Multiple fronts

A double-layered barrier, supplied by eight million cursed spirits at once, had only held Chiyo Shin for a little over ten minutes!?

Qin Qingluodai, just what had you created!?

Kenjaku had never expected to be outmaneuvered by someone even older than himself.

"Long time no see!" Chiyo Shin reached Mahito in a single stride.

Mahito's pupils shrank to pinpoints. Before he could react or take any countermeasures,

Chiyo Shin's fist had already struck him.

Kenjaku, who stood only a step away from Mahito, hurriedly retreated when Chiyo Shin approached, only for Satoru Gojo to teleport over and interrupt him with a punch.

Satoru Gojo kept teleporting and striking Kenjaku, trying to force him into the tunnel, away from the crowds.

Kenjaku recognized Satoru Gojo's intentions, too. Whenever Satoru Gojo nearly succeeded, Kenjaku used cursed spirits to return to a more densely crowded area.

As for the people in the station, Satoru Gojo could no longer look after them.

He could only hope that, when this battle ended, Shin would have killed fewer humans. That would make it easier for him to explain things to the higher-ups.

The violent energy Chiyo Shin injected through his fist rampaged through Mahito's soul, battering it directly.

Mahito doubled over like a shrimp, vomiting out the large number of shrunken transfigured humans he had just collected.

Chiyo Shin grabbed Mahito by the hair. "I'm not done yet."

Unclenching his fist into an open hand, Chiyo Shin drove it straight through Mahito's abdomen.

Enduring the agony in his soul, Mahito tried to use Idle Transfiguration to split himself apart and escape, only to discover that he could not use his cursed technique.

How was that possible!? I can't control my own soul anymore!

With his hand buried in Mahito's abdomen, Chiyo Shin drove Golden Repair at full throttle. Mahito could no longer reshape his own soul. He was crippled.

Chiyo Shin twisted his arm. White light flashed for an instant, and he swung upward savagely.

Mahito's upper body was split in two.

The immense pain left Mahito unable even to scream. He could only whimper as he toppled backward.

The moment Chiyo Shin's arm left his body, Mahito felt his cursed technique become usable again. He writhed on the ground like an earthworm, trying to merge back together.

Chiyo Shin gave Mahito no chance to catch his breath. He kicked Mahito's healing body with force equivalent to a magnitude-four earthquake.

Mahito went flying and burst apart before he even hit the ground, spraying pieces of his body everywhere.

"Quit pretending, you piece of shit. Get up and let me hit you a few more times!" Chiyo Shin looked at Mahito's scattered remains as searing flames rose from his hand.

Today, he would avenge the humiliation of being kissed.

The surrounding temperature rose sharply. The hair on several ordinary people near Chiyo Shin began to curl slightly. "Careful. Play dead, and you might end up dead for real."

Realizing that playing dead was useless, Mahito's scattered pieces began to join together in pairs. Under the threat of death, Mahito pushed his potential to its limits and actually formed six clones.

Watching Mahito's maneuver, Chiyo Shin picked his ear and laughed in exasperation. "The one in the sewer, get out here, too! Don't even think about running. You won't like what happens if you do."

The Mahito in the sewer slowly emerged, unable to stop his cold sweat. He cursed inwardly, This monster is terrifying.

Still, Mahito felt relieved. Fortunately, there were plenty of people here. The more people there were, the more cursed energy fed back into him.

Otherwise, he could never have recovered so quickly.

Facing a life-or-death ordeal, Mahito instead grew calm. His only way to escape Chiyo Shin now was to sacrifice some of his bodies, detonating them in the hope of injuring Shin's soul.

If that failed... Mahito remembered what he had done before leaving, after hearing Suguru Geto's exceptionally dangerous plan.

After careful consideration, he had left a bottle of his own body tissue in the Cursed Spirit Abode.

If he failed, he hoped a new consciousness would arise within that bottle of tissue. But if that truly happened, he would no longer be himself. A completely new special grade cursed spirit would be born.

Come on, Chiyo Shin! I'm staking everything I have!

Tombs of the Star Corridor

"Don't you have anything to say?" Facing the silent Tengen, Yuki Tsukumo got straight to the point.

Tengen lowered his head in thought.

"Did you know about Suguru Geto or not?" When Tengen remained silent, Yuki Tsukumo pressed him.

"I knew." Tengen raised his head and answered without the slightest hesitation. "And he isn't Suguru Geto, either."

Not Suguru Geto? Yuki Tsukumo froze.

"Kenjaku. Suguru Geto is merely Kenjaku's body." After a little thought, Tengen told her.

The Six Eyes and the Star Plasma Vessel were both indispensable to his plan to absorb curses through the Emptiness Barrier.

Over nearly five hundred years, humanity had developed rapidly, and all the excess curses had poured into the Emptiness Barrier. Left with no choice, he had used himself as the stake in a binding vow and finally succeeded in reinforcing it.

Fortunately, yin and yang had their own way of balancing each other. The stronger the curses became, the stronger the jujutsu sorcerers born in response.

The curses within the barrier were then drawn out again.

Tengen's plan had proceeded fairly smoothly. First, against this backdrop, the Gojo Clan produced the strongest bearer of the Six Eyes, who grew rapidly. Then multiple Star Plasma Vessels were born in succession.

Everything followed the same cycle it had for a thousand years, until the Star Plasma Vessel's death.

Everything fell into chaos. He failed to assimilate the Star Plasma Vessel, his sense of self vanished, and his body began to become more like a cursed spirit.

As it happened, this generation had also produced Suguru Geto, the wielder of Cursed Spirit Manipulation, the only technique with absolute control over cursed spirits.

A heaven-sent opportunity.

Kenjaku wanted to use him to assimilate all the humans in Japan and fulfill his plan to become a Worldly Buddha-Demon. At last, success had become possible.

But Chiyo Shin's sudden emergence recently had reminded Tengen of another old acquaintance: Qin Qingluodai!

Both their personalities and their cursed techniques were so alike.

That person had opposed him even before he proposed his plan fifteen hundred years ago. As time passed, it had gradually become clear that Qin Qingluodai had been right.

Qin Qingluodai had advocated letting nature take its course, allowing curses to develop freely without human interference.

Back then, he had only thought he was doing a good deed, earning the fruit of Buddhahood. He would not listen to anyone. He had never expected to end up mired in karma.

Now, Tengen could no longer simply dispel the Emptiness Barrier. The binding vow he had made with himself held him firmly in place.

If Chiyo Shin truly was a contingency Qin Qingluodai had left behind,

then both Kenjaku and Chiyo Shin would now want to end his life to achieve their own goals.

Tengen would rather have Chiyo Shin finish him off.

Dispersing the curses that had occupied Japan for a thousand years across the world might cause suffering at first, but in the long run, it would still be better than Kenjaku's one hundred million cursed spirits.

10:10 p.m., inside Shibuya Station

After Chiyo Shin reappeared, Choso had wisely left. To capture Yuji Itadori and ransom his younger brother, Choso broke away from the group and acted alone.

"Yuji Itadori!!"

Choso had barely made his way through the station when he ran into Yuji Itadori, who had split up with Mei Mei.

"Convergence: Piercing Blood!" Enraged at the sight of his enemy, Choso fired a Piercing Blood without another word.

Yuji Itadori raised his arm to take the Piercing Blood head-on, and it instantly pierced his right arm. Wincing in pain, he quickly ducked to evade it and closed in on Choso, ready to fight at close quarters.