A Bizarre Adventure That Begins in Jujutsu Kaisen

Chapter 117 Bu Tiange and the Loan King (Bonus Chapter 1/3)

"In order to get your real attention, rather than submitting anonymous whistleblower letters, which are secretive and difficult to verify, I would rather rely on myself and personally come to the roadside to report to you face to face."

As the bard spoke, he took another step forward.

Theo was silent for a moment before slowly speaking: "Even if I were to accept that what you said is true, I would only list it as an item to be investigated for now. I will make a decision based on the facts after I have personally verified it."

After all, even if a person harbors the grand ambition of "wishing all beings happiness", it is still essentially a form of selfishness.

Because there are always people in the world who do not want to be saved: they either want to break free from the mire on their own, or they are willing to remain complacent in their depravity.

"To rashly intrude into the fate of others and forcibly impose one's own self-righteous redemption" is not justice, but merely another form of arrogant violence.

"Prevention is better than cure," the bard tried to explain.

Theo raised his hand to stop the other person from speaking: "What's the rush? I never said I would ignore it, I just didn't want to act according to your pre-set script."

You're deliberately communicating with me in Chinese; you're not European, are you? Then why have you crossed mountains and seas to care about this place's calamity?

""

Before the other person could answer, he continued, "The world is material, reality is cruel, but the power of incantation is a kind of idealistic power that flows from the soul."

It is ignited by willpower and flows with emotions; it exists to help people become more complete versions of themselves.

Your courage to come here in person and frankly share what you saw is commendable.

But the future direction of the world can never be controlled by a few people hiding in the shadows, who can make moves in advance like setting up a chessboard.

If you really have something to say, have the person behind you stand in front of me!

Do you think I can't see through this? This kind of trick of using one enemy to devour another, of using someone else to do the dirty work, is far too clumsy!

"It is precisely because I saw the future that I—" the bard began again urgently, trying to explain.

But he only got halfway through his sentence before Theo impatiently interrupted him: "Isn't changing the future through prophecy just a form of self-deception? You can't even truly reverse the so-called 'process'."

Standing before such a crucial decision, even if I were given a thousand chances to do it all over again, I would probably still make the same choice.

A person is shaped by their past experiences and beliefs. This moment is just like that moment.

All the choices we made and then left behind have already, invisibly, determined the future's direction and outcome.

In my opinion, if there is any way to rewrite fate, it is to completely abandon one's true inner desires and stop following one's nature and will.

In this way, fate will indeed change, and may even affect the course of the world.

But from the moment one makes that decision and abandons oneself, one has already killed one's true self. Even if one lives afterward, one is nothing more than an empty shell wandering the world, a living death.

Having exhausted both direct and indirect arguments, the bard smiled wryly: "I humbly accept your instruction! Since that's the case—I will now demonstrate my resolve! My name is Li Ming, please enlighten me!"

The power of the curse rose from Li Ming's body like an invisible flame.

This power is pure and vast, considerable even among first-level sorcerers, but it is not of the highest rank and is ultimately insignificant.

Knowing the vast difference in their abilities, he seized the brief moment when Theo was observing and tacitly approving, and quickly patted the portable speaker hanging from his waist.

The pre-recorded incantations flowed out with a strange rhythm:

[A slender waist and a pointed head resemble a worn-out shoe, with sixteen stars circling around it. The outer screen has seven crows below the Kui constellation, and below the screen, seven stars illuminate the sky.]

The essence of earth is on the right side of the Sikong, the army camp is at the south gate of Kui, six pavilions are built in the river, and a star shines beside the road.

Five stars, each emitting a flower, are named Liangxing. Liangxing is near the top of the strategy, Tian Ce, Tian Hun, and the outer screen; all fifteen stars are obscured.

"Hmm? Bu Tiange?" Dio's interest was piqued.

He got out of the car, wanting to see what tricks this young man could pull.

"Lord Di is indeed very knowledgeable—indeed, it is the 'Song of Stepping to Heaven'," Li Ming replied loudly, his hands moving continuously in a series of hand seals.

The "Step to Heaven Song" is an astronomical work that systematically describes the ancient Chinese star system in the form of seven-character poems. It is also a esoteric Tantra that provides a unique incantation template for "spirit possession".

[The three stars are unevenly distributed, close to one end; the left and right sides are even darker, sandwiched between the Lou; the Heavenly Granary has six Lou below its head; the Heavenly Harvest has three stars at its eastern foot; above the Lou are eleven generals and marquises ———]

The segment playing now corresponds to the Western White Tiger constellation (Venus), which is associated with killing and warfare among the Four Divine Beasts.

Throughout history, the fates and fortunes of many fierce generals recorded in historical annals as "the descent of a killing star" or "the birth of Venus" resonate with this prayer.

However, people's yearning for such great power often goes astray in the course of its transmission.

The so-called "divine intervention" or "spirit possession" in folk culture is actually a superstitious activity based on idealism, also known as inviting a deity to possess one's body.

It claims to be able to be possessed by gods through specific rituals, and is rumored to be able to climb mountains of knives and plunge into boiling oil, but in essence, it is mostly a visual deception magic or illusion performance.

The true ritual, "spirit possession," is a secret method that uses one's own or another person's body as a vessel to enclose the deceased's physical body and soul information into a new container.

The prerequisite for its use is usually obtaining a part of the deceased's physical tissue as a medium, such as ashes or hair.

However, by establishing the constraints of "only being able to summon deceased people with the surname Li who have a connection with him" and "not being able to summon more than twelve times a year," Li Ming bypassed the need for a medium and was able to directly use his own bloodline and name as a guide to "targetedly retrieve" the deceased from human history.

This technique could have simply extracted "information about the physical body" to perform a relatively safe "pseudo-spirit possession".

However, in pursuit of ultimate strength, Li Ming voluntarily added another, more demanding, and riskier constraint:

It is necessary to extract the deceased's "soul information" and "physical information" simultaneously and completely. One can only use one's own physical body as the sole and irreplaceable vessel, and the curse cannot be lifted until the power is exhausted.

At such a huge cost and sacrifice, he reduced the originally long and dangerous preparation time of the Spirit Summoning spell to one-twentieth of the base value!

In addition, according to tradition, the practitioner must personally mobilize their mind and infuse their incantation to chant this long and obscure poem word by word.

But through countless practical experiences and self-improvement, Li Ming learned a modern solution that can be described as a "brilliant move":

It's the 21st century, why not just use a portable speaker to play the pre-recorded incantations?

In this way, he can even adjust the playback speed to achieve "high-speed divine speech," compressing the lengthy prelude to the extreme.

Summoning spirits of the same or slightly weaker level is almost instantaneous; summoning a higher-level being also only requires the time of a standard action.

Through layers of constraints, he fully utilized his strengths and avoided his weaknesses!

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