The air was thick with the pungent, biting scent of formalin mixed with some ancient cursed object.
In the dim light, a figure sat silently before a massive cursed energy monitoring screen flickering with a ghostly blue glow.
It was a middle-aged man, dressed in a well-tailored suit and carrying himself with an air of elegance.
But a closer look would reveal a horrifying detail on his forehead.
A hideous, centipede-like scar stretched across his brow, as if his entire skull had been crudely pried open and then stitched back together!
Kenjaku.
The "Most Evil Curse User" who had survived like a rat in the sewers of the jujutsu world, jumping from host to host and secretly plotting for a thousand years.
At this moment.
He was staring with great interest at the dense clusters of red dots on the screen, each representing cursed energy fluctuations across Japan.
In his cloudy eyes, an unconcealed light of fanaticism and greed flickered.
"Simply magnificent."
Kenjaku reached out with a pale hand covered in liver spots, gently stroking the massive clusters of red energy representing the two major defense zones of Shinjuku and Kyoto.
"Suguru Geto, oh Suguru Geto, you truly haven't let me down."
"That terrifying control, commanding hundreds of cursed spirits like an army at your fingertips... that immense presence, toying with the sorcerers of an entire nation..."
A ghoulish, eerie smile twisted Kenjaku's stiff face.
"Cursed Spirit Manipulation."
"It is a god-tier technique, tailor-made for my grand and perfect Culling Game plan!"
Kenjaku stood up slowly, pacing back and forth in the narrow basement.
Over these long thousand years, he had gone to painstaking lengths to find the perfect medium to force the assimilation of all humanity with Master Tengen.
And Suguru Geto's Cursed Spirit Manipulation was the most indispensable, core piece of his entire puzzle!
As long as he could obtain this perfect vessel and that terrifying ability to limitlessly consume and extract the techniques of cursed spirits.
He was absolutely certain he could trigger a catastrophic wave that would overturn the world order in this modern jujutsu era of variables!
"It's just a pity that your so-called 'righteousness' of creating a world for only sorcerers is so incredibly naive and laughable."
Kenjaku stopped and looked up at the ceiling, his tone filled with condescending mockery.
"Human malice is infinite."
"As long as humans exist, curses will never disappear."
"Thinking you can purify the world with such crude slaughter? You're chasing a pipe dream."
However, the corners of Kenjaku's mouth curled into a greedy arc once again.
"It's precisely your naivety and madness that gave me this opportunity."
He walked to a communication desk covered in various eerie runes and picked up a transceiver.
"Uraume, is everything ready?"
From the other end came a cold, indifferent voice of indistinguishable gender, carrying an extreme chill.
"Everything is in place."
"The moment that man, Suguru Geto, is heavily wounded and near death in the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons—either by Satoru Gojo or that Special Grade brat, Yuta—I will strike immediately."
"I will clear all obstacles for you."
"Very good."
Kenjaku nodded with satisfaction.
"Remember, do not act prematurely."
"Suguru Geto may be naive, but he is still one of the few Special Grade sorcerers of this era."
"If we cannot kill him in one blow and seize his body instantly, the consequences will be unimaginable if he senses our presence."
Putting down the transceiver, Kenjaku sat back in front of the monitor.
He watched the blue dots representing the Jujutsu High forces converging toward Shinjuku and Kyoto at an incredible speed.
Everything was proceeding according to his flawless script.
Those foolish rotten oranges at the higher-ups were completely occupied by Suguru Geto.
Satoru Gojo, the greatest nuisance, would be pinned down in the quagmire of the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons.
And Yuta Okkotsu, the possessor of the Special Grade Vengeful Cursed Spirit, would be Suguru Geto's primary hunting target.
When the grand curtain of the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons fell, and Suguru Geto was broken by his so-called ideals and reality, left at death's door...
That would be the best moment for him, Kenjaku, to make his grand entrance and claim the spoils of victory!
"However..."
Just as Kenjaku was immersed in the ecstasy of his impending success.
His gaze suddenly paused on a remote corner of the monitoring screen.
It was in the direction of Tokyo Tower.
Amidst the green dots representing the weak vital signs of ordinary people.
Just now, for perhaps a fraction of a second, there had been a flash of a faint yet incredibly pure dark red energy fluctuation.
It was so pure that even this top-tier cursed energy monitor couldn't fully analyze it!
"What is this?"
Kenjaku's brow furrowed. He quickly pulled up the detailed monitoring data for that area, trying to capture the residual dregs that had vanished in an instant.
However, no matter what he did, no further anomalies appeared on the screen.
It was as if that flash of dark red light had been nothing more than an illusion.
But in Kenjaku's heart, an incredibly intense feeling of unease suddenly arose for no reason.
Throughout the countless schemes of the past millennium, his sharp, almost pathologically keen intuition had saved his life many times.
"That fluctuation... it had no trace of cursed energy impurities, yet it carried a terrifying temperature that felt as if it could scorch the soul..."
Kenjaku stared fixedly at the screen. A forbidden name he had kept buried for ten years suddenly surfaced in his mind uncontrollably.
"Yoru?!"
Ten years ago at the Tombs of the Star Corridor.
That black-haired boy who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere, possessing not a shred of cursed energy, but wielding a tachi and god-level swordsmanship that defied logic.
He had physically sliced through the perfect death trap Kenjaku had meticulously planned for years!
He had saved the Star Plasma Vessel, stopped Suguru Geto's total descent into darkness, and even in the final moments, stared him down with those horrifying red eyes!
Although that variable named Yoru seemed to have vanished into thin air after that earth-shattering event, leaving no trace in the world...
That familiar, fleeting tremor.
It made Kenjaku's heart, which had been silent for a millennium, skip a beat!
"Impossible..."
"That brat disappeared ten years ago. How could he still be alive?!"
Kenjaku forced down the trace of panic in his heart and snorted coldly.
"Even if he is still alive, so what?"
"In the face of absolute rules and a thousand-year plan that crushes everything, any individual's power is nothing more than spitting in the wind."
"You variable who vanished ten years ago... I hope for your sake that you are already dead."
"Otherwise, I wouldn't mind sending you to hell to reflect properly before I take over Suguru Geto's body!"
However, this thousand-year-old fox, who prided himself on controlling the board and thought he was the final oriole watching the cicada.
He had no idea that on this night of madness about to erupt.
The true hunter, the "Cursed-Energy-Less Sword Saint" who made his soul tremble.
Was already standing at the highest point of Tokyo Tower.
With that divine weapon thirsting for blood, he had already laid out an inescapable net to thoroughly crush Kenjaku's thousand years of sin and ambition!
In a fated confrontation spanning a millennium, who will be the ultimate winner of this grand game of chess?
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