Chapter 76
The distorted humanoid figure was walking this way. The dim moonlight in the forest could only vaguely illuminate its outline, making each step seem unsteady due to its excessively long proportions, which only made it more bizarre.
From a distance, it does indeed look like a puppet being manipulated by a puppeteer whose skills are not yet proficient.
Tonight's target is him!
Xia Youjie reacted quickly. With a thought, he withdrew all the released spirits and then made a spirit at least two meters tall, resembling a three-eyed lion, appear beside him. Its sharp claws gripped the ground, and it growled softly, ready to pounce at any moment.
"Since this ritual has chosen me, it means you are not within its attack range. Get away from it quickly."
Xia Youjie ignored the still-repeating murmurs and instead gave instructions to Yuqu Kazuma without turning his head.
His gaze remained fixed on the eerie humanoid cursed spirit that was approaching, wary of its sudden attack.
Fortunately, this fixed-procedure curse ritual cannot attack the target unless the conditions are met—and the coin that Kazuma Hatake tossed was not his own.
He didn't follow the proper procedure, so the cursed spirit couldn't attack him.
As for himself... although he was just playing along at the time, he never expected it would cause such trouble.
Xia Youjie took a deep breath and released several more cursed spirits resembling small jellyfish, each with several tentacles floating in the air, seemingly swimming slowly around him.
If you don't want to end up like those victims, stop thinking about it and focus on how to overcome it!
Hagoromo Kazuma is weaker than me, there's no reason for him to stay and die with me.
Since he is stronger, he must protect the weaker Kazuma Hatake—this is the belief that Natsuyuki has held since the moment he decided to enroll in a vocational high school and become a sorcerer.
But after waiting for a while, Xia Youjie realized that Yu Tori Kazuma had not responded and there was no sound of footsteps behind him. So Xia Youjie had no choice but to turn around and earnestly urge Yu Tori Kazuma.
“I’ll be fine. This triggered money laundering ritual is clearly a screening and attack mechanism, but this time it chose me, whose identity doesn’t match that of the other victims. This means…”
“That old woman is suspicious. She recognized us in our college uniforms and wants to kill us to silence us.”
Kazuma Hatori closed his eyes briefly, but still managed to speak.
"I'll deal with her."
Xia Youjie was stunned for a moment and was about to speak up to stop him.
"Wait, since she can control such a powerful cursed spirit, her own strength couldn't be weaker, you..."
But he couldn't finish the sentence.
It wasn't just the sudden attack of the cursed spirit, but also the rapidly shrinking figure of Kazuma Hatori rushing towards the shrine.
Xia Youjie opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a single word.
He could only turn his attention to dealing with the simple domain created by the cursed spirit—as it approached, the oppressive feeling it brought was like a giant hand gripping him tightly, squeezing every inch of his bones until they creaked.
The guess about the mission was correct, but this cursed spirit, driven by the curse master, was far more powerful than they could handle!
As the three-eyed lion roared and its massive body suddenly lunged at the cursed spirit, the pressure on Xia Youjie's body instantly lessened considerably.
He exhaled, but strangely, he didn't feel flustered.
Despite his initial suspicion that Kazuma Hatori harbored resentment towards him, he took immediate action to save him.
It feels great to fight alongside your teammates.
………
At the same time, Kazuma Hatori hurried towards the shrine, stepping up the long, winding stone steps.
When he was assigned the task of getting close to Xia Youjie, and guessed that the puppet attack was also a plot arranged in advance by the cult leader, he was not surprised at all by how things unfolded.
How can Xia Youjie save people if he isn't facing a life-or-death situation?
If he doesn't save people, how can Xia Youjie rapidly increase his trust level?
Compared to fighting side by side to kill the enemy, saving a comrade from the brink of death will certainly increase trust more—when Kazuma Hatori was told about these pre-plot events from the beginning, he could even guess the cult leader's intention in doing so.
Therefore, he could also choose to stand by and let the cursed spirit, which they could not handle, truly kill Xia Youjie and eliminate this future villain ahead of time.
Even at the vocational college, his reasons became extremely valid and logical.
But in the end, Kazuma Hatake chose to save Natsuyuki.
They rushed back to Benzaiten Shrine and saw the old woman who had persuaded them to leave the shrine still standing there alone, smiling.
When she saw Kazuma Hatori return, she didn't show any tension or wariness. Instead, she smiled and said to him.
"What are you doing back here? Just go straight for it. That cursed spirit has already been programmed to react to your cursed power by either being attacked or escaping."
In other words, as long as Kazuma Hatake attacks the cursed spirit, regardless of whether he can cause any damage, he can make the cursed spirit howl in pain, and then pretend to be injured and run away.
As for the so-called victims with common characteristics, it was just a way to deliberately create a doll attack incident and then point out Natsumi Yuki and Hatori Kazuma to investigate.
This old woman is the curse master, or even the villain personally chosen by the cult leader to play a part in this play.
Regardless of whether Kazuma Hatake successfully completed the [money washing] ritual, the cursed spirit will choose Natsuyuki as its next target.
"I'm sorry, the Pope didn't tell me these things. I was thinking of asking you how to deal with it."
Hearing this, Kazuma Hatori's expression remained unchanged, and his pace gradually slowed down until he stood in front of her. Then he tilted his head slightly in the direction of Natsumi Yuuki to signal.
"How did you manage to make that cursed spirit obey you? I feel like it's pretty strong. Maybe it's even at the top-tier level?"
The old woman claimed that she and Hatake Kazuma were on the same side, and naturally made no attempt to hide it at this moment.
"Ha... I am already a dying ember, and even if I wanted to use such a thing as a shikigami, I couldn't do it."
She pulled an empty wooden box tied with a talisman from her bosom, and her originally kind smile turned sinister and dangerous.
"It was given to me by the Patriarch. I don't know how he did it, but as long as I find a suitable container and swallow the cursed object in this wooden box, I can control it with this talisman."
Kazuma Hatori's gaze fell on the empty wooden box wrapped with strips of talisman paper, then casually looked away.
"Aren't you worried about having it taken from you and turning it into their strength?"
"Of course, His Holiness would have insurance in place for this kind of situation."
The old woman smiled and said, "Once it loses my magic power, it will become still and immobile, and no one else can control it."
"Ah, as expected of that lord."
— Kazuma Hatake's words were completely insincere, but he had no expression to begin with, so the old woman just assumed it was his usual style and didn't notice anything amiss.
"Naturally, the power of the Pope is far more profound than you and I can imagine."
She smiled as she put the empty wooden box back into her arms, and then urged Hatake Kazuma to hurry up.
"Alright, go back quickly. Since the Patriarch wants me to cooperate with you, I won't deliberately make things difficult for you. However, it will still be very difficult for me to control that cursed spirit and prevent it from killing Xia Youjie for a long time."
"good."
Kazuma Hatori nodded, then, as if remembering something, asked the old woman in front of him who had no suspicion of him.
"You've actually received a reward from the Pope, you must have been summoned by him, right? How lucky you are! What does the Pope look like?"
The old woman could only shake her head helplessly at this.
"How could I possibly meet His Holiness the Pope? I was contacted by another messenger whose name I never revealed."
"Oh, I see. That's a shame."
Under the old woman's gaze, Kazuma Hatori took two steps back—just as he seemed about to leave and let her relax—he suddenly clenched his fist, raised it, and assumed a fighting stance.
The next moment, the immense force, accompanied by countless hissing black flashes, slammed into her face.
[Black Flash]!
The curse master couldn't utter a single word and was immediately sent flying several meters backward, rolling several times on the ground!
The once clean and tidy shrine maiden's clothes were instantly covered in mud and dust, mixed with blood from her mouth and nose.
As an extremely experienced curse caster, she did not forget to fight back even in her extreme shock. Almost instinctively, she was about to make the hand gesture for activating the spell, but she had already been overtaken by Kazuma Hatake, who also had no intention of giving her a chance. His raised fist was still wrapped in the electric current that represented [Black Flash].
This time, Kazuma Hatake aimed for the forearm, his strike steady and swift, breaking the curse master's bone with a single punch, causing her to let out a trembling wail of pain.
The spell he was about to unleash was thus interrupted, posing no threat whatsoever to Kazuma Hatake.
"Killing you wouldn't save Xia Youjie, make him trust me, and complete the patriarch's mission, would it?"
"I am Kazuma Hatori," he said coldly, clenching his fist again and pulling back into a fighting stance.
He can't even handle the patriarch, let alone this NPC lackey who was sent out!
After the [black flash] that had been flowing between his fists finally went out completely, Kazuma Hatori retrieved the empty wooden box with the talisman from the corpse.
He stuffed the wooden box into his inventory, dragged the curse master's corpse, and headed back in the direction where Xia Youjie had fought before.
Based on the information revealed by the curse master, once she dies, the cursed spirit will lose the power to control it and will naturally stand still, leaving it at Xia Youjie's mercy.
Leaving the shrine illuminated by paper lanterns, the mountains and forests had grown even darker.
Kazuma Hatake turned on his phone's flashlight and returned to the place where they had parted ways.
Xia Youjie was holding his knees and breathing heavily. The hem of his high school uniform was torn in several places, with small twigs and debris hanging from it.
It looks like he's seriously injured.
In contrast, Hachiko, who brazenly betrayed his own comrades, was much more composed. He casually tossed the corpse in front of Natsumi Yuuki and then asked him a question.
"How is that cursed spirit? I heard her say it was a vessel that swallowed the cursed object."
Did you do this?
Xia Youjie smiled gratefully at Chao Yuquyi, raised his hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead, and let out a breath.
"Ah, I guess you could say I escaped with my life. Also, it did drop this."
In the other hand that was handed over, there was a small piece of something that was difficult to discern in shape, resembling dried cured meat.
Kazuma Hatori picked up the cursed object and examined it, suddenly recalling the previous introduction to the skill—that one could increase the upper limit of cursed power through various means.
"It is probably a cursed object extracted after the death of a curse master who was once associated with spells and prayer rituals."
Xia Youjie was worried that Yuqu Yizhen didn't know the specific meaning of the cursed object, so he took the initiative to explain.
"As long as we bring it back, it should be fine..."
The next moment, he saw Hatake Kazuma raise his hand and swallow the cursed object.
Xia Youjie's words were completely blocked in his throat.
"!?!?!?!?!"
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