Smack!
Mo Bai stood on the grassland and slowly formed a hand sign.
He needed to subjugate a new Shikigami.
The Remnant Star Society's invasion had nearly led to a Voidworm attack on the Academy. The school would likely be on high alert now, so his life there should not be in much danger from here on out.
Lynae had turned over a new leaf. The greatest danger he might face at the Academy now was probably a crash during one of her high-speed drives.
But Mo Bai thought of Rover.
His friend was a Threnodian of the Black Shores. Mo Bai suspected he had come to Lahai Luo for something important.
Not that his friend had told him what he planned to do.
Still, when a friend beside him had something big to accomplish, Mo Bai wanted to be of some use.
He touched the tips of his index fingers, middle fingers, and thumbs together to form a frog's mouth, curled his ring fingers slightly for its nose, bent his little fingers to leave gaps for its eyes, and spread the spaces between his thumbs and index fingers to give the mouth depth.
"Toad!"
Whoosh!
At Mo Bai's summons, a huge green Toad emerged from the shadow ahead of him.
"Ribbit, ribbit."
Apart from the intricate Runes carved into its belly, the Shikigami looked no different from an enormous toad.
Mo Bai knew that the Subjugation Ritual had begun the moment he summoned it.
This was a utility Shikigami. Without outside assistance, it could easily be subjugated with an offensive Shikigami like the Divine Dogs.
But Mo Bai wanted to use the Shikigami before him to test something else.
"The Toad's attack power is weak. I can try..."
Thud!
Muttering to himself, Mo Bai chose not to summon another Shikigami. Instead, he charged at the enemy himself.
The Toad Shikigami did not hesitate either. It attacked at once.
"Ribbit."
It opened its mouth and shot out its long tongue.
It was not an offensive Shikigami, but a hit from that lightning-fast tongue would still hurt.
Mo Bai was not about to let it land.
Smack!
He grabbed its slippery tongue with his bare hand and gave it a mighty pull.
"Come here!"
Whump!
The Toad could not match Mo Bai's Cursed Energy-enhanced strength. He yanked it off the ground and into the air, then hauled it toward him.
"Ribbit, ribbit!"
Mo Bai was certain now: without a supply of Cursed Energy, an unsubjugated Toad Shikigami was remarkably weak.
It would do as a training dummy.
He was confident he could learn a Jujutsu Sorcerer's "ultimate move," so it was time to start training his hand-to-hand combat.
Whoosh!
As the Toad reached him, Mo Bai released it with his right hand. Cursed Energy surged through that hand.
A Jujutsu Sorcerer could enhance his fighting ability by channeling Cursed Energy through his entire body or concentrating it at a single point. Mo Bai had known that for some time.
With Cursed Energy strengthening him, he was sure it would not take long to defeat the Toad Shikigami.
But the instant his punch struck the Toad, his Cursed Energy output lagged for a moment.
"Ribbit! Gak!"
That brief delay meant the Toad Shikigami took two impacts from Mo Bai's single punch.
The first came from the force of his fist; the second, from the late-arriving Cursed Energy.
"Was I forcing it too much...?"
Mo Bai flexed his fist and frowned.
Divergent Fist was a technique born from a habit some Jujutsu Sorcerers developed: when reinforcing their bodies, their Cursed Energy instinctively arrived a beat late.
That delay let them deliver two impacts with one punch, just as Mo Bai had, catching an enemy off guard.
But Mo Bai had no natural tendency to release his Cursed Energy late. He had deliberately done so with that punch, hoping Divergent Fist would help him master another skill.
Instead, forcing Divergent Fist had only weakened his punch.
"Ribbit..."
The Toad Shikigami twitched on the ground. Mo Bai wasted no more time and stepped forward to finish it off.
Smack!
Once subjugated, these Shikigami would be part of his own shadow. Watching one suffer felt strangely uncomfortable.
"Next..."
After successfully subjugating the Toad Shikigami, Mo Bai recalled the Great Serpent Shikigami he had summoned earlier to hold off the Voidworm.
A Shikigami destroyed after he subjugated it would indeed vanish for good. But the Great Serpent Shikigami the Voidworm had destroyed had not yet been subjugated, so nothing was lost. He could summon it again now.
Mo Bai looked around. Once he was sure no one nearby could be caught up in the Subjugation Ritual, he began forming the hand sign.
He curled his left hand into a claw and wound his right hand around it, his fingers undulating like a real snake. His thumb and index finger opened and closed to mimic its jaws.
"Great Serpent!"
With the preparations for Mo Bai's Subjugation Ritual complete, the shadow beneath his feet spread forward.
The vast shadow seemed to nurture the Shikigami. Before long, the enormous Great Serpent Shikigami slithered out of it and fixed Mo Bai with a menacing stare.
The one-on-one Subjugation Ritual was about to begin again.
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