The strands of hair devoured the eggshell rapidly. As the shell was eaten away, the special grade cursed spirit's true form gradually came into Chingetsu's view.
"Hannya." Chingetsu frowned slightly.
The cursed spirit before him looked exactly like the legendary hannya: a hideous demon with two horns on its head, bulging eyes, and fangs. "A humanoid cursed spirit, and a special grade imaginary cursed spirit at that..."
Utahime Iori's voice took on a tremor, and her expression turned grim. The image of a hannya was far too iconic.
Utahime Iori could hardly avoid connecting the special grade cursed spirit before her with Hannya. They differed from ordinary cursed spirits.
Imaginary cursed spirits were formed by painting an established framework with fear. Ordinary cursed spirits, conversely, were frameworks built from accumulated fear. In other words.
If people shared a common fear of a fictional figure, that could produce an imaginary cursed spirit. Such fear generally originated from religious beliefs, ghost stories, legends, and the like.
When it came to religious beliefs producing imaginary cursed spirits, theoretically, the older the religion, the greater the chance.
But the secularization of human society had greatly reduced people's dependence on religion. People could not fear something they did not care about.
Thus, some religious sects gradually declined. Of course, even a centipede did not stop moving the moment it died.
Even Chingetsu could not say what trump cards and methods those sects possessed.
And hannya, a fear long rooted in the hearts of the people of Fusang, was far too iconic.
That was also why Utahime Iori's expression had turned so grim upon seeing the hannya-shaped cursed spirit born from the enormous egg.
Could Chingetsu really defeat an opponent like this?
As she pondered, the enormous egg that had enveloped Hannya had almost been completely devoured. Waves of evil, ominous energy emanated from Hannya as it hovered in midair.
Chapter 32: Special Grade Imaginary Cursed Spirit, Hannya!
"Even though I prepared myself mentally, this thing really is ugly."
Chingetsu flexed his wrists, his gaze intent on the special grade imaginary cursed spirit Hannya floating in midair.
The special grade cursed spirit Hannya let out a sinister chuckle devoid of meaning, somewhat masculine, yet mixed with feminine softness. It had only just been born and possessed only rudimentary intelligence.
Hannya felt only one thing now: hunger. It needed to eat, needed cursed energy to fill the emptiness within. Hannya turned its gaze toward Utahime Iori.
A jujutsu sorcerer brimming with cursed energy was the best choice of food.
Utahime Iori's heart tightened as Hannya fixed its attention on her, and dense beads of sweat instantly soaked her back. "It's targeting me?"
The oppressive presence of a special grade cursed spirit was simply too powerful. Utahime Iori instinctively took a step back. Hannya stiffly turned its head, watching her every movement.
Utahime Iori felt as though all the blood in her body had nearly frozen, and even her thoughts began to slow.
Had Chingetsu's presence beside her not offered some comfort, she would probably have already collapsed to the ground, unable to resist.
Before a special grade cursed spirit, jujutsu sorcerers below grade one were that weak. And she was not even a combat-type jujutsu sorcerer.
"Heh heh heh..."
The special grade cursed spirit Hannya let out strange chuckles as it slowly drifted toward Utahime Iori.
Although its hunger was unbearable, it enjoyed its prey's resistance before a meal even more. That made eating more entertaining. As for Chingetsu beside Utahime Iori, it automatically ignored him.
A human without cursed energy was like a dish without salt. He could not whet its appetite at all.
Drool unconsciously dribbled from the corners of Hannya's mouth, and unidentified slime still clung to its body. Its scarlet eyes glowed eerily in the supermarket filled with black mist.
Hannya drew closer step by step. Utahime Iori could even smell the bloody stench coming from it. "Gulp."
Utahime Iori instinctively swallowed.
Clear beads of sweat trembled on her delicate nose, and her normally smooth long hair bristled slightly with fear.
"Seriously? One special grade cursed spirit scared you this badly?"
Chingetsu looked at Utahime Iori, who was on the verge of tears and clinging tightly to his arm like a kitten. His voice was full of helplessness.
"What do you mean, seriously? That's a special grade cursed spirit!" "So it's perfectly normal for me to be scared!"
Utahime Iori made no attempt to hide her fear.
"But how am I supposed to exorcise that thing with you holding my arm like this?" "Be good and find somewhere safe to stay."
But no matter what Chingetsu said, Utahime Iori refused to let go. "Women really are a pain..."
He let out a long sigh.
Chingetsu bent slightly and scooped Utahime Iori into a bridal carry. His legs drove hard against the ground, carrying her into the air in a single leap.
Seeing the food almost in its mouth "snatched away" by a human, Hannya froze for a moment before letting out an enraged roar. Such was a hannya.
A vicious demon transformed from a living soul consumed by jealousy and resentment.
It was a vengeful spirit born of jealousy and hatred to begin with. Now born as an imaginary cursed spirit, it naturally inherited the characteristics of a "hannya."
Hannya's venomous eyes locked onto Chingetsu in midair. Blood-red cursed energy surged along its hair.
The next instant, its hair, wrapped in blood-red cursed energy, grew wildly in the wind. Like snakes flicking their tongues, it lunged to bite Chingetsu, who was still airborne and had not yet
landed.
Whoosh! Ah!
The special grade cursed spirit Hannya's hair moved so quickly that it almost pierced the air.
Countless strands writhed like a horde of dancing demons, their tips all pointing toward Chingetsu.
In just one second, its hair could strangle the fellow who dared snatch food from its jaws into scraps. The hair dancing through the air began to close in. Hannya could almost hear the boy's dying screams. But the next instant, a trace of humanlike confusion flashed across its face.
The attack it had considered foolproof had actually missed!
The instant the hair struck, Chingetsu forcibly dropped, making Hannya's attack hit empty air. He then put some distance between himself and Hannya and set Utahime down on the ground.
Chingetsu's sequence of movements had been too fast.
So fast that Utahime Iori still had not registered what had happened.
A trace of Chingetsu's body heat seemed to linger in the crook of her arm. As she gazed at his cool, handsome profile, something crossed Utahime Iori's mind, and her face flushed again.
Chingetsu set Utahime Iori down, then turned to look coldly at Hannya floating in midair. "Killer Queen!"
In Chingetsu's eyes, the phantom image of Killer Queen flashed past.
The next instant, Chingetsu vanished before Utahime Iori's eyes. "He's so fast!"
Utahime Iori could not help crying out.
Her attention had been on Chingetsu the entire time. She had never looked away.
Yet even so, she still had not seen how Chingetsu disappeared from her sight.
Chapter 33: Hannya's Cursed Technique
The black mist around Hannya churned once more.
Its intelligence had not fully developed, and it did not understand why its supposedly certain strike had missed. Nor did it understand why this human would approach it of his own accord.
In its eyes, humans were food.
And now, a piece of food was moving before it as though it were not there. Hannya felt provoked. An emotion called anger grew within it, and its eyes turned so red they seemed ready to drip blood.
It would tear this presumptuous fellow before it to pieces. Hannya was still immersed in anger.
The next instant, Chingetsu abruptly appeared before it.
Chingetsu's arm overlapped with the arm of his Stand, Killer Queen. Both exerted their strength together, driving a powerful uppercut straight into Hannya's chin.
"Rozan Rising Dragon!"
Tremendous force erupted instantly, whipping up a violent blast of wind pressure.
The heavy punch twisted and deformed Hannya's face outright. "Tsk, tsk. Now you're even uglier."
The corners of Chingetsu's mouth lifted slightly.
He was very satisfied with the power of his punch. "Crack!"
Hannya slammed heavily onto the supermarket floor, the massive impact overturning a row of merchandise. Pfft!
A large mouthful of black blood mixed with broken teeth gushed from the special grade cursed spirit Hannya's mouth. The pitch-black blood dripped onto the floor, corroding it into a patch of pits as wisps of black smoke rose. Clearly, Hannya's blood was extremely corrosive.
"He... how did he do that?"
Utahime Iori's beautiful eyes widened as she stared in disbelief at everything happening before her. He had actually dealt serious damage to a special grade cursed spirit using physical combat alone.
Utahime Iori felt as though she were dreaming.
But the special grade cursed spirit Hannya's low snarls and the cold sensation from the floor told her otherwise. She was not dreaming. All of this was truly happening before her eyes.
Crack, crack.
The sound of shifting bones rang out. Hannya, knocked to the ground by a single punch, tore off its deformed jaw. With a special grade cursed spirit's terrifying regenerative ability, Hannya finished repairing its injuries.
Rapid regeneration consumed an enormous amount of cursed energy.
Hannya was only a newly born special grade cursed spirit. That regeneration had already consumed one-tenth of its cursed energy.
Before you continue