Disturbances

Lu Ping just prepared to look closer, only to find that several people had already squeezed into the crowd, making precise strikes difficult.

Shoko on the other side had not noticed the changes in the crowd, still explaining naturally.

She pointed to the huge green circular ring that had already been erected at the main entrance of the shrine and exuded the fresh fragrance of grass, continuing:

"Throughout the entire month of June in the middle of the year, various shrines have related pilgrimage activities, and today—June 30th, is the day when this festival reaches its climax. Look at that grass ring erected at the shrine entrance that is larger than a person; it is called the 'Grass Ring'. Believers believe that by passing through it, they can drive away the evil spirits and impurities entangling their bodies."

"Drive away evil spirits?" Lu Ping raised an eyebrow, calming the Three Corpses in his body that were restless due to the rich negative emotions around them.

"It sounds a lot like our job."

"The principle is similar, but this originated from an ancient legend about 'Susanoo-no-Mikoto'," Shoko said as if rattling off family treasures,

"It is said that Susanoo-no-Mikoto sought shelter during his journey. Although a god named 'Aimenrai' lived in extreme poverty at the time, he still gave him the warmest hospitality. To repay this kindness, Susanoo-no-Mikoto told him that in the future, as long as he wore a ring woven from grass around his waist, he would survive plagues. This is the origin of the grass ring driving away evil."

Speaking of this, the two had already walked to the steps below the shrine.

Lu Ping noticed that many worshippers were queuing up, walking through the grass ring according to a certain special trajectory.

"Passing through this grass ring also has strict rules, known as the 'Eight-Part Method'."

Watching, Shoko gestured to Lu Ping, "The specific rules of each shrine may have slight differences, but the usual practice is:

Believers chant ancient sacred songs in their mouths while first stepping out with the left foot to cross the grass ring, then turning left and circling back to the front; next, stepping out with the right foot to cross the grass ring, turning right and circling back to the front again; finally, repeating the first step, crossing the grass ring with the left foot and turning left. The entire ceremony requires a total of eight steps, forming a figure-eight trajectory of 'left, right, left'. Before entering the main hall to worship, some strict shrines will also require you to sprinkle 'Kirin Grass'—which is hemp and paper cut into small pieces—on your body to further purify your body and mind."

Lu Ping listened with great interest. He had also done related research in his past life, knowing that this belonged to a low-level 'Exorcistic Rite', mobilizing the aura of the whole body through specific footwork and psychological suggestion.

"Besides walking through the grass ring, there is another more concrete custom." Shoko pointed to a large number of paper sheets placed on the offering table on one side of the shrine,

"That is the 'Human Effigy' doll, a piece of paper cut into the shape of a human. During the Nagoshi no Harae festival, believers will write their names and ages on these effigies, then use the paper sheets to rub their bodies or blow air at them. They believe that through this action, all the disasters, impurities, and even the bad luck of sick or injured parts accumulated in their bodies over the past half year can be completely transferred to this human effigy. After the ceremony ends, these effigies will be collected and placed into the shrine as substitutes for the believers' impurities. Some shrines throw them into rivers, while others use sacred fire to centrally burn them in the middle of the night to completely eliminate bad luck."

"I see..."

A trace of realization flashed through Lu Ping's gaze. No wonder the Three Corpses in his body were restless just now; perhaps they sensed food, which was the rich breath of negative emotions.

So-called 'bad luck' and 'impurities' were metaphysics in the eyes of ordinary people, but in the eyes of sorcerers, these were the purest negative emotions.

The anger, jealousy, and anxiety suppressed by humans in daily life were concretized, assigned, and excreted onto the 'Human Effigy' paper sheets through acts with a strong ritualistic sense like 'blowing air' and 'rubbing paper dolls'.

In other words, tens of thousands of ordinary people all over Tokyo today were actively stripping away, packing up, and centrally transporting their negative emotions to various shrines for processing!

"No wonder Jujutsu High designated this place as a red alert zone," Lu Ping pondered inwardly. "If something goes wrong with the ritual of burning or processing the paper dolls at this juncture, causing those stripped negative emotions to fail to be thoroughly purified and instead erupt in a concentrated manner... what kind of cursed spirit cluster will instantly hatch?!"

Just as Lu Ping had sorted out this layer of logic and was about to discuss with Shoko to check the ritual preparation area behind the shrine—

"BOOM!!"

Without warning, an abrupt and extremely intense cursed energy fluctuation violently and wildly exploded from inside the shrine—the direction of the crowd where the two little girls had just advanced!

The [Three Corpses Manipulation] inside Lu Ping's body almost broke out of his body at this instant, emitting a harsh alarm.

His pupils abruptly shrank to the size of needle tips.

This was definitely not the chaotic, disordered, scattered cursed energy purely driven by instinct like wild cursed spirits.

This cursed energy was extremely condensed, aggressive, and carried an extremely morbid, precise manipulative feel belonging to human techniques.

"This isn't a cursed spirit..."

Lu Ping abruptly turned his head to look deep into the shrine, his fingers pressing harder against the hilt of the 'Tozama' replica at his waist, his voice cold:

"Someone is using this festival to launch a terrorist attack!!"

"Damn it!" Shoko's expression also completely changed, her lazy gaze instantly turning stern. She instinctively picked up the phone to make a call, and upon hearing a busy tone, she quickly reacted and reminded him:

"It's a 'Curtain' that cuts off the outside signal! There are curse users familiar with barrier techniques in this attack!"

So-called curse users were sorcerers who broke away from the control of the jujutsu world and used jujutsu to commit illegal and criminal acts, usually acting in groups.

However, before the two of them could make further responses or evacuation actions, the next second—

"BANG—!!!!"

A deafening, huge explosion, mixed with rolling heatwaves and pungent smoke, violently blasted in the direction of the main hall of the shrine!

The ancient building that was originally quiet and solemn trembled violently in the firelight, and countless red paper lanterns were instantly torn apart by the shock wave, turning into burning debris filling the sky and fluttering down.

The illusory peace and happiness of the festival were completely shattered at this moment.

"Ah—! Explosion!!" "Help! There's a terrorist attack!!" "My child! Don't trample me!!"

After a brief dead silence, the thousands of ordinary people in the shrine plaza finally reacted.

Extreme fear defeated reason in an instant, and the crowd began to scream and cry frantically.

The worshippers who had been queuing up in an orderly manner to walk through the grass ring instantly turned into disordered, headless flies. The surging crowd resembled a breached flood, frantically pushing, trampling, and crowding toward the only exit—the commercial street where Lu Ping and Shoko were located!

Cursed spirits lurking in the shadows gradually appeared, wantonly breathing in the air filled with fear.

The chaos instantly turned the commercial street of the Demon Hour into a living hell.