I'll Kill You Within Three Moves

Lu Ping's words echoed through the dim pipeline, stirring a low hum.

The fist-fighting curse user's pupils suddenly shrank to pinpoints. He simply could not believe that this young brat had exposed their details through perception alone.

"Quit playing tricks!" The curse user spat, his voice laced with suppressed shock and rage.

"Your technique isn't some long-range sniping ability at all. It's a scouting ability like [Hawkeye], right? You used it to lock onto your target with that arrow just now."

Though he talked tough, his body honestly retreated. In an instant, he slipped into an even darker side passage.

Facing a Grade 2 Sorcerer of the same rank, he did not dare let down his guard in the slightest.

Although the other party was more than a decade younger and lacked experience in life-or-death battles, the longbow in his hands was far too strange.

Hiding behind a concrete pillar, he quickly pulled a pair of crude refined-steel gauntlets from his clothes and skillfully slipped them onto his hands.

The gauntlets glimmered with a faint green fluorescence. They were a Grade 2 Cursed Tool capable of greatly amplifying the power of [Mountain-Piercing Quake].

"Those two arrows nearly flipped me over."

The curse user stared fixedly at the corner, veins bulging at his temples. He could not let Lu Ping get the chance to fire a third arrow.

He had to smash this brat's head before he could draw that strange bow again!

In the empty sewer, the sound of dripping water was especially clear.

Lu Ping remained where he was and did not pursue the opponent hiding in the darkness.

His gaze lowered slightly, settling on the wrist of the scythe-wielding curse user ahead.

A streak of bright red blood slowly gathered on the black long scythe, dripping down from its sharp blade.

"Whose blood is on that weapon?" Lu Ping's voice remained utterly flat.

The scythe-wielding curse user stuck out his scarlet tongue and licked his cracked lips, revealing a cruel smile.

"Oh, this? On the way here to provide support, I ran into a few high school girls who didn't know what was good for them. They came in with flashlights to explore. I cut them down while I was at it."

He held the long scythe across his chest and glanced sideways at Lu Ping, his tone full of provocation.

"Brat, if you feel sorry for them, I can send you down to reunite with them right now."

Lu Ping lowered his eyes slightly, his expression calm as his peripheral vision swept over the scattered white bones in the corner.

Clearly, this was not the first time they had done something like this.

Within the shadow beneath his feet, the Three Corpses inside him devoured the emotion known as "anger" without restraint, continuously converting it into cursed energy.

The Daoist scriptures said, "The immortal path values life; the ghost path values the end."

And what he needed to do was send them to their end.

Punishing evil was itself the promotion of good. These curse users had to die here today.

Seeing that Lu Ping showed no reaction, the scythe-wielding curse user assumed his words had intimidated him.

He sneered inwardly. While continuing to distract Lu Ping with words, he bought time for his companion at the side to get into position.

"A shikigami user skilled at firing arrows from afar, surrounded by two curse users specialized in close and mid-range combat. Your defeat is only a matter of time. Slit your own throat, and you might even leave behind an intact corpse."

Lu Ping raised his head, met the other man's mocking gaze, and calmly said, "Has no one ever told you that putting up a front only makes you look weak?"

"Courting death!"

The scythe-wielding curse user's face twisted instantly.

That single sentence completely ignited his fury, and he poured every last bit of cursed energy into the weapon in his hand.

Buzz.

The black long scythe expanded with the wind. Its originally two-meter blade swelled violently, instantly becoming a gigantic scythe that could nearly cleave the entire pipeline in two.

The massive scythe came crashing down with an ear-piercing shriek through the air.

At the same time, the fist-fighting curse user lurking in the side blind spot moved as well.

He crushed the ground beneath his feet and, with the amplification of his steel gauntlets, drove a heavy punch into the concrete wall before him.

Technique—[Mountain-Piercing Quake], unleashed at full power!

The violent shockwave became an invisible gale, blasting through the concrete and forming a deadly pincer attack with the shadowy giant scythe descending from above.

Lu Ping had nowhere to retreat.

At that critical instant, Lu Ping did not even turn around.

He raised the [Piercing Ox Horn Bow] in his hand like lightning and violently drew its string toward the empty air above him.

Twang!

The longbow fired no shadow arrow, but the instant it was forcibly released, an incomparably terrifying burst of air recoil erupted between its giant horns.

Borrowing that violent thrust, Lu Ping's body moved like a kite with its string cut, forcibly shifting three feet to the side by the narrowest margin.

Almost simultaneously, the shadow beneath his feet resonated faintly with the cursed energy imprint he had previously left in his opponent's shadow.

The scythe-wielding curse user felt his feet sink, and his body involuntarily swayed.

The air shockwave released by the bow swept out and slammed directly into the descending giant scythe.

Boom!

Having lost its aim, the giant scythe collided head-on with the invisible shockwave blasting in from the side, carrying destructive force.

Dust filled the sewer.

Mud and shattered stones sprayed everywhere like bullets.

Moments later, two soot-covered figures emerged from the dust.

The fist-fighting curse user spat mud and grit from his mouth, his gauntlets covered in white powder.

The scythe-wielding curse user was worse off. His technique had never been as tough as the other's, and flying stones had carved three bloody gashes across his face. Blood streamed down.

Two against one, yet they had ended up in such a miserable state.

"Damn little bastard!" The fist-fighting curse user's face turned livid, sweat and muddy water running down his forehead.

"You coward who only knows how to run! If you've got the guts, take one of my punches head-on!"

Lu Ping landed steadily on the water not far away. Even his Jujutsu High uniform had not gotten the slightest bit dusty.

He slowly adjusted his sleeve and said indifferently, "Why not take a punch from you? I'm only afraid you won't dare."

"I'll tear you apart!"

The fist-fighting curse user was already young and hot-blooded. Provoked by that contemptuous tone, he instantly lost all reason and raised his fist to charge forward recklessly.

Beep.

At that moment, a piercing electronic sound suddenly came from the standard-issue earpieces of both men.

It was a deep, hoarse voice, yet one carrying absolute authority.

This was the leader of their team, a genuine Grade 1 Curse User.

"Both of you, calm down," the leader said coldly.

"According to the internal intelligence we just received, this brat is the Zenin Clan's candidate for clan head—the Grade 2 deadweight who awakened the Ten Shadows Technique."

The two curse users halted in unison.

"Yesterday, he ran into another team of ours handling the outer perimeter. During that battle, his Ten Shadows shikigami already self-destructed."

The leader's voice held a trace of cruelty.

"Jujutsu High has more missions than they can count right now. Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto are both out of town on special-grade assignments. No one will come save him in this underground space so close to Tokyo."

This was what they called the darkness beneath the lamp.

"That bow in his hands was obviously a fine piece he just took from the Zenin Clan's Cursed Tool Vault to keep up appearances. Kill him, sell that high-grade cursed tool, and you'll have enough to live on for the rest of your lives."

The leader paused, his tone contemptuous.

"A shikigami user without any shikigami to use cannot even bring out thirty percent of his strength. He's nothing more than a lamb waiting for slaughter. Crush him head-on. Skirmishing will only give him room to catch his breath!"

The voice in the earpiece abruptly cut off.

The pipeline fell into brief dead silence.

Then the scythe-wielding curse user burst into mad laughter, the sound especially grating in the narrow space.

"Ha, ha, ha, ha! I thought he was some incredible genius. Turns out he's just an empty shell who relies on cursed tools!"

He wiped the blood from his face, his eyes filled with greed and cruelty. "Without your shikigami, what the hell are you?"

The fist-fighting curse user also grinned viciously and clenched his steel gauntlets. Their confidence swelled to its peak at that moment.

Lu Ping did not refute them or offer any unnecessary explanation.

He merely exhaled slowly and poured all the cursed energy in his body into the [Piercing Ox Horn Bow] in his right hand without holding anything back.

Crack, crack.

His legs bent slightly, like an ancient tree rooted in the muddy channel.

For the first time that day, he assumed the most standard full-draw stance with his feet planted on the ground.

As the bowstring was drawn back inch by inch, terrifying cursed energy began to compress wildly within the pipeline. The air became so heavy that it was almost impossible to breathe.

In the eyes of the two curse users, the boy before them seemed to vanish completely.

In his place stood a savage behemoth awakened from ancient ruins, stomping heavily in place and gathering strength, ready to crush everything before it.

The enormous cursed energy compressed continuously, becoming rhythmic hoof-stomps that gradually synchronized with their heartbeats.

Lu Ping looked at the two men ahead, the fingers of his right hand resting loosely on the invisible cursed-energy bowstring.

"Within three moves, I'll kill you."