronger than Hanami.

"Damn it, I shouldn't have taken this job if I'd known. Isn't this just asking for trouble?" Lin Ran felt like crying without tears. To run into these guys while working a part-time job—his luck was truly awful.

But naturally, he couldn't show any fear. Cursed spirits absorbed negative emotions, so he had to keep his heart firm.

"If we're going to fight, how about letting these people leave first? I don't want to involve anyone else." Lin Ran knew it was already too late for him to leave, but if he walked away now, everyone in this shop would die.

As a human, he could not allow such a thing to happen before his eyes. Even if he had to put himself in danger, he had to let these ordinary people escape.

"Sure..." Jogo smiled faintly and suddenly snapped his fingers.

Lin Ran's expression changed. The surrounding temperature instantly soared, and the customers drinking cold beverages in the shop, along with the Waitress and the Shopkeeper, spontaneously combusted in that instant.

"Ah!"

"It's so hot! Save me! Save me!"

Agonized cries erupted at once, yet none could carry beyond the storefront. In the blink of an eye, aside from Lin Ran and the four of them, everyone in the shop had been reduced to charred corpses.

"How dare you!" Lin Ran's eyes went wide with fury. Jogo had directly killed those people without a shred of humanity.

"You said it yourself just now—let these people 'leave.' I did exactly that." Jogo chuckled, utterly disregarding Lin Ran's words, his expression brimming with mockery.

"Young Jujutsu Sorcerer, since I've run into you, naturally I must entertain you properly. Your human rules have nothing to do with me. If I want to kill, I kill. What can you do about it?" Jogo did not take Lin Ran seriously at all. A kid this young wasn't worth him going all out; playing around would be enough.

Lin Ran was utterly enraged. Cursed energy burst forth from within him, and the Black Steel on his back appeared at that moment.

"If that's the case, then let me see just how strong you Special Grades are!" Lin Ran reached back and gripped the handle, drawing the Cursed Tool Black Steel as cursed energy instantly poured into it. He slashed at the one human and three cursed spirits.

The instant Lin Ran unleashed his cursed energy, all four of them were startled. Could a teenager possess such pure and powerful cursed energy?

Boom!!

As Lin Ran's slash came down, all four dodged at once. A deep gash was carved through the spot where they had been sitting, stretching all the way to the base of the wall.

"Not bad, kid. You've got some skill!" Jogo looked toward another cursed spirit. "Hanami!"

"&*@#￥#@" The Special Grade Cursed Spirit called Hanami replied in words none of them could understand. Then, forming hand seals with both hands, countless vines and branches burst from beneath the ground outside the shop, enclosing the entire building so completely that not even water could pass through.

Suguru Geto stood by a wall in the opposite corner, observing Lin Ran. In his eyes, an incomparably pure layer of cursed energy swirled around Lin Ran's body.

"He hid every last trace of his cursed energy, yet when he erupted, it was this pure. This guy isn't simple." Suguru Geto gave Lin Ran a high assessment. Over the years, aside from a few people, he had not felt anything like this in a long time. Moreover, the cursed energy on this youth had something else unusual about it.

"So what? It's been a long time since I've fought. Today, this kid can give me a taste of action!" Jogo was not worried in the slightest that Lin Ran might escape. With the four of them here, escaping would be impossible.

"Make it quick. This is Tokyo. Even the slightest disturbance could draw their attention." Though Suguru Geto was not particularly worried, he still offered a reminder.

"Don't rush, everyone. I'd like to ask a few questions first." Although the anger in Lin Ran's heart had yet to subside, he knew that he could not win alone against so many Special Grades. Rather than that, he might as well get some answers.

"What do you want to ask?" Jogo found the kid's calmness strange. They were no ordinary cursed spirits or curses—could this kid have some other support?

The calmer Lin Ran acted, the more they speculated. For a moment, they did not continue attacking.

"I want to ask: aside from organizations like yours, made up of curse-like cursed spirits, are there any others? Groups where many Special Grade or Grade 1 cursed spirits gather together to cause trouble." Lin Ran's cursed energy had long since covered this entire area. His Cursed Energy Output could not be detected by others; it was like a sensory field. As soon as these guys made another move, he would retreat.

Without a domain, was he supposed to fight four overwhelmingly powerful Special Grades here? Was he tired of living? Lin Ran knew how to weigh the situation.