Close to Home, Yet Afraid

"Can't I become a Jujutsu Sorcerer?" Ren Tong asked unwillingly.

"What about me? Can I?" Zhou Yushan called out as well.

After witnessing Tang Qingxue and Zhao Ya's extraordinary strength, both of them had developed thoughts of becoming Jujutsu Sorcerers.

"You can't!" Zhao Ya glanced at Zhou Yushan before turning to Ren Tong. "You can!"

"Sigh, when you put it that way just now, I thought..." Ren Tong asked, somewhat delighted.

"I only said that some ordinary people can see Cursed Spirits. I never said those people couldn't become Jujutsu Sorcerers."

Zhao Ya's sharp gaze turned toward a certain direction as she spoke slowly.

"Those with Clairvoyance can make superficial use of Cursed Energy. Therefore, they can be considered promising candidates for Jujutsu Sorcerers."

"Generally speaking, the younger someone is when they gain Clairvoyance, the greater their potential. Qingxue could see them when she was four or five!"

"For someone like you, who can only use Clairvoyance inside a Curtain and is about the same age as Qingxue, even if you become a Jujutsu Sorcerer, there will likely be limits to how far you can go."

"But becoming a Jujutsu Sorcerer means taking on a Jujutsu Sorcerer's responsibilities. From then on, you'll have to keep fighting Cursed Spirits."

"Are you prepared to become a Jujutsu Sorcerer?" After saying that, Zhao Ya turned to Ren Tong and waited for his answer.

"Hurry up and agree!"

Zhou Yushan looked at Ren Tong with eyes full of envy. If he had been given this chance, he would have agreed without hesitation.

As for the "fighting Cursed Spirits" Zhao Ya mentioned, what was so bad about that?

Ren Tong swallowed. "How do I become a Jujutsu Sorcerer?"

Zhao Ya turned to Ren Tong and handed him a business card. "Take this card. At two in the morning, go to Hundred Rivers Temple alone! If you can make it there, someone will naturally teach you how to become a Jujutsu Sorcerer!"

Ren Tong took the card and examined it.

It was patterned and exquisitely made, with several small lines of text: "Cursed Technique Academy—Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer—Zhao Ya." There was no other information.

"Hundred Rivers Temple? Why does that sound so familiar?" Zhou Yushan muttered to himself, then suddenly exclaimed in surprise.

"I remember now! Hundred Rivers Temple on Spring Source Mountain! They say that place was abandoned long ago! It's never been open to outsiders either!"

"Yes, that place has nurtured quite a few Cursed Spirits. Ordinary people have no way of entering." Zhao Ya answered calmly.

"C-Cursed Spirits?!" Ren Tong's hand holding the card trembled.

"They aren't that strong!" Tang Qingxue said quietly.

You're so powerful, of course you wouldn't think they were that strong!

Ren Tong glanced at Tang Qingxue, truly at a loss for words.

"Whether you go or not is up to you!" Zhao Ya said flatly.

If Jujutsu Sorcerers were not so scarce, and Cursed Spirits had not become so active in recent years, she would never casually recruit someone like Ren Tong as a Jujutsu Sorcerer.

"Also, don't tell anyone about what happened today! Even if you tell them, it'll only bring them needless worry and bring curses upon others and yourselves!"

Zhao Ya's tone was not harsh. She sounded as though she did not care whether they listened or not, yet Ren Tong and Zhou Yushan both felt their hearts tighten at her words.

"We understand!" Ren Tong and Zhou Yushan said in unison.

Zhao Ya nodded slightly, then glanced once more in Xia Jie's direction and called to Tang Qingxue, "Let's go, Qingxue!"

Hearing Zhao Ya's words, Tang Qingxue smiled at Ren Tong and the others before quickly following her.

A black heavy motorcycle was waiting for them on the riverbank.

Zhao Ya swung her long legs onto it with ease, while Tang Qingxue nimbly jumped up behind her and wrapped her arms around her teacher's slender waist.

Vrooom— The muffled engine became the horn of a charge. Pillars of orange-blue flame burst from the motorcycle's exhaust, and the heavy machine vanished into the night in the blink of an eye.

That was way cooler than Japan's Jujutsu Sorcerers! Once I get back to Japan, I have to get myself one!

Watching Zhao Ya and Tang Qingxue leave from a corner, Xia Jie could not help thinking that.

He had originally been considering how to meet them, but they had vanished in an instant.

Maybe this was for the best... Meeting them might have been even more troublesome.

Xia Jie thought silently.

That tall woman with the gun seemed to have noticed him. She had kept staring in his direction, and she clearly did not look like someone to mess with.

He had only wanted to witness the prowess of China's Jujutsu Sorcerers. This trip had not been in vain, and he had even obtained an address—Hundred Rivers Temple.

If he wanted to learn more about China's Jujutsu Sorcerers, he could investigate that place, though not now.

Xia Jie glanced toward Ren Tong and the others, memorized Ren Tong's appearance, then quietly left.

Sunlight shone through a gap in the curtains onto Xia Jie's face, waking him from his chaotic dreams.

Perhaps because he was about to return to his hometown, Xia Jie had dreamed often of his childhood.

In the dream, he was still a child. His father, Jiang Changqing, and mother, Xia Yao, held his hands as they took him to an amusement park. But when he got off the carousel, he was the only one left in the park.

His young self searched the empty amusement park for his parents, while another adult version of himself floated in midair, drifting about in confusion.

Above the sky was the reflection of another city—the city Xia Jie had once lived in. It, too, was completely empty.

Xia Jie experienced many similar dreams throughout the night.

When he woke up in bed, he felt as though a hole had been bitten into his heart, leaving him with indescribable pain and loneliness.

"Look forward, look forward, look forward..."

Xia Jie rubbed his face, forcing himself out of the emotions from the dream. He did not know how many times he repeated "look forward," but he finally pulled himself from that sense of loss.

After tidying himself up, he went to the hotel front desk to check out, then hailed a cab to Ninghang's high-speed rail station.

Not long after getting off the plane yesterday, he had booked a high-speed rail ticket to Jiangcheng.

Sitting in the taxi, Xia Jie watched the scenery pass by and wondered what Jiangcheng looked like now.

He had not returned to Jiangcheng in more than ten years. In his memories, it was a quiet little city.

It was not particularly prosperous, but the people living there were content and at ease.

Yet more than ten years had passed, and Xia Jie could not be sure what Jiangcheng had become.

He still remembered that his home was at 15 Jiangning Road, in a six-story building. His apartment number was 402.

Before leaving Jiangcheng for Japan, Xia Changqing had not sold the property, because it held the beautiful memories of their family.

Every year, Xia Changqing would call a friend and ask him to look after the house.

Xia Jie knew about this, but he did not know who his father's friend was, so he had not contacted him before coming back.

Xia Jie had not taken it too seriously. After all, he was returning to his own home, and it was hard to say whether his father's friend was even still in Jiangcheng.

With his abilities, even without a key, opening a door would not be difficult.

If his home had changed into something else... Xia Jie could accept that too.

After all, more than ten years had passed. Perhaps the home he once had had already been sold.