Lu Ping was in a state of high-intensity enhanced Cursed Energy, leaving no blind spots in the protection of his senses.
Therefore, when the Grade 1 Cursed Spirit activated the [Crying Abyss] Cursed Technique, the piercing screams that emanated from the theater, after being filtered through layers of the Three Corpses Cursed Energy, did not have a substantial impact on Lu Ping's consciousness.
Before setting off, he had reviewed the relevant files in Masamichi Yaga's office.
For an ordinary sorcerer who is unprepared with intelligence, the sudden mental attack from this Cursed Spirit is indeed extremely troublesome.
However, once the mechanics of the Cursed Technique are known in advance, its threat level is even lower than that of Grade 2 Sorcerer.
By concentrating Cursed Energy at a high density in the eardrums and brain for targeted defense, one can largely counteract the "mental pollution" that comes with this type of Cursed Technique.
Seeing that the dazed single mother was about to step into the dark doors of the theater, Lu Ping stopped hiding his presence.
He took a step forward, and the surging shadow beneath his feet stretched forward at lightning speed, instantly clinging to the woman's ankle.
The shadow suddenly pulled her downwards, forcibly sinking half of her body into its depths, as if she were trapped in a viscous swamp, completely halting her progress.
Lu Ping quickly closed the distance, grabbed the woman's shoulder, and pulled her out of the shadows.
Before leaving, his eyes, enhanced by the Cursed Energy, coldly swept over the dark theater doors.
Without hesitation, he carried the unconscious woman and retreated quickly until he was dozens of meters away and could no longer hear the eerie baby crying. Only then did he lay her flat on a relatively safe street corner.
However, after pulling this ordinary woman back from the brink of death, Lu Ping's expression did not relax; instead, it became even more stern.
In that brief moment of glimpse, the Three Corpses' senses penetrated the Cursed Energy barrier surrounding the theater.
Inside that dark building, he sensed a dozen faint life responses and several murky fluctuations of Cursed Energy.
This theater is very likely an underground factory that Mitarai Shizuru is secretly using to conduct human experiments on [Artificial Shikigami]. If no rescue operation is taken immediately, those ordinary people who are being used as experimental subjects will definitely not survive today.
But if we rashly barge in, we'll be playing right into their hands.
Just as Lu Ping was quickly weighing the pros and cons, the woman lying on the ground let out a painful groan and struggled to wake up.
The moment she opened her eyes, she went mad, crying and screaming that she had to rush back to that gloomy theater to save her child who had been drawn in by the baby's cries.
Lu Ping's heart tightened.
He placed his hand on the woman's shoulder and asked in a low voice about the child's physical characteristics.
When he looked into the room just now, he did sense a small life form rapidly weakening, its life force constantly draining away like sand in an hourglass.
This is entirely reasonable.
Cursed Spirit are born from uncontrolled, dissipated Cursed Energy and negative emotions.
They naturally regard human flesh and blood and fear as the most delicious food.
As the purest initial form of humanity, infants, whether it be their fresh flesh and blood or their instinctive negative emotions, are a great source of nourishment for Cursed Spirit.
Moreover, the monster that inhabits the theater is itself an anomaly that hunts by Copy the cries of babies.
Lu Ping secretly speculated that this Cursed Spirit was most likely formed from the resentment of unborn children who died before birth.
It harbors intense resentment towards the world, Copy the cries of a baby to lay a trap.
The woman gripped Lu Ping's arm tightly, introducing herself incoherently, "My name is Midou Ruri. My lost son is Midou Taki. He's wearing blue overalls and a conspicuous baseball cap. Please, I beg you to help me."
Using the still-burning [Infinite Cursed Energy] within his body, Lu Ping made a decision.
His current state of Infinite Cursed Energy, aside from the domain and Cursed Technique enhancements, is very similar to that of Kinji Hakari "won the grand prize".
Even if this theater is a den of dragons and tigers, he's going to brave it today.
Lu Ping first calmed down the emotionally unstable Midou Ruri, letting the Three Corpses devour her negative emotions from behind, before turning around and walking alone towards the dark theater door.
There was not a single light source inside; it was an abyss where you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.
Lu Ping shut down his vision and focused all his attention on perceiving the Cursed Energy.
The surrounding environment quickly formed a clear three-dimensional model in my mind.
There are signs of life in about twenty ordinary people inside the building.
These breaths were extremely faint, filled with fear, and crammed together in one area like sardines.
At the same time, the Three Corpses locked onto four obvious sources of Cursed Energy:
Two entities, located in the central stage area, of moderate intensity, are continuously emitting Cursed Energy.
Hidden in the shadows of the second-floor audience seating area, the fluctuations were weak, indicating it was in a dormant, standby state.
There was also an extremely powerful source of Cursed Energy, which remained stationary outside the building.
Lu Ping's mind raced like a supercomputer.
The other party knew very well that, as Jujutsu Sorcerer with Jujutsu High, he would never easily give up the lives of civilians.
This is a fatal weakness in the official mage education system.
By concentrating the hostages in the center of the battlefield, there is only one way to completely seal his wide-area destructive Cursed Technique.
The other side is restricting me; if I use my trump card to clear the area, the hostage will inevitably be killed along with me.
These hostages were not only human shields, but also bait.
Stepping into the theater is tantamount to walking into a carefully laid trap set by the enemy.
This is the most classic "luring the enemy into a trap" tactic.
Lu Ping pondered to himself.
He couldn't sit idly by and ignore the cause and effect of those twenty lives, but he also wouldn't interfere blindly.
Since he absolutely has to get in, he can choose how to get in.
Lu Ping didn't foolishly push open the main door.
He walked around to a shadowy corner of the theater's outer wall, slowly squatted down, and pressed his right palm against the cold cement floor.
A tiny crack silently opened in the Shadow Space.
His perception, like mercury spilling onto the ground, quietly seeped into the theater, following the huge shadows cast by the buildings.
The internal reconnaissance results were gradually fed back.
This is a standard proscenium stage theater.
There are approximately 500 seats in the auditorium.
At this moment, the twenty-odd civilians were tightly bound to the seats in the first three rows by densely packed threads of Cursed Energy.
Their mouths were sealed shut with some kind of gelatinous substance, and they could only utter desperate whimpers in extreme fear.
All the ends of the threads converged towards the center of the stage.
There stood a Human Effigy silhouette, standing proudly with the air of a conductor, surrounded by high-density Cursed Energy fluctuations.
Even without seeing the face clearly, this aura was enough to confirm that it was [Binding Spirit Adept] Mitarai Shizuru.
In the very center of the stage, a gigantic, pale-skinned Mermaid Curse Spirit was coiled up.
In its arms, it tightly held a little boy wearing blue overalls, the very boy it was rescuing— Midou Taki.
In the VIP room on the second floor, the faint source of Cursed Energy was still in standby mode, most likely Artificial Shikigami that had been arranged in advance.
The high-intensity source of Cursed Energy that was moving outside the building remained completely still.
An action plan instantly took shape in my mind.
Using the Shadow Space, they directly infiltrated the orchestra pit area directly below the stage.
Prioritize confirming the hostages' vital signs and figuring out the control mechanism of the silk threads.
If given the chance, find the core node of the barrier directly and kill it with a single blow.
If you cannot break through the formation in one strike, prioritize protecting the hostage area in the front row and use the [Piercing Ox Horn Bow]'s extremely long range to snipe Mitarai Shizuru, who specializes in creating barriers.
Lu Ping's figure moved through the world of shadows like a ghost.
He peered out from the shadows cast by the gaps in the stage's wooden floor.
After confirming that there were no trigger traps above, he emerged silently from under the floor like a drop of ink in water.
At this moment, he was standing in the sunken orchestra pit in front of the stage, with the half-person-high conductor's podium perfectly concealing his figure.
Through the gaps in the wooden planks, he observed the hostages in the front row up close.
They were all living people.
Although he was breathing rapidly and his face was pale, he was not in immediate danger of dying.
The silk threads Binding Vow them did not cut into their flesh, but rather wrapped around their surface like a spider web.
Without the slightest hesitation, Lu Ping flipped his wrist.
He compressed his Cursed Energy into the edge of his palm, then with his fingers together like a knife, he unleashed a sharp blade of Cursed Energy.
An invisible blade swept across the ground, instantly severing the control threads connecting all the hostages.
Now there's only one goal left.
The little boy held tightly in the arms of the white Mermaid Curse Spirit.
Lu Ping looked up.
As the distance closed, the conductor's figure on the stage became clearer.
The other person was a man around forty years old, with a thin face, deep-set eyes, and a sickly appearance due to chronic sleep deprivation. The hem of his black trench coat moved without any wind.
His bare fingers were wrapped with countless transparent threads of varying thickness, like a giant spider web covering the entire theater.
Although the face was somewhat blurry, the unique Cursed Energy was unmistakable; it was none other than Mitarai Shizuru.
The moment Lu Ping confirmed the other party's identity.
"Buzz"
At the same time, all the exits, windows, and even the ventilation ducts overhead in the entire theater erupted with a piercing buzzing sound as if threads were being rapidly stretched taut.
All avenues of retreat were completely blocked at this moment.
Lu Ping slowly stood up from the orchestra pit, no longer concealing his presence.
The two stood facing each other across the stage, ten meters apart.
Mitarai Shizuru is like a puppeteer standing at the top of a stage, his ten fingers slightly bent and extended, controlling the life and death of the entire audience.
Just as tensions were rising, a sudden round of applause came from above.
"Clap, clap, clap."
Miwa Seigen's malicious voice echoed in the darkness of the second-floor private room.
"I can't believe you, you fool, actually had the guts to sneak in. Now you're really doomed, and don't expect your Jujutsu High classmates to come to your rescue."
With a snap of his fingers, the twenty-odd hostages who had just had their threads cut by Lu Ping and seemed to have been rescued stood up stiffly from their seats.
Like a group of soulless puppets, they turned around in unison, facing the stage, and began to clap mechanically.
Lu Ping's gaze instantly turned icy.
Under the keen insight of the Three Corpses' extraordinary Cursed Energy, the cruel truth could no longer be hidden.
These hostages did indeed retain their last breath before the threads were cut.
But their vitality had already been completely drained by the prolonged torment.
The instant Miwa Seigen snapped his fingers, the pre-planted hints within them were triggered, and the Cursed Technique was activated.
The remaining life force of these twenty-odd civilians was instantly drained, and they collectively crossed the line of death.
They transformed into Undead Shikigami temporarily controlled by Miwa Seigen.
Lu Ping didn't speak again, his right hand already firmly gripping the [Piercing Ox Horn Bow] that emerged from the shadows.
In the center of the stage, Mitarai Shizuru still did not turn around.
He merely plucked a single thread from his fingertip, and his hoarse voice echoed throughout the empty theater, carried by the vibrations of the thread.
Welcome!
The best front-row seat is ready for you.
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