Xirang! Choso!

He tilted his head, a faint gleam flickering in his red eyes.

"Blood Manipulation... even among the Three Great Families, that Cursed Technique could only be considered mediocre."

"Controlling blood sounds impressive, but in truth, it is confined by the limits of the flesh."

"A body of flesh and blood has finite reserves, limited regeneration, and bounded output. Everywhere, there are shackles."

He smiled, his fangs flashing in the dark purple light.

"Since this elder is personally reshaping you, I cannot give you something so crude."

As he spoke, he gently lifted one of the main arms at his shoulders.

Choso's Cursed Womb floated out of its recess in the barrier cabinet, freed from the confines of the glass walls, and hovered before him.

The membrane covering the fetal body's surface trembled slightly, as though the life within had sensed the change outside and was struggling to awaken.

Wangchuan shifted his gaze from Choso to a corner of the room.

An obsidian urn half a person's height stood there, its mouth sealed with silvery-white talisman paper.

Wangchuan walked over and lifted the talisman paper with a fingertip. The instant the urn opened, an exceedingly faint scent spread out, like soil after rain mingled with sprouting vegetation.

The urn held a full mound of soil.

Its grains were extremely fine, its color somewhere between silver-gray and moon white, its surface suffused with an almost imperceptible shimmer.

The soil rose and fell gently in the urn as though breathing. The uppermost grains softly heaved up and settled again, over and over, as though alive.

It was soil he had brought back from deep within the moon's core.

"Xirang."

Wangchuan murmured, his voice carrying the composed admiration of an elder appraising a treasure.

"A gift from primordial times, endlessly renewing, generating and propagating itself, capable of taking myriad forms."

"In ancient times, the old gods and the first peoples used it to lay the foundations of heaven and earth, to build mountains and rivers."

"In this world, even a Special Grade Cursed Object could scarcely rival its splendor."

He extended one of the short limbs beneath his arms and lightly brushed the edge of the mound of Xirang with a fingertip.

The silver-gray soil stirred gently like a living thing.

A small pinch curled up along his fingertip, gathering as though drawn by some force.

"I shall use Xirang as the foundation to forge Choso a new body."

As he spoke, he pinched up that bit of Xirang and raised it before his eyes for careful inspection.

"Then infuse it with the Moon Demon’s Demonic Energy to form its bones."

He raised his other main arm, palm upward.

A wisp of dark purple mist, dotted with exceedingly faint silver lights, rose from his palm.

Like a living thread, it circled once in the air before slowly flowing into the pinch of Xirang.

The Xirang changed color.

A dark purple undertone appeared within the silver-gray, as though some profound power had soaked through it.

The luminous patterns grew more distinct, each pulse sending an exceedingly fine ripple of energy spreading through the air.

"And then..."

"Using Choso's own Blood Manipulation as a blueprint, this elder can weave him a body unlike any before it."

He closed his eyes.

All four of his arms moved at once, extremely fast, yet every motion carried a sense of control precise to the utmost degree.

His main arms extracted the soul's blueprint from the Cursed Womb.

The structures of Blood Manipulation, the Cursed Technique branded deep within Choso's soul, were peeled away layer by layer, like peeling an onion.

The short limbs beneath his arms mixed and wove the Xirang and the Moon Demon’s Demonic Energy in proportion.

The silver-gray soil was stretched, kneaded, and shaped between his fingertips, like unformed clay in a potter's hands, gradually taking on a vague outline.

The light in the room grew brighter and brighter.

"And that is not all."

Wangchuan murmured as he shaped it, his tone like strings played solo beneath the moon, carrying the ease of someone immersed in creation.

"Blood Manipulation shall be housed in a body of Xirang. Its flesh shall heal itself as ceaselessly as the tides, ordinary wounds closing in an instant, severed limbs growing anew."

"Its blood shall be inexhaustible, and the power of its Cursed Technique shall never run dry."

"Unless erased in an instant, this body shall be all but immortal."

He paused without stopping his hands, but the smile in his voice deepened a little.

"As for what heights he may reach in the future, that will depend on his own fortune."

He shook his head, his hands moving a little faster.

He stopped speaking and concentrated on his work.

He had kneaded that pinch of Xirang into a vague, palm-sized human figure.

For its appearance, Wangchuan still modeled it after the original work.

The limbs, torso, and head were not yet precisely proportioned, but the basic human structure was already discernible.

Wangchuan's tongue slipped out slightly and curled gently in the air.

He sensed something.

Choso's soul was resonating with this new body, as though in some instinctive, profound recognition.

"It is done."

"No..."

"He still lacks memories of Incarnation. One final touch remains."

Wangchuan exhaled a breath of turbid air.

The breath was purple, carrying exceedingly faint silver motes, like a mass of concentrated Moon Demon’s Demonic Energy.

It slowly brushed across Choso's forehead.

That wisp of Demon Chi contained a vast amount of information about everything in this world.

The body took complete shape.

The body hovering in midair slowly descended.

Choso stood where he was.

He opened his eyes.

"My... brothers..."

His gaze fell on the fetal bodies in the barrier cabinet.

His dark red pupils widened slightly, and his fingers unconsciously clenched and relaxed, as though confirming that he truly stood here, that he really could touch those fetal bodies.

Wangchuan stood a few steps away, his four arms hanging naturally at his sides, his pointed ears twitching slightly amid his hair.

Seeing Choso like that, he grinned, his fangs flashing in the dark purple light.

"Haha..."

"As expected of the eldest of the Death Painting Wombs. Even upon awakening, your thoughts remain fixed on your younger brothers."

His voice carried the deep resonance of his Tso Lan form.

At the sound, Choso's shoulders tensed slightly. Then he turned and raised his gaze to Wangchuan.

The instant those dark red eyes took in Wangchuan's form, his pupils contracted.

His lips moved, instinctively uttering a word.

"Is this... a human...?"

But before that word had fully left his throat, a torrent of information pouring into his mind cut it off.

Vast amounts of information.

About this world, human society, and the common knowledge of modern life.

It surged into his consciousness like floodwaters bursting through a dam.

He saw streets, electric lights, phones, cars, high-rises, subways, shops, banks, the internet...

Information about things he had never seen, implanted directly into his soul, rapidly unfolded in his mind, piling up layer upon layer.

There was also information about the person before him.

The Moon Demon.

Wangchuan!

He was the one who had awakened him from his Cursed Womb state and shaped this body from Xirang.

He had built its skeleton with the Moon Demon’s Demonic Energy and woven the blueprint of Blood Manipulation deep into his soul, bringing him back to life as a human.

Choso stood there, quietly absorbing the information.

A few seconds later, he raised his head again.

"You... reshaped me into a human."

Wangchuan smiled, his pointed ears sweeping slightly backward. "Indeed."

Choso fell silent for a moment.

His gaze did not linger on Wangchuan for long, instead shifting slightly to the eight fetal bodies in the barrier cabinet.

They were his younger brothers.

His lips moved as though he wanted to say something.

But he did not bring up his brothers first.

He turned his gaze back to Wangchuan's face.

"Why did you do this?"

"Do you have some purpose?"

"A purpose?"

Wangchuan smiled.

His body began to change.

His pale blue skin faded.

Wangchuan returned to his human appearance.

He took two steps to the side and sat down in a wicker chair.

His manner of speaking and thinking reverted as well.

Reflecting inwardly, Wangchuan felt that whenever he shifted into the demon Tso Lan's body, something besides knowledge appeared in his mind.

Emotions and memories.

As though he had merged with another soul.

"Every time I use that body and change back, my head really is a mess."

Then he looked at Choso.

"Of course I do."

"Quite a few, actually. If you do well..."

"I can help you and your brothers live in this world as humans."

Choso's pupils shifted slightly.

Wangchuan continued.

Those were precisely the words he had been waiting for.

"I implanted all the information about the modern world into your memories."

"You should have seen it just now. This society, this era."

"Cursed Spirits, Jujutsu Sorcerers, ordinary people... all sorts of powers are tangled together."

"In this world, you and your brothers will be better able to survive as humans."

Choso stood there and quietly listened until Wangchuan finished.

His gaze left Wangchuan's face and returned to the fetal bodies in the barrier cabinet.

Eso, Kechizu, Noranso, Blue Aspect... every fetal body hung quietly in the light.

They had slept within for so long that even time itself had lost its boundaries.

"As long as my brothers can live happily."

"I will complete every task you give me."

Choso spoke without hesitation.