Xuan'an

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Origin and long-term conspiracy

Xuan'an claimed that the world's balance between jujutsu sorcerers and cursed spirits caused his birth within a cursed womb: when sorcerers became too powerful, the weaker cursed-spirit side had to be strengthened. He rejected this restriction and declared himself the world's ruler, seeking to “devour and correct” it 97.

He worked with Kenjaku for over a decade. Kenjaku devised their Shibuya Incident and the earlier Night Parade of a Hundred Demons in Kyoto, while Xuan'an supplied fighting forces through his control of cursed spirits. Even Kenjaku remained uncertain about his identity and seemingly comprehensive knowledge of future events 103.

His larger conspiracy included the Zenin Clan's destruction. He sought to restore his power by bringing about major events that were supposed to occur, including the Shibuya Incident and Culling Game 145 146.

Shibuya Incident

Xuan'an confronted Ze Zenin in eastern Shibuya and compressed the surrounding space with Space Formation. He recognized that Ze's power originated outside their world and detected that Ze had divided his strength with a clone. Despite this insight, Ze trapped him inside the Uchiha Flame Formation 97.

When the formation began breaking apart, Ze destroyed it and resumed the confrontation. Xuan'an prioritized reaching Kenjaku over fighting Ze directly, attacked Suguru Geto, and ordered Kenjaku to absorb Mahito despite the curse's pleas for rescue 120.

Kenjaku launched the Culling Game before Ze killed him, and Xuan'an disappeared from Shibuya. Xuan'an later revealed that allowing Kenjaku to die after the game's activation had been intentional 120 145.

Culling Game and Sukuna's resurrection

By the Osaka Colony encounter, Xuan'an had assimilated five colonies and exceeded Ze's point total. He assigned Satoru Gojo's death to Sukuna while reserving Ze for himself 144.

Xuan'an took the unconscious Tengen into the Hida Mountain Pure Land. After reading her memories, he obtained authority over the Four Great Pure Lands; Kenjaku's remaining Kogane contingency would allow him to make Tengen assimilate the world once the Culling Game was complete 145.

He awakened Sukuna's soul in his ancient corpse through the Memory Cursed Technique. When Sukuna attacked him, Xuan'an caught the slash, overwhelmed him, and pinned his limbs with black iron rods. The two subsequently cooperated, with Sukuna agreeing to kill Gojo in exchange for assistance escaping Yuji Itadori 145 146.

Xuan'an provided Sukuna with a cloned vessel based on the Zenin Clan's fifteenth clan head. After Sukuna incarnated, Xuan'an claimed the resulting body surpassed Sukuna's prime from a thousand years earlier 146.

Final battle and death

On November 3, Xuan'an interrupted Ze's attack on Sukuna, absorbed Amaterasu, and pierced Ze's chest with black rods. He challenged Ze to a final battle in Hokkaido the following day 148.

Ze arrived to find Hokkaido stripped of its cities and human life. Xuan'an offered to rule the world alongside him, but Ze identified his actual objective: exterminating every living creature and converting them into power. Xuan'an acknowledged that Ze had uncovered his plan 159.

Their battle devastated Hokkaido and continued above the Pacific. Xuan'an repeatedly combined shrinking, black rods, and crushing cubes to wound Ze, eventually exploiting his eye fatigue to trap him between Great Gates of Heaven 160 161 162 163.

After Ze gained power through his shikigami's sacrifice, Xuan'an lost the advantage. He fled into an alternate space and considered hiding for a thousand years until Ze died of old age, but Ze followed and forced him back into the real world 164.

Trapped within Domain Expansion: All Creation, Xuan'an faced Indra's Arrow and two Kirin. Before being annihilated, he cursed Ze with the threatened erasure of his existence and others' memories of him. An enormous portal manifested after Xuan'an's death and locked onto Ze; the supplied account does not establish whether the threatened memory erasure occurred 164 165.

Appearance

Xuan'an initially appeared as a long-haired man with a gentle, refined face and a faint smile 97.

• Hair: Long and black; he swept it behind him before intensifying his final battle 97 162.
• Right eye: Yellow with an asterisk-like pattern, described as the “black eye” 159.
• Clothing: Wore white clothes during the Hokkaido battle; after escaping a massive explosion through a portal, he returned in a fresh outfit 160 163.

Personality

Xuan'an cultivated an elegant, composed manner, often smiling during threats or negotiations. His confidence rested on his knowledge of expected events and his belief that his restored power would defeat Ze 97 145.

He regarded most beings as inferior and treated allies as expendable. He ignored Mahito's pleas, deliberately allowed Kenjaku's death, and openly intended to kill Sukuna after their cooperation ended. Ze was the only person he explicitly treated as an equal 120 145 146 159.

Repeated mockery and resistance exposed his temper, particularly when Ze's Rinnegan disrupted his attacks. He eventually recognized that emotional distraction gave Ze openings, but his composure collapsed into fear when Ze pursued him into his alternate space 161 162 164.

Abilities & Skills

Power restoration through events

Xuan'an recovered strength as events approached the original storyline and through deaths within the Culling Game 145 159.

• Assimilated five colonies while accumulating more points than Ze 144.
• Expected Gojo's death to restore almost all his power 145.
• Had not fully recovered when Ze overwhelmed him; he blamed Sukuna for not yet killing Gojo 164.

Memory Cursed Technique

One of Xuan'an's two cursed techniques governed memory and could awaken a dead body's former soul and memories 145 165.

• Read Tengen's memories and obtained authority over her Four Great Pure Lands 145.
• Awakened Sukuna within his ancient corpse, drawing energy from Yuji in the process 145.
• Awakened cloned bodies' cursed techniques; a binding-vow restriction allowed a possessing or incarnating individual to choose only one body he awakened 146.

Shrinking and timeless storage

His second cursed technique shrank objects or his own body and stored shrunken objects in another space where time stood still 159.

• Targets: Could shrink himself and nonliving objects, but not other living beings 159.
• Ambushes: Became ant-sized to evade attacks and approach from unexpected directions 160.
• Attack reduction: Shrunk fire dragons, meteors, Chidori, and Susanoo arrows 162 164.
• Absorption: Absorbed ordinary Amaterasu into his palm, although being burned still caused pain 148 160.
• Limits: Ze's Rinnegan could track his miniature form. Senjutsu-infused Amaterasu resisted shrinking and absorption, as did Kirin's naturally generated lightning 160 161 165.
• Binding vow: Strengthened the technique by explaining its workings to Ze 159.

Black rods and crushing cubes

Xuan'an used black iron rods as weapons and deployed enormous cubes for sudden crushing attacks 159 160.

• Arrow barrage: Fired numerous rods toward Ze during an ambush 159.
• Concealed penetration: Inserted rods too small for the naked eye to see, then restored their size inside Ze's body 161.
• Lacquer flowers bloom: Raised rods around Ze to restrict movement and pierce his feet 160.
• Lacquer Blossom: Great Black Pillar: Produced larger rods that pierced Ze's legs and chest 161.
• Great Gate of Heaven: Closed cubes around a target to crush or severely injure them 160.
• Daikokuten: Drew massive cubes from his alternate dimension and dropped them overhead 162.
• Heaven-Covering Box Drop: Added an even larger falling cube to his attempted execution of Ze 164.

Spatial manipulation

Xuan'an manipulated local space and traveled through black-and-red portals 97 145.

• Space Formation: Compressed eastern Shibuya's space toward Ze 97.
• Spatial defense: Manifested a fissure that intercepted and shattered Susanoo's mountain-leveling sword energy 120.
• Portal escape: Avoided the explosion that destroyed Hokkaido and later retreated into an alternate space 163 164.
• Limitation: His alternate space did not protect him once Ze could follow through a Rinnegan Space-Time Portal 164.

Close combat and regeneration

His speed, strength, and evasion allowed him to contend directly with Ze, while Reverse Cursed Technique repaired severe injuries 160 161.

• Outmaneuvered Complete Body Susanoo, whose immense attacks were too slow to reliably hit him 160.
• Burial-Piercing Kick: Concentrated cursed energy into a kick that shattered Ze's hand during its collision with Six Paths Chidori 160 161.
• Regenerated a severed leg and later a destroyed eye 161 164.
• His power temporarily exceeded Mahoraga's capacity to analyze and adapt to it 161.

Dying curse

Xuan'an's final curse targeted Ze alone and persisted after his destruction 165.

• Threatened to make Ze's friends and family forget him and return the world's timeline to its proper course 165.
• Declared that resentment would create a spacetime portal to remove Ze from the world 165.
• The portal physically manifested and exerted suction on Ze after Xuan'an's death 165.

Relationships

• Ze Zenin — Principal enemy and the only person Xuan'an acknowledged as an equal. Ze exposed his extermination plan and ultimately killed him 159 165.
• Kenjaku — Collaborator for over a decade. Xuan'an supplied fighting forces and used Kenjaku's Culling Game and contingency plans to pursue his own restoration 103 145.
• Sukuna — Temporary ally whom Xuan'an resurrected and supplied with a cloned vessel. Both anticipated eventually fighting each other 145 146.
• Tengen — Captive whose memories and barriers Xuan'an exploited for his world-assimilation plan 145.
• Mahito — Regarded Xuan'an as a leader and sought his protection, but Xuan'an ordered Kenjaku to absorb him instead 120.
• Satoru Gojo — Intended victim whose death Xuan'an expected to advance his power recovery; delegated the task to Sukuna 144 145.

Notable Quotes

“I am the ruler of this world.” 97

“I'll win.” 145

“Ze Zenin, after I die, my cursed technique will make this world abandon you completely!” 165

Trivia

• Ze remarks on the irony of a name associated with peace belonging to a curse user 97.
• Ze suspects an Ōtsutsuki connection, and the narration identifies Xuan'an as possessing Isshiki's abilities; neither establishes that Xuan'an is genuinely an Ōtsutsuki 97 159 162.
• Xuan'an's internal thoughts reference a manga artist in the real world and the possibility of changing the script 146.