After landing a punch on Impermanence Heron, Mo Bai glanced at his fist.
For a moment, he had felt as though he was on the verge of grasping something. It was a strange feeling...
But the next instant, Mo Bai pushed the thought aside and issued a command to the Feathered Serpent in his mind.
"Roar!"
The massive Shikigami received his command and immediately charged toward Impermanence Heron.
Bang, bang, bang!!
The Feathered Serpent's enormous body battered Impermanence Heron. But then a purple beam swept upward through the holographic space.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!!
There was more than one. The purple beams stopped the Feathered Serpent's assault and drove its huge body back.
"All of you, back!"
At Mo Bai's shout, both the Feathered Serpent and the Divine Dogs dissolved into pools of shadow.
Now Mo Bai understood why so few people had cleared Holographic Strategy Five.
Whump, whump.
After repelling her enemies, Impermanence Heron beat her huge wings and rose into the air. Several wormhole-like openings appeared around her.
Mo Bai knew the earlier lasers had come from those openings.
And now every one of them was aimed at him.
Gulp.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
As Mo Bai swallowed, countless laser beams poured from the wormholes.
He watched them, his mind racing.
What should I do...?
Summon the Great Serpent to take the hits, then send Nue in when her attacks let up? No. Too risky. And Nue alone couldn't do nearly enough damage.
Hide in the shadows? No, there's no oxygen in there. I can't outlast her in this sealed space.
Wait. A sealed space?
At that thought, Mo Bai grinned.
Then it's worth a shot. This isn't even real. Trying won't cost me anything.
Clap!
Mo Bai interlocked his fingers and focused all his attention on the shadow beneath his feet.
He paid no heed to Impermanence Heron above him or the attack bearing down on him.
Rustle, rustle, rustle!
As Mo Bai poured in his Cursed Energy, the shadow beneath him spread outward like a rising tide.
While he concentrated on gathering Cursed Energy, something in the holographic space quietly changed.
At the edge of Mo Bai's vision, the panel displaying the holographic information suddenly glitched.
The panel changed itself from "Holographic Five" to "Holographic Six."
Mo Bai was still in the middle of a challenge. By rights, that should have been impossible.
But Mo Bai knew nothing about what had happened.
"Domain Expansion!"
Once his shadow covered the entire holographic space, Mo Bai shouted.
His emotions had reached a fever pitch.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Impermanence Heron's attacks were already upon him.
"Chimera Shadow Garden."
But as Mo Bai spoke the name of his domain, he sank into the shadows and evaded her attack.
Splash!
Along with Mo Bai, every energy beam Impermanence Heron had fired vanished into his shadow domain.
[Domain Expansion.]
It was an ultimate move Jujutsu Sorcerers learned once they understood their Cursed Technique to a certain degree, a feat at the pinnacle of their craft.
And a move regarded as a Jujutsu Sorcerer's ultimate weapon usually had two effects.
A guaranteed hit and a guaranteed kill.
In principle, though, only Jujutsu Sorcerers who had mastered Barrier Technique and possessed an inborn Innate Technique could use it.
To put it simply, Barrier Technique was the "cup" enclosing the enemy, and the Cursed Technique was the "water" filling it.
The domain's owner trapped the enemy with Barrier Technique, then filled that barrier with their Cursed Technique. The enemy inside was thus surrounded by the technique at every moment.
That was how it achieved a guaranteed hit and a guaranteed kill.
Mo Bai's Innate Technique was, without question, the Ten Shadows Technique the Goddess had imprinted on him.
But he knew nothing about Barrier Technique.
Normally, Domain Expansion should have been impossible for him.
As luck would have it, though, he was inside the enclosed space of Holographic Strategy.
He could skip the Barrier Technique and simply fill that enclosed space with his Cursed Technique.
This shortcut naturally had a drawback: without a Barrier Technique, his domain lacked the guaranteed-hit effect.
In short, Mo Bai's Domain Expansion was only half-finished.
Splash, splash, splash!
As Mo Bai's shadows absorbed Impermanence Heron's attacks, ripples appeared in the shadows covering the domain's ceiling.
Whoosh!
It was Impermanence Heron's own attack.
After Mo Bai's shadows swallowed her earlier laser beams, they promptly expelled them from the shadows above, sending them back at her.
The rule that Mo Bai had to bear the weight of anything inside his shadows still applied.
If Impermanence Heron's attacks grew dense enough, the excess weight could knock him out of the challenge.
So he had found a way to avoid that while turning her own attacks against her.
As he absorbed Impermanence Heron's beams, he immediately expelled them through the ceiling.
Because they emerged from below the ceiling and shot upward, he did not have to bear the cost of "lifting" their weight.
Bang, bang, bang!
"Ah!"
Impermanence Heron cried out as her own attacks struck her.
Her assault faltered.
"Nue."
"Screech, screech, screech!"
Seizing the opening, Mo Bai summoned three Nue. Wreathed in lightning, they charged at Impermanence Heron.
This was another effect of Mo Bai's domain.
It let him summon multiple copies of a Shikigami without reducing their power. Even if one was killed, it would not be permanently destroyed.
In other words...
Bang, bang, bang!
He could use his Shikigami as disposable suicide bombers.
Since they would not be permanently destroyed, Mo Bai had no reason to hold back.
This could work...
If I keep bombarding her like this, I can clear Holographic Five.
I can win. If I keep this up, I'll definitely...
Whoosh!
Just as Mo Bai was ready to declare victory, he saw every shadow in the holographic space disappear.
What?
He was not the only one stunned. Impermanence Heron, still in midair with her arms raised to defend herself, had not reacted either.
His Cursed Energy was still plentiful. Someone—or something—had forcibly broken his domain from outside.
Clap!
Mo Bai clapped his hands and formed the gesture again, but no Shikigami appeared.
"So I've got Cursed Technique Burnout..." Mo Bai grimaced.
[Cursed Technique Burnout.]
After a Jujutsu Sorcerer used Domain Expansion, their Cursed Technique became unavailable for a while.
In short, using an ultimate move put all their other abilities on cooldown.
I'll have to fight her hand-to-hand. But I had victory in the bag until something interfered.
As he thought this, Mo Bai noticed that his holographic panel now read "Holographic Six."
No wonder Impermanence Heron went so wild at the end...
Whoosh!
Seeing Mo Bai stand still, Impermanence Heron swooped down from above with her Scythe.
Clang!
The clash of two blades rang through the space.
But Mo Bai was not the one facing Impermanence Heron.
The last thing he saw was a pink-haired girl with a single ponytail standing before him, a lightsaber in her hand.
"That won't do. Outside interference isn't fair to students challenging Holographic Strategy~"
Before you continue