Festival

"How delightful, Caterpillar Cursed Spirit. I'll probably forget you by tomorrow."

Lu Ping lay on a bed in the Jujutsu High dormitory, staring up at the snow-white ceiling as he reached out and loosely clenched his hand.

The Semi-Grade 1 Cursed Spirit clone he had killed tonight had given him a clear understanding of his current strength: he was at the standard Grade 2 Sorcerer level.

Compared to the cursed energy he had previously possessed, which had put him at the bottom among Grade 2 Sorcerers, it was quite a significant improvement.

Although his plan to use Three Corpses Manipulation to absorb cursed spirits had not gone very smoothly, his first real battle had given him tremendous insight, allowing him to truly grasp the combat power of combining Three Corpses Manipulation with the Ten Shadows Technique.

"No wonder they say sorcerers grow nonlinearly. Looks like I still need more experience if I want to grow stronger faster and attain immortality."

Having made up his mind, Lu Ping immediately pulled out his phone, opened a shopping site, and began placing orders.

As an SSR prospect who had awakened the Zenin Clan's trump-card technique, he received monthly financial support from the clan and had no worries about food or clothing.

Lu Ping's gaze rapidly swept over the dazzling listings before settling on an entirely black, oval-shaped product page.

"For now... I'll buy ten oxygen cylinders. I can always get more if that's not enough." He tapped the order button without hesitation.

A sorcerer had to fight by any means necessary. That was what suited a profession built on wielding negative emotions.

At that moment, Lu Ping could not help recalling the muscular body and shameless fighting style of the modern-day "Heavenly Tyrant," Toji Fushiguro.

In the original story, Toji Fushiguro, the strongest early-game antagonist, had relied on the Time Vessel Association to send out a large number of disposable grunts to drain his opponent's energy. Then, using the physical traits of his Heavenly Tyrant Zero Cursed Energy Constitution, which made him difficult to perceive, he closed in on his target. He used the Special Grade Cursed Tool Inverted Spear of Heaven to disrupt an opponent's technique while it was being activated and seize the initiative, before finally shooting the Star Plasma Vessel, leading to all the subsequent tragedies.

"Though the Zero Cursed Energy Constitution lies outside the sorcerer ranking system, its way of doing things unexpectedly aligns with the sorcerer mindset."

After thinking it over, Lu Ping added another ten orders of oxygen cylinders.

After all, if people stronger than you were even more unscrupulous, what reason did you have not to be cautious?

Only money that had been spent was truly yours.

Money sitting in an account, unrealized potential, and unused talent would all become empty words when death arrived.

"Bzz—"

His phone screen lit up, interrupting Lu Ping's further tactical calculations.

Sender: [Naobito Zenin].

Lu Ping opened the message. As always, it was full of concern: "Lu Ping, I heard you encountered a Semi-Grade 1 Cursed Spirit at an abandoned factory last night. As the clan's hope who has awakened the Ten Shadows, you must not act so rashly. Your safety concerns the Zenin Clan's future. If you lack any resources, ask the main house at any time."

Looking at the message, Lu Ping merely replied with three words: "Got it."

Lu Ping had no intention of dealing too much with the Zenin Clan. Aside from the old clan head, who was somewhat normal, everyone else was an appendage of a feudal great family, rotten to the bone—something that simply should not have existed in modern society.

As the Ten Shadows heir and the Zenin Clan's future trump card against the Gojo Clan, he had that authority.

He had originally been from a branch family of the Zenin Clan. Both his parents had been ordinary people, and they had died unexpectedly during an attack by a low-grade cursed spirit. Lu Ping had then unexpectedly awakened the Ten Shadows Technique, prompting Naobito Zenin, the current head of the Zenin Clan, to personally order that he be brought back to the main house and raised in luxury.

Yet beneath that seemingly honored treatment lurked the cold surveillance of elders like Ogi Zenin, along with the undisguised jealousy and malice of the Zenin main family.

Lu Ping tossed his phone aside and closed his eyes again, allowing the "Azure Corpse" in his shadow, the embodiment of reason, to slowly devour the lingering trace of resentment in his heart.

If he wanted to attain immortality in this mad world, the first thing he had to do was remain calmer than everyone else and hide himself deeper than anyone else.

Two o'clock in the afternoon, on the bustling streets of Shinjuku.

Lu Ping idly played with the Grade 3 Cursed Tool he had just taken from the Gojo Clan's Cursed Tool Vault: a short blade suited for his current self-defense needs, an imitation of "Tozama."

"Why the hell do I have to come watch this boring artsy movie with you guys on my rare day off?!" Satoru Gojo, wearing his signature round sunglasses and holding an oversized bucket of popcorn, complained loudly.

"Occasionally cultivating your sensibilities is good for you, Satoru." Suguru Geto, dressed in loose casual clothes, shot back with a smiling expression.

Ieiri Shoko walked at the front, an unlit cigarette hanging from her lips to satisfy her craving. Without looking back, she said, "Enough nonsense. The tickets are already bought."

The four of them stood outside an old but stylish independent cinema.

Lu Ping stood before the poster display, but his gaze did not linger on the movie poster they were about to see. Instead, he was drawn to an exceptionally cheap, slightly yellowed flyer in the corner.

The flyer showed a young man in a ridiculous suit, grinning exaggeratedly. [Hilarious Stand-Up Comedy Night! Comedian: Fumihiko Takaba—bringing you unprecedented, gut-busting laughter!]

"Fumihiko Takaba..."

Lu Ping silently repeated the name, and his eyes flickered.

In 2006, Fumihiko Takaba was only twenty-five. He was still a struggling nobody at the bottom rung, a failed comedian whose jokes were not funny in the slightest. Who could have imagined that over a decade later, this ordinary man with no jujutsu background would awaken an absolute conceptual technique that not even Satoru Gojo's Six Eyes could analyze—[Comedian]. With the absurd ability of "whatever I find funny becomes reality," he had single-handedly dragged the millennium-old mastermind Kenjaku to his death.

"Come on, Lu Ping. What are you spacing out for? What's so interesting about a low-class comedian like that?" Satoru Gojo came over, followed Lu Ping's gaze for a glance, and curled his lips in disdain.

"Nothing. I just think..." Lu Ping withdrew his gaze and smiled meaningfully. "This world really is full of hidden talents."

He quietly memorized the address of the comedy show.

Cultivation required wealth, companions, methods, and a place. Making an early move and forming a good connection with a future conceptual-type powerhouse was absolutely a guaranteed profitable investment.

The movie ended in the blink of an eye. Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto had already found an excuse to slip out of the cinema halfway through, and no one knew where they had gone.

"Those two, honestly..." Shoko sighed with a hand to her forehead, then turned to Lu Ping, who was sitting beside her, and asked:

"Seems I never told you why we came to Shinjuku today, June 30."

"Wasn't it to watch a movie?" Lu Ping could tell there was more to Shoko's words, but he asked anyway.

"You haven't gone on many missions before, so it's normal that you wouldn't know." Shoko stood and walked into the aisle, pointing at a banner on the cinema wall as she reminded him:

"Today is the Nagoshi Grand Purification Ritual, a festival that carries people's hopes for a better life."

"And during festivals, cursed spirits are also especially prone to appearing."