"Damn it... Damn it! Those two complete anomalies!"
Deep within the Tombs of the Star Corridor, inside the pure white space, Kenjaku's furious roar echoed like that of a wounded beast.
He violently shattered the surveillance screen forged from cursed energy before him, his expression so dark it seemed ready to drip poison.
Just moments ago, he had witnessed with his own eyes how the "Four Heavenly Kings"—handpicked to wear down the Players' lives and harvest cursed energy—had been effortlessly slaughtered in less than half an hour by Yoru and Yuta Okkotsu, like chickens led to the butcher!
Those were four bona fide special grade combatants!
Ryu Ishigori and Takako Uro in particular were top-tier reincarnated sorcerers whom he had expended immense costs to awaken—Ryu from four hundred years ago, and Uro from the Heian era a thousand years ago.
In his original plan, those four were meant to create a protracted meat grinder within the Sendai Colony, providing a massive reservoir of cursed energy nourishment for Master Tengen's Merger.
Yet now, with the fall of the Four Heavenly Kings, the core array patterns of the entire Sendai Colony had already begun showing signs of collapse!
"First, Tokyo Colony No. 1 had its rules shattered by Yoru, and now even the Sendai Colony has been completely cleared out..."
Kenjaku gritted his teeth so hard they threatened to shatter, wisps of dark red blood oozing from the stitches across his forehead due to his sheer rage.
"The overall progress of the Culling Game has been dragged down nearly thirty percent by those two bastards!"
"If this continues, before Master Tengen's Merger ritual can be fully completed, the ten colonies I laid down will all be torn apart one by one!"
For a schemer like Kenjaku, who had lived for a thousand years, the most intolerable thing was not failure itself, but rather the utter helplessness of events spiraling completely out of his control.
In his eyes, every sorcerer in this world—whether the higher-ups of the Big Three Families, the ancients of past eras, or even Suguru Geto and Satoru Gojo—were nothing more than pawns on his chessboard.
Yet Yoru was different.
This dark-haired youth who had suddenly materialized was like a meteorite crashing out of nowhere onto the board, not only smashing his pawns to pieces, but threatening to flip the entire chessboard over!
"I can't wait any longer."
Kenjaku took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the turbulence in his chest, and turned his gaze toward Master Tengen, who was bound tightly midair by black chains.
"Although the cursed energy collected so far is still far from sufficient, and forcibly initiating the Merger ritual might result in uncontrollable defects in the fused entity..."
"If I don't initiate it early, once that monster named Yoru finishes gathering the points and completely unseals Satoru Gojo..."
"When that time comes, what I will have to face are three absolute ceilings capable of overturning the entire jujutsu world!"
Thinking of that white-haired man wielding the Six Eyes and the Limitless, combined with Yoru—the Cursed-Energy-Less Sword Saint defying all logic—and Yuta Okkotsu, who possessed boundless cursed energy...
Even Kenjaku, having lived a millennium, could not help feeling a chill run down his spine.
He strode swiftly before Master Tengen, his hands once again weaving intricate seals.
"Master Tengen, consider yourself lucky. You won't have to endure this prolonged torment any further."
A flash of frenzied madness ignited in Kenjaku's eyes.
"I will forcibly harvest the cursed energy of every surviving Player across the entire Culling Game colonies right now to complete your final metamorphosis!"
"Even if it turns out to be only a half-finished product, it will still be the ultimate monster formed from the aggregated malice of a hundred million people!"
"More than enough to drag this damn world straight down into hell!"
Buzz—!
As Kenjaku completed the hand seals, the cursed energy throughout the Tombs of the Star Corridor began to boil violently!
The black chains binding Master Tengen flared with glaring crimson light, turning into giant conduits that began ravenously draining the last traces of life from Master Tengen's frame!
However, right at the instant Kenjaku was poised to force the activation of the Merger array,
A hoarse voice, carrying unfathomable pressure, suddenly erupted within the cavernous Tombs of the Star Corridor!
"Stand down, Kenjaku."
"Now is not the time."
The voice was not particularly loud, yet it possessed a power that struck straight into the soul, freezing Kenjaku's frantically moving hands in mid-seal.
In disbelief, he turned his head toward the source of the sound.
Behind a white stone pillar not far away, a mass of pitch-black shadow was slowly writhing.
Then, the shadow coalesced into a grotesque visage bearing four eyes!
It was... the King of Curses, Ryomen Sukuna!
To be precise, it was a faint soul clone that Sukuna had left at Kenjaku's side.
"Sukuna?!"
Kenjaku's pupils shrank, his face darkening dramatically.
"You're stopping me at a time like this? Don't you realize that if Yoru truly unseals Satoru Gojo, our entire plan will be ruined?!"
"Do you really want to face that Six Eyes and that monster Yoru at the same time?!"
Confronted by Kenjaku's questioning, the shadow-formed face of Sukuna merely let out a chilling sneer that made the hair stand on end.
"Hehehe... Foolish thousand-year rat, your vision remains as narrow as ever."
Sukuna's four eyes locked onto Kenjaku, brimming with lofty disdain.
"Why do you think I agreed to let you launch this tedious Culling Game?"
"For some so-called Great Cause? Or to construct a new world?"
"Don't make me laugh!"
Sukuna's tone grew increasingly fervent, fueled by an insatiable craving for the absolute pinnacle of battle!
"The sole pleasure of my existence is to taste the blood of the strong and carve apart their self-righteous pride!"
"A thousand years ago, that god who wielded a crimson blade left an indelible terror in the deepest recesses of my soul."
"And now, that brat named Yoru has not only inherited that power, but is continuously transcending toward even higher realms amid nonstop battle!"
Sukuna's face drifted closer to Kenjaku, his dreadful bloodlust virtually threatening to swallow him whole.
"If you interrupt his evolution at such a moment with a half-baked monstrosity, it would be an absolute desecration of the most immaculate prey this world has to offer!"
"I will wait!"
"Wait until he gathers every last point! Wait until he completely unseals Satoru Gojo!"
"Wait until they hone their states to their absolute peak!"
Sukuna laughed wildly, his laughter ringing with a suffocating madness.
"When that time comes, I shall descend upon the world in my most flawless form!"
"Before the eyes of the entire world, I will personally carve the Strongest of the Modern Era, that Six Eyes, along with that Sword Saint who inherited divine power, into minced meat!"
"That alone is a feast worthy of Ryomen Sukuna!"
Listening to Sukuna's borderline pathological raving, Kenjaku's expression flickered with conflicting emotions.
He knew Sukuna was an unadulterated battle maniac; in the eyes of this madman, nothing held any value except for slaughter.
Yet Kenjaku could not afford to indulge his madness!
Because if Sukuna slipped up, the Merger scheme he had plotted for a millennium would be utterly ruined!
"Sukuna, you are far too arrogant."
Kenjaku took a deep breath, his tone turning frosty.
"Yoru's power has already transcended the laws of jujutsu. That is a principle foreign to this world."
"If you truly let him continue growing unchecked, even if you regain your peak form, you might not necessarily defeat him."
"Besides, I am the orchestrator of this game. I have no need to ask your permission!"
Kenjaku turned abruptly, paying no further heed to Sukuna's warning, and resumed forming hand seals.
"I am initiating the Merger by force!"
Yet, right as Kenjaku prepared to force the ritual into motion,
From deep within Master Tengen's supposedly suppressed soul, an exquisitely faint yet supremely pure pulse suddenly erupted!
That was... the solar tinder that Yoru had planted previously!
Buzz—!
A flash of brilliant crimson radiance flared from Master Tengen's chest.
Though faint, this light carried a sacred property that exerted absolute suppression over all dark cursed energy!
"What?!"
Kenjaku blanched in terror.
To his horror, under the illumination of that crimson light, the Merger array patterns he had just prepared began to dissolve and crumble over vast areas!
Even the black chains binding Master Tengen trembled violently, as if struck by an electric current.
"This aura... It was left behind by that anomaly?!"
A flicker of deep dread crossed Kenjaku's eyes.
He never could have imagined that Yoru had managed to plant such a terrifying contingency inside Master Tengen right beneath his nose, entirely undetected!
"Damn it! Just when did that bastard sneak in here?!"
Kenjaku frantically rallied his cursed energy, attempting to suppress the rampaging tinder inside Master Tengen.
However, that tinder was like a bedrock rooted in the depths of Master Tengen's soul; no matter how fiercely he battered it, it remained completely unyielding.
Moreover, as the Merger array engaged, the tinder seemed to sense the external threat, showing signs of taking root and sprouting even further!
"This won't work... If I force the Merger now, this tinder will trigger a total backlash across the barrier!"
Kenjaku halted his hands, gnashing his teeth.
He realized that Yoru had checked him.
This tinder hung over him like the Sword of Damocles, completely barring any possibility of activating the Merger ritual ahead of schedule!
"It seems I have no choice but to endure..."
Kenjaku glared fixedly at the fading crimson light on Master Tengen's chest, his gaze venomous to the extreme.
"Yoru... Did you think this would stop me?"
"If I cannot force it early, then I will simply accelerate the ritual's foundational progression from the shadows!"
"The moment the Culling Game's barriers completely shatter will be the time this tinder of yours—and the entire world along with it—is eradicated!"
Kenjaku swept his arm vigorously, forcibly quelling the surging cursed energy within the Tombs of the Star Corridor.
Nearby, the clone of Sukuna offered only a disdainful grunt before dissolving back into shadow.
Within this deathly still subterranean chamber,
A covert game revolving around Master Tengen and the fate of over a hundred million lives quietly proceeded in an exceptionally perilous fashion.
Meanwhile, having cleared out the Sendai Colony, where would Yoru and Yuta Okkotsu
direct their unstoppable blades next?
The death knell of the Culling Game had already begun to toll!
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