"Ki... Ka... Open... Star...!"
"Done!"
In the shadows between towering skyscrapers, the Herrscher of Sentience finally smiled as she gazed upon the satisfied, chubby, and rather hideous little creature before her.
'What's your purpose in doing all this?'
From within a single Fenghuang Down feather she carried, Fu Hua watched her actions with some confusion.
"Tch, if everything needed a purpose, what would be the point of living?"
The Herrscher of Sentience waved a dismissive hand, her grin wild and bright. "I just wanted to see what these Cursed Spirits are all about. See? Not that dangerous after all. All that talk about negative emotions? I can whip up as much of that as I want!"
'...'
Fu Hua didn't quite know how to respond.
Earlier, the Herrscher had found a common, weak Cursed Spirit.
Then, she located a salaryman walking down the street. Using her authority over consciousness, she effortlessly flooded the man's already troubled heart with overwhelming resentment, only to make it vanish a moment later, leaving the poor man utterly bewildered.
But toying with the salaryman wasn't her goal. She mainly wanted to see what this so-called Cursed Energy and these Cursed Spirits were really made of.
During her little experiment, the massive amount of negative emotions spilling from the salaryman made the Cursed Spirit in her hand drool with desire. Not worried about letting it feed, she simply tossed it over.
This nameless spirit, born and raised in the sewers, weaker than even the lowliest Flyhead, was directly boosted to a Grade 4 Cursed Spirit by her actions.
Seeing this, the Herrscher found another person, used her power to generate more resentment within them, and fed that to the spirit too. Repeating this cycle over and over, the spirit eventually reached Grade 2, now a relatively powerful curse.
"Not even a stable, mature consciousness at Grade 2? All it knows is to open its mouth begging for food. These Cursed Spirits are seriously hard to enlighten."
The Herrscher rubbed her chin, then simply used her authority to directly invade the spirit's mind.
Just as she thought, although immature, the spirit had indeed developed a consciousness. The Herrscher wasn't afraid of a chaotic mind; she was afraid of no mind at all.
So, she went ahead and remolded its consciousness.
She didn't change too much, just expanded its capacity for thought.
It was her first time trying this on a Cursed Spirit, so she was a bit clumsy. But, being a master in this field, it took her less than five minutes to fully grasp the structure of its awareness.
"Her... Herrscher of Sentience, ma'am!"
After raising the ugly orb's thinking capacity to roughly that of a fifteen or sixteen-year-old human, she finally stopped. Watching its expression shift from confusion to reverence mended a bit of the ache in her heart from losing that antique, replacing it with a sense of accomplishment.
"Not bad. You at least remember this Celestial's grace in enlightening you."
The Herrscher clasped her hands behind her back, a satisfied smile on her face.
She hadn't lived these five thousand years for nothing. If Fu Hua had the title of Fenghuang Celestial, how could she not get one for herself?
After all her years roaming the Shenzhou continent, swindling... no, philanthropizing far and wide, the Herrscher of Sentience had indeed gained a Celestial name among the folk: The Wandering Cloud, Joyous Dao Celestial.
Therefore, calling herself a Celestial was perfectly justified.
"Y-Yes... The Celestial is... mighty and strong-backed! The Celestial is a... generous benefactor... urk!"
"If you don't know how to give compliments, then don't! You're praising the wrong thing entirely! Do you want this Celestial to teach you a lesson?"
Retracting her foot after kicking the spirit away, the Herrscher spoke with a dark expression.
The Cursed Spirit didn't understand why she was angry. Weren't those the compliments humans used? But it didn't dare say more, could only pitifully lie on the ground and look at her.
"Whatever. You're ugly enough to offend my eyes, so I'll let it slide."
Too lazy to look at its face any longer, the Herrscher prepared to leave.
But then she thought of something, and her already stepped-out foot paused.
She glanced at the spirit a few more times, rubbed her chin, and a plan spontaneously sprouted in her heart: "That's right. Humans and Cursed Spirits split this world between them. The humans sit openly and proudly, so why can't the Cursed Spirits have a seat too?"
Thinking this, she looked back at the spirit still lying on the ground gazing at her. "You, tell me where there are a lot of Cursed Spirits around here. Follow this Celestial from now on, and your future will be bright!"
--+--
Elsewhere.
After finishing his dessert, Satoru Gojo hailed a car which pulled up in front of them. The assistant supervisor, Ijichi, who had learned of the girl's danger level via text message, had a forehead covered in cold sweat. He was terrified that Gojo, finding his life too comfortable, was looking for an excuse to get him fired or worse.
Unaware that this perpetually bullied assistant supervisor now saw him as a demon, Gojo cheerfully waved the girl into the car.
Fortunately, the scenario Ijichi feared didn't come to pass. During the ride, aside from the girl nervously asking a few questions and Gojo's casual replies, nothing unexpected happened.
After they got out, Amber followed beside Gojo, curiously looking around.
With Gojo leading the way, they encountered no obstacles. Just as Amber was wondering what questions she might be asked, Gojo suddenly spoke up. "I've already told the old geezers about your situation."
"Ah? Oh."
Amber wasn't sure why he was bringing this up now.
"Later, they'll definitely try every trick to talk to you, to get you to say something they can use against you. They'll use it as a pretext to put you on 'trial'."
Gojo's smile became noticeably more artificial. "When that time comes, you only need to do one thing: say nothing. Do nothing."
"I don't need to communicate with them?"
Amber was taken aback.
"Haha, well, I am the teacher here. And you've only just learned about the Jujutsu world. If you try to talk to them, those rotten old lemons will just lead you around by the nose."
Gojo's tone held no concealment of his disdain for the higher-ups, nor of his protectiveness towards his student. "So you don't need to say anything. Even if they ask you directly, just ignore them."
"...Alright."
"By the way, those rotten lemons themselves aren't actually here. Only their Shikigami are present. So if you feel like venting some anger, you'll have to wait until after we leave this place~"
This last part was clearly directed at Dark Amber.
During their conversation, they had arrived at a dark room. As they entered, the large door slowly closed behind them. In the darkness, candle flames flickered to life one by one, illuminating dozens of folding screens arranged in a circle around the center of the room.
"So this is the child who is the vessel for the Special Grade curse."
"Gojo Satoru! Why didn't you bring her here sealed!?"
"Yuta Okkotsu was already the greatest leniency the Jujutsu Headquarters has shown you! Now you bring back another ticking time bomb! What exactly is the authority of the Jujutsu world in your eyes!?"
Before Amber could even react, a barrage of accusations came at them one after another. The merciless, scolding tone and the palpable malice directed at her made Amber feel intensely uncomfortable.
"Gojo Satoru! Why aren't you speaking! Why wasn't this individual executed!"
Facing the volley of questions, Gojo... smiled. But it wasn't the warm, casual smile he showed Amber. It was an utterly cold and detached one.
"Putting aside everything else... if the curse inside this kid were to suddenly emerge, provoked by all of you... I really can't guarantee the safety of this entire Jujutsu Headquarters building~"
--+--
T/N: While I am an inexperienced Translator, I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.