The day before Christmas.

"Sister, are you going out today?"

Looking at Duanmu Huai, who was ready to go out in her coat, Ruby curiously asked.

"Yeah, I have a few things to take care of."

"Will you be back tonight?"

"Of course, where’s your LIVE performance?"

"At Shibuya’s Mark City, it’s our last Christmas Eve LIVE of the year, everyone’s pumped up."

Ruby beamed a smile as bright as the sun and gave Duanmu Huai a thumbs-up.

"After all, next year we’re heading to the Martial Arts Hall!"

"Hmm..."

Duanmu Huai simply nodded.

"What time does it end today?"

"Around ten."

"Shall I pick you up then?"

"Huh? Sister actually wants to pick me up?"

Ruby widened her eyes in surprise and looked at Duanmu Huai.

"I thought you’d just laze around at home."

"Depends, if I finish early on my end, I’ll pick you up. Remember to call me."

"Got it! Don’t forget mom’s cake and gifts!"

"Won’t forget."

Ruby waved goodbye to Duanmu Huai, then got into the office car and left. Duanmu Huai waited a bit longer before a car pulled up beside her. She opened the car door, got in, and the vehicle started moving forward.

"Let’s go to the hospital first, and then we’ll sort out today’s issues. By the way, explain what’s going on?"

"Okay."

The driver was an assistant supervisor. They’re like assistants, able to see curse spirits and create barriers, but lacking the ability to fight evil spirits. They’re mostly helpers, gathering information and preparing for the Curse Masters.

The driver was Ms. Yan Ye, a middle-aged woman in her forties, looking just like an ordinary office worker — or perhaps she really is just a regular office worker.

During the drive, Ms. Yan Ye quickly briefed Duanmu Huai on the mission target.

The curse spirit emerged in a village called Inumaki Village, which now is just a regular village, but was different before. Because the area Inumaki Village is in is dry and rainy, farming is tough, so generation after generation lived by hunting wild dogs. To appease these wild dog undead, Inumaki Village built a Shrine to worship them.

Of course, rather than worship, it was more about sealing — which makes the problem simple next.

The issue this time is the seal was broken.

The reason it was found out is simple, it was all live-streamed.

Yes, basically, a streamer went to Inumaki Village out of boredom and live-streamed sneaking into the Shrine and breaking the seal. After the seal was broken, with screams, the stream cut off. Curse High personnel realized something was wrong, reported immediately, and intelligence staff went there only to find the village completely consumed, initially judged as a Special Grade Curse Spirit.

Due to the urgency, Duanmu Huai was asked to step in.

"Sacrifice a few dogs and need a Shrine to appease them?" 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Duanmu Huai flipped through the information in hand, looking like a puzzled elder with a smartphone.

"Then sacrificing cows, chickens, pigs, wouldn’t Shrines be all over? What are these people thinking?"

While complaining, Duanmu Huai shook her head. If sacrificing dogs leads to curse spirits, Yulin Peixian would’ve spawned a Dog Demon King long ago.

Moreover, the perplexing thing is, in this world, curse spirits originally don’t exist, they’re manifested through human thoughts and emotions. So if the village people simply treated wild dogs like pigs, cows, chickens for hunting, nothing would’ve happened.

But sure, they eat, then worship, which is creating troubles for themselves.

"By the way, about that streamer, what’s his deal? Why did he break the seal?"

"According to our investigation, the streamer focuses on vegetarianism and environmentalism as his theme for streaming."

"Oh..."

No more questions.

After a three-hour drive, Duanmu Huai finally arrived at Inumaki Village.

It looked just like a regular village, at least at first glance, deserted as far as the eye could see. Curse Masters had the area sealed off, fortunately, it was already very remote, so no incidents had occurred yet.

"One more thing."

Duanmu Huai stepped out of the car, looking at the village, and asked.

"If everyone inside is dead, what would you do?"

"Luckily, it’s in a remote area. We could say a mountain flood or mudslide hit the village... information can somewhat be covered up."

"Hmm... I see..."

Duanmu Huai nodded without saying anything more, just snapped his fingers.

"Let’s move."

"Okay."

Upon hearing Duanmu Huai’s words, Ms. Yan Ye’s expression became serious. Then she extended her hand and made a gesture.

"Born from the dark, blacker than black."

Accompanied by Ms. Yan Ye’s spell, a pitch-black barrier descended from the sky, enveloping the entire village, while Duanmu Huai picked up the sword and waved his hand.

"Settle it within an hour."

Upon saying this, he turned around and walked into the village without looking back.

The entire village was dead silent, with not a trace of human presence.

Duanmu Huai strolled through it, carrying his sword, looking around. From the village’s situation, everything appeared orderly. According to the report, the streamer sneaked into the shrine to break the seal at midnight while the villagers were asleep, so naturally, there was no reaction. By the time they realized, it might have been too late.

Oh, wait, it was indeed too late.

"Woof.........."

The sound, reminiscent of a wild dog’s barking, rang out, and Duanmu Huai stopped to look ahead. Then, he saw a twisted black shadow emerging from the nearby alley — it was a person, yet also a dog.

The reason for this description is simple—their body still resembled a human form, but other parts had mutated and warped. Their faces had mouths that protruded forward, transforming into long, dog-like muzzles, while their faces retained human features. The same was true for their arms and legs; typically, human arms are shorter than legs, but now their arms were nearly as long as their legs.

This reminded Duanmu Huai of a certain type of hairless dog he had seen on television before, and this person now resembled that hairless dog.

But... this was not a case of being possessed by an Evil Spirit.

Hmm, speaking of which, Duanmu Huai recalled that after a previous exchange meeting, Gojo Satoru had contacted him and mentioned a Special Grade Curse Spirit—whose appearance was indistinguishable from a human, and had stitches across its body like Frankenstein. According to Gojo Satoru, that Curse Spirit possessed the ability to arbitrarily modify human bodies.

Previously, a First-level Curse Master had fought him but later he escaped.

Could that guy be here?

Duanmu Huai collected his thoughts and then looked at the Dog-man before him. The latter stared at Duanmu Huai and opened his mouth.

"Please... save me..."

A hoarse, pain-filled voice emerged from within. If this scene were observed by other students from Curse High, they would likely be enraged, burning with fury.

However, to Duanmu Huai... this was nothing. After all, compared to the lifeforms twisted by Subspace contamination, this was still somewhat manageable.

Compared to those unlucky souls eroded by the Old Ones, they could still be considered quite presentable.

"Don’t worry, I will save you."

Duanmu Huai said as he drew his sword. At the same time, hundreds of nearly identical Dog-men emerged from all directions, standing on rooftops, in alleys, and by the streets, staring at Duanmu Huai like real wild dogs.

Then, the battle began.

The Transformed Dog-men roared as they swarmed forward, opening their bloody mouths, stretching their claws, desperately trying to kill the prey before them.

But facing them was only the blood-red sword light.

Duanmu Huai walked forward, neither too fast nor too slow, the sword light erupting from his hand. Just as the Dog-men lunged, the sword light instantaneously transformed into a dazzling red starry sky, exploding like fireworks, enveloping everything within.

Then, the sword light disappeared.

Duanmu Huai sheathed his sword and continued onward, only this time, there was no longer any living being on the street. Only the remains of the corpses cut into pieces and the stench of fresh blood lingered.

Duanmu Huai didn’t even glance at the fragments of the bodies, shaking his head and humming a tune as he proceeded.

All of this was completely witnessed by Water Kettle Head, hidden nearby.

What kind of monster is that!?

Watching Duanmu Huai’s figure, Water Kettle Head could hardly believe his eyes. In fact, this Curse Spirit event was a trap to lure Duanmu Huai away. They needed to ensure that no Special Grade Curse Masters could support Gojo Satoru in the short term. Only then could they achieve their goal.

To provoke a Special Grade Curse Master’s intervention would require a very clear reason and target, and fortunately, they had certain connections with the Curse Master High-ups. Thus, after creating this incident, it was only natural to assign Duanmu Huai to handle this Curse Spirit event.

For this purpose, they even sacrificed a finger of Two-faced SuNu to catalyze the Dog God curse here.

Although it was just a budding Special Grade Curse Spirit, in Water Kettle Head’s view, it was sufficient to deal with a nascent Special Grade Curse Master.

Not to mention, it also had allowed its companions to transform all the humans here into Dog-men, intending to unsettle the opponent’s mentality.

Yet... what the hell is this guy!?

Water Kettle Head stared dumbfoundedly at the street before him, speechless. Based on Water Kettle Head’s experience, Curse Masters have a strong sense of camaraderie; when they see fellow humans twisted, trampled, and transformed into such inhuman monsters, they would be utterly enraged, desperate to make the Curse Spirit pay.

But... why was this guy not like that?!

Facing the humans transformed into Dog-men, there was not the slightest hesitation or wavering, utterly cold like a machine, yet with a serene expression. It was as if, in this Curse Master’s eyes, these humans transformed into monsters were nothing!

What the hell is this guy?

Water Kettle Head glared at Duanmu Huai’s back, gritting his teeth, clenching his fists tightly.

It seems this guy is not easy to deal with, but I’m not without a backup plan.

Don’t worry, Hua Yu, I will definitely kill this Curse Master and avenge you!