Curse Reply: After choosing Nawa, the cursed spirit cursed me for being cruel.

It's hard to believe, but if it's this Duanmu Yan who always brings unexpected surprises...

The two exchanged glances and instantly reached a consensus.

Trust him!

The next moment, Gojo Satoru suddenly took a step forward. The "infinity" that was originally only used to defend himself was forcibly expanded by him, like an invisible wall, standing between Duanmu Yan's back and the attacking black hair!

A large number of hairs collided with the "infinity," producing a dense, thumping sound, before being forcibly blocked!

This greatly increased Gojo Satoru's energy consumption and the burden on his control precision, but he didn't even flinch.

Xia Youjie shouted, and all the remaining cursed spirits around him stopped defending and rushed towards Bai'er like a suicide attack, trying to buy Duanmu Yan even a second more time!

"Hmm?" Bai'er seemed to have also sensed the strange aura emanating from the knife in Duanmu Yan's hand, which made her feel a little uneasy, as well as the two people's desperate protective posture.

A hint of doubt flashed in her dark eyes, but it was quickly replaced by a deeper coldness.

More strands of hair changed direction and launched an even more ferocious attack on Duanmu Yan's position!

Gojo Satoru groaned, a trickle of blood spilling from the corner of his mouth. The "infinite" power that was maintaining its expansion was under immense strain from such a dense barrage of sure-hit attacks.

Xia Youjie's cursed spirit collapsed one after another under the attack of the doll's claws and Bai'er's hair, and he himself turned pale due to the backlash.

However, the two men's cover bought Duanmu Yan the most crucial preparation time!

The energy on the Molten Blade had reached its peak, and the crimson light was almost bursting out!

Duanmu Yan felt that his magical power had been completely drained. His gaze was fixed on the "sky" of this warm and cozy area—the top boundary of the area, where the magical power fluctuations and rules intertwined on the detector were at their core, and also the key point where the concept of the "Garden of Soothing Sleep" was revealed.

That's it!

Molten Flame Splitter!

No sound was uttered, but the will to sever everything had transformed into a silent roar!

Duanmu Yan gripped the sword with both hands, using all his strength to slash fiercely towards the sky above the domain!

The moment the blade was released from its strike, it expanded wildly, and wherever it passed, the warm scene within the domain was violently distorted, like the reflection of a stone thrown into it!

Click—!

A soft sound, like glass or a mirror shattering, echoed simultaneously in every corner of the area.

Immediately following was a dense, continuous series of clicking sounds.

Centered on the sky where the slash struck, countless spiderweb-like cracks appeared out of thin air and quickly spread to every inch of space in the entire domain!

Warm yellow lanterns, cozy wallpaper, old tatami mats, yellowed record player fragments, even the sweet scent of lavender and the eerie lingering notes of lullabies in the air... all the scenes are shattered in the cracks.

Fragments flew everywhere, then turned into specks of light and disappeared as they fell.

The surrounding environment quickly returned to the corridor deep inside the Sakura Academy teaching building, with the pale green light of the emergency lights once again becoming the dominant tone.

The domain was forcibly shattered!

"puff--!"

Bai'er, who was floating in mid-air, suddenly trembled and spat out a mouthful of foul blood.

The tears of sorrow vanished from that delicate face, leaving only extreme pain, weakness, and... bewilderment.

Her white furisode quickly became dull and wrinkled, and her wildly dancing black hair fell limply down, returning to its original smooth Hime cut, but without any luster.

Like a puppet with its strings cut, she fell helplessly from the sky, collapsing limply onto the cold, dirty ground.

Technique-based circuit breaking!

The forcibly created domain was violently destroyed from within, and the backlash against the caster was fatal.

At this moment, Bai'er's aura was extremely weak, and she even seemed to have difficulty maintaining her physical form, let alone fighting again.

On the other side, with the shattering of the domain and the severe injury to the caster, the puppet students who had been trapped by Xia Youjie's cursed spirits seemed to lose all motivation in an instant. Their stiff bodies stopped moving and, like real puppets, remained completely still in place.

"Hoo... Ha..." After unleashing that all-consuming strike, Duanmu Yan reached his limit, and his armor automatically dissipated, revealing his almost unsteady body.

That attack not only drained his magical power, but also placed a huge burden on his mind.

Gojo Satoru appeared beside him in an instant and caught his swaying body.

"Well done, Duanmu!"

His voice carried undisguised amazement and a hint of relief. Although he himself was unsteady on his feet due to forcibly expanding his "infinite" defense, and there was blood at the corner of his mouth, his eyes shone with an astonishing brightness.

He glanced at Bai'er, who was barely breathing, then at the motionless puppets around him. "Next, it's up to..."

Before he could finish speaking, Xia Youjie had already walked a few steps away from Bai'er.

His face was also somewhat pale, and he was injured, but his eyes were calm.

He looked at the cursed spirit curled up on the ground, which seemed to be just a helpless little girl, and a complicated look flashed in his eyes. He raised his hand, preparing to cast a spell to seal it.

However, just as Xia Youjie's spell was about to touch Bai'er, the tattered rag doll that had rolled to the side suddenly trembled!

A wave spread out, blocking Xia Youjie's spell and forcing him to pause slightly.

Xia Youjie frowned, preparing to increase his spell power output and forcefully break through this fragile barrier.

"Jay, wait a minute."

Chapter 29 Improvement (This chapter contains a lot of dialogue; you can skip it if you don't like it)

(This chapter has been criticized by many people, so it is recommended to skip it.)

(First, I want to clarify that the author did not intentionally suppress Gojo Satoru and Natsume's fighting power. It's just that they had concerns this time, which is why they appeared to be suppressed. If the author did not know that those puppets were human, even with a guaranteed hit technique, the two of them could have successfully eliminated Shiro.)

"Jay, wait a minute."

A weak but clear voice rang out; it was Duanmu Yan.

With Gojo Satoru's help, he slowly straightened up a bit. His face was still pale, but his sharp eyes passed over Xia Youjie and locked onto Bai'er, who was slumped on the ground, barely breathing.

Xia Youjie stopped forming hand seals, turned to look at Duanmu Yan, and asked in a questioning tone, "Duanmu?"

Gojo Satoru raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything. He simply loosened his grip on Duanmu Yan's arm slightly and waited to see what would happen.

Duanmu Yan broke free from Wu Tiaowu's support, and although his steps were a little unsteady, he still walked steadily towards Bai'er.

Gojo Satoru pursed his lips and put his hands back in his pockets, but his six azure eyes were already locked on Bai'er and the doll spirit beside her, his magical power flowing silently.

Standing about three steps in front of Bai'er, Duanmu Yan did not squat down, but looked down at the childlike cursed spirit.

His gaze held no pity, only a cold scrutiny and suppressed anger.

"Have you had enough fun?"

Bai'er seemed to have not expected such an opening. Her dark eyes trembled slightly as she raised her tear-streaked face and looked at Duanmu Yan.

“Answer me.” Duanmu Yan took half a step forward, his shadow looming over Bai’er. “To strip living people of their future, their joys and sorrows, and turn them into your ridiculous puppets… Is it fun to watch them struggle desperately in the drama you’ve created? Even if it’s just because you’re bored, because you feel lonely?!”

His voice suddenly rose, carrying a questioning tone, echoing in the deathly silent space.

Bai'er flinched at the anger in his words, and then, a stronger resentment and unwilling grievance welled up in her dark eyes, and her weak childish voice became sharp.

"So lonely... Bai'er is so lonely! Nobody wants Bai'er! Nobody loves Bai'er! They've all left, they've all abandoned Bai'er! Bai'er just... just wants someone to be with her!"

"I'll stay with Bai'er forever! What did Bai'er do wrong?! It was them! They were the ones who abandoned Bai'er first!"

"So this is how you 'keep' them?" Duanmu Yan interrupted her sharply, his finger pointing sharply at the stiff, lifeless puppets of teachers and students around them.

"Look at the way they're doing this! This is what you call 'accompanying'?! This is fucking imprisonment! This is torture!"

His chest heaved, the intense emotions aggravating his injuries, causing him to cough twice, but his eyes remained as fiery as ever.

"Just because you're lonely, just because you're in pain, does that give you the right to inflict that pain a thousandfold on innocent people? Just because you weren't expected to be born, does that give you the right to arbitrarily decide the life and death of others, forcing them to experience what you call darkness and coldness?!"

"I..." Bai'er was speechless when questioned, only tears streaming down her face, and the black curse power dissipated unstablely again with her emotional fluctuations.

"Shut up!" Duanmu Yan roared, his last shred of patience gone. "Loneliness? Pain? That's no excuse for your evil deeds! There are plenty of lonely and suffering people in this world. Does everyone have to be like you, turning their misfortune into a weapon against others?!"

He took a deep breath, suppressing his anger: "You say you want companionship? But you don't even understand what true companionship is! True companionship is warmth, freedom, and mutual illumination, not turning people into puppets, locking them in the eternal hell you created!"

"By trapping them, you gain not companionship, but a deeper emptiness and an endless curse! Look into their eyes! Even as puppets, what remains in them is fear and hatred towards you!"

As he spoke, Bai'er looked in horror at the teacher puppet closest to her.

Deep within the puppet's empty eye sockets, there seemed to be lingering extreme despair and resentment.

That was something she had never paid attention to, or rather, deliberately ignored.

"No...no...Bai'er just..." She shook her head frantically, clutching the tattered rag doll in her arms as if it were her last lifeline.

"Just what?" Duanmu Yan's voice was icy cold. "Just too selfish. So selfish that you can only see your own wounds and not the others who are being torn apart and bleeding. Your loneliness is real, but this real pain is not an excuse for your depravity, much less a license for your violence!"

He raised his hand, and the flame at his fingertips flickered again, illuminating his resolute and furious face.

"You'll never reach the right destination by using the wrong methods. Your path went completely astray from the moment you decided to turn the first living person into a puppet. And you, who clearly had the opportunity to stop, chose to go further and further down this crooked path, dragging more and more people into the abyss."

"No...it's not like that...Bai'er didn't mean it..." Bai'er seemed to have her mental defenses completely broken down, curling up and trembling, repeating pale words.

"No, you want to." Duanmu Yan coldly exposed her last act of self-deception.

"You enjoy this sense of control, the illusion that they will never leave. Even if this illusion is built on the real suffering of countless people, you hate this world, you hate everything that abandoned you, but what is most hateful is that you eventually become a monster that only knows how to plunder and hurt."

He stopped looking at her broken state, slowly straightened up, and the magical power around him began to gather again.

"Loneliness is not a sin, but harming others in order to escape loneliness is."

"Pain deserves sympathy, but turning pain into violence against others is unforgivable."

Duanmu Yan gave her one last look, his gaze devoid of any emotion, only the final judgment remained.

"Your game is over."

The moment the words left his mouth, Duanmu Yan moved.

He poured all his remaining strength into his right fist without reservation, and with the simplest and most direct straight punch, he blasted Bai'er's core.

"No—!!" Bai'er let out a shrill, off-key scream, but it was all too late.

Intense flames erupted from within, instantly engulfing Bai'er's remaining body.

"Ah...ah ah..." Bai'er's last sob dissipated in the crackling of the flames.

Her distorted, childlike figure trembled violently in the firelight, and the dark curse power dissipated like a tide. The last thing that remained on her small face, which was sometimes innocent and sometimes resentful, was a blank expression, as if she had finally woken up from a long nightmare, but was now facing her end.

Duanmu Yan maintained his punching posture, breathing heavily, his forehead covered in cold sweat. The forceful strike he had just delivered had almost exhausted him again.