The Daring Kashimo Hajime

A faint metallic scrape rang out, and a katana with a black cord wrapped around its hilt appeared in his palm.

The hilt was the most ordinary matte steel, without a single Cursed Mark or unusual sheen. Even its scabbard was nothing more than plain black wood.

Chen Tian hung the Enma Sword at his waist. The blade trembled twice against his black clothes, then stayed perfectly still, as if it had grown there. He raised a hand to the new sword's hilt and lightly tapped the plain wooden scabbard with his knuckle.

"Shing—"

The blade had barely emerged half an inch from its scabbard when an invisible weight slammed into the ground!

It wasn't a torrent of Cursed Energy. It was more like gravity collapsing as heaven and earth overturned, a force with the sharp bite of scraping metal that crushed its way across the entire Port of Dongjin.

Jogo's back slapped against the rooftop with a smack. Cold sweat instantly soaked through his tattered robe.

This power was utterly unfamiliar—there was none of the sickly sweetness of Cursed Energy, only a pure, unwavering resolve to grind all existence to dust. It was even more suffocating than the deathly stillness of the Enma Sword.

Amid the ruins of Tokyo, a Jujutsu Sorcerer hiding behind a shipping container suddenly dropped to his knees with a thud, pressing both hands against the ground to keep from collapsing;

A Special Grade Cursed Spirit in a shadowy corner let out a pained whimper, its body curling slightly under the pressure;

The Culling Game players turned deathly pale. Some gritted their teeth and tried to stand straight, but their knees trembled uncontrollably. Cursed Energy rampaged inside them, to no avail.

"What... what is this?" Jogo's voice shook like a candle in the wind. The flesh he had just grown began to decay again.

Chen Tian didn't stop gripping the hilt. He continued to draw the blade slowly.

The silver blade reflected his lowered eyes. The pressure extended along with it, like a giant net tightening around them.

Kashimo Hajime was racing over on a surge of lightning, but he suddenly stopped halfway. Lightning crackled in his palm, yet his feet seemed nailed to the ground.

"Thump, thump, thump—"

Someone's heartbeat echoed through the empty ruins—or perhaps countless hearts were being forced to beat in unison by this power.

Chen Tian looked at Ryobatsu's fear-stricken face, and the corner of his mouth curled into a cold smile.

The feeling of having his prey at his mercy eased the tension in his fingertips a little. It was like a cat taking its time watching a mouse struggle before pouncing.

"Shing—clang!"

The last half-inch of the blade slid free, and the pressure in the air suddenly surged!

The entire sword was finally exposed to the daylight. It didn't gleam with the cold light he might have expected; instead, it looked so battered it could have been picked out of a garbage heap.

Crimson patterns covered the blade like dried blood, yet a faint, scorching sheen shimmered beneath them.

Ryobatsu's pupils contracted. He almost forgot to breathe.

That was it? How could this battered sword give off that kind of pressure?

Chen Tian paid no attention to his shock. He turned the hilt around, pointed the tip toward the ground, and raised it to his lips.

"Ryujin Jakka," he said in a low voice, as if speaking to an old friend. "If he makes a move, burn him to death."

As soon as the words left his mouth, he snapped his wrist!

"Thwack—!"

The crimson blade plunged down with a sharp whistle, piercing Ryobatsu's chest with perfect precision. The hilt struck the rooftop with a thunk, pinning him firmly in place!

Ryobatsu tried to activate Reverse Cursed Technique, but his Cursed Energy immediately scattered. Before he could even feel the pain, a savage heat surged up the blade and burst out from it.

The crimson patterns suddenly lit up like red-hot brands pressed against his insides. He couldn't even scream; all he could do was gape and wheeze.

The blade quivered faintly, as if answering Chen Tian's command. A pale-red heat shimmer seeped from the crimson patterns, forming a translucent ring of fire around Ryobatsu.

Chen Tian dusted off his hands, though there wasn't a speck of dust on them, and turned toward the edge of the rooftop.

Pinned to the ground, Ryobatsu suddenly realized that the sword had sealed his Cursed Energy. Forget speaking—he could barely move a finger without feeling as though his tendons would be severed.

"Ryobatsu, aren't you proud of the Culling Game you spent a thousand years setting up?"

Chen Tian stood with his back to him at the edge of the rooftop, his black clothes snapping in the wind high above the ground.

He turned his face slightly. Beneath his white hair, his gaze was as cold as ice. "I'll show you that all your schemes are insignificant in the face of true power."

Before the words had even faded, his figure had already thinned into a gray shadow, like smoke swept away by the wind, and vanished from the rooftop.

Ryobatsu's eyes darted frantically, fixed on the spot where Chen Tian had disappeared. An opportunity!

He was just about to marshal his Cursed Energy and attack the blade when Ryujin Jakka, embedded in his chest, suddenly vibrated with a hum!

"Gyaaaah—!"

Ryobatsu arched violently, and his shrill scream ripped through his throat.

The crimson patterns on the blade blazed bright, as if magma were pouring along the steel and into his veins. Invisible flames instantly engulfed his organs, and even his soul felt as though it had been thrown into a furnace!

His whole body convulsed as he crashed back onto the rooftop. The veins bulged on his forehead, but he didn't even have the strength to use Reverse Cursed Technique to heal himself.

The flames seemed alive. The moment he thought of escaping, they would flare up, making even the act of thinking an agony.

Ryobatsu lay on the ground, his gaze drifting uncontrollably toward the sky.

The blue-white sword marks on the barrier hadn't yet faded. They looked like rows of unhealed wounds across the gloomy sky. Chen Tian's words suddenly came back to him, and it felt as though that fiery blade had pierced his heart all over again—

True power?

Could all his schemes spanning a thousand years really come to ruin at the hands of a monster like this?

Atop the ruins in the distance, lightning flickered uneasily around Kashimo Hajime, crackling in the air.

He stared at the figure writhing in agony amid the invisible flames on the rooftop. A chill unlike anything he had ever felt smothered his frenzied fighting spirit.

The battered blade embedded in Ryobatsu gave off an aura that made every instinct in Kashimo's body scream—

Untouchable! Unopposable! It was a power that could burn everything to ash!

The searing agony tore at every inch of Ryobatsu's nerves. Even Reverse Cursed Technique had become nothing more than useless struggling.

Ryobatsu's body lay atop the molten ground. The flesh his limbs had regenerated was already still, no longer twitching. He stared blankly at the sky, the depths of his consciousness turning over fragments of memories from a thousand years ago—

Wearing different faces, he had manipulated events from behind the scenes;

He had toyed with the Curse world, setting countless pawns against one another in the game he designed, watching them fall;

He had woven his web with care, and even a defiant being like Ryomen Sukuna had once been slated to play a part in his grand plan...

A thousand years of effort, a flawless scheme, everything under his control!

And yet now, he was pinned to the scorching ground by a battered sword that smelled like scrap metal from a barbecue stall, like some piece of garbage casually thrown away.

The confidence he had built over a thousand years was smashed to pieces like a clay pot by two swords casually drawn by a "star"!

A hoarse, grating sound of self-mockery squeezed from his throat, tainted with blood and the stench of despair.

Just as the last echo of that bitter laugh was fading—

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh—!!!

High above, the blue-white sword marks crisscrossing the entire Culling Game barrier suddenly blazed with a piercing light that tore through the gloom!

The light burst forth like countless laser beams, illuminating the ruins of the entire Port of Dongjin so brightly that no one could keep their eyes open!

Every crack flashed and hummed wildly. A razor-sharp sound, capable of piercing the soul, burst from within!

"Crack! Crack-crack—BOOM!!!!"

A terrifying roar, like pillars holding up heaven and earth being crushed apart by a furious force!

A shriek like billions of panes of glass shattering at once under a supersonic impact!

The vast barrier wall covering the sky let out a pained wail amid the frenzied flashes of countless streaks of light. Like a gigantic glass dome struck by a hammer, it abruptly shattered!

Countless enormous, irregular, translucent fragments of the barrier plummeted from above like meteors at the end of the world, trailing piercing shrieks as they tore through the air!

"N-no... impossible!!!"

Ryobatsu's bloodshot eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.

His bloodshot whites fixed on the sky wall crashing down. A dying beast's wheezing rattled in his throat, each word laced with a raw, bloody rasp. "Ten barriers at once...?! It's only been how long?!! How could it happen so fast!!!"

His last hope—his Culling Game core barrier network, which he had spent countless ages establishing as his ultimate trump card—hadn't lasted three minutes after a casual remark from his opponent. Now it was nothing but wreckage raining down from the sky!

Chapter 14: The Daring Kashimo Hajime ### On the rooftop, Ryujin Jakka's hilt trembled faintly as its crimson patterns flickered, its invisible heat holding Jogo fast. Chen Tian turned and took a step toward the edge of the rooftop.

His figure dispersed like smoke.

The next moment, cold and silence enveloped him. With no air to carry sound, the vast Blue Planet rotated soundlessly beneath his feet.

He was beyond the planet, in the cold, dark depths of outer space.

Chen Tian floated there, his black clothes like ink frozen against the backdrop of the stars.

The outline of Japan beneath him was clear in his eyes.

He had been here before. Ever since his body had transformed, he had known that the cold and suffocation of the vacuum could no longer threaten him.

He had even noticed the subtle differences between this country and the one in his memories—the wider landmass, the unfamiliar city outlines, and how the entire planet seemed to have grown larger.

But none of that mattered.

All he could see was the ominous barrier covering the whole of Japan: ten translucent barriers, the energy fortresses Ryobatsu had relied on.

His target: destroy them.

Chen Tian lowered his body slightly and shifted his center of gravity, as if his feet were planted on an invisible sheet of ice.

His right hand quietly settled on the hilt of the Enma Sword at his waist.

The scabbard was cold, its touch familiar.

His eyes narrowed, then opened again. Deep in his irises, a faint blue flame seemed to flicker and vanish!

He moved so fast that the vacuum could barely hold more than countless pale-blue afterimages, each one twisting space!

The movement of his arm and blade exceeded the limits of what the eye could follow!

The invisible intent of his blade didn't cut through the sky. Instead, it crossed space itself, striking with pinpoint precision at the ten core nodes of the vast barrier network below.

The Enma Sword slid precisely into its scabbard, its black hilt fitting snugly against the guard.

A crisp metallic click echoed strangely through Chen Tian's consciousness, clear even in the absolute silence of the vacuum!

It was like a key turning the engine of destruction.

Vrrrm—!!!

Ten precise points in the sky above Japan erupted simultaneously in dazzling blue-white bursts without warning!

Billions of blades' worth of pure cutting intent blossomed out of nowhere!

Crack! Crack-crack-crack—BOOM!!!

The enormous barrier covering the sky, along with its intricate support nodes, was as fragile as paper before the billions of sudden sword marks!

Like ten massive panes of colored glass struck by invisible hammers at once, they caved inward and shattered!

The ear-splitting crash didn't come from physical sound waves. It was the terrifying, soul-rending resonance produced by the barrier's destruction at the level of the world's laws!

The entire Neon Archipelago and the surrounding seas shook violently under the soundless impact of those laws!

The sky shattered!

Countless translucent fragments of the barrier, each as huge as a mountain, trailed dazzling streaks of energy as they crashed down toward the cities, wilderness, mountains, and seas below like fragments of stars from the apocalypse!

Explosions flashed one after another beneath the broken sky.

Chen Tian gazed coldly down at the barrier his sword light had dismembered, like a god observing the struggles of ants.

He gave one last glance at the space torn open by the sword marks, which resembled enormous scars. His gaze remained calm, as if he had merely swept away a patch of dust.

His figure quietly faded and vanished, blending into the vast darkness of the universe behind him.

Only the eternal silence of the vacuum remained, silently announcing the complete end of a thousand-year conspiracy.

On the rooftop, Ryoryohei's eyes strained so wide they looked ready to split. The extreme bulge of his eyeballs had caused tiny blood vessels to burst, and blood trickled down like tears.

"Impossible. Impossible," he kept muttering to himself.

"Whoosh." A figure appeared beside him—Kashimo Hajime.

He hadn't dared to come over at first. The blade embedded in Ryobatsu and the flames surrounding Ryobatsu had stirred an instinctive fear in him.

But who was he? Kashimo Hajime.