Along with the boy's feather-light laughter, the surrounding scene changed rapidly.

It was as if an icy wind blew up from the pole of the earth, and in the blink of an eye, the place in front of him turned into an extremely cold and frozen land.

The bizarrely shaped snow-capped mountains and the icicles hanging in the depressions, in the layers of snow and wind, the bone-chilling coldness goes straight to the nerves and flesh, like a series of spikes.

Gojo Satoru saw that the ice surface of the tunnel was filled with densely packed dead bodies, mixed with jagged white bones. If the dead bodies were squeezed together, their flesh would stick together, or bone spurs would pierce their bodies, and they would suffer forever in the ice.

Not far ahead, a snow-white figure was slowly approaching.

The boy in white was wearing wooden clogs with bare feet, and his white feathers were fluttering in the wind.

"Welcome to the Eight Cold Hells."

Following his lukewarm blessing, the light snow in the sky turned into a roaring snow tornado that rushed straight towards Gojo Satoru.

The snow dragon brushed past his ear.

Gojo Satoru subconsciously dodged to the side, and during this subtle movement, he noticed the white air he exhaled.

(Ah, because it is in an extremely cold place? Wait——) After this thought came to his mind, he immediately felt a chill piercing his heart. Even though he reacted immediately, he was still affected by the illusion.

"So that's how it is." Gojo Satoru touched his left earlobe, which was obviously frozen. Now he had to restrain himself from thinking that he was frozen, otherwise he would be affected by a stronger illusion.

He said: "Even the white air I breathe is completely simulated. If I think I am 'cold' for a moment, I will fall into your trap."

"…Is this an illusion?" Then, the curious young man asked frankly, "Then let me ask you this: what if I had the thought of being frozen to death just now?"

“Then you will really die here.”

Hanako, who was dressed as a snow boy not far away, said this expressionlessly.

Amidst the snow and ice, he looked so cold and uninterested in everything that he looked like a ghost coming to greet the dead.

Gojo Satoru touched his nose and said, "Well, is this a test for me?"

"If you die so easily in my hands, it only proves that a sorcerer is just that good." Hanako raised her eyebrows. "If your teaching level is not good enough, then Yoshino doesn't need to go to a technical high school. It's just a waste of time."

Having said that, the boy suddenly rolled up his sleeves.

Two earth dragons made of white snow mixed with ice rose up, and they were so fierce that they wanted to strangle each other. Although Gojo Satoru dodged, after he stood still again, he said, "So that's how it is..."

"My correct choice just now should have been to stand still - and give up my technique."

"My subconscious avoidance proves that I have identified with your illusions. I will only choose to avoid them if I think they will harm me. Once I have this thought, your illusions will become 'capable of harming me'. Similarly, even if I use a technique to defend myself, I am 'identifying' with it."

Hanako said slowly, "After all, humans are creatures that firmly believe in their own judgments. It is not easy to overcome instincts and perform rebellious behavior. However, you can realize this, so you... don't seem to be stupid."

After saying that, he actually gave me a glance with some praise.

Gojo Satoru was a little helpless: "Ah... It's embarrassing to be 'praised' by a kid who looks so much younger than me. Is this some kind of punishment game?"

"Really? If you feel embarrassed, why don't you roast it over a fire?" Hanako said with a wicked smile, "This way, no one can tell that you are blushing because you are shy, right?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the snow beneath his feet turned into dark red lava, and the icebergs on both sides melted and were replaced by rugged rocks in an instant.

Fire from the sky fell from above, and the ground beneath his feet was also spitting out tongues of fire. The pure white boy was now dressed in black, with thin red lines on the corners of his clothes. In front of his feet was a deep, red-hot pit, filled with the charred flesh of the dead and poisonous smoke.

Hanako said succinctly: "This is a scorching hell. The fire of hell will constantly burn the sinners here. Fire can give life to humans, but it can also cause death. It can even make life worse than death -" Having said this, he chuckled softly.

It seems that he prefers the scorching heat of hell to the extreme cold.

Gojo Satoru walked to the pit.

There was everything at the bottom of the pit—densely packed corpses, some with flesh and skin, some with only bones left, and some with eyeballs that had fallen from their rotting skin into the ribs of the people next to them, like a pot of rotten meat. There was also bubbling liquid that looked like magma, and a toxic cloud that seemed to be rolling out.

...the world after death?

He asked, "So the punishment will never stop?"

Hanako said, "It ends when the sentence is completed. However, for some people, it may never end."

Although Gojo Satoru appeared to be relatively calm, he knew that as long as Hanako's illusion was still in progress, he could not relax at any time. If he had even a moment of ambiguous agreement like "seems", "appears", or "probably", he would be swallowed up by his illusion.

——Even now, Gojo Satoru cannot be distracted at all.

This is because Hanako told him in advance that he was going to use illusion on her.

If one didn't have this psychological defense, facing such an illusion head-on, an ordinary person wouldn't even have time to last a breath and would be dead, right?

He looked around—

The dead around him seemed unable to accept the fact that they were dead.

Even though their bodies were twisted and stuck together, their faces showed resentment rather than repentance.

There were also inaudible howling sounds coming from the fire pit, which were as annoying as mosquitoes. It was hard to imagine that these vivid dead people in various shapes were all constructed illusions.

It is not easy to create such a real illusion that is extremely easy to believable. Every track of the rocks has never been repeated, and the expressions of every dead person in the sea of ​​fire are lifelike. Can this really be constructed in an instant?

It was like... he was directly bringing back the scene he had witnessed.

Once this thought came to him, he couldn't stop thinking about it. After all, it made sense. How could he know whether a monster could go to the underworld? He had no way to verify it.

Gojo Satoru pretended to be nonchalant and asked, "——By the way, have you really been to hell?"

Hanako pursed his lips and revealed an unfathomable smile, which, combined with his innocent face, made people feel the playfulness that is unique to children.

"Ah... guess?"

…

…

In the eyes of Ye Moth, everything was just a matter of a few breaths.

The boy returned to his seat with a relaxed and comfortable smile on his face. Gojo Satoru's attitude also changed subtly at this moment, so subtly that Ye Mo Zhengdao couldn't catch what happened.

Too little information to tell.

After returning to a safe and harmless reality, Gojo Satoru finally had time to reflect on what had just happened.

There was no other way. If he had shown his acknowledgement of Hanako's illusion in the illusion just now, he would have been affected by the illusion immediately, so the best thing to do was not to think about it.

"Anyway, I understand." Gojo Satoru smiled again. He clapped his hands heartily, and the sound of the applause made Yega Masamichi immediately turn his head and look at him.

Then, the young man looked at Yoshino Junpei who had no idea what was going on and said, "It's Yoshino-kun, right?"

"Ah? Yes."

"I have completely understood what happened. Anyway, there will be no problem with your admission."

"Huh?" This is Yoshino, who doesn't know why everything suddenly changed.

“Wait, Wu—” This was Ye Mo Zhengdao who was even more confused than him.

"But……"

Although Yoshino Junpei felt that the atmosphere was not right, he still raised his hand - after all, if he didn't explain it now, he would never have the chance.

"I... haven't confirmed my enrollment yet. I still need to go home and discuss it with my family."

Gojo Satoru: “…Huh?”

Ye Moth said: “…” That’s why I told you to listen to what I have to say first.

In the end, it was Hanako who had to take Yoshino home.

Before leaving, Gojo Satoru asked one last question.

"By the way, do you know the Slit-Mouthed Man?"

Kuen: I’ve been waiting for you to ask me this.

After hearing his words, Hanako raised her chin slightly, as if searching her memory for the word "slit-mouthed man".

Soon he found the answer -

"...Ah? The kid playing with the scissors? How did you run into him?"

Gojo Satoru noticed that Hanako actually used the word "child" to refer to the man with the slit mouth.

In other words, Hanako is much bigger than the slit-mouthed man? However, the relationship between the ages of the monsters may also be based on strength.

Gojo Satoru nodded and described his features to Hanako.

"He was wearing a mask and had a pair of reverse-blade scissors."

"Oh... that should be him." Hanako yawned lazily, "Just ignore him, that guy can't communicate."

"Is that so?" Gojo Satoru asked tentatively.

In the several conversations he had with the man with the slit mouth, the other party had always been "kind", which was very different from what Hanako said, "It's impossible to communicate." He was not sure if this was Hanako's confusing tactic. Before he was sure that they could believe him, Gojo Satoru could only give 50% trust - or less.

"From your looks, you've probably met him before." Hanako laughed happily, "I've met that guy a few times too... I don't know if it's because of the bad workplace habits he had when he was a human that have been implanted deep in his soul, but he always acts like a friendly, easy-going fool... Oh, don't be fooled by him."

"...But, no one would just believe the words of a mentally ill person, right?"

After saying these last words, Hanako took Yoshino and left the technical high school.

Everything is back to normal.

However, Hanako's words were like opening Pandora's box.

That night, Gojo Satoru quickly received news from the person in charge of surveillance that the man with the cracked mouth had broken his contract.

“…Although it was somewhat expected.”

But, isn't this too fast?

The agreement was torn apart almost as soon as the front foot parted.

He was not given any face at all.

"What's strange is that almost all the victims were found dead at the same time." The person on the other end of the phone was still reporting, "but the time of death was different...but before that, all the people in charge of monitoring did not find anything unusual."

It's like someone has been blinded from perception.

By the time he woke up from the false perception, the object of surveillance had become a cold corpse.

Before that, no one around the deceased noticed anything was wrong.

"If this is some kind of spell...it's too..."

...It's so scary, the man thought. But he didn't dare to say it out loud.

"Ah, I see."

Gojo Satoru hung up the phone.

…

…

A few hours ago, after proving that Hanako's illusion could work on Gojo Satoru, Kuen mercilessly gave all his skill points to - Yukio.

Yes, Snowman.

Not only can it be used to help the Gap Man complete his role mission, but it can also restrain Gojo Satoru to a certain extent.

There's no better choice, right?

Also, if he wants to use the Snow Man to build momentum, the mental influence should be as strong as possible.

It was time to go home from school. Kuen took off his indoor shoes and closed the door of his shoe closet. He didn't bother to clean up the love letters that were piled up inside. The boy walked to the school gate and began to look for his friend, Ryota Kise, who usually walked with him.

However, just when his eyes were looking for the target, he saw an extremely unexpected existence.

A white-haired young man next to Kise immediately sounded the alarm in his mind.

Huang Lai also made eye contact with him and shouted, "Hey - I'm here! By the way, there's a Mr. Xue here who wants to see you..."

Before he could finish his words, he saw his friend's face turned pale. He actually threw away his schoolbag and ran towards the teaching building.

It was like seeing something extremely terrifying.

Jiu Yuan is a school celebrity, and almost everyone in the school recognizes this face. At such a crowded time after school, he runs all the way as if someone is chasing him cruelly from behind, and he will be dead if he stops.

——This extremely abnormal and exaggerated behavior caused the students around him to look at him.

"Isn't that the Yellow Spring River..."

"What happened to him? Did he leave something in the classroom?"

"Why do I feel like I'm running away from someone...?"

Huang Lai saw the snow-haired young man beside him take a step forward.

"You can't just run away when you see me—"

The ordinary avenue at the main entrance of the campus turned into a snowy scene with icy flowers all over the ground when the young man stepped on it.

The ground was covered with frost and ice, and the white ice was like a deadly thunderbolt, shooting forward at lightning speed. Its target was naturally Jiuyuan who was trying his best to avoid it all.

His running speed was still no match for the ice that appeared out of nowhere. His calf was pulled hard and he fell to the ground.

Everyone saw the pure white young man walking forward with a smile on his face.

All the people present fell silent at the same time, and some even had the absurd idea that it was one of the eight million gods who had appeared in the world.

footsteps.

It didn't stop until he walked in front of Jiuyuan.

The flawless-looking snow monster seemed to have anticipated the current scene:

"——You see, I caught you after all."

"——Why did you run away? And why did you take the child with you?"

"Or do you think that I won't kill you because you are an important 'vessel'?"