What a pity

Although Yuanfang was laughing along beside her, he knew this might not be a joke. It might actually be true.

After all, in the original story, Hana Kurusu was hopelessly lovestruck. Just because Megumi Fushiguro's dog had helped her escape danger as a child, she had fallen head over heels for him.

And Yuanfang had saved her himself, hadn't he? She would probably fall even harder for him than she had in the original story.

"Hehe!"

Yuki Tsukumo's laugh sounded strange. One glance was enough to tell that she was up to no good.

A year flew by, and before they knew it, it was 2018.

Yuanfang sat atop a dilapidated apartment building, looking down at a boy with short, spiky, blue-black hair and a standard Jujutsu High uniform. With a white hound on one side and a black one on the other, the boy was hunting down a cursed spirit.

The cursed spirit was rather weak. It barely held out before the two hounds tore it apart.

Once Yuanfang saw him finish off the cursed spirit, he appeared beside him in an instant.

"Yuanfang, it's taken care of!"

Megumi Fushiguro showed no alarm at Yuanfang's sudden appearance and calmly reported the situation.

"Heh, nicely done. Let's go!"

Yuanfang smiled, dispelled the Curtain, and left with Megumi Fushiguro.

For some reason, Satoru Gojo had now put him in charge of the first-years, dressing it up as appointing him their substitute teacher.

Meanwhile, Gojo himself had run off somewhere to enjoy life.

He had also told Yuanfang that Megumi Fushiguro was Toji Fushiguro's son, completely unconcerned that Yuanfang might harm Megumi.

Yuanfang was pleased with how carefree Satoru Gojo was.

It proved that his acting was convincing. Even Gojo, with his Six Eyes, had noticed nothing amiss and still considered Yuanfang a good student who had inherited his mantle.

"There's a cursed object you need to retrieve tomorrow. Don't forget!"

"Okay!"

Megumi Fushiguro's expression remained flat, as though nothing could interest him.

Yuanfang was long used to this. He said goodbye and hurried away.

He had important business tonight, so naturally, he couldn't spend too long chatting with his junior.

Night fell.

In an open area filled with graves, Yuki Tsukumo lay on the grass, gazing up at the stars with excitement glimmering in her eyes.

After a year of waiting, she could finally test her original hypothesis. How could she not be happy?

"Sorry I'm late!"

Yuanfang greeted her with a smile.

His gaze involuntarily flicked toward her towering peaks, and he wondered whether he had hit puberty.

The hormones in his body surged like wild horses breaking free of their reins.

He had never been particularly interested in those peaks before, but now he felt a little curious and couldn't resist taking a look.

How could Yuanfang's little movements escape Yuki Tsukumo's keen eyes? A mischievous smile crept onto her lips.

She had thought she simply wasn't attractive enough, but now it seemed she had been overthinking things.

"If you want to look that badly, just look openly!"

"Sorry, it's puberty. I can't control it!"

Yuanfang's skin was thicker than a city wall, and he blamed everything on puberty.

"Hehe, a little restlessness is good. Otherwise, I'd have thought you weren't interested in women!"

"All right, let's get started!"

Afraid that Yuki Tsukumo would say something even more outrageous, Yuanfang quickly changed the subject.

Even with his teenage hormones acting up, if he had to choose between cursed energy and women, he would still choose cursed energy first.

Women would only slow down my sword draw. Strength was the only thing I could truly rely on!

After that, Yuki Tsukumo dropped the subject and walked straight toward the Curtain ahead.

In an instant, the Curtain expanded rapidly like a blooming flower, then shattered. Vast amounts of cursed energy surged toward Yuanfang like a tide.

The sensation of cursed energy filling his entire body left Yuanfang feeling as though he were floating on clouds.

This was so much better than women, he couldn't help thinking.

A Curtain with a radius of only five meters was clearly insufficient to cover the entire area.

So Yuki had set up ten of them. After absorbing all the Curtains, Yuanfang had only one word in mind: Bliss!

"Let's head to the next location!"

"What do you mean, the next location?"

Seeing that Yuki's expression didn't look like she was joking, Yuanfang asked incredulously:

"Don't tell me this is all you set up!"

"Yes. What's with that expression? Are you unhappy that we only cleared this little bit, or are you hiding something from me?"

Yuki Tsukumo couldn't help growing suspicious at Yuanfang's expression.

After all, wasn't it better to have less of this thankless work to do?

Why did Yuanfang look as though he wanted as much of it as possible?

"I thought there would be a lot more. I was even ready to take a whole day off!"

Damn, I almost gave myself away. Yuanfang immediately made up an excuse.

"Oh, I see!"

Although Yuanfang's explanation seemed reasonable, Yuki Tsukumo's intuition as a woman told her things weren't that simple.

But she was busy investigating the situation here, so she didn't dwell on it. Picking up a jade tablet, she continued helplessly:

"You think I don't want to set up more? These aren't ordinary Curtains.

Each Curtain requires one of these expensive jade tablets that I've personally processed! After all this time, this is all I managed to make!"

Hearing her explanation, Yuanfang sighed inwardly.

Why was she only telling me now? If she'd said something earlier, I might have been able to ask Mei Mei for help.

I could always pay her later.

"If there's nothing else for me to do, I'll head out!"

Somewhat disappointed, Yuanfang said goodbye, then turned and left.

He had thought he would reap a huge windfall, but this was all he got.

If only there were a few more places like this.

After all, a year at one location could give me an increase of ten meters. With fifteen or twenty places like this, wouldn't I soar straight to the top?

Yuki ignored Yuanfang's departure and began carefully observing the site.

She discovered that, as Yuanfang left and her Curtains disappeared, wisps of cursed energy began rising from underground.

"It looks very promising! Even if I can't create a world without cursed spirits, as long as I set up my Curtains in places where cursed energy tends to accumulate, terrifying cursed spirits won't be able to form.

I'm sure the world would be wonderful then!"

After murmuring those words to herself, she couldn't help frowning again.

To maintain such a world, there was another crucial task: she had to get Yuanfang to keep having children, producing more people with the same special cursed technique as his.

Otherwise, that world wouldn't last long before descending into chaos again.

Yet Yuanfang remained utterly unresponsive. Yuki Tsukumo had tried seducing him many times already, but he had never taken the bait.

Now, she couldn't help agonizing over it. Would I have to use force?