Subjugating Nue

The morning mist had yet to clear, but the Zenin Clan's private Technique Training Ground on the mountain behind the estate was already bathed in crisp morning light.

Intricate curse markings covered the edges of the bluestone paving. Naobito Zenin had specially hired Jujutsu Sorcerers to erect the barrier for him, both to shut out outside interference and to suppress any shikigami that went out of control.

Zhiyan approached through the scattered light shimmering on the dew. His plain kimono was slightly damp, his black hair tied tightly back, and his eyes held the stillness of a sleepless night-Toji's words and Ogi Zenin's schemes from the night before had become fuel for honing his cursed technique.

He stood in the center of the Technique Training Ground and raised a hand, letting cursed energy seep from his fingertips into his shadow. "Come out." As his low voice faded, four figures emerged from his shadow in succession:

The black and white dogs stood shoulder to shoulder. Cursed energy gathered into dark power around Divine Dogs: Black, whose sleek body radiated fierce aggression. His ear tips twitched, catching the faintest movements nearby; Divine Dog: White stood solidly beside him, his circulating cursed energy carrying a steady, protective presence. His fur gleamed softly in the morning mist, and his gaze remained fixed on the area around Zhiyan;

Next, a snow-white Rabbit Escape bounded out, its long ears drooping. Cursed energy swirled around it, and its steps were so light that they barely touched the ground. This was the Rabbit Escape shikigami, adept at confusing an enemy's senses;

Last came two Toads, each half a person's height, crouching on the ground. Fine curse markings covered their gray-green skin, their swollen cheeks gently rose and fell, and damp vapor drifted around them. These were the Toad shikigami, capable of both defense and support.

Of these three shikigami, only Divine Dogs had been revealed at the council meeting. He had kept Rabbit Escape and Toad hidden in his shadow, never showing them to outsiders.

Zhiyan lowered his eyes toward them and traced his fingertips through the air before him. "Rabbit Escape will confuse, Toad will restrain, and Divine Dogs will attack-today's objective is to subjugate Nue."

The moment he finished speaking, Rabbit Escape shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow. Its body became a hundred white shadows darting around the Technique Training Ground, their long ears constantly twitching as they picked up fluctuations in the surrounding cursed energy.

Toad slowly crawled to the edge of the Technique Training Ground and spat out a lump of pale-green mucus. It spread rapidly upon hitting the ground, becoming a thin film of water that intertwined with the barrier's curse markings to form a second defensive layer. At the same time, the poison sac on its back contracted slightly, brewing a paralyzing mist ready to provide support at any moment.

The black and white dogs took their places on either side of Zhiyan. Divine Dogs: Black condensed his cursed energy into dozens of wind blades, cold light flashing at their tips, while Divine Dog: White drew in the air to form a spinning wind shield before him. Their offensive and defensive preparations were complete-their use of cursed energy was more direct now, and the blades and shield formed a little faster than before.

Once everything was ready, Zhiyan slowly raised his hands into the gesture for summoning Nue and called in a low voice, "Nue."

The instant he spoke, the shadow at the center of the ground swelled violently, churning and bursting apart like ink. A surge of utterly savage cursed energy shot into the sky.

A piercing cry mingled with thunder as a fierce silhouette burst from the shadows, wrapped in raging wind, purple lightning coiling around its wings-unsubjugated Nue was even more vicious than the rumors suggested. Lightning lashed wildly around it, making the barrier hum from the impact. Even the mucus of the Binding Curse Array gave off wisps of white smoke as the electricity scorched it.

Its crimson eyes fixed on Zhiyan with untamed savagery. With a sweep of its wings, it fired several bolts of lightning toward him like arrows, scorching and warping the air in their path.

"Block!" The moment Zhiyan gave the command, Divine Dog: White's wind shield met the lightning. They collided with a thunderous crash. Though the shield trembled slightly, it held firm against the attack.

At the same time, Divine Dogs: Black fired all his wind blades at Nue's flank, only for the gale raised by its wings to sweep them away with ease-an unsubjugated shikigami possessed powerful, chaotic cursed energy. Only killing its true body could break its defiance.

"Rabbit Escape, disrupt it!" With a thought, Zhiyan immediately directed Rabbit Escape's duplicates toward Nue. A hundred white shadows rushed into the air, obscuring Nue's vision and making it lose track of its original target.

Nue let out a shrill cry and plunged downward with savage lightning surging around it.

Rabbit Escape's barrier of white shadows exploded into fragments of light beneath the purple lightning. Before the black remnants of cursed energy could fall to the ground, Nue had broken through the confusion, its crimson eyes like cold stars tempered in fire, fixed unwaveringly on Zhiyan at the center of the Technique Training Ground.

Its vicious shriek sent the morning mist billowing. It dived with raging winds wrapped around its wings, the purple lightning coiling around its talons splitting the air and leaving warped scorch marks-it had escaped the sensory disruption far faster than expected, and its attack bore straight down on the vital points of the technique's controller.

"Perfect timing!" Rather than retreat, Zhiyan advanced. His plain kimono snapped in the gale, the tie binding his black hair pulled taut, and the calm in his eyes sharpened into resolve. Cursed energy burst from his fingertips and spread rapidly. "Toad, bind its wings with your tongues!"

The Toads crouched at the edge of the ground had long been ready. The instant they received his command, their swollen cheeks contracted sharply, and two gray-green tongues as thick as pythons shot from their mouths. Thick cursed-energy mucus coated their tips as they flew like arrows toward Nue's outstretched wings.

The suckers at the ends of their tongues latched precisely onto crucial joints in the wing bones. The mucus instantly hardened into tough cords of cursed energy. The Toads dug their limbs into the gaps between the bluestones, every muscle taut, using their cursed energy and body weight to forcibly arrest Nue's dive.

"Screee!" Nue's charge halted. Its wings were bound tight, unable to beat fully, and its savage cursed energy briefly faltered. It thrashed wildly, sending purple lightning along its wing bones into the tongue bindings, only for the mucus coating the Toads' tongues to neutralize it. Its wings could only flap in vain, whipping loose stones and dew into the air.

That fleeting falter was precisely the opening Zhiyan had been waiting for. "Divine Dogs, combined strike! Break its core!" He raised a hand and pointed straight at Nue's chest, transmitting cursed energy to the black and white dogs with the precision of a military command.

Cursed energy surged around Divine Dogs: Black. Dozens of wind blades formed in midair, cold light glinting at their tips. With a low growl, he fired them all at the points where Nue's wings joined its body-the places bearing the strain of the tongue bindings, and weak points in its cursed-energy circulation. The blades were not meant to inflict serious wounds, but to further constrain its struggles. Their sharp edges tore through the air, forcing Nue to divide its attention to defend itself and sharply limiting the movement of its wings.

At the same time, Divine Dog: White became a streak of white lightning, charging straight at Nue. The cursed energy around his claws rapidly condensed into curved wind blades. The ink-black Divine Dogs: Black followed close behind, the wind blades on his claws even sharper. One on the left and one on the right, the two figures lunged at Nue in a pincer attack.

Sensing the deadly threat, Nue revealed a faint dark-red glow in its chest-its cursed-energy core, the sole fatal weak point of an unsubjugated shikigami. It drove its cursed energy with all its strength, sending purple lightning past the tongue bindings and blasting it toward the two dogs in an attempt to stop their attack.

"Pierce through!" Zhiyan commanded in a low voice, his fingertips sweeping across the contractual curse seal of the Ten Shadows Technique. The power of resonance between shikigami activated at once. Divine Dog: White's wind blades suddenly accelerated, forcibly shattering the purple lightning shooting toward him head-on, while Divine Dogs: Black exploited a gap in the airflow, dropping abruptly to circle into Nue's blind spot at its flank.

One ahead and one behind, the two Divine Dogs evaded Nue's counterattack with its talons and landed precisely on either side of its chest. Without the slightest hesitation, they drove their Wind Blade claws into the dark-red glow together-Nue's cursed-energy core.

With a muffled tearing sound, the wind blades ripped through the core. Nue let out a mournful cry that shook the valley. Its savage cursed energy ebbed like a receding tide, its purple lightning quickly dimmed, and its struggling wings gradually lost their strength. The black and white dogs held its core firmly, continuously channeling cursed energy through their claws to dismantle its last will to resist. The Toads' tongue bindings remained tight around its wings, leaving it no chance to escape.

Zhiyan walked slowly up to Nue, the crisp morning light falling on his kimono, which was flecked with remnants of cursed energy. He pressed a hand to Nue's forehead, and the distinctive contractual curse markings of the Ten Shadows Technique appeared at his fingertips. "From this day on, you are my shikigami."

The curse markings flowed from his fingertips into Nue's body. Its dark-red core gradually turned gold, and the savagery faded from its crimson eyes, replaced by docility. The Toads slowly withdrew their tongues. The black and white dogs released their claws and retreated to Zhiyan's side, panting heavily. Though they had expended some cursed energy, they radiated the exhilaration of victory.

The curse markings on the Technique Training Ground's bluestones settled into stillness. As Zhiyan looked at Nue crouching obediently before him, a flicker of relief passed through his eyes-this powerful, once-unsubjugated shikigami had finally become another asset under his Ten Shadows, giving him a little more confidence to hold his ground amid the Zenin Clan's hidden currents.

The sound of wooden clogs in the corridor was soft and steady, with a distinctive weight to it. Without looking up, Zhiyan knew it was Naobito Zenin. Fresh from his bath, his hair still damp, he wore a loose, plain outer robe and sat reading at the low table by the window-the book contained records of jujutsu left by members of the clan who had awakened the Ten Shadows Technique throughout its history. Beside the densely packed text were notes he had written the night before.

The door was gently pushed open, letting in a breeze scented with the courtyard's greenery. Naobito Zenin wore a dark-blue kimono and a sash bearing the Zenin Clan crest. His customary gentle smile rested on his face, with none of the oppressive presence of a man in authority.

He walked straight to the low table and sat down. His gaze swept over Zhiyan's damp hair before settling on the open pages, and he spoke cheerfully, a teasing note in his voice. "My boy, I heard you went to the training ground this morning?"

Zhiyan's fingertip paused on a line of text. Without looking up, he answered in an utterly even tone, "Mm."

A faint dampness and the cool clarity of settled cursed energy still lingered around him. The weariness of the previous night and the fierce battle that morning had both been concealed by his post-bath ease, leaving only the same quiet calm in his eyes. He knew Naobito Zenin would not bring it up without a reason. Even weakened by the barrier, the Technique Training Ground's cursed-energy fluctuations would still draw the attention of the clan members stationed there-as clan head, Naobito Zenin naturally knew all about it through his command of the clan.

Naobito Zenin did not mind his cool response. He simply picked up the teapot and poured himself a cup of warm tea, its rising fragrance softening the dampness in the air. "The Jujutsu Sorcerer on duty said there were some considerable cursed-energy fluctuations at the Technique Training Ground this morning." He took a sip, his gaze passing over Zhiyan's profile as though by chance. "Were you refining your cursed technique? Or... trying to subjugate a new shikigami?"

The question was direct, but carried a probing undertone. Subjugating the shikigami of the Ten Shadows Technique had always been the legacy the Zenin Clan valued most. When Naobito Zenin had hired Jujutsu Sorcerers to prepare the Technique Training Ground for him, it had been in anticipation of those subjugations, and naturally he had kept a close watch on his progress-hoping he would inherit the glory of the Ten Shadows, yet fearing that a powerful shikigami might turn on him, or that he might become entangled in the clan's internal schemes.

Zhiyan finally raised his head, meeting Naobito Zenin's deep gaze with his dark eyes. His tone remained flat, though it carried a little more certainty. "Something like that."

He neither explicitly said that he had contracted Nue nor concealed the fact that he had been practicing.

He had no need to deliberately put on an act before Naobito Zenin, but he was accustomed to saying only so much-his father's protection was reliable, yet it also came with the Zenin Clan's shackles. Ultimately, he would have to forge his own path forward, step by step.

Seeing the steadiness in his eyes, so unlike that of someone his age, Naobito Zenin's smile deepened. He set his teacup down gently. "Well done." The simple words carried undisguised approval. "But subjugating shikigami is no small matter, especially the powerful ones. Remember not to rush it. And my boy, your old man is still the Zenin Clan head and a Grade 1 Sorcerer, you know. How could you not call me when you were subjugating a shikigami? You've really hurt your father's feelings."

"There's no need." Zhiyan shook his head and returned his gaze to the book. "I can handle it."

His fingertips brushed the page as the image of Nue crouching obediently that morning flashed through his mind. The subjugation was already over, and the process had remained within his expectations-besides, he did not want more people knowing when he subjugated shikigami. If the old man accompanied him, it would naturally attract Ogi Zenin's attention. Revealing his hidden cards too early would only create unnecessary trouble.

Naobito Zenin did not insist. He merely sighed with a smile. "You really do have a bit of my temperament when I was young. Plenty of grit, and a mind of your own. Still, there's no shame in relying on your father sometimes." He rose and walked to the window, looking out at the courtyard greenery gilded by the morning light. His tone suddenly grew more serious. "Ogi has been making quite a few moves lately. I'll keep him in check, but you should stay alert too."

"Understood," Zhiyan replied, his voice as even as ever. Quietly, however, he turned to the section detailing coordinated shikigami tactics-he would keep his father's warning in mind, but he also understood that what would truly secure his place in the Zenin Clan was never someone else's protection. It was the power of the Ten Shadows in his own hands.

Naobito Zenin gave him a look, said nothing more, and turned to close the door softly behind him. The sound of wooden clogs gradually receded down the corridor, and quiet returned to the room, broken only by the soft rustle of turning pages and birdsong outside the window.

Zhiyan closed the book and looked toward the morning light outside. An almost imperceptible sharpness flashed through his eyes-that morning's subjugation was only the beginning. What he needed to do was make the Ten Shadows Technique truly serve him, and then take everything into his own hands.