GxG 20
"Oi lad, you can't go in there." An aged voice called out behind me.
I was currently standing at the boundary of the weakest cursed area.
The yokai Formation masters had managed to mostly contain the curse, but it wasn't a perfect solution. The limit of their formations was to slow the expansion, but they weren't able to clear it at all.
Looking at it, it was actually a fascinating bit of formation work. They go in a totally different direction than I did for energy control, but that could just be because this is for land curses specifically, and not normal natural energy.
"This is the old Shiki Estate, right?" I paused my formation examination to reply to the older shisa yokai. He had a distinctly lion head, as opposed to some of the more human looking yokai I've seen so far.
"Yeah, and it's my job to make sure nobody does anything stupid." He gruffly explained.
"Does that happen a lot?" I curiously asked. Surely nobody would be dumb enough to enter this place. I still have the formation barrier between me and the curse and it is still horrid.
"Usually kids who don't know any better, or teenagers who think they know better. On occasion we also get a moron who thinks they can use the curse too, they are the real problems." He explained. From the way he was looking at me, I could tell he was slotting me into the second or third category.
"Ah, well you don't have to worry about me. I'm here on Yasaka's orders to deal with this." I said as I passed over an ornate looking token.
The older man took the token out of my hand to inspect it. As he did his posture slowly began to slowly shift from 'lazy guardsman' to 'serious situation'.
"I have no idea what you did to get a top level clearance token like this, but you would have to be a Sage or something to help fix this mess. We have been trying to petition Senior Wukong or some of those other recluses for help, but they have never responded." He said as he looked straight in my eyes, passing the token back.
"What is your name, boy?" he grunted. I couldn't tell if he was being rude because he thought I was a young master causing trouble with a token, or if this was just how he was.
"My name is Nathan, sir." I politely responded. He was just doing his job and he wasn't being belligerent or anything. No reason to not be polite.
"My name is Shisachi. If you yell I'm coming in there to drag you out. I'm strong enough to last at least that long in this damn cursed place." He nodded while flaring his Mid-Class Ki, but it felt oddly defensive. His nature as a shisa yokai perhaps?
I should really look into how racial traits affect Ki. First Yasaka and Kunou with their sun-like Ki, and now this.
"Thank you for the offer, sir." I gave him a little bow. Turns out he is a big softy, just old and cranky.
"Hn, get to whatever you are going to do." He waved me off. "Faster you are done, the faster I can get back to my post."
And with that, I steadied myself and stepped across the boundary.
With my Lifeforce Sense I could feel myself stepping through a bubble of flowing natural energy.
I thought I knew what to expect, but getting a face full of cursed natural energy was not fun. Thankfully, as a Sage I was very good at not absorbing ambient natural energy too. It was just an inversion of how I normally pull in natural energy to purify it.
Walking a bit deeper, I saw the manor that was at the center of this cursed area. Based on the notes I was given, and the odd bloodstains, this curse was born from a tragedy befalling the residents who used to live here.
Standard blood feud combined with potent supernatural phenomena caused a land curse to form here, and it grew too large before they noticed it. They had to seal off the estate, the surrounding land, and due to the curse growing over the decades, a bit of the street leading into the area.
It has been a massive inconvenience, just the loss of that bit of road has clogged up lots of the commuting in this area.
Finally nearing the actual manor itself, I spotted a gazebo that was not covered in something nasty, so I decided that was where I was going to start.
Making my way over there, dusting a place to sit, I got into a meditative position and began to really feel what I was working with.
The first thing I noticed was how wrong it felt. Even someone not sensitive to natural energy would develop mental health issues by being exposed to this land for too long.
The second thing I noticed was the natural energy itself. It was like someone took normal natural energy, made it even angrier, and then covered it in gunk that spread that anger.
I could distinctly tell which parts were the natural energy, and which parts were the curse, but I needed to purify it all in the end so the distinction did not really matter.
While I was preparing myself I let out a chuckle.
This felt just like when I first stepped onto the Path of Nature, all over again.
Cautiously bringing a wisp towards myself, it was time to find out what I was working with.
Absorbing the wisp, I began the process of purifying it as normally, and instantly felt the difference.
The cursed natural energy was heavier. More potent?
I would have to be careful, if I treated it like normal natural energy I could over-purify and seriously hurt myself.
It was odd to watch. I first had to remove the curse from the natural energy, and then purify the remaining natural energy as usual.
The interesting part was the curse, once removed, almost instantly unraveled into more natural energy to purify. That explains why it felt so energy dense.
Does that mean land curses are just natural energy prions?
That is a concerning thought.
Shaking my head, I focused back on the purification.
I slowly ramped up my purification speed to just under half my usual speed, and I could tell it was my limit.
The extra negativity from the curse combined with the doubled natural energy was seriously straining me, mentally and physically.
Thankfully Sage had been putting in serious work since I got it, both flatly increasing the amount of natural energy I could deal with and also figuring new ways to purify that natural energy, making the whole process more efficient.
I sat in mediation for almost an hour, poking and prodding different ways to purify the cursed natural energy before I felt myself reaching my limits.
Taking a moment to stretch, I sank back into meditation to review my gains.
Internally, these cursed lands are much better tonic than normal natural energy purification. It's still a small sliver of my overall Ki reserves, but it's still larger than if I tapped myself out on normal natural energy.
Maybe resisting the extra negativity had more benefits than I first thought? Something to look into later.
Externally, there were mixed results.
My immediate area was almost pure natural energy, but I could sense the edges already begin to diffuse into the cursed natural energy.
Thankfully I don't have to worry about the curse spreading and undoing my work, as land curses like this work on a timescale of years.
Even inside the formation barrier, not all of the natural energy was cursed, and from what I can see the purified natural energy doesn't seem too keen on mixing.
It will still all mix together over time, but I think the purified natural energy will be more resistant to turning back into its cursed form.
Making my way back to the entrance, I saw Shisachi still waiting and looking anxious. He lit up when he saw me unharmed.
"Hey lad! I was getting worried, you were taking so long." He called out as I stepped out of the barrier.
"Thanks for waiting, but I am ok. I was even partially successful!" I beamed out, and he just looked confused for a moment, before turning to focus on where I had just come from.
His brow slowly furrowed as he turned back to me.
"How come it ain't feel as cursed now?" He whispered, mostly to himself. His eyes grew wide as he looked at me, connecting the dots.
"You- you ain't really a Sage, are you boy?" He asked, half in reverence for Sages and half in horror for how causally he's been treating me.
"Or something." I replied cheekily. That caused him to instantly snap to full attention.
"I'm sorry for not recognizing you sooner, Elder. Do you need anything from me?" He asked.
Yasaka wasn't kidding about how the yokai feel about Sages.
"Nah, don't worry about it. If you could though, could you keep this on the down low for now? It's my first time purifying something like this and it would be embarrassing to have performance issues in front of a crowd." I joked, but I was serious about not wanting a big crowd watching me work.
That seems like it would be a pain, but from what I've been told it's going to happen whether I like it or not. All I can do is hopefully slow it down.
Shisachi chuckled before realizing what he was doing and snapping back to attention.
"Of course. Will you be coming back, Elder?" He asked in excitement.
"Yeah, now that I have a feel for what I'm doing I think it will take me about a week to clear this place out?" I asked, mostly to myself.
Most of today was experimentation, but if I focused on purifying as much as I can I think a week sounds about right.
"Of course, Elder. I'll be waiting right here so nobody disturbs you while you work." He said cheerfully.
"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow, bye." I said as I walked away.
[LINE BREAK]
The next week was a cycle of waking up, spending time with Hana, wandering over to the location and purifying a bit more, and going back to Yasaka's estate.
Shisachi kept his word and didn't tell anyone, but the Shiki Estate wasn't exactly hidden away and people noticed it becoming less cursed by the day.
People were curious as to what was happening and by the final day I had a small crowd watching the entrance as I finished scrubbing the curse from the area.
I took some time to triple check it was completely gone, even sensing down into the earth, but the area was clean.
I walked out to see the crowd standing further back than usual, with Yasaka and Kunou waiting for me.
"So?" Yasaka asked. The crowd went silent, bated breath for my answer.
I just gave them my biggest smile.
"It is 100 percent curse free in there."
The crowd exploded into cheers, only holding back from rushing by their respect for Yasaka.
Yasaka came over and we chatted for a bit, but the area was turning into an impromptu festival so we shelved our conversation so I could go spend time with Hana.
We walked around for a bit, Hana enjoying the atmosphere until she was tuckered out, while I spent most of my time receiving thanks for my efforts. Having Yasaka and Kunou there kept the most extreme reactions to a minimum, but they wouldn't always be with me.
By the time we all went home, every yokai knew there was a new Sage, one that was young and allied with the yokai.
[LINE BREAK]
Yasaka and I were in her office the next day, discussing our plans moving forward now that I was publicly known as a Sage.
Hana and Kunou were out spending time together again.
I gave her my verbal report about my experience with cleaning the land curse, which she factored into her plans to deal with some of the nastier curses.
The ones that were made on purpose, or some of the leftovers from when Tamamo was running around slinging pure negativity everywhere in her madness.
We were mid sentence when I felt something odd roll over my senses, which caused Yasaka to tense up in a way I hadn't seen before.
"What was that?" I asked, tensing up to follow her wherever she went.
"We are under attack. That was a barrier. A spatial one I think, it's covering the garden and it's not one of ours." She grit out, already running to the doors.
Shit.
I made a pulse to check where Hana's amulet was, and all I got back was a scattered feeling from towards the barrier.
This was already a worst case scenario.