Foreshadow

"Hey everyone! How are you guys? Oh, I didn't notice that... Guys, fighting isn't good. We should shake hands and be friends since we are comrades." The new voice calls out.

Arthropleura turns its body and sees the man with a gentle expression and black coat. He had a friendly smiles which seemed very inviting, but on his sleeve were the words, General of Luck!

I was in total disbelief that four of the Empty Generals of the Fujiwara Clan were here! I can't believe I'm still using Arthropleura to spy on them. Have I gone mad?

"Shit... Dadros. We're buddies who shared many adventures together, so can you help me beat up those two? I know you can do it." The girl with blue braids asked the General who arrived.

With a sigh of sadness, he answered, "Livia, as much as I would want to help you, I came because of a mission we received. This fight must stop now before it escalates.

Both the bald and tattoo General started whispering to each other when they heard there was a mission.

"Aw, come on. Pretty pleaseee~" Her face became very puppy-like with big eyes.

He shook his head slowly in denial.

The General with blue braids looked frustrated with that.

"Tch, useless. The old man actually gave someone other than those two bitches something to do? What's the mission?"

"It's about Li Wei Jie's mission with the Heavenly Twins of Harmony; more specifically, I am talking about the Yue Clan's current successors. We all know that Li Wei Jie is helping the Tang in dealing with their clan, but he has gone missing without reporting at all for one month."

Everyone widened their eyes at this.

I couldn't understand why. Was it really that big of a deal? I have gone a whole year without reporting my whereabouts and no one made a sound when I returned... Oh, wait...

I decide to ignore my thoughts and recall my shikigami before I learn any valuable secrets that would make me deserving of death. I can only assume that they were giving mercy since I wasn't important.

Just like how my 'comrades' didn't think I was important enough to welcome back after a year-long mission.

Even a welcoming party would have been enough, dammit!

...

...

???

"Chimera Shadow Garden!" My hands form Fushiguro's bhaisajyaguru hand sign and I focus all my output of cursed energy on projecting my shadows.

In the small room, my personal shadows morphs and expands, but stops at a certain point. My shadow couldn't stretch beyond a certain range.

This sucked. Without being able to cover a barrier's worth of distance, I couldn't create a domain.

"What a failure. Even if I put in work studying, I can't expand my knowledge without a true teacher. My thoughts are still limited by my human thinking capacity. If I want to grow past this point, I need to find some sort of enlightenment."

I jump up in the air and recount that two months has passed since I stayed with this Nakatomi Clan. I've learned most of the basics surrounding barriers and strengthening. All I needed was to apply them in advanced forms.

+ 999 Faith

[Cult: Yama's Court, Level: 2, Marks: 1, Followers: 999, Faith: 983445]

Well, well, well... I almost forgot about you. Maybe I should make #1000 special... Yeah, that sounds like a plan.

I stand up and leave the room, walking into the hallway. I saw a room which I was very familiar with and knocked.

But I didn't even wait for an answer and just walked inside without worry.

I heard a familiar chuckle of the woman I was visiting. She had blonde hair and a figure which can make any man want to simp.

"Gabimaru-sama came to visit this old lady once more? Please make yourself comfortable."

Sitting down, I ask, "Narumi, it's always nice to see a beauty like yourself. But I came here for something quick. Think of it like wanting to lose your virginity to someone unique."

"V-Virginity? I'm not sure if I am ready for such a lar-..." Before she finished talking, I leaned in and kissed her.

In my mind I transferred the mark of obedience through my tongue and smiled. A sensation was spreading around in my body.

My brain itself was trembling...

"Hehehehe!"

Once more, I felt a familiar surge of information and power run through my body.

I stepped back and waiting for the moment to stop, which didn't take long.

[Cult: Yama's Court, Level: 3, Marks: 0, Followers: 1000, Faith: 983445]

"Woohooo~! I did it, baby! Milfs for the win! Screw consequences, life is too short! Wait, I'm a curse now. I should calm down."

Throughout my body, I felt energy coursing in my veins. If I were to guess my power-level, it would be on the brink of Special Grade Cursed Spirit. This was the benefit of 'cultivation' using the cult. But the bonus wasn't just from nowhere, but instead because of the huge increase in loyalty and emotions.

Level 3 was all about loyalty and a stronger connections to my Followers. I can categorize the benefits in four ways.

Followers have a stronger loyalty and need a very strong mentality to remove the Faith Mark.

I can now give far more complicated orders using the Faith Order.

More loyal Followers can have their general location revealed. More loyalty = easier to sense presence.

Each Follower can give Faith between 1-10 based on true loyalty. That number changes based on the current loyalty.

While this was great, the cost of each Faith Mark did rise from 10 to 100. This meant the price was 10x, but I still think it's worth it, considering the benefits of everything else.

Of course a balance for increasing the price meant that the Marks were much harder to remove. This also led to Faith Orders going from 5 Faith to 10 Faith. It wasn't that big of a deal considering the potential actions I can force them to follow.

One problem I did face now was reaching the next level. I needed 10000 for level 4. This was a nightmare considering my future requirements. It seemed that each level was a 10x multiple for the Follower requirement, but this is where I faced a wall.

Japan's current population is only 4% of its modern population in the 21st century! The problem was that even if I marked every single person alive, I would start to run out of people to convert in this country after level 7!

This meant I had to start exploring other countries whether I wanted it or not.

"Does this mean I should start my journey? I hate not having air travel invented yet. This sucks. Wait!"

My shadow flickered as I looked back at Narumi. Her face was blank, so I slapped it.

Nothing happened and I couldn't figure out why, so I decided to be responsible and leave the room.

"Best to leave the problem for others to solve for me." With that said, I left the room with a grin.

...

Inside my mind, I focused my senses and felt a dozen sparks in different directions.

These were the Followers who had a loyalty above 1. I couldn't sense all of their general locations yet, but there one spark which stood out. It had a higher loyalty than Gorudo and Narumi who were in the same building as me.

It was turquoise spark which had a feeling of familiarity and was located just outside the garden. I decided to play a little prank and test out my new functions using an order.

- 10 Faith

"Take off all your clothes and bark like a dog for one hour. Make sure to slap your ass every time you blink." I send a message to the spark.

- 100 Faith

This time, I gave an order in my head to a squad of Followers, "Travel to Yangzhou and make sure to arrive within one month. Also, pray daily to me on the journey."

With that, I can use them as a sacrifice and teleport to China without doing the journey myself. And with multiple Followers, there was a low chance of failure. Shit... Low chances have always screwed me over. I'm cursed with bad luck.

I should make sure that my Followers make it. Failure isn't an option based on the fortune I received.

Instead of Yangzhou, I'll send them to a place where it's easy to hide.

- 200 Faith

"Make sure to arrive in Suzhou within a month. Offer prayers daily." I send a message to the spark.

That should be enough. For now, I should continue experimenting with my techniques.

Speaking of, I might as well try again.

I open the door to my room and sit down in the middle of it. The pillow has been indented due to the amount of attempts I tried.

But still, I feel most confident right now that it will work.

I'll create a simple barrier.

...

First, I channel a sliver of cursed energy through a hand sign and created a field around my body. It is the parameters of my domain. Right now, it is just a blank canvas in the shape of a 10m by 10m sphere.

The shell is like an egg which can crack from outside pressure, but inside it is firm and hard to escape.

Now, I trace my shadow using cursed energy and feel the core of my inherited technique, the Ten Shadows. Slowly, I feel the edges and trace my energy along it.

My shadow from underneath swirls beneath me into unregonizable shapes. Within it are the ten shikigami I have tamed and the pit of darkness they live inside of.

I force myself to visualize that pit of darkness and try to materialize it.

Then, I pour my cursed energy with intensity and don't stop.

The previous feeling of strength leaves my body, but excitement replaces it.

...

I fold my hands together and start smiling, "Is this it?"

My cursed energy is repeatedly sucked into the darkness, but I continue with the chanting.

"Domain..... Expansion......" Sweat pours down my face as I bite my lip. This would be the most I've ever released at once.

My body feels strained from preparing a technique using large output. But for some reason, something started to materialize inside my mind. This made me nostalgic of my cursed energy awakening.

It was a familiar shape which helped me overcome crisis.

A small fig tree.

I focused on it and kept circulating energy around my body.

"Domain Expansion:" This time, I clench my hands together and think about each of my shikigami.

Despite not seeing anything with my eyes, I could sense everything in the area.

Tendrils expand from beneath my body and fly in the air. They merge with the barrier and reverberate.

My eyelids open and my eyes strain. My concentration is at full and everything around me spreads into darkness.

All around me, black lightning was flashing.

The tree was gone, but a green leaf appeared between my eyes.

As I stared at it, I focused everything outwards. The leaf turned black and fell to the ground.

My own perfect ratio was born...

"Chimera Shadow Garden!!"

Ink burst everywhere.

All around me a black mud forms, taking the form of a black room.

The area becomes more solid. Within it is the Ten Shadows which sprang up from the pool of black liquid. A bird and elephant lifted their heads up and fell back into the darkness.

"Hahaha! Rise up! This is so freakin' cool!" Small waves of liquid-like shadows surround my shikigami.

Within this, I created a copy of myself made of shadows and fell into the pool of shadows without harm. It was like a swimming pool which I could control, but it contained my shadows!

I stuck my hand into the small black waves near the ground and felt it become one with the shadows.

...

This was an amazing trump card! The space itself was like an extension of my body. It truly represented my power in a physical area.

However, I felt my energy reserves plummeting. Every few seconds I felt a chunk of my reserves disappear. In order to stop myself from reaching zero, I retracted my shadows and saw cracks appear around the black sphere.

It didn't take long before it shattered into pieces and revealed the same room as before, except the pillow disappeared when it was swallowed into my shadow inventory.

I was about to empty it, but felt a stress of nerves fire in my brain. It felt very uncomfortable, and I quickly realized why.

After using a domain, a user will have their innate technique become unstable. It was similar to when I touched Void Fabric and Black Rope. My technique was unusable for about 5-10 minutes. This could lead to death, since even one second can give Sukuna time to kill you. Not only that, but I needed to recharge my energy.

Well, creating a domain itself is already very impressive even using my advantage in meta knowledge. Maybe it's too ambitious to compare myself to Sukuna right now. I will always be able to polish my technique to his level somehow. Probably.

"Ah, whatever. I want to celebrate!" I say to myself.

Reaching level 3 and creating a completed Domain Expansion was something worth spending years training for. Now that I've reached this step, it really seemed like it was time to find an alternative method to get stronger.

And that way... resided in the home of the Tang Dynasty.