Curse Returns: Eight Extraordinary Skills? I lack nothing.

Qiong seized the opportunity to create distance and teleported to the other side of the field.

Maki steadied herself, hoisted the wooden sword onto her shoulder, and smiled: "Not bad."

Qiong took a breath, her ear tips turning slightly red.

On the sidelines, Gojo Satoru clapped: "Beautiful! Both of them were beautiful!"

Shoko stubbed out her cigarette and glanced at Yuuto: "Your sister is pretty amazing."

Yuuto shook his head: "Maki wasn't serious."

This isn't Yuuto being modest on behalf of Sora; after all, Sora was only a half-finished version of the Heaven and Tyrant.

But he was also a tyrant bestowed by heaven.

This is not someone that Sora, who has only been practicing magic for less than a month, can easily defeat.

This competition was just a rehearsal, and it was only a preliminary exercise.

Therefore, at this point, both of them chose to stop.

On the sidelines, Panda clapped, Dog Roll gave a thumbs up, and Bone clapped his hands: "You've improved so quickly."

Gojo Satoru looked at Shoko and Yuuto with a smug expression: "How was it? Did I teach you well?"

Shoko remained expressionless: "What's it to you?"

Gojo choked.

Qiong walked over, looked up at him, and Yuuto ruffled her hair: "Well done..."

On the playground, Qiong stood next to Youren, her expression much more relaxed than when she first arrived.

Sunlight streamed down, and laughter filled the air.

Just as everyone was joking around, Principal Yagura Masamichi walked up to Gojo Satoru at lightning speed and said to everyone with a very serious expression:

"Wu, something terrible has happened!"

"All 22 people in Songjiang City have been turned into monsters, and ordinary humans can still see them..."

Chapter 48 Songjiang Grand Stage - Opening

One day ago, in Songjiang City.

The Plague stood atop the highest point of Matsue Castle's keep, overlooking the entire city.

The night breeze rustled his impeccably tailored dark gray three-piece suit, and his gold-rimmed glasses reflected the moonlight.

"The time has come."

He spoke softly, forming an extremely complex mudra with his hands.

A dark red light rose from his palm, shooting straight into the sky and turning the entire night sky blood red.

The bodies of 220,000 people in Songjiang City froze at the same moment.

The entire process lasted less than a minute.

The skin of 220,000 people turned from normal to grayish-brown, with bulging veins, bloodshot and red eyes, and their chests began to emit a bluish-white glow.

They emerged from their homes, shops, cars, and streets, forming a gray-brown torrent that wandered aimlessly through the streets and alleys of Songjiang.

That city of 200,000 people turned into a ghost town overnight.

At six o'clock in the morning, the news reached Tokyo.

Major news channels simultaneously broadcast breaking news. Aerial footage of Songjiang City brought the entire studio to a deathly silence.

The streets were filled with densely packed gray-brown figures, their chests glowing with a continuous blue light, like a flowing galaxy.

"A large-scale outbreak of unexplained infections has occurred in Matsue City, Shimane Prefecture, with preliminary estimates suggesting the number of infections exceeds 200,000..." The female news anchor's voice trembled. "The Self-Defense Forces have been deployed and are sealing off the areas surrounding the city..."

The internet exploded instantly.

"Zombies, they really are zombies!"

"Songjiang is finished. All 200,000 people have turned into monsters."

"What the hell is this virus...?"

"We must nuke the Japanese devils..."

Panic spread like wildfire across social media around the world.

At 7:00 a.m., the advance force of the Self-Defense Forces arrived at the outskirts of Songjiang.

Armored vehicles lined up in a defensive line, and the soldiers' hands trembled as they watched the gray-brown figures wandering the streets in the distance.

"Fire!"

Machine gun fire swept through the area, bullets hitting the Kabane and sparks flying.

The skin of a regular Kabane can stop a pistol bullet and deflect a heavy machine gun, but it cannot penetrate the membrane covering their chest.

A Kabane charged forward through a hail of bullets, grabbed the armored vehicle's bulletproof glass with both hands, and smashed it through with a single punch.

Soldiers were dragged out of the carriage, their screams drowned out by the gunfire.

The helicopter hovered in the air, its onboard machine guns unleashing a barrage of fire.

The Kabane were battered and bruised, but as long as their cores in their chests remained intact, they would not die.

The severed limbs writhed in the pool of blood, the head rolled to the side of the road, and the eyes were still moving.

"Report to headquarters, conventional weapons are ineffective. Repeat, conventional weapons are ineffective."

The artillery positions began bombardment.

The shells landed in the Kabane horde, and the explosions blasted monsters within a 20-meter radius into pieces.

However, the impact and fragments carried by the shell cannot be imbued with magical power and cannot destroy the core.

The shattered Kabane remains crawled on the ground, the fragments reassembling and slowly recovering.

A Kabane, its lower half blown off, dragged its mangled body for 300 meters before biting off a soldier's ankle.

When news from the front lines reached the Ministry of Defense, the entire conference room fell into dead silence.

At 9:00 AM, an emergency cabinet meeting was held at the Prime Minister's official residence.

The Chief Cabinet Secretary's voice trembled: "Matsue City has a population of 220,000, and currently there are fewer than 3,000 confirmed survivors. The source of infection and the route of transmission are unknown."

The Defense Minister slammed his fist on the table: "The Self-Defense Forces have already deployed two battalions, and heavy weapons have been used as well."

"But those things can't be killed by conventional weapons without magical power,"

"The shell can shatter, and the fragments can reassemble."

The Foreign Minister stared at the gray-brown figures on the screen, his face ashen: "Inquiries have come from various countries. They say that if the Japanese government cannot control the situation, they will consider..."

The meeting room fell into a deathly silence upon hearing this.

All of this happened so suddenly.

22 people instantly transformed into something akin to cursed objects, making them impossible to kill with non-cursed weapons.

Most importantly, they can be seen by ordinary people and can infect ordinary humans.

The Prime Minister remained silent for a long time before saying in a low voice, "What's the situation with the Jujutsu Agency and the Jujutsu Supervision Department...?"

Meanwhile, the news reached the world of sorcery.

At an emergency meeting of the General Headquarters, an elder's voice trembled: "All 220,000 people have been converted. The Self-Defense Forces' weapons are completely ineffective. Only cursed power can kill those things."

Can ordinary people see them?

"Yes, it's crystal clear, this matter can't be hidden anymore."

The meeting room fell into dead silence.

Ultimately, the head of the supervisory department made the final decision: to issue an emergency summons to the entire Japanese sorcery community…

When the news reached the Panxing Sect, Xia Youjie was drinking tea.

Mimi handed him the report: "Master, 220,000 people in Songjiang City have been converted."

"According to the intelligence we stole from the Directorate General, they are monsters called Kabane, created by a cursed spirit called Plague."

"And the person who first discovered this cursed spirit was Kasuga Yuuto,"

Xia Youjie put down his teacup and began to read the report.

Two hundred and twenty thousand monkeys turned into monsters.

A cold smile curled at the corner of his lips.

“Interesting. Gather the cadres and come with me to take a look.” He stood up and said to Nanako.

It seems he's found a way to eliminate the monkeys all at once.

In a basement somewhere in Tokyo, a gluttonous cup was being stirred up.

He was adjusting to Okita Souji's body when he heard this information, and muttered to himself:

"The ability to transform 220,000 people into controllable monsters? That's quite an interesting ability."

"The world of sorcery in this era is truly a place where many heroes rise up."

He picked up Okita Souji's weapon and prepared to head to Matsue.

This event represents a major turning point for the world of sorcery.

He might be able to profit from it, whether it's sealing Gojo Satoru or obtaining Natsume's physical body, both would be huge benefits for him.

Deep in the mountains outside Kyoto, Louhu suddenly looked up.

He sensed that in the distant west, a vast, twisted magical power was expanding.

"You felt it?" Hua Yu's voice rang out beside him.

Louhu nodded: "There are others like us..."

Hua Yu was silent for a few seconds: "It is creating death."

"Isn't that great?" Louhu grinned. "Let's go take a look."