Tengen

Jianxia struggled out of bed, looking much like Zhang Huaimin after Su Shi had roused him in the middle of the night.

Then two heads, one black-haired and one white-haired, poked in from either side.

They could only be Megumi Zenin and Uraume.

"Jianxia! You're awake too! That's great!"

Megumi Zenin greeted him excitedly, while Uraume knelt respectfully at the doorway and bowed his head.

"I disturbed your rest, Lord Jianxia. Please punish me..."

Jianxia scratched his head, unsure what these two were up to, coming to see him so early.

"All right, all right, get up, Uraume-you didn't come looking for me at the crack of dawn just to say good morning, did you?"

Jianxia pressed his fingers against his temples. It seemed unlikely, but Megumi Zenin might actually do something like that.

If she really had dragged Uraume over just to greet him, Jianxia would pull out his brass-buckled belt and whip her until she spun like a top.

"Didn't you go out hunting cursed spirits yesterday? Not long after that, Uraume learned to control his cursed energy, so he said he wanted to go catch some cursed spirits to help you."

Megumi Zenin looked at Uraume, who had already stood up. He had learned to control his cursed energy in just an hour yesterday. He was nothing short of a genius.

"So we went out to look for cursed spirits afterward, too. We ran into a few problems along the way, but we did catch some!"

With that, Uraume and Megumi Zenin disappeared from the doorway, followed by the sound of something heavy being dragged.

Together, they pushed several large blocks of ice up to his door, each with a cursed spirit frozen inside.

There were six cursed spirits in total, in all sorts of shapes.

Although even the strongest was only Grade 3, Jianxia could feel the care that had gone into this.

Only after all the ice blocks had been moved to the doorway did Megumi Zenin's and Uraume's heads pop out from behind them again.

"Thanks to Uraume's cursed technique, we could bring these cursed spirits over safely. Otherwise, we would've had to figure out some way to capture them alive."

Megumi Zenin shook the water off her hands, lavishing praise on Uraume.

Uraume merely closed his eyes and lowered his head, as though all of this was simply what he ought to do.

"It is my duty to assist Lord Jianxia."

Looking at the two people who had spent all night working to help him, Jianxia couldn't help feeling warm inside.

Sorry, Megumi. I won't beat you today.

Even if a dog by the roadside scared her into summoning Mahoraga, Jianxia would have to praise the power behind her chant today.

"Thank you both, really..."

Jianxia picked up his phone and walked over to the ice blocks. Then he opened his hand and subdued all the Grade 3 and Grade 4 cursed spirits in one swift sweep.

Cursed Spirit Manipulation could directly subdue any cursed spirit at least two grades weaker than him. It was incredibly convenient.

Subdued weakling cursed spirits ×6

He turned on his phone screen and took a look. This time, the system hadn't even bothered giving them names. It had simply labeled them weaklings.

Then he swiped over to the section listing his subdued cursed spirits.

Subdued cursed spirits: Banquet of Fated Remnants (Grade 1), Long, Thin Cursed Spirit (Special Grade), numerous weakling cursed spirits

PS: Weakling cursed spirits incapable of communication cannot be romanced.

So the system hadn't even bothered naming them because these Grade 3 and Grade 4 cursed spirits were too weak to be romanced.

Jianxia curled his lip, despising the system's utilitarian attitude from the bottom of his heart.

Did being weak mean cursed spirits couldn't be loved?

To love cursed spirits, you couldn't just love their strength. You had to love their weakness, too.

Once they became his companions, Jianxia would love them all the same, no matter what kind of cursed spirits they were!

Only then could he call himself a true cursed spirit lover.

Jianxia pulled a plump, caterpillar-like cursed spirit out of the black substance, hugged it tightly to his chest, and planted an affectionate kiss on the top of its head.

Megumi Zenin: "."

Uraume: "?"

The two exchanged uneasy looks, but quickly returned to normal.

It looked bizarre at first glance, and on closer consideration, it was still bizarre.

But once they remembered that Jianxia was the one doing it, it somehow became less difficult to accept.

Seeing their strange looks, Jianxia casually returned the fat worm to the black substance and coughed a few times to clear his throat.

"Ahem... anyway, thank you for spending all night out hunting cursed spirits for me. Go back to your rooms and get some proper rest."

Jianxia had absorbed six cursed spirits in one go. Although the recovery they provided was nowhere near what the special grade cursed spirit had given him earlier, he still felt considerably better.

The two cleared away the ice blocks at the doorway, said goodbye to Jianxia, and returned to their respective rooms to rest.

Jianxia shut the door and went back inside. With that little interruption over, he could enjoy some peace and quiet alone again.

Perhaps because absorbing the cursed spirits had left his whole body feeling at ease, Jianxia fell fast asleep within seconds of crawling under the covers.

By the time he woke naturally, feeling thoroughly refreshed, the sun was already nearing its highest point in the sky.

Jianxia rubbed his eyes as he stepped outside, stretched, then looked overhead to check the time.

Absorbing the cursed spirits had already restored some of his stamina, naturally reducing how much sleep he needed.

"Ah, you're awake!"

Megumi Zenin's voice came from the side. Jianxia turned to look at her, and she seemed a little bashful.

Before Jianxia could ask, Megumi Zenin spoke.

"I just asked Father, and only then did I find out you went out alone last night to subdue a special grade cursed spirit... I'm really sorry for disturbing your rest this morning!"

Jianxia waved a hand. "It's fine. You two spent the whole night working to help me, after all. I should be the one apologizing to you."

There were still dark circles under Megumi Zenin's eyes. She looked like the one who hadn't had enough sleep.

"Did something happen? You only went to bed a little while ago, didn't you?" Jianxia asked.

"Ah, I'm fine-but I did come to see you about something."

Megumi Zenin rubbed her eyes, seemingly hoping to make the dark circles less obvious.

"Father is entertaining a very distinguished guest. He said that, as Chief of the Auspicious, you should be there too, so he sent me to check whether you were awake."

Megumi Zenin took a wooden charm out of her clothes. It could be hung from the waist, bore a large character for "Auspicious," and radiated fluctuations of cursed energy.

"Father also asked me to give you this Chief's charm. It doesn't just prove your identity; it's also a cursed tool-you can store cursed energy in it whenever you like, then draw it out when you need it."

Shinji clearly understood Jianxia's difficulty. Although Jianxia had already subdued a special grade cursed spirit, his total cursed energy wouldn't increase until he successfully romanced it.

This cursed tool would make a substantial difference for Jianxia. He accepted it and hung it at his waist, though he was more interested in just who this distinguished guest was.

He followed Megumi Zenin to the reception room, where Shinji and the guest had already been waiting for quite some time.

"Sir Jianxia, although you probably already know who I am, please allow me to introduce myself as a matter of courtesy."

Jianxia looked at the white-haired woman sitting across from Shinji, who had taken the initiative to address him, and froze for a moment.

Her gaze swept over the three of them. She seemed to be appraising them, yet also confirming something she had known all along.

"A pleasure to meet you, head of the Zenin Clan, wielder of the Ten Shadows Technique, and Chief of the Auspicious."

"You may call me Tengen."