The corridors of Jujutsu High were quiet.
The smell of moldy wood lingered year-round, and even the cold morning breeze could not dispel that sense of age.
Yang Jian rounded a corner and came across Suguru Geto leaning against the wall.
Geto's eyes were bloodshot, and he looked awful.
He held a pitch-black sphere covered in twisted patterns that gave off a powerful stench.
"Morning." Geto forced his facial muscles into something resembling a greeting.
Yang Jian's gaze settled on the Cursed Spirit Orb.
"Just back from a mission?"
"Yeah." Geto straightened up and studied the sphere in his hand for two seconds. "A Grade 3 cursed spirit, hiding in an elementary school restroom. Took a while to find."
With that, he shoved the Cursed Spirit Orb straight into his mouth.
His Adam's apple bobbed. The instant he swallowed, his brows knotted tightly, and his torso jerked uncontrollably several times.
He forced down the nausea and gulped for air.
"Tastes awful." Yang Jian stated the obvious.
"I imagine this is what a rag used to wipe up vomit tastes like." Geto leaned back against the wall. "You get used to it."
Yang Jian said nothing. He took out a wrapped mint and tossed it over.
Geto caught it, tore off the wrapper, and popped it into his mouth. The mint's sharp bite barely suppressed the rotten taste.
"Satoru said you two ran into trouble in Adachi Ward last night." Geto turned his head, the mint still in his mouth.
"Dealt with something nasty."
"Half the apartment buildings in that area collapsed." Geto lowered his voice. "The authorities have already cordoned off the scene. The report says there wasn't any cursed residue in the area. The higher-ups couldn't find evidence of a cursed spirit, so they had to grit their teeth and accept that the buildings were too old."
"Didn't Satoru Gojo take responsibility for it?" Yang Jian's tone was flat.
"The higher-ups aren't idiots." Geto stepped in front of Yang Jian and stared into his eyes. "Satoru can only block an official investigation. Behind the scenes, Jujutsu Headquarters sent people to look into your background."
"What did they find?"
"Nothing. It's like you appeared out of thin air." Geto turned around. "To them, an untraceable background means they can push you around however they please. You're an anomaly in Jujutsu Society, and those old men won't let anyone slip out of their control."
Yang Jian kept walking without breaking stride.
"They want to arrest me?"
"They'll try every way they can to test you."
Yang Jian stopped outside his dorm room and inserted the key into the lock.
"Let them come."
With a crisp mechanical click, the door swung open.
"I don't mind putting up a few more gravestones."
The door shut firmly in Geto's face.
Inside, Yang Jian drew the curtains, darkening the room.
He sat on the edge of the bed and called up the system panel in his mind.
[Current point balance: 50,500]
He did not have enough points to buy supernatural puzzle pieces from the shop. He needed an opportunity to farm more. Grade 1 and Special Grade targets in Jujutsu Society were hard to find, and killing every ordinary Grade 3 and Grade 2 target still would not be enough.
[Host, no trial cards for now. I'll give you some supernatural items every few days while I cook up something big for you.]
"...Fine." Yang Jian did not protest. He wanted to see what the system could come up with, too.
His phone suddenly vibrated. It was a text from Shoko: "Two this afternoon. Infirmary. If you don't show up this time, I'm coming to smash down your dorm door."
Yang Jian put away his phone and lay down to catch up on sleep.
At 1:50 p.m.
Yang Jian headed out with just enough time to spare.
He had barely rounded the flower bed in front of the classroom building when his path was blocked.
Four men in matching black suits stood in a semicircle.
Their leader was a middle-aged man with a short beard. Clear fluctuations of cursed energy emanated from beneath his suit. He was at least a Grade 1 Sorcerer.
The short-bearded man stared at Yang Jian as he approached.
"You're Yang Jian?"
Yang Jian stopped, his expression blank. "Spit it out."
"We're inspectors from Jujutsu Headquarters." The short-bearded man pulled a document bearing a red stamp from inside his jacket. "According to a report, you were involved in an unregistered anomalous incident last night. You're coming with us."
Yang Jian glanced at the red stamp.
"Satoru Gojo closed that case, and you still want to dig it back up?"
"Satoru Gojo is Special Grade. He has his own way of assessing things, but that doesn't mean we can skip proper procedure." The short-bearded man's tone was stiff. "Come along."
Yang Jian did not move.
"I'm going to get my blood drawn. I don't have time to play pretend with you."
The three subordinates behind the short-bearded man immediately stepped forward, tightening the circle.
"You don't get a choice!" The short-bearded man reached for the cursed tool dagger at his waist. "An ordinary living person without a shred of cursed energy dares challenge the higher-ups?"
Yang Jian sighed and rolled his stiff neck.
"Geto called it. Someone really did come running here to die."
The short-bearded man frowned. "What?"
"Then let's see if you're capable of taking me away."
The short-bearded man sneered and gave a hand signal. Two men in suits lunged straight at him.
Physical force is more than enough for someone without cursed energy! Their arm muscles tensed as they reached for Yang Jian's shoulders from either side.
Yang Jian stood his ground without retreating an inch.
The instant their hands touched his clothes-the shadow beneath his feet stood up without warning!
A solid, pitch-black human figure with no facial features abruptly rose from the ground.
Before either suited man could react, the black shadow seized their wrists in an iron grip.
Crack!
Bones snapped with a sharp crack, and both men's wrists instantly twisted out of shape. Their screams caught in their throats as the shadow turned its wrists and grabbed their necks, hoisting each grown man into the air with one hand!
There were no fluctuations of cursed energy, no warning signs of a cursed technique.
The short-bearded man's pupils contracted. "How dare you!"
He whipped out his dagger, wrapped its blade in concentrated cursed energy, and slashed viciously at the shadow's arm.
The blade swept through.
It met no physical resistance whatsoever. Not even a ripple passed through the shadow, which kept its grip locked around the two men's necks.
How was that possible?!
The short-bearded man went deathly pale.
His cursed tool had a homing attack, yet his slash had hit nothing!
With his hands in his pockets, Yang Jian coldly watched the two men kicking wildly in midair.
"Too weak."
The shadow tightened its fingers. The two suited men's faces turned purple, and their eyes rolled back.
The short-bearded man gritted his teeth and swiftly formed a seal with his left hand. A ball of highly compressed cursed energy formed in his palm. Abandoning his attack on the shadow, he hurled it straight at Yang Jian himself!
The flesh on Yang Jian's forehead suddenly split open.
A scarlet eyeball swiveled and fixed its gaze on the short-bearded man.
Red light flashed.
An eerie red glow instantly engulfed everything within a ten-meter radius. The ball of cursed energy dissolved without a sound the moment it touched the edge of the light.
There was no explosion, no shock wave.
The short-bearded man froze in place.
Everything in his field of vision-the classroom building, the flower bed, the ground-turned a glaring scarlet.
What the hell was this?
Yang Jian took a step forward.
The red light flickered. He instantly crossed more than ten meters and appeared directly in front of the short-bearded man, less than half an arm's length away.
Terrified, the short-bearded man tried to retreat, only to discover that his feet were stuck fast in a pool of ink-black shadow on the ground, as though they had taken root.
Yang Jian reached out and patted the side of the short-bearded man's face with the backs of his fingers.
"Go back and tell whoever sent you not to bother me."
The taps were light, but every hair on the short-bearded man's body stood on end, and he stopped breathing altogether.
Thud.
The shadow released its grip. The two dying men in suits hit the paving stones, retching violently as they scrambled away.
The red light faded, and the world regained its normal colors.
The shadow flattened again and withdrew beneath Yang Jian's feet.
"Still here?"
Cold sweat covered the short-bearded man's forehead. He looked at Yang Jian as though staring into a terrifying abyss. Without daring to offer even a parting remark, he dragged his subordinates away, stumbling and scrambling out of the passage.
Yang Jian looked away and pushed open the wooden door to the Infirmary.
Shoko sat in a swivel chair with an unlit cigarette between her lips, staring at medical examination data on her computer screen.
At the sound of the door opening, she turned to glance at the clock on the wall.
"Six minutes late."
Her gaze shifted downward, fixing on the few fallen leaves from the flower bed that had just caught on Yang Jian's clothes.
"It flashed red outside just now. Did you kill someone?"
"No." Yang Jian walked over to a nearby bed, sat down, and rolled up his sleeve. "Just stepped on a few bugs that didn't know where they were going."
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