A bold idea

Jianxia and Shinji exchanged a few more words. Then, saying he needed to help their guest get familiar with the surroundings, Shinji led Zenin Wu Yan deeper into the estate.

Watching Shinji leave with Zenin Wu Yan, Jianxia let out a long breath and let the hair over his forehead fall back down.

Although he had no real qualms about cosplaying Sukuna, playing someone whose personality was quite different from his own did take some effort.

Fortunately, Zenin Wu Yan had never met Sukuna, which gave Jianxia much more room to improvise.

With that matter settled, Jianxia decided to head to the kitchen and get some lunch.

Just as Shinji had said, Uraume was preparing the ingredients-though in Heian Era Japan, cooking mostly meant boiling or roasting things.

Still, even with such simple cooking methods, meat became more delicious after Uraume froze it at low temperatures.

Seeing Jianxia enter the kitchen, Uraume brightened, then immediately schooled his expression.

"Lord Jianxia, the rice is ready, and the grilled meat will be done soon."

As he spoke, Uraume turned the skewers faster, remembering to sprinkle on some sesame seeds for fragrance.

On his second day at the Zenin Estate, Jianxia had overhauled all the kitchen equipment.

It was still nowhere near as convenient as a modern kitchen, but compared with its former crude state, it was a massive upgrade.

"There's no rush, Uraume. Be careful not to burn yourself."

Jianxia sat at the dining table, his eyes on the ceiling while his thoughts drifted far away.

The original story offered very little description of the Heian Era. Beyond calling it "the golden age of jujutsu," it barely showed anything else.

How had the Three Great Families risen? How had the Fujiwara Clan, which controlled the resources available to jujutsu sorcerers, fallen?

None of that had been explained.

So Jianxia didn't have any more information at his disposal than anyone else.

In fact, when it came to carrying out the next mission, Tengen, a native of this world, had more authority to speak on the subject.

Overthrowing the Fujiwara Clan's control over jujutsu sorcerers didn't sound easy, and actually doing it would only be harder.

Unless...

Jianxia drew Evening Mist from his waist and stared at its blue-green blade.

"Unless someone is strong enough to defeat the entire Fujiwara Clan alone..."

The words slipped out of Jianxia's mouth without him realizing it. Then he sheathed the sword again.

But aside from Sukuna, he couldn't think of anyone capable of doing that.

Wait. Sukuna.

Inspiration flashed through his mind, and Jianxia's thoughts began racing like a river thawing after winter.

He knew that during the Heian Era, there had been a battle in which all the jujutsu sorcerers joined forces against Sukuna, the King of Curses.

He also knew that the Three Great Families had risen rapidly during the Heian Era.

And he also knew that the Fujiwara Clan, which controlled all the resources available to jujutsu sorcerers, had swiftly declined afterward.

A complete timeline took shape in Jianxia's mind.

The Fujiwara Clan believed Ryomen Sukuna threatened its dominance, so it mobilized the Sun, Moon, and Stars Squad, the Five Void Generals, and the Nirvana Pacification Squad formed by an alliance of other families to eliminate Sukuna together.

The outcome was obvious. Sukuna had kicked all those forces to death like stray dogs on the roadside, leaving the Fujiwara Clan and the other families severely weakened.

For various reasons, the Three Great Families hadn't participated in the campaign and had preserved their full strength. When a power vacuum appeared in Jujutsu Society, they swiftly filled it and took their place at the top.

That was the most reasonable explanation Jianxia could come up with for how events had unfolded in the original story.

In other words, if he did nothing and waited for the Fujiwara Clan to clash with Sukuna, Jianxia and the Zenin Clan could reap the rewards without lifting a finger.

But that was a loser's way of thinking.

Jianxia had no intention of obediently waiting until then.

Even setting aside how much his arrival might have changed the original story through the butterfly effect, Jianxia couldn't accept entrusting his future to someone else.

So building up his own forces before that day arrived was the right approach.

"Lord Jianxia, grilled pork leg. Please enjoy."

Just then, Uraume set a plate of crisp, fragrant grilled meat and rice in front of Jianxia. The delicious aroma pulled him out of his thoughts.

Jianxia picked up a piece of meat and put it in his mouth, then nodded. "It tastes good. Your cooking really is excellent, Uraume. Come eat too."

Only after Uraume sat down did Jianxia resume eating.

"Uraume, where did you and Megumi find so many cursed spirits yesterday?"

Jianxia was genuinely curious. Last night, he had traveled quite a distance before finding a single cursed spirit-and even that had required the system's navigation.

Yet Megumi Zenin and Uraume had gone out for one night and brought back six cursed spirits.

Leaving their quality aside, the difference in quantity was undeniable.

Uraume took a few mouthfuls of rice and swallowed before saying, "Lady Megumi taught me how to control cursed energy yesterday, as well as how to search for cursed residue. We found all those cursed spirits in nearby villages."

Uraume said it as casually as if he were talking about where he'd picked wild berries. It gave Jianxia nothing useful to go on, and he sighed helplessly.

But that really was how cursed spirits were distributed in the wilderness.

After all, in densely populated cities, certain places gathered people's negative emotions. Abandoned houses and graveyards, for instance, were where cursed spirits most often bred.

Out in the countryside, however, no one knew what had happened in any given place. An accident, or even a legend, could give rise to a cursed spirit anywhere.

Moreover, in cities, barrier techniques could be used to detect abnormal fluctuations in cursed energy. In the wilderness, they could only rely on their eyes and experience to identify cursed residue.

In short, finding cursed spirits in cities was like farming, while finding them in the countryside was like hunting.

In terms of reliability and convenience, the former won hands down.

Jianxia felt a headache coming on. The only noteworthy city in the Heian Era was Heian-kyo-and that was Fujiwara Clan territory. Going there would undoubtedly mean asking for trouble.

Seeing Jianxia's grave expression, Uraume assumed he was dissatisfied with yesterday's cursed spirits. He immediately set down his bowl and chopsticks and dropped to his knees on the floor.

"I will continue searching for cursed spirits. I failed to meet your expectations, Lord Jianxia. Please punish me."

Jianxia set down his bowl and chopsticks too and helped Uraume up from the floor.

"That's not why I'm unhappy. You've already done very well, Uraume."

Ultimately, the problem was that the area around Hiraizumi was too desolate. Even a small village would make the emergence of cursed spirits somewhat more predictable.

Then Jianxia seemed to think of something. Black matter surged, and the Long, Thin Cursed Spirit emerged from it.

Abandoning his meal, Jianxia took the Long, Thin Cursed Spirit to the open ground outside, with Uraume following close behind.

As an experiment, Jianxia tried having the Long, Thin Cursed Spirit create a simple house on the open ground.

As the Clumsy House cursed technique activated, a finely built wooden cottage appeared there.

Jianxia then checked the Long, Thin Cursed Spirit's cursed energy reserves. Building a house like this had consumed roughly a tenth of the total.

No wonder he had been so furious when Jianxia smashed his mansion with Black Flash. Judging by this expenditure, that mansion had probably taken the Long, Thin Cursed Spirit several days to build.

But even the simplest house built with the cursed technique was far better than the straw houses ordinary people lived in.

A plan emerged in Jianxia's mind.

If I use the cursed technique to turn Hiraizumi into a city, could I attract displaced people to settle here and produce an endless supply of cursed spirits?