Snake Molting, Dragon Scales, the Strongest Returns

At the Jujutsu High dormitory, sunlight filtered through the bamboo blinds, cutting mottled streaks of light and shadow across the tatami.

The blood that had flowed from Lu Ping's forehead and seven orifices had already been wiped clean.

The back of his head rested against something soft and cool.

It was a pair of lush thighs.

Kamo Chitsubaki had offered him a lap pillow to rest on.

The air in the room carried the cool scent of herbs, coming from the bandage-like Cursed Tool permanently wrapped around her wrist. It contained a certain herbal formula, used to cool the overheated blood vessels caused by the constant operation of Crimson Blood Manipulation.

At that moment, the coolness seeped through the fabric to his scalp, gradually dispelling the feverish heat in his overtaxed brain.

Dim sunlight spilled across the tatami. The window was half-open, and the cicadas from the mountain behind Jujutsu High had been filtered into distant white noise.

Lu Ping did not open his eyes as he spoke.

"What about Mitarai Shizuru, the curse user you saw in the sewers? He's still alive, right?"

Chitsubaki's fingers, which had been combing through the sweat-stiffened strands of hair on his forehead, paused.

"Jujutsu Headquarters took him away. He was still alive then." Her fingertips returned, continuing to smooth his hair at an unhurried pace. "You still had the leisure to hold back? Didn't you say your cursed energy was nearly exhausted?"

Lu Ping kept his eyes closed.

During those ten seconds after the Domain Expansion, nearly all his attention had been focused on dealing with the old man and calculating the countdown until the domain expired.

When Mitarai Shizuru had been swallowed by the Great Serpent, he had only suffered several broken ribs and lost an arm. None of it had been