Although he had no cursed energy, his instincts told him that if those cracks touched him, his body would instantly be sliced into countless pieces!
"Break, damn you!"
Yagami Jue advanced instead of retreating.
He gathered every ounce of strength into his fists and unleashed a furious barrage on the fractured space before him!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Every punch carried a sonic boom.
Every punch shattered those spatial cracks through sheer force!
If you want to control space with a cursed technique, then I'll smash space itself with brute strength!
It was a savage, violent fighting style that made no sense whatsoever!
Yet it was absurdly effective!
"How is this possible?!"
The old man's eyelids twitched violently. For the first time in centuries, terror appeared on his face.
"Physical strength... can actually interfere with the stability of space?!"
"Are you a demon?!"
"I'm your creditor!"
Yagami Jue laughed wildly and accelerated again.
With his speed of fifty-three thousand unleashed in full, he left a massive crater behind and appeared right in front of the old man's nose.
"Gate of Healing-open! Die!!!"
Yagami Jue roared, his right fist turning into a brilliant streak of white light as it slammed toward the old man's chest.
"Bodyguard Jujutsu: Thousand-Layer Wall!"
Terrified, the old man frantically channeled his cursed energy, stacking a thousand layers of defense before him.
But before Yagami Jue...
A thousand layers? Ten thousand?
They were all fucking paper!
BOOM!!!
Yagami Jue's punch pulverized the old man and his cane together.
Blood rained down from the sky.
[Ding! Killed a peak Special Grade elder!] [Loot dropped: 300 million Japanese yen!] [Account balance: 350 million Japanese yen!]
Yagami Jue deactivated the Gate of Healing, and waves of weakness washed through his body as it suddenly relaxed.
He casually wiped the blood off his face and turned toward the distant wall.
"Hey! White hair!"
"Enjoyed the show enough?"
"If you're done watching, get over here and clean this shit up!"
Satoru Gojo chuckled from atop the wall and leaped down.
Yuji Itadori and the others followed, all looking at Yagami Jue as though he were an alien.
"Yagami... are you even human?"
Nobara Kugisaki asked timidly.
Yagami Jue shot her a sideways glance. "I'm the almighty yuan, here to collect the lives of broke bastards like you."
"Pfft!"
Yuji Itadori couldn't help bursting into laughter.
Naobito Zenin had crawled out of the rubble by now. Looking at the corpses and ruined walls strewn everywhere, his heart bled.
But he dared not say a word.
He even had to approach Yagami Jue with an ingratiating smile.
"Mr. Yagami... well... this was a misunderstanding. All a misunderstanding."
"I'll have the billion prepared immediately. Even if I have to sell off our assets, I won't short you a single yen."
Yagami Jue snorted. "The price has gone up."
"Killing those two old bastards took a lot out of me. Add another five hundred million for emotional damages."
"One and a half billion total. Transfer it to my account tomorrow."
"Short me a single coin, and I'll dig up this mansion's foundations and sell them for scrap. Understand?"
Naobito Zenin stiffened, then could only grit his teeth and nod. "Yes... I understand."
After leaving the Zenin Clan estate...
Yagami Jue walked alone through the streets of Kyoto.
"One and a half billion, plus what I just earned... that should be about enough to open the third gate."
He glanced at the three "deadweights" following him.
"Hey, Itadori."
"Stop following me around. If you want to get stronger, go find monsters to fight yourself."
Yuji Itadori scratched his head. "Um... Yagami, could you teach me how you train?"
Yagami Jue stopped and turned to him, revealing an utterly sinister smile.
"Want to learn?"
"Sure."
"First, pull out this utility pole and run a hundred laps around Kyoto with it."
"If you don't finish, I'll break your legs and feed them to the dogs."
Yuji Itadori: "..."
Megumi Fushiguro: "..."
Nobara Kugisaki: "This guy is definitely a psycho!"
Yagami Jue ignored them.
He looked up at the sky, where an extremely faint surge of cursed energy was rippling.
"Over in Tokyo... the story should be getting to that boy soon, right?"
"Junpei, huh..."
"That bastard Mahito still isn't dead for good. This time, I'll make sure he learns what it really means to wish he were dead."
He clenched his fists, cold killing intent curling at the corners of his mouth.
There was no such thing as too much money.
And in his eyes, monsters' lives were enticing stacks of cash.
In this world filled with despair...
He, Yagami Jue...
Would become the most outrageous, most violent, richest true god of all!
The system panel appeared again:
[Host: Yagami Jue] [Current realm: Heavenly Tyrant (initial stage)] [Account balance: 350 million Japanese yen (1.5 billion expected tomorrow)] [Constitution: 20538] [Strength: 25610] [Speed: 26552] [Skill awaiting unlock: Eight Gates Formation · Third Gate · Gate of Life (coins required: 500 million)]
"Almost there..."
Yagami Jue stared at the words "Gate of Life."
"Once I open three gates, Sukuna, I'll be able to kick your head around like a ball even if you come back at full strength!"
He strode into the distance.
His silhouette stretched far beneath the fading light of the setting sun.
It looked just like a wild blade poised to sever fate itself.
Kyoto, a premier five-star hotel.
Inside the Presidential Suite, Yagami Jue sat on a leather sofa with his legs crossed.
Holding a specially supplied chilled cola, he let out a satisfied burp.
"Tsk. Even the air in Kyoto smells richer than that place, Tokyo."
Just then, his phone suddenly chimed.
It was the notification sound reserved for incoming bank transfers.
Yagami Jue's eyes instantly gleamed brighter than a starving wolf's, and he swiped open the screen.
[Your account has received: 1,500,000,000 Japanese yen.]
The string of zeros made his head spin. Even his cola seemed to taste faintly of gold dust.
"Holy shit, those old bastards in the Zenin Clan work fast."
"Looks like they were pretty satisfied with my 'demolition service' yesterday."
Yagami Jue sneered and tapped the screen rapidly.
"System, top up! Put it all in!"
[Ding!] [Detected 1.5 billion Japanese yen in cash. Top-up successful!] [Current account balance: 1.85 billion Japanese yen!] [Host's balance meets the requirements. Spend 500 million Japanese yen to unlock: Eight Gates Formation · Third Gate · Gate of Life?]
"Do you even fucking need to ask? Buy it! Load me up!"
Yagami Jue swept his hand grandly, radiating the swagger of a nouveau riche big shot arriving in a village.
[Ding! Successfully deducted 500 million Japanese yen!] [Opening the third gate: Gate of Life!]
BOOOOM!!!!!
An utterly terrifying surge of life energy suddenly erupted from the center of Yagami Jue's spine!
If the first two gates merely removed his brain's restrictions and relieved bodily fatigue...
Then the third gate ignited the fire of life within him completely!
"Aaargh!"
Yagami Jue suddenly let out a low roar, his skin turning deep crimson in an instant.
Beneath his clothes, his muscles thrashed as though countless charging rhinos were rampaging inside them!
Unable to withstand the pressure he unconsciously emitted, the Presidential Suite's hardwood floor began cracking apart!
Crack! Crack!
The room's floor-to-ceiling windows were riddled with cracks by the terrifying pulses of life energy.
"Huff... hah..."
Yagami Jue panted heavily, scorching white vapor streaming from his nostrils with every breath.
He could feel the circulation of blood and vital energy within him speeding up at least tenfold!
Every heartbeat was like a heavy hammer striking a great drum, making the surrounding air tremble.
"This feels... fucking incredible!"
Yagami Jue abruptly punched the air.
BANG!
There was no cursed energy, yet a thunderous explosion rang through the air!
It was a sonic boom caused by pure physical speed reaching such an extreme that it forcibly punched through the air!
The wind from that single punch instantly reduced every piece of furniture in the Presidential Suite to fragments, as though a tornado had torn through it.
Downstairs, at the hotel reception desk.
The explosion had set the chandeliers swaying wildly.
"Oh my God! Is it an earthquake?!"
"Look! The glass in that Presidential Suite upstairs shattered!"
"Holy shit, that's special bulletproof glass! What could shatter it like that?"
Passersby stopped in their tracks, staring upward with wide eyes and expressions of disbelief.
The young receptionist went pale with fright, dropping the telephone receiver onto the floor.
"That... that's Lord Yagami's room, isn't it? Should we go up and check?"
"Do you have a death wish? That man tore down the Zenin Clan's gates just yesterday. You want to go be cannon fodder?"
The security supervisor hunched his shoulders, not daring to move an inch.
Inside the room.
Feeling the boost from the Gate of Life, Yagami Jue was delighted.
"System, bring up my panel!"
[Host: Yagami Jue] [Realm: Heavenly Tyrant (evolving)] [Status: Gate of Life (active, deducting 200,000 Japanese Yen per second)] [Account balance: 1.35 billion Japanese Yen] [Strength: 85,610 (boosted by Gate of Life)] [Speed: 86,552 (boosted by Gate of Life)] [Constitution: 70,538 (boosted by Gate of Life)]
"Holy shit, all my stats are almost at a hundred thousand?!"
Yagami Jue sucked in a sharp breath, unable to resist griping inwardly.
"Two hundred thousand a second... one minute of fighting costs twelve million. Fuck, this isn't a fight-it's draining my damn life!"
Still, when he thought about how this power could let him grind Satoru Gojo's face into the ground, Yagami Jue felt the money was well spent.
He quickly deactivated the Gate of Life.
His skin slowly returned to its normal color, and that berserk energy settled deep within his cells.
"Time to head back to Tokyo."
Yagami Jue casually grabbed a fresh black hoodie and pulled it on.
"I've pretty much cleared out the missions in Kyoto. That bastard Mahito should've shown his face around Shinjuku by now."
"Can't let anyone else get their hands on a shapeshifting walking vault like that."
Meanwhile.
Tokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture.
Inside a movie theater.
An incredibly boring horror movie was playing.
Yagami Jue had only just returned to Tokyo when he received directions from the system for a random mission.
[Random mission: Encounter the tragic boy Junpei Yoshino.] [Mission reward: 50 million Japanese Yen.]
"Junpei Yoshino?"
Yagami Jue sat in the back row, chewing popcorn as his gaze swept across the darkened theater.
Before you continue