Al soon explained his current situation in the team channel.

He pretended to be serious and said, "The car kept going up the mountain, and the driver didn't say a word. I decided to sit there until the end to see what would happen."

Ieiri Naoko: “…”

Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru did not respond at all. Instead, Ieiri Shoko, who was far away at the Tokyo Jujutsu High School, uttered a series of speechless ellipsis.

Al's words perfectly replicated the last message Ms. Renshi left before she disappeared.

She complained: "Are you going to lose contact next?"

Al was surprised and asked, "Nitrous, why are you still awake?"

Ieiri Naoko said helplessly, "How can I sleep if you keep saying something in my head?"

Al agreed when he heard it.

"Would you like me to block the team channel for one night?"

"No need." Ieiri Naoko said, "If you die in there, I will immediately notify Mr. Ye Mo to collect your bodies. Don't worry, I will definitely dissect you myself."

"Oh my, this is scary."

Since she started to dissect corpses, Ieiri Shoko has taken a big step towards becoming a cool sister.

But no matter what, Nishiko-chan will always be the cutest daughter!

Ieiri Naoko said lazily, "Since you guys were taking so long to get off the subway, the assistant supervisor guessed that you had successfully entered the realm of the cursed spirits, and now the Window has already taken action."

"So, what about the other passengers in our car?"

"I heard they were found at the terminal, but they were all asleep. They have all been sent to the hospital and are being checked. Don't worry, there will be no major problems."

It's exactly the same train as Miss Renshi's.

Ieiri Naoko asked curiously, "But what does your driver look like? Is he scary?"

Al turned around and glanced at "Nakahara Chuuya" who was concentrating on driving, and said with a smile: "Are you asking about the kind person who drove me? He has orange hair, is quite young, and is an incredible Mafia."

"...Mafia? There is such a thing as Mafia in the realm of cursed spirits?"

This setting is too redundant no matter how you look at it, right? It would be better if a zombie drove the car for them, at least the horror effect would be maximized.

Al analyzed, "Well, that's it. Although I don't quite understand, I feel that the enemy this time is a magic spirit. It is very good at exploring the secrets deep in people's hearts and using them to create illusions. It's amazing."

Ieiri Naoko asked sharply, "What do you mean? Is that driver someone you know?"

"Hey, I won't tell you."

"Pfft, how mysterious."

Al was in a good mood and said, "The Great Swordsman of the Universe has always been mysterious!"

The car turned the rugged mountain road and drove quietly through the bamboo forest. It was really... such a realistic illusion.

Al glanced at the bright moon above his head and said, "Hey, Naka."

"Um?"

"Where are you taking me?"

The other party replied as a matter of course: "Your home."

The tone of voice of this "Nakahara Chuuya" is exactly the same as the Nakahara Chuuya in Al's memory. So, even though he knows that all this is fake and everything is an illusion, Al still can't help but feel excited.

He hasn't seen Chuuya for a long time.

Al thought about it carefully, and there were not many orange-haired boys in his memories of the years before the time travel. He only remembered that Zhongyuan Zhong was dressed like this when they met for the last time, and he also said that he had found a "new job."

Well, it sounds like they broke up with the "Sheep" guys. Anyway, congratulations, congratulations.

Al said calmly, "But Chuuya, my family doesn't live in the mountains."

"Huh?" Zhongyuan Zhong was puzzled and asked, "This is not a mountain, can't you see these buildings?"

Al: “…”

Huh?

Even though Rao was a crazy and stupid person who came from the Harmony Star World, he was shocked by the ability of "Nakahara Chuuya" to lie with his eyes open.

He asked in disbelief, "Where is the building here?"

It's all bamboo forest!

Zhongyuan Zhongye was also incredulous and said: "Aren't there buildings everywhere?"

“But there are bamboos everywhere!”

"What are you looking at? Isn't this just the commercial street? Hey, use your special ability less. Your colored contact lenses are not really melting into your eyes, causing your vision to deteriorate, right?"

He sounded too confident. If a less confident person were here, he would probably really doubt whether he had mistaken the city for a bamboo forest.

But Al was clearly confident.

He said firmly, "No, even if my eyesight is impaired, I can't mistake the building for bamboo. And this road is full of potholes, it's not the cement road on the commercial street at all."

"Where are the pits and holes?"

As soon as Nakahara Chuuya finished speaking, the car shook dramatically.

Nakahara Chuuya: “…”

Al turned his head and said proudly, "See, it's you who has lost your eyesight."

Nakahara Chuuya snorted and said stubbornly: "Even if my eyesight is getting worse, I can't mistake bamboo for a building."

Al made an exaggerated surprised expression: "Wow, Chuuya, you don't have your own lines?"

Nakahara Chuuya: “…”

The other party seemed to be speechless. He snorted and stopped responding to Al's words. Instead, he drove silently. The car continued to drive quietly up the mountain, as if it would never reach the end.

Al couldn't help but squint his eyes.

Could it be that he should have actually seen the "city" that the fake Chuuya mentioned, but because of the special physique of the Heroic Spirit, he saw through the nature of the illusion directly?

While thinking, Al raised his head as if realizing something and looked at the bright moon outside the window.

Was it an illusion? Why did it feel for a moment that someone was watching it from the moon? However, no matter how it looked, the bright moon above was still just an ordinary moon, nothing special.

Al gathered his thoughts and began to reconsider the current situation.

Two weeks ago, Ren Shi also got on a car that suddenly appeared like him. According to the time she replied to the post, she sat there for almost half an hour before she realized something was wrong. So, what did Ren Shi do at that time?

Should I sit on the train until the end, or should I jump off the train midway? If I choose to jump off the train midway, what will happen?

Killed? Caught? Or escaped? But two weeks have passed, and even if he managed to escape, the chances of him still being alive are extremely slim.

About half an hour later, they finally reached the cabin on the top of the mountain.

Nakahara Chuuya said, "Get off the car."

Al nodded, unbuckled his seat belt and got out of the car obediently, following the obviously fake Nakahara Chuuya into the cabin in front of them. The cabin looked very much like the hunter's hunting house that appears in the movies, and there was a faint smell of blood.

“…”

It's not an illusion, it really smells like blood.

Human blood, and very thick.

Nakahara Chuuya gently pushed open the door with his black-gloved hand. Al looked over his head and saw that the room was covered with a large white cloth. There were many things hidden under the cloth, some tall and some short. A quick glance could count more than a dozen of them.

Al vaguely sensed that there were probably human-shaped statues inside.

The white cloth moved, and a flesh-colored stone statue slowly emerged from under the white cloth. This strange flesh-colored statue was carved into the appearance of a slender woman. Its joints could move, but its facial features were only roughly carved out.

The movement it made when it crawled out was like a zombie in a zombie movie, and a voice that sounded like a man or a woman came from its chest.

"Where is the woman who ran away..."

"Nakahara Chuuya" shook his head and opened his mouth, but continued to speak incoherently: "The aura on your body...dissipated...can't be found, don't waste...time."

Al raised his eyebrow.

Why did this guy suddenly stop talking?

Al asked "Nakahara Chuuya": "What did you bring me here for?"

"Nakahara Chuuya" ignored him. It was natural. The prey had been lured back to its lair by it. Now it just needed to eat it. It turned to the flesh-colored statue and said, "There are two more prey. They have strong cursed powers. Remember to leave their livers for me."

The flesh-colored statue nodded stiffly.

"good."

The fake Chuuya pushed the door open and left. In the gap between the door opening and closing, Al saw "Nakahara Chuuya" turn into a white shadow with nine tails and disappear into the night.

...fox?

Could the cursed spirits in this area be related to foxes?

Then he heard the sound of the white cloth being lifted.

Al turned around and saw the flesh-colored statue tremblingly lifting the huge white cloth, revealing a dozen statues underneath the cloth. There were men and women, tall and short, some were shocked, some were terrified, some were in pain... All of them had lost their vitality, and even the expressions on their faces were frozen by the curse, turning them into lifelike statues. A large bloody hole was dug out where the liver should be, but it presented a strange beauty.

The flesh-colored statue told him hesitantly, "You will...become...one of them."

Al raised an eyebrow.

"You brought me here just to make me into a statue?"

"Dig out the liver... and leave it to Tamamonomae... The skin... Yes, it's ours..."

Wow, Yu! Mo! Mae!

Al's eyes suddenly lit up, "Is that guy just now Tamamonomae?"

Tamamonomae! Tamamonomae! It sounds like a perfect midnight snack for Jyoji!

"right……"

"Then what are you?"

“I…I…”

The flesh-colored statue kept saying "I, I, I" for a long time, but couldn't figure out what was going on. Al waited patiently for a while, and felt that the flesh-colored statue in front of him was not very smart, so he asked it: "Do you want my liver?"

The flesh-colored statue nodded obediently.

"What a waste!" Al said seriously, "You know what? The liver is the only organ in the human body that can grow back. Even if two-thirds of it is removed, it can still grow back to its original shape."

“…”

The not-so-smart flesh-colored statue tilted its head in confusion. Al concluded, "So, why kill it? Isn't it better to keep it for recycling? Cut it off, wait for it to grow back, cut it off again, grow it back again, cut it off again... It's like cutting leeks, don't you agree?"

Flesh-colored statue: “…”

It doesn't understand, but it feels it's not right.

The flesh-colored statue picked up the flesh-colored spear and pointed it at the blond-haired and blue-eyed boy.

Al blinked and whispered, "Let me tell you one more thing."

"?"

"You can't judge the strength of an enemy just by the amount of magic power they have. Think about it, if you walk on the road at night too much, you will always encounter aliens, right?"

Boom——!

…

And the other side.

Not long after Al left, Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru actually heard the bells and drums mentioned in the post. They walked in the direction of the sound and unknowingly left the station and really saw a grand festival.

Gorgeous floats were lined up in a long line, and people were parading in their best costumes to the sound of bells and drums. There were crowds of people everywhere.

Hundreds of colorful boats were floating in the river beside the road. The frontmost boat was carrying a big drum, and the music was carried far away by the wind.

"A very powerful curse."

Gojo Satoru came to this conclusion.

The world that Liuyan sees is different from that of others. His six eyes can clearly see through all illusions. After stripping away the scene before his eyes, the true nature of this illusion becomes clear.

Xia Yujie asked: "Where is the master of the domain?"

Gojo Satoru shook his head. "No sign of him yet."

As they were talking, several palm-sized foxes passed by their feet. They nimbly shuttled among the crowd, jumping and hopping, looking very happy. Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru paused slightly. The sorcerer's sharp intuition told them that it was best to catch up with them. The two boys slowed down their footsteps and quietly followed the foxes.

The foxes moved about as gracefully as if they were made of satin, slithering hither and thither, and gliding among the crowd with extraordinary ease.

"Tsk." Gojo Satoru complained, "Is it really that smooth?"

Xia Yujie complained: "It's quite smooth. Compared with them, ours is as stuck as the campus network of a technical college."

They made their way through the crowd, barely keeping up with their target, and finally arrived in front of the bustling stall ten minutes later.

"…Fried tofu?"

Fried tofu, fried tofu, fried tofu… Fresh fried tofu was everywhere as far as the eye could see. The smell of fried tofu was so strong that it was pungent. Xia Youjie said with a strange expression, “Is fried tofu the only food at this festival?”

Gojo Satoru said disapprovingly, “It seems so.”

He suddenly noticed something and patted Xia Youjie's shoulder quickly: "Jie, look, look at that, their oden only has fried tofu in it!"

Xia Yujie frowned, "Look over there, the grilled tofu skewers are coated with sea urchin sauce."

Gojo Satoru made a retching motion: "I don't understand."

Summer Oil: "...I don't understand either."

As we were talking, a few little foxes nimbly jumped onto a stall, rolled happily around and began to eat the fried tofu on their plates. I have to say, the sight of the palm-sized red foxes rolling around with the fried tofu was so adorable.

The high school students retracted their gaze and hid in the corner. Xia Yujie thought: "Fried tofu... is usually a standard feature of fox demons. Could this area be related to foxes? Come to think of it, were all the stone statues we saw on the way here fox statues?"

"Indeed." Gojo Satoru analyzed, "It looks like this is a fox cursed spirit that is good at illusion."

"Could it be an illusion curse spirit?" Xia Yujie stroked his chin and said, "There are many things related to foxes in Japanese legends... The most classic ones are - Inari God? Tamamonomae?"

"The probability of Inari's cursed spirit appearing is not high, but Tamamonomae is quite possible."

Gojo Satoru stretched out a finger and waved it in front of Geto Suguru: "Speaking of which, there are sixteen special-grade cursed spirits registered in the world of curses... no, now there are eighteen special-grade cursed spirits. Is there an imaginary Tamamonomae among them? It seems to be called... something..."

Xia Yujie continued, "'Incarnation of Tamamonomae'. I say, Satoru, you should remember other people's names well."

Gojo Satoru clapped his hands: "Yes, that's right, it's the "Incarnation of Tamamonomae". When was the last time that guy showed up? The top student?"

Top student Xia Yujie recalled: "If I remember correctly, it should be thirty years ago. I heard that it occupied a village and deceived the villagers to build a fox shrine. All the children born in those years were dedicated to the cursed spirit. Later, it was conquered by the three families..."

This content was mentioned by Masamichi Noctua in history class. Because Tamamonomae itself is a famous Japanese monster, the "Incarnation of Tamamonomae" naturally attracted a lot of attention. The story of the battle between the sorcerer and the "Incarnation of Tamamonomae" was naturally passed down by word of mouth by later sorcerers, resulting in many different versions of the story.

Kagome recalled, "It should be the Kamo family. I heard that the Kamo family's sorcerers suffered heavy losses at that time. The livers of those who died were dug out. Tamamonomae herself was also seriously injured, but it finally escaped. There has been no news since then, and no one knows where it hid."

"That's it." Gojo Satoru confirmed, "A fox, a tofu, good at deceiving people, and after being injured, he hid himself at Kisaragi Station to escape being hunted down... Jay, the cursed spirit in this is almost the "Incarnation of Tamamonomae". This is a special level of illusion, aren't you tempted?"

Xia Yujie was indeed a little moved.

An extremely rare illusion system, and it’s top grade. He’s so greedy!

but……

He coughed lightly and pretended to be calm, "We can't just draw a conclusion like that. Although this festival does have a foxy feel, it feels very different from the previous Kisaragi Station painting. There's a subtle sense of disharmony."

Upon hearing this, Gojo Satoru immediately said, "Oh, I think so too, and the most important thing is—"

He paused slightly and turned his head as if he realized something. The "tourists" walking on the street suddenly stopped.

The two male high school students felt nervous and thought to themselves that it was coming.

Sure enough, the next second, all the tourists on the street turned around and faced them, and on their faces were fox masks with white backgrounds and red patterns.

“…”

It felt like being stared at by hundreds of foxes, which was creepy.

The next second, all the people wearing foxes rushed up at once.

"!!!"

Amid the chaos, a woman wearing a fox mask quietly retreated and ran out of the bustling street.

The skin under her yukata was blue and purple, and even had large areas of blackness, which showed that it had been almost completely corroded by the curse in the realm. When she passed a mask stall, she hesitated for a moment, but still reached out and took away two fox masks.

Fifteen minutes later, Gojo Satoru and Geto appeared at the riverside.

The two high school boys panted and cheered, and Gojo Satoru complained excitedly, "Is this what it feels like to be drowned by a fox? It's really good."

Xia Yujie smiled and said, "Are you serious? Then let's go back and get flooded again?"

"No, no." Gojo said, "Their black teeth are too scary. I can't appreciate them."

Xia Yujie sighed: "I agree."

Those pitch-black teeth seemed like a black abyss, and the mental impact on people was too strong.

"By the way, did we hear the voices of Al and Naturopath just now? Were those two guys talking in the chat room?"

"Ah... I think so, but I was so frightened by the abyss that I didn't hear a single word."

"Me too."

"That..."

A woman wearing a fox mask appeared beside them cautiously, but kept a careful distance.

"You are people coming in from outside, right?"

The words are clear and the tone is cautious, it sounds like human speech.

Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru looked at each other quickly, and Gojo Satoru confirmed the woman's cursed power with his six eyes - she was an ordinary person, but was severely eroded by the curse of the domain.

He nodded slightly.

So, Xia Yujie said to her, "Yes, we just entered this... barrier by private train."

"!"

The woman was stunned. After a while, she raised her voice and said excitedly: "Well... me too! I took a private train and entered a place called Ruyue Station. That's great. It turns out that there are other people here besides me..."

Having endured the barrier full of monsters for so long, her heart was on the verge of collapse. Now that she suddenly saw other humans, she felt so moved that she was about to cry.

Fortunately, she remembered that this place was full of dangers. She suppressed her excitement and said, "You can call me Lian Shi."

Gojo Satoru & Kayuki Kagome: “!!!”

Lotus fruit!

Gojo Satoru asked her, "Are you the guy who posted on the forum?"

Renshi blinked, and the expression that followed on her face could be described as ecstatic.

"Yes! You know me? Have you read my posts?"

Xia Yujie breathed a sigh of relief, "I didn't expect you to be alive. Ms. Renshi, everyone outside is looking for you, and we two came in to look for you as well."

"……real?"

Lian Shi's eyes turned red and she almost cried.

All of a sudden, a variety of emotions surged into her heart, and she said excitedly: "I thought... I thought I was going to die here. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much... I, I'm sorry, I'm too happy now."

Xia Yujie smiled gently and assured: "Don't worry, now that we have joined forces, we will definitely be able to get you out safely."

"Uh-huh!"

She quickly took out two masks from her arms and stepped forward: "Put this on. This is a mask for the statues. After putting it on, the aura will change, and the owner of this barrier won't be able to find us."

Gojo Satoru took the mask she handed over and raised his eyebrows slightly: "Statue?"

"The people walking around the streets are actually statues."

"...You seem to understand this, don't you?"

Lian Shi said modestly, "It's OK. I've worked in this field before, so I know a little about things like barriers, spiritual objects, and auras. Of course, I only know the basics!"

That insignificant bit of fur allowed her to hold on until support arrived.

Barrier, spiritual creature, present world.

This term sounds very much like a member of the psychic camp, but... Gojo Satoru's six eyes can't see that she has any psychic-related talents.

A guess emerged in his mind.

"How long have you known about the... monsters here?"

Renshi shook her head. "I only know that it is related to foxes and can disguise itself as other people. It chased me very closely for the first two days, but then it gave up."

Gojo Satoru pulled out his cell phone from his pocket and asked her, "Did you touch this thing before you came in here?"

He took out the photo of Sukuna's fingers and showed it to her.

Renshi nodded, an expression on her face showing that she understood something.

"Yes. So that's why..."

Gojo Satoru affirmed, "You are contaminated with powerful cursed energy. It chased you because it thought you were a sorcerer. When the cursed energy on you dissipated, it knew you were an ordinary person and was too lazy to continue chasing you. Ha, this guy's target is actually a sorcerer... Let me think about it, is it going to eat the sorcerer's liver to restore its own power?"

"You are right."

A sinister voice appeared above their heads, and a white shadow with nine tails quickly changed its shape, and finally turned into a familiar long-nosed old man.

Gojo Satoru & Kayuki Kagome: "..."

Damn, let’s talk it out if we have something to say. What are you trying to do by suddenly cosplaying as a rotten orange?

The long-nosed old man said grimly: "Gojo Satoru, Kagome Jie, hand over your livers!!!"

Gojo Satoru sneered, "I will make you regret becoming like this."

Next to him, Geto Suguru was also ready to go.

"Get out of the way!"

Along with exaggerated sound effects, a blond-haired and blue-eyed young man came flying with a flesh-colored statue in his hand. Without saying a word, he smashed the flesh-colored statue in his hand hard on the back of the long-nosed old man.

"!!!"

With a loud bang, the long-nosed old man transformed by "Incarnation Tamamonomae" spat out a mouthful of blood, fell forward staggeringly, and then was thrown heavily into the ground.

Gojo Satoru & Kayuki Kagome: "..."

In the smoke, the blond-haired, blue-eyed boy clapped his hands and stood up, saying seriously, "Liver? Hey, Mr. Fox Spirit, human livers are used for playing games, not for other purposes. Also, you need to understand that you are the midnight snack."

Gojo Satoru: “…”

Xia Yujie: “…”

No, that’s not how the liver is used!

Gojo Satoru was furious and said, "Al, you stole my head again!!!"