At dusk, within the pitch-black abandoned construction site—inside the derelict building at its center.
What should have been a silent corridor was now filled with chilling roars and whimpering cries. A cursed spirit nearly three meters tall, grotesquely bloated in shape, suddenly charged out from around a corner—only to be torn apart like rotten cloth by a deep-blue scythe in the next instant. Intestines, organs, and brain matter, mixed with foul-smelling pus and blood, splattered across the floor.
Before the filth could even hit the ground, a flash of black-and-red cursed energy swept through, completely erasing the remains along with the cursed spirit's corpse.
At this moment, Seele moved lightly through the building. With every swing of the scythe in her hand, any cursed spirit that dared to show itself was instantly cut in half like harvested wheat. Immediately afterward, Dark Seele—residing within the Stigmata on Seele's chest—would activate cursed energy imbued with the power of Withering, wiping them out in an instant.
Trailing behind at an unhurried pace was An Xora, the system's notifications constantly ringing in his ears.
"Ding! Detected that Seele eliminated a Grade 4 cursed spirit to protect the Host. Reward: 5 points."
"Ding! Detected that Seele eliminated a Grade 3 cursed spirit to protect the Host. Reward: 20 points."
"Ding! Detected that Seele eliminated a Grade 2 cursed spirit to protect the Host. Reward: 100 points."
One notification after another made the cursed spirits—normally horrifying and spine-chilling—seem downright adorable in An Xora's eyes. He even wished more would show up.
Unfortunately, cursed spirits were finite in number. The moment they entered the abandoned site, Seele had swept through the outer areas at extreme speed, clearing everything in her path before advancing to the central zone.
Now, this abandoned building at the very heart of the site was the last remaining location. All other cursed spirits had already been wiped out.
And judging by the situation, whatever remained here wouldn't last much longer either.
Just as An Xora was thinking this, his footsteps suddenly halted.
Boom!
The ceiling ahead of him shattered as a cursed spirit crashed down right in front of An Xora. Its body was covered in arms and eyes, looking like an irregular lump of flesh forcibly stitched together.
A pressure several times stronger than that of the other cursed spirits rushed toward him.
Without question, this cursed spirit was powerful—very likely the strongest one in the abandoned building. Its aura was on a completely different level compared to the others.
Of course, this "powerful" was relative.
Compared to the other cursed spirits in the site, it was indeed strong. But compared to Seele… or even An Xora—
"Doesn't seem that much stronger than me."
At least to An Xora's senses, this cursed spirit was roughly on par with him in raw strength. Forget comparing it to Seele—even if he fought it himself, he might not necessarily lose.
That said, considering he had no cursed technique and zero combat experience, his odds in a real fight wouldn't be great.
So when the cursed spirit raised one abnormally thick arm and slammed it toward him, An Xora decisively took two steps back.
Bang!
Blue particles scattered through the air as Seele—who had been some distance away—appeared in front of An Xora as if she had teleported. The scythe in her hand braced against the cursed spirit's thick arm. The collision of terrifying strength sent out a shockwave, kicking up clouds of dust.
Yet the scythe didn't budge at all.
With a light lift, Seele knocked the arm upward. Then, with a smooth reverse sweep of the blade, a massive severed limb—along with the wall behind it—was cleanly cut through.
"AHHHHHHHH—!!!"
Stimulated by pain, the cursed spirit let out a piercing shriek. The remaining arms on its stitched-together body flailed wildly as chains formed from cursed energy shot out, tightly binding Seele's scythe. At the same time, another thick arm smashed into the ground, spiderweb-like cracks spreading beneath Seele and An Xora's feet as violent cursed energy erupted upward.
"Big Brother An Xora, please step back a little more."
Faced with the situation, Seele showed no sign of panic. She turned her head slightly and spoke calmly, then lightly stomped her foot.
RUMBLE—!!!
The cursed energy surging toward them along the cracks was instantly overwhelmed by an even more powerful force. The entire building began to shake violently.
Seele swung her scythe. Though it had been tightly bound by chains, the blade now seemed to turn intangible, passing straight through them as both she and the scythe vanished—only to reappear like a mirage right in front of the cursed spirit in the next instant.
Slash!
With a single sweep, the cursed spirit was decapitated on the spot. Its massive body crashed to the ground with a heavy thud.
At the same time, the system's notification rang out in An Xora's ears.
"Ding! Detected that Seele eliminated a Grade 1 cursed spirit to protect the Host. Reward: 500 points."
"One Grade 1 cursed spirit gives five hundred points? Then a special-grade cursed spirit would easily start at over a thousand, wouldn't it?"
An Xora was genuinely surprised. After all, the original price of the Authority of the Herrscher of Life and Death in the shop was only ten thousand points—and five thousand when discounted.
If a single special-grade cursed spirit was worth over a thousand, maybe even two thousand points, that meant Seele only needed to kill a handful of special-grade cursed spirits for him to buy a Herrscher Authority at full price—or other items of similar value.
Thinking about it, An Xora recalled the plot and realized that there actually weren't that many special-grade cursed spirits in the original story.
Jogo and his group, the Cursed Womb: Death Paintings, Ryomen Sukuna… add in places like the juvenile detention center arcs, and that was basically it.
No wonder special-grade cursed spirits were valuable—there really weren't that many of them.
The real bulk of point farming would still come from the numerous low-grade cursed spirits, especially Grade 1s. They weren't as rare as special grades, yet still gave a decent number of points.
"That cursed spirit just now was kind of interesting. There should be another one upstairs—leave it to me."
After eliminating the Grade 1 cursed spirit, Seele's eyes shifted from deep blue to blood red. Clearly, Dark Seele had taken over.
With a light leap, Dark Seele jumped up through the hole in the ceiling created by the cursed spirit's dramatic entrance, rapidly moving toward the rooftop.
"Ding! Detected that Seele eliminated a Grade 1 cursed spirit to protect the Host. Reward: 500 points."
Just a few seconds later, another system notification sounded in An Xora's ears.
"Tch. Boring."
Dark Seele dropped back down through the hole and returned to An Xora's side, sounding utterly uninterested, before handing control of the body back to Seele.
"All the cursed spirits here have been cleaned up by Seele. It's already very late—let's go back, Big Brother An Xora."
After carefully sensing the surroundings and confirming that no cursed spirits had been overlooked, Seele spoke softly.
"Yeah, it's time to head back. Coming out this late has made me kind of hungry. Seele, can you cook?"
"Well… I don't know how to make many dishes, but Seele will do her best."
…
After the two of them left, the abandoned construction site returned to silence.
But not long after, another unfamiliar figure arrived nearby.
"Seriously… just getting to a godforsaken place like this takes so much time. I'd better squeeze a bit more hazard pay out of Jujutsu High later."