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

He quite liked the swollen face. In the original work, from chasing Tiger Staff to blocking the stove opening of Su Nuo for Tiger Staff, this older brother's catchphrase was always "The older brother must protect the younger brother".

What he wanted to change was the outcome of the expansion phase.

"I woke you up because I wanted to make a deal with you."

“A deal.” Zhang Xiang didn’t lower his arm; his eyes were red-rimmed, and the lines on his face looked like two old scars in the dim light.

Less than half a minute after emerging from the container, he had already scanned his surroundings. There was only one door behind the other person, and behind him was the special container that contained his younger brothers.

He could sense that his younger brothers were still asleep, and the faint fluctuations of magical energy trembled through the glass wall.

As the eldest brother, he absolutely cannot back down here.

He stared at Duanmu Yan. "What deal?"

"I want you to become the head of the Kamo family."

Zhang Xiang frowned. "Kamo family, do you know who I am?"

“I know. The Expansion Phase, the eldest son of the Nine Phases of the Cursed Embryo Diagram, is a top-grade cursed artifact created by Kamo Kenrin 150 years ago.” Duanmu Yan said calmly, “He is also the inheritor of the Crimson Blood Manipulation Technique.”

"Since you know that, you should know that I am a hybrid of a cursed spirit and a human. When the Kamo family sees me, their first reaction will be to kill me, not to kneel down and call me 'family head'."

“They don’t need to kneel. They only need to recognize your bloodline and technique.” Duanmu Yan leaned against the stone platform behind him, his hands folded on his knees. “The Kamo family’s ancestral technique is the Crimson Blood Manipulation Technique. The current successor is Kamo Kenki. He is quite strong, but not top-tier. The three great families have been checking and balancing each other for over a thousand years. The Kamo family is in an awkward position between Zenin and Gojo. They need a stronger head of the family.”

Zhang Xiang's strength is equivalent to a top-tier cursed spirit, and a rather outstanding one at that. In human terms, he would be among the best of the first-tier sorcerers.

Zhang Xiang didn't speak. He stared into Duanmu Yan's eyes, trying to find any trace of a lie, but unfortunately he couldn't.

"What makes you think I can get into the Kamo family?"

“Because you have Kamo Noriyuki’s blood in your veins, whether you admit it or not, that is the legitimate bloodline of the three main families. The Kamo family only recognizes bloodlines… I will handle the rest.”

Zhang Xiang remained silent for a long time.

He turned his head and looked at the containers behind him that contained his younger brother; the containers were covered with a thin layer of ash.

For 150 years, from the Meiji era when they were sealed away until now, the nine fetuses have been crammed into a corner of the High School Treasury, without light or sound, only a faint magical connection between them.

During this time, whenever he sensed his younger brothers' fear, he could only say to each other through the cold glass: I'm still here.

He didn't want his brothers to continue like this.

He turned his head back. "You just said you wanted me to become the head of the Kamo family, so what's next? Your offer can't possibly be that generous."

"Help me overthrow the current council of elders."

Zhang Xiang blinked. "This is it."

"This is it."

"The Council of Elders..." Zhang Xiang chewed on these three words. The source of the 150-year-long, dark and sunless seal was the Council of Elders.

They issued the order to retrieve the cursed artifacts, arranged for their sealing and safekeeping, and locked the Nine Phases Diagram in the treasury as a trophy, never to be questioned again.

He could tolerate it, but he didn't want his younger brothers to continue to tolerate it.

Zhang Xiang loosened his clenched fist. "Okay, but you have to take my brothers with you."

He looked up, the redness around his eyes even deeper than before. "All of it."

“Of course.” Duanmu Yan nodded. “Not only can I take them out, but I can also help you revive your two younger brothers, only the second and third sons.”

His swollen body involuntarily leaned forward. Duanmu Yan raised his hand to signal him not to rush, and took out the remaining two white jutsu from the system.

The white substance lay sprawled on the ground, resembling two unformed human-shaped clay figures.

“This is a 'body' specifically for cursed objects. You should know its effects; it allows the cursed embryo to skip natural incubation and directly acquire a physical body.” He pushed one of the bundles forward half an inch. “However, there’s a problem. Your remaining brothers, starting from the fourth one, have too weak curse power. Their aura is only around level three or four, not even enough to compete with ordinary people. Body possession is the process of the soul vying for control of the body. If you put them in, they will most likely be devoured by the body.”

Zhang Xiang pursed his lips and stared at the two white figures on the ground for a moment.

He knew that the curse power of the fourth to ninth brothers was indeed too weak.

Having been sealed in the same container for 150 years, he knew the strength of each of his brothers' curses better than anyone else.

He could sense how wonderful these two white things in front of him were; they had no soul aura whatsoever, yet they were able to perfectly allow them to successfully receive flesh.

If you want to revive all the remaining brothers, you can only follow this person.

"...Alright, let's revive Bad Appearance and Bloodstain first."

"About the Kamo family..." Duanmu Yan paused, then put his hands back in his pockets.

“I will go.” Zhang Xiang interrupted him, turning his gaze from the container to Duanmu Yan’s face.

He stared at the overly young man, remaining silent for several seconds. "You are the first sorcerer to treat us like human beings. I will remember your great kindness."

Chapter 136 What are you saying? I'm forever 18!

The transaction was very quick and easy.

If that bloated face of his stood in front of Kamo's house, people would believe him even without a blood test.

The higher the number in the Nine Phases Chart, the more human-like it is. With the eldest brother's appearance, no one would give him a second glance if he were said to be a branch of the Kamo family that had been separated from the family.

Despite their horrific appearance and blood-stained flesh, Duanmu Yan forced them to retain the form of White Zetsu, forbidding them from reverting to their original appearance after being reborn.

"This is a high-level sorcery area," Duanmu Yan reminded him. "If a cursed spirit appears randomly, it can be easily removed. There are two here as strong as me."

Zhang Xiang's expression changed, and he turned around and grabbed his two younger brothers' shoulders.

"Did you hear me? You are absolutely not allowed to reveal your true form." He lowered his voice to a whisper.

The evil figure nodded vigorously, blood smeared within the white, limp skin, squeezing out tiny whimpers from its throat, and squeezed itself further behind the swollen figure.

Zhang Xiang looked at Xue Tu with doting eyes, carefully wrapped the containers of his remaining brothers, stuffed them inside his clothes, and tied the ties with two tight knots.

Duanmu Yan dialed the number of Ye'e Zhengdao: "Teacher, I've finished making my selections. Have you returned yet?"

"Wait for me at the entrance of the treasure vault as soon as I enter the school gate."

Duanmu Yan hung up the phone, waved to Zhang Xiang and the other two, and they walked through the corridor and stood at the entrance of the teaching building.

Before long, Masamichi Yagami, along with Satoru Gojo and Natsuyu Suke, walked over from around the corner.

Goku, with his hands in his pockets, strode around with an air of arrogance, his face radiating the smug satisfaction of having just bullied someone and not yet having had a chance to retract his actions.

Xia Youjie now had a sealing scroll in his hand, containing a surge of magical power at the level of a top-tier magical spirit.

"What did you choose?" Gojo Satoru asked Xia Youjie from afar, his voice so loud it shook the corridor. "You have no idea what Jie did. He went to the Elder Council's treasury and picked out a sealed imaginary cursed spirit, something called Incarnation Tamamo-no-Mae."

"I asked him what he needed that thing for, and he said that the cursed spirit had a domain, and he wanted to feel other people's domains to make himself stronger. I said, 'Then why don't you train with me? You can go in and out of my domain and feel it to your heart's content.'"

Xia Youjie's face darkened, and he said, "Do I look like someone who can enter your domain? Don't try to cram your garbage information into my head."

As a close friend of Gojo Satoru and Duanmu Yan, he naturally knew the effects of their domains. He had tried Duanmu Yan's domain and gained some benefits, but not much. As for Gojo Satoru, there was no need to say anything more.

Gojo Satoru spread his hands innocently and turned to Duanmu Yan, "Hahaha, don't worry about it so much. I didn't choose anything. I had them add me to the membership list of dessert shops nationwide, so I won't have to queue to buy cream puffs anymore."

Moth Masamichi chimed in from the side, "The elders' faces are as black as ink."

"Who cares about them?" Gojo Satoru chuckled, pushing up his sunglasses before glancing past Duanmu Yan and landing on the tall figure behind him.

He stroked his chin, instantly teleporting to Zhang Xiang's side. "This guy's aura is so strange. A half-cursed spirit? No, it smells like a cursed embryo. Duanmu, where did you pick him up from?"

Xia Youjie's gaze also passed over Duanmu Yan and landed on Zhang Xiang. Then he narrowed his eyes slightly: "Duanmu, who is that person behind you? My Spirit Manipulation Technique reacts to him."

Zhang Xiang was rooted to the spot by those two gazes, and his body trembled instinctively.

These two...are very strong!

He originally thought he was strong enough, but less than ten minutes after being resurrected, of the four people he met, one was only slightly weaker than him, and the other three could easily beat him like a ball.

Duanmu Yan moved half a step to the side, making way for Zhang Xiang: "Let me introduce you. This is Zhang Xiang, the leader of the top-grade cursed artifact, the Nine Phases of the Cursed Embryo. His two younger brothers will be studying at the vocational college."

Xia Youjie's gaze shifted from Zhang Xiang to Duanmu Yan's face, his voice lowering: "You bastard, did you choose to let them suffer?"

"What are you using to make this body, Duanmu? I don't believe you would do such a thing with a human, but you'd better explain yourself."

"How could that be?" Duanmu Yan laughed, spreading his hands. "When have I ever experimented on humans? Don't you know me?"

He turned around and called out towards the door, "You two, come in."

Bad Appearance and Bloodstained walked in from outside the porch. Two people with White Zetsu faces walked over.

As soon as Xue Tu entered the room, he instinctively shrank behind Huai Xiang, who trembled like a leaf under the gazes of those few eyes.

Xia Youjie glanced back and forth between the two of them, and only breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that there were no problems.

"So these two white things became the recipients of the flesh."

"I obtained these creatures by chance. They had no thoughts and their body structure was very similar to that of humans. I wanted to see if they could be used as a sex object, and that's how it happened."

Duanmu Yan looked at Zhang Xiang, then gestured with his chin toward Huai Xiang, "His two younger brothers will remain at the vocational college for the time being."

Before he could finish speaking, Gojo Satoru took a step forward, stretched out his arm and grabbed the man's shoulder, pulling him back half a step: "So, you're half-cursed spirit and half-human? That's really strange!"

He poked the soft, white skin on the villain's face with his finger, making a shallow dent that bounced back. "This thing feels like rice cake. Duanmu, where did you get it? Get me one too, so I can scare Riko next time."

“You’re past the age of using this kind of thing to scare people,” Xia Youjie said from the side.

"Who said I'm forever eighteen... No, I'm only 18."

Zhang Xiang watched as his second brother was being toyed with by that blue-eyed guy, his lips twitched, but he didn't seem to have any hostility, so he breathed a sigh of relief.

This big shot is really not someone you can mess with.

Night Moth Masamichi rubbed his temples. He looked at the three White Zetsu brothers, now possessed by cursed fetuses, and then at the white-haired boy next to him who was poking and prodding the younger brother.

He took a deep breath: "Duanmu, you just said that your two younger brothers stayed at the vocational college, what about the eldest one?"

Before Duanmu Yan could speak, Zhang Xiang straightened up.

"I will accompany Mr. Duanmu to the Kamo family."

Night Moth Zhengdao was silent for two seconds, then waved to Duanmu Yan: "Go. I'll take care of the rest."

He seemed to already know what his students wanted to do.

This is absolutely insane... Will the rules that have stood for millennia be broken in this one era?

Duanmu Yan led Zhang Xiang and the other two outside, followed by Wu Tiao Wu and Xia Youjie.

Gojo Satoru, hands in his pockets, swaggered over to him with an arrogant gait: "Let me guess, this guy has Crimson Blood Manipulation. I sensed it at the door just now; the stench of blood could be smelled even through the treasure vault wall. You should let him become the head of the Kamo family."

“That’s right.” Duanmu Yan continued walking. “Zhang Xiang inherited the Kamo family’s techniques. His bloodline is impeccable. The Kamo family only recognizes the Crimson Blood Technique.”