The three of them kept up their relentless pursuit.
The Yellow Weasel was clearly fleeing in blind panic.
With its form unstable, it staggered as it ran, occasionally crashing into abandoned machinery.
Each collision produced a dull thud and an even more furious screech, leaving a few golden hairs behind.
Just then, a streak of blue light shot out from behind them like a meteor.
Whoosh!
"What the hell!?"
The Yellow Weasel recoiled in shock.
It felt only a breeze sweep past its side. Before it could even make out his movements, Qi Wu had appeared beside it like a phantom.
Now, Qi Wu was running almost parallel to the desperately fleeing Yellow Weasel!
He even had the leisure to turn his head and comment on the Yellow Weasel, whose body flickered with golden light while the phantom outline of a skirt appeared and vanished:
"Slow down. Your skirt's about to fall off."
[Irritation Points +500]
"Screeeech!!!"
The Yellow Weasel was so furious it nearly burst a blood vessel on the spot. It somehow fled even faster, instinctively pawing at the nonexistent skirt behind its backside.
Following on his white snake, Xuan Chenzi was dumbstruck by Qi Wu's astonishing speed. He even forgot to stroke his goatee:
"Sh-shrinking the distance?! A spatial ability!? Just who is this kid?!"
Qi Wu trailed behind the Yellow Weasel as casually as if he were strolling through a garden.
No matter how the Yellow Weasel darted left and right, or even tried to squeeze into narrow pipes.
He always appeared instantly in the most inconvenient spot for it, moving at a seemingly unhurried yet perfectly precise pace, occasionally adding another remark:
"It's slippery over here. Watch your step."
"Your fur's losing its color. Pretty shoddy quality~"
"Your animal ears are crooked. Want me to straighten them?"
Every remark struck like a mental attack, hitting the Yellow Weasel right in its fragile heart and sense of shame. It shrieked with rage, its escape route growing increasingly erratic. Several times, it nearly ran into a wall all on its own.
[Irritation Points +250] [Irritation Points +350] [Current Satoru Gojo fusion level: 47%...48%...]
Following behind, Xuan Chenzi went from shock to numb resignation, and finally even began to feel a little sympathy for the Yellow Weasel...
Who wouldn't go mad under this combination of physical and mental torment?
"Mr. Gojo! It's about to get into that ventilation duct!"
Jiang Qingyue called out urgently as the Yellow Weasel spotted an open, rusted ventilation duct and made to dive inside.
"It won't fit."
Qi Wu's voice remained calm.
Sure enough, the Yellow Weasel had barely shoved its head and front half inside when the intermittently appearing phantom skirt and its occasionally swelling rear left it stuck in the opening!
It writhed frantically and squealed in anguish, unable to move forward or backward!
Qi Wu strolled over and crouched beside it.
Watching the Yellow Weasel stuck there, with only its tail thrashing outside and its backside still struggling to conjure a skirt, he rubbed his chin:
"Hmm, maybe we should put it out of its misery. I'm no devil, after all."
Jiang Qingyue and the newly arrived Xuan Chenzi looked at the ridiculous yet tragic scene, unsure what expression to make.
Xuan Chenzi sighed, stepped forward, and took a specially crafted demon-binding talisman from inside his robes:
"Alas, you wicked beast. If you knew it would come to this, why do it in the first place...? Letting this humble Daoist capture you would have been better than suffering such humiliation..."
Yet just as Xuan Chenzi was about to stick the talisman onto it, the trapped Yellow Weasel unleashed one final, desperate burst of Spiritual Power!
Awooo-!
The ground suddenly shook.
Xuan Chenzi's pupils contracted sharply.
"An earth ability!?"
This earth ability was the Yellow Weasel's true trump card.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!!!
As the ground trembled, countless earthen spikes abruptly erupted beneath the three of them and all around them without warning!
Made of hard earth and rock, these razor-sharp spikes carried dense earth-aspected spiritual energy, instantly turning the once-flat ground into a deadly field of traps!
"Watch out!"
Xuan Chenzi reacted instantly with a shout. The white snake beneath his feet abruptly coiled upward into the air, carrying him clear of the spikes beneath him by the narrowest margin.
At the same time, he swept his fly whisk, sending out several streaks of clear light that shattered the spikes shooting toward Jiang Qingyue.
Jiang Qingyue was startled too, but her combat instincts kicked in, and she sprang nimbly backward.
Her black thigh-high boots touched the side of a spike, using it as a foothold to flip backward again and narrowly evade the surprise attack.
The curse mark on her wrist flashed red. A surge of energy flowed out on its own, forming a small cushioning barrier where she landed and shattering the spikes just emerging beneath her feet.
Qi Wu's two hours of special training had sharpened her combat awareness.
Facing the densest and sharpest thicket of spikes erupting beneath him, Qi Wu merely clicked his tongue.
He did not even make any sweeping evasive movements. He simply stood where he was.
The spikes that should have struck him seemed to have eyes, passing within a hair's breadth of his clothes without touching so much as a strand of his hair.
[Limitless]!
Taking advantage of the spikes attacking the three of them.
The Yellow Weasel seemed to exhaust all its strength. Its body shrank, finally allowing it to force its way into the duct.
It left behind only a few golden hairs and a shrill cry filled with boundless venom echoing through the duct:
"Scree-! Just you wait! If I don't avenge this, may I never become an immortal!!!"
Its voice grew fainter and fainter. Clearly, it was fleeing along the duct into the more complicated underground areas.
"Oh? You had that trick up your sleeve too? You kept it well hidden."
Qi Wu raised an eyebrow.
As he watched the Yellow Weasel, utterly drained from unleashing its last reserves of Spiritual Power, seize its chance to break free of the opening and scramble deeper into the darkness, his tone held a trace of surprise-but far more of that infuriating, effortless composure.
Xuan Chenzi stared at the duct opening, which was still shedding debris, looking thoroughly vexed:
"Alas, we let a sure catch slip away. Who knew this wicked beast had an earth ability too?"
Qi Wu, however, did not seem particularly surprised. He stood up and brushed off some nonexistent dust:
"It's fine. It's in terrible shape now. It can't escape our senses."
Qi Wu's Six Eyes already made him extremely sensitive to spiritual energy (cursed energy).
He could easily sense where the Yellow Weasel was fleeing.
Knowing exactly where it was, he felt no urgency.
Still, rather than pointing that out directly, he turned toward Jiang Qingyue.
"All right, warm-up's over. Now the real hunt begins. Qingyue, your curse mark should have 'memorized' its scent by now, right?"
Jiang Qingyue's curse mark had an innate ability to track Demons.
Before the potential of the "Demon God Curse Mark" had been uncovered, she had always been treated as a perception-based support operative.
Having her track the Yellow Weasel now was the perfect opportunity to train the sensory abilities of this member of his team.
And this happened to be right within Jiang Qingyue's comfort zone.
Jiang Qingyue immediately sensed the curse mark on her wrist, which remained hot and faintly pointed in a particular direction, then nodded firmly:
"Yes! It won't get away!"
Before you continue