Distant Water, Nearby Fire

Ashiya Xia Xia had little confidence in dealing with Sukuna. Conservatively speaking, he figured he could stay alive at best.

If the Fujiwara Clan hadn't forced him into this, he wouldn't have been here at all. A wise man never stood beneath a crumbling wall. What did Sukuna killing people have to do with him? What a damned mess.

Still, since he was already here...

He might as well make a few plans.

For example, killing Sukuna's infamous number-one lackey-the Ice-Frost Jujutsu Sorcerer, Uraume.

Uraume was strong, but not impossible to deal with.

There should be a limit to hiding behind someone else's power. I can't kill Sukuna, but you think I can't handle you? Don't underestimate the Lord of a Hundred Demons.

Besides, Uraume had plenty of uses.

A formidable fighter with an extraordinary obsession with Sukuna-someone like that would make an exceptionally powerful cursed spirit. Ice-frost jujutsu was also excellent for clearing out fodder, a must-have for making his creatures fight. Who went into team fights or played tower defense without slowing effects?

"Then it's settled."

"Your Fujiwara Clan will devote its full strength to fighting Sukuna, while I stop Uraume. If possible, I'll kill Uraume and greatly reduce the pressure on your front line."

He proposed slacking off without the slightest difficulty.

"Isn't that a little unreasonable, honored one?"

"Uraume is merely an inexperienced youngster. How could we trouble you to deal with someone like that personally? You should fight Sukuna alongside me and the Five Void Generals instead, to secure greater gains for our side..."

Of course the Fujiwara Clan head could tell he valued his own life.

"You think too highly of me. I do have some ability, but all my skills revolve around cursed spirits. If you send me to the front to fight Sukuna, I'll probably be cut down in the first exchange and dragged off to become a platter."

"How about this? I won't hold anything back. I'll release all my cursed spirits for you to use and let them take the damage. As for me, I'll stick to what I said earlier and stop Uraume. How does that sound?"

Xia Xia felt no pressure whatsoever. Between old foxes, half of everything they said had to be discarded anyway. This was bargaining.

"Very well."

"But once you kill Uraume, you must return to support us immediately. No egg survives a toppled nest. Sukuna won't spare either of us. Running away now would only let him pick us off one by one."

The Fujiwara Clan head could also see that this was his bottom line. Making a fragile specialist in summoning and positional suppression take damage on the front line was indeed rather inhumane. To ensure Xia Xia contributed, having his cursed spirits present and keeping him alive would suffice. He really couldn't demand anything more.

"There's one more matter. Yorozu..."

Xia Xia grabbed Yorozu's hand and pulled her in front of the Fujiwara Clan head, his expression perfectly serious.

"As payment for this operation, you can't expect me to make this trip for nothing. To put it bluntly, she'd only be throwing her life away against Sukuna. So let her stay with me throughout the operation. That should at least provide some strategic value."

The Fujiwara Clan head smiled.

"Of course. Since she already belongs to you, you may arrange things however you please."

"Only, do be careful. When women encounter a stronger male, their instinctive attraction to strength can awaken. If you don't want her following Sukuna and turning against you, please keep a contingency in place."

Old fox.

Still trying to sow discord at a time like this, as though I don't understand something so basic.

If she fell in love with me because I'm strong, how could she not go crazy chasing Sukuna once she sees him? But I only took her in to serve as a sacrificial pawn and a blood bag anyway...

"Ahem. That's a bit harsh."

"Don't employ someone you distrust, and don't distrust someone you employ. Since she's sworn loyalty to me, of course I'll give her trust and affection. Contingencies are far too underhanded. Let's not discuss that."

Ashiya Xia Xia feigned displeasure and shook his head, like a young man whose private thoughts had inadvertently been exposed, displaying that peculiar mix of stubbornness and obstinacy.

Bullshit.

How could someone as paranoid as him fail to prepare a backup plan? He had left a mark on Yorozu back when she broke into his residence. Although he had yet to activate it, that didn't mean it wasn't there. It would prove very useful when the time came.

The souls of everyone he marked underwent an almost imperceptible distortion. Once the mark had been fully implanted, when the time came to expend them, a single command from him could turn a living person into a cursed spirit for him to control.

The act might offend heaven, but that was fine as long as it didn't hurt Xia Xia.

Presumably, even before dying, that stupid woman Yorozu would wonder whether being used like this counted as a special favor and attention. This was his mercy and universal love, after all.

Let's talk about something sensitive.

"May I ask, Clan Head Fujiwara, does this grand formation beneath our feet have any special effects?"

Upon arriving, Ashiya Xia Xia had noticed an extremely ominous aura emanating from the ground beneath him.

Unless he was mistaken, this thing was a cursed energy conversion array that fed its owner through sacrifices. As long as you were within its range, everything you possessed would be extracted and converted into cursed energy to supply the formation's master.

What a wicked method. They weren't even pretending anymore.

Unlike my mixed reputation, your Fujiwara Clan is supposedly a respectable, orthodox family. Is it really all right to use dark arts this brazenly? What an eye-opener.

This was also why he'd kept trying to leave the battlefield earlier. Fighting atop this formation, anyone with a functioning brain would know that surviving disaster meant a reward awaited-well, fucking brilliant. After beating Sukuna, there's a second stage: beating up my teammates.

"There's no need to concern yourself with such details."

"Slaying Ryomen Sukuna is no small matter. Even if all our heroes make thorough preparations, accidents may still occur. For everyone's safety, erecting a barrier at the last moment isn't practical. We can only prepare a formation beforehand so that..."

The Fujiwara Clan head smiled with narrowed eyes. Damn it, the man looked even more like an old fox now. The formation's activation definitely wasn't as simple as he claimed. There had to be some other trap. Surely just standing on it wouldn't forcibly enroll someone?

In that case...

"I'm going to buy something to eat."

"I want red bean cakes."

Like a child, he blurted out something completely unrelated to their conversation, acting on whatever whim struck him.

"The Fujiwara Clan certainly wouldn't let an honored guest go hungry."

"If you need anything, please feel free to ask our retainers and servants to purchase it. Every reasonable request you and Miss Yorozu make while staying with the Fujiwara Clan will be fulfilled."

The Fujiwara Clan head apparently hadn't expected such a sudden request either. He paused, then pointed toward the market.

"No need to trouble them."

"I'll go myself."

In an instant, Xia Xia vanished, flying away on a strange cursed spirit.

Then he split in two.

A false body formed from a cursed spirit casually went to the market to buy red bean cakes.

His real body concealed itself amid clouds, mist, and cursed energy, soaring high into the sky to survey the entire mountain.

He flew high enough to overlook the entire Fujiwara Clan compound. Just as he'd expected, the formation beneath his feet had merely been a decoy. The entire Fujiwara Clan estate had been transformed into a special space.

Seen from above, the vast area formed a triple-reversed, inverted pentagram. A closer look revealed that the trees and buildings had all been arranged in a specific order, tracing out a special symbol.

Legend had it that powerful jujutsu sorcerers made use of the terrain, bending mountains, marshes, and fertile plains to their purposes. Others claimed, through hearsay, that the immortals of legend possessed towers built in the sky, visible on clear days only from certain angles.

But the Fujiwara Clan's formation had been cleverly laid out.

The Fujiwara Clan head should have been a decrepit old man with one foot in the grave. Yet now, despite his white hair, he had a youthful face. What he had done was obvious.

Fight Sukuna?

More likely just an official excuse to cover things up.

As long as powerful people truly entered this formation for that reason, the Fujiwara Clan would profit whether they killed Sukuna or not. That undying old bastard would never make a losing deal.

Turn his scheme against him.

Xia Xia's body dispersed, shedding hundreds upon thousands of cursed spirits. Their auras were weak, perhaps only Grade 3 or Grade 4, but their advantages lay in numbers and concealment.

Carried by the wind alone, they drifted into every corner of the Fujiwara Clan estate. With all their cursed energy concealed, they were impossible to detect. Separate yet secretly connected, they quietly linked up along the formation's pathways.

The formation would still activate. Who benefited from it, however, remained to be seen.

Preparations for the festival continued at a feverish pace.

Ryomen Sukuna wasn't one to chase grand achievements or acclaim, but he still enjoyed being the center of attention. Thus, nothing could go wrong with the festival, lest that temperamental bastard find some bizarre excuse to begin a massacre.

Before the arrogant devil that was Sukuna, it seemed every living creature was expected to bow meekly upon seeing him. They could either submit in exchange for a slim chance at survival, or fight him, doing everything they could to prove their valor before dying.

Besides, Sukuna ate people.

Cannibalism wasn't uncommon in human society, but someone as depraved as Sukuna, who treated eating people as proof of his superiority and took pleasure in it, was truly outrageous.

Women, children-whenever he spotted an ingredient he liked, he simply unleashed a series of slashes, followed up with a fire technique, and served it at the table.

As for why a demonic god like him had picked up Uraume without killing Uraume, Xia Xia had always suspected it was because food, especially raw meat, spoiled extremely easily after death. The Ice-Frost Jujutsu Sorcerer was simply a preservation tool Sukuna kept around.

In this era, there was no way to preserve food except for royalty and nobles collecting ice in winter for use in summer. By comparison, the Ice-Frost Cursed Technique really was convenient.

Regardless, Uraume had to die.

Even if it only displeased Sukuna for an instant, that expression would be delicious. It would make the death well worth it.

Still, Xia Xia believed Sukuna wouldn't experience any emotional reaction at all. People like Sukuna had no heart.

The Fujiwara Clan head was the same.

Unfortunately, so was he.

To reach a higher realm, humanity and the heart were falsehoods that ought to be discarded. Growing stronger always came at a price, and conscience was the cheapest one.

Guess why cursed energy comes from negative emotions, and cursed spirits are born from fear. Those beings called jujutsu sorcerers are the very malice of this world.

Humanity's many negative emotions-fear, hatred, sorrow, jealousy, and unease-created cursed energy, giving rise to this supernatural system. When the cursed energy ordinary people unconsciously released accumulated, fear coalesced within it and gave birth to cursed spirits.

From that perspective, just how childish would someone have to be to think jujutsu sorcerers were anything good?

If you don't eat others, how can you rise above them?

Sukuna wasn't wrong. He never was.