The Night Parade of a Hundred Demons Ends

Shen Yuanyi had never felt so good. When he closed his eyes, his thoughts broke free from the shackles of time, casting aside everything outside as he began to seek the true essence of the Reverse Cursed Technique.

He "saw" the answer to it all, like a winding river suddenly breaking through an earthen embankment, its trickling streams converging in one direction to become a great river.

"I'm beginning to understand it all."

Reverse Cursed Technique!

The discomfort in Shen Yuanyi's mind vanished in an instant. The fusion and conversion of Cursed Energy flowed with incomparable smoothness. Without even using Cursed Technique Reversal to reverse anything, the burns on Shen Yuanyi's body began healing rapidly. Within a few breaths, there was no visible sign that anything had been wrong.

Shuten Doji's barely restrained delight had turned into shock and fury. This feeling... and the seemingly inexhaustible Cursed Energy within him—how was that possible?

Gritting her teeth, she pulled the spiked iron club from the ground. The blood flames wrapped around it were the embodiment of her rage. Her roaring swing compressed the air that had no time to flee and smashed it toward Shen Yuanyi. Yet just as that overwhelmingly fierce attack was about to land on him, it abruptly vanished without a trace.

Shuten Doji stared at her empty hand, then at the spiked club still embedded in the ground. Her blood-red pupils seemed to tremble. This feeling... the Cursed Energy she had just expended had returned to its full state as well. He had truly... completely mastered the Reverse Cursed Technique.

Shuten Doji's expression gradually calmed. She pulled Dojigiri from her oni body once more. Then, a flicker of black-red flame rose from her body and crawled up the hand gripping the hilt, seemingly slow but actually swift, before swallowing the entire blade of Dojigiri.

"Remember this, Jujutsu Sorcerer. My name is Shuten Doji, King of a Hundred Demons of Mount Oe!"

After shouting those words, Shuten Doji's body visibly shriveled beneath the black-red torrent of flames. Only Dojigiri, its form obscured within the fire, gradually began to emanate a terrifying aura.

Shen Yuanyi calmly poured Cursed Energy into Onikiri and Kumo-kiri in his hands until they reached the limit of what the two Cursed Tools could contain. Yet his own Cursed Energy did not diminish in the slightest. Without the burden on his brain caused by overusing his technique, Shen Yuanyi had finally achieved effortless use of Cursed Technique Reversal.

Especially when enhancing himself, his control had reached an incredibly fine level. For instance, by reversing Cursed Energy alone, Shen Yuanyi could even expend all his Cursed Energy at once. Of course, there was still a limit to his total output.

Once his Cursed Energy ran low, Shen Yuanyi could use Cursed Technique Reversal to restore it from near depletion back to full. In other words, the cost of Cursed Technique Reversal had become almost nonexistent. This allowed him to do even more unbelievable things.

For example, he could have completely ignored Shuten Doji's attack just now and allowed her club to crush his body into pulp. In the next instant, however, Shen Yuanyi's Cursed Technique Reversal would have restored his flesh to its original state.

But just thinking about it made it obvious that it would hurt like hell, so Shen Yuanyi chose to reverse Shuten Doji's condition instead. It was somewhat difficult, but to Shen Yuanyi now, as long as it worked, it was no different from being effortless.

Shuten Doji's struggle now seemed utterly harmless in Shen Yuanyi's eyes. He was even considering how to deal with her. Whatever. I'll reverse it first and see whether this Dojigiri can cut off her head.

Shuten Doji swung her blade with all her strength. Then, in the despair she had expected, her body returned to its full state. The flames on Dojigiri vanished as well, revealing a blade like a pool of autumn water.

Wheel of Time: Spin

Dual-blade wheel slash. When the first Black Flash finally appeared, Shen Yuanyi curled his lips into a smile. Here it comes!

One Black Flash, Cursed Technique Reversal! Two consecutive Black Flashes, reverse, repeat and repeat again. Black light appeared one after another until... five consecutive Black Flashes!

Five streaks of black blade light sliced the entire scene into fragments. Shuten Doji looked at the three arms that had fallen to the ground. Her sole remaining hand reached toward her exposed organs, and only then did the blood flowing over them begin to drip.

Dojigiri was already in the boy's hand. He wore a thoughtful expression as well. Did he realize it? With his technique, I no longer even have the right to use this body as leverage against him... Have I reached the end of the road?

Shen Yuanyi's expression was unreadable as he held Dojigiri. When he gathered all three Cursed Blades, a piece of information naturally passed into his mind. He understood it directly: the techniques of these three blades were incomplete. While each had its own effects, only by wielding all three at once could their full power be unleashed.

The ultimate effect was easy to understand as well. Once the user injured an enemy with all three blades, they could leave a technique mark on that enemy. The greater the damage inflicted, the greater the true damage caused when that mark was detonated.

Yes, true damage. Based on Shen Yuanyi's understanding, the damage unleashed by the explosion was a complete execution—not merely of the body, but of the soul as well.

"That's right. A Jujutsu Sorcerer as powerful as you once cut off my head. Such an injury was not easy for me to bear, but it was not fatal. Yet that execution directly shattered my soul as well."

Shen Yuanyi was slightly surprised when Shuten Doji suddenly spoke. Was she no longer planning to resist? He had originally intended to cripple her first, then have Gen Naine see if she could kill Shuten Doji's soul while leaving the body behind. If that failed, he could only ask Gojo-sensei for help.

He could reverse Gen Naine's soul because of her technique. That did not mean Shen Yuanyi could directly observe and affect souls alone. So, if he wanted to kill Shuten Doji while saving Gen Naine's body, he had to find a way to deal with souls.

As for the body, there was no need to worry too much. In Shuten Doji's current state, she could not even damage this body at all.

Shuten Doji lifted her spiked club. As though she did not know the meaning of surrender, she stirred up her Cursed Energy once more. Her towering body cast a shadow with its back to the light, and all five red-glowing eyes in the darkness fixed on Shen Yuanyi. "I am the King of a Hundred Demons. I do not believe in this so-called destiny!"

"What a load of nonsense."

Shen Yuanyi frowned and activated his technique. Holding Onikiri and Dojigiri, with Kumo-kiri hanging at his waist, he arrived before Shuten Doji in an instant. Dojigiri cleaved through her body, then Onikiri severed bone and flesh. Shen Yuanyi released the hilt and excluded Dojigiri from his technique's effect.

The blade buried in Shuten Doji's oni body remained suspended in midair. With one hand free, Shen Yuanyi drew Kumo-kiri from his waist and carved through the exposed flesh. Then he repeated the same maneuver, releasing Onikiri and grasping Dojigiri.

The three blades crossed and fell again and again. When Shen Yuanyi finally released his technique, the immobilized Shuten Doji was overwhelmed by wave after wave of agonizing pain. Her hideous oni body had been torn beyond recognition. The oni hand that had only just begun to regrow was severed at the root once more. Four of the five oni horns on her head had broken off, while deep blade marks that reached the bone split apart four of her eyes.

Shen Yuanyi discovered that he could indeed sense a mark on Shuten Doji under his control. With a thought, he detonated it. Then he saw a blurry phantom rise from Shuten Doji's body. It wore decayed armor and held a broken blade. Its face seemed covered by a Demon Mask, or perhaps that was simply its face.

As the phantom swung its blade down, an invisible slash instantly left crisscrossing "lines" across Shuten Doji's body. Then the light in her remaining eye gradually faded away.

When the surroundings returned to a city beneath the night sky instead of the savage oni realm of the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons, Shen Yuanyi knew that Shuten Doji had been successfully exorcised. He stepped forward and used the Reverse Cursed Technique to try treating the body, which was gradually returning to a normal human appearance. Fortunately, after some treatment, the wounds that were clearly fatal had mostly closed.

Shuten Doji had been successfully exorcised!

With the King of a Hundred Demons' domain shattered, many of the Cursed Spirits she had transformed still remained. Having little ability to think, they roared in release before preparing to begin slaughtering.

The moment Shen Yuanyi noticed this, he resolved everything. Every Cursed Spirit standing on the street split open along a bloody line at the same time. Then, due to their differing points of balance, their bodies slid apart in different directions and scattered across the ground in pieces.

Nanami Kento, who had been waiting outside the domain's range, suddenly saw the abnormal sight disappear. Then the rampaging Cursed Spirits fell to the ground and became scattered "parts" in the span of a breath. Shen Yuanyi appeared before him carrying Gen Naine's body and handed it over.

"I'll check on the situation elsewhere. Nanami-senpai, please take Gen Naine's body to Shoko first."

Nanami Kento received Gen Naine's body and nodded. "Understood. You—"

Before he could finish, Shen Yuanyi vanished. When Shen Yuanyi arrived where Gojo Satoru was, he did not see the foreign Jujutsu Sorcerer who had been fighting Gojo Satoru earlier. Almost the instant Shen Yuanyi appeared, Gojo Satoru looked over. "Genichi? I saw the Domain Expansion over there disappear. Did you already exorcise that Cursed Spirit?"

When Shen Yuanyi nodded, Gojo Satoru reached for him as he spoke. "We'll discuss this later. Let's return to Jujutsu High first. Okkotsu may be in danger."

Then Shen Yuanyi experienced the sensation of long-distance "teleportation" for the first time in a while. When he reappeared, they were already above Jujutsu High. The abrupt shift of scenery gave Shen Yuanyi a strange thought. Perhaps this is what my technique looks like to everyone else—skipping the process and showing only the result.

Gojo Satoru looked at the lingering traces of the barrier, then down at the shattered ruins strewn across the ground. His eyes shifted slightly. One hand grasping Shen Yuanyi's shoulder, Gojo Satoru and Shen Yuanyi vanished as though scattered by the wind.

As Shen Yuanyi's vision blurred, he felt solid ground beneath his feet. But all his attention was drawn to Panda, Maki, and Inumaki Toge lying on the floor.

"Genichi, the three of them are fine. Take them and find Okkotsu first. I have something to deal with."

Gojo Satoru vanished again. Shen Yuanyi stepped forward to check on the three of them. They had suffered some injuries, but nothing serious for Jujutsu Sorcerers. It seemed Okkotsu had already treated them with the Reverse Cursed Technique. Panda was a Cursed Corpse, so he did not need the Reverse Cursed Technique either. At Shen Yuanyi's calls, the three quickly woke up.

The moment Maki awoke and saw Shen Yuanyi, she grabbed his arm. "Where's Okkotsu? That Curse User, Geto Suguru, he—"

Seeing that Maki had even lost her glasses and that her tied Ponytail had fallen loose over her shoulders, Shen Yuanyi reassured her, "Don't worry. Gojo-sensei came back with me, and he's already gone to handle it. Besides—"

He pointed toward the ruined grounds ahead, which looked as though some natural disaster had struck them, and smiled. "Besides, it looks like Okkotsu defeated the enemy himself first."

The awakened Inumaki Toge stared blankly at the scene ahead as well. Panda let out an amazed "Ohhh!" Shen Yuanyi then stood. "Come on. Let's find him first."