A one-way barrier, allowing entry but not exit, rose from the ground without warning.
A dark red hemisphere hangs upside down over Akihabara, completely isolating this bustling commercial district.
Lu Ping immediately realized that this "extraordinarily large tent" was a trap set up by the mastermind specifically to target him.
Pedestrians, blocked by an invisible wall, looked at each other in bewilderment, trying to touch the non-existent barrier with their hands.
Doubt and fear began to spread like a plague through the crowded streets.
On the rooftop of a high-rise building.
Mitarai Shizuru stopped manipulating the threads of Cursed Energy, turned to look at his companion beside him, and saw that Miwa Seigen also had a furrowed brow.
The two exchanged a glance, both reading confusion in each other's eyes.
They all turned around and looked at the old man standing behind them, who resembled a withered tree.
"Don't look at me," the man in black whispered hoarsely. "This 'tent' wasn't part of our original plan."
"Perhaps a well-meaning colleague is secretly pushing things along. In any case, this situation, like catching a turtle in a jar, is very conducive to our next hunt, isn't it?"
The back alley of the electronics district, near the maid café.
Dressed in a black and white maid outfit, Kenjaku knelt on the stained bricks, calmly withdrawing her right hand that was pressing against the ground, and straightened up again.
The Ten Shadows Sorcerer who made her heart race again in a thousand years at that barbecue restaurant last time, and who even took advantage of her in the end, has now fallen headlong into someone else's ambush.
Regardless of who orchestrated the event, as a seasoned entertainer, she felt it was her duty to lend a hand.
"Come on." Kenjaku brushed the dust off her skirt, her gaze fixed on the depths of the barrier. "Let me see your limits."
She was prepared to conduct long-distance observations, especially to gather combat intelligence on the legendary otherworldly god-general, Mahoraga.
Deep in the shadows, Lu Ping tried to summon the Shikigami in the distance.
The feedback received was intermittent; the [Shadow Wolf] had actually been isolated outside the dark red barrier.
After much deliberation, he decided to issue the order to continue searching for the source of the curse that was spreading the disease.
Surprisingly, despite the absurd tracking ability of specialized Shikigami, they still couldn't complete the tracing after so much time.
--
Unless the source possesses extremely high intelligence and is constantly moving to conceal its true nature.
If it truly reaches that level of intelligence, then it has probably completely transcended the realm of Cursed Womb and is a genuine Special Grade Cursed Spirit.
Putting aside the external threats for the moment, Lu Ping recalled the details of the self-destruct attack that had just occurred.
Although no complete sample was left for detailed study, the enhanced senses from the Three Corpses and the various messages transmitted back by the Cursed Residue have already explained everything.
Miwa Seigen's trump card was indeed destroyed at Hoshimi Shrine, but the essence of controlling Shikigami is a kind of servitude contract.
Although the contract terminates upon the death of the caster's body, the caster still retains the memories and core information of controlling that type of Shikigami within their body.
Mitarai Shizuru's research focuses on re-implanting this information into fresh organisms, thereby forcibly bypassing the ironclad rule that "Shikigami cannot be regenerated" and re-establishing the connection between Shikigami and mages.
In other words, each [Artificial Shikigami] created requires the consumption of a living human life as material.
The man who just exploded in front of me was definitely an ordinary, living person before he was strapped to the operating table and had his core inserted.
To maintain the pervasive influence of negative emotions, they would even imitate the ritual of creating Cursed Tool by piling up the corpses of Cursed Spirit next to ancestral weapons. "[Bathing]," accumulating negative emotions by surrounding the living with the dead to enhance the quality of the finished Shikigami.
The thought of that dark industrial chain hidden deep underground sent a chill down Lu Ping's spine.
What followed was a surge of anger, like magma gradually boiling.
Humans cannot, at least should not, be treated as disposable commodities.
The Three Corpses within the body began to operate at high speed, greedily devouring the rising anger within the host's body.
The shadow beneath my feet seemed to come alive, rapidly expanding outwards and silently connecting with the shadows of the surrounding buildings and people.
The growing panic, anxiety, and despair among the crowd were directly absorbed into the Three Corpses silhouette, which was gradually growing taller, like a whale swallowing the sea.
Human Transmutation has completely violated the absolute taboo of the Jujutsu World.
By the standards of any official institution, both of these Curse User would be considered death row inmates deserving of no mercy.
Lu Ping felt the massive amount of Cursed Energy surging wildly within his body and took a step to try moving eastward.
This was during the lunch break peak.
Office workers rushing back to work, passersby eager to get home, and tourists queuing for meals were all squeezed together by this barrier that allowed entry but not exit.
The population density in modern metropolises is already exaggerated, and the mountain of negative emotions piled up at this moment is an unparalleled feast for the three households.
With a massive influx of nutrients, Lu Ping received a terrifying boost far exceeding that he had experienced in Snakebone Village.
In this situation, Lu Ping no longer needs to consider any consumption issues. His Cursed Energy is inexhaustible, and how much he can use depends entirely on the performance of the Cursed Technique and his level of Cursed Energy manipulation.
It's practically a state of [Infinite Cursed Energy]!
With the support of this immense Cursed Energy, Lu Ping keenly sensed something amiss.
A chilling aura, unique to Cursed Spirit, flashed past the nearby street corner.
The intelligence officer at the Jujutsu High had previously reported that a Grade 1 Cursed Spirit was lurking in the residential area near the Hoshimi Shrine, which was most likely the one he had just sensed.
Since those two Curse User are also hiding in the shadows, wary of each other, why not take action against this prey that has deliberately exposed its weakness?
After walking fifty meters, an almost transparent curtain of light appeared in his field of vision.
Countless extremely fine Cursed Energy were woven into a huge net-like barrier.
It is about three stories high and completely covers a block of about 200 meters in radius.
Lu Ping flicked his finger, tentatively sending a wisp of Cursed Energy towards the silk net.
The moment they made contact, the wisp of Cursed Energy was dissolved and absorbed as if it had been thrown into the sea.
At the same time, the threads on the net produced a faint tremor that was barely perceptible to the naked eye, which quickly transmitted signals to the central nervous system.
This is a huge sensing network.
The manipulator behind the scenes adjusts the outermost, sturdy silken barrier in real time based on feedback from the inner, fragile mesh to trap the prey.
Any physical contact would immediately reveal his coordinates, and his space of movement was shrinking at a visible rate.
A few blocks away.
Sensing the faint fluctuations emanating from the spider web, Mitarai Shizuru felt a surge of joy.
Without hesitation, he activated the Innate Technique, manipulating the entire network of silk threads to instantly contract, attempting to cut and seal the exposed Ten Shadows Sorcerer on the spot.
However, this level of Binding Vow is no match for Lu Ping now that he has entered the [Infinite Cursed Energy] state.
The terrifying Cursed Energy enhanced his physical body in every way, causing all of his physical attributes to instantly soar to the level of a non-human monster.
Faced with the overwhelming barrage of wire mesh, Lu Ping did not pause.
"Bang!!!"
He took a single step forward, using his incredibly powerful physique to smash through the silken barrier that would be considered a wall of sighs by a regular mage!
The broken silver thread drifted helplessly down in mid-air.
Ahead was an abandoned theater that was not yet open for business, and the surrounding air was unusually cold.
As Lu Ping stepped over the shattered tempered glass, his keen hearing caught a very faint, unusual sound.
The sound did not originate from the ground, but rather from deep within the theater.
The slightly shrill cries of the baby came intermittently, as if possessing a captivating power.
A dazed single mother stumbles toward the theater's open, dark doors.