Gu Yanzhi's consciousness awakened once more, returning to the familiar System Space.
The deep-blue void stretched endlessly beneath his feet, still feeling reassuringly solid underfoot.
He let out a long breath and sat cross-legged, the final moments of the battle still replaying in his mind.
This fight had exposed far too many problems.
In terms of combat experience, he was still nowhere near veteran sorcerers like Uro and Dhruv Lakdawalla. They could see through his attack rhythm in just a few exchanges, while his assessment of their attack patterns always lagged half a beat behind.
In that final fight with Uro, if Mishima hadn't rushed in at the last moment and upset the balance, the outcome would have remained uncertain. And his ability to counter domain expansion was severely limited.
Uro's domain wasn't even a sure-hit type, only an enhancement type-dodging Thin Ice Breaker had been pure luck. Against a genuine sure-hit domain expansion, he would basically be waiting to die.
But all he could do was hope for a suitable opportunity later, such as transmigrating into a sorcerer with a domain or finding a way to survive domain expansion.
The system's settlement screens began to appear.
First came the settlement for causality points-Gu Yanzhi stared at the line of text, his brows slowly drawing together.
[The host's interference with the plot was limited this time. No causality points earned.]
None!?
Not a single point!
He had thought he would at least earn a few-he had killed those two Swimmers, saved the child named Mishima, fought Dhruv Lakdawalla's shikigami, affected the situation in the Sendai Colony, and fought Uro, which had even paved the way for Okkotsu's sweep to some extent. Yet the system had awarded him nothing.
Once he calmed down, Gu Yanzhi propped his chin on his hand and reviewed this life from beginning to end.
He had only lived half a day in this life, so his impact on the overall plot really had been limited. Kurourushi hadn't been a particularly important character in the original story to begin with.
After replacing Kurourushi, he had indeed done things that hadn't happened in the original story, but none of them had changed the course of any main plotline. Whether those Swimmers died had no effect on the Sendai Colony's outcome; whether Mishima lived didn't matter, since the character hadn't even existed in the original story; Uro would still encounter Okkotsu in the end, and Dhruv Lakdawalla would still die.
"Looks like the conditions for earning causality points are pretty strict."
He muttered to himself. Simply doing something that hadn't happened in the original story wouldn't earn him causality points. He had to cause a meaningful deviation in the main plot.
The causality point settlement screen disappeared, and the ability selection screen appeared.
This time, all three options were lit up-physique, cursed energy, and cursed technique. Not a single one was grayed out.
Gu Yanzhi perked up. Finally, he had a chance to choose from all three abilities.
The options this time were: a special grade cursed spirit's physique, a special grade cursed spirit's cursed energy reserves, and the cockroach cursed technique.
Looking at the panel, he sank into thought.
First, he ruled out physique. With cursed energy and a cursed technique available, who would still pick physique?
Although his self-developed Heavenly Restriction Tyrant project had always progressed by stacking physique, and physique was his bread and butter, built up with every life, two more tempting options now lay before him. Naturally, he was going to abandon his roots.
He could keep stacking physique in later reincarnations anyway, while the chance to obtain cursed energy or a cursed technique didn't come along in every life.
But should he choose cursed energy or the cursed technique?
As a special grade cursed spirit, Kurourushi had considerable cursed energy reserves. Though he couldn't compare to a cursed energy monster like Okkotsu, he still ranked above average among special grade cursed spirits.
But after using it throughout this life, he had found the cockroach-controlling cursed technique genuinely useful. Those cockroaches could serve as scouts, act as mobile shields, surround enemies to restrict their movement, and even provide concentrated suppressive fire once their numbers grew large enough.
Besides, during his earlier battle with Dhruv Lakdawalla, he had entertained a certain idea-if he could later obtain Dhruv Lakdawalla's cursed technique and turn his shikigami's paths into extensions of a domain, could he also imbue his cockroaches with domain effects?
That would be enough to scare someone to tears-the cockroaches' overwhelming numbers and mobility, combined with domain-level destructive power.
He felt as though he could jump straight to special grade. Mechanics galore.
He indulged in that fantasy for about ten seconds, then calmed down.
First, tempting as that fantasy was, making it a reality would be far too difficult.
Given the way this system worked, even if he could use causality point rewards to choose his transmigration target in the future, transmigrating into Dhruv Lakdawalla would still be difficult. Dhruv Lakdawalla had been a minor character whom Okkotsu killed with a single slash in the original story. Whether the system would even count him as a "key character" was questionable.
By comparison, choosing Kurourushi's cursed energy would be a very reliable option.
Although he could accumulate cursed energy through repeated deaths-choosing cursed energy in every life and slowly stacking it until he eventually had enough-the sooner he obtained more cursed energy, the more he could accomplish in future transmigrations if luck was on his side.
He wouldn't be held back by his cursed energy reserves, allowing him to earn more causality points.
A special grade cursed spirit's cursed energy reserves would give him a major boost in every future life. They would also solve the problem he had faced when transmigrating into ordinary people: having no cursed energy and being unable to see cursed spirits.
And with cursed energy reserves this high, if he later transmigrated into an ordinary jujutsu sorcerer, that enormous supply would bring a qualitative improvement to both his cursed technique and cursed energy manipulation. It was the ultimate raw-stats option, and the most universally useful one.
He hesitated for a long while, then finally straightened up, thinking, I really do prefer a playstyle that takes a little more skill.
Then he called out to the system panel.
"I choose cursed energy."
The selection was confirmed. The special grade cursed spirit's cursed energy reserves were added to his inheritance bank, listed alongside the physique slot he had built up before. His soul now bore the physical strength of a transfigured human, along with the immense cursed energy of a special grade cursed spirit.
On his next transmigration, all these accumulated gains would carry over into his new body.
He didn't linger. After assigning his physique and cursed energy to their slots, he immediately selected transmigration.
Golden light spilled down, and the void began to spin. The deep-blue background was swallowed by gold inch by inch, like the deepest darkness before dawn being dispelled by the first ray of morning light.
Gu Yanzhi gradually lost consciousness.
Before you continue