Breaking the Deadlock

The pressure of a Special Grade Cursed Spirit blanketed the entire plaza.

Elsewhere, Lu Ping's consciousness completely broke free from the mire's restraints, his mind racing at an unprecedented speed.

The lingering dizziness from the illusion was swept away by the violent cursed energy within him, replaced by absolute coldness and clarity.

This ruined village had been an intricately woven chain of death traps from the very beginning.

First came bait meant to drain their stamina, followed by an illusion-type Cursed Spirit specializing in mental control, impossible to guard against.

Not only did these monsters each serve different functions, but they also possessed tremendous potential. Their coordination was practically perfect, complementing one another flawlessly.

Such an absurd lineup could never have emerged through natural evolution.

Someone had obviously arranged this high-level match deliberately.

The intended target was obvious—the Grade 1 Sorcerer hailed as one of the strongest of the current era, who possessed the means to subdue monsters.

This exclusive gift package had originally been prepared for Suguru Geto alone, only for the two of them to stumble into it after it had already been set in motion.

Lu Ping suddenly recalled the woman who had previously urged him and Qian Chun not to enter the village. Beneath the stray hair on her forehead, there had seemed to be a faint thread dyed red with blood!

As the clues connected in his mind, a trace of lingering fear passed through Lu Ping's heart.

The one likely orchestrating this trap against the holder of Cursed Spirit Manipulation was the legendary old monster who had survived for over a thousand years by stealing other people's bodies—the Special Grade Curse User, Kenjaku.

Though he could not determine where that mysterious curse user's true body was, Kenjaku was definitely nearby!

If one person had entered this dungeon alone, then across the entire Jujutsu World, aside from Satoru Gojo, who possessed the Limitless Technique, probably no one would have emerged unscathed.

During that brief window when the illusion had robbed him of control over his body, if not for the timely support from [Crimson Blood Manipulation], then against the Snake King's full-speed charge, even if he had not died on the spot, his spine would definitely have been bitten to pieces.

Now, seeing his comrade's sudden predicament in the distance, Lu Ping chose to stop holding back.

Behind him, the Mountain Spider, having discovered that its prey had escaped its control, let out an agitated screech.

It raised its scythe-like legs, attempting one final kill.

Lu Ping did not even glance back.

He merely parted his lips, his voice especially cold in the night wind.

"Shadow Wolf."

The calm shadows beneath the young man's feet instantly boiled.

Under the fundamental rules of the [Ten Shadows Technique], the maximum number of shikigami a caster could summon simultaneously was two.

Earlier, in order to alter the ritual, he had summoned the enormous serpent shikigami, but the other slot had remained vacant.

The shikigami that had stayed with him the longest had never been dismissed. Like the most loyal guard, it had silently lurked within the surrounding Shadow Space, protecting the little girl who had survived among the ruins while serving as his final trump card.

At this moment, that idle piece finally played its deadly role.

The pitch-black giant wolf burst from the shadows, carrying a foul wind that tore through the air as it precisely clamped its jaws around the Mountain Spider's head.

One was a weak Grade 1 Cursed Spirit with a fragile body that relied entirely on ambushes. The other was a High Grade 1 shikigami that had continuously evolved through countless brutal battles.

There was no suspense in the outcome. Shadow Wolf held an overwhelming advantage in close-quarters combat.

Behind him came the teeth-grating crack of shattering carapace and a shrill scream.

Lu Ping paid no attention to the one-sided slaughter behind him.

He drove his legs forward, crushing the stone slabs beneath his feet as he shot toward the center of the plaza like an arrow loosed from a bow.

In his sight, Kamo Chitsubaki was in terrible condition.

For a user of [Crimson Blood Manipulation], blood was a precious resource equivalent to both ammunition and life.

After a prolonged series of battles, her stamina had already been nearing its limit. Now that she had been maliciously drained of blood again, her condition would only slide irreversibly into the abyss.

As he ran, Lu Ping slipped his fingers into the shadows behind him.

Without hesitation, he drew out his last hidden killing weapon—the final [Nue's Feather].

The Three Corpses dormant within him let out greedy roars as massive cursed energy poured into the cursed tool without reservation.

Blinding arcs of electricity danced across the feather's surface, its tip locking firmly onto the bat monster that had just completed its transformation and stepped into the Special Grade realm.

At the center of the plaza, the battle was also changing in an instant.

Chitsubaki was, after all, a battle-hardened elite.

After half a second of stunned surprise at the ambush, her battle instincts, honed through countless trials, took over her body.

Suppressing the excruciating pain and dizziness in her ankle, she drove her heavy combat boot down with all her strength.

Bang!

A dull sonic boom rang out.

The tubular tail used to ambush and suck blood was brutally crushed against the rocky ground.

The feeding process was forcibly interrupted.

The crimson blood inside the tail tube, which the monster had not yet had time to fully digest, burst into the cold air with the shockwave, turning into a fine Blood Mist.

Chitsubaki did not hesitate for a moment, sharply turning over her right hand.

The scattered droplets of blood in the air seemed to be drawn by an invisible magnetic field. Defying gravity, they rapidly gathered in her palm and condensed into a highly concentrated blood sphere.

At the same time, she manipulated the remaining blood in her body toward her right ankle. The dark-red fluid swiftly covered the bone-deep wound, forcibly stopping the bleeding and sealing it shut.

By then, Lu Ping had reached the edge of the battlefield.

He stopped, gripping the lightning arrow in his hand as it gathered power, preparing to fire that fatal strike.

"Wait."

Chitsubaki suddenly turned her head and unexpectedly raised her left hand in an exceedingly resolute gesture to stop him.

Lu Ping's movements paused slightly, his brows furrowing almost imperceptibly.

"Don't worry about this side yet."

She straightened up, letting the night wind sweep through her disheveled short hair. Her gaze, sharp as a blade, swept over the Special Grade monster floating in midair.

"I want to face it one-on-one."

Lu Ping maintained his bow-drawing stance, his deep eyes shifting between the two of them.

He could see the true state of the situation.

Although the bat monster had forcibly crossed the barrier between grades, the cursed energy fluctuations around its body were extremely unstable. It was clearly a premature creature with a weak foundation.

And his comrade before him was at the end of her rope as well. There was not a trace of color in her pale face, and she was holding herself up entirely on sheer willpower.

To ensure nothing went wrong, Lu Ping closed his eyes and extended his spiritual perception outward through the network of Shadow Space.

Amid the distant layers of mountain ridges, the Great Serpent, empowered by the excessive cursed energy of the Three Corpses, was pinning the Snake God Cursed Spirit into the dirt and savagely tearing into it.

The balance of victory there had already tipped completely. The enemy's defeat was only a matter of time.

Having confirmed that the overall battle was settled and the advantage was theirs,

Lu Ping opened his eyes, nodded obediently on the surface, then took half a step back and slipped into the shadow of a broken wall.

But the taut string in his heart did not loosen in the slightest.

The moment his comrade ahead showed even the faintest sign of losing ground, the arrow in his hand would pierce that monster's skull without hesitation.

He would not gamble with a teammate's life.

However, Chitsubaki, standing in the center of the plaza, had not been blinded by battle fever.

What drove her to make this decision was the regret and hatred buried in her heart for many years.

Years ago, the team she had belonged to had suffered a near-total massacre on a similar rainy night.

The one hidden in the darkness, the one who had taken her companions' lives, had also been an extraordinarily treacherous blood-sucking Cursed Spirit.

Though much time had passed, the frequency of the cursed energy emanating from the monster before her was extremely similar to that nightmare's source.

She could not be certain whether this was the complete form of the killer from back then, but that no longer mattered.

This was the convergence of cause and effect, and an opportunity for redemption offered by fate.

She had no reason, nor could she allow herself, to let go of this chance to personally kill her nightmare.

The wind gradually died down.

Chitsubaki drew a deep breath. The condensed blood sphere in her palm began spinning at high speed, the pressure within it rising continuously.

Then the blood, like living vines, rapidly crawled and spread along her arm.

The instant the dark-red fluid touched the air, it hardened, condensing over her body into a sturdy suit of armor covered in barbs.

[Crimson Blood Manipulation: Blood Armor]!

After completing her armament, Chitsubaki slowly raised her head.

Rather than taking a defensive stance, she spread her arms and made an extremely provocative beckoning gesture toward the Special Grade monster in midair, which radiated terrifying pressure.

"Come here," she said softly.

"Let me hug you."