"Domain Expansion"

The partially manifested Divine Dog struck Ryu Ishigori in an instant, carving a bloody gash across his chest from his right waist to his left shoulder.

So fast?!

Its power was also more than ten times greater than before.

Faced with such a threat, Ryu Ishigori did not hesitate in the slightest. He immediately crossed his fingers and held his palms outward.

"Domain Expansion."

"Oh?"

A black barrier instantly spread out from around Ryu Ishigori, enveloping both him and Xuan within a sphere.

"Heaven-Piercing Myriad Colors."

Everything around them receded into darkness, and then—a street steeped in the atmosphere of Edo unfolded.

"Hollow Wicker Basket."

Xuan placed his middle finger over his index finger, and pale blue cursed energy expanded into a sphere around him.

Of course he could use Domain Expansion, but there was no point in holding back and then deploying one here.

A one-sided instant kill had no spectacle to it, nor any chance to enjoy himself.

He had grown somewhat weaker, after all—his current self could probably take a kick from his past self to the head and survive. Besides, even though he had read Jujutsu Kaisen, he had never seen Ryu Ishigori's Domain.

After the Domain was deployed, the positions of Ryu Ishigori and Xuan changed as well. The two, who had been standing on level ground, now faced each other from opposite sides of a roof beam.

"...Why aren't you deploying your Domain?"

Ryu Ishigori brought his hands together, then assumed a pose as though drawing a bow.

"My Domain... Heaven-Piercing Myriad Colors allows me to use objects within it as launch points for my cursed technique. With a specific hand gesture, I can fire them at my opponent like cruise missiles. If you don't deploy your Domain, do you think you can defeat me while maintaining Hollow Wicker Basket?"

"Who knows?"

"The strongest! Don't look down on me! Let me see it! Your Domain!"

Xuan maintained his hand seal with his left hand, sustaining the stabilized and improved Hollow Wicker Basket, while watching Ryu Ishigori charge up before him.

"If you want to see it, let me witness your cursed technique first."

Once he realized that the man before him had no intention of deploying a Domain, Ryu Ishigori immediately released the fingers loosely gripping the imaginary arrow. A condensed blast of cursed energy abruptly roared toward Xuan. With one stomp on the roof beam, Xuan shot over ten meters into the air in an instant.

Ryu Ishigori did not control the fired cursed energy blast to curve back toward Xuan. Instead, he raised his hand again.

Xuan could clearly sense Ryu Ishigori's cursed energy becoming stronger. His control and the speed at which he released cursed energy had also risen considerably.

The fingers holding the imaginary arrow loosened again. Xuan saw several white cursed energy blasts soar into the sky from the entrance of the bustling street like fireworks. They first exploded into several blooms of different colors in midair, then Ryu Ishigori controlled the scattered energy and sent it flying toward Xuan.

"Dog: Release."

Xuan immediately raised his hand in midair, sending a slash flying toward the incoming multicolored projectiles.

"Second shot!"

Bang!

That condensed cursed energy blast that had flown away earlier had indeed not been a casual probe.

A smile appeared on Xuan's face. He twisted in midair and kicked off fiercely with both feet. Black shadows, reinforced and fixed by cursed energy, became footholds in the air.

"Good!"

Xuan shot toward Ryu Ishigori like a cannonball. Ryu Ishigori raised his hand to block, and dozens of streaks of light slammed into both Xuan and Ryu Ishigori. Amid the exploding dust, Xuan fiercely struck toward Ryu Ishigori's chest.

Fine slashes burst across Ryu Ishigori's chest, drawing several bloody lines. Just as he tried to retreat, Xuan kicked him away, then held up his palm and sent another cross-shaped slash roaring toward him.

Screech! Boom!

Ryu Ishigori gritted his teeth. The gathered cursed energy protected his body from being severed outright by the slash, but its momentum still hurled him violently into the distance, his body smashing through the buildings inside the barrier.

"Granité Blast!"

Amid the shattered buildings and billowing dust, several Granité Blasts rose from all around the barrier and swept toward Xuan like missiles scouring the ground. Xuan formed a hand seal with one hand and slapped the ground with the other. Black shadows rose like a curtain, blocking every beam.

Xuan tore the curtain open with one pull. In Ryu Ishigori's shocked yet delighted gaze, Xuan appeared before him in an instant. The shadow he had torn down, fluttering through the air like cloth, wrapped around one of Xuan's arms. His fist, encased in hardened shadow, smashed toward Ryu Ishigori with a piercing gust.

Bang!

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Ryu Ishigori struggled to block Xuan's attacks. Slashes, shadows—they were just as the ancient texts described—but there was more.

Lightning, flight, snake shedding, something similar to the Kamo Clan's Piercing Blood... and even control over cursed techniques.

Was I too weak? Or did incarnation weaken that so-called copying technique?

Or perhaps it's neither. Is his cursed technique actually something else?

Seizing an opportunity, Ryu Ishigori barely dodged Xuan's fist and abruptly retreated. With a flip, he landed on a wooden bridge dozens of meters away.

"Hey! Why did you pull away?"

"Your cursed technique is different from what the ancient texts described..."

"What's different? Is it because I haven't used my other abilities?"

Xuan stood where he was, the pale blue energy barrier of Hollow Wicker Basket showing no sign of being neutralized by the domain.

"My cursed technique relies on outputting cursed energy to manifest parts of my shikigami in certain places, producing a wide variety of attack effects depending on the type of shikigami."

Shikigami... shadows... It was somewhat similar to the Ten Shadows Technique?

Though the way it manifested was vastly different, shikigami plus shadows inevitably made Ryu Ishigori think of the Ten Shadows Technique. But that was unlikely.

First was the surname—the Zenin Clan would never let a Ten Shadows Technique user wander outside. Second was the method of display—regardless of the generation, every Ten Shadows user fought in cooperation with their shikigami.

"Don't space out!"

Xuan kicked out. Ryu Ishigori snapped back to his senses the instant he spoke, but his body was violently sent flying by the kick, his feet carving two long grooves across the ground.

"Granité Blast!"

Having finally come to a stop, Ryu Ishigori raised his hand, and a condensed blast of cursed energy immediately shot toward Xuan. Xuan grabbed the shadow on the floor with both hands and violently flipped it up in Ryu Ishigori's direction. The lifted shadow surged toward him like a massive wave.

The black wave was shattered by the Granite Blast, but after the black shadow broke apart in the air, Xuan had already vanished from where he stood.

"Damn!"

Before Ryu Ishigori could search for him, Xuan appeared at his side. With a punch landing, Ryu Ishigori's body was smashed violently to the side. Only after rolling several times did he manage to stop amid the rubble.

He was clearly the one who had deployed the domain, yet he was getting whipped around like a spinning top!!

"Don't space out."

Ryu Ishigori spun around with a punch, his fist slashing fiercely across the shadowy robe covering Xuan's body—after deflecting Ryu Ishigori's punch, the robe coiled around Xuan's fist along his elbow. Another punch shot straight at Ryu Ishigori's face, sending him flying once more.

Ryu Ishigori's body spiraled down toward the bridge deck. As he landed, the bridge violently shattered and snapped apart. His body rolled into the river, soaked through with water.

Focus, focus. Ryu Ishigori took a deep breath and stared at Xuan as he emerged from the rubble. The moment Xuan moved, Ryu Ishigori entered a state of flow—

Black Flash!

Boom!

Ryu Ishigori's fist shot out amid exploding black lightning, blasting apart the shadow covering Xuan's arm.

The tremendous clash of force knocked both Xuan and Ryu Ishigori back several steps. Yet through the dust kicked up by their collision of cursed energy, Ryu Ishigori saw Xuan's expression.

He saw the smile on his opponent's face.