Chapter 84 Ten Shadow Spells
When the flames ignited by the cursed power of both Sukuna were thrown over, Jiang Lai was stunned, but he also noticed that cursed power was overflowing from behind the necks of those people.
...Is this what happens when a normal person dies?
He frowned slightly, calmed his mind, and looked around the scene.
At present, Jiang Lai and Ryomen Sukuna did not initially sense that there was anything wrong with the people in front of them. The villagers who were surrounding them seemed to be ordinary people - but precisely because of this, the current situation made people suspicious.
Now is the Heian-kyō era, when monster Onmyoji still exist and cursed spirit sorcerers and sorcerers are everywhere. Ordinary people should have a deep understanding of these concepts.
The bodies of ordinary people and the tools used for farming and hunting cannot really cause any harm to the characters mentioned above.
There is no point in trying to hit a rock with an egg. Ordinary people are not stupid and would never do such a thing.
Furthermore, even if they were angry about the casualties around them, they would not be so angry that they would not calm down for two or three days and even disregard their own lives.
No matter how good the relationship between neighbors is, it is unlikely that the whole village would risk their lives and go crazy to such an extent.
Thoughts flowed through his mind, Jiang Lai narrowed his eyes slightly, and temporarily did not take action to stop Ryomen Sukuna's killing, but instead focused his attention on the people who were wailing but not running away.
There is a problem.
He focused his attention and began to observe the trails of cursed energy that flowed out from the necks of the dead villagers.
The location and manner of the overflow made him immediately associate it with something like an insect.
Cursed insect? Jiang Lai guessed. If so, there must be a controller behind it.
He made a move as if he was rescuing someone, and pulled out a villager who was still alive from the crowd. He took this opportunity to sense the situation at close range and tried to use his individualized time-reversal ability.
——The results of the technique were revealed during the manipulation, and the injured villagers gradually recovered.
But he had an inexplicable intuition telling him that only his body had been restored, and not his memory and other aspects.
The operation of reversing the villagers' individual time is now like repairing a piece of equipment.
Jiang Lai narrowed his eyes and drew a conclusion based on his instinct.
In other words, the villagers in their hands are actually dead and have been dead for some time. Only a body is left that is controlled to be like a normal person, able to breathe, have a heartbeat and speak.
The original soul has long since left the body and entered the long river of reincarnation.
When the soul enters the reincarnation cycle, Jiang Lai cannot truly reverse it by adjusting the range of individual time and space. In this case, the only way to achieve the resurrection of the dead is to restart the world.
No wonder there was a sense of disharmony earlier. He thought. It turned out that these villagers were no longer the original villagers, but were manipulated by the person behind the scenes using the worms to do a series of things, so they behaved so crazy and fearless of death.
...These days there are really all kinds of monsters and demons with all kinds of tricks.
So the purpose of the person behind the scenes to manipulate ordinary villagers is to reduce the target's vigilance and consume their physical strength and magic power? Jiang Lai speculated calmly in his heart.
Behind him, Ryoumen Sukuna was laughing happily as he killed everyone on the scene, throwing out ignited cursed flames mixed with vertical and horizontal slashes, destroying bodies and buildings in an instant.
"Happy, happy!" He had no intention of saving his strength, and it looked like he was exploding after being restrained for a long time.
Just after Ryoumen Sukuna had a great time venting his anger, the sorcerer-sama arrived as the villagers called him.
The opponent had the most common Heian-kyō male hairstyle and attire, holding a long sword in his hand, and with a square face, he jumped from behind to the front and waved his hand:
"I know you, Ryoumen Sukuna - I will purify you today!"
Although Ryomen Sukuna is a human, because he is on the opposite side, he is treated as a cursed spirit and is called "purification".
Most people who deal with Ryomen Sukuna with this mentality do so in order to gain a reputation as a demon slayer.
In this era, having a reputation like that proved one's strength and made it easier to be favored by the nobles, recruited, and live a life of wealth and luxury.
I guess the manipulator behind this situation thinks the same way.
In this era, they did not care about the lives of common people. It was a common practice for them to use common people as stepping stones to enter the door of the nobles.
Jiang Lai's eyes fell on the approaching sorcerer for a moment, and a thought came to his mind: Is this person the manipulator behind the suspected cursed insect creature?
No. The manipulator shouldn't appear at this moment. Jiang Lai made a quick judgment. He estimated that this so-called sorcerer was also a controlled dead person, and the real mastermind was still hiding in an unknown place.
On the battlefield, Ryoumen Sukuna, who heard the sorcerer's words of "exorcism", pulled up the corners of his mouth and smiled wildly: "Since I'm in a good mood today, I'll play with you - but don't die too quickly!"
He put away the cursed blade and the flame, and started to fight with the weak opponent with pure physical skills. It really looked like he was just "having fun".
Jiang Lai is now on the edge of the burned building.
It was dark at the moment, and the smoke from the flames obscured the view, making it difficult to observe the fluctuations of the magical power in the air.
Jiang Lai calmed down, pulled his mind away from the chaotic scene beside him, and focused his eyes on those abrupt curse power tracks——
Because of the dense crowd, these tracks appear a bit chaotic as they intersect, but if you trace them back to their source, they all appear to be converging in the same direction.
They were gradually drifting towards the position of the upright sorcerer in the sky, like small raindrops merging into a larger torrent.
The person behind the scenes must know that ordinary villagers and a sorcerer cannot do anything to Ryoumen Sukuna.
So the meaning of this operation is... to accumulate strength and then explode it in one fell swoop?
If the villager and the sorcerer are both controlled dead people, then they are equivalent to cursed tools in a sense!
The way it works is a bit like accumulating strength from the attacks of both Sukuna, and then storing it on the sorcerer who is fighting Sukuna at close range, and finally, after it is fully accumulated, it explodes with a bang -
Jiang Lai's mind was full of fluent speculations, which he concluded in the blink of an eye. He opened his mouth slightly, but paused in hesitation just before he could speak.
Wait a minute, speaking of which, should I remind Ryomen Sukuna?
If I don't remind him, wouldn't this be a good opportunity to kill the opponent without having to bear the sinful force myself?
The other party is an extremely evil person, and his lifestyle is to be free and easy. Basically, every day of his life, he will bring the death of innocent people.
But the two of them are currently brothers in a certain sense, and more importantly... what if the other person really dies, but is not killed completely by the cursed power and does not enter reincarnation, but instead turns into a curse early?
——The special grade cursed spirit Ryomen Sukuna is definitely more difficult to deal with than the current state of the human boy.
In this brief moment, thoughts flowed through his mind. After a tangle, Jiang Lai finally exhaled, raised his eyes, and shouted in his usual voice:
"Sukuna."
He didn't raise his voice or say anything else. He just simply called out.
After shouting, Jiang Lai was actually prepared for his voice to be ignored, and then waited to witness how fate would decide the future of Ryomen Sukuna.
But what he didn't expect was that Ryoumen Sukuna actually glanced at him sideways during the fight.
At this moment, one of the cherry-pink-haired boy's arms happened to be entangled by the sorcerer with a strange rope.
The rope could not be cut by the cursed blade, nor could it be burned by fire. Ryomen Sukuna was originally planning to grab the rope with his backhand, pull the sorcerer close to him and tear him into pieces.
In the moment they glanced at each other and looked at each other, time seemed to be slowed down to a certain rhythm.
"..." The pair of scarlet eyes narrowed slightly.
The next second, Ryomen Sukuna changed his moves and kicked the sorcerer who was about to get closer away with his back foot!
In addition, he actually cut off his own arm on the spot, as if he felt no pain, and cut off the hand that was entangled by the strange rope and threw it away!
He retreated quickly without hesitation, and the next moment, the sorcerer who was kicked away suddenly exploded!
"Bang!!"
A huge amount of cursed power exploded in an instant, and the shock wave shattered and blew away the buildings on the ground. Jiang Lai used space magic to block in front of him, but he couldn't help but slide backwards for a distance.
After a moment of ringing in his ears, Jiang Lai returned to his normal state. He raised his eyes and looked forward.
The remaining curse power spread in circles in the air, with smoke and dust everywhere.
At the end of the huge sliding trench on the ground, there was a half-bent cherry-pink-haired figure.
After taking a deep breath, Ryomen Sukuna dusted off his body, stood up, reversed the technique, and regrew the broken arm.
His face was still covered with scars and dust, like a ferocious beast that had rolled around in a crypt, but he was probably not seriously injured.
Ryoumen Sukuna wiped the blood from the corner of his lips and said in a drawn-out voice, "Not bad, this move is really surprising."
"You are also surprising. You have mastered the reversal technique." Jiang Lai walked slowly and steadily to a place not far from the other party's side.
"It's not that hard to reverse the technique." Ryoumen Sukuna said something that would make countless people jump up and down with a nonchalant expression, "You can probably learn it by just thinking about it."
At this moment, the black-haired young man's navy blue kimono is as clean and tidy as ever, forming a sharp contrast with the tattered and dusty cherry-pink-haired boy.
Jiang Lai smiled gently and held the book upright: "This looks really like a wolf."
Ryoumen Sukuna snorted in disdain and raised his eyes: "Don't point your book at me."
"Huh?" Jiang Lai was a little surprised. Could it be that the other party discovered the true identity of the mobile phone man and knew that the book could preserve the dark history images?
Ryoumen Sukuna uttered the second half of the sentence: "...I don't know why, but I feel a little unhappy."
Oh - it turned out to be an animal-like intuition. Jiang Lai understood, and his finger had already pressed the camera button to save the dark history.
After the photo shoot, Jiang Lai put the book away naturally with a graceful posture.
He casually asked, "What were you thinking just now?" What he wanted to ask was what Ryoumen Sukuna was thinking when he made the final decision during the battle.
Jiang Lai knew that the other party must have noticed his unspoken reminder in a brief moment and then immediately changed his decision in the battle.
To be honest, he was still quite surprised. After all, he had basically resigned himself to fate at that time, but Ryoumen Sukuna was able to grasp that clue.
"I can see it. From your expression and aura, I can guess that there is probably something wrong with the scene in front of us." Ryoumen Sukuna interrupted Jiang Lai and spoke directly.
He looked ahead, sneered, and said slowly, "It's rare to see you looking so conflicted - although it's a little bit disgusting."
When Jiang Lai heard this, a cross appeared on his forehead. He smiled on the surface but was thinking darkly in his heart that why not turn back time? This time he would not say a word and just let the other person die, no matter whether it would turn into a curse or not.
Of course, this is just a thought. Jiang Lai knew that if Ryoumen Sukuna turned into a curse early, it would be much more troublesome than maintaining a human state for a period of time. And the cursed spirit would be even more unable to restrain the instinct to kill people.
By then, the other party might grow up to be even more terrifying than the original character.
Actually, what I am entangled with is not whether the other party will live or die, but whether the other party will become a more vicious curse after death.
However, Jiang Lai felt that after the truth was told, the other party might not feel disgusted anymore, so it was better to maintain the status quo and let the other party continue to feel disgusted.
Therefore, at this moment, he did not explain anything, but used space magic to let the air kick the opponent hard from a distance to vent his anger.
Ryomen Sukuna, who was kicked inexplicably by the air, let out a light sigh, but did not wave his hand to fight back (although it would have been ineffective even if he had fought back).
He ripped the torn kimono to pieces, revealing his muscular body with black patterns, and then tied the fabric loosely around his waist.
"There's a controller behind this, right?" Ryoumen Sukuna was no fool. After what happened just now, he was very sensitive to the plot of the villagers and the sorcerer. "Something like a cursed insect? Treating people as cursed tools?"
Jiang Lai hummed and responded, "Those villagers have long been bodies without souls, and I guess the sorcerer is the same."
"No wonder you don't show your kindness anymore, it turns out you can't save me?" Ryoumen Sukuna said casually, then shook his wrist and laughed wildly, "——The guy hiding behind me is not qualified to kill me!"
He put his hands together and gestured.
Jiang Lai was stunned for a moment, frowning slightly. He raised his hand and used the space technique to build a protective shield around him, and said, "You want to expand your domain?"
"Don't worry, you won't be affected by the domain. I won't kill you before I find a suitable chef, lest your meat become stale."
The two evil Sukuna stretched out their voices and expanded their territory. The scene in front of them suddenly changed to the background of the chef who subdued the devil, with piles of cow bones and blood everywhere.
Jiang Lai laughed and said lightly: "You can't kill him either."
His technique allowed him to maintain a short distance from the blood in the surrounding area.
Then, Jiang Lai held the book in his hand, glanced over, and said in the same tone as before: "Are you planning to directly expand the domain and then attack infinitely? How big is your radius? You are not allowed to go beyond this uninhabited village..."
Before he could finish his words, Ryoumen Sukuna shrugged his eyelids and said impatiently, "Alright, shut up. I'm not planning on striking you, but the domain can also be used to search for people."
He rarely opened his mouth to explain a few words.
Despite this, Jiang Lai still did not let his guard down. He surrounded himself with magic and was always ready to counterattack and stop.
Ryomen Sukuna closed his eyes for half a second, then suddenly opened them. He swung his hand and slashed the sharp curse power at the ground, suddenly digging up the accumulated soil!
The ground shook and cracked, and under the sharp cutting of the cursed power, the surface of the ground was thrown away to reveal the hole underneath! At this moment, a twisted figure emerged from the ground.
Ryomen Sukuna was extremely fast. He flashed forward, grabbed the opponent's neck directly, and threw him to the ground without mercy!
“Ahhh——!!” the man wailed.
There were several figures around the man who appeared, probably puppets controlled by the insects. Surprisingly, there was a young child among them.
Jiang Lai narrowed his eyes and looked up.
When that person was thrown to the ground, the puppets controlled by the insect gathered together and attacked the cherry-pink-haired four-armed boy.
But this is Ryomen Sukuna's territory, so naturally everything is under Sukuna's control. The cherry-pink-haired boy didn't even need to raise his head, he just waved his hand and nailed them in the blood with the cursed blade!
Ryomen Sukuna grabbed the guy's neck with his hand with amazing grip strength and lifted him up into the air again. It seemed that he was going to break the guy's neck in an instant - but he was stopped by Jiang Lai.
"Wait a moment." Jiang Lai started walking and stopped to the side. "I have some questions for him."
"Oh?" Ryoumen Sukuna raised his eyebrows. He heard it but did not stop his actions. He directly broke the man's neck with a click!
Then, he released the domain, threw the man's body on the ground, and snorted, "Okay, if you want to ask, just revive again - that way I can kill you twice."
"..." Jiang Lai was speechless for a second, but decided not to waste his breath arguing with the other party. He raised his hand and turned back the time of the man whose neck was broken.
The next moment after resurrection, Jiang Lai used space magic to restrain the opponent.
Jiang Lai also had a rather evil aura after his aura cooled down, not to mention that there was a layer of mist on his face that added to his weird aura. He said in a deep voice: "I ask, you answer. Or do you prefer to just die?"
“Don’t, don’t, don’t kill me!” The person whose memory was recalled had no memory of being killed. Although he didn’t understand why he was controlled here, he still subconsciously begged for mercy.
"If you answer, I will not kill you." Jiang Lai said, "I can make a bond with you. If you tell the truth, I will not touch you in exchange."
The man nodded desperately, feeling that he had saved his life: "I agree! I agree!"
Jiang Lai asked: "Do you know the witch of this village and the traveler who stayed here before? What kind of conversation did you have? Why did you set up this situation?"
"I know the shrine maiden. The shrine maiden in this village can weave special ropes."
"I didn't recognize that traveler. He was wearing a hat so I couldn't see him clearly. He took the miko away and told me that he saw Ryomen Sukuna appear nearby."
It seems that this guy is not familiar with the place, and he is not sure whether the traveler is a noose from thousands of years ago. Jiang Lai is a little disappointed.
"I wanted to be recruited as a noble guard under the pretext of exorcism, so I burned part of the village and spread the rumor that it was Sukuna Ryoumen who did it. Then I turned the people in the village into snakes, and planned to kill Sukuna Ryoumen when he appeared."
You really don't take the lives of civilians seriously. Jiang Lai stood up.
He caught a glimpse of a puppet nailed to the ground not far away, and the black-haired child once again wandered into it.
Jiang Lai paused for two seconds and asked, "Why did you leave the child with you?"
Normally, children are not aggressive.
"Yes... I saw him in the last village. He had just awakened to the ability to use shadow techniques. I thought his technique was useful, so I made him into a puppet - but I didn't kill him yet! In order to let him continue to grow, I just implanted a cursed insect to control him."
Use shadow techniques? The first thing that popped into Jiang Lai's mind was the Zenin family's ancestral technique [Ten Shadow Techniques] - a technique that is as difficult to awaken as the six eyes, but very powerful.
Could it be that this child is the owner of ten kinds of shadow spells?
However, the fact that the child appeared in the village instead of in the Zenin family suggests that the child is most likely an illegitimate child, or the child of a Zenin family member who ran away from home and started a family outside.
By the way, did the Zenin family light up some strange buff of "the wandering child awakens ten kinds of shadow magic"? In the main story timeline, Fushiguro Megumi, who was away from home, also awakened ten kinds of shadow magic.
Jiang Lai's wild imagination lasted only a moment, and he turned around and prepared to go see the child.
If he is not dead yet, he should be able to be saved by reversing time.
Probably the only one who could be saved from the tragedy.
He ignored the sorcerer (or maybe a curser would be more appropriate) on the ground. He deserved to die, and he would not save him.
Jiang Lai did make an agreement with that gang that he would not kill them if they told the truth, but that only meant that he would not do it.
Ryoumen Sukuna, who was watching leisurely on the side, stared at the trembling man on the ground with scarlet eyes. At this moment, he raised the corners of his lips again, put one hand on his chin, and said casually:
"Just now I broke his neck. This time - let's try a different method."
He waved his fingers, and at the moment the man screamed, he cut him into neat pieces!
Jiang Lai didn't look back. He bent down, walked to the child, and raised his hand to start the spell.
The one-way reversal of time and space is reflected in the black-haired child. The wounds gradually heal and the last trace of the influence of the worm also disappears.
The child opened his eyes, supported himself on the ground with one hand and sat up, his expression showing confusion mixed with alertness.
The child instinctively made the [Jade Dog] gesture, which was the only shikigami he could summon at his age.
Jiang Lai withdrew the hand that was activating the space ritual, and at this moment, he once again felt the tiredness rising from the depths of his soul, even more intense than the sleepiness he felt after reversing an entire village!
"......!?" Jiang Lai was stunned for a moment, then he reacted.
One's own ability is to bear the corresponding sins of violating the rules after the reversal. The greater the influence of the reversal, the more rules he violates and the heavier the sins he bears.
In other words - there shouldn't be an owner of ten kinds of shadow spells in this era, but my resurrection made it possible for this era to have one?
The ten shadow spell owners who survive will inevitably have a significant impact in the future.
The black-haired child stared at the silent mysterious man in front of him with a cloudy face. His body was tense and he looked very nervous.
He pursed his lips and raised his blue-green eyes.
Jiang Lai paused for a long while, and finally relaxed his posture. He naturally exuded a gentle aura, and with a smile in his voice, he soothed: "Don't be nervous, the bad guy who caught you has been eliminated."
"Is this the ingredient you picked? The meat looks average." As he spoke, Ryomen Sukuna happened to come from behind.
The words spoken by the two people almost overlapped, and "Don't be nervous" and "The meat is of average quality" echoed in the child's ears at the same time.
Jiang Lai: “…”
Black-haired kid: “…”
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