"Is the Cursed Technique's effective range still expanding?"
Outside the village, enveloped by the eldritch Special Grade Cursed Spirit's Cursed Technique.
Kenjaku was looking at the surrounding situation with great interest.
The range of this eldritch Special Grade Cursed Spirit's Cursed Technique was vast, but its activation time was also very long.
Unlike most Cursed Spirits and Jujutsu Sorcerers who need to actively unleash their Cursed Techniques.
This experimental new type of Cursed Spirit could passively unleash its Cursed Technique.
While sleeping, this Cursed Spirit would continuously absorb surrounding Cursed Energy and convert it into Cursed Energy imbued with the characteristics of its own Cursed Technique.
This Cursed Energy, transformed by the Cursed Spirit, continuously drifted outwards and actively connected with ordinary people's minds.
As long as a person fell asleep, their consciousness would be pulled into the dream constructed by the Cursed Spirit's Cursed Technique.
Everything in the dream continuously twisted the ordinary person's sanity.
Eventually, the minds of those pulled into the dream would begin to mutate, unable to withstand the contamination within the dream.
This mental mutation gradually affected the Soul, finally reacting back onto the physical body.
This was why the villagers turned into Octopus People.
Kenjaku strolled through the silent village.
The chilling scenery was commonplace for Kenjaku.
For Kenjaku, who frequently conducted various Cursed Energy researches, including many human experiments.
The scene before him was indeed nothing.
Soon, Kenjaku arrived at the abandoned courtyard where Maki and the others had rested earlier.
"So Jujutsu Sorcerers did come."
Kenjaku bent down, sifting through a pile of rotten flesh with his fingers.
"Is this a Cursed Energy absorption organ?"
Kenjaku curiously extracted a fleshy orb from the body of an Octopus People that had been cut in half at the waist.
The Cursed Energy accumulated within the orb was slowly leaking outwards.
"So these infected individuals, transformed into Octopus People by the Cursed Technique, still have room for further growth."
During Kenjaku's brief observation, he discovered that this Octopus People's physical body had undergone significant changes, with parts of its body even growing new, non-human organs.
This change piqued Kenjaku's curiosity.
Kenjaku summoned a Cursed Spirit, which swallowed and carried away several relatively intact Octopus People corpses.
He then continued towards the cave where the eldritch Special Grade Cursed Spirit was sleeping.
After the eldritch Special Grade Cursed Spirit fell into slumber, Kenjaku didn't want to wait idly here.
So he set out to find the Special Grade Cursed Spirit mentioned in the intelligence, which was suspected of possessing Advanced intelligence.
Although the whereabouts of these Special Grade Cursed Spirits were difficult to ascertain.
For Kenjaku, it was just a matter of spending a bit more time.
After all, while these Cursed Spirits would kill all the Windows and Jujutsu Sorcerers who could see them.
They also didn't hide themselves much when facing other Cursed Spirits.
Therefore, Kenjaku didn't take too long to find traces of the Cursed Spirit from the intelligence.
He had already discovered a Cursed Spirit with a Mount Fuji volcano head and was preparing to go and make contact.
Kenjaku wanted to see if these Cursed Spirits with Advanced intelligence were qualified to become his pawns or collectibles.
Just as he was about to depart, Kenjaku was interrupted by an unexpected situation.
The eldritch Special Grade Cursed Spirit, which had been sleeping, woke up.
Thus, Kenjaku decided to first investigate what caused this Cursed Spirit, capable of sleeping for ages, to wake up before leaving.
Now, the answer had appeared.
Jujutsu Sorcerers had discovered the anomaly in this remote village and came to exorcise the Cursed Spirit.
"Since I'm already here, I might as well go and see."
With that, Kenjaku set off towards the cave where the eldritch Special Grade Cursed Spirit was located.
Meanwhile, inside the cave.
Maki and the two others were walking out of the cave, chatting and laughing.
They had rescued their target and defeated a powerful enemy.
At this moment, their hearts were filled with the joy of victory.
"By the way, after this mission, you two can get a Rank up, right?"
Panda looked at his two companions.
Currently, Inumaki Toge and Maki were both Semi-Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerers.
Panda himself was a Semi-Grade 2 Jujutsu Sorcerer.
"I'm ready, what about Inumaki?"
Maki turned to Inumaki Toge upon hearing this.
Before this mission, Maki's application for a Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer Rank up was already being prepared.
Her recommenders were Kusakabe Atsuya and Kento Nanami.
With the achievement of exorcising a Special Grade Cursed Spirit this time, she believed those Old geezers above wouldn't drag their feet and delay the process until the last second.
However, whether Inumaki Toge could be promoted to a Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer was uncertain.
"Bonito flakes."
Inumaki Toge shook his head, indicating that he couldn't get a Rank up.
He knew his own situation.
Maki was stuck at Semi-Grade 1 because she had no Cursed Energy, which didn't meet the assessment standards for Jujutsu Sorcerers.
Therefore, the Jujutsu Headquarters had been trying to make things difficult when assessing Maki's Rank.
But they didn't dare to be too obvious, fearing that Eichi and Gojo Satoru would block their doors.
So Maki's Jujutsu Sorcerer Rank had been increasing over the years, but it was a bit slow.
None of them cared about this.
Jujutsu Sorcerer Rank wasn't like a game Rank where you had to reach a certain level to learn new skills.
Hence, Maki wasn't in a hurry.
After all, Maki's goal was to become stronger, not to become a higher-Ranked Jujutsu Sorcerer.
Seeing this, Eichi and the others also stopped rushing.
Instead, when they were in a bad mood, they would occasionally use this as an excuse to scare the Old geezers' lackeys.
"Hey, brother, you're not playing fair, huh? You say I'm angry, do you guess if I'm angry or not?"
This also led to more and more people feigning compliance with some of the Old geezers' orders.
After all, Romance of the Three Kingdoms was also very popular in the island nation.
Many people knew the anecdote of Cao Cao lacking grain and using Wang Hou's head to settle the matter.
Even if they didn't know that one, they knew many similar stories.
After all, who, after entering society, hasn't seen someone take the blame?
However, unlike Maki, who had strength but was just slow in Ranks.
Inumaki Toge was Semi-Grade 1 because he truly only had Semi-Grade 1 strength.
Grade 1 Cursed Spirits were not difficult for him.
But Special Grade Cursed Spirits were truly beyond his capabilities.
After all, Inumaki Toge's Cursed Technique had too obvious characteristics.
Against small fry, it was like Inumaki wants you to die now, who can keep you until tomorrow.
Against those stronger than him, it was like harming the enemy by 800, but losing 10,000 oneself.
Just like Hanami.
Inumaki Toge was almost consumed by the side effects of his own Cursed Technique, yet Hanami remained uninjured.
So Inumaki Toge knew that for a long time in the future, he might only be a Semi-Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer.
Just like the Special Jonin next door.
They were like Inumaki Toge, possessing unique talents in certain areas, reaching the level of a Jonin.
But because only that one aspect was outstanding, their overall strength was still inferior to a Jonin, so they were rated as Special Jonin.
While chatting and laughing, the three walked out of the cave.
Kenjaku also saw their figures.
"The Cursed Spirit's presence has disappeared…"
A flicker of displeasure crossed Kenjaku's eyes.
Although this eldritch Special Grade Cursed Spirit was just an immature experimental subject, Kenjaku didn't care if it died.
But it couldn't die now.
His research on this Cursed Spirit was not yet finished, and his interest had not waned.
Thinking of this, Kenjaku looked darkly at the three people walking out of the cave entrance.
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