"Is the Technique's effective range still expanding?"
Outside the village, within the Technique of the eldritch Special Grade Cursed Spirit.
Kenjaku was watching the surrounding situation with great interest.
The Technique of this eldritch Special Grade Cursed Spirit had an enormous range, but its activation time was also extremely long.
Unlike most Cursed Spirits and Jujutsu Sorcerers, who needed to actively release their Techniques, this experimental new type of Cursed Spirit could passively release its Technique.
While sleeping, this Cursed Spirit continuously absorbed the surrounding Cursed Energy and converted it into Cursed Energy imbued with the traits of its own Technique.
This Cursed Energy, transformed by the Cursed Spirit, continuously drifted outward and actively connected with the minds of ordinary people.
As long as someone fell asleep, their consciousness would be pulled into the dream constructed by the Cursed Spirit's Technique.
Everything in the dream continuously twisted the sanity of ordinary people.
In the end, the minds of those dragged into the dream would begin to mutate, unable to withstand the contamination within it.
This mental mutation gradually affected the soul, and finally fed back onto the physical body.
That was why the villagers had turned into Octopus People.
Kenjaku strolled through the silent village.
Such a chilling scene was nothing unusual to him.
For Kenjaku, who frequently carried out all kinds of Cursed Energy research, including many human experiments, the scene before him was truly nothing.
Soon, Kenjaku arrived at the abandoned courtyard where Maki and the others had rested earlier.
"So Jujutsu Sorcerers did come."
Kenjaku bent down and rummaged through a pile of rotting flesh with his fingers.
"Is this a Cursed Energy absorption organ?"
Kenjaku curiously pulled a fleshy orb out from the body of an Octopus Person that had been cut in half at the waist.
The Cursed Energy accumulated inside the orb was slowly leaking outward.
"So these infected individuals, transformed into Octopus People by the Technique, still have room to grow further."
During his brief observation, Kenjaku discovered that this Octopus Person's body had undergone major changes, with some parts even growing entirely new, non-human organs.
This change aroused Kenjaku's interest.
Kenjaku summoned a Cursed Spirit, which swallowed and carried away several relatively intact Octopus People corpses.
Then he continued toward the cave where the eldritch Special Grade Cursed Spirit was sleeping.
After the eldritch Special Grade Cursed Spirit fell asleep, Kenjaku did not want to stay here idly waiting.
So he set out to search for the Special Grade Cursed Spirit mentioned in the intelligence, the one suspected of possessing advanced intelligence.
Although the whereabouts of such Special Grade Cursed Spirits were difficult to determine, for Kenjaku, it was only a matter of spending a little more time.
After all, while these Cursed Spirits would kill any Windows and Jujutsu Sorcerers who could see them, they did not hide themselves much when facing other Cursed Spirits.
Because of that, it did not take Kenjaku long to find traces of the Cursed Spirit mentioned in the intelligence.
He had already found a Cursed Spirit with a Mount Fuji-shaped volcano head and was preparing to make contact.
Kenjaku wanted to see whether these Cursed Spirits with advanced intelligence were qualified to become his pawns or collectibles.
Just as he was about to leave, an unexpected situation interrupted him.
The eldritch Special Grade Cursed Spirit, which had been sleeping, woke up.
So Kenjaku decided to first investigate what had caused this Cursed Spirit, one 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 take a look."
With that, Kenjaku headed toward the cave where the eldritch Special Grade Cursed Spirit was located.
Meanwhile, inside the cave.
Maki and the other two 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 rank up, right?"
Panda looked at his two companions.
At the moment, 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 Toge when she heard that.
Before this mission, Maki's application for promotion to Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer was already being prepared.
Her recommenders were Kusakabe and Nanami.
With the achievement of exorcising a Special Grade Cursed Spirit this time, she believed those old geezers at the top would not drag their feet and delay the process until the very last moment.
However, whether Toge could be promoted to a Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer was uncertain.
"Bonito flakes."
Toge shook his head, showing that he could not rank up.
He knew his own situation well.
Maki was stuck at Semi-Grade 1 because she had no Cursed Energy, which did not meet the assessment standards for Jujutsu Sorcerers.
Because of that, Jujutsu Headquarters had been trying to make things difficult for Maki during her rank evaluations.
But they did not dare to be too obvious about it, because they were afraid that Eichi and Satoru would show up at their doors.
So Maki's Jujutsu Sorcerer rank had still been rising over the years, just a little slowly.
None of them really cared about that.
A Jujutsu Sorcerer's rank was not like a game level where you had to reach a certain point to unlock new skills.
So Maki was not 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 pushing the matter.
Instead, whenever they were in a bad mood, they would occasionally use it as an excuse to intimidate the old geezers' lackeys.
"Hey, brother, you're not being fair, huh? You say I'm angry, so tell me, am I angry or not?"
This also led to more and more people only pretending to comply with some of the old geezers' orders.
However, unlike Maki, who had the strength but whose rank advancement was simply slow,
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 abilities.
After all, Toge's Technique had overly obvious strengths and weaknesses.
Against small fry, it was basically, if Inumaki wants you dead today, no one can keep you alive until tomorrow.
Against opponents stronger than himself, it was more like injuring the enemy by eight hundred while losing ten thousand himself.
Just like with Hanami.
Toge was nearly consumed by the backlash of his own Technique, yet Hanami remained unharmed.
So Toge knew that for a long time to come, he might only remain a Semi-Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer.
Just like the Special Jonin next door.
They were similar to Toge, possessing unique talents in certain areas and reaching the level of a Jonin in that respect.
But because only that one aspect was outstanding, their overall strength was still below that of a true Jonin, so they were rated as Special Jonin.
While chatting and laughing, the three of them walked out of the cave.
Kenjaku also saw them.
"The Cursed Spirit's presence has disappeared…"
A trace of displeasure flashed through Kenjaku's eyes.
Although this eldritch Special Grade Cursed Spirit was only an immature experimental subject, and Kenjaku did not care whether it lived or died, it could not die now.
His research on this Cursed Spirit was not yet complete, and his interest had not yet faded.
Thinking of this, Kenjaku darkly looked at the three people walking out of the cave entrance.
(To be continued.)