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 a 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.
拍完後，江萊自然而然地将書冊收起，姿态飄飄然。
嘴上，他随口問了句：“剛才你是怎麽……”他想問的是，當時戰鬥中兩面宿傩最後決策更改瞬間的想法。
江萊知道，對方必然是在短暫瞬間察覺到自己未說出口的提醒，才會當機立斷更改了戰鬥中的決定。
說真的，他還是蠻意外的。畢竟當時自己已經基本是放任命運的态度了，兩面宿傩竟然還能從中抓住那一絲倪端。
“看出來了，你那種表情和氣場，我猜就猜到眼前場景八成有問題。”兩面宿傩打斷江萊的言語，直接接話。
他目視前方，嗤笑一聲，慢悠悠道，“難得見你有糾結的樣子啊——雖然稍微有點惡心。”
江萊聞言額角冒出跳動的十字，他表面笑呵呵內心陰暗地想着要不還是時間倒流一下，這次自己一句話也不說，任由對方去死好了，管他會不會變成詛咒。
當然，這只是想想。江萊明曉，萬一兩面宿傩提早變成詛咒，那可比維持一段時間的人類狀态麻煩多了。而且咒靈會更加遏制不住殺人的本能。
屆時對方說不準會比原著成長得還要恐怖。
說起來，其實自己糾結的并不是對方死不死，而是對方死了之後、會不會變成更兇惡詛咒的問題。
不過，江萊覺得真相說出後，對方說不準就不感到惡心了，還是保持現狀，讓對方繼續惡心着吧。
因此，此時此刻，他什麽也沒解釋，只是運用空間術式，遠遠地讓空氣用力踹了對方一腳、算作解氣。
被空氣莫名踹了一腳的兩面宿傩輕啧一聲，卻也沒揮手反擊（雖然反擊了也沒效果）。
他把殘破的礙事和服上身幹脆撕碎，露出布有黑色紋理的精壯肌肉，而後将布料松松垮垮地紮在腰間。
“背後有控制者，是吧。”兩面宿傩并不是蠢人，他在剛才事件後，也很敏銳地察覺出村民和咒術師套路後的內容，“類似咒力蠱蟲那種東西？把人當成咒具？”
江萊“嗯”了一聲，回應道：“那些村民早就已經是沒有靈魂的軀殼了，估計那個咒術師也是。”
“怪不得你不發濫好心了，原來是救不了？”兩面宿傩語氣随意抛出一句，而後甩甩手腕，扯出個張狂的笑，“——縮在背後的那家夥想殺我還不夠格啊！”
他兩手合在一起，做出手勢。
江萊愣了一瞬，眉頭略微蹙起。他擡手用空間術式在身邊築起防護，開口道：“你要領域展開？”
“放心好了、你不會被領域波及。在找到合适的廚子之前，我不會殺你，免得肉質不新鮮。”
兩面宿傩惡人腔拖長，将領域展開，眼前場景忽地變換成伏魔禦廚子的背景，牛骨堆積、血水彌漫。
江萊呵呵笑起，輕描淡寫道：“你也殺不了。”
他的術式讓自己和周圍領域裏的血水隔開一小段距離。
接着，江萊将書冊握在手中，視線掃過，用往日的語氣道：“你這是打算直接領域展開然後無限斬擊？你的半徑開了多大？不允許超過這個無人村莊……”
話語未完，兩面宿傩已經聳拉下眼皮，腔調不耐煩道：“行了，閉嘴別吵。我沒打算斬擊，領域也可以用來搜人。”
他難得開口解釋一兩句。
話雖如此，江萊依然沒有放松警惕，他術式環繞在身邊，并時刻準備着反擊與制止。
兩面宿傩閉上眼睛，半秒後忽地睜開。他揮手将犀利的咒力向地面斬下、卒然掘開堆積的泥土！
地面震蕩裂開，在鋒銳的咒力切割下，抛開表層的地面露出其下的空洞！恰在此時，一道扭曲的身影從地底而出。
兩面宿傩速度極快，他閃身上前、直接上手揪住對方的脖頸，毫不留情将其摔在地上！
“啊啊啊——！！”那人發出哀嚎。
出現的那人周圍還有幾道身影，估計同樣是被蠱蟲控制的傀儡。令人意外的是，其中竟然還有一個年齡不大的小孩。
江萊眯了眯眼睛，擡眼望去。
在那人被摔在地面的時刻，蠱蟲控制下的傀儡集中起來，向櫻粉發四手少年發起攻擊。
但這裏是兩面宿傩的領域，自然一切都在宿傩的掌控中。櫻粉發少年甚至都不需要擡頭，揮揮手便用咒刃将他們釘在血水中！
兩面宿傩握力驚人的手卡住那家夥的脖子，将其再度提起到半空，看起來轉瞬間便要将那人脖子扭斷——不過被江萊制止了。
“稍等一下。”江萊起步走去，停到旁側，“我還有問題要問他。”
“哦？”兩面宿傩挑眉，他聽見了但動作卻沒停，咔嚓直接捏斷了那人的脖子！
而後，他解除了領域，将那人的屍體扔在地上，哼笑道：“行啊，想問的的話，你再複活就是了——這樣我就可以殺兩遍。”
“……”江萊無語了一秒，但決定不白費口舌和對方吵架，他擡手将被扭斷脖子的那人時間倒流。
複活後的下一刻、江萊用空間術式束縛住對方。
江萊氣勢冷下來後也頗有一番惡人氣場，更何況臉上還有一層迷霧添加怪誕氣場。他沉聲說道：“我問，你答。或者你更想直接去死？”
“別別別殺我！”被回溯的人沒有被殺的記憶，他雖然不明白為何自己被控制住在了這裏，但還是下意識求饒。
“你若是回答，我自然不殺你。”江萊說，“我可以和你立個束縛，你說實話，作為交換，我不動你。”
那人拼命點頭，自覺撿到了一命：“我同意！同意！”
江萊問：“這個村莊的巫女，和之前落腳過的旅客，你認識嗎，有過什麽對話？你為何要設置這一場局？”
“巫女我知道，這個村子的巫女能夠編織特殊的繩子。”
“那名旅客我不認識，他戴着鬥笠我沒看清，對方帶走了巫女，還和我說看見過兩面宿傩出現在這附近。”
看來這家夥也不熟的樣子，不确定那名旅客是不是千年前的羂索（腦花）。江萊心底有些失望。
“我想憑借除魔的名義，去應招貴族的侍衛，于是自己燒了村子的一部分、傳謠成兩面宿傩做的。而後把這個村子的人做成蠱人，打算等兩面宿傩出現的時候布局殺死對方。”
真是不把平民的命當命啊。江萊起身。
他視線瞥見不遠處被釘在地上的傀儡，視線中再度晃進其中的黑發小孩。
江萊頓了兩秒，多問了一句：“為什麽你會把小孩放在身邊？”
按理說孩童沒什麽攻擊性。
“是……我是在上個村子見到的，他剛剛覺醒能夠用影子的術式，我覺得他這個術式好用，便把他做成傀儡——但我還沒殺！為了讓他繼續成長，我只是植入了咒力蠱蟲控制而已。”
用影子的術式？江萊腦海中蹦出來的第一個便是禪院家祖傳的術式[十種影法術]——某種和六眼一樣不容易覺醒，但很強大的術式。
難不成這個孩子是十種影法術的擁有者？
不過小孩竟然出現在村莊、而不是禪院家……說明對方大概率是私生子、或者離家出走的禪院家人在外成家後的孩子什麽的。
話說禪院家是點亮了什麽“流落在外的孩子覺醒十種影法術”的奇怪buff嗎。正篇時間線裏，也是在外的伏黑惠覺醒了十種影法術。
天馬行空僅是一瞬，江萊轉過身、準備去看看那個孩子。
如果還沒死，應該是可以通過時間逆轉救回來的。
大概也是現場慘案裏唯一能夠救回來的。
他沒管地上的那個咒術師（也許稱其為詛咒師更合适）。對方該死，他不會救。
江萊的确和那家夥約定了“說實話便不會殺”的束縛，但這也僅僅代表自己不會動手而已。
旁邊悠哉圍觀的兩面宿傩猩紅眼眸盯着地面戰戰兢兢的那人，此刻再度扯起唇角，單手搭在下颌處，嗓音随意道：
“剛才是扭斷脖子來着，那麽這次——換個殺法。”
他手指揮動，在那人尖叫起來的瞬間，将其切成整齊的碎塊！
江萊沒再回頭，他彎腰走到那個小孩身邊，擡手發動術式。
單向逆轉的時空在黑發孩童身上體現，傷口逐漸愈合、蠱蟲的最後一絲影響也消散。
孩童睜開眼，單手撐着地面坐起，神情是懵懂中夾雜警惕。
小孩本能地做出[玉犬]的手勢，這是他這個年紀唯一能夠召喚出的式神。
江萊收回發動空間術式的手，而在這瞬間、他再度感知到靈魂深處浮起的疲倦，比當時逆轉一整個村莊後的困意更為洶湧！
“……！？”江萊內心一陣愕然，他愣了片刻，接着反應過來。
自己的能力是逆轉後、背負相應的違背規則的孽。而逆轉了影響越大的人，違背的規則越多，背負的孽越重。
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: “…”