Domain Expansion: Jade-Pure Mists of the Five Turbidities

Within the enclosed space woven from countless pallid hands, the air reeked of blood and rang with the wails of souls.

"So that's how it works. Similar to the Barrier Technique of a Simple Domain, perhaps a more advanced application... incorporating it into an Innate Cursed Technique?"

Feng's cold voice echoed through the sealed domain.

He gave his opponent no chance to breathe. His long leg snapped up, driving a solid kick into Mahito's abdomen.

Using the powerful recoil, Feng tightened his grip on the hilt and forcibly pulled the Mikazuki Munechika free from Mahito's breastbone.

Amid the grating scrape of bone, foul black blood sprayed like a fountain.

As he withdrew the sword, its pitch-black edge cut another deep slash across Mahito's chest. Corrosive cursed energy rapidly spread through the surrounding flesh, rotting it away.

Kicked several meters back, Mahito staggered before regaining his footing.

He glanced down at the hideous cross-shaped wound on his chest, but the face beneath his stitches twisted with overwhelming excitement.

Mahito's gaze locked onto the ground beneath the young man's feet. The once-bright circular formation was now giving off faint cracks under the crushing pressure of Self-Embodiment of Perfection's inescapable sure-hit Cursed Technique.

Meanwhile, the cutting sounds outside the domain grew louder. The violent rain beyond it was tearing madly at its barrier.

Time was running out.

His body was falling apart, yet his soul had never soared so high.

If his opponent stalled until the domain's outer wall shattered, it would all be over.

I have to break that shell!

Mahito's left eye opened as wide as it could. In that instant, every sound around him seemed to fade away.

He cast aside all unnecessary emotion, furiously compressing his killing intent and cursed energy into his right fist.

Under the crushing pressure of life and death, a mysterious spark ignited in his mind.

He charged recklessly toward the young man.

His footsteps thudded through the muddy water. The muscles in his right arm tightened to their limit as he drove his fist toward Feng's flank at a viciously precise angle.

The impact and the release of cursed energy occurred within one millionth of a second of each other.

BOOM!!

Space warped as dazzling black lightning erupted in the instant they crossed paths!

Black Flash.

A savage black shock wave ravaged the enclosed domain.

Under that destructive force, far beyond an ordinary strike, Feng flew backward like a kite with its string cut. With a heavy thud, he slammed into the domain's rear wall, formed from countless enormous hands.

The glowing Simple Domain beneath his feet, which had been resisting the sure-hit effect, shattered under the terrifying impact of that Black Flash. Only a few final wisps of light remained, thin as cicada wings, flickering around him like dying embers-not even a tenth of what there had been.

"Tch..."

Leaning against the black wall, Feng clicked his tongue softly.

Mahito stood where he was and slowly lowered his smoking right fist. The wound through his chest remained horrifying, but he seemed unable to feel the pain.

The sense of omnipotence brought on by Black Flash-as though he had grasped the very source of cursed energy-sent him into a chilling fit of laughter.

"Ha ha ha ha! Did you see that? Did you feel it?! The spark of the soul!"

Mahito extended his long tongue and licked the black blood spilling from the corner of his mouth.

He drew a deep breath, and the vast cursed energy within the domain surged with it.

Pure malice and feverish excitement gleamed in his mismatched eyes as he stared at Feng, who leaned against the wall with his Simple Domain nearly destroyed.

"That annoying ring of light is about to disappear.

"All I need is to touch you one more time. Even if you turn into water... inside my domain, your soul has nowhere to run!"

Mahito held nothing back. His arms began to deform and lengthen, becoming two enormous, razor-sharp blades of bone.

Splashing through the muddy water, he charged at Feng again with the absolute confidence Black Flash had given him.

He would crush his opponent's soul to dust in the last second before his domain's outer wall was sliced apart.

Still riding the momentum of Black Flash, Mahito tore through the heavy air with the pale bone blades his arms had become, aiming straight for Feng's vitals.

But to Mahito's surprise, Feng, who leaned against the wall of hands with seemingly nowhere left to retreat, neither dodged nor turned into water to escape.

Feng abruptly stepped forward, charging straight into those deadly edges.

Shhk!

The sickening sound of a blade piercing flesh rang out. The bone blade formed from Mahito's right arm plunged beneath Feng's left shoulder blade, blood pouring along its pallid edges.

Yet at the very instant the blade pierced him, the young man pressed forward instead of retreating. Leaning in, he reached out with his right hand and seized Mahito's blade-bearing arm.

Veins bulged on the back of his hand. His astonishing grip pinned Mahito in place, preventing him from pulling away and swinging his second blade.

As their bodies came into direct contact, the last few faint traces of Feng's Simple Domain dimmed completely under the violent impact and vanished.

The Simple Domain had shattered completely.

Mahito's mouth instantly stretched into an exaggerated grin, bunching the flesh beneath his stitches.

Without that annoying ring of light, everything within Self-Embodiment of Perfection would be exposed unconditionally to his Idle Transfiguration.

All he needed was a touch, even for an instant, to twist a soul beyond recognition.

I've won!

Yet that ecstasy lasted less than half a second before it froze on Mahito's face.

Nothing happened.

His prized sure-hit Cursed Technique-the killing blow that should have crushed his opponent's soul the instant the Simple Domain shattered-had vanished without a trace, like a pebble dropped into a bottomless sea.

He felt no sensation of a soul being altered!

How is that possible?!

Intense disbelief and fury flashed in Mahito's mismatched eyes.

He tried to break free of Feng's grip, but his gaze instinctively traveled downward from Feng's pierced left shoulder.

At Feng's free left hand, his slender fingers had already interlocked at some point, firmly forming an ancient, solemn gesture-the Fearlessness Mudra.

"Domain Expansion: Jade-Pure Mists of the Five Turbidities."

Feng's low voice, tinged with a faint chuckle, suddenly rang out through the enclosed space.

In the next instant, everything changed.

The stench and darkness filling the space seemed to encounter an irresistible purifying force.

Clear water erupted like a fountain beneath Feng's feet, instantly washing away the mud on the ground.

Mahito sucked in a sharp breath. He could distinctly feel that the high-pressure Water Blades outside, which had been furiously cutting into his domain's outer wall, had all stopped attacking at that very moment.

Instead, an immense surge of water-based cursed energy was seeping in from every direction, forcibly merging with his domain's outer wall of enormous hands!

"This bastard..."

After a brief blank, Mahito's mind frantically pieced together the truth.

He didn't abandon his defenses. He's using my shell to build his own domain!

This lunatic actually used Self-Embodiment of Perfection's impenetrable enclosed shell as a vessel, then forced the water he'd been attacking with back inside, completing his previously boundaryless domain in a space that wasn't even his!

That explained why the sure-hit effect had failed to activate. At the very instant the Simple Domain shattered, this new, enclosed domain had already expanded, forcibly canceling out Idle Transfiguration with its own purer sure-hit effect!

The surrounding scenery was completely overwritten amid the violent clash of cursed energy.

The black inner walls of countless hands vanished, replaced by thick clouds and mist that churned and surged without cease.

Clear, heavy rain poured relentlessly from the clouds. The instant it touched Mahito's body, the soul-bound cursed energy he took such pride in began to hiss as though it were being seared.

High above the very center of this strange domain, an enormous, uncanny eye woven from golden and green light slowly opened, gazing coldly down at the two of them.

"Damn it! This rain is washing away my Cursed Technique?!"

To his horror, Mahito realized that the downpour was noticeably impeding the flow of cursed energy within him. Even his ability to maintain the shape of his soul was being forcibly stripped away, bit by bit.

Ignoring the bone blade still lodged in the young man's body, he swung his left arm with sudden force, trying to sever his restrained right arm and give himself room to retreat.

I can't stay in this domain for even another second. If my Cursed Technique is washed away completely, I'll face real death-even as a being born from curses!