Crack… snap…
The crisp sound of cracking glass, like shattering crystal, was exceptionally jarring in the absolute silence.
Sukuna froze in place, his crimson eyes fixed on the center of his vision—the ethereal blue blade mark that had bisected his entire domain, neatly splitting the sea of blood and the bone shrine. The edges of the blade mark were smooth as a mirror, retaining an icy, pure cutting will that utterly negated his proud Malevolent Shrine!
"How… how is this possible…" Sukuna's cracked lips twitched, his voice hoarse like sandpaper rubbing, "How is this possible?!"
The presence of his domain rapidly receded like a receding tide.
The viscous sea of blood, the eerie shrine, the wailing phantom souls… all the sights representing the absolute authority of the King of Curses twisted violently, blurred, like a cheap canvas soaked in water, its colors collapsing and peeling away!
Buzz—!
His vision suddenly swayed!
The pungent smell of concrete dust instantly flooded his nostrils, replacing the thick, cloying scent of blood.
The dark red domain completely vanished as if it had never existed.
Shibuya's ruins were once again exposed under the bleak moonlight.
However, what he saw before him was no longer a battlefield strewn with broken walls and rubble.
Centered on where Sukuna stood, within a radius of two hundred meters—a vast plain!
No rebar, no concrete, no twisted vehicles or the burning remains of shops.
Only an endless, mirror-smooth, grayish-white ground, as if meticulously polished by the most precise grinding wheel!
Flat! Silent! As if all matter in this area that was higher than the ground had been completely erased by that world-destroying domain slash, not even a single bump above the ground remained!
Sukuna's feet were at the exact center of this abruptly silent plain.
He lowered his head slightly, looking at this masterpiece beneath his feet, as if a god had leveled the earth—this should have been the mark left by the rampant slashes within his domain, but now it had become a shameful testament to the opponent's single-strike domain breach!
This plain was evidence of his domain's existence, and even more, irrefutable proof that his slashes had been utterly shattered!
The wind kicked up fine dust, swirling around his feet, emitting a faint whimper.
Chen Tian stood quietly dozens of meters away.
He lowered his eyelids, looking at the frozen Sukuna, and let out an almost inaudible sigh.
That sigh was extremely light, yet it was more penetrating than any mockery.
"…You're too boring now," Chen Tian's voice was devoid of any inflection, as if stating an obvious fact. "Sukuna, go acquire all your power."
The voice echoed clearly over the silent plain.
Sukuna's body suddenly trembled!
He slowly, very stiffly, raised his head. The characteristic expression of arrogance, ferocity, and haughtiness on his face had vanished, replaced by a heavy, almost solidified stillness.
The pure desire for destruction receded from the depths of his crimson pupils, replaced by a violently clashing mix of humiliation, shock, and… a trace of an intensely cold battle intent, forcibly ignited!
He stared intently at Chen Tian, as if wanting to engrave the figure who had so casually shattered his thousand years of pride deep into his soul.
The air seemed to freeze for a few seconds.
"…Good."
A single word rumbled from Sukuna's throat. Dry, hoarse, yet heavy as a thousand jun.
No wild laughter, no roaring.
This single word represented the battle ignited in the King of Curses, and also an unprecedented… acknowledgment.
After hearing Sukuna's words, Chen Tian nodded slightly, then raised his wrist and glanced at his watch.
23:04, still early.
Chen Tian's thoughts wandered: 'Is there anything else interesting here? Oh, Mahoraga and Mahito, especially Mahito, he's the guy who directly took out two popular characters in Jujutsu Kaisen.'
Thinking of this, Chen Tian sighed again, because no matter if it was Mahoraga or Mahito, he estimated there would only be one outcome: being sliced into pieces by the Dimensional Slash.
'After dealing with these two guys, I'll go home. I wonder if Xiaomeng is asleep yet.' Chen Tian thought this and once again looked at Sukuna.
At this moment, Sukuna was still staring intently at Chen Tian.
Chen Tian smiled faintly and said to Sukuna: "See you next time, Sukuna. I hope you can bring me more excitement next time."
With that, Chen Tian's aura swirled around him, and space instantly distorted. His figure seemed to be sucked into endless darkness, disappearing without a trace in the blink of an eye, leaving only Sukuna standing in the center of that silent plain.
Sukuna's expression was complex and hard to decipher. After a long time, he murmured in a low voice: "Next time… I will surely let you know this great one's true terror."
After speaking, his figure flickered and also disappeared from where he stood, leaving only the whistling wind in the ruins, as if narrating the astounding duel that had just taken place.
------
Shibuya, another battlefield.
"Burubebu, Yurayura."
Megumi Fushiguro knelt on the cold ground, warm, viscous liquid gushing from the wound at his waist, yet he felt no pain. Each syllable carried the weight of his resolve, echoing through the silent street.
Buzz—!!!
The shadows behind Megumi Fushiguro suddenly swelled and boiled! As if opening a door to the abyss!
A massive, chaotic, terrifying cursed energy filled with primal destructive intent suddenly descended! The air was instantly sucked dry, and small pebbles on the ground violently rattled like a sieve!
Jujutsu Sorcerer Shigemo Haruta's sneer instantly froze, replaced by an indescribable horror and fear!
The quality of that cursed energy was like a substantial mountain pressing down, making all his bones groan!
"Wait—!!!" He only managed to squeeze out a single syllable, distorted by extreme fear.
From within the shadows, a massive entity slowly rose.
It had a tall, humanoid silhouette, but was covered in rough, rock-like grayish-white skin. Its right forearm was attached to a single-handed sword, and its face had no eyes, nose, or ears.
Two pairs of horny growths, like wings, extended from where its eyes would be, back towards the rear of its head. Its mouth had no lips, revealing crimson gums and teeth.
Suspended above its head was an object resembling a ship's rudder, which occasionally made a faint 'ding-dong' sound when it swayed.
This monster, over three meters tall and rippling with muscles, was the strongest Shikigami of the Zen'in Family's Ten Shadows Technique!
Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General—Mahoraga!
Megumi Fushiguro raised his head, a proud curve on his pale face, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.
He looked at the terrified Shigemo Haruta, his voice carrying a martyr's mockery:
"I'm going to die first, good luck to you."
The moment his words fell!
A giant arm, with a terrifying shriek that tore through the air, like a falling meteor, slammed down heavily towards the tiny Megumi Fushiguro below!
The scent of death instantly froze Megumi Fushiguro's blood!
He could even feel the fierce wind stirred up by that massive fist tearing at his skin!
Just at this critical moment—
Rip!
A faint, extremely slender arc of ethereal blue light, without warning, cut into the path of Mahoraga's descending giant arm!
Fast!
An extremely faint sound, like the sharpest paper cutter slicing through thick cardstock.
Puff!
Mahoraga's giant arm, capable of shattering mountains and breaking rocks, suddenly halted less than half a meter above Megumi Fushiguro's head!
Immediately after, a mirror-smooth cut surface clearly appeared in the middle of that thick arm!
At the cut, rock-like gray muscle, hard bone… all matter was instantly separated!
The severed end was so flat it reflected the distant burning flames!
Boom!
The massive severed arm, like a giant boulder losing its support, crashed heavily beside Megumi Fushiguro with a dull thud. The resulting air current, mixed with rock dust, almost suffocated him!
Megumi Fushiguro's pupils suddenly widened! The resolute smile of mutual destruction on his face completely froze! His mind went blank!
What happened?!
Mahoraga's movements also paused for an extremely brief moment. Its head lowered slightly, as if it too was "looking" at the suddenly missing section of its arm.
A figure, at some unknown point, had already stood between Megumi Fushiguro and the terrifying Shikigami.
White hair, a tall, straight back.
Chen Tian.
He didn't even turn to look at Megumi Fushiguro, who was in a state of immense shock behind him. He simply lowered his eyes casually, as if he had only brushed a speck of dust from his sleeve.
"Mahoraga?" Chen Tian's calm voice rang out, as if confirming an unimportant name. "Alright, since we've met."
He slightly tilted his head, his gaze seemingly falling upon the utterly terrified Haruta Shigemo, who lay limp on the ground, having soiled himself.
"And there's one more... Mahito."
Chen Tian's gaze swept towards the distant darkness, and he slightly raised his wrist.
'Once these two are dealt with, I can go home.'
"ROAR—!!!"
Mahoraga's lipless maw let out a deep, thunderous roar! Flesh regenerated at the wound of its broken left arm, seemingly trying to regrow, but it was forcibly prevented by some lingering cutting will!
Buzz!
Its remaining right arm suddenly lifted high! The spiral sword, entwined with an ominous aura and inscribed with ancient demon-slaying runes—the "Demon-Slaying Sword"—suddenly erupted with dazzling dark-purple cursed energy light!
The air was stirred and torn like viscous liquid! Where the blade pointed, space itself groaned under the immense pressure!
There was no flourish, just pure power and destruction! The great sword ripped through the atmosphere, carrying the terrifying momentum to crush everything, and descended upon the tiny white-haired figure below!
The strong wind, like a solid heavy hammer, made Chen Tian's white hair and clothes flutter wildly!
Chen Tian didn't even look up at the descending great sword.
He merely tilted his body slightly, moving out of the direct path of the blade.
His left hand, at some unknown point, had already rested firmly on the hilt of the Yamato at his waist. His five fingers closed around it.
"Dimensional Slash."
He whispered the words.
Clang—!!!
The Yamato, unsheathed an inch!
Buzz—!!!!
In that instant! Centered on Chen Tian, the fan-shaped area of space in front of him was like an ice lake into which a giant rock had been thrown!
Countless ghostly blue, crisscrossing sharp lines appeared out of thin air! No trajectory, no sequence! It was as if a death-net, composed of absolute cuts, had instantly unfurled, covering heaven and earth!
Puff, puff, puff, puff, puff, puff, puff—!!!
A dense, scalp-prickling sound of cutting, like rain on banana leaves, simultaneously echoed clearly across Mahoraga's massive body!
Mahoraga's sword-wielding motion suddenly froze!
It hung in mid-air, like a giant insect pinned in amber! The "Demon-Slaying Sword," imbued with immense power, was mere millimeters from Chen Tian's head, yet it could not advance another inch!
Crack, crack, crack, crack, crack—!!!
The colossal, ship's-rudder-like "Dharma Wheel" hovering above Mahoraga's head let out a teeth-grinding, ear-piercing shriek, as if countless precise gears were forcibly jammed!
The Dharma Wheel trembled and spun wildly, its complex runes flickering brightly then rapidly dimming, attempting to analyze and adapt to the destructive cuts filling the space!
But—it was useless!
The ghostly blue net of blade light was branded onto Mahoraga's rock-like grayish-white skin, deeply cutting into its muscles, bones, and joints! Every intersection was a perfectly smooth cutting point!
Mahoraga's massive body, along with the raised Demon-Slaying Sword, was precisely divided as if by an invisible ruler, instantly cut into hundreds of mirror-smooth cubes!
Ghostly blue afterglow flickered at the cuts, sealing the gushing cursed energy tightly!
Boom—!!!
Giant chunks of flesh mixed with fragments of the heavy spiral sword, like a collapsing tower of blocks, crashed onto the empty ground between Megumi Fushiguro and Chen Tian! Kicking up a cloud of dust!
With a crisp "clink," the Yamato returned to its sheath.
Only then did he slowly turn around.
His gaze fell upon Megumi Fushiguro, who was kneeling on the ground, his waist and abdomen stained with blood, his face pale, like a petrified statue.
"It's dealt with," Chen Tian's voice was steady, without a ripple, as if stating an established fact. "You should leave here quickly."
Megumi Fushiguro's brain had completely stopped thinking.
His arrogance, his resolve, his martyr-like tragic grandeur, were utterly crushed by the sight of that mythical Shikigami being instantly dismembered into fragments before his eyes!
He stiffly raised his head, his pupils focusing on Chen Tian's face with an earthquake-like intensity.
An absurd, utterly preposterous realization shot through his nerve endings like an electric current!
White hair... star... that terrifying slash...
A name uncontrollably squeezed out of his blood-loss-parched throat, accompanied by an incredulous tremor:
"Ne... Nero?!"
Chen Tian's brow moved imperceptibly.
He did not answer Megumi Fushiguro's question, nor did he even pause for a moment.
Chen Tian's figure vanished from where he stood without a trace, as if erased by an eraser.
Only the cold air twisted slightly for an instant, then returned to dead silence.
Only the heavily breathing Megumi Fushiguro, the collapsed Haruta Shigemo, and the pile of Mahoraga's fragmented remains, slowly sinking into the ground's shadow, their edges glowing with a faint blue light, remained at the scene.
The smell of blood, dust, and a scorched odor from space being forcibly cut mingled together, making it nauseating.
The euphoria of surviving a catastrophe struck Haruta Shigemo's fear-paralyzed nerves like an electric current.
He struggled to get up from the ground, using both hands and feet, his expression, which had been twisted in terror, suddenly flipped into a frenzied, almost insane joy.
"Ha... ha... hahaha!!" A dry, grating laugh squeezed from his throat, mixed with the gurgle of swallowed saliva, "I'm... I'm alive! I'm alive agai—"
The last syllable cut off abruptly! Like a duck whose neck had been squeezed.
Haruta Shigemo's body suddenly froze in place.
His wild laughter froze on his face like a plaster mask, instantly filled with surprise and incomprehensible blankness.
He slowly, very slowly, lowered his head to look at his own body.
Megumi Fushiguro looked up blankly, just in time to see this eerie scene: Haruta Shigemo frozen in place, his eyes staring fixedly at his chest, arms, waist... as if looking at something that didn't belong to him.
In his vision, countless extremely fine, faint ghostly blue lines had quietly appeared on Haruta Shigemo's skin, exposed outside his tattered clothes, at some unknown point.
These lines crisscrossed, like the most precise grid, enveloping his entire being.
At the edges of the lines, space presented an unnatural, slightly twisted texture.
That was... residual blade light?!
A coldness, deeper than facing Mahoraga directly, instantly gripped Megumi Fushiguro's heart!
"No..." The first faint gasp squeezed from Haruta Shigemo's throat, filled with incredulous terror.
The next second—
Puff! Puff! Puff!
Like countless piano strings snapping simultaneously!
Extremely faint, extremely dense cutting sounds simultaneously erupted on Haruta Shigemo's body! So faint they were almost drowned out by a heartbeat!
His pupils suddenly dilated to their maximum, all expression frozen on his face, leaving only the deepest terror and blankness.
Then, in Megumi Fushiguro's eyes, Haruta Shigemo's body, along with his tattered clothes, seemed to be sliced by an invisible, nanometer-precise surgical knife!
Along those ghostly blue lines—
Head, torso, limbs... instantly fell apart!
There was no gushing blood (because the cut surface of each slice was instantly sealed by high temperature and spatial power), only mirror-smooth edges, faintly shimmering with a ghostly blue glow!
His body, like a tower of blocks kicked over by a mischievous child, suddenly disintegrated with a dull "clatter"!
Hundreds of human "parts" of various shapes and smooth edges, mixed with a few neatly cut fabric fragments, scattered across the ground like disassembled components.
On one of the head fragments, that utterly distorted face, filled with extreme terror, was frozen, its empty eyes staring straight at the sky.
The sweet, metallic smell of blood only then belatedly permeated the air, so strong it was suffocating.
Megumi Fushiguro violently covered his mouth, a strong urge to retch rising in his throat, his pupils trembling violently, his vision almost unable to focus.
That last shred of relief was utterly pulverized by this silent, utterly bizarre "dismemberment" before him. Fear, like a cold tide, instantly engulfed his consciousness.
