Killing Two Birds with One Arrow

Bang!

The instant the bowstring snapped, azure lightning tore through the pitch-black curtain of shadows.

Lu Ping did not even glance at the scythe-wielding curse user charging at him from the side.

With his cursed energy senses enhanced by the Three Corpses within him, he had already locked onto his target's location.

The distance between them was simply too short. Before the absolute speed of Nue's Feather, any close-combat technique or evasive maneuver lost all room to operate.

The scythe-wielding curse user thought he could seize the initiative by using the shadow curtain to block Lu Ping's vision, never realizing that the darkness instead provided Lu Ping with the perfect cover.

His opponent had no idea that Lu Ping's arrow possessed a causality-like homing ability. That information gap had doomed him to defeat.

Boom!

Nue's Feather, wreathed in lightning, instantly pierced through the massive scythe. Without slowing in the slightest, it then tore through the scythe-wielding curse user's chest.

The violent lightning blew his heart into a cloud of Blood Mist on the spot.

Yet the Grade 1 Cursed Tool did not lose even a fraction of its momentum.

Carrying rolling thunder that ripped through the air, it blasted through pipes, walls, and stone, becoming a blue meteor of lightning that shot straight toward an underground chamber hundreds of meters away.

Inside the chamber, the gaunt sorcerer was silently cursing because his vision had been blocked.

The next moment, the cloth wrapped around his eyes exploded.

The arrow, carrying chunks of rubble with it, smashed through the thick concrete wall and blew his head apart with a single shot!

The gaunt sorcerer's head burst like a rotten watermelon, splattering blood and brains across the walls.

Only then had Mitarai Shizuru just risen to his feet, his iron gauntlet still not raised.

Lu Ping had promised to finish them in three moves.

Now, with his second arrow fired, all three had been wiped out in two moves.

Having acted according to his convictions, he felt utterly clear-headed, and the Three Corpses within him grew considerably stronger as well.

Elsewhere, Mitarai Shizuru looked at his subordinates' miserable corpses. His pupils contracted slightly, but his breathing remained steady.

He had spent years walking the line between life and death. His mind was as hard as iron.

He merely narrowed his eyes and coldly watched the direction from which the arrow had come, his mind rapidly analyzing the battle.

"His frontal defense was broken instantly. He can even fire blind over hundreds of meters with precise lethal accuracy. The power of that bow and its wielder's sensory abilities have exceeded expectations."

Mitarai Shizuru turned toward the pale-faced fat sorcerer beside him, his voice low and commanding.

"Fatty, take all the 'research data' and move immediately. Leave through the backup passage. The Pan Star Religious Group's other hideouts will receive you."

"Yes, boss!"

The fat sorcerer wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, hurriedly gathered the core documents from the table, and stumbled toward the secret passage at the rear of the chamber.

Mitarai Shizuru turned around, his long black robes snapping in the cold draft.

He intended to personally meet that arrogant young genius and probe his true capabilities.

Meanwhile, in the Confluence District.

Lu Ping held his longbow and slowly exhaled a breath of foul air.

As the unusual cursed energy fluctuation in the distance vanished, the tension in his heart eased slightly.

Killing three Grade 2 Curse Users of the same level in succession was already a brilliant feat that would make the entire jujutsu world take notice at his age and current stage.

But he knew very well that there was still an insurmountable gulf between his current reserves of cursed energy and physical strength and the true monsters of Grade 1.

"I thought I was just catching a minor cursed spirit. I didn't expect to stumble into a curse user's nest." Lu Ping gave a self-mocking laugh.

He was not arrogant enough to try clearing out the entire hideout.

Now that the support sorcerer responsible for reporting positions and sharing vision was dead, the enemy's "eyes" had gone blind.

Even if other curse users were stationed inside, they would not be able to accurately pinpoint his current location anytime soon.

Of the Thirty-Six Stratagems, retreat was best.

Lu Ping tapped the water's surface with his toe, lightly pivoted, and prepared to retreat toward the underground exit through which he had entered.

However, after taking only two steps, his body abruptly froze.

The hairs on his back stood on end in that instant.

The Three Corpses within him sounded a piercing warning as an intense sense of danger swept over him.

A burly man clad in long monk's robes had somehow silently entered the range of his perception.

He stood atop a broken pipe thirty meters away, looking down at Lu Ping from above, his eyes as deep as a bottomless stagnant pool.

Mitarai Shizuru looked at the boy below without the slightest contempt for his youth.

Although internal intelligence clearly stated that this brat's Ten Shadows shikigami had all self-destructed in yesterday's clash with another Grade 1 captain, Lu Ping's combat talent and ruthless decisiveness still gave him a faint sense of alarm.

If a genius like this were allowed to continue growing, he would surely become the most troublesome obstacle in the Pan Star Religious Group's path toward its great cause.

Right now, his shikigami were in a temporary state of ruin.

This was the best opportunity to erase him.

Moreover, this hideout concealed secrets that the Pan Star Religious Group could not allow to see the light of day.

Since Lu Ping had already found this place, they absolutely could not let him leave alive.

Otherwise, if Satoru Gojo or Suguru Geto from Jujutsu High were drawn here, this entire chain of nearby hideouts would be uprooted.

Standing in the muddy water, Lu Ping turned slightly and coldly returned the man's gaze.

In his perception, the cursed energy within the man before him resembled a heavy volcano. It was even denser and more substantial than that of Miwa Seigen, the Grade 1 shikigami-using curse user he had encountered before.

There was no doubt about it. This was a genuinely formidable opponent, a true killer with no weakness to exploit.

Lu Ping's expression remained calm, but he did not hesitate. The shadow beneath his feet exploded, and he shot into the air, changed direction, and fled at full speed.

He had no intention of clashing head-on with a Grade 1 Sorcerer in peak condition at a time like this.

"Do you think you can escape?"

Mitarai Shizuru did not rush to pursue him. A cruel smile, like a cat toying with a mouse, even appeared on his face.

To completely crush this genius's hopes, he openly revealed his cursed technique.

"My cursed technique is—Binding Spirit Lock."

His voice echoed through the empty underground space, carrying an air of lofty proclamation.

"I can lay down completely invisible 'cursed energy threads' throughout space. The moment any living creature enters this range, it will be instantly bound and cut apart."

"Best of all, the cursed energy of those bound will be siphoned in reverse through this rune-etched gauntlet on my left hand and continuously fed into the threads, endlessly strengthening their sharpness and toughness."

"Brat, the road ahead of you has already been cut off."

Lu Ping sprinted through the pipes at full speed, wind howling past his ears.

But the instant he rushed out of a branch pipe, his lightning-fast body came to an abrupt stop.

Through his extraordinarily sharp cursed energy senses, he detected a dense web of nearly transparent threads crisscrossing the space ahead.

The threads were too thin to be seen with the naked eye, blending perfectly into the air beneath the dim light.

If not for the cold cursed energy clinging to the threads, Lu Ping would have been sliced into a pile of flesh the moment before.

The way back, the path ahead, and the blind spots on either side.

Without him realizing it, every passage around the entire Confluence District had been completely sealed off by these invisible threads with siphoning properties.

Mitarai Shizuru approached from behind with heavy, unhurried steps.

His iron gauntlet on his left hand emitted a cold gleam as he flexed his fingers slightly.

"Stop struggling, brat of the Zenin Clan."

The curse user's voice brimmed with icy killing intent, sounding especially piercing in the silent darkness.

"Before they have grown up, geniuses are no different from mangy dogs in the mud. I'll send you on your way now!"