A Mischievous Boy Toys with an Old Man

"Clap, clap, clap."

Applause rang out as Kenjaku clapped, lavish with his praise.

"Chidori, is it? It certainly lives up to its name. Quite powerful, too."

"Tch."

Seeing Kenjaku remain unfazed, Lu Yun immediately lost interest.

Still, Lu Yun had hardly taken this little probe seriously. He had only personally dealt with the first one or two cursed spirits. Once the electric charge built up, he no longer needed to lift a finger; the raging lightning tore the cursed spirits apart on its own.

"You seem quite a bit stronger than Hajime Kashimo."

Kenjaku stopped clapping and spoke meaningfully.

Lu Yun nodded in wholehearted agreement.

"You're not wrong there."

"Bullshit!"

The other soul residing in his body, who had been watching the show, could no longer sit still. An extra mouth appeared on Lu Yun's cheek and immediately started cursing.

"How dare a nobody like Kenjaku run his mouth! Lu Yun, shove off! Let me have a go at this guy!"

Hajime Kashimo frantically fought for control of the body, swearing to give Kenjaku a proper taste of his strength.

"Stop messing around, little deer."

Lu Yun raised a hand and slapped away the extra mouth.

"Didn't you say you wouldn't use my abilities? We're in midair. Can you even fly? How are you going to fight?"

His gaze slowly drifted downward. The nearest building really was quite a distance away.

It made sense. If Kenjaku hadn't hidden far enough away, he would have been exposed immediately.

"I don't care! Let me take over!"

Lu Yun pressed a hand to his forehead. Why was this little deer so difficult to please? He patiently tried to persuade him.

"Deer God, this Kenjaku guy is a total loser. He must have realized he couldn't beat us, so he resorted to this cheap trick to drive a wedge between us. We can't fall for it. Besides, didn't you already see what he could do four hundred years ago? You hardly need to handle Kenjaku yourself. Just leave him to me. You wouldn't want him laughing at you because you can't stay airborne, then getting away in the end, would you?"

"He really pisses me off."

After calming down a little, Hajime Kashimo decided Lu Yun had a point.

"A petty coward who only hides behind the scenes really isn't worthy of facing me. Fine. I still need to conserve my strength for Sukuna anyway. I'll leave this one to you."

"That's the spirit. As expected of you, Deer God-you figured it out in no time."

Hajime Kashimo stopped fighting for control of the body, and Lu Yun finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Watching them bicker, Kenjaku couldn't help laughing.

"You two really do get along."

"No, we don't!"

The two retorted in unison.

Kenjaku shook his head without arguing.

"Now, I suppose I'll get a little more serious."

Two enormous figures appeared beside Kenjaku. The cursed energy radiating from them was on an entirely different level from the filler Lu Yun had just defeated.

The cursed spirit on the left wore a battered suit of ancient samurai armor, with two points of ghostly blue flame flickering inside its helmet. On the right was a cursed spirit with an elephant's head and a human body. Exceptionally huge, it sat cross-legged in midair like a Buddha, its palms pressed together.

Without question, both cursed spirits possessed special grade strength.

Kenjaku looked at Lu Yun and spread his arms, displaying his masterpieces as his loose robes fluttered in the evening breeze.

"Now I'm the one with the advantage in numbers. Well, how will you handle this?"

Lu Yun scoffed. Even among special grades, there were differences in strength. He thought nothing of these two cursed spirits.

"You've only summoned two cockroaches that can last a little longer. Look how smug you are. Anyone who didn't know better would think you'd already won."

"Haven't I?"

Lu Yun said nothing. Cursed energy equivalent to fourteen of Sukuna's Fingers erupted from his body. He decided to answer with action.

Unleashed in full, his immense cursed energy sent violent ripples through the sky. In an instant, it dyed the night a lightning-like blue-violet. His overwhelming presence whipped up gust after gust, sending Kenjaku's robes billowing.

"What's with this ridiculous amount of cursed energy?"

Holding down his wildly flapping sleeves, Kenjaku-who had seemed to have everything under control-widened his eyes. For the first time that night, disbelief finally showed on his face.

He had only ever felt cursed energy like this from the King of Curses. Though it was not yet as terrifying as Ryomen Sukuna's, it already surpassed Yuta Okkotsu's, who was renowned for his reserves of cursed energy.

"I really have stumbled upon someone extraordinary."

After a moment of shock, Kenjaku quickly regained his composure and immediately ordered the two special grade cursed spirits to engage Lu Yun.

Lightning surged in Lu Yun's palm again. Rather than retreating, he charged straight at the two approaching special grade cursed spirits.

The two ground-type cursed spirits were nowhere near as fast as Lu Yun, who could transform into lightning. They only stayed aloft thanks to the support of Kenjaku's flying-type cursed spirits.

With a flash of electricity, Lu Yun appeared beside the Samurai Cursed Spirit in the blink of an eye. His lightning-wreathed hand stabbed like a sword toward its heart.

There was no time to react. Just as Chidori was about to pierce the Samurai Cursed Spirit's chest, the low-grade cursed spirit helping it fly blew itself up, using the blast to shove the Samurai Cursed Spirit aside.

The dignified-looking Elephant-Headed Cursed Spirit on the other side reacted as well. It thrust a palm at Lu Yun from midair, sending an invisible wave through the air.

Boom!

The invisible wave struck, and Lu Yun's body burst apart. His thrusting hand was also knocked off course, piercing through the Samurai Cursed Spirit's shoulder instead.

"Did that kill him?"

Kenjaku looked astonished.

Lu Yun had been boasting so brazenly just a moment ago, yet he had proved unexpectedly fragile. Even Hajime Kashimo would certainly have put up more of a fight.

Had Lu Yun been killed? Obviously not.

Not a drop of blood seeped from his shattered body, and despite Chidori piercing the Samurai Cursed Spirit's shoulder, it showed no sign of injury. Something was clearly amiss.

"Cursed Spirit Manipulation, Maximum Technique: Uz umaki."

A black vortex of cursed energy rose from Kenjaku's hands. He fed countless low-grade cursed spirits into it to increase its power.

Electric arcs danced as Lu Yun's scattered body turned into lightning and reassembled.

"That was close, that was close. I almost..."

A black torrent formed from countless cursed spirits shot out, instantly piercing Lu Yun's head.

"Just as I thought."

His suspicion confirmed, Kenjaku murmured to himself.

"You're seriously rude! I was talking, and you attacked me mid-sentence!"

His head, scattered by [Uz umaki], reformed as Lu Yun accused him.

"Sorry, sorry. My fault."

Kenjaku raised both hands and sincerely apologized to Lu Yun, then changed the subject.

"With this cursed technique of yours, you can't hurt anyone else, but you can't be hurt either. Is that right?"

"You figured that out too?"

Lu Yun planted his hands on his hips. He didn't care in the slightest that the effects of his Elementalization had been deduced.

"That alone makes it an utterly absurd cursed technique. This really is troublesome."

Kenjaku's gaze grew grave. In that case, he would have no choice but to use that move against Lu Yun.