Frozen Star

"Jianxia, are there really Cursed Spirits twenty li straight north of here?"

Megumi Zenin followed behind Jianxia, yawning. She rubbed her sleepy eyes, looking as though she had barely woken up.

Though Megumi Zenin did not believe a reliable senior like Jianxia would deceive her about something like this, she was still curious how he knew what was happening so far away.

After all, twenty li was a good half day's journey for an ordinary person, and Jianxia had not gone out alone over the past few days.

Could Jianxia have a Cursed Spirit capable of scouting that far away?

Walking ahead of her, Jianxia glanced back at Megumi Zenin before turning his attention forward again.

"Megumi, we've spent several days together now, but it seems you still don't know me very well."

Megumi Zenin fell silent. Just as he had said, she considered herself his junior, so aside from their sparring sessions, she had hardly spoken with Jianxia these past few days.

She only engaged him in polite conversation when he took the initiative.

Nothing like the way she had slid to her knees the moment they met.

Just as Megumi Zenin was about to stage an entire series of little dramas in her head, Jianxia spoke again.

"Don't underestimate my Information Network! Hahahaha!"

With that, Jianxia laughed breezily, as though he had accomplished some long-planned goal, then quickened his pace and dashed ahead.

Megumi Zenin seemed to catch his enthusiasm too, smiling as she hurried after him.

"You're such a strange but kind person..."

Ten kilometers was hardly far for a Jujutsu Sorcerer.

Just look at what happened a thousand years later: Yuta Okkotsu struck like lightning to kill that bastard Itadori in Iwate, then swiftly moved to the Shinjuku battlefield to fight Sukuna.

The two locations were over five hundred kilometers apart. Even the bullet train would take several hours, yet Okkotsu had powered his way there on his own two legs to swoop in and save the day.

Compared with modern technology, Jujutsu Sorcerers really did defy all reason.

Though Jianxia and Megumi Zenin were still nowhere near Shinjuku Okkotsu during the Shinjuku battle, covering these ten kilometers at full speed was no more trouble than heading downstairs for a meal.

The two had set out around seven in the morning and reached the area indicated by the system by roughly seven thirty.

Judging by their surroundings, however, it was not quite what Jianxia had expected.

"System, I'm fucking here! Where are you?"

An unbroken Bamboo Grove stretched around Jianxia and Megumi Zenin, shrouded in the thin morning mist. Though winter had yet to arrive, the chill in the autumn air made them both shiver.

Jianxia took out his phone. There was no reply from the system.

Wow. This goddamn system isn't even pretending anymore. Now it's leaving me on read.

From Megumi Zenin's perspective, Jianxia was simply standing still, staring straight ahead. She bent down to inspect the soil by her feet, searching for any clues.

Whether a Jujutsu Sorcerer or a Cursed Spirit, anything possessing Cursed Energy would leave faint Cursed Residue behind when it passed through an area.

Though Jujutsu Sorcerers with exceptional control over their Cursed Energy could prevent that residue from leaking out, unintelligent Cursed Spirits clearly lacked such a skill.

Without doubting Jianxia's judgment in the slightest, Megumi Zenin offered her own conjecture.

"Jianxia, I haven't sensed any Cursed Residue along the way. Could the Cursed Spirit have already left?"

Jianxia slipped his phone back into his pocket and narrowed his eyes as he surveyed their surroundings.

"That's certainly possible. Let's keep searching the area together. We might find a clue."

The system's information had only told him to go ten kilometers north. It had not said what was here or given an exact location.

Only the later lines about "changing the course of the Heian era" offered anything useful to go on.

But considering that they had come from the system, Jianxia deemed them about as reliable as a bicycle seat made of bananas.

It was not that they had no reliability; it was that they were utterly useless.

Still, such a grandiose description brought an idea unbidden to Jianxia's mind.

"Speaking of which, Megumi, there's something I wanted to ask you."

Jianxia spoke up to put his misgivings to rest.

"Please ask, Jianxia. I'll tell you everything I know."

They had already entered the depths of the Bamboo Grove, and Jianxia felt it was even colder here than before.

"Do you know what region Ryomen Sukuna, the King of Curses, is active in?"

If there was anyone capable of changing the Heian era, then no matter how he thought about it, only one answer came to Jianxia's mind.

Ryomen Sukuna.

But Jianxia had no clear idea whether Ryomen Sukuna was even active at present-neither Megumi Zenin nor Shinji had ever mentioned the matter in front of him.

It was like not needing to mention Beethoven to a musician, Gauss to a mathematician, or Mahito to Itadori.

That sort of thing was common knowledge!

As someone who had crossed over into this world, however, Jianxia happened to lack that common knowledge, and there were no relevant scrolls in the Zenin study.

He did not want the system leading him straight to Sukuna, only to hand him a mission to "reform Sukuna."

Success would certainly change the course of the Heian era, but actually reforming him was hardly likely.

"I do! Ryomen Sukuna, the King of Curses, is active near Hida Province. That's over a thousand li from our Mutsu Province!"

Megumi Zenin seemed to take Jianxia's question as a test, answering with complete confidence.

"I see. Thanks, Megumi."

Only after hearing that answer did Jianxia let out a long breath, his anxious heart finally settling.

With over a thousand li separating the two places, someone with Sukuna's disposition presumably would not wander all the way here on a stroll.

Then who could this person capable of "changing the course of the Heian era" be?

Kenjaku? Tengen?

Though both were powerful figures who could not be ignored, shaking an entire era single-handedly still seemed unlikely.

Unable to come up with an answer, Jianxia gave up thinking about it. As long as it was not Sukuna, there was nothing to fear.

If they really ran into an expert, he could always have Megumi Zenin go straight for Furube Yurayura.

Once Mahoraga killed both her and the enemy, Jianxia could bring her back with "Light Returns at Dusk."

It might not work, but at least they could not lose when it came to sheer bravado.

Yet the deeper the two went into the Bamboo Grove, the more Jianxia felt that something was profoundly wrong.

"There's something off about this temperature."

At first, he had assumed it was simply the chill of an autumn night.

But as the sun rose, the temperature around them did not increase. Instead, it dropped further and further as they advanced.

"So you noticed too."

Megumi Zenin crouched down as before and enhanced her vision with Cursed Energy to examine their surroundings closely. Before long, she stood back up.

"Jianxia, there are traces of Cursed Residue nearby... and clear fluctuations of Cursed Energy up ahead. I can't tell whether it's a Cursed Spirit or a Jujutsu Sorcerer."

As she spoke, she had already summoned "Divine Dog: Totality," ready to fight at any moment.

"Understood. Stay alert and keep moving."

Jianxia also summoned "Banquet of Fated Remnants" from the black substance, his expression grave.

He had still been clinging to a little hope, but after hearing Megumi Zenin's words and venturing deeper, he had formed a suspicion, taking the system's hint into account.

If that was true, however, things would take the worst possible turn.

The two continued a little farther, and the view abruptly opened up. The surrounding bamboo vanished entirely, revealing a clearing and a thatched house in the deepest part of the Bamboo Grove.

Calling it a thatched house was not quite accurate, for it was already a ruin. Countless blocks of ice had pierced it, and countless fragments of ice blanketed it.

It seemed this unmelted ice was the culprit behind the falling temperature in the Bamboo Grove.

Besides the collapsed house, several human remains were also encased in ice. Their contorted poses made it clear that their deaths had been agonizing.

And amid that devastated scene, a child lay curled up, with features as delicate as a doll's and snow-white hair, their gender impossible to discern. Their entire body was covered in ice, yet they were still alive.

Frozen Star.

Uraume.