Breaking the Domain

The darkness above the altar was like solidified lead, crushing the breath from their lungs.

"Ever-Coiling Shadow Serpent."

The cool, clear summoning chant echoed through the empty barrier of light before vanishing without a trace.

The shadowy abyss beneath Lu Ping's feet was like a pool of stagnant water, utterly still.

The massive creature that should have burst from the shadows did not appear.

What was more, the cursed spirit remains that had lain dormant at the center of the altar began to writhe strangely at that very moment.

The black scales belonging to the Great Serpent were rapidly dissolving from the Snake God Cursed Spirit's shattered body.

Its only remaining head reared high and opened its gaping maw.

Like a whale drawing in water, tens of thousands of blue-black serpents around it transformed into a torrent of green cursed energy and surged backward into its throat.

The wounds on its body closed at a visible rate, and its broken bones reconnected.

In less than two breaths, the cursed spirit had straightened to its feet once more.

Dark green cursed energy boiled around its body. Its violent aura locked onto the two people before it, clearly brewing a lethal technique.

Qian Chun frowned tightly and instinctively clenched her fists.

Lu Ping's gaze remained calm, though he silently calculated within his mind.

Inside this sealed barrier, two monsters with similar origins had devoured each other, fighting for dominance.

In the end, only one side remained standing.

In other words, the cursed spirit had won.

Yet just as that dark green technique was about to erupt, an abrupt change occurred.

Crack.

An exceptionally crisp shattering sound suddenly drowned out the roar of cursed energy sweeping across the altar.

It was the sound of glass breaking.

Lu Ping raised his head.

The surface of the impregnable dark green dome above them was covered in dense white cracks at some point.

Like wildly spreading vines, the cracks rapidly extended in every direction.

Boom!

Before the cursed spirit could activate its technique, the entire domain's curtain of light shattered completely.

Green motes rained down like a storm. The false dome overhead vanished, revealing the boundless, genuine night beyond.

Within that profound darkness, two immense molten-gold vertical pupils opened without warning.

They hung in the night sky like two beacons guiding death itself.

Amid the teeth-grinding scrape of scales, a terrifying pressure belonging to an ancient behemoth descended from the heavens.

By the faint glow of the night and those vertical pupils, they could barely make out an unimaginably massive shadow slowly crawling along the former edge of the domain.

It had not appeared from nowhere. It had been outside all along, using its enormous body to wrap the entire "small world" of the domain tightly shut!

As the domain barrier completely collapsed, the Snake God Cursed Spirit at the center of the altar let out a shrill hiss.

The dark green cursed energy it had just gathered burst apart like a punctured balloon.

Without the rule-based enhancement of its Innate Domain, whatever "sure-hit" or "sure-kill" properties its technique had possessed had now completely lost the foundation needed to function.

"Was that huge thing outside what you summoned just now?"

Qian Chun looked up at the molten-gold vertical pupils, unable to hide her astonishment.

"Mm."

Lu Ping lifted a hand and wiped away the cold sweat that had formed on his forehead from the tremendous expenditure of cursed energy. His expression remained composed.

"The more indestructible a domain's barrier is against confinement from within, the less it can withstand external impact in order to maintain balance. That is the most basic principle of 'binding' in barrier techniques."

He glanced up at that enormous body and continued explaining.

"The Great Serpent had actually already been summoned. It simply absorbed too much of my cursed energy, so its size exceeded all reason. The instant it appeared in the real world, its massive body became lodged in the layer between this incomplete domain's barrier shell and reality. That is why it did not manifest on the altar immediately. Instead, it instinctively crushed the entire domain from the outside."

As his words fell, the surrounding scenery rapidly faded like a melting crayon drawing.

The altar, the stairs, the sea of snakes—all of it turned to ash amid the aftershock of the shattered domain.

The ground beneath their feet became hard, rough earth once again.

A cold wind swept past, carrying the distinctive damp, earthy scent of the distant mountain forest.

The two humans, one shikigami, and one cursed spirit had returned to the village square.

Flickering firelight in the distance illuminated the devastation covering the ground.

Qian Chun took a satisfied breath of air from the real world. She crossed her hands, and dark crimson blood-light surged from her fingertips again.

"Nicely done, Lu Ping."

Her sharp gaze locked onto the weakened Snake God Cursed Spirit ahead.

"Now it's three against one. Having its domain forcibly broken not only cost it an enormous amount of cursed energy, but it has also entered a technique burnout period."

She stepped forward, pressing toward the cursed spirit.

"Even a monster rated Special Grade is nothing more than a toothless stray dog with no mouth during the period when it cannot use its technique or domain. It has lost its absolute advantage in the coming battle. The advantage is ours."

In the face of Qian Chun's optimism, Lu Ping remained silent.

He neither recalled the Great Serpent in the sky nor launched an attack at once.

His deep eyes swept over the surroundings before finally stopping at the ruins of several collapsed houses along the edge of the square.

Lu Ping slowly raised a hand and pointed in that direction.

"Senior, it isn't three against one."

His cool voice was especially clear in the night wind.

Heavy crawling sounds emerged from the shadows of the ruins.

A monstrous snake no smaller than those they had seen before crushed through half a brick wall and slowly slithered out.

Its scales glinted with a metallic sheen, and a fleshy tumor protruded from its forehead. It was the Snake King Cursed Spirit they had encountered at the village entrance earlier.

On the rooftop opposite them, amid a harsh flapping sound, a scarlet figure hung upside down from the eaves.

It was a Blood Bat Cursed Spirit the size of a calf.

It had suffered grievous injuries in the earlier battle, but fresh blood still stained the corners of its mouth, and a rich scent of blood seeped from several nearby homes.

Clearly, by drinking the villagers' blood, it had not only healed its wounds, but its aura had become even more savage than before.

Lu Ping lowered his hand and calmly stated the fact.

"It's three against three."

The three high-ranking cursed spirits occupied three sides of the square, encircling them in the center.

The concentration of cursed energy in the air rose once more, and battle was on the verge of breaking out.

The first to shatter the standoff was the Ever-Coiling Shadow Serpent coiled in the night sky.

The evolved Great Serpent shikigami's molten-gold vertical pupils had remained fixed on the Snake God Cursed Spirit below from beginning to end.

As snakes of the same kind, their shared instincts gave rise to a life-or-death enmity the moment they met.

When enemies met, their hatred burned all the fiercer.

Hiss—!

The Great Serpent dove from the heavens like a bolt of black lightning.

Its enormous jaws clamped precisely around the Snake God Cursed Spirit's neck.

The Snake God Cursed Spirit was no less willing to yield. Its massive body coiled upward, and fangs dripping with corrosive fluid viciously pierced the Great Serpent's scales.

The two colossal creatures, each dozens of meters long, tore and rolled wildly across the square.

Buildings along their path were effortlessly flattened, and deep trenches were gouged through the earth.

Entangled in combat and carrying unstoppable momentum, they smashed through the wall behind the village and rolled into the dense mountains beyond.

The thunderous crash of falling trees rang out without end as dust billowed into the sky.

In the square, Qian Chun's battle began at the same instant.

Her target was the Blood Bat Cursed Spirit hanging upside down from the rooftop.

Crimson Blood Manipulation was unleashed at full force. Several blood arrows compressed to the extreme tore through the night sky, sealing every route of retreat for the blood bat.

The blood bat released a piercing shriek, its wings snapping open as it traced an eerie arc through the air.

Qian Chun moved like lightning. Using the pull of the blood net, she engaged the blood bat in fierce close-quarters combat midair.

From the look of it, Qian Chun still held an absolute advantage in strength.

Every clash left a wound so deep that bone showed on the blood bat's body.

Yet as the battle continued, Qian Chun's expression grew increasingly grave.

Something was wrong.

Although the enemy was constantly being injured, very little black cursed spirit blood flowed from those wounds.

Instead, the blood bat seemed to be deliberately accepting her attacks, using the impact of Crimson Blood Manipulation to continually shed the hardened old skin covering its body.

It was not fighting desperately. It was searching for an opportunity—a breakthrough that would allow it to shed its old shell and complete its final evolution.

However, even after seeing through its intentions, Qian Chun did not stop attacking.

She had the confidence of someone tempered through countless battles. As long as she maintained this overwhelming pressure, she could kill it completely before it transformed.

On the other side of the battlefield, Lu Ping faced the heavy Snake King Cursed Spirit.

Unlike the violent battles elsewhere, this fight was nearly soundless.

The Snake King Cursed Spirit's massive body rampaged through the square like a steamroller.

Every swing of its tail smashed a huge crater into the ground.

Yet it could not even touch the hem of Lu Ping's clothes.

Lu Ping's steps were unbelievably light, as though he were merely taking a stroll through his own backyard.

Facing the Snake King's overwhelming attacks, he did not choose to meet them head-on.

Whenever its fangs were about to touch his body, Lu Ping would silently sink into the shadows beneath his feet.

The next second, he would appear in the Snake King's blind spot—perhaps in the shadow cast by a streetlamp, perhaps in the darkness beneath a chunk of rubble.

The flexibility granted by the Ten Shadows Technique was being pushed to its absolute limit.

He continuously kited the enormous but insufficiently agile creature.

Holding black arrows formed from pure cursed energy, he fired again and again, each shot leaving a precise wound in the gaps between the Snake King's scales.

He did not overcommit, nor did he advance recklessly.

His breathing remained long and steady as he continually adjusted his condition, recovering from the energy spent summoning the Great Serpent.

While maintaining himself in perfect condition, Lu Ping still had enough attention to observe Qian Chun and the battle in the distant mountain forest.

He steadily weakened the Snake King Cursed Spirit's stamina and cursed energy, like an exceptionally patient hunter waiting for the perfect instant to strike and kill.

On this battlefield, Lu Ping gradually seized absolute control as time passed.

Everything seemed to be developing in a favorable direction.

Just as Lu Ping emerged from the shadow beneath the Snake King's abdomen once again, preparing to sever one of its main tendons, an abrupt change occurred.

There was no warning at all.

The Three Corpses inside him frantically warned him of fluctuating cursed energy.

To Lu Ping's left, a cold, clammy sensation suddenly came from the empty air.

From the corner of his eye, he caught a horrifying sight.

Eight dark green vertical pupils opened irregularly out of thin air.

They hung in the air in a strange hexagonal formation.

The eight eyes did not look toward either side fighting. Instead, they all stared directly at Lu Ping's profile.

An invisible wave instantly pierced through Lu Ping's retinas and reached deep into his brain.

It was an illusion-type technique.

The scene before him began to twist violently, while the Snake King Cursed Spirit's hissing seemed to drift alternately near and far.

The ground beneath his feet turned into a muddy swamp, and a powerful sensation of weightlessness instantly robbed him of control over his body.

At the last instant before his consciousness was dragged into the illusion, a flash of understanding crossed Lu Ping's mind.

All the clues finally connected.

He understood in an instant.

Why Suguru Geto, the Grade 1 Sorcerer hailed as a once-in-a-thousand-years genius, who wielded Cursed Spirit Manipulation and stood alongside Satoru Gojo as the strongest,

had silently met his downfall on a mission in this remote, backward mountain village!