Chapter 77 : Domain Expansion
The man with demonic aura disguised as an onmyoji was stepped on by Ryomen Sukuna, gritting his teeth, not expecting the other party to be so powerful and brutal.
In the Heian-kyo of the jujutsu world a thousand years ago, although the onmyoji and demon system was already declining, there were still some scattered remnants.
He was a local demon born from the mountain below, using his own power to make protection deals with some villagers, helping them handle some low-level cursed spirits. Daily, he disguised himself as an onmyoji, cultivating by devouring the children and girls sacrificed from the village.
Because he almost never went out, he didn't know much about the outside world, only occupying this small town territory at the foot of the mountain. When villagers came up to report that a group of people had arrived, he actually didn't take it seriously.
Humans are very weak, the demon disguised as an onmyoji thought.
Then, he heard from that villager about the reputation of the four-armed freak for killing people, and became somewhat interested in cooperation.
The two could cooperate openly and secretly, with the other party killing people openly while he appeared to pretend to save people, then share the offerings afterward. This way they could expand territory, not limited to just this one small town village at the foot of the mountain.
Therefore, he first controlled several rats to scurry into the city and observe their group from afar: the four-armed freak, the blind youth, and a young man wearing a mask.
They carried no swords or talismans, and didn't look like warriors or onmyoji. The demon speculated for a few seconds whether those people might be jujutsu sorcerers, but then thought such a small place wouldn't have so many jujutsu sorcerers staying there.
Even if they were jujutsu sorcerers, it didn't matter. The demon was very confident in his strength. After decades of devouring and occupying, his strength had already surpassed second-grade jujutsu sorcerers.
The demon inscribed his cultivated yin-yang technique, spatial transfer, on the rats, manipulating them to scurry beside his chosen target, the four-armed freak. When the other party attacked, the yin-yang technique activated, transferring that guy to his side.
Everything went very smoothly, until that four-armed freak arrived beside him.
At this moment, his face was intimately touching the ground, the pain at the back of his head especially clear, the voice above evil and careless, his plan shattered to pieces.
"Nothing to say? Then go die." Ryomen Sukuna had no patience. Seeing the demon on the ground fall silent, he raised his cursed blade to split him in half.
"Wait wait wait!!" The demon felt the approaching wind of death and frantically began speaking. "I still have value! I still do!!"
Ryomen Sukuna's cursed blade cut the ground beside the demon's cheek, shifting his foot to signal the other party to continue.
"I haven't started refining this year's sacrifices yet," the demon disguised as an onmyoji said. "I can give you half... Gah!"
The cursed blade mercilessly severed the demon's left forearm. Ryomen Sukuna flicked his wrist, his tone casual but mixed with annoyance: "Don't waste my time."
The demon looked shocked. He finally felt the other party's killing intent and strength completely, now enduring the pain and trembling as he said: "Everything! I can leave all the sacrifices for you..."
Ryomen Sukuna's expression remained unmoved, his crimson eyes looking down with utmost contempt, his sharp fingernails rising slightly again.
The demon gritted his teeth and spat out the second half of his sentence: "And! And... and several of my spatial transfer talismans."
"..." Ryomen Sukuna stared at him for several seconds, finally laughing: "Oh, somewhat interesting."
He finally withdrew the raised cursed blade. The demon's back was drenched in sweat. Seeing Ryomen Sukuna finally temporarily lower his blade, he forced a smile onto his face: "Input cursed energy and you can use them. The distance basically depends on the cursed energy input..."
With a smile piling on his face, he reached into his side pouch, hatred flashing in his eyes.
In a moment, he would first use spatial transfer, then activate the altar on site and trigger the bindings of the villagers who had made contracts with him, surrounding and killing this guy... The demon was quickly planning in his mind.
The next moment, he felt a sudden pain in his body!
Before the forced fake smile on his face could even change to astonishment, his body fell to the ground in three sections! The heavy smell of blood immediately filled the room.
Ryomen Sukuna's expression was indifferent. He kicked away the obstructing corpse pieces and reached into the fake onmyoji's clothing to pull out several blood-stained paper talismans.
The talismans were filled with cursed energy and demonic aura. Ryomen Sukuna first pulled out one to simply test, inputting a small amount of cursed energy, transferring from one side of the wooden house to the other. The effect was the same as the spatial transport that had suddenly appeared when he cut open the rat.
Ryomen Sukuna put away the remaining few, his peripheral vision catching that the corpse pieces on the ground had changed back to the demon's original form.
It was a massive rat-like creature. Black-red blood flowed and spread to the raised altar beside it, strange patterns emerging.
A wave of strange cursed energy fluctuated and shook. The binding ropes wrapped around the unconscious girls in the room tightened as if alive, beginning to greedily suck human blood like leeches!
The remaining children vaguely awakened in this environment. Smelling the bloody scent and noticing the surrounding scene, they began wailing and crying, twisting their bodies trying to escape.
Ryomen Sukuna raised his eyebrows slightly. He had no intention of saving people, instead watching with some interest.
The drained bodies became shriveled skin that naturally fell, while the demon cut into several pieces wriggled in the patterns on the ground, actually reassembling itself chaotically. After resurrection, its cursed energy fluctuation was even more turbulent and surging than before!
"Good good, letting me kill you once more!" Ryomen Sukuna raised a wanton smile, revealing the tips of his canine teeth.
He raised his hand to throw intersecting cutting cursed blades for combat, but changed his mind when he sensed someone quickly approaching.
Ryomen Sukuna's face showed a thoughtful expression, then he squeezed out laughter from his throat: "Use you to disgust them, don't be too weak, add more power!"
He flicked his wrist, throwing the surviving children toward the altar. After the cursed blade cut horizontally, there were no more wailing sounds. The strange patterns beside the altar became clearer under the blood's saturation, and the reassembled demon's cursed energy grew even stronger!
Then, Ryomen Sukuna pulled out one of the talismans he had obtained.
The resurrected demon's body twisted, his voice sharp and chaotic: "Don't think you can run!!"
"Play well with them, give me time to set up other places." Ryomen Sukuna laughed casually. He input cursed energy into the talisman and instantly disappeared from the spot.
The massive demon lunged forward but caught only air. He roared shrilly in anger, the dismembered remains on the ground flying up in the shockwave.
The next second, the wooden door was smashed open with a bang!
Outside, heavy snow had begun falling again at some point. White snowflakes drifted magnificently, sweeping into the room with the winter wind. A tall figure stood there, white hair blown high by the wind.
Ohagi had sensed the situation inside from outside. Now, after smashing open the wooden door, he saw the horrible scene inside even more directly. Broken bodies, shriveled human skin, barely recognizable from their original appearance.
But Six Eyes still immediately locked onto one of the corpses, the child from that family he was looking for.
The child, with tear stains still on his face, had only half his body remaining. No one could imagine that just days ago, the child had been holding some pastries in his arms, excitedly yet shyly going to the wooden house to bring treats to the pretty big brother who was temporarily resting there.
"..." Ohagi's aura surged violently around him. He tore off the black-gold cloth strip from his face.
The twisted, resurrected rat demon looked up with a sharp shriek, meeting those ice-cold blue eyes.
Not long ago.
Shortly after Ryomen Sukuna had disappeared, the two changed their plan from following the residual trace.
Ohagi speculated that since the other party already knew they had come up the mountain, perhaps this cursed energy residue was also laid by them.
Jiang Lai agreed with this.
Six Eyes possessed unparalleled vision. During these few days, Ohagi had already memorized Ryomen Sukuna's cursed energy and could now smoothly observe and sense his location.
"Northwest corner." Ohagi set the target. "Speaking of which, the cursed energy fluctuation over there is quite intense... What happened?"
Jiang Lai didn't know what was happening on the mountain, but he vaguely sensed another peculiar power fluctuating in the air, drifting with the wind, gentle in manner, like modestly greeting someone. Strange, yet carrying inexplicable natural intimacy.
...Was there another [Existence] nearby? Jiang Lai vaguely guessed. Unlike Ryomen Sukuna's situation full of mysteries and uncertainty, this power that was greeting was complete and certain.
"The distance isn't far, I'll go first." White-haired youth Ohagi hadn't fully mastered teleportation yet, but short-distance high-speed movement was absolutely no problem.
At this moment, he switched the hand holding his guide cane. When he didn't need to pretend to be blind in the back mountain, this thing was somewhat cumbersome.
"I'll hold it for you." Jiang Lai reached out to take it, saying, "You go first, I'll come over shortly."
In this Heian-kyo when cursed energy was at its peak, although Six Eyes couldn't be said to be an invincible configuration, his abilities were also unparalleled. Solving the demon in this place was completely not a problem and didn't need his cooperation.
Therefore, Jiang Lai decided to first take a detour, following this strange greeting power to see what [Existence] had appeared in this vicinity.
"Alright." Ohagi didn't say much. He tossed his guide cane to Jiang Lai, then flashed and disappeared from the spot, chasing after the location.
Snowflakes fell gently again, lightly landing on hair and shoulders. Jiang Lai half-closed his eyes, following his heart's perception and stepping toward the other side.
The spatial transfer talisman in Ryomen Sukuna's hand lost its effectiveness after one use, fading to original yellow paper.
He casually threw away the used one, inserting the remaining two or three into his waist sash.
At this moment, Ryomen Sukuna was standing in the center of the mountain village. This was the most prosperous place, and at this moment between dusk and night, people returning home were walking around.
Around him were citizens who looked at him with curiosity, terror, or disgust. They watched from afar this four-armed figure who had suddenly appeared, chattering together.
The crowd's gazes shot over like needles, mixed with various emotions.
Ryomen Sukuna was too lazy to analyze the thoughts of the surrounding people. His crimson eyes swept slightly as he said in a low voice: "The gazes are as annoying as always, very unpleasant."
When he had wandered here with Jiang Lai and Ohagi before, hindered by Jiang Lai's spatial techniques, he couldn't attack the surrounding crowd who stared at him.
Ryomen Sukuna detested those gazes. At this moment, he had specifically returned here with great malice.
The ability he had recently awakened hadn't been used much so far. The people in front of him were the most suitable test subjects.
Ryomen Sukuna let his two arms hang naturally while bringing his other two hands together. He made a somewhat special hand gesture, looking ahead and curving his lips to reveal a bloodthirsty smile:
"Domain Expansion..."