A massive, Sharingan-patterned blood moon hovered above the main hall.
Below it stood rows of blank, lifeless faces. Yuki Tsukumo, Principal Yaga, Nanami Kento, and Choso were all frozen in place, their consciousness trapped within the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
White Zetsu consciously moved into the shadows, heading deeper into the Tomb to search for the hidden treasures and Cursed Tools kept in the main hall.
For Mirai, this was all just a fleeting moment—a rare moment of peace and quiet amidst the chaos.
Anyway, they're all just web crawlers caught in a net, Mirai thought dismissively.
A purple halo appeared in Mirai's right eye, and he carefully observed Kenjaku's frozen form.
The image of the ancient Sorcerer appeared in his mind's eye. Its form contorted, its body swaying, its wings clapping, and its feathers rustling...
Scenes from a thousand years ago. Turbulent and unpredictable memories began to flood Mirai's consciousness.
...
The Heian Era.
A desolate valley. The setting sun was as red as blood.
The blood-red earth, crisscrossed with deep ravines, was covered entirely with the remains of human bodies. There were heavily armored warriors, Jujutsu Sorcerers, and even ordinary humans dressed in fine clothes.
Crows circled overhead, feasting on piles of mangled limbs and scraps of rotting flesh.
Sitting atop the pile of corpses was a boy, about six or seven years old. He was gnawing on an unidentified, dark red piece of meat. He was covered in blood, eating with a completely numb expression.
Clang... Clang.
A monk clad in a kasaya and wearing a woven bamboo hat approached. The wooden staff he held faintly radiated a pure, Buddhist light under the setting sun.
The monk passing by did not react much to the horrifying scene of slaughter in the valley. As if it were commonplace, he simply gave a solemn bow.
The fatal wounds on the corpses clearly showed signs of being inflicted by Cursed Spirits.
In this era, hell was everywhere.
The monk gently took the boy, whose eyes looked entirely numb, away from the corpses. The monk adopted him and brought him to live at a Tantric temple.
The Tantric sect to which the monk belonged seemed to hold a rather high status in the Heian Era. From time to time, powerful figures dressed in fine clothes would visit and pay their respects here.
The person of the highest status among these visitors was a young woman dressed in royal attire. The other visitors would bow and greet the girl with great respect.
In the illusion, Mirai watched from a third-person perspective. He could not hear the actual voices of the people in the memories, but the woman's address to the monk could be barely discerned from her lip movements.
"Master Genshin."
The scene flashed by, and several years had passed.
The boy who was six or seven years old back then was now over ten years old.
One day, Master Genshin saw an urgent letter placed in his hand and hurriedly left the temple.
That same night, he returned, bringing the royal girl back to the temple with him. His fine clothes were tattered, and several long, bloody gashes remained on his forearm.
Her royal family seemed to have met with a terrible misfortune, and the girl lived in the temple from then on.
Their old names were discarded. The master gave the boy and the girl new Dharma names.
Through the illusion, Mirai read the two words from their lip movements.
"Tengen." "Kenjaku."
The Jujutsu Sorcerers of this era were far more powerful than those of modern times.
Following the boy Kenjaku's perspective, Mirai also witnessed the power of many Sorcerers from a thousand years ago.
The master named Genshin had awakened an innate technique called Barrier.
It could seal countless Cursed Spirits and powerful Curses of this era directly into the physical body!
The boy, Kenjaku, and the grown-up girl, Tengen, were also taken in as direct disciples by Genshin and draped in the traditional kasaya robes.
Because their own innate techniques lacked offensive capabilities, they lacked the ability to survive in this brutal era.
Genshin broke down the absolute pinnacle of the barrier techniques he had mastered and taught them to the two disciples without reservation.
The boy, Kenjaku, seemed to have a higher talent than the girl, and soon mastered the essence of barrier magic.
The girl, Tengen, had slightly lower natural talent, but she remained calm and dedicated to her studies.
The boy's mind, however, was far more complicated; he always focused his energy on studying strange, forbidden, and unusual books.
For example, rituals, soul spells, and... human experimentation.
...
Following the thread of memories, the foolish and hurried young Kenjaku was led to the capital.
There, he saw a two-faced, four-armed demon—the King of Curses, Ryomen Sukuna—fighting alone against all the Sorcerers of the era.
The screen flickered repeatedly in Mirai's mind, and time flew by.
Some scenes were captured clearly by Mirai, while others were vaguely skipped over.
Several more years passed.
For some reason, the strongest force of this era—Sukuna—suddenly attacked the Tantric temple.
Genshin was no match for Sukuna head-on and could only defend passively. Finally, Genshin was forced to establish a Binding Vow: he promised never to leave the temple again as a constraint. In exchange, his barrier spell was unleashed to its absolute maximum power.
Genshin laid down an absolute defense that enveloped the entire temple, forcing the King of Curses to return empty-handed.
Then came their growth into young adults.
It seemed that the attack by Sukuna was precisely related to the actions of the young Kenjaku.
The screen flickered again.
Some of the injuries Genshin had sustained were caused by the Cursed King, while others were due to his advancing age.
Genshin, who had never left the temple due to his Vow, showed signs of rapid aging. He remained in meditation until his eventual death.
Tengen felt deep sorrow.
But Kenjaku felt pleased!
For fragile humans, what did life truly mean?
It only lasted one night.
A strange Cursed Object was transformed from Genshin's physical body after his death.
At the gates of the temple, demons were instigated by Kenjaku and attacked. Genshin's physical body was ripped apart by the monstrous machinations.
But the bondage that Genshin had imposed on himself prevented his soul from leaving the grounds. Thus, his remains were transformed into the Prison Realm, which fell into the hands of Tengen.
The screen flickered repeatedly.
Mirai watched as the memories blurred. The more powerful a spell was, the more constraints it inherently contained.
For example, Gojo Satoru's Six Eyes. Countless jumbled pieces of information were captured and fed into his mind; bandages and sunglasses were all used as constraints to alleviate the symptoms.
For example, Tengen's Immortality. Every five hundred years, a Star Plasma Vessel needed to be assimilated to maintain the human body and the human mind.
And the sutures on Kenjaku's forehead. They were a Binding Vow imposed on himself, a constraint impossible to hide.
With the help of his body-hopping technique, the foolish, ambitious Kenjaku fed on the dark side of humanity. Mirai witnessed Kenjaku's unfinished business, his bloody experiments, and the deaths of countless people.
He watched Kenjaku lure powerful individuals who felt unsatisfied in their previous lives into signing contracts for the Culling Game.
The most special one among them was the one called the strongest from a thousand years ago: Sukuna.
...
In the real world, ten minutes had passed. A full ten minutes!
In the end, Master Tengen managed to use his home-field advantage to barely disrupt the mechanics of Mirai's open Domain!
Or perhaps Mirai simply proactively terminated the illusion because he had seen enough.
The blood-red moon faded, and the dazed crowd instantly snapped back to reality!
"What did you do?!" Kenjaku gasped, his mind reeling from the invasion.
"Stop pretending," Mirai said coldly, looking down at the mangled Sorcerer. "We still have a chance to meet again."
Upon hearing this, Kenjaku froze.
The calm mindset he had cultivated over a thousand years shattered completely at this moment! Veins suddenly bulged on his stitched forehead, and his face darkened with absolute terror.
"What... what do you know?!" Kenjaku screamed, looking utterly panicked.
Mirai looked at the terrified fish caught in his net.
"The one who carries on his legacy..." Mirai whispered, answering a question only Kenjaku understood. "Don't worry. It's all under control."
As the ambiguous words faded, a purple halo flickered gently in Mirai's right eye.
The effect of a Domain's Cursed Technique Burnout lasts only a few minutes. Kenjaku's Cursed Technique activated the very millisecond the illusion broke!
BOOM!!!
Mirai didn't give him the chance to use it.
With a single, devastating blast of concentrated Cursed Energy, Kenjaku's entire body—Suguru Geto's vessel—was completely blasted into powder, leaving absolutely no trace behind.
The blood-red mist slowly dissipated in the cavern.
The cryptic conversation between the two had left Yuki, Yaga, Nanami, and Choso completely baffled. They didn't even have time to think; their minds were still stuck recovering from the Infinite Tsukuyomi a second prior.
But the next moment, a faint killing intent appeared in Mirai's blood-red pupils as he turned to look at them.
Everyone felt as if they had fallen into a freezing ice cave!
"You..." Mirai began, his voice devoid of any emotion.
"It seems you are useless."
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